The topic of discussion this week is the idea of “text”. Before this week’s reading, I limited my understanding of “text” to just words I read on paper or online. Doug Eyman helped me understand this concept of “text” and allowed me to apply it to my own life.
Understand Text
“Text” is how we interpret or read “an object, collection of objects, or contexts” (Eyman pg. 21). Having acquired this new understanding of the word text, allowed me to realize I am constantly reading texts.
As someone who enjoys people-watching, I realized that I am constantly reading people. I saw a man today who was wearing bright orange pants and a green New York Jets sweatshirt. He stuck out to me and from just his outfit I could infer two things. One is that he is a fan of football because he had a New York Jets logo on. Two is that he was unbothered by wearing clashing colors. By reading about this man’s appearance I can infer or assume things about him based on my prior knowledge. My understanding is that we read people based on their appearance, actions, and even the way they speak.
A quote from Digital Rhetoric: Theory, Method, Practice by Doug Eyman that got me thinking was:
“text is not merely constituted of meaningful symbols but is “the result of social action,” which means that literacy “is always seen as a matter of social action and social forces, and all aspects of literacy are seen as deriving from these actions and forces” (Eyman pg. 22).
The phrase “social action” brought me to the topic of fandom. Being involved in a fandom made me realize that text literacy plays a huge role in fan culture.
Text Literacy in Fan Culture
The first thought that came to my head when reading the quote above was the Harry Styles fandom. This is a community I have been an active member of for years. I would even go as far as saying that I am literate in all things Harry Styles. Crazy, I know. It is almost like we speak a different language that only this fandom can understand.
For example, just the other day I noticed a girl had a tattoo of two bunnies. The bunnies are a symbol from his previous tour. I was able to read this and understand the meaning of this tattoo because I am a fellow fan. But to someone who did not know that information, it would hold no meaning. The text In this instance would be the objects that Harry Styles uses for his brand. People who share this common interest are literate in understanding these symbols.
It is hard to go into depth about how intricate these objects and symbols can get. I could spend hours writing about how many different ways I could relate the Harry Styles fandom to understanding texts. This idea is that one object can hold a different meaning for different groups of people depending on how it is read. Someone might interpret an object and make assumptions based on how they interpret that text.
Leave a Reply