Themes

What is a comment?

We explain what a comment is and the types of comments that exist. Also, how is a literary comment and an example.

  1. What is a comment?

A comment is an assessment made orally or in writing of an object analyzed , issuing an assessment judgment, which is not the same as an opinion. For example, a commentary on a text , a practice that is often carried out in the school environment, almost always consists of writing a new text in which you realize what elements of the original text were read, in what way and because. It is therefore a comprehensive analysis or an informed presentation.

Anyone who makes a comment is known as a  commentator , and he is expected to know enough about the subject of which he runs to be able to make informed judgments, with demonstrations, arguments and substantiated support. There, too, what distinguishes a comment from a mere opinion or a totally subjective approach.

There are various types of comments, usually classified based on your specific area of ​​knowledge or how you approach the subject matter analyzed. Thus, we can talk about:

  • Critical comments . Those who approach an object or situation from an analytical, comprehensive point of view, as part of a much larger general exposition.
  • Philological comments . Those who approach the object by putting it in relation to a literate tradition or certain written or bibliographic knowledge.
  • Bible commentaries . Those that are realized outside the reading of  the Bible , sacred text of the western Judeo-Christian tradition.
  • Historical comments . Those who address a period of human history and provide context for their understanding.
  • Literary comments . Those that are made around a literary or artistic work, addressing it from an interpretative, subjective, poetic point of view, but based on the workmanship.
  1. Literary commentary

Commentary
A literary commentary is based on what has been read and is therefore demonstrable.

Literary comments are distinguished from analyzes or philological comments in that they approach literary work as a closed universe in itself , and work only with the elements found there and with the reverberation they generate in the reader and commentator. That is to say: it is a personal reading of the work, which is based on what has been read and therefore is demonstrable, has foundations, is not an entirely free opinion or interpretation.

To make a literary comment the following scheme of steps must be followed:

  • Read the literary work thoroughly, writing down the passages that are significant or copying phrases and marking the places to which you would like to return later.
  • Go back to what was read, extracting the quotes that coincide with the marks made, and read them in the order of some idea or speech that they suggest: some content that we suspect is hidden in the work, some key concept that is articulated in it, etc.
  • Write your own comment in which we say what that content or concept is and in which parts of the work we can search for it, check it, etc. This text must be accompanied by the transcription of the citations previously extracted and must have all the bibliographic information so that someone who reads it later, can search for the work and verify that what we write about it is true.
  1. Comment example

Here is an example comment:

Commentary on the film  Avengers :  Infinity War . 

The blockbuster of this superhero movie produced by Marvel Studios and appeared in theaters in 2018, reveals many interesting aspects of the present moment of Western culture, which may be summarized in the antagonist of the story, an extraterrestrial entity called Thanos .

His name already reveals his affiliations with the Greek word for death:  thanatos , which is convenient when explaining his project for the Universe, which is the eradication of half of the living beings it houses. This is motivated by the paradoxical desire to preserve life as a whole: for Thanos, we are too many inhabitants of the Universe and we are depleting resources too quickly, so drastic measures must be taken to ensure that we do not extinguish ourselves. same.

What lies behind this approach points to certain important political considerations, which seem to be very much in vogue in the security doctrines of countries like the United States, whose government allied with unscrupulous computer companies such as Facebook to spy on their own citizens and keep them under surveillance. .

I mean that people must be saved from themselves, must be protected from their own desires and ways of life, and often this must be done through drastic resources. Isn’t that what the American Patriot Act entails, which gives the government the power to violate rights and go above all in order to defend the continuity of the  American  Way  of  Life ?

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