The Compatible Reading

A literary essay deals with situation where the reading recreate the text.

When we; the common simple persons take a look at literature, we will find that it composes from two elements; the psychological and the artistic elements, and both of them can be deep and superficial. The deep factors represent the experience and the global awareness of the author about the world and its things. They are the definition of the things in the deep consciousness of the author while the superficial equivalent factors represent the ability of the author to translate that deep knowledge into words on the paper and the last represent the linguistic aspect of literature. So the linguistic aspect of writing is part of it and not the all.

The common idea about literature beauty is that its effect has come from the artistic linguistic and verbal elements but this is not all the fact. All of us realize that there are deep areas the author discovers them. Yes, the text is a mirror and an expressive tool to show and pointing to them but the solid intellectual pleasure which occurs in our internal is due to the deep author catches. Literature is art of speech but what gives the superb literary writing its fervor and penetration deeply in the souls is the deep pre-textual factors which the author has moved between their lands and seas.

The pre-textual system is complex and although the primary trigger in it is the experiences and observation but the psychological factors are cardinal in this system. We should emphasize that our final response and our stored experience about the external; especially the aesthetic external is not purely receptive, passive and observational, but the internal factors give its final shape. These internal factors as they play a role in the response to the external beautiful subject, they also play a role in their production in the process of creation. So at the same time when we saw ourselves in an author’s literary piece, we also saw his soul in this writing. And the way by which we realize ourselves in an author’s writing, is the same way which we realize his soul in his writing. That is to say, the time and the way by which the reader saw himself in writing are the time and the way by which he saw the soul of the author. This condition of unity we can call "the reader-author union" and it is the primary cause which makes us loving the reading. The reader-author union moment is the moment of creativity in reading. That is to say, the writing is a cause of the reader creativity.

The dealings with the deep factors as independent facts is a search for the pre-textual elements, but when we deal with their effect on us, at that time we seek the post-textual elements. This is most important conception of reading, where the post-textual and reader related factors have been regarded as part of creativity and have an artistic value and this represents the creative part of reading and the reader participation in the text production. The realization of the peculiarity of a style depends largely on the aesthetic experience of the reader and no one can say that an author style is the same for every reader; but the fact is that each reader has an individual realization about the specific style. Yes, the style is the origin but the post- textual world is the truth and the fate. By this action literature acts as a mirror of the author and reader experiences from the aspect of artistry and emotions.

The transfiguration of post-textual elements has many textual figures and the most important of these figures are the soul transfiguration. We can see the author’s soul in the text as ideas, feelings and expressional stylistic peculiarities and we can see the language in the text as linguistic rules and powerful imposition of specific words in the text and we can see the superior elements uncontrolled powers and non-understood disclosure.

 In Deepak Kumar’s “An Enveloped Midnight Muse", the poet reached a high level of soul transfiguration in his poem. From the tittle, where the muse is enveloped, we find the poet proceeds forcibly into the post-textual world. By his enveloped muse, Deepak reveals the a meta-poetic dimension is his poem, where the discussion and talking are not just about the external or internal worlds but poetry is also a talking about the poetry itself. In fact we  don’t need a lot of words to show the deep expressive feature of this phrase " An enveloped  midnight muse" which can be an independent poem. The enveloped midnight muse of Deepak shows a wide aspect of his soul. We can see many areas of Deepak mind and feelings. So, the poet had succeeded in making a big transfiguration of his soul in this title.

 It is not strange to see the powerful and direct transfiguration in this poem where the poet said:

"coagalulated improvisations transcend the released divine to find.

Quickened quietness recreates the intrigued effervescence to endow,

drenching in elasticated aquistions, I cognate my alluring mind.

 

Delicately curled in oblique lines, the burning heat of autumn,

an effervescent picture paints skillful resplendent hues."

 

The word "find" has a central part in the system of transfiguration then by a special word "Delicately", Deepak shows  deep lands in his soul and his writing style.  Deepak continues in its description and narration and show more intellectual fields regarding the writing, the poetry and the soul where he says:

(An effervescent picture paints skillful resplendent hues.

Rhyming melodies craft the outline of frescoes articulation.)

 

This type of transfiguration and by its universal bases and generalized knowledge needs the participation of the reader in this process and a very deep enlightenment of the reader soul to realize this aspect of the poetry effect on the reader. Every moment we realize the author’s soul expression in his text, we in fact realize our soul. We can see obviously that the mood of the reader has a big impaction on the ability to live with poem story and when there is a disagreement between the reader and the textual emotional situations, the reading will be deficient. The sad reader will engage in a sad poem more potently than that with the happy poem even when the second poem is actually more potent in emotions and the contrary is true. So for optimal coalescence of the reader with the literary text, at least the sad reader should read a sad literature and the happy reader should read the happy literature and in other aspect if we need to modify a reader mood, he should read what is counteracting his mood. So from the psychological view of reading we should differentiate between the incorporative reading and the modifying one.     

Another most obvious example of post-textual and soul transfiguration in literature is Kareem Abdullah’s poem; "The Chairs’ Schizophrenia" where he said:

 

The demons have breathed on the nests of my dream and play with my aged desires which is always waking up early. There is a yearning gap between this emptiness and me; one of us will fill up the hallucination of moistness wooing. The thirst eats my years and the debauched thoughts wrestle me with rebellion.

It is obvious that we need a compatible reader to engage in this text and there are psychological and artistic aspects for this engaging reading otherwise we will confront the modifying reading where the reader has a different psychological and artistic reading. There is wrestling between a desire and the age, and between the soul and the external. We can see the conflict in the text when in a time we find the desire is the lovely subject but in other time it is a demon. This conflict reflects two things first the intellectual universal pressure on the author and the second is his psychological expression and because of this, the author has used a hidden speech and a symbolic disclosure. If the reader inclines to the direct conductive writing, or he is in different psychological situation he won't engage in it. But if the reader is familiar with the symbolic writing and he is in that psychological status of the text, he will easily engage with text.

The author always tries to do two jobs in same time; talking about himself and talking about the reader. This unity between the author and the reader is a fixed phenomenon in the pretext site. The reader awareness of this unity forms the post-textual part in the text production. This system is very clear in Anita Harmik’s poem; "Washed Away Dreams" where she said:

"She stands in pouring rain cold and shaking...

trying to freeze the emotions of the night...

while tears flow to puddles at her feet and onto drains that flow with her hopes and dreams washed away down the drain"

Anita realizes that her writing is very powerful from the emotional aspect and her psychological passivity is very high and she knows that the reader needs more effort to make him in a state compatible with highly emotional state in the text to engage with. So she had made a detailed description of her feelings. At the time in which Anita express her feelings she penetrates deeply in the reader soul. In most writing as in Anita writing the author is concerned to express his / her feelings but he/ she is consciously or unconsciously expresses the reader feelings and brings him to the text and make him live her feelings. To accomplish this highly philanthropic goal, the reader should be fully compatible with the particular text and any defect in this ability, there will be deficiency in the psychological and artistic incorporation of the reader with the text.

 

 

References

1-       Anwar Jaber; The Narratolyric Writing 2017.

2-      Expressive Narrative magazine, 2018 (Arabic)

3-      Mosaic magazine, 2018