- What has been most challenging thus far in your reading of Song of Solomon?
The most challenging aspect of Song of Solomon, is how the author kind of drops us in the middle of the story. At times it is difficult to make sense of what characters the author is discussing or following. Another aspect of the book I have trouble with, is the large time changes after paragraph breaks. This can make it hard to understand the characters lives and surroundings. This forces me to pay close attention in order to piece together relationships and storylines. In the annotated page below, a lot about Milkman and his father’s relationship is revealed through the language the author uses. Annotating this page gave me a lot of clarity and helped improve my understanding of the book.
2. How have you addressed this challenge?
I have addressed the challenges I’ve been having with lack of context, by reading closely and annotating thoroughly. I annotate for relationships and clarity. I also make sure to write down any questions I have in the book so that I can address them in class, and try to sort through what’s happening in the book. It has been very helpful for me to discuss annotations with a friend in order to see different insights into the chapter that i might have overlooked. I can infer a lot about the relationships of certain characters based on the wording used in this book.
Great post! I also agree that talking to a friend about annotations has helped me understand this book. It has provided me with different insight and context by my friend picking up on certain things that the author included that I may have overlooked. I also agree that this has been a book that requires a lot of close reading and the author assumes you’ll pick up context along the way. This is really challenging but it’s great that annotations have been helpful for you!
ReplyDeleteI agree to that discussing the book with a friend is super helpful because of all the little details thats sometimes hard to remember. I also struggle with how there is very little context given throughout the gaps and only gets tougher to read with the page breaks. They could mean a couple months to a couple years and without paying attention to ages or year references, it is often easy to lose place of what's happening.
ReplyDeleteSay more about what it means to "annotate thoroughly." What kinds of things do you look for? How do you know when to annotate or NOT annotate something?
ReplyDelete