[quartesixte]

I have read a lot. And contemplative re-reading certain passages or re-watching scenes truly does activate further analysis. For your mind no longer has to decode the surface layer and then has time to search for other patterns.

The more you read or watch the faster this becomes.

The neat part is when you can do a double or even triple reading near instantaneously. It’s a little trickier for films, but still possible. I believe this is how your friends who are really good at just breaking down meaning on first watch are doing it —- they have gained media literacy skills that let them take in scenes in a blink of an eye.

Practice your memory, and you can also hold past scenes in your head as new scenes come up. New connections made there too.

Once I get started on a piece of fiction, I don’t exactly see the text anymore either — my brain starts constructing a sort of movie/diorama in my head and every subsequent sentence builds it more and more. Makes reading fiction great and emotional/symbolic analysis great but funnily enough makes me a weak analyst of the language and craft itself. Made my years in undergrad ironically challenging.