The Art of the Essay

It’s simply amazing. Seemingly random lines and dots are able to combine to form a meaning that goes beyond the paper it is written on. A specific arrangement of these symbols can be made to elicit a response from the reader. The response can be anything: a rise in heart rate, a tranquil mood, or a shift in thinking. A shift in thinking means the reader has formulated or changed an opinion that relates to society because of these small marks on the page. That is amazing. This ability that words possess has influenced our history, society, and lives. Writing as the process of transmitting thoughts and emotions constitutes an essential element of humanity because of its use in social change.

Common Sense. Uncle Tom’s Cabin. The Feminine Mystique. These works most likely sound familiar because they have had huge impacts in American society. One thing that all of these works have in common is that they contributed to some change in public thought. The authors recognized a problem and wrote about it in a way that contributed to social change. The issues that are brought up in these books are usually not surprising; people already think about it in the back of their minds. Instead, the words provide a distinct position or point out the immorality in the other position. This allows the readers to bring those thoughts waiting in the back of their minds to the front. The method of doing so varies widely—lots of important works describe the situation explicitly or creatively describe it in a way that is new to the reader. Common Sense is an example of a text that explicitly states the problem, whereas Uncle Tom’s Cabin is a novel that explores slavery through a unique perspective. This demonstrates the effectiveness of fiction and novels in proving a point, which speaks strongly to readers. The variety of approaches with writing allows authors to express their opinions with the degree of freedom necessary for an advancement of the status quo.

It seems that books are able to hold this power of social change over us. But why do they sway us so greatly? It may come as a surprise, but people actually want to improve. Moving forward has been the paradigm for human civilization since the inception of our species. Regardless of what the general populace thinks, society naturally moves towards advancement. For proof, just open up a history book and look at how much society has progressed since the 16^th century. The role for influential books may be to polarize our wavering opinions towards one direction. Uncertainty transforms into certainty and passivity becomes passion. Books are also able to consolidate our dissatisfactions about current issues. They raise awareness towards the problems and convince the readers to take a stance. This process can be seen with many books that promoted social change. The negative sentiment was already present in society and the books served to manipulate those feelings into a positive direction. Books grab a hold of our will to advance and fuse it with the unhappiness with the status quo to bring about change.

So books have caused social change through influencing the public opinion. We can look at past examples, but where does that leave us for the future? It seems that the medium of social change through writing is drastically changing. Common Sense was a pamphlet, but nobody reads those anymore. Instead, we read blogs and articles online. Countries that restrict freedom of speech are particularly strict about places on the Internet where people can express their opinions. Social media and blog sites are often victims of these restrictions. Just from this heavy focus placed on these places, it is evident that the medium of the Internet is very important. Writing is able to influence people very fast once uploaded onto the net. The tendency to advance will once again be reflected regardless of the medium being used.

Our civilization has come far. Through writing, we can uncover the injustices in society and align ourselves to fix them. Writing remains a method of making public our inner thoughts, emotions, and opinions. It is an extension of language that humans will most likely use for a very long time. This allows writing to continually influence civilization in a positive way. Regardless of how the writing is done, it still has the potential to change the lives of many. I guess the proper way to end this essay is to urge all the readers to go out and write. Write to change yourself, your friend, or all of society. Write because it is easy to do so. Write, not because it is laborious, but because it represents an instrument of change.

Choosing what to read is exhausting. I try to expose myself to the literature that’s out
there, so I’ll drive to the bookstore and walk along the long aisle and just browse. But what am I really looking for? What gives a piece of writing that “it” factor, or that “this is good writing” stamp. Is it the author? Does that automatically make a book a good one? Conversely, maybe it’s the genre – after all, most of the writing that we read in school strays from the worlds of goblins and wizards and delves into the more boring real world, the one with all of the social, ethical, moral, and political problems. It could be the content matter – since society has already determined that writing about the Cold War is more
useful that writing about the problems us teenagers faced during high school. It’s none of the above. The answer is that writing is like a conversation between two people whose worth can’t be measured or predetermined by rules. It’s the author and you, and an invisible bridge that’s allowing ideas to drift up from the paper and into your mind. What affect those ideas have on you, whether good or bad, profound, or banal, is up to you.

