Tara Piña

English 495

Dr. Gideon Burton

Winter 2014

Wonders of Reading: A Personal Reawakening to the Awe

                A quick internet search will turn up thousands of results of people who are looking to get back into reading. A similar search will show reason after reason of why people don’t read: there isn’t enough time, reading isn’t interesting enough, they can’t find the concentration. Teachers and reading pedagogists know this; they understand that reading is hard to get into and that it is a habit to be formed. That is why precious classroom time is spent on reading and teaching reading and trying to get kids into reading. But, if thousands of people are looking to get back into reading that gives the impression that they once were into reading and they once were readers. This would explain why, despite all of the people who don’t read, thousands of people still choose to become English majors: education programs are turning out students who chose to study literature for four years because they love to read. Perhaps that means that teachers are doing their jobs. Despite what may be contrary belief, somewhere people are getting into books, at some point considering themselves readers, and choosing to study literature because it is what they enjoy.

Strangely enough though, a vast majority of these English majors and even the students who are studying to teach English and the love of reading don’t read for pleasure. The love and enjoyment that pulled them to their choice of major has disappeared, they have lost the magic. But what is that magic? What is it that creates readers? Emily Dickinson describes it as a “Frigate… to take us Lands away.” Nancie Atwell describes it as a “zone.” Whatever it is to be called or described as, teachers and pedagogists know that it takes reading to become a reader. Often, you just have to read and read and do a lot of it. Simple as that, and you suddenly like reading. But there has to be something more than just reading a lot. There has to be something that you are finding and discovering. There has to be a clicking point where the stars align and it all makes sense-- reading makes sense and becomes meaningful.  Nancy J. Johnson explains that literature creates awe and wonder: finding the awe and wonder is the clicking point. All that reading finally hooks you in with the wonder of reading. And that is why it makes sense that one book can turn a non- reader into a reader. It only takes finding the wonder once for reading to become meaningful. So perhaps people who have fallen away from reading have just lost the wonder. Many an English major will tell you, “I used to read for pleasure. Then I came to college and had to read for school and never read for pleasure anymore.” There is no wonder left in reading for them or the wonder that used to exist in reading has been replaced by reading volumes for literary criticism or perhaps even iPhones and PlayStations and reading devices that really just offer one more way to check your Facebook (I’m looking at you, Kindle Fire). In our age of distractions, those who were formerly readers have lost the wonder once found in reading; thus, these prior readers need to be reawakened to the wonder that formerly existed and still does exist in reading.

The Wonder Found in Reading

                Perhaps it would be wise to clarify what I mean by reading. I had a classmate who specifically pointed out that wonder does not come from reading textbooks about cement.  This is where looking at the two types of reading as defined by Louise Rosenblatt would be helpful. There are two ways of going about reading: we can approach a text with either an efferent frame of mind or an aesthetic one. An efferent approach is one which we are looking to acquire information. Unless you are looking into a hobby or happen to be a cement-ologist, this tends to not bring interest or joy. We are focusing on what we will learn and what we can take away from the text. This would explain why the English major comes to college; and while they are reading all the time for assignments, they don’t read for pleasure. An aesthetic approach however is one that, as Rosenblatt describes, we live through. We are reading for the pleasure of enjoying a good book. As we live through the text which we are reading, we are transformed into another state created by reading. This is the state in which we can thoroughly enjoy a text and the state in which we can find the wonders beheld by reading. When people are longing to get back into reading, it is not the efferent reading where they can learn that cement acts as a binder because it dries and reacts to carbon dioxide. People are longing for this state of living through their reading.

