Artemis, Barthes

 In Barthes' passage, The Pleasure of the Text, they write about the pleasure of reading a text and how that experience changes depending on how we read it. They describe the process as follows, "Tmesis, source or figure of pleasure, here confronts two prosaic edges with one another; it sets what is useful to a knowledge of the secret against what is useless to such knowledge; ... the author cannot predict tmesis; he cannot choose to write what will not be read. And yet it is the rhythm of what is read and what is not read that creates the pleasure of the great narratives..." (pg. 108-109) I found this part of the reading striking because it gave voice to my experience as a reader. I recall re-reading passages from long research reports begging my brain to focus and pick up on what I was reading, I struggled so much I'd eventually move past the text and on to the next paragraph or subheading to try and freshen up my experience. 

I always felt guilty about these actions, guilt towards the author for not honoring their work in its complete form, and to my professor who assigned the reading deeming the knowledge important and useful. Barthes' explanation of tmesis, without meaning to, made me realize how commonplace that practice of reading is and how it impacts the way we interact and experience that text. I've taken note that while a text can have difficult, challenging, or even boring parts that we sometimes skip when we call more attention to the parts that bring us pleasure we are drawing more from the topics and understanding the text in a new light with every re-read. Taking research reports again, for example, I always read them over at least twice and always come away understanding the text better not only because I am familiarizing myself with the content but because I allowed myself to experience it two different ways and used both/all collective interactions form my full understanding.