LightningBolt, 1/22

Today in class we discussed the concept of tmesis. I have never heard of this concept by name before. I think that people can be prone to different amounts of tmesis, meaning that some people are able to read through a text and perceive it as a “readerly text”. Their mind will not wonder or exaggerate the reading. While other people, like myself, are not able to read any thing without it triggering another thought and your brain runs with that thought. I feel that everything I read is a “writerly text”. I find my imagination running and making things up all the time. I could look at a grocery list, see the word butter and my mind will wonder back to when I was little and would sneak into the refrigerator to eat sticks of butter. When there is a simple sentence with what to most people seems to be a fairly obvious meaning I will find myself finding alternative meanings and subconsciously convincing myself that is what the author meant.

There is no doubt to me that people are prone to different amounts of tmesis but I am not sure why. Is it nature or nurture? I think that it may be more nature. Every ones brains must differ in some ways when we are born and some people must be more prone to elaborating and creating stories. I could also see how it could come from nurture. As a young child if one kids parents always had them doing creative activities and telling them they were correct every time they read the meaning of a text “the wrong way,” wile another child’s parents raised them with no creative activities. Perhaps had them do a lot of math facts? At times I like being prone to tmesis but it is also frustrating at times when I am trying to concentrate on a reading and find myself creating elaborate stories about the gaps.