I do know that some writing is more complex than other writing. Some books are more
descriptive and maybe more thoughtful in their use of metaphors. Some books, especially the ones that are supposed to be “good”, may pertain more to the problems we face in our society. They may incorporate more history and a more pertinent message about what we should be doing to make our world better. That’s fine. We need those books because those books are the way in which we voice concerns we have with society. Those books get you thinking about the way you lead your life, and about how societal problems impact us. But that doesn’t make them “good” books. At least, that doesn’t mean that science fiction books, or romantic novels aren’t also good. Good encompasses so much more than that. “Good” is a natural impression and feeling we get from an experience. After we eat, we say “oh that steak was quite good” or “the sauce is so good.” We don’t eat something and then pull out our mental list of “does it have the right balance of salt and sweet? Does it contain every color of the rainbow, and does it absolutely, positively make me feel like a million bucks afterwards?” So after we read, we should be able to do a similar thing. We should be able to know whether what we read was “good” or just mediocre. We shouldn’t have to consult the “how to write a good book” manual, to gauge how pleasurable our reading experience was.

The reason that we can do this – just determine for ourselves, and not some list of
guidelines whether a piece of writing is good or not, is because writing speaks to us in different ways. What we read, and what others have written, resonates with the experiences we have had. Imagine being an athlete and imagine that you are talking to two people who themselves are very different. Lucy, the first one is an athlete just like you are. She trains for five hours each day, protein shakes and all. Then there’s Caitlin, who is working on getting her doctorate. She hopes to become one of the leading researchers in her field. You like hanging out with Lucy the best, because the stories she tells are like
your own. Running in the grueling heat and pushing through the pain of sore muscles are what you two have in common. On the other hand, you have a hard time relating to Caitlin. You don’t really understand what it’s like to sit at a desk for hours at a time. You don’t know the mental counterpart to physical exhaustion.

Well writing can be like a friend too. Different writing speaks about different things that we may or may not be interested in. That’s completely separate from whether writing is technically sound or whether its plot unfolds in our world or another. Maybe you like fantasies, for example, because you are fascinated with space, or because you like thinking about possibilities beyond the scope of the world we know. Or, maybe you resonate more with thrillers, because of that adrenaline rush you get. Regardless, you don’t have to shy away from calling it a “good” book. If you liked it, then it is good. If you liked it, it must have spoken to you in some way. Something must have clicked between you and the writing.

I certainly, am glad that writing does not have to follow a specific set of guidelines in order to be considered worthy. If that were the case, a lot of the books we know and love wouldn’t exist. Do you think “Twilight” would have fit the “good writing” criteria? I don’t think so. The thing is, however, that I gained a lot from reading the series. Vampires and Werewolves may not stimulate our brains to decode layers upon layers of metaphors but they do stimulate us in the creative sense. So I’ll be the first one to say that I thought Twilight was a good book. I read each book in the matter of two days. I imagined the characters and became completely entranced by this new world. Yes. It was very good. Stephanie Meyer did a remarkable job writing that.

I love being exposed to writing. I love reading what other people have courageously put into the public face, knowing that what they write will never be just a series of private thoughts ever again. And most importantly I appreciate all kinds of writing because I believe that writing should be versatile. Versatility requires that writing be unrestrained by certain rules. It means that the more we learn to judge for ourselves whether writing is good, and the less we restrain authors by telling them that certain types of writing are bad,
the better. There is no good, bad, positive, or negative. Writing speaks to everyone differently, and people react to writing differently. But everyone has their own opinions, and every piece of writing deserves to be judged individually, a million separate times by a million different people.

Preston Evans

ENGL 120W

04/06/14

The Reality of Fiction

What is it about great fiction novels that draws us in? Is it the ability to be transported to distant places that can exist only within our minds? Or, is it the overwhelming yet inexplicable sense that these places may not be that distant, after all? Raymond Chandler once wrote, “Fiction in any form has always intended to be realistic.” Good writing not only allows each word and image to be absorbed by the reader, but projects the reader into the action as if the story was unfolding around them, as if wrapping them in a warm hug. We readily deliver our minds and imaginations to these authors and these words on a page because of their relatable nature to us. Sure, we can’t find hookah smoking caterpillars or (allegedly) handsome, teenage vampires in real life, but we can relate to the broader themes that these characters represent such as virility and unconditional love. As such, fiction, although rooted in non-realities and surreal imagery, proves to be an accurate window into social criticism and an effective tool for disillusionment.

Take, for example, Dashiell Hammett’s widely renowned detective fiction novel The Maltese Falcon. Hammett not only presents one of the first concrete representations of the “hard-boiled” detective (that is, a no-nonsense, coarse, calloused individual stimulated by his strong moral fiber), but also paints a society dominated by avarice and unscrupulousness. His detective fiction novel employs commonly used speech and realistic situations in order to create a heightened sense of realism. In this way, the reader is able to relate to the characters and events while simultaneously remaining somewhat removed or distant (as the chances are that the reader is not a private detective nor lives a life similar to that of a private detective). In the novel, several supporting personas along with the protagonist hold ulterior motives driven by their blatant materialistic tendencies and the possibility of acquiring wealth.

