Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Re-Reading :/

So far, in my life I've never re-read a book (with the exception of like Dr. Seuss and other childhood books). I simply never thought I would enjoy a book the second time around once I know the ending. However, as I'm working on my pre-write, even though I'm not re-reading the novel by any means, I can see how re-reading could be interesting. Morrison uses a lot of foreshadowing that you wouldn't notice on a first reading. For example, early on she describes Beloved as holding her head up because her neck is too fragile to support it. Also a lot of events in the novel seem to have different meanings on a second reading. For example, when Denver thinks that she has been thinking of an excuse to try to get Beloved to share her room on first reading it seems that Denver is simply obsessed with Beloved and having a friend finally. However, on a second reading it can also be interpreted as an attempt of Denver to protect Beloved from Sethe. Finally I think by now we've also reached a point where we could re-read plenty of the novels and short stories from freshmen and sophomore year just because we've probably forgotten them by now. I always thought I might would re-read The Catcher in the Rye at some point or A Rose for Emily and Child by Tiger. Now I actually think I will!

5 comments:

sara pendleton said...

I bet Beloved would be way diffrent the second time around. Last year I had to re-read some Joyce/VA Woolf stuff because Nocca/Klebba made me read a lot of that type of writing until there was some overlap. One thing I noticed was stream of consciousness-type writing is a little tough to remember. I just remember trying to skim Portrait and realizing I couldn't remember any of the little details Klebba was talking about. I had to read it again and it sort of felt like reading it for the first time all over, like when you re-read something you read when you were a kid but that suddenly seems so diffrent than you remember. I bet Beloved would be really diffrent the second time because it's stream of consciouness writing mixed with foreshadowing would probably make the whole book read much diffrently. (That being said, I'm not going to re-read Beloved any time soon, but I do think it'd be intresting for somebody if they did.)

Ravin S said...

Shaina, your argument makes a lot of sense to me now too. Just small words or little things that characters do can often be subtle foreshadowing of what's to come in the book. I think it makes a lot more sense when you read a book like A Portrait Of The Young Man As An Artist or Midnight's Children, because they are both filled with minute details and are very confusing. Even Ms. King says that she finds all sorts of new things when she rereads a book from one year to the next.

Christine Catinis said...

I totally agree. Just by looking for quoted for my prewrite, I picked up on a lot of things that I never noticed before. Like shaina said, the foreshadowing in the beginning of the novel is something you wouldn't pick up on the first time around.

ParkerC said...

I noticed this too. When I was looking for quotes I noticed a lot of things that I probably didn't understand at all the first time reading. BUt, I think re reading might lose the magic the book had. Knowing everything kind of ruins it

ParkerC said...

I noticed this too. When I was looking for quotes I noticed a lot of things that I probably didn't understand at all the first time reading. BUt, I think re reading might lose the magic the book had. Knowing everything kind of ruins it