I personally am not normally a
rereader unless I am deeply moved by the book or did not fully understand it
during my first read. Rereading is not
only reserved for those who do not understand a text on their first read. The book will reveal something new every time
a person rereads it. I believe that
rereading can show symbols and motifs that one missed before when they were
focused on the story as a whole. Rereading
allows the reader to catch different things, small foreshadowing, large themes,
a change in tone here, and an allusion there.
Rereading is substantially important to crack through the “opacity” of a
text. Foster opens his book with a
chapter on first pages of novels and how much they can reveal. I would never think to pick out the author’s
style, tone, level of diction, etc., on the very first page of a novel because I
am just looking at the story. However,
when I reread that first page, things can jump out at me because I am not so
narrowly focused on the story line as a whole.
I completely agree with you on you personally not being a rereader, however I am not either towards novels. Yet, I do find rereading articles and short texts extremely helpful to grasp the full importance of the novel. Which, I am starting to understand the benefit of rereading novels as well; which, is to gain the full affect of the close read instead of simply focusing on the story line. I too have that problem. I also understand the thought of never assuming to pick out the author's style, tone, level of diction, etc., because I simply only focus on the over all picture. The story itself.
ReplyDeleteRereading does allow for something new to be revealed each time a person reads something. I find myself every time that I read “Harry Potter”, for example, discovering something I did not realize as far as symbolism or character relationships go. I also only reread things that I am deeply moved by, mostly because I want to discover more each time I read it. I was not satisfied enough the first time so I had to read it again! Your thoughts on how rereading can open up the opacity of the text are quite interesting as well. Rereading can open up an entire new world of innovations.
ReplyDelete