blog 4

First I would like to say that I agree on many of the aspects of Teague’s article. It is nice actually listening to someone that has the same ideas as you. Well I believe it’s true anyway. I assume that for the most part teachers have the correct answers, but I wouldn’t leave out anyone else’s answers that have thoroughly read the text. I mean no one can give the exact actual meaning of a story unless they attended a lecture held by the author in which they discussed the meaning for their writing. So who is to say that teachers don’t have the correct answer as well as students interpretations aren’t correct as well. I agree with Teague in this aspect.

When I read a story I like to think about the title and imagine what is going to be happening throughout the story. I might even read the first paragraph and already start to picture what will happen next. If I just jump into reading something I wind up losing focus of what the story is about. This is another agreement I have with Teague. I need to have a foreground of what the story is about, just like she said her students should have had something to go on before they read Ulysses. I do however find it hard to read anything just out of enjoyment or understanding unless it truly interests me. So if we are assigned a reading I think I read it just for the teacher.

As for the several interpretations, I like the idea. I have always been a straight to the point; don’t beat around the bush kind of person. But I like the idea that in writing there is no boundary to a story’s meaning. In fact I believe this very much. I like to hear what other people have to say because I can compare with my own thoughts and maybe even change them. I also make sure everyone can hear what I have to say about a story so that maybe I can give them a different view. Everyone should share their thoughts on stories especially if the author is gone(dead), so that a meaning can be made from what they had to say.

When I read I think it’s important to get the idea but I have never taken it as far as writing down meanings on the margins of the text. Why ruin the book? I don’t skim either. Sometimes I’ll reread one paragraph over and over to get my own idea of what is being said. I have taken sticky notes on each page of books that I had to read my senior year. I think my teacher wanted me to do this because it was to prepare myself for college. I hated it. I felt like I could get the idea of a story without having to write it down on every page. I don’t think I will ever right down anything on the margin of a page in a book ever.

The author made a lot of sense as to why rereading is important and how we should reread something if we can’t understand it the first time. We should dig deeper to find meaning of something that we read. That’s what I think anyway.