"the world’s second most famous person named Swift" made me wonder whether more people would say Jane or Powers if asked to name a famous Austen (Austin). I'm a big fan of both.
If not restricted to a person…Also, i’ve finished! All credit to you for encouraging me to read Emma. I interrupted Custom of the Country and am now back to that. Both about wealth and marriage with very different heroines.
So great to get students to be aware and document the process of ways of reading. A wonderful lesson in meta cognition! I really like the way you structure it in terms of a progression, John.
I have something unusual to say about Austen on the 27th and the 29th. Hope you'll take a loo, dear friend. In the meantime, so worthy you are of a restack: will do!
This is fascinating . And a little shocking , although , really, I’m almost pearl clutching when I say that. I know that deep reading has nearly vanished. I see it partly in what friends and family ‘read’ for book clubs. It is all , to me, pretty superficial stuff that they can chat about without really thinking very much. None of them connected Demon Copperhead with David Copperfield , partly because most of them had no experience with the latter. (I admit I haven’t read it either, but the borrowing was still exceedingly clear to me.)
And, devourer of books that I still am, I too find it harder to concentrate on them . The internet is always calling to me and I have no wax to stop my ears.
So, I applaud your efforts. I think letting your students explain how hard it was, and hoping to nudge them along is a most worthy thing.
I might be tempted to make a point about Emma’s lack of appeal. (I disliked her from the start, in part because she was exactly the girls that loathed and ignored me.) And that a point is that it is okay to dislike the main character. There are no end of new tv shows and movies with primary characters that are terrible. But, because the viewer wants to know what happens, they watch. The same can be true of Emma. Do your students want to see her suffer? Do they want to see her learn? Do they want to see exactly how her plans blow up?
You are right that the tide of the internet is affecting all of us and our attention spans, even those of us who are voracious readers. It was really my realization that my own attention span had degraded that I formulated this assignment. When I understood that I rarely had the kinds of intense reading experiences that I had when I was younger, I decided that I needed to do something about it.
One common complaint I heard in college was “I am forced to do so much dull reading (textbooks, specifically) that I’m burned out before I can even think of reading for pleasure”
I didn’t have this problem because reading is the thing I love most. But unless you are equally over-the-moon about reading, I understand why reading for pleasure at college doesn’t make a lot of sense to people. Their cup is already overflowing.
The sad thing is—those people graduate and then never give it another shot.
Yes, I think you're spot on. Furthermore, there is a division in how people view the college experience: as primarily a process of growth as an intellectual person, or as primarily vocational. In recent years, admin has increasingly stressed the latter at the expense of the former. The thing is, I don't think that these goals need be mutually exclusive, but for them to exist in harmony, we need to reimagine and articulate the reasons why the humanities are important, not only for the English majors, but for everyone.
"the world’s second most famous person named Swift" made me wonder whether more people would say Jane or Powers if asked to name a famous Austen (Austin). I'm a big fan of both.
Or Texas?
If not restricted to a person…Also, i’ve finished! All credit to you for encouraging me to read Emma. I interrupted Custom of the Country and am now back to that. Both about wealth and marriage with very different heroines.
Great--so glad you read it. I'll have the final chapter-by-chapter post up in the next couple of days.
So great to get students to be aware and document the process of ways of reading. A wonderful lesson in meta cognition! I really like the way you structure it in terms of a progression, John.
Thanks, Kate. I hope that others try it. I think it's been pretty successful.
I have something unusual to say about Austen on the 27th and the 29th. Hope you'll take a loo, dear friend. In the meantime, so worthy you are of a restack: will do!
Thanks, Mary! Will look forward to your piece.
This is fascinating . And a little shocking , although , really, I’m almost pearl clutching when I say that. I know that deep reading has nearly vanished. I see it partly in what friends and family ‘read’ for book clubs. It is all , to me, pretty superficial stuff that they can chat about without really thinking very much. None of them connected Demon Copperhead with David Copperfield , partly because most of them had no experience with the latter. (I admit I haven’t read it either, but the borrowing was still exceedingly clear to me.)
And, devourer of books that I still am, I too find it harder to concentrate on them . The internet is always calling to me and I have no wax to stop my ears.
So, I applaud your efforts. I think letting your students explain how hard it was, and hoping to nudge them along is a most worthy thing.
I might be tempted to make a point about Emma’s lack of appeal. (I disliked her from the start, in part because she was exactly the girls that loathed and ignored me.) And that a point is that it is okay to dislike the main character. There are no end of new tv shows and movies with primary characters that are terrible. But, because the viewer wants to know what happens, they watch. The same can be true of Emma. Do your students want to see her suffer? Do they want to see her learn? Do they want to see exactly how her plans blow up?
You are right that the tide of the internet is affecting all of us and our attention spans, even those of us who are voracious readers. It was really my realization that my own attention span had degraded that I formulated this assignment. When I understood that I rarely had the kinds of intense reading experiences that I had when I was younger, I decided that I needed to do something about it.
Lovely! Yoyr students are lucky!
Thanks! Please come and tell them that ;)
One common complaint I heard in college was “I am forced to do so much dull reading (textbooks, specifically) that I’m burned out before I can even think of reading for pleasure”
I didn’t have this problem because reading is the thing I love most. But unless you are equally over-the-moon about reading, I understand why reading for pleasure at college doesn’t make a lot of sense to people. Their cup is already overflowing.
The sad thing is—those people graduate and then never give it another shot.
Yes, I think you're spot on. Furthermore, there is a division in how people view the college experience: as primarily a process of growth as an intellectual person, or as primarily vocational. In recent years, admin has increasingly stressed the latter at the expense of the former. The thing is, I don't think that these goals need be mutually exclusive, but for them to exist in harmony, we need to reimagine and articulate the reasons why the humanities are important, not only for the English majors, but for everyone.
That’s a good point. Students have to seek out their own humanities education via minors if their major doesn’t provide it.
I wonder too if the increased price of college is contributing to a “get in get out” mentality.
If a class doesn’t directly impact your career potential, it’s an high cost for intellectual horizon broadening.
I loved my time in college (especially the extra creative writing classes I added on); I hope it gets better!