On Why Do We Read Literature???????????

"The spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings” is Wordsworth’s definition to literature. Literature is important because it offers new creative ways to interpret the world. We all perceive the physical world differently and assign different meanings to what we see and experience. When someone perceives order and meaning in what they see, they want to write down their perception, spontaneous overflow of powerful meaning, to communicate it to other people. What they write down is LITERATURE.



When we dip into the rich variety of novels, poems, and plays which constitute English literature, we are reading works which have lasted for generations, or centuries, and they have lasted because they are good. These works say something worth saying. Their beauty captures people’s attention and satisfies their souls. This beauty does not lie only on WHAT is said, but HOW it is said????



Literature is part of our cultural heritage which is freely available to everyone, and which can enrich our lives in all kinds of ways. The works can be entertaining, beautiful, funny, or tragic. They convey profundity of thought, richness of emotion, and insight into character. They take us beyond or limited experience of life to show us the lives of other people at other times. They stir us intellectually and emotionally, and deepen our understanding of our history, our society, and our own individual lives.



We do not have to read far before we find that a writer has portrayed a character that is in some way like us, confronting life-experiences in some way like our own. And when we find ourselves caught up with the struggles of a character perhaps we are rehearsing the struggles to come in our own lives. And when we are moved by a poem, it can enrich us by putting words to feelings which had lain dormant for lack of a way of expressing them, or been long-forgotten in the daily round of the workplace, the supermarket, the traffic jam an the T.V news.



So, whether we choose to study it or to read it for pleasure, when we look back over our literature, we are looking back over incredible richness. Not just museum pieces, but living works which we can buy in bookshops, borrow from the library, or download from the internet and read it today, right now.









resources:

1- http://www.english-literature.org/essays/studying.html

2- http://www.lang.nagoya-u.ac.jp/~matsuoka/GG-Dickens.html

3- http://www.cwrl.utexas.edu/~natasha/316/whyreadlit.html

4- http://www.victorianweb.org/victorian/authors/dickens/dickensov.html

5- http://garts.latech.edu/ahiggins/202/WhyReadLiterature.html






Hope you like it . tell me
NaNi

Litlenani. I wish I had written that. Putty

Can we talk about Wordsworth a while?

Thank you Putty. I will try my best to post something about Wordsworth
as soon as I can . O.K ;)

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So, whether we choose to read it for pleasure, when we look back over our literature, we are looking back over incredible richness.

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What is so great about 'richness' anyway (it seems a little vague to me)? I thought people read because they were interested. For example, I can't say that I derived pleasure out of reading Junky by William S. Burroughs, but it did pique my curiosity and, likewise, my interests. Perhaps the question should regard what it is that we find interesting.

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Literature is part of our cultural heritage which is freely available to everyone

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. . . Sorry, I forgot to mention that last time I went to Barnes & Noble's and tried to get my hands on some of that freely available cultural yadda yadda you were talking about, electronic alarms wailed as I started walking out the door.

Again, perhaps the question should regard why we write literature? These days it feeds into the economy just like anything else that is slick enough to oil down the capitalist machine. I recall Alexander Dumas actually received payment by the line for The Count of Monte Cristo; hence all of the lame and pointless details in the narration that have been passed off under the guise of 'naturalism'. Way to break the ice, eh?

Wordsworth, Keats, Hardy, Yeats--anyone interested in one of these as poets?

. . Sorry, I forgot to mention that last time I went to Barnes & Noble's and tried to get my hands on some of that freely available cultural yadda yadda you were talking about, electronic alarms wailed as I started walking out the door.


Maybe you should try a public library abdo. I would have to agree that it is freely available. Be it at the library, over the internet, or that ex Microsoft exec delivering books in Tibet by way of a yak.

*sob* At the local mall, *sniff* they had a buy 4 books get one free sale *sob* and ... and... and... *sniff* it was only for one day *sob* .... they had a dictionary sized book filled with Poe for *sniff* $7 and the entire works of Shakespeare for $10 and Leatherbound classics for $10 a peice... *sniff* and I didn't bring any money *sob* and... and... when I came back with money, *sob* they were *sniff* closed *breaks down into uncontrollable weeping*

Lol damn you make me laugh, Fool on the hill :D.
I think litlenani summarised it well, and I both agree and disagree with what AbdoRinbo said :). I read out of enjoyment, out of relaxation, for mental stimulation and for some strange sense of warmth and fulfillment deep down after reading a 'literary' novel that particularly spoke to me, or a novel that was particularly beautiful, as well as out of interest. Maybe all those could be put under the category of 'interest', but I personally wouldn't simplify why I love to read so much into one reason.

