Comments on: HTR&W Challenge: Prologue – Why Read?

By: Kim

Kim — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 17:38:23 +0000

I think that’s the biggest thing — there are other ways to read than the way colleges train us to think about books, and the way we’re taught to read doesn’t mesh with the supposed goal of getting lost in a book and its characters.

I don’t want to forget the ways I’ve learned to analyze literature while in school, but I am disappointed that learning to dissect literature has taken away some of the joy of it. That must be another thing Bloom is pointing to.

By: Rebecca Reid

Rebecca Reid — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 10:15:39 +0000

Yes, I completely understand: It really reminded me of how all the teachers *told* me to read things with specific agenda in mind. (I studied English)

In some respects, though, I think I *needed* that guidance in the beginning. We had a entire class on different ways to approach literature: historicist, feminist, etc. It was an intro level class. Maybe the problem was later classes when we *still* were told what to look for?

But I guess his point is that we shouldn’t be staying in college when we read overall….

By: Kim

Kim — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 17:30:24 +0000

Rebecca: I think he’s mainly talking about fiction also, but I think you can still get the idea of “cant” and academic discourse when reading fiction. One example I can think of that Bloom sort of points out is is grouping certain fiction authors as “feminist” or “multicultural” instead of trying to read the books for what they are. Especially when reading fiction for class, I think it’s easy to get pulled into academic analysis even of fiction. You’re right, I don’t think this would work for textbooks so much

By: Rebecca Reid

Rebecca Reid — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 04:52:10 +0000

I found it did take two or three readings to get all of Bloom’s ideas about readings. But I love how we all read and learn different things from it.

I do think he’s talking mainly about reading fiction, not so much text books. What do you think?

I love what you say about being “lost in a book” because that’s what I’m looking for sometimes too!