Disliking Books Summary

The journey that has brought me to this class has been dependent on my academic drive. I am currently a dual enrollment student and this class is one of many steps along the path to receiving an AA degree. I am taking advantage of the opportunities that dual enrollment offers and furthering my understanding of literature with this course.

In the article, “Why Literature Matters,” Dana Gioia predominantly focuses on the use of logos, logical fact-based evidence and stimulating, emotional-based language to entice the audience. Gioia elaborates on the theme of correlation between young adult Americans and the decline of literature in this age group. He continues his argument with the consequences with the decline of literature in the lives of these Americans.

In the essay, Disliking Books at an Early Age, Gerald Graff talks about his transition from being displeased and uninterested in literature, to having intellectual discussions about it and even teaching it. He did not begin to enjoy reading until he had discussions about the books that he read, which showed him a different perspective. Overall, his essay explains how readers can only enjoy literature if they turn it into a social activity by freely interpreting and discussing the pieces they have read.

In his article “Hidden Intellectualism,” Gerald Graff writes about how “schools and colleges are missing an opportunity when they do not encourage students to take their nonacademic interests as objects of academic study” (par. 18). In is work Graff describes the ways school associate the “street” topics as unintellectual. Graff goes to show how a healthy balance of studying both “book” and “street” topics in school is a healthy way to learn. Graff then talks about his childhood and how Graff came to be a professor of English and education of the University of Illinois. Graff then goes back to say, like in the beginning, that schools need to encourage the students to use their hobbies as academic study. With all of this, Graff successfully portrayed his main idea throughout his article.

Disliking Books is about the author Gerald Graff, and how he grows up really hating the idea of reading in general. He uses his fear of being bullied as his preliminary excuse for not reading when he was younger. When he gets older and goes to college, he uses his fear of failing as a way to force himself into reading the required material and homework for his English major. Even then he can’t quite relate to the texts and can’t fully engage in reading. Then, when he takes a class in his junior year he starts to learn about the interesting controversy involving The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. The controversy states that the book really ends when the boys steal Jim, not when everyone realizes that Jim has already been freed.

Gerald Graff’s article, “Disliking Books” and Richard Rodriguez’s “Scholarship Boy” are similar and yet different in many ways. The two articles describe the journey of two boys from different backgrounds through various stages in their education.

Disliking Books By Gerald Graff is about the authors own aversions, starting as a young boy, who grew up simply disliking reading books, for both academic and leisure purposes. Growing up in his neighborhood, it was highly disregarded for a boy to enjoy reading; they were looked at as “sissies” and had the potential to have been beaten up. He maintained this ideology all the way into his college career, where ironically, he majored in English. Although by this point he replaced his fear of being beaten up with the fear of failing his college courses, he was able to squeak by with doing his homework at the mare minimum. He felt as though he wasn’t able to quite relate, much less, enjoy the text. It wasn’t until his junior year he was

He states that he never really liked books, besides sports readings, until he entered college. By using his own life example that he himself did not even like to read, Graff is showing that you can read and be academic without even realizing it. Like many other young boys, Graff was subjected to social pressures as a youth that made him think of reading and school as undesirable. Graff asserts that most people, like himself, do not realize that they do like reading to learn. It was not until later in his life that Graff realized that the reading he used to do as a kid was, “. . . not anti-intellectualism but intellectualism by other means” (260). In the era in which he grew up, Graff states that there was a large emphasis on being a physically tough person and not much emphasis was placed on academics. The most popular boys were the toughest and being tough was really the only way to gain street cred, according to Graff. He goes on to explain that it would seem that nobody grew up with a less intellectual background as him. Although this may appear true, Graff shows how the debate and analysis of sports teams, tough boys, cars and other subjects of young men were actually the foundations of his academic progress. In these years, Graff explains that in these days he learned the fundamentals of the academic world including forming and developing arguments, weigh evidence and jumping into conversations. He goes on to say, “Only later did it dawn on me that the sports world was more compelling than school because it was more intellectual than school, not less” (270). Graff goes on to explain how sports was full of, “. . . challenging arguments, debates, problems for analysis and intricate stats you could care about” (271). From here, Graff goes on to say that schools are far less appealing and intellectual than sports because sports satisfy us in a way school studies

