Close reading as forestry
Close reading as forestry
“IF / we will define CLOSE (adj.) as synonymous with STRICT, RIGOROUS, INTIMATE, and FAMILIAR / AND IF / for our purposes READING (v.) is A COMPLEX COGNITIVE PROCESS OF DECODING SYMBOLS IN ORDER TO CONSTRUCT OR DERIVE MEANING / (AND IF we will add VERY PRECISE AND ATTENTIVE TO DETAILS to our collective definition) / … AND IF a FOREST (n.) is understood to be A COMMUNITY OF TREES … / AND IF / FORESTRY (n.) is the science of developing, caring for, or cultivating FORESTS / AND IF / Writing is, after all, an act of language, its practice. But first of all it is an effort of the will to discover. / AND / I am an emerging and gifted writer / AND / I am wounded yet persistent reader / AND IF / early on in the getting to know upon witnessing my autobiographical completist’s anxiety about reading texts and books in general a PhD candidate and experienced teacher of writing asked me What is your relationship to Mastery? / THEN / in this forest and in this way I will read and no other." (Bellandona* Collaborative).