The purpose of autobiography is: the recreation, the nostalgic or not-so-nostalgic closure, or the simple delineation, of a life. This is without doubt, at least for me. But it is also much else and many writers describe the purpose of autobiography and of its several country-cousins: memoirs, diary or journal writing and even essays and poetry. A search for some clearer understanding of the autobiographer’s identity is a commonly found aim in the now massive literature on the subject of why autobiographers write. For some autobiographers of a scientific bent their work is animated by the purpose of proving that their lives are ultimately purposeless. The philosopher Alfred North Whitehead states, with his tongue in his cheek in his book The Function of Reason, that the examination of such autobiographies would constitute an interesting subject for study. My autobiography, in contrast, is animated by a significant sense of purpose and by a meta-narrative in which I do not possess an incredulity. Mine would not therefore be among those that Whitehead might find interesting in that context.
Description of the Perfect Person in Hesses Creationijtsrd
The article deals with the characters of high spirited, full fledged human beings in fiction, including the great German writer, international Nobel Laureate Hermann Hesse, their various problems of contributing to the spiritual growth and prosperity of the nation, especially peace, security, cooperation around the world. , the essence of the ideas of achieving harmony and solidarity. That is why Hermann Hesses works are truly life long, because the ideas put forward in them remain relevant regardless of the passage of time. Madiyeva Adina Dovudovna "Description of the Perfect Person in Hesse's Creation" Published in International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (ijtsrd), ISSN: 2456-6470, Volume-4 | Issue-6 , October 2020, URL: https://www.ijtsrd.com/papers/ijtsrd33457.pdf Paper Url: https://www.ijtsrd.com/other-scientific-research-area/other/33457/description-of-the-perfect-person-in-hesses-creation/madiyeva-adina-dovudovna
Cheryl Strayed's advice to an aspiring writer on faith and humility....Ashok Kumar
“Writing is hard for every last one of us… Coal mining is harder. Do you think miners stand around all day talking about how hard it is to mine for coal? They do not. They simply dig.”
The purpose of autobiography is: the recreation, the nostalgic or not-so-nostalgic closure, or the simple delineation, of a life. This is without doubt, at least for me. But it is also much else and many writers describe the purpose of autobiography and of its several country-cousins: memoirs, diary or journal writing and even essays and poetry. A search for some clearer understanding of the autobiographer’s identity is a commonly found aim in the now massive literature on the subject of why autobiographers write. For some autobiographers of a scientific bent their work is animated by the purpose of proving that their lives are ultimately purposeless. The philosopher Alfred North Whitehead states, with his tongue in his cheek in his book The Function of Reason, that the examination of such autobiographies would constitute an interesting subject for study. My autobiography, in contrast, is animated by a significant sense of purpose and by a meta-narrative in which I do not possess an incredulity. Mine would not therefore be among those that Whitehead might find interesting in that context.
Description of the Perfect Person in Hesses Creationijtsrd
The article deals with the characters of high spirited, full fledged human beings in fiction, including the great German writer, international Nobel Laureate Hermann Hesse, their various problems of contributing to the spiritual growth and prosperity of the nation, especially peace, security, cooperation around the world. , the essence of the ideas of achieving harmony and solidarity. That is why Hermann Hesses works are truly life long, because the ideas put forward in them remain relevant regardless of the passage of time. Madiyeva Adina Dovudovna "Description of the Perfect Person in Hesse's Creation" Published in International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (ijtsrd), ISSN: 2456-6470, Volume-4 | Issue-6 , October 2020, URL: https://www.ijtsrd.com/papers/ijtsrd33457.pdf Paper Url: https://www.ijtsrd.com/other-scientific-research-area/other/33457/description-of-the-perfect-person-in-hesses-creation/madiyeva-adina-dovudovna
Cheryl Strayed's advice to an aspiring writer on faith and humility....Ashok Kumar
“Writing is hard for every last one of us… Coal mining is harder. Do you think miners stand around all day talking about how hard it is to mine for coal? They do not. They simply dig.”
Inclusive arts libraries: challenges in HE - Sam WinstonKCArts
This is a presentation by Sam Winston from an event on 16 May 2014 held at the University of the Arts London. This forum discussed the challenges of making our art libraries accessible to the widest possible range of users, and this is the view from a practising artist and library user.
