WHERE DO I GO FROM HERE?

How to make sense of books and reading?

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN KNOWLEDGE AND

UNDERSTANDING:

Knowledge:
Facts, information, and skills acquired by a person through experience or education;
the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject.

Understanding:
having insight or good judgment

perceive the intended meaning of (words, a language, or speaker).

perceive the significance, explanation, or cause of (something)
interpret or view (something) in a particular way.
infer something from information received

WARNING!!

It is possible to hold knowledge but not understanding.

Dont be an encyclopedia make/do/say/show something with what you know.

YOU MUST START SOMEWHERE

Consider your gut/raw feeling (understanding) of the book

At this point you are following your intuition to create the best educated guess you can
regarding the significance of the work.
Good educated guesses take context into consideration (historical, personal, the
novel etc)

You put forth a hypothesis about the book

This is your interpretation/thesis statement

NEXT: THE TEST

Next, you must check or test if your hypothesis or ideas are correct

We do this through reasoning.

REASONING

Reasoning Definition: the action of thinking of something in a logical sensible manner

Two types:
Inductive: using details to support a larger idea (details big idea)
When we first read a book we must look at the details to determine what the big
idea was for that book (theme)
Deductive: we see the big idea and use details to support it (big idea details)
When we reflect on a book we generally know what the big idea was (theme(s))
and must look back at the book to find evidence to prove or disprove the
general idea we have formulated.

I KNOW THIS IS ENGLISH CLASS

BUT
THINK LIKE A SCIENTIST

In science we trust theories based on how well the facts and observations (details)
support/prove the hypothesis/idea.

Can the experiment be reproduced?

Is it reliable and do the facts match up/support the hypothesis? Or is it misleading?

English is very similar

Do the details(...) match up logically (support) with your claims?

History
Authors background
Personal experience
Details in the book

How sound is your reasoning?

Do we see it in the world around us now or in the past etc...

REMEMBER THE BIG IDEA BUT DONT LOSE

SIGHT OF THE DETAILS

Our gift (special talent) is the ability to think and reason. Some believe that our goal as
people is to drive our kind (humanity and the world in general) ever onward; however, this
must be done scrupulously with great attention to detail or else we risk producing
meaningless nonsense.

If you dont think then you are very limited. You cannot see (make sense of the world) and
the things you say are unreliable and untrustworthy. Sometimes fools have nuggets of
truth but overall they are full of assumptions, which often times are inaccurate or
unfounded.

Books are writers leaving behind their opinions and understanding about life. We as the
current people of the world need to learn from them and take things a step further in the
direction we, as a whole see appropriate.

SOME IDEAS FROM OUR BOOKS SO FAR:

Lord of the Flies: We as people have hope for a better way of life

Animal farm: The collective must govern and take precedence/priority

Anthem: The individual rules

Macbeth: What is the human condition and how do we know what is best?
Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.

Pride and prejudice: Dont judge a book by its cover. Look closely and make sure you
give people/ideas a chance before finalizing your opinions of them.

All Quiet on the Western Front:

How do we make sense of the world with so many contradictory messages? Who do we
trust or believe? Country family, friends etc?

And at night, waking out of a dream, overwhelmed and bewitched by the crowding
apparitions, a man perceives with alarm how slight is the support, how thin the boundary that
divides him from the darkness. We are little flames poorly sheltered by frail walls against the
storm of dissolution and madness, in which we flicker and sometimes almost go out. Then the
muffled roar of the battle becomes a ring that encircles us, we creep in upon ourselves, and
with big eyes stare into the night. Our only comfort is the steady breathing of our comrades
asleep, and thus we wait for the morning.

THE CALL OF CTHULHU

The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all
its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it
was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction,
have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge
will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall
either go mad from the revelation or flee from the deadly light into the peace and safety of a
new dark age.
--H.P. Lovecraft The Call of Cthulhu

BOOKS ARE LIKE A MIRAGE OR OPTICAL ILLUSIONS:

YOU HAVE TO SQUINT A LITTLE AND BLUR THE
LINES WITH YOUR EYES TO SEE THE BIG PICTURE

DONT BE AFRAID, HAVE SOME HEART AND TELL

THE WORLD WHAT YOU SEE!