One source from the Appendix in Wayne Booth's Critical Understanding: The Powers and Limits of Pluralism. Booth was a scholar of literary criticism and rhetoric. The Appendix to this book is called "A Hippocratic Oath for the Pluralist," and in it, Booth gives what he calls five "ordinances" for achieving good criticism, saying at the end that if we kept them, "we would experience a renewed sense that our critical sanity does not depend on 'covering' as many works as possible" (352). Here is what he says:
1. We shouldn't publish anything about anything we've read all the way through at least once.
2. We'll try to not publish anything about anything that we haven't totally understood.
3. We'll not believe other critics unless they convince us that they've abided by the first 2 rules.
4. We won't take on a project that has us violate principles 1-3.
5. We won't judge others' "inevitable violations" of the first 4 principles worse than we judge our own.
Isn't that interesting?
Another source on reading well comes from C.S. Lewis' An Experiment in Criticism. Lewis was a medieval and renaissance scholar who became Christian apologist later in life. In Chapter 4 of An Experiment in Criticism, Lewis gives 5 characteristics of bad readers, but I'll sum them up into 3 categories:
1. Bad readers only read narratives.
2-3. Bad readers have no ears and are wholly unconscious of style.
4-5. Bad readers enjoy narratives that are reduced to the minimum and are action-packed.
What do you think about these guidelines for reading well?
What sources have you found about good reading and bad reading? And what does it mean to read well?
2. We'll try to not publish anything about anything that we haven't totally understood.
3. We'll not believe other critics unless they convince us that they've abided by the first 2 rules.
4. We won't take on a project that has us violate principles 1-3.
5. We won't judge others' "inevitable violations" of the first 4 principles worse than we judge our own.
Isn't that interesting?
Another source on reading well comes from C.S. Lewis' An Experiment in Criticism. Lewis was a medieval and renaissance scholar who became Christian apologist later in life. In Chapter 4 of An Experiment in Criticism, Lewis gives 5 characteristics of bad readers, but I'll sum them up into 3 categories:
1. Bad readers only read narratives.
2-3. Bad readers have no ears and are wholly unconscious of style.
4-5. Bad readers enjoy narratives that are reduced to the minimum and are action-packed.
What do you think about these guidelines for reading well?
What sources have you found about good reading and bad reading? And what does it mean to read well?
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