Abstract: Death of the Author “birth of the reader”. Birth of the reader must be ransomed by the death of Author.
Keywords: Literary Concept, Expressing the Original Intention of the Author.
Title: The Death of the Author (By Roland Barthes)
Author: ANU ARORA
ISSN 2349-7831
International Journal of Recent Research in Social Sciences and Humanities (IJRRSSH)
Paper Publications
Childrens Literature, Picturebooks and Intersemiotic Dialogueijtsrd
It is now agreed that a childrens book must be a work of art. It should coexist, intersecting in a balanced and harmonious way, the verbal text and the iconic text, both holding aesthetic qualities that expand the imaginative and hermeneutical capacity of the pre reader and that stimulate their artistic sensitivity as early as possible. In reality, the aesthetic literary formation of the child reader will inevitably depend on the quality of the text and the illustrations that illuminate and complement it, but, above all, on the deep internal cohesion that the inter semiotic dialogue enhances. Thus, and based on the comparative analysis between two picturebooks Elmer, by David Mckee, and The Different Elephant, by Manuela Castro Neves. This article aims to demonstrate that, in childrens books, the dialogical relationship and the intersemiotic fusion between the verbal and iconic languages enhances the establishment of a poetic atmosphere of true meaningful pregnancies that is essential in the aesthetic literary formation of the child reader. Teresa Mendes | Luis Cardoso "Children's Literature, Picturebooks and Intersemiotic Dialogue" Published in International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (ijtsrd), ISSN: 2456-6470, Volume-4 | Issue-3 , April 2020, URL: https://www.ijtsrd.com/papers/ijtsrd30679.pdf Paper Url :https://www.ijtsrd.com/humanities-and-the-arts/other/30679/childrens-literature-picturebooks-and-intersemiotic-dialogue/teresa-mendes
https://sellfy.com/p/jIvF/ (and more)
Basil, son of a father WHO values the family pedigree and WHO wouldn't let him marry below his station, falls crazy initially sight with a lady he sees on a bus. He follows her and discovers she is Margaret Sherwin, solely female offspring of a linen bargainer. He persuades her father to let him marry her on the QT. He agrees on the condition, that, as his female offspring is barely seventeen, they live apart for the primary year. initially the key works, on the other hand the mysterious Mannion, whose emotions can not be browse in his face, returns from abroad. On the last night of the year Basil follows Margaret and Mannion and discovers them in flagrante delicto. Basil attacks Mannion within the street and tries to murder him, however succeeds solely in mutilating his face by pushing it into the recent tarmacadam within the road. Mannion survives, recovers and swears revenge, and it's unconcealed that Basil's father indirectly caused Mannion's father to be hanged for forgery.
Basil repudiates Margaret, however Sherwin threatens him with exposure unless he holds to his wedding. Basil confesses to his father, WHO disowns him, however his sister Clara stands by him. Basil's brother Ralph undertakes to shop for Sherwin off, however in the meantime Margaret flees to Mannion, thereby acknowledging her guilt. Visiting Mannion in hospital, she catches rickettsial disease and dies. Basil, having been placed on her track by Ralph, visits her on her deathbed.
https://sellfy.com/p/jIvF/
CONTENTS
PARTI
CHAP.
I. A SLICE OF INFINITY 11. READY-MADE CLOTHES 111. THE HIDDEN GOLD IV. 'SUCH A LOVELY
BITE!' V. LANDLORD AND TENANT VI. THE CORNER CUPBOARD VII. WITH THE WOLVES IN
THE WILD Vm. DICK SUNSHINE IX. FORTY! X. A WOMAN'S REASON
PART II
I. THE HANDICAP II. GOG AND MAGOG HI. MY WARDROBE IV. PITY MY SIMPLICITY!' V.
TUNING FROM THE BASS VI. A FRUITLESS DEPUTATION VH. TRAMP! TRAMP! TRAMP! VIE.
THE FIRST MATE
PARTHI
CHAP.
