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Tag Archives: reading
What Would Homer Say? Model Writers at Your Shoulder as a Tool for Writing Improvement
Imitation and emulation. The ancient Greek teacher Longinus is among the first persons to address what would become a recurrent theme in the history of rhetoric and literary criticism: the sublime (elevated emotion; ecstasy). His reflections on the sublime can … Continue reading
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Tagged Homer, literature, longinus, poetry, reading, the sublime, writing
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Read
At The Daily Beast, academics and writers were asked to name “one book that [college] students shouldn’t escape campus without having read.” MIT professor and Pulitzer Prize winner, Junot Diaz, picked Toni Morrison’s Beloved because it “stabs straight at the heart … Continue reading
Dance With Me (In The Interpretation Of Lines From Yeats)
When reading something, guessing about an author’s exact state of mind is sometimes tricky, but it’s still fun to play. Take for instance William Butler Yeats’s poem, “Among School Children.” The Yale literary critic Paul de Man once noted that … Continue reading
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Tagged art, Buddhism, creative writing, critical thinking, interpretation, philosophy, poetry, reading, the self, Yeats
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Does Critical Theory Kill Aristotle or Does Aristotle Kill Critical Theory?
Within the humanities, contemporary critical theorizing typically entails left leaning political commitments accompanied by some line of attack or qualification on Aristotle’s rhetorical triangle—his idea that every communicative act necessarily requires three things: an author or speaker (Greek: ethos), a … Continue reading
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Tagged aristotle, authors, critical theory, literary theory, pragmatism, reading, writers
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Practice Makes Perfect: David Hume Teaches Us How To Read Closely And See
In 1757, the Scottish philosopher David Hume (1711-1776) published four essays under the title, Four Dissertations, one of which he called “Of the Standard of Taste.” In it, Hume attempts to tackle the question of why people vary in opinion … Continue reading
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Tagged aesthetics, beauty, critical theory, david hume, philosophy, reading, writing
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Write Better Than You Do: Four Writing Tips From 2000 Years Ago
Want to write better than you do? Consider trying these four ancient tricks: Focus on the sublime. The Greek writer, Longinus (first century CE), is among the first persons to address what would become a recurrent theme in the history … Continue reading
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Tagged communication, creativity, critical thinking, longinus, reading, thinking, writing, yoga
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Louis CK Does a Close Reading of the Story of Abraham and Isaac
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Tagged apologetics, books, comedy, humor, interpretation, reading, religion, the Bible
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Reading the Poem, “Advice for Dying Fathers,” at Butler’s Coffee
On Friday night, one of my poet friends (Niccelle Davis) took a picture of me reading a poem to an audience at Butler’s Coffee in Palmdale, California, and posted it at her blog. I didn’t look too fat, so I asked her … Continue reading
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Tagged audience, Dylan Thomas, Keats, literature, Niccelle Davis, poems, poetry, public readings, reading, Santi Tafarella, writing
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How to Really Make a World of Humanists: Helen Vendler Urges Training in Close Reading
In a recent essay for Harvard Magazine, the great Helen Vendler pushes back against our teach-to-the-test/Twitter-texting culture, eloquently calling on parents and teachers, including those teaching college, to train young people in close, as opposed to merely proficient, reading: Without reading, there … Continue reading
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Tagged atheism, critical thinking, English, freedom, helen vendler, humanism, literature, parenting, reading, reason, teaching
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James Wood: Literature Complexifies the Atheist-Theist Debate
In a recent essay for the Guardian, Harvard English professor, James Wood, identifies four ways that literature complexifies the atheist-theist debate. As Wood sees it, literary writers tend to: explore fluctuations in the human psyche; track messy mixtures of truth and error; imaginatively walk in … Continue reading
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Tagged apologetics, atheism, atheist, God, James Wood, John Keats, literature, philosophy, reading, writing
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Chris Hedges the Prophet on Print Culture Turning to Image Culture
Former New York Times war correspondent, Chris Hedges, has, over the past couple of years, taken on the mantle of a secular prophet—an emperor has no clothes truthteller—writing scathing (and I think powerful) books and essays documenting the messes that we find ourselves … Continue reading
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Tagged America, books, Chris Hedges, Fox News, illiteracy, intellectuals, life, literacy, propaganda, reading, truth
4 Comments
Andre Glucksmann One More Time
I think this is a great quote. It comes from the French philosopher, Andre Glucksmann: Socrates’s uncertainty revealed a rupture that gave birth to philosophy. The divine word is a mystery; it can mean everything or nothing. Zeus neither speaks nor … Continue reading
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Tagged andre glucksmann, atheism, existentialism, God, gods, interpretation, new atheism, postmodernism, reading, the Bible, writing
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A Sign from Zeus: Andre Glucksmann on Textual Interpretation and Emphasis
A quote doesn’t get more profound than this, so I’ll post it twice (so that you’ll read it twice). It comes from the French philosopher, Andre Glucksmann: Socrates’s uncertainty revealed a rupture that gave birth to philosophy. The divine word is … Continue reading
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Tagged ancient Greece, interpretation, love, Oedipus, reading, reason, Socrates, texts, the Bible
5 Comments
Google Books App for iPad
Free books by the millions? I haven’t downloaded the app for my iPad yet, but this looks really seductive. I wonder what the catch is: Here’s the link: books.google.com/ebooks And I looked up Thoreau’s Walden. It reads pretty nice: http://books.google.com/ebooks?id=yiQ3AAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover&output=reader
A Great Quote on Theory Sludge
This quote comes from Rebecca Newberger Goldstein, writing in the New York Times Book Review recently: The study of literature as an art form, of its techniques for delighting and instructing, has been replaced by an amalgam of bad epistemology … Continue reading
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Tagged art, books, coughing in ink, critical theory, derrida, literature, modernism, New York Times, postmodernism, reading, sludge, william butler yeats
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Thought for the Day
Dogs can’t read books, which is sad. But wouldn’t it be more sad if dogs could read books, but didn’t? Below is an image of the remains of the Library of Celsus in Ephesus, which was completed circa 135 CE. It could hold 12,000 … Continue reading
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Tagged ancient Greece, books, dogs, Library of Celsus, life, literacy, literature, musings, philosophy, reading, thoughts
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Two lives, no books
This post comes from a brief exchange that I overheard, at a garage sale, yesterday morning. A man and a woman, both looking to be in their forties, paused at the same moment and gazed down into a box of books that was for … Continue reading
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Tagged books, desire, existentialism, freedom, life, Motivation, patience, psychology, reading, regret
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Mental Health Break
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Tagged business, contracts, groucho marx, law, lawyers, life, mental health break, reading, santa
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Prometheus Unbound 