Tell all the Truth but tell it slant--

In all reality I don't have much to say about this particular subject. Emily Dickinson is hard to comprehend, but I liked it and thought it would be a good at grabbing your attention. Did it work? Now that I've lured you in under false pretenses let me blather about nothing in particular.

My brain is going to explode. I have at least six different novels swimming around up there, each one vying for a place in the forefront of my brain. They're fighting extremely hard, and in the meantime I'm developing these ugly wrinkles on my forehead from trying to sort out every piece of literature I've read in the last month- which includes Isaiah (because apparently 3 Literature classes weren't enough for me, I had to throw Isaiah in there just to keep things interesting). So there's an epic battle raging on, more often than not Isaiah wins out, or African Lit, and then sometimes Multicultural Lit; however, Literary Realism ALWAYS loses.

Anyway, this leaves little to no room for thinking about anything else, and on reflecting about this it's probably a better thing. I've thought too much about life, I think I am ok with thinking about literature and absolutely nothing else. Think I'm getting to a point? Not quite.

So all of this is going on and then I have to read yet another book. This book isn't one assigned for class, and not one scripture based either. No, this is a book that I have anticipated reading for probably a year or so. That's right the finale to The Hunger Games series- Mockingjay. This book blew my mind. Not only the context (which could be described as horrifying and disturbing) but also the literary elements put to use. Irony, diction, symbolism... did I mention irony? All of this is used to combine three novels that encompass the human psychology as well as human nature at its very worst into a cohesive if not somewhat sad story.

Needless to say this book and all of its elements have taken over my mind. If you haven't read these books, I suggest you do... unless you need space in your brain for other things. I've decided I don't really need space in my brain for other things.

I remember from a movie (I think it's Ever After) someone saying people read so they do not have to think for themselves, or possibly because they cannot think for themselves. I could argue on either side of this statement. Sometimes I read simply to forget about my life, to submerge myself in the story of some other time, place and person. So sometimes I do read so as to not have to think for myself. However, much more often I read to generate more ideas. I read to understand something, or more specifically someone else. I read to explore other places and then think about why it is significant.

I read to understand.

I must say I think I've read more in the last month than I have in the past six months, and I've thought more about what I'm reading, past simply what is going on in the story. I guess it really has been blowing my mind, but it's also been expanding my way of thinking.

My ultimate goal in pursuing Education as a career is to help other people understand other people. I think through this semester I am learning how to do that more effectively in reading. I guess if that means my head explodes and I have little to no time to think of anything else, I'm ok with that. Maybe if I understand other people better I can eventually understand my own life. Probably not, but it's worth a try. Sorry about the rambling. Congrats if you made it to the end of this post, I know I almost didn't. Anyway... Happy Wednesday!


And just as a side note, my little brother tells me that nut shell is one word. Is this true? Nutshell? The little red line didn't show up so it must be true. Darn it all... my fifteen year old brother out Englishes me again! Props to Gavin if he ever sees this.