Here, in Hammett’s 1930s masterpiece, there is exemplified the shift in the way detective fiction novels were written. What before was idealistic, pastoral imagery forming a languidly rural landscape is now a gritty, industrious cityscape plagued by corruption. This shift from happy-go-lucky to not-so-funny is reflected in the historical context of the time in which the novel was written.

1930, a time of expansive cynicism, instability, and economic drawback for the U.S. As such, the growth of materialism in the 20s and expansion of capitalism led to a more competitive nature in society. People were willing to sacrifice their morals or stab each other’s backs in the name of self-interests. Furthermore, the Wall Street crash of 1929 and the Great Depression led to increased pessimism about the future stability of the economy as well as contributed to the growth of materialism as goods became more difficult to acquire. This augmented willingness to commit amoral acts is represented by Hammett through the dirty, degenerate state of the city as well as the cutthroat attitude of his characters. Although he is writing about characters that do not exist in real life, Hammett is making an important social criticism of the potential dangers of increased corruption and greed on society.

By creating Sam Spade, Hammett straddles the line between corruption and morality with his “blond satan.” Spade is characterized by his greed and selfishness as well as his rough-around-the-edges appearance and demeanor. As such, Spade is synonymous with many of the other unprincipled characters in the novel; however, he also upholds a very strong sense of moral justice and personal values. That he is able to discern right from wrong and sacrifice his own personal gain for another’s is what separates him, what makes him likeable and trustworthy. Hammett has created a protagonist who, like in many fiction novels, is an idealistic image for the common man. Spade represents the direction towards which society ought to move. Hammett is not only creating a compelling and dynamic character, but is also making a point about the way our society functions and the benefits of injected morality into a disturbingly gutted population.

Sometimes it is difficult to see the world for what it truly is when you are living in it. As such, fiction provides us with an outlet that is not only relatable, but also distances ourselves from society so that we may form our own unbiased opinions (in this case, about the effects of greed and corruption). The shift in the genre also reflects how fiction novels can be reinvented in order to better suit the cries of the general population or to offer a realistic look at the world around us. Fiction writing is there for more than just mere entertainment, it is monumentally important in understanding the past, present, and even future of the human condition by means of broader trend and theme recognition.

How can a college student convince a company to invest $50,000 in their idea?  I can tell you its not easy.  I rarely trust lending my car keys to college friends.  So how could I convince a company to invest their money in me?  I am just a sophomore in college with very little work experience, and definitely no experience in starting a company.  One thing I have learned this semester through a project with some friends is that it is not easy to build credibility as a college student writing for potential investors or business partners.   When people hear “college student” they automatically take you less seriously and see you as more of a risk.  One major way to build confidence and credibility is through your writing to potential investors and partners.  Writing for this group initially posed many challenges as I tried to establish credibility as a college student by using huge words.  However, I have found that by writing honestly and as simple as possible, people received my writing better and allowed me to have serious business discussions with them.

One major problem with trying to gain investors is that I am a 20-year-old college student.  And everyone I am working with is a college student. As much as I hate to admit it, we initially knew absolutely nothing about writing as a startup business.  When putting together presentations, we would try and cover our inexperience by using big words and countless data to back up our claims.  For example, when presenting financial projections I initially tried to explain a very complex revenue-generating model I developed that took a long time to explain and make people understand.  Further, investors are often interested in how your company will be able to grow.  For this I came up with another complicated model that took a lot of explaining by me to have people understand. Simply put, I tried to establish my credibility by throwing around various numbers and projections that were very intricate.  Most investors who read those summaries probably had no idea what I was talking about or had no interest in trying to understand the work I had done.  I quickly realized that by trying to sound like I knew everything, it made it sound even more like I knew nothing.

I was able to write more effectively when pretending I was writing for someone that knew nothing about business.  Instead of writing for a potential investor, I pretended I was writing for a 6^th grader. When writing about a startup business, I found it best to assume that your audience knows absolutely nothing about the industry or your operations.  No matter how smart you think investors are, when describing a business it is in everyone’s best interest for it to be as simplified as possible.  For example, now when addressing potential financial growth, I use a very simple revenue model, that is easily displayed on a PowerPoint using less than 10 words, that even the least financially minded person could understand.  While I initially thought that it was too simple, people we presented to actually responded to the simplified version much better because anyone could understand it.  Further, this actually allowed for people to have confidence in our company. Simply because then they read about our sales, or hear me present, they automatically understand what I am talking about rather than being lost in a pile of endless statistics and numbers thrown at them.

