I am a busy girl. Not only do I write, but I am also an artist and a professor. I teach English at a local college. This last week I started teaching my students about the loved and despised Literary Analysis. I, personally, enjoy it. I often wonder what authors mean when they write the things they do. Then again, being a writer myself, I know that sometimes writers mean nothing. Sometimes they write something because they can't get the story out of their head. However, I also know that sometimes deeper meaning can be found, and those deeper meanings can either give hope, or break a person.
I was broken when I first read Black Beauty. The breakdown of Ginger, the ending of her life, and the way she was treated, all a reader wanted was hope for her. In the end it was one of the first moments of loss, and how not everyone gets a happy ending. It was the same feeling I had when I read Little Women and Beth didn't get her happy ending.
In a lot of things we can interpret meaning. We can listen to a song and it can mean one thing to another person, and another to someone else. If you listen to "Semi-Charmed Life" by Third Eye Blind it is a catchy song that you may want to sing along to or dance to. Listen to the lyrics and it doesn't leave a happy picture. It is a song about addiction and letting go, if you can. There are several songs like this, but they are masked by the tune they are sung to. Looking at the words things are different, and this is what I teach: WORDS ARE IMPORTANT.
Not only in literary analysis, but all words are important. When we talk, we often don't think about what we say. The place I've noticed careless words is on social media. People feel that because they are online they don't have to watch their words, or are free to say whatever they want. In reality, yes people are free to say whatever you want, but why say things that are hurtful or disgusting? Why can't we argue and be respectful?
If we look into books like Moby Dick a book about God and why we often think he abandons us or makes us suffer, but then brings up the question that there may be no God and we have to survive and makes things better for ourselves, because there is no one to do it for us. We can also look at Fahrenheit 451 a book about destroying free speech and creativity. This is where we are headed, with the hastag #fakenews and the thought that someone can't say something without it meaning something. We call people snowflakes and libtards, and worse. Yet, we apologize for everything. We apologize for the clothes we wear if they aren't made in the USA, we apologize for our hobbies, we apologize for everything.
Stop apologizing, start either doing or stop talking. Stop writing the words that cause you to apologize. Look at the words you are using. Look at yourself and look to the past. The answers we look for might be in the literature of the past, and the literature of the future. Either way, realize the importance of words, they mean something.
Now, I am tired. Today is the first day I've had a break in many months, and the semester isn't over. I'm tired because sometimes I can't. I can't deal with the neediness and the politically correct atmosphere and the name-calling. I can't deal with people not listening, and posting "facts" on Facebook anymore. I can't help but wonder if we will get better, or if these dark and dangerous times will spiral towards the beginning of anarchy or apocalypse.
I was broken when I first read Black Beauty. The breakdown of Ginger, the ending of her life, and the way she was treated, all a reader wanted was hope for her. In the end it was one of the first moments of loss, and how not everyone gets a happy ending. It was the same feeling I had when I read Little Women and Beth didn't get her happy ending.
In a lot of things we can interpret meaning. We can listen to a song and it can mean one thing to another person, and another to someone else. If you listen to "Semi-Charmed Life" by Third Eye Blind it is a catchy song that you may want to sing along to or dance to. Listen to the lyrics and it doesn't leave a happy picture. It is a song about addiction and letting go, if you can. There are several songs like this, but they are masked by the tune they are sung to. Looking at the words things are different, and this is what I teach: WORDS ARE IMPORTANT.
Not only in literary analysis, but all words are important. When we talk, we often don't think about what we say. The place I've noticed careless words is on social media. People feel that because they are online they don't have to watch their words, or are free to say whatever they want. In reality, yes people are free to say whatever you want, but why say things that are hurtful or disgusting? Why can't we argue and be respectful?
If we look into books like Moby Dick a book about God and why we often think he abandons us or makes us suffer, but then brings up the question that there may be no God and we have to survive and makes things better for ourselves, because there is no one to do it for us. We can also look at Fahrenheit 451 a book about destroying free speech and creativity. This is where we are headed, with the hastag #fakenews and the thought that someone can't say something without it meaning something. We call people snowflakes and libtards, and worse. Yet, we apologize for everything. We apologize for the clothes we wear if they aren't made in the USA, we apologize for our hobbies, we apologize for everything.
Stop apologizing, start either doing or stop talking. Stop writing the words that cause you to apologize. Look at the words you are using. Look at yourself and look to the past. The answers we look for might be in the literature of the past, and the literature of the future. Either way, realize the importance of words, they mean something.
Now, I am tired. Today is the first day I've had a break in many months, and the semester isn't over. I'm tired because sometimes I can't. I can't deal with the neediness and the politically correct atmosphere and the name-calling. I can't deal with people not listening, and posting "facts" on Facebook anymore. I can't help but wonder if we will get better, or if these dark and dangerous times will spiral towards the beginning of anarchy or apocalypse.
RSS Feed