It is this state where the wonder and awe of reading is found. Louise Rosenblatt explains reading as an experience. It is a connection and transmission between the text and the reader. Thus, this process moves us. We are made aware of things we would never imagine, and the reader and text become one taking us to new places. This is why pedagogist Nancie Atwell calls a “reading zone.” When we read, we are taken to a different state. Atwell describes it as “a place readers go when they leave [the world] behind and live vicariously” (21). This is what makes readers because they are so absorbed they want to keep reading.  If we compare this to Longinus’s thought, the relation to reading is apparent. He states, “A sublime thought, if happily timed, illuminates an entire subject with the vividness of a lightning-flash, and exhibits the whole power of the orator in a moment of time." This echoes the moment when reading hooks the reader and the reader is then transformed to this described reading state. Thus, it is through discovering wonder and sublime that readers are able to enter the “reading zone.” Longinus echoes this through his description of the sublime as something that “takes him out of himself.” But how does one specifically find this wonder? Longinus states that, “the sublime is a certain eminence or perfection of language, a dignified and grand composition of sentences.” We see this with Emily Dickinson’s line “Nor any Coursers like a Page / Of prancing Poetry –”. Poetry would exemplify Longinus’s description, but any author would tell you that publishing a book takes just that too- careful, meticulously crafted words. So then it is quite simple to find the sublime in reading- you just have to read.

Wonder in Relation to English Teachers

This brings us to the interesting point of our English majors and more specifically and importantly to English teachers who don’t read. Here we could employ all the reading strategies in the book; but they don’t need that, teachers live and die those strategies for their students. Moreover and with that, how can English teachers be teaching reading when they don’t even read for themselves? Certainly English teachers know how to read and how to enjoy reading, yet many have lost the wonder and sublime we have identified that exists through reading. Tom Romano, a teacher educator, identified this problem with his own students. He noted the importance of refinding this relationship one can have with reading because it allows teachers to be “dramatically aware of the real value they attached to literature.” If teachers don’t really remember this value and importance of reading because they have become burnt out, how can they sell their students on reading and do the very thing that they aren’t? Simply, the wonder and sublime found through reading has to be rediscovered.

How I Rediscover the Awe of Reading

This is where my story fits in. I recently found myself near the end of my four year program towards becoming an English teacher. I couldn’t tell you the last time I read a book for pleasure. Sure, I had been reading all of the American classics for my required courses; and I enjoyed them but not really. You don’t really enjoy reading when you have five novels on top of each other and you are just working to the end goal of knowing the novel to pass the class. And I, like so many others, was a bit unsure of why or what held me to the English major and wanting to become a teacher. That summer I was preparing for my next literature class, which I knew was massive. This class required you to read more than thirty young adult novels within the course of one semester. That is at least 2 novels a week. But you see, I had strategically planned to take it in the fall so that I could read the novels the summer before. The professor suggested this, and it only made sense to keep sane. So I set off reading the novels and was delighted at what I rediscovered. As reading was my focus not bogged down by other class objectives, I was able to again find that value I had attached to literature that first drew me in to being a teacher. I was able to be taken away to the “reading zone” to find the sublime and wonderful aspects of reading.

Reading for Pleasure

While the other books I had been reading during the semester may have been able to do this, I mean I was reading The Great Gatsby, I didn’t have the focused attention or right mind set. If we go back to Rosenblatt’s differentiation of the two types of reading it makes sense. That summer I had the mind set and focus to read aesthetically. I was in the position to allow myself to discover the awe. I wasn’t just reading efferently to take away information as I had done so many times in courses past. I was allowing myself to see the sublime through the masterfully crafted force of language, submitting myself to awe, and being transported to the other realm that can be found through reading and approaching the sublime. These feelings found through reading of the sublime do not lie waiting to be simply discovered or recognized but rather is a transformation of state that is created and brought out through powerful language and emotion when one submits to aesthetic reading. That was my first step towards being reawakened to the wonder of reading and the passions that I had associated with it.

Audiobooks

Secondly, I owe most of rediscovery of awe to one thing—audiobooks. Our age struggles with being able to sit down and focus on one thing for a long time. This would make sense that readers are never able to discover the awe because we can’t stay focused and in the right mind set long enough to actually aesthetically read and live through the text. This is where audiobooks helped me. As Mary Burkey described, audiobooks are training and allowing us to rediscover the skills that she calls “long-form listening.” Suddenly with an audiobook, I could get into the reading and be taken to the “reading zone” because I had discovered the ability to listen for long amounts of time. I think this plays into our world right now well too though because we are multi-taskers and have to be doing twenty things at once. You can’t very well physically read a novel while you drive to work, but you can easily listen while you do several other things at once. This opens up the possibility of finding the awe when we used to not have the time to sit down and discover it. Audiobooks also capitalize on what Longinus calls “skillful application of both feeling and language in writing and the use of graceful expression.” Audiobooks are now full on productions. Going from simply being read, the productions now feature different voice actors, sound effects, and skilled presentations that enhance the artful language and more readily transforms one into the “reading zone” (Yokota). Audiobooks also help to reawaken the nostalgia of reading past. Most love for reading is discovered in a time when readers are primarily read aloud to. Audiobooks take advantage of this storytelling aspect of reading (D. Johnson). These characteristics of audiobooks then take the searching of the sublime out of reading. If a reader is can simply listen and be engaged with the audio, the sublime now almost does lie there waiting to be discovered despite my previous statements. Audiobooks are what I primarily own my rediscovery of the wonder and sublime of reading to. Now I can listen to books while I do all the other things I have to do and still be able to find myself in the other worldliness of awe discovered through reading.

