Reader-Response

Many of my high school literature teachers often began our textual discussions by telling the class what a text was about and by letting us know that her or his interpretations would be the answers to our exam questions. Rarely was I asked what I got from the text or my reaction to it. I believe that many of those teachers were still stuck in the "Formalist" mindset referred to in the Reader-Response Critism. As Fish suggests in the text I believe that "Literature exists when it is read" (126). The reader is extremely important in taking what was once someones thoughts simply written down and turning those written thoughts into literature. I believe that every single person can gain or interpret something entirely unique from a text as ever single person has experienced life differently. I agree with the statement that "... reading is never a passive activity to which the reader contributes nothing. Rather it is inevitably (although not exclusively) a constructive act that takes the raw material of the words on the page and builds something else from them" (Rabinowitz 138). In reading The Dead each reader can gain a different understanding of the text while still realizing overarching themes from the text.

The Dead Part 1

The novel The Dead by James Joyce seems to reflect certain feelings the author had towards his home country, Ireland. The character Gabriel Conroy might act as a reflection of Joyce's own feelings. Gabriel expresses his ideas that Ireland is not the only country of worth, and that he does not feel the need to constantly be in awe of it or speaking only of it. He doesn't understand why the Irish believe it is all or nothing, you can either be for Irish independence or you are basically a British traitor. If I were in Gabriel's position I might be unreasonably annoyed too that things were made to be so cut-and-dry and I would probably like for people to shut up about Ireland for a bit as well.

Who's in Control? Me or the Meme?

Ideas as organisms is a concept foreign to me. Gleick refers to the Parisian biologist Jacques Monod's analogy that "Ideas have retained some of the properties of organisms. Like them, they tend to perpetuate their structure and to breed; they too can fuse, recombine, segregate their content; indeed they too can evolve, and in this evolution selection must surely play an important role" (p. 311). Ideas are vast and very difficult to measure, they change quickly and are most certainly evolving. Gleick goes on to explain that people are simply "meme vehicles," that we simply fuel the memes regardless of their truth and regardless of whether or not they are beneficial to our own survival. Basically it is proposed that the meme controls us. I believe there is some truth to this, people are often swept up in the latest fad, the latest trending topic. It is easy to convince someone that as long as they follow some predetermined set of rules there will be a great reward for them in "the end." However it is not true that people do not analyze the truth or benefits of a meme and then rebel against it. To me, human will is still the controller.

Loneliness Does Not Exist With a Book as Your Companion

Reading is an escape, but also an arrival; I can escape my own monotonous illusions of the world and arrive at beautiful realizations about the wonders of a seemingly simple existence.  To read is at once to be completely enthralled in something outside your own life, while also introducing introspection as to how the topic connects to you personally. Manguel writes "Each book was a world unto itself, and in it I took refuge" (11). This statement speaks to me on a personal level; when I open a book and it can take me out of the world that I often find myself drowning in, I am desperately thankful to receive that "refuge." I can sit back and worry about my favorite character and suddenly end my stress over my own daily worries and faults. 

The power of reading lies simply in the act itself, while maintaining its power even when restricted. A restricted book is entirely more enticing than the average; simply because someone found its message to be so meaningful that the public must not be allowed access to it! Manguel recounts the time of Argentina's censor on books that were deemed communist material (21). These books, and those other countless tales that have been on the receiving end of censorship, represent a repression of knowledge. Words. Writing. Reading. These hold a special power; no one would restrict them if they held none. Why have so many tales been told over the suppression of these powers? Perhaps to warn readers away from a world where ideas are controlled, and creativity halted. Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, Linda Sue Park's When my Name was Keoko, and Markus Zusak's The Book Thief are just a few of the many books written to warn their readers of the dangers of a society restricted in their reading. 

What does reading mean to me? Freedom, first and foremost. I can read what I want, when I want, and gain the knowledge of whatever I so desire; is that not an absolute feeling of freedom? What does reading mean to you?

http://feellng.com/post/95945226893