Another technique to gain credibility as a college student is through honesty.  There is no point in trying to convince people that you are anything more than a college student.  I have found that it is important to be completely transparent with your weaknesses, such as lack of experience, and even transform these weaknesses into strengths.  For example, being a college student gives us the opportunity to work on a project without worrying about things such as rent and food expenses that other startup owners would have to consider.  Further, being a college student gives us great exposure to the college student market, and knowledge of current trends.  Thus in our writing, by being honest the readers respect our limitations, and give credit to how they can also play to our strengths.  Further, this causes fewer objections if you are able to explicitly mention areas of weakness, and proves that you have done plenty of research and are knowledgeable about the subject.

All the work I put into writing for the company would eventually be transformed into a presentation and PowerPoint.    The most important lesson I have learned about taking writing and forming a speech is to be charismatic and confident.  It is very hard for investors to be excited about your work if you aren’t excited yourself.  Further, if someone is considering investing in your company, you have to show confidence not only in yourself, but also in your idea.  A great idea can only go so far if the person trying to implement it is not confident in their abilities.  However and average idea can become great with confidence and the correct implementation.

When I was younger, I’d curl up on the couch in my living room with a book, usually a Harry Potter one I had read before, and disappear into its fictional world for hours at a time. Opening up a book was like travelling somewhere new in my mind. I could be a crime solving sleuth or a magical witch or the child of an Olympian god. Reading books took me to places unfathomable in the physical world and gave me temporary alter egos I’d never realize in my own lifetime. Now a decade later, books play a much different role. (How do I make this transition less awkward?)

“Teens today don’t read books anymore.” You hear it everywhere. Parents, teachers, older siblings, librarians. Could it be true that slowly but surely people are leaving books behind? A study in the Journal of Research on Libraries and Young Adults found that this might, in fact, be true. It found that of the 17-year old age group, only 9% are readers, compared to 19% twenty years ago. Young adults, ages 18 to 24, are seeing the steepest drops, at a rate of decline 55% higher than the overall adult population. This begs the question, what is it that is affecting teens so much? This study claims that technology may in fact be to blame for this dramatic shift. Nowadays, young adults spend on average two hours a day watching TV, and even more surfing the Internet or social networking, yet only seven minutes on leisurely reading. The fast rise of all our available technologies is hitting teens and young adults the hardest, taking away their attention and diverting their interest from books. And as it stands, this problem could be bigger than just a lack of the momentary escape I found in books as a child.

The lack of leisurely reading and decline of reading overall have been shown to reduce the level of reading comprehension in students. This poses not only an academic problem, but one that can affect them beyond the classroom. “The goal of reading is derive meaning.” Without comprehension, reading is just following words on a page. Regardless of what the purpose for reading is, reading comprehension skills are crucial for gathering information and deriving meanings from the words on the page. Without an adequate level of reading comprehension, daily living and work could prove difficult to manage. (How do I transition better here?) Moreover, it has been found that reading is a “multifaceted process that develops only with practice.” While fluency and word recognition can be learned in a few years, true reading comprehension is an ongoing learning-by-doing process. The decline in reading of youth, teens, and young adults takes away from the crucial practice to build such skills and could eventually produce a decreased level of reading comprehension. Developing strong reading comprehension skills is essential for a rich academic, professional, and personal life. It allows for students and growing youth to develop intellectually, socially, and emotionally. And, it could all be lost in the next few decades.

It’s not to say that just because the youth of today don’t enjoy reading nearly as much as their 1980’s or 1990’s counterparts they are doomed to futures without meaning. But, it is to say that there is an increasingly concerning issue that could have implications more serious than just a loss of the opportunity to escape into fictional worlds and characters every now and then. The rate of decline that we are now seeing in today’s teens is a special cause for concern. One that pushes us to think of what replacing hours with a book with hours of TV and Internet can be doing to our overall quality of life. Today we may not see a huge change, but five, ten, twenty years from now we might see huge changes in our youth, changes that may not be positive. So, I urge you, my peers, to try to start the cycle of change now. After all, reading is power and surfing the web is just procrastination. Take a break from your homework, your Facebook page, or that hilarious YouTube video that went viral two days ago. Exit this page, pick up a book, and get lost in its world, if only for a few minutes. You won’t regret it.