I. WHEN THE COWS COME HOME II. MUSHROOMS ON THE MOOR m. ONIONS IV. ON GETTING
OVER THINGS V. NAMING THE BABY VI. THE MISTRESS OF THE MARGIN VH. LILY
The poet Byron expressed the view that his writing derived from a painful intensification of self and the desire for relief from it. To withdraw himself from himself, to be relieved from what he saw as his "cursed selfishness," this was his sole, his entire, his "sincere motive in scribbling at all."
While I find there is some truth in this explanation for the origins of my writing, there is so much more to it; indeed, the raison d'etre is quite complex. It is a subject I have gone into from time to time throughout this memoir and I feel the need to expatiate on it to touch the motivational matrix, the explanatory framework, for why and what I am doing. Writing as I do here may be an escape from self, but it is also a royal road to selfhood. This work also negotiates the relationship between self and community in both the Bahá'í Faith and the nations I have lived in, Australia and Canada. This exercise in negotiation is also a source of the complexity I refer to above. There seem to have been many different impulses at work in these volumes.
Inclusive arts libraries: challenges in HE - Sam WinstonKCArts
This is a presentation by Sam Winston from an event on 16 May 2014 held at the University of the Arts London. This forum discussed the challenges of making our art libraries accessible to the widest possible range of users, and this is the view from a practising artist and library user.
Abstract: Death of the Author “birth of the reader”. Birth of the reader must be ransomed by the death of Author.
Keywords: Literary Concept, Expressing the Original Intention of the Author.
Title: The Death of the Author (By Roland Barthes)
Author: ANU ARORA
ISSN 2349-7831
International Journal of Recent Research in Social Sciences and Humanities (IJRRSSH)
Paper Publications
Childrens Literature, Picturebooks and Intersemiotic Dialogueijtsrd
It is now agreed that a childrens book must be a work of art. It should coexist, intersecting in a balanced and harmonious way, the verbal text and the iconic text, both holding aesthetic qualities that expand the imaginative and hermeneutical capacity of the pre reader and that stimulate their artistic sensitivity as early as possible. In reality, the aesthetic literary formation of the child reader will inevitably depend on the quality of the text and the illustrations that illuminate and complement it, but, above all, on the deep internal cohesion that the inter semiotic dialogue enhances. Thus, and based on the comparative analysis between two picturebooks Elmer, by David Mckee, and The Different Elephant, by Manuela Castro Neves. This article aims to demonstrate that, in childrens books, the dialogical relationship and the intersemiotic fusion between the verbal and iconic languages enhances the establishment of a poetic atmosphere of true meaningful pregnancies that is essential in the aesthetic literary formation of the child reader. Teresa Mendes | Luis Cardoso "Children's Literature, Picturebooks and Intersemiotic Dialogue" Published in International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (ijtsrd), ISSN: 2456-6470, Volume-4 | Issue-3 , April 2020, URL: https://www.ijtsrd.com/papers/ijtsrd30679.pdf Paper Url :https://www.ijtsrd.com/humanities-and-the-arts/other/30679/childrens-literature-picturebooks-and-intersemiotic-dialogue/teresa-mendes
https://sellfy.com/p/jIvF/ (and more)
Basil, son of a father WHO values the family pedigree and WHO wouldn't let him marry below his station, falls crazy initially sight with a lady he sees on a bus. He follows her and discovers she is Margaret Sherwin, solely female offspring of a linen bargainer. He persuades her father to let him marry her on the QT. He agrees on the condition, that, as his female offspring is barely seventeen, they live apart for the primary year. initially the key works, on the other hand the mysterious Mannion, whose emotions can not be browse in his face, returns from abroad. On the last night of the year Basil follows Margaret and Mannion and discovers them in flagrante delicto. Basil attacks Mannion within the street and tries to murder him, however succeeds solely in mutilating his face by pushing it into the recent tarmacadam within the road. Mannion survives, recovers and swears revenge, and it's unconcealed that Basil's father indirectly caused Mannion's father to be hanged for forgery.
