World is a Text 1-21

I cannot lie when I say this chapter was boring and difficult just to finish. However it does offer some very interesting points. From the beginning you can tell that this book is trying to develop the readers reading skills. It wants to teach the reader that books and stories are not the only objects that can be read, but anything that we encounter throughout our daily lives can have some kind of meaning. In addition the book also wants the reader to develop a deeper and more critical thought process on objects. Instead of reading an object and understanding its simple meaning the book tries teaching how that object can relate to a bigger picture such as the world. Furthermore we may not realize it but we do a lot more reading than we realize each day. When we watch television, listen to a song, or view other people we usually attach some meaning to it and during the process did not even recognize we were reading it.

The one subject I am able to relate to is "The Semiotic Situation"(Or the Moving Text) which is when we try to make sense of our surroundings. When I was in high school I played basketball for the school team and as one of the shorter and faster guys on the team I played the position of point guard. As the point guard it was my responsibility to run the offense and call the plays on each possession. However if I was going to call the plays that would work I had to know how the opposing defense was playing our team and I did this my reading the players on the other team. I had to know if the defense was in man or zone and if it was zone what kind of zone it was. I can still remember my coach yelling at me that making the right call, finding open guys and generating points laid completely on my shoulders by the success or failure I had reading the opposing defense.