He builds his credibility and trust by stating his own credentials by sharing his personal background in writing. He is “a professor of English and Education at the University of Illinois at Chicago and the 2008 president of the Modern Language Association of America, has had a major impact on teachers through such books as professing Literature” (323). Graff then shifts to talk about how in the 1950s having intellect meant you were looked at differently, by discussing that intellectualism is often looked down upon and is labeled as being nerdy or geeky. However, there are cases where the “geek” gets the girl. For example, “Marilyn Monroe married the playwright Arthur Miller in 1965 after divorcing the retired baseball star Joe DiMaggio” (247). For the sake of not being the target of bullying Graff suppressed the intellect side of him to fit in, but on the other hand, it is okay to be intelligent and Arthur Miller helps Graff see that geeks can triumph jocks. Then, Graff uses George Orwell as an example of a notable writer that should be read. “Students do need to read models of intellectually challenging writing-and Orwell are a great one-if they are to become intellectuals themselves” (245). Graff claims that George Orwell’s writings are more enjoyable to the students rather then the works of a professor’s choice like Shakespeare.

Dana Gioia claims that the decline of reading in america will have a negative effect on society. Gioia uses studies and facts to appeal to her audiences logical and emotional sides. By adding these studies, Gioia strengthens her claim and makes her audience worry for the future society of America. Throughout the essay, Dana Gioia uses surveys, studies, and facts to draw her audience's attention to the issue at hand.

In Gerald Graff’s “Disliking Books”, he grows up as a Jew going to school in Chicago where he has to read a textbook for each class, containing hundreds of boring pages about stuff that could not possibly catch the eye of anyone walking by. Later on he still only reads magazines, comics, and sports novels. His father brings home many different books to try and get him to begin liking to read, but none of the topics interested him.

English Literature has enabled me to expand my capacity for independent thought, reflection and judgement through constantly reviewing and redrafting my coursework intensely. Studying “The Great Gatsby” allowed me to formulate my own view about the novel and about how 1920s America, optimism of the Roaring Twenties, and the period of The Jazz Age dissolved into the bleakness of the Great Depression. This has also allowed me to be more aware of my quality of work and time management, and has enabled me to broaden my vocabulary and ability to use critical terminology

Everyone has something that gets on their nerves. Personally, one of my pet peeves is when I am reading a book or going to watch a movie and someone spoils the ending. For example, I was at art club and the movie Big Hero 6 was in the box office. Three of my friends and I hadn’t watched the movie, but my other friend had. We were talking about the movie and BAM; we were told the ending of the movie. I also despise it when I am reading a book and I keep on wondering what will happen next. Then, someone sees you and tells you, “I love that book, especially when……” and they tell you what happens at the end. In addition, I get annoyed when people read the first sentence or first chapter in a book and decide it’s not worth reading. For example,

While containing very and somewhat effective forms of logical and emotional appeal throughout the text, Pearlstein unfortunately lacks to present effective ethical appeals to further his credibility on the subject of advancing liberal arts in popularity and the benefits of such. One of the most evident and disappointing manners in which Pearlstein declines in credibility is in the choice of title for this work. The title being, “Meet the parents who won't let their children study literature,” which would imply that at several times in the text, we would come to truly “meet parents” of college students “who won’t let their children study literature.” However, this comes to severely damage the ethical appeal of Pearlstein due to the attraction and claim present in the title of the audience coming to at some point, meet parents and their testimonies, yet such does not occur. The weakness present in such is that the title, being a main element of the text, is not an accurate representation of the text. Although we are told we will “meet the parents” we in fact, only meet the one parent that fits this paycheck over passion persona through a brief quotation. The missing aspect which would increase his credibility would be to of course, to contain more parental testimonies and insight as to why these believed parents think a certain way towards their children's’ choice of major and use such as a counterargument that can be used to Pearlstein’s advantage through stronger rebuttal.

Why read literature? To many of us, such a question seems as strange as asking “why breathe?” as literature has been part of our life, family, school, and community for as long as we can remember. Of course, there are those who argue that what today’s students need is preparation for the “real world,” but in the push for practical preparedness we sometimes overlook the importance of educating students’ imaginations. Literature offers windows to worlds outside students’ experience as well as mirrors onto the world they already know. Literature also prepares students for the personal challenges and moral dilemmas they are likely to face. We interpret the world constantly in all our experiences every