Basil repudiates Margaret, however Sherwin threatens him with exposure unless he holds to his wedding. Basil confesses to his father, WHO disowns him, however his sister Clara stands by him. Basil's brother Ralph undertakes to shop for Sherwin off, however in the meantime Margaret flees to Mannion, thereby acknowledging her guilt. Visiting Mannion in hospital, she catches rickettsial disease and dies. Basil, having been placed on her track by Ralph, visits her on her deathbed.
https://sellfy.com/p/jIvF/
CONTENTS
PARTI
CHAP.
I. A SLICE OF INFINITY 11. READY-MADE CLOTHES 111. THE HIDDEN GOLD IV. 'SUCH A LOVELY
BITE!' V. LANDLORD AND TENANT VI. THE CORNER CUPBOARD VII. WITH THE WOLVES IN
THE WILD Vm. DICK SUNSHINE IX. FORTY! X. A WOMAN'S REASON
PART II
I. THE HANDICAP II. GOG AND MAGOG HI. MY WARDROBE IV. PITY MY SIMPLICITY!' V.
TUNING FROM THE BASS VI. A FRUITLESS DEPUTATION VH. TRAMP! TRAMP! TRAMP! VIE.
THE FIRST MATE
PARTHI
CHAP.
I. WHEN THE COWS COME HOME II. MUSHROOMS ON THE MOOR m. ONIONS IV. ON GETTING
OVER THINGS V. NAMING THE BABY VI. THE MISTRESS OF THE MARGIN VH. LILY
The poet Byron expressed the view that his writing derived from a painful intensification of self and the desire for relief from it. To withdraw himself from himself, to be relieved from what he saw as his "cursed selfishness," this was his sole, his entire, his "sincere motive in scribbling at all."
While I find there is some truth in this explanation for the origins of my writing, there is so much more to it; indeed, the raison d'etre is quite complex. It is a subject I have gone into from time to time throughout this memoir and I feel the need to expatiate on it to touch the motivational matrix, the explanatory framework, for why and what I am doing. Writing as I do here may be an escape from self, but it is also a royal road to selfhood. This work also negotiates the relationship between self and community in both the Bahá'í Faith and the nations I have lived in, Australia and Canada. This exercise in negotiation is also a source of the complexity I refer to above. There seem to have been many different impulses at work in these volumes.
Greenbelt Writing Project Grade 6 Menu of Writing Ideas and Projects Spring 2017Buffy Hamilton
Menu of greenbelt writing choices for 6th grade writers in the War Eagle Writing Studio. Designed and created by Buffy Hamilton; inspiration from Ralph Fletcher in Joy Write.
Adventures in Writing Instruction--Embracing the Wobble and FrictionBuffy Hamilton
Modified Ignite talk for faculty meeting, October 19, 2016
All images are copyright friendly---images that do not note image attribution are my own or created w/ copyright friendly images in Canva.
SWON Webinar: Written Conversations and Academic Literacies in LibrariesBuffy Hamilton
https://theunquietlibrarian.wordpress.com/category/written-conversation-strategies-2/ and https://www.pinterest.com/buffyjhamilton/written-conversation-strategies-examples-and-refle/
CU Boulder Symposium Keynote: Literacies for Every Season of Their Lives Apr...Buffy Hamilton
Certain fonts may be needed to see the slides correctly
https://www.pinterest.com/buffyjhamilton/fonts/
See https://theunquietlibrarian.wordpress.com/2015/04/25/cu-boulder-symposium-keynote-literacies-for-every-season-of-their-lives/ for links of importance from the presentation.
Unit 8 - Information and Communication Technology (Paper I).pdfThiyagu K
This slides describes the basic concepts of ICT, basics of Email, Emerging Technology and Digital Initiatives in Education. This presentations aligns with the UGC Paper I syllabus.
The French Revolution, which began in 1789, was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France. It marked the decline of absolute monarchies, the rise of secular and democratic republics, and the eventual rise of Napoleon Bonaparte. This revolutionary period is crucial in understanding the transition from feudalism to modernity in Europe.
