Blog Paper

Before the beginning of this semester I was at the Text-Self stage of reading development. My reactions to books and other forms of literature were “I-centered”, and I never thought about a book beyond whether I liked it or not. I feel the reason for my previous level of reading development is mostly because I do not read enough, and therefore, I do not get enough exposure to literature. However, throughout my life, especially over the last four years, I have read many plays and I have taken at least four classes devoted to studying plays. In addition, I have a lot of acting experience, and in some ways I feel that I have been stuck in the first stage of reading development because of this experience. When studying acting, an actor is taught that every character they play is going to incorporate their own personal experiences. Therefore, out of habit, when I read a play I always try to relate myself to the characters, especially when I will be playing a particular character. In the same way, I try to relate myself to characters in books and my own thoughts and feelings about what is going on in their environment.
It is clear that I was in the Text-Self stage prior to this semester based on my second blog entry when I wrote, “When I began reading Haroun and the Sea of Stories by Salman Rushdie, I really thought that I was going to enjoy the book. However, as the story went on, I really did not enjoy reading it anymore.” Most of this early entry was stating my personal opinion and I did not relate the text to anything else. At the time, I was not entirely aware of the idea of relating text to other things, especially other texts.
One of the more recent plays that I have read, and also acted in, was Waiting for the Parade by John Murrell. This play incorporates intertexuality as well as worldly events, which incorporates the aspects of the Text-Other Texts and the Text-World stages. The events of the play take place during World War II and it concerns the lives of five women. Throughout the play, the characters discuss the war but also cultural events of the time like music and movie stars. At the time that I read this play, I was aware of the worldly events concerned, but I did not realize just how much intertexuality there was in the text.
A book that I recently read on my own was Emma, by Jane Austen. I actually wanted to read this book because I enjoyed the film adaptation. I did not realize it then, but I was exploring the Text-Other Texts stage of reading development by comparing the book with the film. In addition, when I was in high school, I read The Lord of the Rings trilogy by J.R. Tolkien after seeing the first The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring movie. This was especially interesting because I read the second and third books before seeing the film adaptations, so I was able to compare what J.R. Tolkien wrote before experiencing the summarized, and sometimes inaccurate, film adaptations.
Since finishing just two books in this class, I feel that my reading development has progressed into the second stage, Text-Other Texts, and even the final stage Text-World. In some ways I feel that I am only beginning to understand both of these stages at the same time. I personally do not think that these two stages need to be reached in any specific order. Since I feel that I do not have enough experience with many other texts, I cannot fully be immersed in the Text-Other Texts stage. The more I read the greater understanding of this stage I will gain. However, I feel that I was able to understand intertexuality early in the semester, when I wrote in my second blog entry and said, “…it is obvious that much of the book was based off of other writings such as the Wizard of Oz, which was a book first, and even The Lord of the Rings books. However, it puts a spin on those stories by incorporating modern day dilemmas within the text.”
In addition, I feel that I am in the beginning stages of the Text-World stage as well, because I am becoming more aware of the way that the texts relate to the rest of the world and other cultures. In order to reach this stage, I feel that a person needs to be curious about the world around them and the contexts of literature. Clearly, this class has taught me to look deeper into texts and has sparked my curiosity to research further into literature and find out more about the cultures from which it is derived. This class has been a great starting point for this kind of research since all of the literature is non-western. My most recent blog entry shows how my reading development has progressed when I discussed language in The God of Small Things and said, “…the story is unique because it is poetic and plays with language. When I first began reading this book, I was aware of the poetic language, but I did not realize just how creative Roy is when playing with text. Roy is making a statement about the English language and how much power it has in many cultures.” In this entry I also discussed the post-colonial and feminist aspects of the story when I stated, “…another important aspect of the text is feminism. Although the feminist aspects are somewhat hidden within the text, it remains a very important part of the story that Roy is telling. In some ways I think it is more powerful to have the reader discover the aspects of the story that show inequalities between men and women in the Indian culture.” I still incorporated my opinion, but I also saw the literary and social aspects of the book as well.
The next stage in my reading development would be to expand my understanding of stages two and three. In order to develop stage two, I think I need to start reading more. I would like to try to read more books because I enjoy reading, but I have a hard time finding books that I enjoy. I feel this might be because I am still too “I-centered” when I read. If I try to discover more intertexuality and discourses within texts I might be more open to reading. I also need to motivate myself about reading, as well as make time for reading. A way to become more motivated about reading would be to visit more bookstores and libraries to search for books that I typically might like to read. In addition, researching books about different topics might help me find what I am looking to read about.
Overall, I feel very positive about what I have learned in this class. I did not anticipate development of new reading skills this semester, but I know that what I have learned so far will stay with me long after this class is over. My hope is that in the future when I read a book, I will have a greater awareness of intertexuality and worldly discourses within the text.