Rereading
and its necessity depend upon the specific reader. Personally, I reread smaller
forms of literature (articles, essay, etc.). Larger materials, such as books, I
rarely reread unless it's my favorite. I believe that rereading helps one
understand the general idea of the text, and can even find hidden meanings and
patterns. Like Thomas C. Foster states in his book How to Read Literature Like a Professor, all pieces of literature have patterns. Many times
myself, I miss important aspects of these patterns because I deem rereading the
piece unnecessary. I learned from that mistake quickly and realized the depth a
piece of literature has to offer.
Reading
is like finding an item; one quick glance over won't find your desired object. That is why it is important to analyze what one is looking at multiple
times in various ways. In order to comprehend the significance of a text, one
must find its importance. A reader also needs to understand that the
importance of a piece of literature can be found through many different
branches of the text itself. Every aspect of a story is not going to be found
without rereading.
Many
people don’t believe in rereading. When a teacher mentions it, it becomes a
word of agony. Perhaps it’s due to laziness, or maybe one’s opinion about
reading overall. But in order to effectively read a text for a class or for
personal reasons, the reader has to realize that rereading can make a decent
book or story that much better. The significant theme of a text is what makes
it worth reading in the first place.
Aaryn,
ReplyDeleteI would have to say your correlation of rereading and laziness makes sense. Many see reading as a chore in and of itself, so they would not think twice about rereading something after they have read it once. They are often satisfied with their initial impression of whatever it is they are reading, and don't want to bother to give it a second look. I agree that rereading can make a story better because it opens up ideas and shows us insight to what we might have glanced over on our initial read through, which in turn can improve our opinion on the piece.
Aaryn,
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with most of what you have to say about rereading. It can open up entire new levels of a piece for a person, and often, without rereading a text, one misses the major points of it entirely. Seeing those patterns in a text can make a book much better, as you said. However, I disagree that a reader HAS to accept that rereading can make a book better when it comes to personal reading. Personally, I enjoyed reading much more before I realized that the works I was reading had so many hidden depths. While I do enjoy puzzling those depths out, sometimes I just want to read things at face value and let myself enjoy them that way. Sometimes, it feels like ignorance really is bliss.
Aaryn, I agree with a lot of what you said. I definitely think laziness plays a large role in people's attitude towards rereading, but while I do acknowledge that there is a need for it in some cases, I think the need is majorly overstated and emphasized. To me, rereading is redundant. If you comprehend the meaning the first time, what's the point in reading it a second time? It just seems counterproductive. I want to be able to read, understand, and then move on to something new. My objective is to broaden my horizons and if I understand something, I'd rather keep moving forward than to be hindered by a single text and it's possibilities. I don't doubt more meaning and angles could be derived from a rereading and a more in-depth study of a text, but we can sit around and come up with potential meaning all day, the possibilities are endless. So if the goal is understanding, then I don't think reading once and only once (so long as you have a grasp on some kind of meaning) is in any way inhibiting to comprehension.
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