Reading requires knowledge of references outside the text. Without that shared knowledge with the author of a novel, the reader can't possibly imagine the picture that author is attempting to paint. A reader must research - and thank goodness for Google searches: it's easy to learn in seconds; however, we have become lazy readers in this digital world were we watch countless movies, videos, and youtube clips. We are given a barrage of images, but we lose our imagination as readers. Reading requires curiosity - and a little work as researchers for references and images we don't readily know.
Here's a couple references that I found interesting that led me to research. As a class, we brought research and knowledge to the text by footnoting and annotating through images and hyperlinks.
1. St. Elmo's fire:
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| "Ever since Billy had been thrown into shrubbery for the sake of a picture, he had been seeing Saint Elmo's fire, a sort of electronic radiance around the heads of his companions and captors. It was in the treetops and on the rooftrops of Luxembourg, too. It was beautiful." |
As readers, how can we share in Billy's visions if we don't know what Saint Elmo's fire is? How can we appreciate the beauty?
Definition: St Elmo’s fire is a plasma created by grounded object in an atmospheric electric field (i.e. Thunderstorms), what you see is actually a plasma created by a discharge of energy on the point. St Elmo’s Fire was most commonly seen on ships in the olden days, which is why it was named for St. Erasmus, the patron saint of sailors. Usually St Elmo’s fire appears in bright blue or violet glow and from pointed structures lightning rods, masts, spires and chimneys, and on aircraft wings.
Theodore Roethke's Words for the Wind, however, the titular poem of the collection does not include the quoted passage in Slaughter-House Five.
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