#A-to-Z #Challenge #Reflections Post 2014

This year's challenge has been mixed feelings for me. As always, for the third time in a row, I have enjoyed having a daily post to write about, to think about, and to strive towards. However, I haven't been able to network the way I did the last couple of years. Partly, this has been due to my lack of planning and ending up with a theme that proved really difficult to write upon.
Also, April proved to be unusually busy! I hadn't expected it to be quite so intense, a lot of lovely travelling, a lot of holidays with the family, casting my first vote in the largest election in the world, among other things. So, all in all, I'm not too sure if I will come back to do this next year - but that's too far away to worry about!
I'm very proud of S, over at Failed Experiments & Experimental Failings, who finally managed to get her writing juices flowing at her third attempt at the challenge. What a lovely theme, and what enjoyable posts! Another big shout out to T, over at Scouring Monk, who I owe big time, for taking the time to read each one of my posts, and coming up with some hilarious ones of his own :)
I’d like to sincerely thank the organizers, hosts, co-hosts and helpers of the challenge. Good job!
That's all folks!

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This is the reflections post for the April A-to-Z Blogging Challenge 2014.
Previously, Archaism, British literature, Critical Analysis, Drama, Edinburgh, Faust, Gothic Fiction, Humour, Interpretation, Journalling, Keats, Language, Metaphysical Poetry, Narration, Ode, Papillion(ed), Quatrain, Romanticism, Shakespeare, Tone, University, Victorian Literature, Wilde's Wit, Xenophobia, Yeats, Zen

C... is for Critical Analysis

I have read for as long as I can remember. We are a family of bookworms on my Mum's side, Mum, Gran, Greatgran, all are avid readers. Also, because I'm an only child, Mum set me with books whenever she had work to do and I was being a pest. However, at the time, until I was much older, I never analysed texts critically, I didn't know what that meant. Last year, however, I took a MOOC on Coursera called 'English Composition I: Achieving Expertise'. It was conducted by Duke University and I learnt quite a bit from it. Although it was aimed at writing, it also taught us how to read critically. This proved to be a boon when I had to submit a 20,000 word dissertation for my Masters in Edinburgh.
Reading critically is the first step to being a good writer. It isn't enough to read and understand. It is important to look at undertones, if any, and link various parts of the text to a set of themes that are usually revealed right at the onset. Character analyses are far easier, because writers tend to pan them out in a way to create a succinct image in the readers' minds. But theme-wise breakdown of a play or novel is quite challenging.
Added to that, is the task of sifting through piles of what crappy critics think the author meant to say. For example, I was reading a criticism of Wuthering Heights where the critic claimed that Mr Lockwood's progression from his landlord's living room, to kitchen, to guest bedroom reflects the opening of various layers of the plot! What rubbish, I say! Isn't that how guests enter people's homes every day!? What has that got anything to do with layers or whatever...
Anyway, critical thinking comes with experience and practice. I'm trying to cultivate it little-by-little.

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This is the third post for the April A-to-Z Blogging Challenge 2014.
Previously, Archaism, British literature

Y

Y is for 'Yossarian'.
Catch-22 has been the bane of my reading life. Never have I tried so many times to read a book and failed. The worst bit is that i have been recommended this book my so many many people that I know and readers that i respect that I really want to read it. But I just can't! It is so frustrating. Yossarian is the principal character and I wrote about him here because I need inspiration to read about him in this strange book which doesn't follow a proper timeline of events!

A Catch-22 for me!

So far: Atticus, Beth, Cassius, Dumbledore, Estella, Francesca, Gandalf, Humbert, Ishmael, Jean-Baptiste, Kali, Long John Silver & Lisbeth, Miu, Nancy, Oliver, Piyali, Quentin, Rebecca, Scarlett, Tita, Ursula, Valhalla, Watson, Xenophilius

I'm writing every day of April for the A-to-Z April Blogging Challenge 2012. I'm writing of characters of fiction that are immortal and touch hundreds of lives everyday...