Post #1

     The introduction of How to Read World Literature was very dull. The author talks about keeping a happy medium of what to expect when reading literature beyond one's cultural experience and being open-minded. The theme for everything in moderation continues throughout the introduction and most of the other chapters. Chapter 1 just explains that literature can come in many different forms and people have expanded from just written to oral works. The ending of chapter 1 ties in well with chapter 2 in giving information on how oral narrations become written works and the development of the worlds first languages. The author reminds the reader to attempt to put themselves in the shoes of someone who is living in the time periods in which the literature was written, but to be reserved at the same time.
     Chapter 3 deals more with the cultural differences and how that is reflected in the writings of early authors. There are also similarities in these literature works that are pointed out such as the reoccurence of tragic flaws in many characters. Chapter 4 talks about the difficult choices translators of literature must face in how they should translate from language to language. Some languages of words for certain actions, emotions, or objects that others do not and the beauty of a poem can be lost.  This leaves the translator with the choice of either changing the word, adding a footnote, or coming up with a creative way to convey the same meaning as the original author intended. Even then different translators may come up with totally different solutions to these problems leading to hopefully minute differences in each translation. Either way the main message of this reading is to approach each piece of world literature with caution and an open-mind.