How Schmidt and Shakespeare Reflects My Writing

Schmidt and Shakespeare (a blog created after the more creative name Shakespeare Scribbles was rejected), is a forum to discuss the text of Shakespeare in a insightful and reflective way. When someone posts on a blog or does any text-analysis writing, there are three different stages or mindsets the readers may have. Text-Self is limited, a beginning stage that answers simple questions such as did I like the book? The Text-Other Texts stage is when the reader relates the text to other texts, and the Text-World stage is relating the text to other areas of study such as politices, religion, and philosophical. As a reader myself, I began at the first and now almost at the third stage, just not yet consistently.
The reason for my being in the first stage was mostly because I was unaware of the different kind of stages a writer of analysis could be in and I did not have to move past stage one in other classes except when writing a paper. In romantic and Victorian Literature, we discussed books such as Charles Dicken's Hard Times and looking back, those in-class discusions were like oral blogs because then other students would comment on what was said and discussions would branch off from everyone. The comments I made then were mostly things about that text only at first: "Bounderby's is such a mamma's boy in this chapter"or "louisa and Tom are closer than most brothers and sisters". As we read more of the story, my comments became more sophisticated, but at the beginning I was clearly in the Text- self stage, not so much because I did or didn't like the text, but because I stayed within the context of that book only. I also read often for fun, and people alawys ask me what the book is about or why I like it. I tell them things like "yeah the book isvery interesting" or "the main chacter is so naive", which are general comments. Part of this is due to the fact that I want them to leave me alone so I can finish my book, but it is also because I don't like deeply analyzing the books i choose to read. But discussions in other English classes and writing my blog habe helped me to make more of an effiet to get deeper meaning from text. It is important to analyze some of what we read, especially when the text is from a different literary era such as Shakespeare's Romeo and juliet.
My blog on Romeo and Juliet, the movie adaptation, was still in the first stage because I discussed things that you can only see in the movie. I did however make some good points about how the actors" body language expressed the emotions Shakespeare wanted to convey. I wrote "The body language is quick, forceful, threatening. This sets the scene for the seriousness of the feud". While this shows I watched the movie closely, it does not bring in other movies or texts. I alos mentioned the actors" tone of voice and pointed out a specific scene. Again this is important but not the second stage.
However when I wrote the blog for "Camp", I related in to Titus and other people, so I clearly moved into the second stage, texts- other texts, making progress. I discussed how Titus shows camp calling it over the top and saying that it fails to be serious. One could even argue mentioning camp as a way to peak interest in new topics such as teens is a third-stage comment, but i don't see myself staying in the third stage consistently after that. While my post continue to get better and see a broader scope of trut each week, I do not feel that I am in the text-world (or third stage) completely. I am somewhere between stage two and three. I don't always discuss how each topic or text is reflected in the media, but i almost always go beyond weather or not the text was well writted, although this fact may be a good starting point in some situations. In the contacts of an informative paper, it might serve the reader well to begin with the basics before moving into the third stage to draw the reader in. Also in such a case, the second stage is important too when seting the scene for your topic, and then the third stage can come in twards the end, while there are appropiate moments to write in each stage, The goal is to figure out how to stage three all of the time because it is the most benefcial to the reader of the texts and those who read a blog like this one.
Toget to stage three and stay there, one has to develop strategies to be successful and keep your mindset thinking about what's important: whether or not society has properly interpreted the text, wat worldview the text represents, and how the text benifets us readers now even when the text is as old as Shakespeare's Hamlet or Romeo and Juliet. The final issue to overcome (in my opinion) is lazyness versus motivation. Honestly, there are days when thinking about the political monarchy in hamlet and how it creates power struggles for example just feels like too much work. also if someone brings up a brillant insight that was not yet thought of , other ideas can seem not worth mentioning. However, briefly brainstorming your opinions on text and important discussion topics and jotting them down right after you finish reading ensures motivation to contribute a conversation starter in class or comments can also help to see past the objective. Another issue may be not having the contextual knolege of that time in history or literature. In this case, extra research can pay off, along with saving notes from other classes when you think they migyht come in handy later. All of this will bring you into stage three.
These three stages are a great way to assess the sophistication and knoledge of how to analyze literary works. It allows you to have a basis for critiquing a book and applying the work to your life and your society which is what the auther wants us to do in the first place.