Sources:

The Importance of Reading Comprehension

“Teens Today Don’t Read Books Anymore”: A Study of Differences in Interest and Comprehension Based on Reading Modalities: Part 1, Introduction and Methodology

Daniel Weinfeld

Picture a crowded library. Men, women, and children reading, writing, and learning in a respectful and quiet public environment. Today, chances are nearly everyone in the library is using a computer. Laptop owners are taking advantage of WIFI availability, and those without personal computers and internet access at home are using those library resources for business, research, or plain enjoyment. Meanwhile, the surrounding stacks of books, periodicals, and other print materials remain largely untouched as their digital counterparts render them increasingly obsolete. This shift towards online and digitally accessible materials has sparked a discussion with many questioning the importance of printed books and libraries. While this argument has its merits, these changes are being misinterpreted in a negative light instead of appreciated for what it is: great progress in public access to information and learning. Libraries are as important today as they have ever been because of the imperative services they offer to the public and the freedom of information and expression they represent.

Public libraries have taken on new roles in the community as a result of new technology and the need for public access to online resources for academic purposes, job searches, healthcare coverage and other government benefits, and other financial services. Without access to all of this information, people in urban areas, particularly of lower socioeconomic status, can be at a significant disadvantage in education, work, and financial security. According to a piece by Susan Crawford for the New York Times, 92% of African Americans and 86% of Latinos surveyed felt that free access to computers and the internet at public libraries is “very important”. Unfortunately, the same article reported that 87% of urban libraries do not have enough computers, and only 57% of the same libraries offer high-speed internet. While those conditions could certainly be improved, it is still important to recognize the significance of these services that public libraries are providing for communities of all shapes and sizes.

Another important point in this discussion is the freedom and democratic principles present in the public library system. While this may seem like a lofty argument, it is based in the very principles upon which our nation was founded. Freedom of information and expression are core values of the American people, and libraries today, as they always have, provide the public with an outlet for both. The privilege to choose what one reads and writes may be one often taken for granted in our society, but it is not a luxury that all people enjoy. This freedom lives and breathes in libraries; in the tales of our history, the access to endless information online, and in the right to check out any book no matter how unpopular or controversial the ideas within it may be. Luis Herrera, city librarian of San Francisco, wrote that libraries are “a true American invention… a gathering place for civic and cultural engagement and a trusted place for conserving culture [2]. In a stand-up comedy special on television the other night, a comic delivered a bit, to raucous laughter and applause, about oppressive dictators throughout the twentieth century. He joked that all the armies and nuclear weapons in the world never scared those enemies of peace and American values, it was always books and ideas that they were afraid of. As cheesy as it may sound, I doubt that Hitler, Mussolini, or Chairman Mao would have approved of the information and freedom available at public libraries in the United States.

In sum, libraries still matter. The fact that print is no longer the only means of communicating and accessing information does not diminish the enduring importance of public libraries in our communities. Libraries still do, and will continue to offer the public resources that we want and need. Information and knowledge are synonymous with freedom and democracy. 100% of our public libraries now offer internet access [2]. That is something to be proud of. Americans of all ethnicities and backgrounds deserve free access to the information they need for themselves and for the betterment of our society. So long as they offer the opportunity for learning and enjoyment to those who may not be fortunate enough to have it otherwise, and even to those who are, public libraries will remain vital to our communities, and continue to represent the values of democracy and freedom which we all hold dear.

References

[1] http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2012/12/27/do-we-still-need-libraries/libraries-struggle-to-close-the-digital-divide?action=click&module=Search&region=searchResults%230&version=&url=http%3A%2F%2Fquery.nytimes.com%2Fsearch%2Fsitesearch%2F%3Faction%3Dclick%26region%3DMasthead%26pgtype%3DHomepage%26module%3DSearchSubmit%26contentCollection%3DHomepage%26t%3Dqry310%23%2Flibraries

[2] http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2012/12/27/do-we-still-need-libraries/libraries-are-more-relevant-than-ever?action=click&module=Search&region=searchResults%231&version=&url=http%3A%2F%2Fquery.nytimes.com%2Fsearch%2Fsitesearch%2F%3Faction%3Dclick%26region%3DMasthead%26pgtype%3DHomepage%26module%3DSearchSubmit%26contentCollection%3DHomepage%26t%3Dqry310%23%2Flibraries%2Fsince1851%2Fallresults%2F2%2F

My relationship with reading has always been a complicated one. When I had just moved to the United States, I struggled to keep up with the reading assignments I was supposed to do for school, and reading became a kind of chore which I mainly just tried to avoid. Then as my reading skills improved I started to become interested in some of the popular
teen novels like Harry Potter or Twilight. I devoured both of those. Still though, I don’t always read for pleasure; reading often feels like work. And that’s ok. That’s the main point. Reading doesn’t always have to bring pleasure to us in the stereotypical sense.
Reading serves a larger purpose in our lives. Books, at least good ones, should open our eyes to different aspects of the world which we would never otherwise be able to experience. Reading takes us on a journey to anywhere we want to go; maybe you read your way into the Civil War over summer break, then the French Revolution, and then all the way back to the Modern day struggles in the Middle East. And reading makes us feel things like the mixture of joy and despair and loneliness embedded in the pages of Cold Mountain. As readers, we become more mature, because we’ve exposed ourselves to thoughts, dilemmas, and terrors – all those things which happen each and every day around the world. Reading is not just leisure. Reading shows us the world we live in, whether good or bad, and the world that was in a way that expands our world view and makes us better citizens.

