On Fri, 11 Apr 1997, Hope Cascio wrote:
> In a message dated 97-04-09 18:55:18 EDT, you write:
>
> << People a book is to be enjoyed, have fun. When I read a book buy
> Margerat Weis I don't sit there thinking about why she wrote about
> something. >>
>
> I don't completely agree. I used to just read for pure pleasure and escapism,
> until I came to college and "learned how to interpret what I'm reading." At
> first it felt so artificial, but now I feel like I can get so much more out
> of something. I never could have attempted most poetry, for instance, before
> I learned to interpret, and now I can actually get something from Adrienne
> Rich. So it's a construct, but so's the literature. I can still read
> ocassionally for the escape, but I much prefer to read something I can think
> about later, like while I'm driving or doing the dishes. And I'll reread
> things I've enjoyed to see if there's more to it than the lovely escape.
For me, I see the change from non-critical to critical thinking to be a
gradual one that sort of mirrors my evolutionary maturity. I think that
when I was younger I had so little experience and my mind was so empty
that I was ecstatic to fill it. I internalized what I read with an
astounding level of naivete and trust. Now it seems like I have a
respectable amount of stuff in my mind. So, simple ravenous
internalization is not adequate. My body of experience, ideas, and values
protects itself from being replaced. I still read to expand my thoughts,
self-image, and body of experience (one reason I love sci-fi and books
with main characters different than me e.g. a female protagonist) but in
order to keep in some semblance of unity of thought and being and to keep
from being cluttered, I must think longer and with more wariness than I
once did. I see the process as an ongoing continuous one. I just hope
that I never become anywhere close to "full". One thing I think I have
also noticed is that I must always weigh everything with that same
wariness, what I am reading and what I believe. So, reading can do
another thing for me. It can help me to examine myself. When I read a
book where "I" am a woman in a world populated completely by women that
really sings to me and "fits," in order to internalize it I must in some
ways reduce my self-image from a male to a human and I must somehow reduce
my image of humanity from a bipolar, hetero-sexist one to a more
gender-less one. (or do some other sort of hacking and/or rationalization)
So, I read feminist science fiction for pleasure and in a sort of
spiritual search for self-actualization and enlightenment (they are
related). I do agree that often I don't think about why the author wrote
what they did. I often don't consider it that important to what something
means to me. To assume that all or even most meaning in a written work is
completely intended by the author is put the author at super-human levels.
I do greatly admire many authors (especially my favorites) but not that
much.
-- Joel VanLaven
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