Notes

1. Personally, I don't read much fiction. While I enjoy fiction in the multitude of avenues I take in entertainment through, I haven't found myself drifting towards reading fiction that often. Despite not spending much of my own time reading fiction, my brother whom I live with, reads fiction almost daily. It transports his mind into another world, and takes away many of life's daily stresses. Whether it's reading a fiction-based book along with simultaneously listening to the audio book version, or just listening to the audio book, he absolutely loves diving head-first into fiction. 

2. I would define "literature" in comparison to other forms of fiction as taking place in the present tense. Literature often involves the expression of ideas, and or emotions through writing or speaking. When describing literature in a fictional sense, it can be involving complex characters with alternative views, high quality writing, and creative ideas. When I think of the word literature, I lean towards defining it broadly as text or speech based art. While many would be quick to dismiss it as an actual art piece, I would contrarily believe the opposite. Fictional writing can be focused on primarily entertaining the reader(s), while literature can be more focused on expression of an idea or theme. Literature is often seen in the form of writing, analyzing, relating, and discussing (pg.1). Analyzing writing involves breaking down the story into separate pieces, which our text uses the example of: "You could analyze a story into various perspectives held by the characters (pg.1)."

3. I'm drawn towards the first paragraph in Required Reading 6, where we are given examples of how to start a discussion through the "It's Neat" Theory of Literary Criticism. Specifically, the exercise in which you're looking to tell your experience of perspective in a story, through beginning your writing with "It was great when... I was blown away by... I was really ticked off when... (pg.1)." These forms of beginning literary writing stuck with me, because I could envision myself writing in a different, likely more profound and personal way if I were to use these strategies when engaging in literary writing. My mind is instantly filled with ideas when using prompts like "I was blown away by...". This instantly gives me the ability to express, from my perspective, what I had experienced and what I can take away from it, and hopefully the reader(s) or listeners can as well. Stating your impression on a topic or experience, followed by using a piece of a story, or poem (pg.2) can help provide the reader(s) with better relational context. Using pieces of a story that people can relate to can help better illustrate your point (pg.2 pp1). Using character's and their evolving perspectives can further the ability to relate to said character(s), resulting in a more emotional tie to the piece of literature. These are just a few examples of tactics you can use to better engage in literature.