Question

Describe a situation in which you read something that had a particular context that was unfamiliar to you. Did you struggle to make sense of it? Did you need to get more information to ease your reading experience? One situation might be a book, a story, or an article that you had difficulty understanding because you didn't have some prior knowledge—historical, cultural, or technical. Another situation is a time when a text inspired you to gather information on a new topic.

As you describe and discuss the significance of context, consider these questions: Do certain genres of fiction often present more challenges in terms of unfamiliar context than others, and why? How much responsibility do you think writers should take to make their writing comprehensible to a broad group of readers? How much should readers have to fill in any gaps? Are such gaps inevitable when the writer wrote the text many years before the time of reading? If so, why, and in what time periods does this seem to be true?

Answer 1

At first when reading the book The Expanse, I was very unfamiliar with a lot of theoretical space technology and other terms that were normal to many science fiction fans. I did struggle for a while and I had to make researches to understand a few things.

It was a struggle at first, but mostly because I had no prior knowledge to many things that might be considered normal to more educated people or people who are more familiarized with technology in many ways.

The responsibility of the writers is to provide enough for their stories to be understood, I supposed. That being said, many writers will not give all information for any sort of person to understand, but enough for the person reading to understand the things that can't be found anywhere but in the book. And it's most likely just fine.

Readers are supposed to fill the gaps of broad descriptions. Specially of scenarios and characters. Those, though, rarely make any difference.

Answer 2

I was reading a novel entitled "Shining" by Stephen King. The first few chapters were quite difficult to understand because the characters and settings were introduced. I had to flip the pages back and forth in order to remember the names and incidents. Every now and then, I would consult the Google when some unfamiliar words and terms were mentioned.

Historical and cultural fiction usually pose more challenges in terms of unfamiliar context. Writers should consider their intended readers each time they write. A little challenge will be good enough to put value and mystery to the work of fiction. Since most readers are able to read with comprehension, some elements of vocabulary difficulty that is uniquely used in the plot would be necessary to keep the readers hooked and guessing for the next event or revelation. It is indeed inevitable to have such gaps especially when fiction has been written in the early times. One particular stage would be during the English Renaissance Period, such as the works of William Shakespeare. In order to understand his plays, a look into this time and era would be necessary.