The Forth Glance

[burntpunk]

You read a novel. You read some more. You sleep. You think about it. You read. You scalp into the subtext. You read. You finish the book.

After. You think. You analyse. You make some links. You produce some personal intepretations. You sleep. You eat. You urinate. But you eat read the novel again. You make my more insights more links.

But then where do you go? You want to appreciate the novel as much as possible. You wanna see other 'valid' opinions. Do you read a study guide on the novel? Do you find a book on the author himself, or the novel itself? Do you scrape the internet?

I find a lack of 'valid' opinions. Not an attack on the forum. You're likely to get lively dicussion. But stemming from what people remember from a while ago. And nobody is going to have the time, commitment or desire to post their entire opinions on the novel. And yet, how 'valid' is their opinion? I don't want a shouting match about the subjectivity of opinion. But what I do want to know is where do you bad prats seek further critical analysis on a novel?

You all have your secrets; tell me them all.

And now. You read the end of the post. You are probably angered by the excessive use of personal pronouns. But you post an interesting and informative reply.

[Pryderi Agni]

Well, actually I will, punk;).

My secret is--would you believe it?--the human brain! I actually am a fan of reading in depth or imaginative reading as you may call it...When I read, I imagine the events and narrative in the form of images or even like a slideshow of images that stays with me long after I complete my reading. I think about them when I'm done and analyze the incosistencies and interpretations of the book, which brings me pretty close to an interpretation put forward by another critic, such as The Divine Comedy, when Umberto Eco and I shared the same opinion of the book.

[JuniperWoolf]

To be honest, I always ask professors what they think. My university also has an online library database that's full of thousands of absolutely brilliant articles on every literary book imaginable. These articles have been read by millions of other students and professors, and have been deemed valid. I don't form an opinion on any book until I read many, many articles. If I trusted my own brain, I wouldn't have understood Riddley Walker nearly as well as I do. I'd probably hate it, but because of those articles I got a lot out of that little novel. I get a second opinion on nearly every text, and it usually takes more time than reading the novel itself.

I loved the excessive use of personal pronouns, and it's good to see another punk here. :thumbs_up