We start responding to literature beginning by simply reading it once. We give it the time it desires and that it needs. If we don’t give it the time and patience it requires then we do not allow it to speak to us, or change us. We acknowledge it by visiting it again and again because first impressions are not enough to know the depth in something. We need to go back more than once and get to know it better. By asking questions and trying to see what the writers intention are. We share our thoughts to others to get a better understanding and see what they have to say and hopefully share in return. We reply to it in the way that we go out of our way to find other sources that have given it the time it desires. By allowing their interpretations and thoughts to influence ours, with discretion of course.
It all has to do with time. If we do not begin by simply giving it the time we have already failed in responding to it. In the same way we interact with people we need to interact with literature. We have to give it a lot of time, thought, and attention. In the same ways we take time to know someone or something, we must take the time to get to know the piece of writing. Literature is about interaction with the writer and reader and it only works when given the time.
Our lives can change according to how much time we give literature. It can change us by the amount of effort we give it in trying to understanding it. It can reveal to us new places, people and things. We can go back in time and relate to the people and circumstances they faced in history . We can also go into the future and experience the advances we so often discuss and dream about. It can change us by taking us to different places and times. We see other peoples point of view that we may never receive in daily exchanges. We get to know people we never would imagine meeting in real life. It can alter us because it was actually thought out with the sole purpose of bettering our knowledge. It gives us depth in the little details of life. It slows down things by putting it on to a piece of paper. To allow us to revisit it in different times of our lives and discover different meanings every time. Although literature can have ambiguous meanings it also has limitations. It has boundaries so that we all remain in the same area, yet elaborate at the same time. It widens our understanding. It can solidify our thoughts and opinion. Yet it can also make us realize things we had not see and cause us to change our opinion on certain things. It is another way of learning, interacting, and communicating with others in life. It allows us to grow, flourish, and better understand things and the people around us.
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I agree that literature and the reading of it requires time and patience. Without those two ingredients we will not be able to understand what we are reading and we will not be able to grow from that understanding. I liked who you connected the fact that we need to take the time to get to know people and how it is the same with literature. It’s true that through literature we are able to meet people we could never hope to in real life due to time or distance restrictions. I agree with your opinion that literature can change our minds about things. I think that really important works at least make us think about topics in different ways and sometimes they can even inspire us to do things we would not normally do. Maybe that is why so many governments burned books throughout history, because literature has so much power. In other ways literature does allow us to communicate with others, sometimes I think it is easier to communicate with people through literature because you can create a story and make it mean something to almost anyone. Literature can cross boundaries, be them culturally or socioeconomically, and I think this is one of the most important and satisfying aspects of the written word.
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