Monday, July 28, 2014
Prompt 2
Frozen, although not a book, is an excellent example of why rereading is important, I mean, watching is reading with the eyes, right? At the beginning of Frozen the viewer sees the relationship between Hans and Anna as lovable, a little quirky, but it works. However, after the unveiling of Hans' true character at the end of the movie, the viewer re-watches it or replays it in their mind, and sees the relationship from a new perspective. Now, instead of seeing a charming couple, the viewer can only see a relationship between a manipulative, power-hungry vampire preying on naive and innocent girl. The viewer re-watches the film with a new analytical eye, giving them the ability to see subtle differences and other contextual clues they did not see or fully understand before. Books also have that power, to be able to change a reader's perspective helping them better understanding of the book, which is why I am a re-reader. I believe that everyone, conscientiously or subconsciously, is a rereader. We enjoy rereading because it is a retelling, we notice something we did not see before, or we pick on a different theme. Rereading is rediscovering. We can share new enjoyment for a character’s victory, new feelings towards a suspected love interest, and a deeper love towards a book/poem/short story etc. than we did before.
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Although I know this isn't what the prompt meant, I think it’s interesting that rereading may not necessarily be a literal word. One could “reread” a text simply by thinking about it. To simply mull over a book and to think about it is sure to reveal new insights into the text.
ReplyDeleteI also wonder if there is a point at which rereading provides no benefits. A point when one knows the story so well that there is nothing new to be gained by reading the book again. Of course I’m sure that would take an immense amount of reading (Ms McElroy said she’d read The Odyssey like 30 times but was still learning new information). But I still feel that at some point the story has to become completely exhausted.
I really enjoy your use of Frozen as an example for the merit of rereading. Things are not always what they seem, and having background knowledge of events does help in understanding the plot. After watching Frozen for the second time, I too, watched for subtle hints that would depict Hans as a bad guy, and was able to pick up on tidbits that I did not notice the first time. Every time I watch the movie, I am more and more impressed by the amount of work the writers must have put in to develop the characters, and I am sure the same amount of effort goes into novel development as well.
ReplyDeleteI love that you drew a parallel to Frozen in order to get your point across. It adds a new dimension in understanding the importance of rereading. It helped me, not naturally being one who likes to reread books, understand better why one would like to go back and reread. Like the second time I watched Frozen, I had a greater understanding of the plot points and the symbolism along with the foreshadowing. . I was generally more aware of the progression of the storyline the second time through. Some characters are so multi-dimensional you do not absorb how pertinent they are the first time through, which is probably done on purpose.
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