Reading And Thought By Dwight Macdonald

In Sven Birkerts writing, “The Owl Has Flown,” Birkerts puts forth something to think about for any modern day reader. Birkerts believes that over the years the methodology of reading has changed as the technology has advanced. In the older days, people had small amounts of texts to choose from, but read them more thoroughly, and gained in depth knowledge about each book. In this day and age, the scope of reading has broadened but at the same time become shallower. He believes that we now read large amounts of materials, divulging ourselves into all sorts of different subject matter, but that we merely skim across its surface gaining no knowledge. In his opinion we have gone from vertical to horizontal depth. He deems an increase in the

What goes through your mind when you read? Do you read deliberately, looking for certain aspects, or do you read as a blank slate? When reading, professors expect a deliberateness that will help you to uncover meanings that are not readily apparent. Thomas C. Foster in his book “How to Read Literature Like a Professor” expands on this concept. He endeavors to instruct his readers in the way he believes they should read, in order to get the most out of each book. He concedes that, “When lay readers encounter a fictive text, they focus, as they should, on the story and the characters” but to truly read like a professor you must also divert a portion of your attention on

How to Read Literature Like a Professor: A Lively and Entertaining Guide to Reading Between the Lines by Thomas C. Foster is a book that explains there is more to literature than just a few words on a paper or a few pages in a book. Thomas Foster’s book portrays a relatable message to a wide based audience. This book is relatable for two reasons, the way it is written and the examples it uses. The book is written in a conversational manner, as if the reader was in a group discussion about books and writing. As for the examples, they are informative, descriptive, relative, and entertaining.

3. His eyes widened and, accentuated by his __________________________________, you could tell he was sickened by the sight of his wife in the room. 4. The __________________________________ philosophy is to use a practical approach to problems, rather than theories. 5. She __________________________________ conversed with her friend on phone. 6. The room was hidden behind the __________________________________ green curtain. 7. He and his __________________________________ hung out at the bar smoking. 8. He could feel __________________________________ anger building inside himself. Matching: Match the antonym to the vocabulary word. _____ 1. concerned _____ 2. compliant _____ 3. clear, truthful _____ 4. ornate _____ 5. tiny _____ 6. beneficial _____ 7. harmful _____ 8. ideally A. austere B. equivocate C. mulish D. cynically E. benignly F. colossal G. apathetically H. pernicious

In the fourteenth chapter of Thomas C. Foster’s How to Read Literature Like a Professor, Foster depicts all the elements found in a Christlike character. To begin, a simple fact is stated; “we live in a Christian culture” (124). Foster declares this to establish the fact that Christianity is a predominant religion on Earth, and it greatly impacts it’s surrounding civilizations. “Culture is so influenced by it’s dominant religious systems” that religion may sneak into a writer's work, no matter their personal beliefs on the religion (125). While knowledge of religion is helpful - especially to a reader - too many religious beliefs can lead problems. Foster articulates that intelligent readers possess a diverse knowledge in multiple religions,

The moment we open our laptops or unlock our phones to look for answers for a worksheet we were given, or read a brief chapter summary instead of reading the novel, we automatically minimize the amount of information we could gain from the assignment and block out our own ideas. We live in a generation where ‘googling’ a difficult question is more common than legitimately trying to find a solution. Of course it is easier to not do the work, but when we don’t do it, we miss out on so much material. As stated in Source A, “…Weaver said she felt strangely drawn into the plot overview and continued on.” This source explains a situation about a student in college who show her appreciation for John Steinbeck literature, which would not have occurred if she would have merely read Spark Notes. Connecting an emotional bond to the pieces of literature we are assigned to read is one of the most beautiful experiences in the world. Unfortunately, a large proportion student will ever know that feeling. Instead, they will know Cliff Notes and Spark Notes. They will know websites that leave out vital details that help construct a book into its unique form. Source E shows an accurate example of this, as it demonstrates a web page featuring Cliff Notes, with a header at the top reading “READ LESS.” Consequently, however, we don’t just read less. We learn less

Thoughts can be fleeting, however some of the feelings resulting from thought and can have a long lasting impact on the mental state of a person. In my metacognitive exploration I found an interesting comparison between the way in which I think and approach my past feelings and the methods which Tim O’Brien, from The Things They Carried, and Paul D from Beloved express their thinking about the past. I have discovered that the expression of thoughts, including memories and feelings, is the key to a healthy mental state of a person.

