Oct 29 2012
Reading or listening?
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Katherine Vaz came to Baruch College to read one of her stories. Of course the story she read was completely different from the Lisbon story that I read, I experienced a different feel through Vaz’s work. Reading her story, I felt as if her descriptions and the way she wrote her stories made me feel as if I was part of the story. I felt as if I could picture myself viewing this story first hand, and that everything that she described within her story was right in front of me. However, I was not able to depict emotions well through her writing. Therefore, the one thing I noticed while I read her story was that I could picture whatever she was trying to portray in her story, but could not put emotion towards the story. So I was basically reading a story without emotion, sort of like a documentary. I view it as a documentary because I can hear what the person is trying to portray to the audience, but there is no emotion to the story, just pure facts.
However, during the reading, I received a different feel compared to when I read her story on my own. When I read her story on my own, my mind was focused more on creating the scene through the descriptions and details of her story. However, during her reading, it was more about the emotions that she was trying to portray in her story rather than the setting. Her writing was so detailed that when I read her story I was able to create a scene and feel as if I was part of the story, but as an outsider in the story. When she was reading her story, I didn’t really picture the scene as much as I did when I read alone. Instead, I received more of the emotion towards her story. The way she read her story and her tone reflects the emotions that Vaz tries to portray in her writing. I feel as if that when a person reads their story or their own writing, that they feel personally attached and bring more of the emotion to the audience so the audience feels what the author felt when writing. Therefore, when Vaz was reading her story, I was able to feel the emotion that her character was feeling at the moment and even her emotion towards the story as she read.
In my opinion, I can’t really read a story without having to picture the scene and feel as if I’m part of the story. Therefore, I prefer to read the story on my own and have my own mind create the idea or the emotion that the story brings. I feel that author’s write stories to portray a certain point or emotion, however, the reader is the one that interprets the meaning. Therefore, I feel that if I read it myself and picture the story through my own thoughts, I have my own personal view on the story. Although, having the author read her own work and provide her own emotions through her reading for the audience is wonderful, I feel as if it takes away from allowing the reader to depict what he/she feels is the emotion that the author is trying to portray in the story. Even though I prefer to read a story on my own rather than having someone read the story to me, to experience the author herself read her own work to me was truly an experience that made me realize that I need to depict the story myself in order to understand the meaning behind the story.
