Why Read?
Nowadays, I often find myself asking: “Why do I read? Why do I choose to sit down in silence and experience stories of people who aren’t even real or at least are distant enough to have minimal impact on my life, if at all.” A year ago, I’m sure I wouldn’t have had much difficulty answering it; something on the lines of: “I guess I enjoy immersing myself in a different world, all in the comfort of my imagination, far away from my reality.” I say ‘my’ reality because it didn’t matter if the story was a jolly fantastical adventure or a heartrending saga; it was a healthy form of personal escapism. But as I read more about literary theory, and started looking at a piece of literature as a product of the complexities of human societies and the world around them, more has changed than I initially expected. I find myself reading the same lines of the book very differently. I can’t help but to stop and ask questions like: “Wait, whose’s perspective is this? Is the narrator reliable? Should I take the words at face value, or is it a metaphor? Why does the author use this particular word? Is this paradoxical situation intentional, and if so, what does it mean?” To be honest, this has been a mixed experience. I strongly feel that looking at these stories in a more critical fashion has made me better at appreciating their true value as a form of artistic expression and helped me connect my experiences to the narrative, bringing a different sort of enjoyment to the table. But at the same time, I now realize that even fantasy and fiction can escape the good, bad and mundane aspects of reality, making it harder for me to do the same.
Rishika Mohanta
Rishika (She/her) identifies as a pan-romantic trans woman and is an active researcher in the field of neuroscience and a student at IISER Pune. She is an aspiring queer/trans activist and an intersectional feminist. Find out more about her on Twitter @NeuroRishika.