　　In the essay “Reading and Thought”, Dwight MacDonlad talked about the kind of poor reading people are attached to in modern society. MacDonald believed reading materials such as Times and New York Times are too overwhelming for the readers. Readers tend to skim through the reading materials because most of the reading do not have any connections with their daily lives. Moreover, MacDoanld claimed that the readings people do these days are not thoughtful. The readings are rather irrelevant toward the readers. It is because the journalists to produce dull pieces of readings which are meant to be skimmed through without having too much thoughts involved. As the journalists do not have much consideration of the materials they produced. To the journalists the readings they produce are just a series of news that should be read driftly and left behind with no thoughful idea needed to be informed. These effects caused modern society to have a poor reading habits because people do not reflect and give time to think about the readings they did. Readers casually accept the readings even though they do not have provide any resourceful information for the readers.

Thomas C. Foster’s book, How to Read Literature Like a Professor, tackles the process of uncovering the underlying complexities and symbols that authors incorporate into their literary works. In its most lucid form, Foster’s message is that, when reading a work of literary merit, anything you may postulate has a deeper meaning most likely does, since skilled authors do not include items and occurrences just to include them. The dystopian literature novels 1984, Animal Farm, and Brave New World follow this trend as they interpolate different motifs with deeper political and symbolic context; however, Foster’s statements do not only apply to written literature. The movie V For Vendetta, released in 2005, connects to How to Read Literature Like

He mentions that others he has talked to that are the literary type, have noticed some of the same situations going on (5). He also makes mention of a pathologist who blogs about computer use and medicine, who states, “I now have almost totally lost the ability to read and absorb a longish article on the web or in print... Even a blog post of more than three or four paragraphs is too much to absorb. I skim it” (6). What this tells us is that we use the internet too much and that we no longer retain knowledge because it is readily available at our fingertips. This has not been proven to be the

In his article for The Atlantic, “Is Google Making Us Stupid”, Nicholas Carr gives the argument of how the internet is changing the way people are now reading less than they used to a century ago. People all over are becoming less interested in reading material that is longer than a few pages sometimes they can't even comprehend to finish reading a paragraph. The concentration someone had while reading a lengthy book is now gone, one of the smallest distractions can get your attention even just boredom itself can make you drift away from your reading. The more time people spend online, the more their ability to concentrate on their readings diminish until they no longer can stay focused on reading something that is longer than three sentences. Because of the way the use of internet on a daily use has made it more efficient for people to search and find what they were looking for right away, the need to be searching through books or other types of informational mediums, is no longer something that is done as often, sense it would take less time and effort to look something up rather than read through a book to find the

George Orwell once said he writes because he has a “Desire to push the world in a certain direction, to alter other people’s idea of the kind of society they should strive after.” In the book Curious: The Desire to Know and Why Your Future Depends On It, the author Ian Leslie also demonstrates his desire to push the world in a certain direction. In Curious, Ian Leslie makes a fervent thesis for the advancement of the “desire to know”. His main idea is to show that curiosity is an indefinite trait that needs to be fueled in order to exist. Leslie claims that it is critical to apprehend the uniquely- human condition that coerces us to wonder and explore the world around us. Ian Leslie allows the reader to reevaluate their own mental habits

Yes, literary imagination can be a basis for scientific exploration. Formed from known concepts, imagination can provide new ideas and theories for the scientific community to develop and create advanced technologies. The things we use today came from the creative minds of earlier people. Furthermore, the movie “Source Code” entirely illustrates this notion. Its theory of having a machine utilize active brain waves from a critically injured person can have serious implications in many fields. If it is created and succeed, not only will researchers be able to control and measure time as a physical entity, but it will also help the military in preventing national

There is then the serious reading undertaken for research and for satisfying one's longing for knowledge. It may be a subject of scientific significance, or a subject of historic or philosophic importance - varying according to the taste of the person. This kind of reading disciplines the mind and trains one for critical and original thinking. There is yet another kind of reading -reading for pleasure. Though serious reading is also a source of pleasure, reading which is devoted mainly to it differs in one respect. It grows upon one, it gives before demanding and it soothes and relieves tension and loneliness. The only kind of reading which neither stimulates thought nor provides knowledge is one which is approached negatively, with the simple motive of escape and of "killing" time.

Literature can briefly be defined as written works, especially those considered of superior or lasting artistic merit; books and writings published on a particular subject or leaflets and other printed matter used to advertise products or give advice. One of the most popular forms of literature would be English literature. If one would look up the definition for English literature, the best descriptive information would be that it’s impression and format is over one hundred years old, and continues to be one of the most common studied forms of art, as far as written, studied in high schools and universities around the world. English literature is basically the study of literature that has been written in the English language. This form of literature expands past the most common American language and dates back to the Shakespearean and Renaissance timeline.