English has long been my favorite discipline. Sure, I love to write and I’m proud of my ability to express myself through written words, but that’s not why i fell in love with this discipline. I fell for the questions that made me think. I lived for the answers to those questions that made me think of other questions. I lived for those “AHA” moments where things in a work of literature suddenly take on an entirely new meaning.
When I was in high school, my freshman English teacher put a lot of emphasis on forum in the learning process for this particular discipline. He emphasized sitting in a circle, addressing thematic questions, and “getting deep,” as he called it. I fell in love with being able to find meanings from others. It is where I understood the true genius of some of the things I was seeing and reading.
English lends itself to conversation. Not only from one person to another about a work, but also between works. It is clear that works address each other. This simple fact clearly enriches our experience of these works, as well as our own mind. The satisfaction that comes from one of those moments where it feels like a light bulb above your head turns on is what I fell in love with. The discipline of English allows me to have those moments and apply them to my own life.
I completely agree with basically everything you pointed out in this blog. I’m not the strongest writer, but the reason I wanted to become an English major is so that I could experience the extraordinary feeling of understanding and connecting pieces of literature to life and other texts. Analyzing a text and coming up with your own personal interpretation of you what you believe the author meant to convey is extremely satisfying.
Although, what is arguably even more refreshing is when I get to experience the way that other reader’s perceived the same text. Everybody thinks uniquely, and gaining knowledge of how others see meaning in books is part of who they are, part of their personality. It’s interesting to start to understand another human by seeing how they interpret the world around them.
I guess it’s similar to movie adaptations of books. Sometimes, the movie in relevance to the book is extremely disappointing. But other times, the movie adaptation is perfect, in my opinion. It’s fascinating to see what the director thinks is important in the novel in comparison to what I found important. Or how a director perceives a character to act or look like in the novel in comparison to what I personally believed.
You’re right that literature engages conversation. Literature itself is conversation.