I'm not sure where this rant should be, so I'm placing it here.
I just read 'How to read like a Professor' by Thomas C. Foster
What a terrible book. Starting with the confiding hip-tone, but of course maintaining authority by incessant references to 'when I was teaching literature the other day', to the easy-going style which attempts to present academic shallowness as merely hip allusions to a hypothetical mighty intellect behind the stuff being written, the whole text served to set my teeth on edge.
Of course, it is not utterly useless, the man has summarized and categorized information, which it would otherwise take one up to five hours to research in the Internet, maybe even six hours for those easily distracted, but still.
The author knows his formalistic matrix, he uses the appropriate jargon, and dresses is up in baby talk, but in every section are givaways, which show what a stack of cards the whole book is. Which show, that it is a structure made merely of a repetition of buzzwords and buzzconcepts and should be seen and used as such - as a dumbed down collection of buzzwords and buzzconepts. If anyone is interested - there it is. Get it while it's hot.
Any man who claims to be a scholar of literary analysis, dealing with 'eternal', and 'immortal' topics about the human condition, and yet drops the moronic inferno bomb that the slavs have become familiar with Snow White and Sleeping Beauty from Disney (it is as if he picked on purpose the two classical Pushkin fairytales from the early 19th century); any man who while discussing the significance of death and the insignificance of human life in a cruel indifferent world cites cartoon violence, especially the road runner cartoons, as an example of philosophically meaningless violence... Words fail me.
But then again, to be fair, the title of the book is not 'how to meaningfully analyze literature', it is 'how to read like a professor'. And I suppose that says it all about very many things.
Not recommended, unless he is your professor.
Points:
Time spent:
Canary word: Present
Possible AI signals:
Original Text:
Are you sure you want to delete this comment? This cannot be undone.
Mark this comment as a review? Points will be awarded to the poster.
Your comment was posted, but it wasn’t long enough to count as a review. Reviews need about four complete sentences (at least 250 characters). Try writing another review that explains your thoughts in more detail — the author will appreciate it, and you’ll earn points for it.
125,018 Literary Works • 672,857 Reviews
Yo,
ApiringAuthor, thanx for the sudden ego boost. I love you man!
Haha.
Gryphon, I think the Golden Bough, or the Hero with a Thousand Faces would be a much more useful read. Not that I've ever read them through, but every little scrap helped clarify thing and /or set thoughts in motion
Hmmm... I've seen this around, but haven't read it yet. You make me want to do so.
But you are good at describing things. Believe it or not, a lot of writers struggle to describe scenery and create mood. The thing is, that is the difference between making the reader feel like they are experiencing the story, rather than just reading it.
Happy writing napalm.
Thanx for moving it Writersdomain.
I need to learn to stop projecting my insecurities at other people. It's not their fault that I'm not a great writer yet, hahaha.
Anyway, as usual, now that days have passed, I see my outburst as an embarrassing reaction
Moved to Book Reviews.
Anyways, I personally enjoyed the "How to Read Literature/Novels Like a Professor" books by Thomas C. Foster. Admittedly, for literary analysis, they were not anything spectacular. Foster gives the reader a window into how the reader already thinks about literature. I rather enjoyed the light tone, simply because it was a refreshing break from a lot of the literary criticism I read. Personally, I thought the books were most helpful for writers, taking the way the reader perceives a book out of the usual literary analysis language and demonstrating the effect that patterns, symbols and allusions have on readers in detail. I think understanding those effects and tactics is absolutely central to writing well, so I enjoyed it mostly for that reason.
So, as a reader of literature and current English major, they were nothing eye-opening. As a writer, they were immensely helpful and thought-provoking to me. Every man to his own opinion, but I loved his books.