[Channel-talklitconversations] Workshop 1 Video Discussion

Here goes my first post here. I see nobody else is posting yet. But I am posting per requirements to meet graduate credit, so here it goes...

 

Addressing the question "What are some of the reasons you read literature?":

 

I agree with many of the viewpoints expressed in the video. "Reading is a way to step out of my dull life and into 'other' worlds." "It's a place to be away from ourselves for awhile." (what drugs and alcohol do)--provide escape.

 

Literature changes and transforms people (me). In reading, I address new ideas, people, situations, choices and consequences, worldviews. I always learn. Learn behavior. Learn options (good and bad). Thankfully, sometimes, I'm shown the results of poor habits, decision-making, etc. before I "go there" myself. I live vicariously through the lives of fictional others. I get to experience that sloppy, sweet, so so real love between Janie and Teacake....and even though I'll never set foot on "the muck" I've been there...in soul and spirit...vicariously. And I'm soooooooo sooo grateful. Thank you Hurston.

 

My emotional landscape expands by reading. I feel things I would not, could not in my mundane daily life. I can live more intensely through literature. Feel more and deeper--more frequently-- than in real life. I get my emotional "fix" through literature, because conflict and story are compressed into the little "pill" of the novel or short story.