I'm sending good thoughts to all of you

OH the responsibilites. I can’t even read a damn book anymore without having some sort of responsibilites.

I understand what booth is trying to get at when he says that the reader must support the author by buying, reading, and teaching by “neglected living authors.” But is it really our job to buy books by authors if we don’t find the book interesting? And if we do buy it and read it, how can you say that we should teach it? It might be complete shit. Maybe that’s not what he means. Maybe he means that you should teach GOOD pieces by authors today, not just ANY piece. If this is what he means than I completely agree. The author’s need to make a living and we shouldn’t “steal” their ideas by xeroxing the pages of their books.

I found in my english class last year that the student’s fought with my teacher about The Grapes of Wrath. The symbolism that the Steinbeck uses is ridiculous throughout the book, but there were some “symbols” that our teacher was throwing out there that we as readers didn’t quite believe Steinbeck intended to be symbols. We felt that she was reading wayy to much into the text. It is hard as a reader to know what the reader does intentionally and maybe just happened in the process of writing. I think it is important to be aware and take note of the elements of the literature that he or she finds interesting and how it enhances the text.

The idea that it is the reader’s obligation to make public my opinions about a text is something that I often find to be uncomfortable. I don’t like to criticize people who have put so much hard work and effort into creating a piece that they feel is worth publishing or even writing. However, I also know that when I write, I like to get feedback from others, so I know who to better the next piece that I write. This is just what Booth says too, but I still don’t like to do it. I’m working on it though.

I enjoyed when Booth talk about our own thoughts becoming different after we have read a text. I never really thought about reading in this light before. It was weird for me to think that the author’s thoughts were actually somewhat apart of mine. They way that Booth stated it triggered something in my mind…probably because his thought became apart of mine. It’s kind of weirding me out. I have a lot of other people’s thoughts in my head. Get them out! Sorry I’m not sure where I was going with this…