Reflection On How To Read Literature Like A Professor
The primary virtue of How to Read Literature Like a Professor is it's "duh' factor. Take this trick question: In a lake, there are a patch of lilies, which double in size every day. If this patch of lilies take 48 days to cover the entire lake, how many days would it take for the patch to cover the entire lake? Maybe you think you know the answer. Maybe you have no clue. But then you hear the answer. That it takes 47 days for the lilies to cover half of the pond. It's that feeling - that the knowledge was there the entire time and you just needed someone to show it to you - that's the "duh" factor that makes this book interesting. Finding that "it's more than just rain," or that seasons represent phases of the human lifespan isn't exactly groundbreaking, but it is, because I'd never thought to put the dots together myself, and that's fascinating, because, personally, I find the information on the fringes of my knowledge to be deeply intriguing.
The book has very few faults, and I only have a problem with one of them. From writing essays as well as reading them, I've noticed that, when people have very little to say, they start to give excess information, primarily in the form of examples. In order to have a book of reputable size, it seems that Foster employs the use of numerous examples which span pages and stretch the volume of the book unnecessarily. In his chapter on the impacts of mythology and storytelling on literature, Foster 1) defines a myth, 2) …show more content…
African, Mediterranean and Native American myth, with a generous side note describing the usage of Greek and Roman namings in his hometown and state, 3) describes the myth of Icarus, 4) tells us that the myth of Icarus has nothing to do with Song of Solomon, 5) tells us that the myth of Icarus is important in other stuff, 6) describes paintings involving Icarus, 6) generously describes two poems involving Icarus, 7) describe the message of Icarus, 8) describes the influence of Greek epics in some literature, 9)
The book has very few faults, and I only have a problem with one of them. From writing essays as well as reading them, I've noticed that, when people have very little to say, they start to give excess information, primarily in the form of examples. In order to have a book of reputable size, it seems that Foster employs the use of numerous examples which span pages and stretch the volume of the book unnecessarily. In his chapter on the impacts of mythology and storytelling on literature, Foster 1) defines a myth, 2) …show more content…
African, Mediterranean and Native American myth, with a generous side note describing the usage of Greek and Roman namings in his hometown and state, 3) describes the myth of Icarus, 4) tells us that the myth of Icarus has nothing to do with Song of Solomon, 5) tells us that the myth of Icarus is important in other stuff, 6) describes paintings involving Icarus, 6) generously describes two poems involving Icarus, 7) describe the message of Icarus, 8) describes the influence of Greek epics in some literature, 9)