Wednesday in Lit (3B) our class had
a discussion on whether it is possible to over analyze a text or not. I wasn’t
in Mr. Hoffman’s group so I don’t have an idea of what their discussion lead to
but my group’s discussion lead to the idea that “over analyzing” will take away
the author’s intended message from the reader’s interpretation of the text. Not
having an enough time for everyone to fully speak their mind guided me to save
what I wanted to say for a blog entry.
Do I
believe that “over analyzing” a text will take away from the intended message
you receive when reading a text? Maybe. It’s possible, yes. Do I think it
matters and shouldn’t happen? No. When we indulge or take part in reading a
text for our own enjoyment or as a requirement it doesn’t matter what we take in
as the final message or meaning of what we read. All that matters is that we
took it in, we processed it, and we have our own ideas about it. Our
interpretation doesn’t HAVE to be the same as anyone else’s. It’s ours and only
ours.
Finally,
this leads to a journal we had in class about a week ago that I’ll just answer
here. “Does it matter if the author meant to do that?” Answering this,
no. It does not matter if the author meant to do something. All that matters is
they simply did it, and it caught your attention and it was significant to your
overall reading of the text.
