5. How to read lit.

Interlude : One Story

So this comes up again...How everything any writer ever wrote about, it's all part of one story. I like how that is because we can recall some of the things that we see in the new books that resemble the old texts and possibly see a connection.

Ch.21 Marked for Greatness

I never thought about what it meant when characters were marked....but after this chapter, I finally learned a little as to what it means when characters have physical imperfections.

Ch.22 He's Blind for a Reason, You Know

I like how Foster explains how the author introduces blindness in the story because he or she intends to, "...emphasize other levels of sight and blindness beyond the physical." Now, I also know that when authors want the readers to know something important about their character, they will introduce it early...

ch.23 It's never just heart disease...

This chapter was interesting, the significance of heart disease never dawned on me in literature, until I read this chapter. Part of it was slightly obvious, since the heart is symbolically the place of emotion. And much like the other things mentioned in this book, heart disease can mean a number of things, depending on what the author wants to intend. But it usually has to do with the characters having emotional trouble...

ch.24 ...And rarely just illness

So... I don't know too much regarding diseases, so it'll be a difficult for me to understand the symbolism behind the different types... But I like how Foster outlines the importance of diseases in this chapter.

ch.25 Don't read with your eyes

That's what I've been doing all along. I usually read from my perspective, which I realized is ineffective if I am trying to analyze literature. I guess in order for me to not read with my eyes, I would first have to understand or have a little background knowledge of the social, historical, and cultural happenings of the time of the author.

ch.26 Is He serious? And other ironies

Irony...That word brings back the memory of ninth grade English. That was a thought provoking class, it challenged me more than any of my English classes that I've taken. But back to this, Irony can be easily misused or misunderstood .. but that's what makes irony interesting... at least to me. I remember reading Hemingway from English class in Junior year, and I didn't catch the irony that Hemingway basically layered on again and again in his work. But, basically irony = a sign that is used in a way other than the intended one.

ch.27 A Test Case

After reading this and the section after the story, I did catch certain symbols and meanings from the story but others completely flew past me

For ex. I recognized the social class struggle between the rich family and the latter
The weather posed questions to me, but I wasn't exactly sure of what to make out of it. Then it clicked when I realized it had to do with the social class struggle

I completely and utterly missed the bird imagery. Besides the fact that she, "floated", and after I read the answer to the story, I was shocked.
The title also made me wonder...what about the garden? Do the roses symbolize the upper class because they are rare and the daisies the lower class since they are so common? Maybe.
Overall, there were some symbols that were apparent to me, while others I did not even think of.

4. How to read lit.

Ch.16 It's all about sex...

I am confused as to when the author will be referring to sex or not.. since in literature... sex doesn't have to look like it. What is the point of putting sex into literature? How does it contribute to the plot or theme of the book? .. I guess it could symbolize or point to what the character is dealing with in his or her personal life....

Ch.17 ...Except sex

So usually what the author is writing about... it's not about sex. Simply because its quite awkward to elaborate on the act... well, if I had to ...it'd probably be extremely awkward..... . So I'm still wondering as to what sex means in literary works.. well, to answer my own question, there are many possibilities.... ... Duh.

ch.18 If she comes up, it's baptism

It's interesting how even though in certain situations when characters don't even experience the physical components of baptism , i.e. sprinkling water over their head or even coming into contact with the water, they can technically still be baptized .. if they are reborn ... I learned that we just need to look at symbols in baptism : death and rebirth through the medium of water. I also learned that.. just because a character goes through that physical process of baptism, it doesn't symbolically mean that they were , unless they were ready to receive the baptism..

Ch.19 Geography matters...

An author places his or her character or story in a certain place for a reason. It's where it is to define or develop character development, be a plot, or it could be a character in itself.

Ch.20 ...So does season

This chapter made me recall back to the weather chapter , "It's not just rain or snow" .. and always interpreted the seasons generically; Spring = New beginnings, youth, Summer = passion, romance , Fall= harvest, Winter = death...
I always thought about how harvest in the fall can mean different things , whether physically harvesting something or harvesting something as a person..
And of course, there's irony that can change the meaning of all these seasons.

3. How to read lit.

.... Ch.11 More than it's gonna hurt you: concerning violence
Whenever I see or hear about violence, I usually cringe at the thought or sight of it. .. But as I was reading this chapter, it says that, "Violence is one of the most personal and even intimate acts between human beings..." which to me seemed ironic at first since the words personal and intimate made me think of ... nonviolence. But maybe because, I'm only looking at violence from the conventional perspective..
It's also interesting how violence can mean can be associated to seeemingly diverse issues... like physchological dilemma, historical or social concerns...

