Prompt 3


A textual connection is very important in literature. It can add to a story by making similarities that the readers will presumably understand. Intertextuality enhances the reading experience by introducing another piece of literature to tie it to “one big story.” This technique is definitely intentional; the author wants the reader to see the connections and create a great understanding of them. Intertextuality includes symbols as well; symbols create ties with other pieces of literature to add the extra piece in the story making it greater and more significant. It creates significance and value by forming a type of alignment to the “one big story.” Not only is it present in literature, but it is also highly present in the real world in religion. One of my closest friends had an interesting conversation with me recently about this and explained what he discovered about various faiths and their relation to each other and paganism and everything on a much deeper level. Each and every religion has at least one aspect from another; they all have many characteristics that date back to the earliest forms of religion which tie straight into astrology. For a quick example, each of Jesus’ disciples represents each of the twelve constellations of the zodiac. Throughout the entirety of the Bible, there are references and subtle hints at astrology and pagan ideas and beliefs such as the instance where Jesus states he is the beginning of the Pisces age. So, in real life, everything is traced back to paganism and astrology.

Comments

  1. Jobe FegusonJuly 31, 2017 at 11:24 AM

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  2. Jobe FegusonJuly 31, 2017 at 11:39 AM

    I agree that a textual connection is important in literature, it establishes the ability for the reader to further understand what they are reading and develop their own thoughts and perspective on the topic at hand. However I perceive the technique used by the author as less intentional and more unavoidable being that connections are to be made regardless. It is just a matter of what connections and how the reader decides to view them. Also, your example is very interesting and correlates with your point extremely well. Its nice to see how this occurred even during the older ages and see this in something as historically influential as the bible.

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  3. UnknownJuly 31, 2017 at 6:32 PM

    Christianity has a vast number of connections to paganism. In ancient Christian tradition, Jesus died on March 23rd and was ressurected on March 25th. Those dates line up with a pagan figure named Attis who died and was ressurected. People who followed Mithraism and early Christians were typically baptized in March and April. They both were also baptized in the nude and then aftetwards put on a crown and white clothes. Mithraism is connected to Christianity and the Bible in many ways. There were even Mithras and Christians who insisted both groups must be worshiping the same god because of the numerous textual connections in their holy tects and the similar ways they worshipped.

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  4. UnknownJuly 31, 2017 at 8:42 PM

    I agree with the importance of textual connection as presented in this post. The analogy used to deeper explain textual connection was pure brilliant. The analogy not only was a clear example of textual connection but a great example of how it used on a daily bases. Textual connection does get a person thinking so they see that bigger picture like you mentioned. I do agree that textual connection is sometimes intentional but not always. Sometimes it just happens unintentionally because of the way the author wrote it and because every book has some sort of textual connection to it. Textual connection is just something that goes along with a book and helps readers to better understand the point and see things in their own way.

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  5. UnknownAugust 1, 2017 at 8:12 PM

    I agree with your idea on how textual connections are usually intentional, yet I also feel that in some cases, textual connection can happen unintentionally. I also found your example to be highly interesting because I had never thought about how different religions had similarities. When you said that everything could be tied back to paganism and astrology, I was skeptical at first. However, I reread what you had written and realized that there were some references to pagan ideas in the Bible that didn't seem as obvious when I had read them. I suppose that's the whole point of these types of references though, making them so that you can't catch on unless you are looking for them specifically.

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