For more information, visit-www.vavaclasses.com
Safalta Digital marketing institute in Noida, provide complete applications that encompass a huge range of virtual advertising and marketing additives, which includes search engine optimization, virtual communication advertising, pay-per-click on marketing, content material advertising, internet analytics, and greater. These university courses are designed for students who possess a comprehensive understanding of virtual marketing strategies and attributes.Safalta Digital Marketing Institute in Noida is a first choice for young individuals or students who are looking to start their careers in the field of digital advertising. The institute gives specialized courses designed and certification.
for beginners, providing thorough training in areas such as SEO, digital communication marketing, and PPC training in Noida. After finishing the program, students receive the certifications recognised by top different universitie, setting a strong foundation for a successful career in digital marketing.
Normal Labour/ Stages of Labour/ Mechanism of LabourWasim Ak
Normal labor is also termed spontaneous labor, defined as the natural physiological process through which the fetus, placenta, and membranes are expelled from the uterus through the birth canal at term (37 to 42 weeks
Macroeconomics- Movie Location
This will be used as part of your Personal Professional Portfolio once graded.
Objective:
Prepare a presentation or a paper using research, basic comparative analysis, data organization and application of economic information. You will make an informed assessment of an economic climate outside of the United States to accomplish an entertainment industry objective.
Embracing GenAI - A Strategic ImperativePeter Windle
Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies such as Generative AI, Image Generators and Large Language Models have had a dramatic impact on teaching, learning and assessment over the past 18 months. The most immediate threat AI posed was to Academic Integrity with Higher Education Institutes (HEIs) focusing their efforts on combating the use of GenAI in assessment. Guidelines were developed for staff and students, policies put in place too. Innovative educators have forged paths in the use of Generative AI for teaching, learning and assessments leading to pockets of transformation springing up across HEIs, often with little or no top-down guidance, support or direction.
This Gasta posits a strategic approach to integrating AI into HEIs to prepare staff, students and the curriculum for an evolving world and workplace. We will highlight the advantages of working with these technologies beyond the realm of teaching, learning and assessment by considering prompt engineering skills, industry impact, curriculum changes, and the need for staff upskilling. In contrast, not engaging strategically with Generative AI poses risks, including falling behind peers, missed opportunities and failing to ensure our graduates remain employable. The rapid evolution of AI technologies necessitates a proactive and strategic approach if we are to remain relevant.
Biological screening of herbal drugs: Introduction and Need for
Phyto-Pharmacological Screening, New Strategies for evaluating
Natural Products, In vitro evaluation techniques for Antioxidants, Antimicrobial and Anticancer drugs. In vivo evaluation techniques
for Anti-inflammatory, Antiulcer, Anticancer, Wound healing, Antidiabetic, Hepatoprotective, Cardio protective, Diuretics and
Antifertility, Toxicity studies as per OECD guidelines
Acetabularia Information For Class 9 .docxvaibhavrinwa19
Acetabularia acetabulum is a single-celled green alga that in its vegetative state is morphologically differentiated into a basal rhizoid and an axially elongated stalk, which bears whorls of branching hairs. The single diploid nucleus resides in the rhizoid.
Synthetic Fiber Construction in lab .pptxPavel ( NSTU)
Synthetic fiber production is a fascinating and complex field that blends chemistry, engineering, and environmental science. By understanding these aspects, students can gain a comprehensive view of synthetic fiber production, its impact on society and the environment, and the potential for future innovations. Synthetic fibers play a crucial role in modern society, impacting various aspects of daily life, industry, and the environment. ynthetic fibers are integral to modern life, offering a range of benefits from cost-effectiveness and versatility to innovative applications and performance characteristics. While they pose environmental challenges, ongoing research and development aim to create more sustainable and eco-friendly alternatives. Understanding the importance of synthetic fibers helps in appreciating their role in the economy, industry, and daily life, while also emphasizing the need for sustainable practices and innovation.