I agree quite strongly with AbdoRinbo in saying that literature and art isn't as widely available to everyone as someone might think. It's all well and good to have cheap literature at the local book store at the mall or whatever, but to actually reach the moment when you put the book of Shakespeare or Poe down onto the counter and say "Book man, I want this book," you need the education first, and the money helps as well. To be able to appreciate art, music and literature, at the public museum, gallery or library, someone has to be exposed to it firstly through a decent education, and not 13 years of vocational training and conditioning for the capitalist world. That is, of course, if you're lucky enough to have had a proper education in the first place.

THANK YOU GUYS FOR READING MY TINY STEP TO SKILLFULL WRITNG <WHICH I HOPE TO ACHIEVE> AND THAKS FOR YOUR VALUABLE REPLIES
which I will take into consideration.
AS FOR YOU PUTTY TRY THIS LINK IT HAS WHAT YOU ARE LOOKING FOR
http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Metro/1539/wordswor.htm

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Originally Posted by gatsbysghost

Maybe you should try a public library abdo. I would have to agree that it is freely available. Be it at the library, over the internet, or that ex Microsoft exec delivering books in Tibet by way of a yak.

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Hey, fool, you sure look cute fumbling with the sarcasm. Besides, if I wanted your opinion I'd beat it out of you.

Your response is a little shortsighted, gatsby. For one reason, the people that write 'literature' always put whatever amount of their labor into their work and, in return, get paid what is socially acceptable for the quantity and quality of it from us readers (though the publishers act as mediators). Listen: if all literature is free, then how did J.K. Rowling make her millions? And if you believe that all libraries offer the same literature for free, pay a visit to any public library in Detroit (which my--that's right--tax dollars pay for) and maybe you'll understand what discrimination in education really is (yes, amazing but true . . . some people actually can not afford to spend $10 at the mall on Shakespeare).

Munro, thanks for keeping an open mind. The education system is something that I could ***** about all day, but I won't.

I have to laugh at you, why even bother trying to sound tough on an internet forum about literature? If that makes you feel better, then fine.
Not all literature, in every form, is free. First question: Is there no place in Detroit where you may sit down at a computer, and have access to the internet at no personal cost (tax dollars aside?) There is enough excellent literature on this website alone to keep someone up to their ears in great works for many years. Not to mention the several other websites that are just like it. I have never been to a public library in Detroit while I was there, but I refuse to believe that there isn't a book by shakespeare, or any other major author in the joint. Maybe I am wrong, but I would be suprised. Second, if you can't afford to drop ten bones on a book, get a job. I have been working since I was old enough to push a lawnmower. I started buying my own school clothes when I was twelve. I didn't have to, but i did. I moved out the day after I graduated and haven't taken a dime from my parents since. If you want to compare educational systems and poverty rates, step up. I live in Eastern Kentucky. I have a wife and a two year old son. I work 50 hours a week taking care of a doctor's show horses, so basically I shovel ****. I go to a community college full time. I do carpentry and landscaping during the summer, and work on cars in the winter, after I get home from my regular job or class, to buy the things that I want but don't really need. Things like books. Kentucky has the second worst public schools in the nation, behind Mississsippi. I wasn't satisfied with the education I was receiving, so I started teaching myself. The unemployment rate sometimes reaches twenty percent around here. But I hustle, I do what it takes. And I do so without the advantage of hundreds of factories at my back door. Living where I live, you asking me to feel sorry for someone because the can't buy a ten dollar book, or they go to a ****ty school, just doesn't cut it. A point that is lost on many of today's youth, and many of their parents for that matter, is that you have to work for what you want. A convicted felon can get a library card, so why can't the disenfranchised youth of Michigan? I have yet to visit a university library that isn't open to the public. You may not be able to check items out, but you can sit there and read from open till close.

Oh, what sarcasm do you think I am stumbling over. You are probablly right, I am just another dumb hillbilly.

