When kids are being taught in school, they learn to read what is written on the page and interpret the words they see, but literature is often much more than this. Authors make conscious decisions to include information and messages not directly on the page, just because a reader cannot physically see something in the text does not mean that the message is not there. This concept is discussed in African Fractals, a text written by Ron Eglash. Chapter 9 of the text explores the idea of infinity and those who doubt the presence of “true infinity” because they cannot physically see it. The texts read throughout this course along with the concept of infinity represent the analysis and complex thought processes that are necessary to understand all that this course has taught me.
When I first began my time at Geneseo I was under the impression that my reading and comprehension skills were up to par, and that high school had taught me what I needed to know in that area. As I began taking English courses, I found that to be a foolish thought. Every English course that I have taken at Geneseo has taught me something unique and has improved my ability to interpret texts and apply learned concepts, especially this course. I most recently learned that Percival Everett’s text The Water Cure is an extraordinarily complex read due to many things that are not stated directly on the pages. The story’s narrator and main character are unreliable, and any information shared directly from him to the reader is to be taken with a grain of salt. The text tells the story of a man who lost his daughter and may or may not have kidnapped a man who may or may not be guilty of the death of his daughter. The phrase “may or may not” is purposeful, for the duration of the story the reader is not informed if what they are reading is true or just imagination, and it is not clear if the narrator knows either.
Earlier in the semester I wrote my seed shape essay on the effects of narrative on a piece of literature and what can happen when an author chooses to depict just one character’s point of view. That idea is truly relevant in relation to The Water Cure where the entire story is told from the perspective of one singular character who proves throughout the story to be unreliable and confused by his own thoughts. The narrator’s name in the novel is Ishmeal Kidder and much of the text was written from the first-person point of view with him as the narrator, except for the scenes in which he refers to himself in the third person. Ishmeal is a parent experiencing grief and his unique story could only be told through his point of view. The uncertainty of the situation allows for the expansion of the themes and messages told throughout the story. If this novel were told through the perspective of his wife Charolette the story would be astronomically different. The story would morph into a more commonly seen expression of grief from a parent who has just lost a child. The narrative choice made in this story is unlike anything I have ever read before and introduced a new obstacle that I was forced to overcome. But with the narrative choice made by Everett, the story transforms into a question of innocence, guilt, revenge, time, and a guilty conscience.
Under these circumstances, it became evident while reading that many ideas and concepts could be found from what was being implied and reading between the lines. For example, a specific bird called the vermilion flycatcher is referenced many times throughout the story. Upon completing research, one can find that this bird is often used to represent lost loved ones, and their bright red color symbolizes an eternal flame of life within us all. This bird is a representation of his daughter at times, with lines stating “The sweet and bewildered flycatcher believes the ditch is a waterway and so it is. The little bird lets out a stuttering pit-pit-pitpitty-zee! No one answers” (Everett 79). Using this thought process, one could conclude that the narrator feels an intense sense of uselessness as his daughter needed saving, but he was nowhere to be found until it was too late. It is never explicitly stated anywhere in the text that this bird represents his daughter or represents anything specific, but the idea of it is explored in between the lines.
The concept of interpretation being in between the lines coincides with a concept that has been brought up multiple times in this course. This concept is the idea of plain narration and the misbelief in former years that African American writers were not capable of producing literature that was above the form of plain narration. In class, we read Thomas Jefferson’s Notes on The State of Virginia in which a sentence explicitly states, “But never yet could I find that a black had uttered a thought above the level of plain narration” and proceeds to state other racist claims that Jefferson and others at the time believed to be true. This concept is something that I frequently thought about throughout the final weeks of the course, as it reminded me that there is indeed much more than what is on the page. The Water Cure and other works read in class demonstrated the complexity of writers and all the concepts that can be found while reading in between the lines. Complex ideas being found underneath the surface is something that is seen in African Fractals and the idea of infinity. The chapter opens with the statement “…Africans could not have ‘true’ fractal geometry because they lacked the advanced mathematical concept of infinity.” (Eglash 147). This statement came from a review, an outsider who had decided something was not possible because of their own association with the concept and what they can see on the surface. Approaching a new topic with a closed mind can prevent ideas from expanding and can limit the amount of content that you get from the source.
This class included many group assignments and discussions, something I would normally dread and complain about. Throughout the course, I realized that the group discussions provided the perfect opportunity to read into the texts in depth and decipher new meanings from things I had never seen before. Even though the class is made up of students with similar majors, if not the same, every student interpreted the texts differently. Discussing various concepts I have learned from other courses at Geneseo and hearing other students do the same allowed for everyone to dig deeper into the texts we read in class. This especially applied to The Water Cure as each page held metaphorical ideas and information that the reader could use for interpretation. At times I would come into class with a page full of questions from the assigned reading which often included lots of “I don’t know” and “what does this even mean.” Without fail my questions would be answered in class discussions and small group discussions, often I would find answers to questions that I did not even have.
This semester was my first experience with taking a 300-level English course at Geneseo and has proved to be just as difficult as I imagined it be to. However it has taught me a new level of close reading and interpreting texts that I will continue to utilize during my time here at Geneseo. We often discussed in this course “looping back” and utilizing past texts and lessons to further advance the current one. This course and its teachings will be something that I “loop back” upon and utilize as I encounter complex texts.