A Survey of Techniques for Maximizing LLM Performance.pptx
Response paper to english patient by buffy hamilton 2 3-04 elan 8410
1. Hamilton 1
Buffy Hamilton
ELAN 8410
Response Paper: The English Patient
February 4, 2004
“I wish for all this to be marked on my body
when I am dead. I believe in such cartography--
-to be marked by nature, not just to label
ourselves on a map like the names of rich men
and women on buildings. We are communal
histories, communal books. We are not owned
or monogamous in our taste or experience. All
I desired was to walk upon such an earth that
had no maps.”
p. 261
“Words, Caravaggio. They have a power.”
p. 234
2. Hamilton 2
In my second reaction paper, I pondered the following questions spurred by the
aforementioned quotes:
So is this book really a metaphor about identity? Certainly we have many
characters reinventing themselves and reshaping themselves. Although they all
seem to somewhat try to disguise their former selves and even forget their former
selves in terms of their physical appearances and the way they choose to structure
or see the world, the identities of the characters seems to be constantly evolving
with many layers. In many ways, there is definitely a tension between the public
self and the private self for each character. How do we read each other? It
seems the “words” that “write” us and that people use to “read us” are not our
own.
After revisiting these questions after our last class meeting and contemplating my
experiences as first-time reader of The English Patient, I began wondering more about
how acts of reading contribute to our identity and construct a “communal” text of
ourselves. How do acts of reading “write” the “texts” of ourselves and help us “read”
the world? How do acts of reading “write” us as actual readers? What powers do words
have to construct readers and how they read the world? In what ways do we become
“communal histories” and “communal books” through acts of reading over time?
When I think of acts of reading as “communal”, I cannot help but think of Bakhtin and
his concept of “The living utterance, having taken a meaning and shape at a particular
historical moment in a socially specific environment, cannot fail to brush up against
thousands of living dialogic threads, woven by socio-ideological consciousness around
the given object of an utterance; it cannot fail to become an active participant in social
dialogue” (Bakhtin, p. 276). In other words, a reading of a text does not occur in a
vacuum, but our transactions with text simultaneously invoke multiple voices and
experiences. In a sense, reading is an act of participating in a community because you
bring your experiences, values, and beliefs to the text; consequently your transactions
3. Hamilton 3
with the text condition how you “write” or “construct” meaning of those experiences,
values, and beliefs. Those moments of intersection in an act of reading add another layer,
subtle though it may be, to your construction of the world and to the “communal”
dimension of “self” as well as your transactions with the text. Just as Hana used books
and words to cope with a world she could not longer tolerate and to construct a new one
in which she could make meaning, so do we use acts of reading allow us to enter a world
without walls and to open ourselves to reinvention and reconstruction, a text that is
constantly under revision.
Whenever I look back upon my first reading of The English Patient, I look do not
think of this reading was as an individual act, but rather my reading was a communal act.
My past, present, and future experiences as an individual reader and a reader in our
ELAN 8410 learning community all influenced my transactions with this novel. I cannot
think of reading this novel just as a solitary figure; instead, I think of Spencer’s
references to reading as “a sacred ritual;” Sharon’s concept of reading as a “temporal
experience;” Steven’s interest in our experiences as “re-readers;” Michelle’s concepts of
aesthetic experiences; Melanie’s reading of the first half of the novel as a “hyper linked”
sort of experience in which one line of text immediately sent you thinking of something
else you had read in the novel or a connection; Lee’s interest in the web of the characters;
and Mark’s interest in how this book might disrupt our conventional concepts of a novel
and its traditional linear structure. Your words, your social worlds, your connections and
questions, and your experiences somehow became incorporated into the “borderlands” of
my “self” and my experiences as a reader with this text. Again, this experience as a
reader echoes Iser’s assertion that “The continual interaction of perspectives throw new
4. Hamilton 4
light on all positions linguistically manifested in the text for each position is set in a fresh
context with the result that the reader’s attention is drawn to aspects hitherto not
apparent. Thus the structure of theme and horizon transforms every perspective segment
of the text into a two-way glass, in the sense that each segment appears against the others
and is therefore no only itself but also a reflection and an illuminator of those
others”(Iser, pp. 97-98). Had I read this text on my own, I am sure that my reading of
this text would have completely different and not as rich or meaningful.