The first John Irving book I ever read was A Prayer for Owen Meany. I had peeked around in a couple of his other books before, but this was the first one I really had to analyze (and write twelve essays about). Of course, it’s John Irving, so there was large entertainment factor present (if you read his books you’ll know what I mean. If not, it may be better to
think twice first). But there’s a lot more to the book too. A Prayer for Owen Meany isn’t just about small boys with squeaky voices, it’s about the Vietnam War. It’s about the impact that a war can have on an individual, and about the power of loss – the complicated relationship between loss, unfairness, and faith. When you read a Prayer for Owen Meany you begin to understand the way a war could mess you up; the way fear and the confusion of growing up in the midst of a war can scar you and change the way you see things. That’s what makes reading more powerful, in a sense, than google and the encyclopedia. That’s why the exposure we get from reading books is so much stronger and realistic. The experience of reading is emotional. It illuminates past events and times in a
way we can relate to or understand. Does it really mean a lot to you when you read that there were about 58,000 casualties during Vietnam? You may find it shocking or kind of sad, but does it mean anything to you, just as a number. It means something when you truly understand the impact that these deaths have on people, on family members and best friends. So it means something to you when you engage in the emotions, the sadness and gloom that pervades over A Prayer for Owen Meany’s protagonist after the death of Owen
Meany. Those numbers suddenly carry more weight. Suddenly it’s not just a counting game, it’s associated with something much deeper and more personal.

And it’s not just A Prayer for Owen Meany that transports us to new places, it happens all the time. What about Night, a short book by Elie Wiesel that details his own experience of the Holocaust? I read this book in eighth grade and I read it again about two years ago. I love this book for its honesty and for the way in which it has added depth to my life by
showing me all sides of human nature. We will probably never live to see a Holocaust. That I am a million times grateful for. But we can learn from what happened during the Holocaust, not just in the sense that we memorize dates and names, but in the sense that we learn, through reading, about the loss, even the eventual numbness that Holocaust victims felt. These aren’t the kinds of emotions that someone can just tell us. These are emotions that we need to feel, in order to be able to comprehend the magnitude of something like the Holocaust. When Holocaust survivors write about how they felt, about the terror and confusion and loss. About what color the sky was and how the train smelled and what the food was like – That’s worth gold. It’s the gift we get from reading. An emotional experience and personal growth.

Reading can transform the way we think. It can open our eyes to the aspects of life and human nature that we might never be exposed to otherwise. When we read, we sit by ourselves and think. We devote our energy and thoughts to capture and understand the message that the author is trying to put forth. When we succeed, and when the author has done well, we are rewarded with a life experience, with a new way of seeing the world or a new insight about the way we humans are. Just like a “real experience” like the time you
lost a loved one and realized how much you cared or the time you succeeded at achieving a goal you had dedicated years to achieving, reading can give us some of these feelings. Reading may not actually be time travel, but it’s the best we’ve got right now. Read and it will make you wiser. You’ll know more about life, about things that have happened and people who have lived, and you’ll grow and be inspired. So choose a book – a good book, and open up to page 1.

At the beginning of every semester, college students struggle to buy their textbooks, and then throughout the semester, they struggle to look for ways to avoid reading them.  Reading through an assigned book, no matter it is purely scientific or literary, turns out to be an unpleasant experience for many students.  In order to pass a quiz or enable themselves to discuss a work they haven’t read, students usually request the help from others.  In the past, the resource students can utilize limits to their professors, supplementary books from libraries, or their classmates.  Nowadays, thanks to the Internet, students are spoiled for choice.  Websites like SparkNotes, GradeSaver, and Shmoop now offer detailed analysis and test preparation covering almost all subjects.  While some people argue that this open access to technology proves to be a positive supplement to learning for many students, many professionals publicly express their suspicion of college students’ ability to draw the line between studying and cheating.

