How to Read Literature Like a Professor by

What Makes Disease an Effective Metaphor?

arnavs1353 — 2024-09-24 12:51:11 UTC

"Aside from being the pump that keeps us alive, the heart is also, and has been since ancient times, the symbolic repository of emotion" (216)
Heart disease's association as the body's emotional center allows it to encompass a variety of traits:
Disease was mysterious up until the twentieth century, and we thus remain largely superstitious about it

Foster makes four main claims about how authors should write about disease:
1. "Not all diseases are created equal"
2. "It should be picturesque"
3. It should be mysterious in origin
4. "It should have strong symbolic or metaphorical possibilities"
"Often, though, the most effective illness is the one that the writer makes up" (230)

Perspective

sahanagummadi — 2024-09-24 13:10:39 UTC

Don't read with your eyes, instead, assume a perspective that allows the words to be taken as they were intended

Importance of literary lens:

sahanagummadi — 2024-09-24 13:17:31 UTC

Foster says to find a reading perspective that acknowledges social, cultural, historical, and personal pressures influencing the author or character's actions to understand the meaning of the text fully

Everyone has blind spots and that is okay, but one must find the balance between a degree of verisimilitude and rigid insistence
However, a reader should not go to the lengths of changing their own morals and beliefs to accept the author's viewpoint
"last-change-for-change" stories - the character is presented with one last opportunity for growth, questioning if the person can even be saved
- these challenge the readers to consider personal transformation when accounting for the character's perspective
deconstruction - a model of professional reading that aims to prove how a work is controlled and reduced by the values and prejudices of its own time by questioning everything
- goal is to reveal the complexities and social influences within the work

Examples

sahanagummadi — 2024-09-24 13:26:14 UTC

"Sonny's Blues"
The Cantos of Ezra Pound

Connections

sahanagummadi — 2024-09-25 15:29:53 UTC

Catcher In the Rye (text-to-text):

the entirety of the novel takes place during the winter
winter embodies the anger, hatred, and resentment Holden feels toward the world
winter is also associated with death, which Holden contemplates multiple times throughout the novel

The Hindu festival of Holi (text-to-world):

celebrates the coming of spring and new beginnings
reflects the ideas of renewal and redemption associated with spring

Seasons in literature:

sahanagummadi — 2024-09-25 15:42:05 UTC

writers did not invent seasonal metaphors
- these meanings are already ingrained in our culture
instead, writers invest in seasonal metaphors by employing them in specific scenarios
- this degree of specificity and continuity forces us see what the author is really talking about
writers use seasons to create feeling, contrast, and irony in their works
knowing the meanings of the different seasons (listed above), look for the variation and nuance authors employ in their works to create complexities or shift the narrative
seasons may also be associated with historical or religious events
- comedy is the genre for fall because historically, once the harvest was in celebration and laughter was deemed appropriate
- seasonal anxiety is related to Christian stories of Easter and Christmas

Seasons

sahanagummadi — 2024-09-26 14:56:17 UTC

The four seasons are associated with specific emotions and life experiences:

spring:

childhood and youth
rebirth

summer:

adulthood
love and romance
passion
fulfillment

fall:

middle-age and decline
tiredness
harvest

winter:

old-age and death
resentment
anger and hatred

Heart Disease

arnavs1353 — 2024-09-26 19:22:25 UTC

"In literature there is no better, no more lyrical, no more perfectly metaphorical illness than heart disease" (216)

Examples

arnavs1353 — 2024-09-26 19:50:03 UTC

Homer's The Iliad and The Odyssey: "heart of iron"
Colin Dexter's The Remorseful Day
Joseph Conrad's Lord Jim

Connections

arnavs1353 — 2024-09-26 20:44:54 UTC

Covid-19
Holden's depression
On Jade's birthday, Sam is unable to visit her because she is sick.

Examples

arnavs1353 — 2024-09-26 21:30:58 UTC

Shakespeare’s titles: A Winter’s Tale, Twelfth Night, A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Henry James's Daisy Miller
Greek mythology attributes a story to seasons

Connections

sahanagummadi — 2024-09-27 00:12:16 UTC

Piecing Me Together (text-to-text):

Readers may not fit into the same demographics as Jade, but anyone can benefit from the lessons she learns

Text-to-Self:

everyone is subject to their own bias, so unknowingly people may apply their own opinions when reading
it is important to recognize personal opinions and remove these in order to fully understand a piece of literature