Goodreads

Lastly, I also own my rediscovery of the sublime in reading to Goodreads. Goodreads is a social network where you can categorize, collect, and discover the books to read. I found myself motivated to read and post everything I was reading. I wanted to share being transformed into the “reading zone.” Longinus describes the sublime as the “raising of passions to their highest degree.” My passion for reading was suddenly exponential, and I had to share this. Goodreads allowed this outlet. The website also offered the support I need to continue on finding more books to discover awe within.  I could read reviews and see if the book had anything to offer me before wasting time on trying to discover aesthetic read when it was there for me. Goodreads offers more support so that reads can find the wonder and awe in reading quicker without wasted or frustrated time.

Importance of the Awe

These ways of approaching reading can help those who have fallen away come back to reading. Through approaching reading with an aesthetic mindset, readers can discover the awe and wonder that has to be worked for. Audiobooks capitalize on the reader’s past emotions, the aspects the create sublime, and the time it takes to read. Lastly, Goodreads gives the support to work through books and share the feelings being found in reading. It also gives the support to get into the right books and find the sublime quicker. Overall, this is important for teachers to rediscover the awe that drew them to the profession. Not only did reading reawaken my passion for being it teacher, it reawakened my passion for what I held important about literature. Sophie Freud echoed this when she stated, “The joy of teaching was sharing my pleasure in, and discovery of, the right kind of books for my students, and henceforth I traveled through life looking for such books.” When she was able to discover her love of reading it was soon easily transformed to helping her students. Teachers cannot authentically help their students in this way without helping themselves in the same way first.  Most importantly, working this awe into the classroom helps students to learn “not in empty or mechanized routines, but …richly, roundly, and energetically—with intentionality” (Schneider).  When we bring our awe back into our own reading, we can help students to do the same, to discover and find the importance and value that we find in reading- the reason most of us became English teachers, the value discovered through the wonder and sublime of reading.

Works Cited

Atwell, Nancie. The Reading Zone: How to Help Kids Become Skilled, Passionate, Habitual, Critical Readers. New York: Scholastic, 2007. Print.

Burkey, Mary. “Long-Form Listening.” Book Links 18.6 (2009): 26-27. Print

Dickinson, Emily. “1286.” The Poems of Emily Dickinson. ed. R.W. Franklin. 3 vols. Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 1998.

Freud, Sophie. "The Reading Cure: Books as Lifetime Companions." American Imago 61.1 (2004): 77-87. ProQuest. Web. 20 Mar. 2014.

Johnson, Denise. "Audiobooks: Ear-Resistible!" Reading Online. International Reading Association, April 2003. Web. 12 March 2014.

Johnson, Nancy J., and Cyndi Giorgis. "Imagination." The Reading Teacher 2003: 504. Print.

Longinus, On the Sublime. Trans. W. Rhys Roberts. 1899. Peitho’s Web: Classic Rhetoric & Persuasion. Web. 17 March, 2014.

Romano, Tom. "Relationships with Literature." English Education 1998: 5-23. Print.

Rosenblatt, Louise M. “The Literary Experience.” Literature as Exploration. New York: Modern Language Association of America, 1995. Web. 19 Jan 2014.

Schneider, Kirk. “Awe-Based Learning.” Shift: At the Frontiers of Consciousness 8 (2005): 16-19. Online.

Yokota, Junko, and Miriam Martinez. “Authentic Listening Experiences.” Book Links 13.3 (2004): 30. Web.