mirrors and windows

I believe that storytelling in its purest form is about truth and the reality, and I really love what Elizabeth Acevedo said about stories being a window or a mirror. And I think ones own personal experience has a lot to do with what you perceive as a window or a mirror. I also think that interpretation of a text has a lot to do with the environment of a classroom as well. If you have like-minded group raised in a similar condition and lifestyle, you might have something like group think happen where there is no question about the text. So when we talk about literature at Govs, I think the way we all interpret a story will be very much based on our own experiences, but also the way other people around you respond. Again, with group dynamics. I guess it's hard to decide which plays the bigger role, but I think it also very much depends on the text. If it's a more "classical" text, I feel like it's harder to dispute an interpretation that is commonly agreed upon. I also feel like sometimes classics can be more windows then mirrors, but that's just a personal thing.

I know in class I was talking a lot about my own experiences and how that made me relate more to all the different characters in Song of Solomon, and I think experience, or empathy at the very least, determines how you recieve a text as well. Also, because it's often written, we add our own thoughts to the text and project ourselves into the work whether we like it or not, because we read it out how we see fit. So regardless, I feel like we put some of ourselves into the work, but it also depends on us to see whether it's a mirror or a window. Like practicing empathy. And while the text may be wildly different from your own personal reality, I feel like you can still see a mirror in a text if you relate to something else. For me, it was the upbringing that really connected me to Milkman and Hagar, but also I understood the way other people felt, and I also knew vaguely what they would probably say given circumstances. And unless you're righting an autobiography, most likely, any given text you pick up will not have a carbon copy of yourself in it, and that's alright too, because I think you can still find a mirror somewhere if you want it.