I want to study literature. I’m not an English Literature major or anything related, but I feel a pull to it. I wouldn’t mind dissecting and analyzing a text. So I figured I’d give it a try on my own.

I read about 80% of Paradise Lost and could follow along easily. On a surface level I understood the story. But then I watched a series of lectures from a Yale professor where he deep dives into the nuances of every line and what they meant to Milton on a personal level, along with hidden possible meanings and metaphors. I was left both amazed and feeling like I’m too dumb for this.

So I tried again.

I read the prologue of Beowulf… and there’s a lot I don’t understand. Just in the first few lines, whats a “foundling”? What’s a “whale-road”? I know I can watch videos of people explaining it, but that seems like having the answers just handed to me.

I want to have the skills to read a text and proficiently find an essays worth of insight within it. Maybe I’m just underestimating myself, but I feel like the world has so many highly intelligent, quick-minded people, and I’m sadly and frustratingly not one of them.

  • and-there-is-stone@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    This is a skill set that takes time and practice to enhance. If this is an interest you’re pursuing on your own, not for school or a job, then you have an advantage: no one is pressuring you to read these texts at a certain speed, and if at any time you’re not enjoying it you can stop or take a break.

    I suggest you focus on reading things you want to read and discussing them with other people online. Talk about the parts you do have a grasp on, and ask questions about the parts you don’t. Eventually, with practice and input from other readers, you will feel the process get easier.

    I recommend you continue to pursue your goal, while also allowing yourself to read without always understanding. As far as not knowing what a word means, that’s common for readers of all levels. Even people with multiple degrees that teach at prestigious universities are going to encounter an unfamiliar word. They stop and look up what it means, and that’s exactly what you should do if you want to know the meaning. If you feel like the sentence makes sense without the exact meaning of a word, then don’t sweat it too much. But, personally, I almost always look up new words.

    Using the tools and knowledge available to you while you’re steadily improving your own skills is not cheating or taking the easy way. It’s how everyone learns to analyze a text.