Connecting the Dots...

In class, I keep writing down phrases or ideas that are brought up in class that are mind altering for me. The world of the myth and "reading into literature" is just now being opened up to me, and I'm starting to make sense of what is being said in class. If you looked at my notes, I literally (and yes I do actually mean literally) have arrows drawn between phrases, connecting the thoughts and making my own realizations. I guess you could say I've finally packed my bags and am headed down that "track to everything." So bare with me, this is a pretty twisted track. Also forgive me if you've already come to these conclusions.

Like Brooke, I was (and arguably still am) having a lot of trouble "reading into literature." It's always seemed to me that when you "read into literature," you're supposed to find one particular meaning, and I never seem to arrive at the same conclusion everyone else does. For example, in Night Sea Journey, I would not have arrived at the conclusion that it was talking about sperm had not someone told me. And a part of me wished I hadn't known. Then I realized that if I just went off of my own interpretations all the time, I wouldn't have seen many of the allusions and references literature makes. I think I expect the literature to tell me something--almost like I'm waiting for something to pop out and hit me in the head. Then Dr. Sexson the other day in class said we are all "lazy readers," and I now know exactly what he means. How's that for something to admit: I'm a lazy reader. The question that remains for me is that when do you stop "reading into things"? When you have gone completely mad?

"All literature is displaced myth." (Frye)

"The stories of your culture makes you who you are." (Dr. Sexson)

Another realization I came to the other day, call it an "ah ha" moment, was why we keep re-telling the same stories. I kept wondering if it's all the same story, why do we keep reading different literature and inventing new literature? My answer: because we need these myths to be understood by the people around us so they may be carried on to the following generations. At the end of the day: our culture defines us, and our stories define our culture. So we preserve them in our literature, writing the myths in different ways each time, because the likelihood of at least one person understanding what you meant is high, and that's one more person that then knows the myth.