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Originally Posted by gatsbysghost

I have to laugh at you, why even bother trying to sound tough on an internet forum about literature? If that makes you feel better, then fine.
Not all literature, in every form, is free. First question: Is there no place in Detroit where you may sit down at a computer, and have access to the internet at no personal cost (tax dollars aside?) There is enough excellent literature on this website alone to keep someone up to their ears in great works for many years. Not to mention the several other websites that are just like it. I have never been to a public library in Detroit while I was there, but I refuse to believe that there isn't a book by shakespeare, or any other major author in the joint. Maybe I am wrong, but I would be suprised. Second, if you can't afford to drop ten bones on a book, get a job. I have been working since I was old enough to push a lawnmower. I started buying my own school clothes when I was twelve. I didn't have to, but i did. I moved out the day after I graduated and haven't taken a dime from my parents since. If you want to compare educational systems and poverty rates, step up. I live in Eastern Kentucky. I have a wife and a two year old son. I work 50 hours a week taking care of a doctor's show horses, so basically I shovel ****. I go to a community college full time. I do carpentry and landscaping during the summer, and work on cars in the winter, after I get home from my regular job or class, to buy the things that I want but don't really need. Things like books. Kentucky has the second worst public schools in the nation, behind Mississsippi. I wasn't satisfied with the education I was receiving, so I started teaching myself. The unemployment rate sometimes reaches twenty percent around here. But I hustle, I do what it takes. And I do so without the advantage of hundreds of factories at my back door. Living where I live, you asking me to feel sorry for someone because the can't buy a ten dollar book, or they go to a ****ty school, just doesn't cut it. A point that is lost on many of today's youth, and many of their parents for that matter, is that you have to work for what you want. A convicted felon can get a library card, so why can't the disenfranchised youth of Michigan? I have yet to visit a university library that isn't open to the public. You may not be able to check items out, but you can sit there and read from open till close.

Oh, what sarcasm do you think I am stumbling over. You are probablly right, I am just another dumb hillbilly.

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Jeez, you really must have rushed through my hefty two-paragraph post because most of what I was trying to say went right over your head. Let me point one thing out to you first: Michigan has the highest unemployment rate in the entire US; and, in Michigan, Detroit ranks number one in the long list of cities that have been devastated by the recession in the economy (particularly, the Big Three layoffs). Happy Labour Day gift of knowledge!

Secondly, you're right, you've never been to a public library in Detroit. It doesn't surprise me at all, it is not a pretty picture. In general, 75% of Detroit's libraries do not have internet access. That may not seem like a whole lot, but when you have to walk for miles just to use the internet (the public transportation system in Detroit is extremely discriminating given notoriety surrounding the 'Motor City' of everyone partaking in the auto industry) the benefit of gaining access to an entire world of knowledge pales in comparison to the benefit of trying to subsist.

'Subsistence', that is nothing more than a word to you and me; Shakespeare hardly fits into that picture. Literature is a comfort that people indulge in their time-off, and since I have been unemployed for almost a year now and turned down by every place I have applied to, I get to spend every waking moment of my salad years being a sloth and waiting for that letter from the government that says I owe $100,000.00 in student loans. My only hope is that our economy sinks to such a low that a handful of brave revolutionaries rise up and blow the whole monetary-mainframe to ****.

P.S: I was directing that sarcasm crack to Imthefoolonthehill, not you.

P.P.S: Of course threatening to literally 'beat' someone on a forum is absurd, even I know that.

Point taken.

However, don't assume substinence is just a word to anyone. Times are pretty good for me right now, even though I have worked my *** off for it, but that hasn't always been the case. Once, after going two days without eating, I told a recruiter I was interested in talking about enlisting in the Army over lunch, just because I knew he would pay. I would venture to say the big three layoffs aren't entirely dissimiliar from the coal company layoffs around here.


Regardless, I wish you luck. Maybe education will be both of our salvations. If your revolution does come, I hope it does so before I finish my degree.

Pffff! LOL! You screwed a recruiter over just for lunch?! Oh my, that is subsistence . . . heh . . . you're alright, man.

Indeed Litlenani!

I for one have a difficult time reading at what one would call a "normal" pace.. I study...swallow....roll it around and it becomes part of me...be it in it's interpretation..or in the understanding...