What's the point?
That's exactly what I exasperatingly ask myself every time I find myself in the midst of a so-called "literary" work. The surface of these texts is inundated with countless words and sentences with difficult-to-discern meanings, seemingly written to deliberately perplex the reader. The vagueness is uncomfortable, the purpose is far from explicit, and the reader inevitably ends with more questions than he had previously. So what's the point?
Of course, we are told that these works are the manifestation of universal truths, revealing some profound revelation on human nature. They are considered literary for a reason, and that reason, contrary to what most high school English students see, is presumably not that they are ridiculously difficult to comprehend.
The point, then, is this: it takes more than the typically resentful, unfocused teen to truly delve into literature. Literary texts are written to make people think--to really think, the kind of contemplating that can be uncomfortable, that can be frustrating, and that can produce more questions than existed previously. It takes something as perplexing and vague as literature to fully expound upon the perplexing and vague human life. Ambiguity, an inherent aspect of literature, mercilessly tests our minds, especially those that are stubbornly mathematical. Everything seems to be frustratingly open to interpretation.
This is precisely the challenge of Advanced Placement Literature.
Good point here- many writers will try to make a theme come to life in a story as a better way of expressing it. Writing a story is a lot more persuasive than simply stating a theme. Also, some of this post was "perplexing" as well.
ReplyDeleteI come away with more questions than answers most of the time. The trick is learning to be "okay" with that. AT least, that's my perspective. I'm not sure we'll ever get answers to the hard questions, but that doesn't mean we should ever stop searching.
ReplyDeleteMy strategy of reading the literature at 10:30 pm (way past my bedtime) the night before proved to be a poor one for this reason. I have made the adjustment to reading it when I am more alert and what do you know? I got the Hills like White Elephants operation right! True winner.
ReplyDelete