Our dialogue, our learning experiences as a small group, and what each person
brought to the conversation all impacted how I thought about the text and created a sort
of “ongoing” revision and “rewriting” of the text for me. In this sense, this was definitely
a communal reading experience. My transactions with The English Patient were not just
about my own personal reading, but they were also about how my transactions with each
of you affected my “dialogue” with the text. Stanley Fish maintains, “…all objects are
made and not found, and that they are made by the interpretative strategies we set in
motion. The you is a communal you and not an isolated individual” (Fish, p. 331). This
reading went beyond the borders of myself. I felt the reading transcended each of us and
somehow evolved into larger experiences. For me, these experiences affirm Wolfgang
Iser’s belief that “….it is clear that if a literary text represents a reaction to the world, the
reaction must be to the world incorporated in the text; the forming of the aesthetic object
therefore coincides with the reader’s reactions to positions set up and transformed by the
structure of theme and horizon” (Iser, p. 98). Reading this novel not only was an act of
constructing a “communal text,” but these acts of reading involved composing a
communal history of my experiences with the text.
5. Hamilton 5
On a more text-to-reader level, I cannot help but think of how books “write” me and
construct a “communal text” of identity (communal book as a metaphor for identity) for
me. For Hana, words definitely conveyed a “power” to feed her and nurture her, just as
Katharine “…had always wanted words, she loved them, grew up on them. Words gave
her clarity, brought reason, shape” (238). From my first faint outline of memory as a
small child, words, spoken and written, have shaped my world and sense of purpose in
the world. What stories and songs did I read and hear repeatedly that impacted my
worldview? When I was ten, Little Women inspired me to declare that “being an author”
was my mission in life. My reputation for devouring books was known to family,
friends, and teachers. A Christmas “wish list” was never without a requisite list of books
that I hoped would line my bookshelves. If I was not found with my nose in a book, then
you would find me composing my own stories either by hand or later, with a typewriter
that definitely made me feel like a budding Louisa May Alcott! After reading The Lion,
The Witch, and the Wardrobe for the first time, I tried to go to Narnia by hopping in my
great-grandmother’s chiffarobe. Over twenty years later, I can still feel the sense of
disappointment that the walls did not magically open a door to Narnia; even now, I still
feel a faint flutter of the he urgent desire to literally go someplace a book had taken me
earlier. Words and books are inextricably intertwined with my sense of self.
In a recent television interview, renowned actor, poet, and painter Viggo Mortensen
commented that unlike many actors, he did not try to rid himself of a character; for him,
remnants of his experiences in a moviemaking experience and of that character somehow
became imbued and fused into his own psyche. This experience for Mortensen is much
like my experiences as a reader: I enter a book as one person, but I exit it a different
6. Hamilton 6
person even though I may not completely realize the changes and the “rewriting” of
myself at that point in time. When I begin to read a book, I often wonder what journey
lies ahead for me as a reader; this anticipation is usually one of curiosity, much like
Hana: “She entered the story knowing she would emerge from a feeling she had been
immersed in the lives of others, in plots that stretched back twenty years, her body full of
sentences and moments, as if awaking from sleep with a heaviness caused by
unremembered dreams” (12). I reflect with awe how books and reading have populated
my identity. The map of self is altered and the old labels and markings no longer apply.
Is it through reading acts of reading that we can fulfill the English Patient’s desire to
“walk upon an earth with no maps”, to create a world with dynamic boundaries and
meaningful place-names of self that are dynamic? Acts of reading are acts of
transformation whether we realize it or not. These transformations are not isolated, and
they occur in a context of a particular reading experience: “As text and reader thus merge
into a single situation, the division between subject and object no longer applies, and it
follows that meaning is no longer an object to be defined, but is an effect to be
experienced” (Iser, pp. 9-10). Have you ever found yourself in a book feeling as though
you were someplace real, as though you had crossed into some imaginary yet incredibly
real world, wondering what parts were fiction and what parts were reality or truth? How
is it that we as readers breathe life into those words on the page?
At this point, I believe that if we are to think of reading as an experience that adds
“communal” layers to ourselves, we incorporate those experiences into rich, dynamic
transactions with texts. Consequently, acts of reading become places of meaning making
and construction of worlds, “texts,” and living histories.
7. Hamilton 7
Bakhtin, M. (1981). The Dialogic Imagination: Four essays by M.M. Bakhtin. Austin,
TX: University of Texas Press.
Fish, S. (1980). Is there a text in this class: The authority of interpretive communities.
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Iser, W. (1978). The act of reading: A theory of aesthetic response. Baltimore, MD:
Johns Hopkins University Press.