In my reading of Somg of Solomon, I’ve run into difficulty understanding information given with no context. This information is meant to raise questions but I find myself confused a lot, thinking that I might have missed details in earlier readings that would help me understand. For example, on page 149 it states “she had not shed a tear since Circe had brought her cherry jam for breakfast”. This statement bring up many questions. The reader has no idea who Circe is and why cherry jam made Pilate cry. When the author brings in a completely foreign idea like this one, it’s hard for me to realize that I’m supposed to be confused.
My main method of addressing this challenge is changing my mentality while reading. I had to learn to except that I didn’t know anything and that the author was leaving me confused on purpose. The help myself further, I made a list of questions to look back on once they are answered in later sections. This helps me gauge what I know and don’t know throughout the book.
Great post Henry. I wrote about similar challenges. Understanding the context of the story has been extremely difficult as the author has given us information with no background. Making a list of questions to come back to is very smart and I will start to do this when reading. One thing that might help you could be taking note of the theme you see throughout the story as well.
ReplyDeleteI had the same challenges through the first half of the book. When I read I hate being confused or not exactly knowing what is going on, so I’ve had to change my mentality with Song Of Solomon, as well. Making a list of questions is a good strategy too, I might try to do that from now on. Good post!
ReplyDeleteCan you say more about the mindset of accepting that you won't know everything, Henry? Please develop this idea. (And make sure you clean up some simple editing errors, too.)
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