{"id":223,"date":"2020-01-23T18:54:57","date_gmt":"2020-01-23T18:54:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/2020texttech\/?p=223"},"modified":"2020-01-23T21:02:00","modified_gmt":"2020-01-23T21:02:00","slug":"which-is-your-favorite-this-time-a-readers-perspective","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/2020texttech\/2020\/01\/23\/which-is-your-favorite-this-time-a-readers-perspective\/","title":{"rendered":"Which Is Your Favorite This Time? A Reader’s Perspective"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Several years ago during a class discussion about favorite\nstories and composition, a student asked me to identify my favorite line or\nscene from A Christmas Carol<\/em>, and I\ncouldn\u2019t answer. Try as I might, I couldn\u2019t pinpoint one. After class, the question\nhaunted me. Why wasn\u2019t I able to answer a simple question about one of my\nfavorite stories that I read and watch every year? So, I did some digging in an\nold copy of the text I\u2019d had since high school to find an answer. As I leafed\nthrough the tattered, dog-eared pages, I started reading annotations I\u2019d made\nover the years. The tone and focus of each set of comments were as different as\nthe multi-colored ink they were written in. It wasn\u2019t long, somewhere around Old\nFezziwig, that I found the answer to my question: I don\u2019t have one<\/strong> favorite line or scene.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In those weathered pages,\nI noticed my favorite lines and scenes have changed almost every year according\nto how I have changed every year. I focus on a new line or scene based on what\nhas become the focus for me at that moment in my life. Preferences change\naround what I, the reader, have brought to the story this<\/em> time. It isn\u2019t the story, the author, or the author\u2019s\nintention that have changed, it is I, the reader, who am the variable as every\nindividual in the audience is a new and different variable to a stationary\nstory, \u201cfor the code cannot be destroyed, it can only be played with\u201d (Barthes,\n1967, p. 2). The story, the text, is meant to be reinterpreted, morphed by the\nreader who seeks and discovers what the reader<\/em>\nneeds not what the author gives. As Mallarme as cited in Barthes\u2019 Death of an\nAuthor states, \u201cit is the language that speaks, not the author\u201d (1967, p. 2)\nand Barthes who reminds us, \u201clanguage knows a \u2018subject,\u2019 not a \u2018person\u2019 (1967,\np. 3). A reading of a story is not a destination; it is a multi-faceted,\nongoing journey of self, where authors die and readers are continuously reborn\nevery time they read and re-read.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Barthes\u2019 image of\nliterature being a place where \u201call identity is lost\u201d (1967, p. 1) is\nreminiscent of the Jorge Luis Borges\u2019 Library of Babel (1941) the infinite,\nhexagonal space where symmetrical books full of equal word count are housed, where\nall knowledge is present, but it is up to the readers, the librarians, to discover\nthis knowledge in their own time and own way. In this respect, the words stay\nthe same; the reader, and therefore the knowledge, changes. If everyone is\ngiven the same interpretation and knowledge (the author\u2019s intent\/point of\nview), then there is no need for search or discovery. If readers are handed a\nmeaning, if the text comes \u2018as is,\u2019 then there is no need for literary\ncriticism. Why print a new edition of a text or make a new version of a film if\nthe original is the only one readers need? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Barthes and Borges suggest the answer can be found in the messiness of humanity, in the perpetual rebirth of a reader. Borges alludes to the messy business of interpreting texts with his small, isolated bathrooms and the downplayed image of the librarian. Barthes tells readers that the author is a mere performer, an imitator, and posits a reader\u2019s heuristic journey where texts become the tools with which readers explore and experiment, trip over themselves, change their direction, and as Barthes posits \u201ctraverse, not penetrate\u201d (1967, p. 5) the space of writing. Through that journey, the author\u2019s death, readers can be reborn, and in Borges\u2019 library, they can be reborn perpetually to find their knowledge in their time. A reader\u2019s inability to choose one favorite line this<\/em> time or remain static in any text is necessary for their own stories, their own being, their own growth. And like Scrooge, their \u2018failure\u2019 of choice transforms into their triumph of reclamation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

References<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Barthes, R. (1967). The death of the author [pdf]. Retrieved from death_authorbarthes.pdf <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Borges, J. L. (1941). The library of Babel [pdf]. Retrieved from https:\/\/maskofreason.files.wordpress.com\/2011\/02\/the-library-of-babel-by-jorge-luis-borges.pdf\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Several years ago during a class discussion about favorite stories and composition, a student asked me to identify my favorite line or scene from A Christmas Carol, and I couldn\u2019t answer. Try as I might, I couldn\u2019t pinpoint one. After class, the question haunted me. Why wasn\u2019t I able to answer a simple question about … <\/p>\n

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