When I was three years old I was introduced to a book shelf that was placed in between my room and the hall. There both of my parents showed me books and began teaching me how to read bit by bit. They kind of wanted me to learn on my own so I would pick up the books and explore them. Before bed my dad would read to my brother and I and that would be my initial memory of literacy and the connection with me in the beginning learning to read.
Deborah Brandt brings up a valid point about sponsors, whom my very first ones were my parents. “In whatever form, sponsors deliver the ideological freight that must be borne for access to what they have. Of course, the sponsored can be oblivious to or innovative with this ideological burden,” (1). I am sure that my parent’s intentions were to pass on every piece of knowledge that they possibly could. Books were not the only tool to learn, tape cassettes, television, and radio were also implemented (but I will not discuss radio).
While listening to tape cassettes I listened to two different ones. One that had basic nursery rhyme and the other was the country group, Alabama. My brother and I would sing together “Oh, I believe there are Angels among us.” We really sang this over and over again as we analyzed the lyrical content. I had always believed in a God whereas my brother did not. I always tried to convince him that there was a God but I had no proof so I could not convince him. I always tried to form arguments with him in one way or another.
Besides tape cassettes I would watch television. The first cartoon that I can remember watching at home as a child was Power Rangers. It was not really my favorite show, my little brother always had control over the remote. I literally watched every boy cartoon my whole childhood because I never did gain that power over the remote like I had wanted. In watching Power Rangers, I liked analyzing the transformation and liked the idea of machines and that they were powerful. Besides that I didn’t gain anything much. Perhaps it reiterated colors for me. “Yellow Ranger,” “Pink Ranger,” and the list went on. It taught me about the different colors associated with sex. Girls were pink or yellow while boys were green or blue.
Although I had learned through television and tape cassettes, I would listen to books intermittently. One of the first books that my dad use to read to us was “How Spider got a tiny Waste,” The story is a folklore based on the spider, his two sons Kwaku, and Kuma. Spider never does any labor but he still finds a way to eat. He has two neighbors one to the East and one to the West. He experiences six separate endeavors as there are six different journeys he goes on.
In one of the series, Spider’s two neighbors were both having feasts at the same time. He gave his two sons rope that he had tied around his waist and they were to pull on it when the feast was ready. Both had pulled at the same time resulting in Spiders thin waist. “When they found him his waist was thinner than a needle! Spider never grew fat again,” (3). This resulted due to spider’s greed. If he had just stuck to one feast, than he wouldn’t have a thin waist today.
Another Author I enjoyed as a child was Dr. Sues. I had read probably all of his books over and over. I enjoyed the illustrations, rhymes, and creativity. “So all we could do was Sit! Sit! Sit! And we did not like it. Not one little bit,” (2). I would read the book to my brother. I remember reading it to him on a rainy day and staring out the window as the boy and girl did in the illustration. When I had read it I had imagined that my brother and I were in the story. I remember him sitting next to me listening waiting to hear what would happen next. I loved the image of the fish bowl, the boy and girl staring out of the window, and the cat balancing objects all the way up to the ceiling including an umbrella. I loved to read, I so I did it all of the time.
With my passion for reading I can relate to Murray. “In writing this paper I have begun to understand, better than I have before, that all writing, in many different ways, is autobiographical, and that our autobiography grows from a few deep taproots that are set down into our past in childhood,” (4). He is referring to our learned dialect in which impacts our writing style as well as thoughts and ideas. With that being said, I am no more than a product of my environment, which could be really good or really bad.
Speaking of product of environment, my first CD after tape cassettes was the Spice Girls CD produced through Virgin Records. By this time I had already known quite a bit of literacy but I had begun learning my viewpoint about the world through music and specifically about love through the album.
Listening to music as a child was interesting. When it came to sex I did not know what I was singing about but I simply still sang along. I remember singing “Spice up your life” and “Somebody, somebody” as well as a different artist I was in favor of, Bewitched.
“Hey there sitting in the tree, Mommy wants you to come for tea…” Is another tune I remember singing. That one I understood better than the ones with explicit innuendos. I really felt that singing songs about sex at this age was harmless because how could it affect me if I was unaware? I began learning new words through music and by time I was in High School I began looking the words up that in which I did not understand.
After I was through with High School I liked to read books by Danielle Steele. I do not read much of her work now but being a young woman it was interesting getting into a mature woman’s mind. I could use her as a mother and see what she had to say. She mostly talked about writing, her characters sometimes attended college courses, and love. So that was always interesting to get an inside peek into what I could learn about sex. Or the writing industry and other lifestyle factors that reflect herself through her characters.
Besides reading for fun, a lot of my reading has been in College. Not to say that I did not do an extensive amount of reading growing up, I was always reading. Usually books that were assigned or text through other classes outside of English.
In college though, I do remember reading “The Tortilla Curtain,” it is about the insensitive tendency that the upper-class may have towards the lower class. The characters directly clash with one another and in the end the lower-class man ends up saving the upper-class man’s life. So the book is very enriching and gives a multi-perspective scenario. It is definitely a book that I would recommend anyone to read due to the creative adventures, perspectives, and meaningfulness that the characters relational aggression and compassion reach in the end.
Other books I have read stem from a biological background, at one point I was a biology major so I can talk a lot about germs and diseases. A book that I read out of class was “The Greatest Show on Earth,” by Richard Dawkins. Dawkins has received a lot of criticism because he is not afraid of criticizing others.
Rather than poke fun at creationists, his work should primarily involve his argument rather, that evolution exists. I do not believe Darwin is specifically making an attack towards creationists, but rather explaining that a little open minded-ness would benefit a person that lacks a strong biological background in order to openly learn and understand evolution. It is a one minded perspective, but still makes for a good read once he gets past the controversial topic he delves into detail about artificial selection and how evolution works.
Works Cited
- Deborah Brandt. College Composition and Communication. Vol. 49, No. 2 (May, 1998), pp. 165-185
- Dr. Sues. The Cat in the Hat. Theodor Geisel. (1957). P. 1-14. http://www.mfwi.edu/MFWI/Recordings/cat%20in%20the%20hat.pdf.
- Joyce Cooper Arkhurst. Jerry Pinkney. How Spider Got a Thin Waist. Little, Brown Books for Young Readers; Reissue edition (November 2, 1992) P. 291-293. http://foothillenglish8.pbworks.com/f/How+Spider+Got+a+Thin+Waist.pdf.
- Murray, Donald M.. “All Writing Is Autobiography.” College Composition and Communication. 42.1 (1991): 66-74. Jstor. Web. 29 May 2015. http://www.jstor.org/stable/357540
