Chapter 2: The Levels of Reading Adler and Van Doren begin with the very sensible observation that readers' goals determine the ways they read. I completely agree; in fact ignoring the reader’s goal was one of the objections I mentioned to the way they approached the topic in the previous chapter. However, even immediately after saying this, they seem to backslide into a hierarchical description that seems laden with value judgement.
I'm so sad that so much of what I read during my education was "reading for the grade" and reading not to digest and understand, but to collect, to catalogue so I could find it later "if I needed it." Thank you for making this.
There are hints here of what Bob Doto was writing about recently with respect to literary theory development, lots of which wouldn't have been seen/known by Adler/Van Doren in 1972. You might appreciate the ideas in intertextuality and rhizomatic philosophy he touches on. There are also hints of connections to Whitney Trettien's work in Cut/Copy/Paste which I'm reminded of as well.
I'm so sad that so much of what I read during my education was "reading for the grade" and reading not to digest and understand, but to collect, to catalogue so I could find it later "if I needed it." Thank you for making this.
There are hints here of what Bob Doto was writing about recently with respect to literary theory development, lots of which wouldn't have been seen/known by Adler/Van Doren in 1972. You might appreciate the ideas in intertextuality and rhizomatic philosophy he touches on. There are also hints of connections to Whitney Trettien's work in Cut/Copy/Paste which I'm reminded of as well.
Doto, Bob. “Inspired Destruction: How a Zettelkasten Explodes Thoughts (So You Can Have New Ones).” Writing by Bob Doto (blog), September 13, 2023. https://writing.bobdoto.computer/inspired-destruction-how-a-zettelkasten-explodes-thoughts-so-you-can-have-newish-ones/.
Trettien, Whitney. Cut/Copy/Paste: Fragments from the History of Bookwork. University of Minnesota Press, 2021. https://manifold.umn.edu/projects/cut-copy-paste.