Welcome back! To this point, I had been trying to chart a natural progression of books that had affected me by starting with the books I had read a long time ago and working my way through my life in a chronological fashion. This week, however, I wanted to skip forward in time to a book that I’ve been planning on talking about for a while: Invisible Man. Keep in mind that the books I had read last week were from when I was in 6th/7th grade, and this book skips ahead to 11th grade, so I’m making a bit of a leap. But I know I was going to talk about this book at some point so now is the perfect time.
When I think back on the time in my life when I read this book, I shudder. Why, you may ask? Well, if you look at the title of this post and are in any way familiar with AP Lit, it becomes pretty clear. In addition to reading the book, my teacher asked the class to annotate the book. So I annotated the book… thoroughly. Perhaps a little too thorough.
All I remember from this time period is that whenever I had free time, I was most likely annotating this book. Car ride? I was annotating. Time between classes? I was annotating. Weekends? Who are we kidding, of course I was annotating then (one time I spent 10 hours on a weekend annotating 100 pages of the book). It was not a fun time. It didn’t help that I found the book to be boring. After all, it mostly depicts the events of one man’s life (which, I would say, wasn’t particularly extraordinary). Yet, I had to pour over the pages and read between the lines so that I could find something, anything to say about the events and themes that were playing out over the pages.
Eventually, I achieved the impossible: I finished. 500 pages finally and completely annotated. And then something strange happened. As part of the final projects for the book, we had to analyze a passage from the book and we had to write an essay. As I compiled the analysis and essay, I realized that I kind of liked re-analyzing the book. Not only that, but as I revisited the annotations, I realized how helpful and insightful they were. Finally, it occurred to me that, in the majority of my annotations, I wasn’t grasping for straws – I was legitimately analyzing the author’s purpose. Furthermore, the annotations helped me see how purposeful the author was in writing each passage and choosing each word. And… I began to appreciate the book.
While dreadful and something I never want to repeat, my annotations showed me how saturated Invisible Man was with meaning and commentary. Looking back, I realize that it is probably the most/ one of the most profound works of fiction that I have ever read. It became clear to me the genius of Ralph Ellison (the book’s author) and it gave me a new appreciation for the craft of authorship. It showed me how each word in a novel added up to something spectacular, and that sometimes the little things in literature supersede the big things (like plot).
I didn’t bring many books with me to State College as I moved in. But I did bring Invisible Man, to both admire the work I put into annotating the book cover to cover and to give the book the respect it deserves as a literary masterpiece.
Not going to lie that just sounds awful. Annotating 500 pages like ew gross. I think that says a lot about my work ethic though so I’ll work on that. Enough of me, though. Congratulations for making it through the entirety of that book in such a thorough fashion; I can see why you had to do homework on the bus now.
I do want to start annotating, however. What you said about how it compiles into a deeper analysis and understanding of the literature really struck a chord with me. Too often I fail to appreciate the ingenuity of authors when I am reading a book, and I do think if I incorporate annotating that I may find more meaning to the words on the page. Also, annotating creates the ability for the reader to almost talk with the author and find conversation in the story. This is a theme seen in the philosophy of education: it’s better to learn through conversation rather than just being fed information.
Wow. I didn’t have to read the invisible man in lit, but I also didn’t have to annotate any full books. I genuinely feel bad that you had to do that. I understand completely what you are saying about the value of annotation. I feel like that is something they were stressing to us in those AP classes, I just can’t believe you annotated an entire novel. I greatly respect the fact that you managed to get all the way through that. I’ve never spent anything beyond an hour or two annotating, so for you to have spent 10 hours straight annotating, and just on 100 pages, is thoroughly impressive. I can hardly imagine how detailed the annotations are. I think that’s an interesting thing you said about little things superseding big things like the plot. I’d never really thought of that before, but I do think there are a few books where I hated the story but somehow still liked the book. Catcher in the Rye comes to mind. I was frustrated by Holden’s teen angst, and couldn’t relate much to his story, but at the same time I loved the book. Hated the story, but felt very bad for Holden and strongly sympathized with his character. Thanks for sharing!
Thank you for sharing this — I worry, sometimes, that annotation is becoming a lost art and skill…and it is so important to have that interplay of meaning and context between the reader and the text.