Notes on the Well Educated Mind Chapter Five

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Although I do not want to start my reading with the list of novels, I am reading, as she recommended, the author's thoughts on HOW to read novels.

As I read the first part of the chapter, where Wise Bauer discusses how various novels open, I realize that I actually have read "The Stranger", but had forgotten that I had, and what it is even about. This happens a lot lately, and is one of the reasons I have started trying to make notes as I read.

Brief history of the novel

In the past, novels indicated what they were "about" pretty early on, but over time, they started to make the reader wait.

Novels follow conventions of visual style as well as language style in order to help the reader know what to expect. But, beware - sometimes the author will use conventions to "trick" the reader into expecting one thing, while actually delivering something else. ("Gulliver's Travels" is the provided example.)

First novels explored the lives of an individual person - which was new. "Don Quixote" was actually the first, but it didn't inspire other authors to write in novel form. Later, Defoe, Fielding, and Richardson started a literary "movement", and novels took off. [1]

(In high school, I was taught that "Pamela" was the first novel.)

Initially, novels were not considered to be serious works like the classic Greek and Latin writings.

“For decades, novels came in for a large share of the general disdain that educated readers felt for romances.”

Women of the day did not necessarily have an education that included Greek and Latin, but novels were accessible to them. Middle class women also tended to have more time and money that allowed them to buy and read novels.

The Protestant religion(s) and capitalism were both starting to influence people to be interested in the "self".

“capitalism, which encouraged each person to think of himself (or herself) as an individual, able to rise up through society’s levels toward wealth and leisure. The self was no longer part of a rigid, unshifting feudal system, with responsibilities beginning at birth and never changing thereafter. The self was free.”

Novelists turned to "realism" to attempt to distinguish their works as serious writing, in contrast to "popular" works containing fantastic tales.

A few authors incorporated "gothic" traits in their works - but the general trend was toward more realistic works.

Realistic novels tend to be very long and descriptive. (Ugh. Not my thing. I want plot driven works that get to the freaking point.)

Novels also delved into psychological realism.

“Dostoyevsky and Kafka perfected a “psychological realism” that pays less attention to physical details and more to psychological details.”

Next, comes "stream of consciousness" type writing. (early 20th century) - Faulkner, Virginia Woolf, James Joyce. (William James coined the term.)

Next comes "Naturalism" (Thomas Hardy). Take a person and plop them in an awful environment and see what happens.

“The naturalist’s job (in his or her own eyes, at any rate) was just like the scientist’s: Put the rat in the maze, watch what it does, and record the outcome without elaboration.”

Then, "Modernists" - eschewed a story. (snobs their critics said)

Real life” was chaotic, planless and unguided, and so the “scientific style” of the modernist is chaotic, refusing to bring novels neatly into any kind of resolution.

Next is postmodernism, which has the point of view that man is a product of the society in which he lives. Postmodernism started to fade out in the 1970's.

“metafiction. Rather than creating a fictional world that pretends to be real, metafiction admits, right up front, that it’s only a story”

How to read a novel

“The first time you read through a novel, you should look for answers to three very simple questions: Who are these people? What happens to them? And how are they different afterward? ”

Answer two questions:

“1. Who is the central character in this book?
2. What is the book’s most important event?”

Next, on to the logic part. It's not necessary to re-read the entire book. Go over the content summaries and other notes. Review any important sections that you may have bookmarked or annotated during your first read through. Reread the parts that you need to.

“When you evaluate a nonfiction work, you will ask: Am I persuaded? But when you evaluate a novel, you must instead ask: Am I transported? Do I see, feel, hear this other world? Can I sympathize with the people who live there? Do I understand their wants and desires and problems? Or am I left unmoved?”

  1. Is the novel a fable or a chronicle?
  2. How does the author show the "reality" of their story?
  3. What is the author's intent?
  4. What does the main character want?
  5. What are the obstacles?
  6. How do they attempt to overcome those obstacles?
  7. Is there a villain thwarting the main character?
  8. Who is telling the story? How does their point of view influence the story? How would the story change if told from a different character's perspective? [2]
  9. Five points of view:
    1. First person
    2. Second person
    3. Third person limited (third person subjective)
    4. Third person objective (narrator sees everything, but cannot know the character's thoughts)
    5. Omniscient(god view)
  10. Where is the story set?
  11. What is the writing style?
  12. Do all of the characters talk alike? (common flaw), or, do they each have their own voice?
  13. Any deviations from standard writing conventions?
  14. Any images or metaphors?
  15. Look at the beginnings and endings. (different kinds of resolutions)

Next, is rhetoric.

Summary

The author provides an overview of the history of the novel, and how the ideas of the time influence the types of stories told as well as how they are told. She also explains how to make notes as you read and then use those notes to help analyze the important parts of the book, and then express your own thoughts on the work.

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  1. I do understand that books are supposed to be indicated by underlines and short stories in quotes, but have opted for now to use quotes to make sure they do not appear as links. ↩︎

  2. Wicked!!! ↩︎