Ch.12 Is that a Symbol?

symbols... It's interesting yet.. annoying that symbols can mean so many things. I mean it shouldn't have only one meaning. or else according to the book, it would be an allegory. But at the same time, with so many meanings, it's confusing for the reader... Since every writer is from a different time period and there are different social/political concerns during their times....

Ch.13 It's All Political

I didn't really understand the i hate/ love "political" writing part... The edgar allan poe paragraph was interesting, as I remember reading it during junior year..
That whole Rip Van Winkle political analogy was a stretch for me... it made me think of u.s. history..well since the colonists were mentioned.

Ch.14 Yes, She's a Christ Figure, Too

I liked this chapter because I saw many familiar characteristics describing Christ and I do see a lot of Biblical allusions / symbols used in the past books that I have read. One thing that stuck out to me in this chapter was when he said, "...You need to put aside your belief system, so you can see what the writer is trying to say..." I realized that before when I read, I often would read through a certain perspective and I would miss a lot of the symbols that the author intended to disclose.. perhaps those symbols weren't as evident to me because I was reading through my own perspective.

Ch.15 Flights of Fancy

I have never thought of flight as freedom..even though it makes perfect sense. Again, I read too literally in the past. ... The question of flight also leads me to ask the question... What happens when they are falling? And, of course Foster answers that.. but It can mean different things. according to situation and author ....

2. How to read lit.

So.. this post has been postponed for a week almost...
ch.6 When in Doubt it's from Shakespeare.
It's interesting.. how Shakespeare's work is seen from the 18th- 21st centuries... How does he do it? Well, the question is kind of answered in the chapter.. It has to do with intertextuality again.. The values in his works, I guess , carry on into other writer's works in a way..

Ch.7... Or the Bible
Its awesome how biblical parallels are everywhere in literature, because of all the universal values and human notions that are featured in the Bible. Since I'm christian, its even more interesting to discover the allusions in the books that I've read in the past year.. I remember T.S. Eliot's The Love song of J.Alfred Prufrock had some Biblical allusions..

Ch.8 Hanseldee and Greteldum
Writers use parallels, analogies, plot structures, and references from Kid Lit. That's smart.

Ch.9 It's Greek to Me
"Myth is a body of story that matters." I always had the correlated myths w/Greek fables and all that kiddie stuff, because I used to read Aesop's fables...
"One of the ways classical myth works: overt subject matter for poems and paintings and operas and novels" I liked how Foster later asks why would authors want to draw from myths , because that was exactly the question that surfaced.

Ch.10 It's more than just rain or snow
Mrs. Panosian! one of the things that was mentioned in her class, Rain = Purification! It can also be a plot device.. It's ironic how rain can cleanse you but also blemish you in a way (with mud).
Rain also signifies spring, which has restorative powers and symbolizes new beginnings. The symbolism snow carries is also interesting, since it has so many meanings.

Interlude Does he mean that?
Whaaaa? Too many symbols, too many allusions..... How can an author plan out all that. It was difficult to see all the literary devices authors used in past books like The great gatsby, The snows of kilimanjaro, and the catcher in the rye.. Hopefully I can start seeing all the symbols and be able to recognize allusions...

1. How to Read Literature Like a Professor

So this is my first blog. Finally. Anyways, How to Read Literature Like a Professor turned out to be much more engaging and interesting that I had originally thought it to be.

Some thoughts after reading the first five chapters: Some of the advice Foster gives us can be puzzling at times, but I appreciate the examples that he gives and how thoroughly he explains himself.

Before starting this book, I remember that most of the symbolism and allusions in the readings that I studied were not evident to me until the teacher had revealed them to me. I thought that it was a bit of a stretch each time the teacher told us about symbolism, parallels, and allusions in the books. After reading through these first few chapters, I realized it was because I read too literally and often missed many of the signs. A few things popped up that were memorable for me, such as the term Intertextuality which was something I was never conscious of and after I read about that I began to see a lot of examples of that in my past and present readings. It was also nice to have a little review on Sonnets, because honestly, I don't remember much about poems and their forms. The Vampire chapter really stuck to me, with its symbolism that represents "selfishness, exploitation, and a refusal to respect other's autonomy..." It made me think about how that symbolism connected with real life while also having academic importance.
Ch.5 also raised a question, with Foster's statement of how , "There's only one story..." which led me to think.. "What is that one story that everything is related to and borrowed from?"

Irrelevant, but when Foster mentioned the Vampires, I immediately thought of Twilight and Edward Cullen.....