Difference: Enjoying & Analyzing literature

[tomfyhr]

Is there a difference between enjoying and analyzing literature, or are they interchangeable?

[Eiseabhal]

I analyze all my enjoyments - it's part of the ... enjoyment.

[tomfyhr]

Does that mean that the appreciation of literature, can be interpreted as synonymous to the analyzation of it?

If the analyzation is what the enjoyment is literature lies, then how can it be valued? How can some works be valued over works? What makes them more valuable?

Doesn´t some just like literature based on the plot? In that case, analyzation wouldn´t be part of the enjoyment. Not in that sense at least. The analytical element is still present, since a judgement is required to be formed, but it isn´t at the forefront of the persons appreciation of the plot in this scenario.

[wreade1872]

I think they're very different things which i run in parallel but try to keep as separate as possible. I absolutely hate the idea of active analysis. I spent every english class at school trying not to pay attention for fear it would ruin my enjoyment of literature in general as it ruined my enjoyment of the particular literature we were forced to read.

As a person with a working brain, of course i analyse the story as i'm reading and sometimes even come up with interesting viewpoints on it
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/17980001

but i refuse to ever learn the sort of mental tools the literati believe you need to breakdown a story. Analysis should be natural and unique to you. You don't need others telling you the right and wrong way to interpret something. And i never rate a book based on the analytical side of my opinion. Enjoyment first, if i didn't enjoy it its pointless to me to start trying to justify why i SHOULD have enjoyed it.

[JBI]

When I was still reading novels (I'm now reading history and poetry, and very, very little fiction) I used to really need a good puff of Marijuana to get the real irony of the novels. Memory plus reflection is the pleasure of the text, in my opinion, which requires a form of analysis.

Shallow books leave one feeling empty. The best books for me leave me completely shaken, to the point that I finish the conclusion and need a shower to calm down and reflect.

[tomfyhr]

Enjoyment first.

What is this enjoyment? How do you define it? How do you know when you are enjoying the work?

[wreade1872]

What is this enjoyment? How do you define it? How do you know when you are enjoying the work?

What the hell kind of question is that? :confused: . Enjoyment is self explanatory, if i enjoyed it then it was enjoyable. And i know whether i enjoyed it or not because i'm a human being and knowing whether you like something is one of the most basic functions of a working brain. :idea: .

It is possible however to to unenjoy something. You can enjoy it until you or others analysis it to death, pointing out its many flaws which were unapparent or felt unimportant at first. This is one of the terrible dangers of analysis.