what Adler might say/ Personal Reading Tendancies

[linlou43]

No: HPFGUIDX 71251


I've snipped most of this post ruthlessly but the explanations were 
fascinating.

Lauri wrote:

> -before we express our likes or dislikes of OOP, we must first be 
sure we have mad an honest effort to appreciate JKR's work
> -by appreciation, it means having the full experience JKR is 
trying to produce for us (our emotions and our imagination)
> -only after we've read OOP in that full light are we competent to 
judge
> -the first judge of OOP *will* be one of taste  not of true or 
false or right or wrong - it will be judgement... if we like it or 
dislike it and *why*

Me:

 Upon reading this I was brought back to my eleventh grade 
Literature classes. My teacher was a supremely bright and gifted 
women, and a talented writer to boot.(She is a published poet but 
refuses to tell her pen name to students.) However, I hated her 
class. I have always loved to read but when I had to read something 
for her class I got no pleasure out of it. We were assigned a 
chapter 
a night and the next day in class that chapter would be analyzed. I 
never got the chance to enjoy any of those books as a whole. I 
realize that time constrictions in the high school setting most 
probably precluded the ability to do it any other way and still 
cover the material the instructor fealt necessary, but I have to 
wonder how many of my fellow students went on with the rest of their 
lives with only the impression of the analysis and no real 
impression of the book. For some reason the title that sticks in my 
mind the most is "The Red Badge of Courage", by Stephen Crane. I 
hated that book in high school. Crane's descriptive writing is 
spectacular(IMO) but that was totally lost on me in the initial 
*over analysis*. I must have caught some of the greatness of the 
volume however, for I revisited it in my early twenties on my own 
time. WOW! What a reading experience! At that point I did the same 
with some of the other pieces of literature I had studied in school, 
some I liked, some I didn't, but they were my experiences to have- 
on my own term

      I do enjoy the analysis we are engaged in now, but I believe 
that is because I am doing that on my terms. I have been allowed to 
enjoy the books as they are-with no constrictions or assignments of 
double meanings- and then I can disect them IF I CHOOSE. It's all 
about self determination isn't it?


Back to Lauri:

> One thing that particularly struck me about OOP is that JKR makes 
us taste, smell or hear nearly every new "scene" - not just "see 
it".  The carriages smelled of old hay and mold...  really 
delightfully descriptive writing.  I must admit I didn't catch the 
sensual (as in five senses) aspect on the first reading!


 Me again:

        I found this comment really interesting. It fascinates me 
that so many people can read the exact same book and come away with 
such different impressions of what they have read. The sensual (as 
you put it) aspect of books is always my first impression. I tend to 
*feel* books more than I read them. On all the threads about the 
death of Sirius there has been at least one post from someone who 
saw the foreshadowing and saw it coming. Those kinds of details 
escape me until I have done multiple readings. If pressured, I 
probably wouldn't be able to tell you how thestrals were described 
but I know how I fealt about them. That's what books are all about 
for me.

        thoughtfully-linlou