Among all these controversial websites, SparkNotes is the most frequent target of debate.   SparkNotes, advertised as “today’s most popular study guide”, is famous for its comprehensive plot overview, character list, analysis of major characters, themes and motifs regarding to a book or play.  It also includes important quotes, key facts, study questions and essay topics.  One of the most distinct features of SparkNotes is its “No Fear Shakespeare” section.  The website shows actual text from any work of Shakespeare, nest to the modern day translation of the text.  No matter whether SparkNotes’ initial intention was to create a “cheating” website or “study guide” website, it has become many students’ magic key to skip over their assigned reading and open the door to the typical high school essay assignment which often involves symbolism or themes in the literature.  Naturally, such abuse of online resource brings controversy and cry for death of original thoughts.  However, the fact is, no one can forbid students to use the sites.  They are everywhere.  Most of the “study guides” are available as e-books for electronic reader, or downloaded to their cellphones.  The trend that more and more students use online textual analysis to achieve better academic scores is unavoidable.

To be honest, I used SparkNotes for many times in high school.  For an assigned book, I would read through the original text, as well as the textual analysis on SparkNotes. Usually, I would try to apply my own thoughts to homework or in-class discussion, but when it comes to formal quiz or test, it was the time for me to “incorporate” the opinions and words from SparkNotes into my own answer.  Even though it was not plagiarism, sometimes I felt a little guilty to steal ideas from online resource.  But such sense of guilt faded after I received a satisfying grade.  After all, the interpretation from SparkNotes did stimulate my though and deepen my insight toward a book, at the same time, improve my grades.  I didn’t realize many implications and symbolizations until SparkNotes told me.  Carl Fisher, chairman of the comparative world literature and classics department at California State University, also recognized that students’ loss of original thoughts is inevitable.  “I make my students submit their papers through turnitin.com,” which is a plagiarism search engine, “if students don’t offer some original thinking, at least they offer some original writing.”

We cannot blame teachers’ distrust on students’ ability to draw the line between learning and cheating because the line itself is too ambiguous.  Take me as the example.  I never memorized the textual analysis on SparkNotes word by word and used it as mine own, but I did steal many ideas from the website.  I tried to provide both my own understanding and SparkNotes’ interpretation at the same time during a test, but I never cited the reference to the website on my test paper.  Will you call it a proper employment of online resource, or cheating?  Moreover, there are some online tools make this issue more complicated.  As I know, many college students use a website called thesaurus.com when they write an essay.  To avoid too many “ordinary” words in their essays, they just need to type the word into the website and find a more rarely-used word among its synonyms, in other words, the SAT word.  Is it a proper way for students to polish their essays, or is it just another way of cheating?  For now, there is no many things teachers or parents can do.  We can only hope that students may find their own way to accommodate today’s overload of information and make responsible choices to utilize the information given.

When I first read The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery in elementary school, I became terrified of growing up; of becoming obsessed with figures, of only caring about money and economy and politics. How could I forget about the roly-polies and butterflies in the garden, and reading my favorite Sunday comics in the newspaper? But this fear of mine seemed to have gradually and subtly become a reality without my notice; several years ago, I wouldn’t be able to fall asleep after watching a horror movie because my mind would play tricks on me, making me see grotesque creatures in the dark, or frightening shapes in my periphery. But just recently, I realized that horror movies no longer scared me the way they used to; I would forget about the jump scares in just a couple hours, and move on with life, monotonously, as if I hadn’t been affected at all by those two hours of intense adrenaline rush. It made me feel like the adults that the Little Prince had encountered, the adults who felt less and were only concerned with “matters of great consequence.” I didn’t like it—so I decided to re-read the story of the Little Prince, and remember the emotions and thoughts I had had as a child. It was then that I realized why it was important that teenagers read young adult books, while adults read children’s books.

The Little Prince is neither exclusively a children’s book, nor an adult book. It’s adorned with pictures that one would see in a children’s book, and it seems to be written so simply. But the meaning behind these simple words go so much further—issues of childhood, adulthood, loneliness, friendship, love, and loss are all brought up through the Little Prince’s excursions. And the criticism of adults is so apparent that maybe this book was meant for adults to read, so that they could be reprimanded for interpreting the world only through figures, rather than through the intangible beauty of nature and emotion. Ultimately, it is a children’s book, written for adults to remind them of how they saw the world as children.

The Little Prince lives on a small planet, with only himself, his sheep, and a rose that he loves and takes care of. But upon discovery of the rose’s vanity and conceit, he decides to leave his planet in search of a new one. The rose cries because she did love him too, but her pride causes her to support his leave. Throughout his travels, the Little Prince explores various planets, all of which contain a greedy king, a conceited man, a drunkard who drinks to forget that he is ashamed to be drinking, a businessman who only cares about the number of stars he owns, and a geographer who reminds the Little Prince that his beloved rose is defenseless and ephemeral. The Little Prince wants to befriend someone, but he does not want to befriend anyone he meets on the other planets because they only think about themselves and hold meaningless occupations. The last planet is Earth, which, the narrator points out, is filled with millions of old kings, conceited men, drunkards, businessmen, and geographers, all adults. There is nobody who the Little Prince would consider befriending on Earth because it is filled with those who have forgotten what is beautiful and meaningful.

