AHHHHH…..I am done :). Well Almost, anyway. This is the final reflection after all.
So now, onto the final reflection part of this blog. Going into this course I had no expectations of what was to come. I was curious. I was scared. I was excited. I was nervous. Then I started reading Demain, by Herman Hesse, and least to say I became MAD! Good golly, I never expected to read such a text for a class that would make part of me scream and the other part of me love it. Demain was definitely an eye-opener for me in the way that I read and in the way that I came to understand the codes and the meanings within the texts. I have read powerful texts before, however, I believe Demain put them all to shame with a very clever and dignified manner. When professors have spoken of the core values, I never suspected that I would be putting them to such use within this course alone.
I have used core values in the past, and I have put them to work. However, I have not used them in the manner that I did with this course. With this course there was a high emphasis on genre and theory comprehension along with the ability to critically understand each individual text that was presented to the class. In the beginning I contained a very small comprehension of what these focuses were all about and had used them sparingly when discussing my work.
However, with my introduction to Demain, I was also introduced to the ‘codes’ and to the manner in which I was going to put them into more functional and productive use for my understanding and learning experience of writing. Previously I had lived in a very content, resistant reader state of mind and I enjoyed the texts that I choose to read within that state of resistance, however it limited me to my own confinements and left me with no knowledge of the texts outside my comfort zone. Because of this, it made it very difficult for me in this course. Due to the fact that I allowed myself to become so comfortable in my little bubble, I was enabling myself from moving forward in my writing; it was evident in my first few blogs for this course. I was in denial of my resistance to texts outside my comfort zone, however, after I started twirling with the idea, I came to understand how important it was to be able to comfortable read in multiple genres.
By allowing myself to step out of my comfort zone, even though it was just for a bit, it gave me the opportunity to branch out and experience a whole new world of genres and theories. After I got over myself, I was then able to practice putting these theories to use in the blogs that were required of the course. In the beginning I though to myself, ‘how in the world are we going to write four blogs per texts’, yet after getting through my groups first book, The Kite Runner, I then understood why it took so many blogs to write about the codes, theories, and genres within the texts.
There is so much that can be discussed within a blog post. Given the amply amount of resources that we had it made it easier when learning on how to put the fundamentals of this class to use. I did not always succeed in being able to do so but I did try.
It was not a matter of not understanding the genres/codes/theories/etc. rather it is being able to formally put them to use when discussing each and every book that we were blogging about. In the beginning of the class I got caught up in the resistance vs. the submissive reader and it more than slightly dominated the way I approached the texts. I was so content in my reader zone that I did not mind that I was a resistant reader, however, I soon learned that I was missing out on a lot by being a resistant reader.
Even though I tried my best, and used the terminology taught to us, I feel as if I am still missing something. There are some blogs that make quite accurate sense then there are other blogs were it seems that I am fighting against myself to control the resistant reader within me (the one that wants to pop out and take control) and even though I tried my best to contain this wild creature that deemed to have free, my blogs still seemed to make a circle around what I was aiming to produce which was the main point of the blogs.
However, I know that this journey has yet to end for I shall continue to make myself step outside of my comfort zone in order to better qualify myself into a progressing writer. Something that I really admired about this course was the ability to be able to work with the same group of people from the very beginning to the very end. I appreciated being able to learn from their insight’s and to have someone help me with things that needed fixing within my own work. It was nice to be able to work in a judgement free zone with other students while we were all trying to accomplish the exact same thing.
Below are a few of the URL’s of other classmates blogs that I have posted on. I appreciated being able to see what each of them wrote, and seeing how they were able to put the form/genres/theories/etc. into practice with their blog posts. ( I do not remember dates of when I did this, however, I do know it was during the week of December 6, 2015).
https://reading4awesome.wordpress.com/2015/11/22/i-feel-like-i-know-a-thousand-splendid suns/
Alexis: The Rhetorical Relationships in The Witness by Nora Roberts
thegoldendemians 
There are many things that I enjoyed about this class, and I think what I found most interesting was how people approached wrestling with the text in regard to concepts. You propose this intriguing idea that: “It was not a matter of not understanding the genres/codes/theories/etc. rather it is being able to formally put them to use when discussing each and every book that we were blogging about.” Why I find it intriguing is because here, you yourself are an inauthentic submissive reader to yourself. You’re going along with the course work and throwing concepts into the fire and you think you are doing so aimlessly–without understanding the concepts, that is. Yet, isn’t putting the concepts to use the highest form of understanding them? Therefore, what you are exhibiting is an equal measure of understanding the concepts as much as you are utilizing them. Trial by fire, yes? In understanding that you actually understand, you can go along applying the concepts as you have been–except now you are an authentic submissive reader instead of an inauthentic one. The journey is never over.
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