Essay On De Certeau's Reading As Poaching

De Certeau wrote “Reading as Poaching” in The Practice of Everyday Life from a slightly different point of view than Neil Postman’s Amusing Ourselves to Death. Neil Postman believes that the media has a negative effect on society, causing people to become like what they see. De Certeau, on the other hand, believes that when someone interprets the media, they find certain pieces that resonate with them more than the rest because those pieces include advice or information that the person needed at that time. Though these pieces of information are what resonate with the reader, there is still an inherent pull to go for the “literal” meaning. De Certeau implies that school makes education irrelevant because students focus on their instructor’s idea of correctness rather than their own ideas. …show more content…
Students are primarily taught to know the facts, and the students believe that the teacher knows the facts. It is “hammered” into students’ brains that their grades are more important than their actual education. Hence, they try to find the most “literal” meaning of a work. Overall, there are three possible ways of thinking about a piece of literature. There is the intended meaning created by the author, the meaning interpreted by the reader, and finally, the one interpreted by a person in a position of authority (de Certeau 171). The latter is what is known as the “literal meaning.” Because this person is in a position of authority, the reader perceives that interpretation to be the “correct” one and tries to convince his/herself that is what they believe. Although this is still not what they truly believe, they deem it to be more important than their own