Perhaps this a representation of the state of the real Earth; that so many people grow old and forget about how much they cared about the caterpillars, or how they believed the raindrops on the car window were racing each other. Instead they start to care more about the prices tagged onto items, how much profit they can gain, how the politics will affect their economic lives. It’s true that they have to care about these things, as they become independent and have to make a living. However, people have the tendency to neglect things that they feel are not as important. A tree may be uprooted in order to make room for an electrical generator. An old beloved library may be demolished in order to make room for a profitable bookstore chain. They no longer care about trees and old libraries because they have forgotten about the sentimental value in the midst of striving for monetary success.

Maybe horror movies will never have the same everlasting impact on me again; maybe I’ve just grown out of it. But what’s important is that I don’t forget to hold on to what I can’t see—hold on to how alive I had felt during and after the movie when I was a child, and remember that I can feel for things that I don’t even really see. Sentimentality is invisible; you can’t tangibly see it, and that’s why it can be so easy to forget. Like the tamed fox said to the Little Prince, “It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.”

These are words. Words have meaning. We read and listen to understand the meaning of words. If we could skip this process entirely, would that be optimal? For example, imagine that the meaning of words could be transmitted telepathically from one individual to another. Imagine that this applied for that jargon-filled research paper and that one hardly comprehensible philosophy book. While eliminating the process of reading may seem time efficient, the actual activity of reading allows for more learning. Being told the meaning is much different than interpreting the text and arriving at the meaning yourself. Reading begins a critical component of education that promotes a diversity of opinions and individuality.

Interpretation of words serves to diversify the ways words can be read. Not every person is going to have the same impression from a novel. Some of the most interesting conversations about books come from competing interpretations. That is what gives books life—they provide a different experience for every reader. I remember back in middle school there were some heated discussions about the characters of Harry Potter. It was especially heated because each person had their own thoughts about the characters’ motivations and personalities. If the “objective” meaning of the books were transmitted directly to our brains, then this type of discussion would never have come about. The ability to see things in a new perspective is another benefit of differing interpretations. If another person interprets a passage in a certain way, it expands my perspective on the passage. The same concept goes for entire books and the meaning the book has. This ability to understand others’ positions is important for learning and for the future of humanity. Without meaningful discourse and the willingness to listen to others, the road to a peaceful future becomes much more difficult. Reading is a process that necessitates an interpretation, which is why it is so important.

Critical thinking is another reason that the process of reading is useful. Through deconstructing the words, readers are able to make logical connections in order to garner the meaning behind the words. This process actually requires reading the words. Not all texts are going to explicitly state the point in clear and easy words. Philosophy texts, for example, are dense with meaning, but it is not frequently stated in a concise way that makes for easy reading. The activity of reading allows readers to develop their cognitive skills by logically determining the meaning in a text. This was demonstrated through a study that separated students into a few experimental groups. The groups consisted of reading, writing, both reading and writing, and a control group. The study found that there were significant contrasts between the group that engaged in reading and writing and the group that did neither.[1] In tests for critical reading skills, the control group was doing much worse than the other groups. Reading allows for critical thinking skills to develop.

In our gradually increasing technological society, it is sometimes difficult to find moments of peace. These times of solace are crucial to give us times to wind down and observe the world that surrounds us as well as the world within us. Reading allows us to become isolated from all the noise and experience the world through words. Our society is becoming very knowledge driven—every moment of the working day is spent either receiving or relaying knowledge. The professor lectures, the student listens, the IT employee troubleshoots, and the doctor diagnoses. We are always surrounded by this noise of knowledge that buzzes around us constantly. Sometimes, it is just a relief to open up a book and have a two-way dialogue with the book. Yes, the book itself is a means of knowledge, but the reader determines the pace of this knowledge. There is no frantic rush to fulfill a deadline. All that exists is the reader and the words on the page. There are so many different types of books that this moment of peace can be used for almost anything. Books can describe the structure of society, the beauty of the world, or even a method of introspection. The best part about reading is that the reader can slowly, methodically dissect this information and construct it in a way that is meaningful to them. This paced relationship with a book is part of what allows readers to have a sigh of relief when curling up on their bed to read a book. For a brief moment in time, their struggles dissipate under the rhythmic flow of words.