Nan in Mass Posted December 29, 2009 Share Posted December 29, 2009 Even being almost but not quite completely ignorant about the literary world, it would never occur to me to even try to get my children, even the non-engineering one, through one of those AP lit tests. I have serious doubts about any of them surviving college lit. We just aren't that sort of people. Now I'm off to read your article and see how far off course I was in my understanding of the Wiki article. -Nan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
at the beach Posted December 29, 2009 Share Posted December 29, 2009 It seems like you all are talking about two different things. By literary analysis, some of you seem to mean "how most people (or most experts) interpret piece of writing" and the rest of you seem to mean "what a book means to you as an individual". "How most people..." is less subjective. "How you..." is more subjective. Or maybe I have this wrong?-Nan Hi, Nan, I think what happened was that the thread started out with the question of whether literary analysis is subjective to an extent, which turned to a comment that not all lit is worthy of analysis, which then turned to what is it about a work that takes it to a higher realm... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jane in NC Posted December 29, 2009 Share Posted December 29, 2009 Holy cow! I just stumbled upon an article that you guys have just got to read! It is written by an engineer who decides to learn about deconstruction. The only bad part about the article is that it ends......I absolutely wanted to keep reading. Parts of it are funny (my sense of humor) and at the end he actually shows you how to deconstruct. I didn't know a lot about deconstruction and this was the ticket. Much more fun and illuminating than Wiki! Read it!!! http://www.info.ucl.ac.be/~pvr/decon.html Sending you a virtual cup of something, Holly. Cheers! :cheers2: Jane (still chuckling) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nan in Mass Posted December 29, 2009 Share Posted December 29, 2009 LOL!!!! Well, normally I deplore “crass commercial necessityâ€, but I guess it has its uses. This is what I mean when I keep saying that my family isn’t academically oriented. I most definitely want my children to be able to point out how Heinlein shoots himself in the foot in Starship Trooper, and I want them to be able to deliberately phrase something negatively to cast doubt, like the JFK example, and I want them to understand the difference between the name of the type of something, the type of something, the name of the something, the address of the something, and the current contents of the something (very important to me as a computer person and actually rather helpful in real life as well), but I don’t see why they can’t do it in English. I still feel like I am missing the point, though. You don’t need the deconstructioning algorithm to find the flaws in someone’s argument (the Heinlein example) or recognize when negatives are being used to cast doubt (JFK example)? Isn’t it obvious that words can be twisted around to mean almost anything and therefore, one has to be careful when listening or reading not to be swayed in by illogicalness? And that logic isn’t necessarily useful when it comes to making everyday decisions. (I frequently have to make decisions before I have time to figure out how to put the reasons into a logical argument. There is a good argument; it just occurs to me after the fact.) Is the point that it is sometimes good and useful to use deconstruction to point out why something is flawed or manipulative, but that it isn’t an all-purpose leatherman? -Nan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
at the beach Posted December 29, 2009 Share Posted December 29, 2009 Holy cow! I just stumbled upon an article that you guys have just got to read! It is written by an engineer who decides to learn about deconstruction. The only bad part about the article is that it ends......I absolutely wanted to keep reading. Parts of it are funny (my sense of humor) and at the end he actually shows you how to deconstruct. I didn't know a lot about deconstruction and this was the ticket. Much more fun and illuminating than Wiki! Read it!!! http://www.info.ucl.ac.be/~pvr/decon.html That was delightful! Thanks for the link. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harriet Vane Posted December 29, 2009 Share Posted December 29, 2009 Holy cow! I just stumbled upon an article that you guys have just got to read! It is written by an engineer who decides to learn about deconstruction. The only bad part about the article is that it ends......I absolutely wanted to keep reading. Parts of it are funny (my sense of humor) and at the end he actually shows you how to deconstruct. I didn't know a lot about deconstruction and this was the ticket. Much more fun and illuminating than Wiki! Read it!!! http://www.info.ucl.ac.be/~pvr/decon.html LOVE the article. Laughing and nodding in agreement . . . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
usetoschool Posted December 29, 2009 Share Posted December 29, 2009 Holy cow! I just stumbled upon an article that you guys have just got to read! It is written by an engineer who decides to learn about deconstruction. The only bad part about the article is that it ends......I absolutely wanted to keep reading. Parts of it are funny (my sense of humor) and at the end he actually shows you how to deconstruct. I didn't know a lot about deconstruction and this was the ticket. Much more fun and illuminating than Wiki! Read it!!! http://www.info.ucl.ac.be/~pvr/decon.html :lol::lol::lol: That is a keeper. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tammyla Posted December 30, 2009 Share Posted December 30, 2009 Wow... Holy cow! I just stumbled upon an article that you guys have just got to read! It is written by an engineer who decides to learn about deconstruction. The only bad part about the article is that it ends......I absolutely wanted to keep reading. Parts of it are funny (my sense of humor) and at the end he actually shows you how to deconstruct. I didn't know a lot about deconstruction and this was the ticket. Much more fun and illuminating than Wiki! Read it!!! http://www.info.ucl.ac.be/~pvr/decon.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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