Close Reading Books For Beginners: Reading for Understanding vs Pleasure

Summary

In this episode of Rapid Fire, the focus is on distinguishing between reading for understanding and reading for aesthetic pleasure. The video explains that reading for understanding involves parsing through complex texts like philosophy books to grasp arguments and ideas, while reading for aesthetic pleasure is about appreciating the beauty and emotional impact of language in literature and poetry. The host encourages viewers to practice discerning between these two forms of reading to enhance their literary experience and develop a deeper sensitivity to the written word.

Takeaways

• 📚 The video discusses the difference between reading for understanding and reading for aesthetic pleasure, emphasizing the importance of recognizing these two distinct approaches to reading.
• 🤔 Reading for understanding involves parsing through text to find arguments, evidence, and the author's line of thinking, which is often found in philosophy books and academic texts.
• 🎨 Reading for aesthetic pleasure is about appreciating the beauty of words and the sensory and emotional experiences they evoke, as seen in poetry and literary works.
• 🧠 The video suggests that confusing these two types of reading can lead to frustration and difficulty in comprehending the text.
• 📈 Skillshare is highlighted as a platform offering various classes, including one by the video creator on how to incorporate more reading into one's life.
• 👨‍🏫 The 'Back to Basics' course by the video creator is advertised as a comprehensive guide to essential reading concepts, including book selection and establishing a reading habit.
• 📈 Skillshare is offering a one-month free trial, allowing access to a wide range of creative classes, not just the video creator's course.
• 📘 Philosophy books are often difficult to read due to their dense content and the complexity of the ideas they present, which is a challenge for readers seeking understanding.
• 📖 The video encourages viewers to practice reading to develop the ability to discern between reading for understanding and reading for aesthetic pleasure.
• 💡 It's noted that some books may contain elements of both reading for understanding and reading for aesthetic pleasure, requiring readers to be adept at identifying the purpose of different sections of text.
• 🌟 The ultimate goal of reading, as presented in the video, is to gain a deeper understanding of the world and to experience different perspectives, which can build empathy.

Q & A

What is the main focus of today's episode of Rapid Fire reading tips?

The main focus of today's episode is on the distinction between 'content versus form' in reading literature, philosophy, and complex writing on the internet.

What is the general rule of thumb for reading different forms of writing mentioned in the script?

The general rule of thumb is to read between the lines and judge different forms of writing using the distinction between reading for understanding and reading for aesthetic pleasure.

What are the two modes of reading discussed in the video?

The two modes of reading discussed are 'reading for understanding' and 'reading for aesthetic pleasure'.

How does reading for understanding differ from reading for aesthetic pleasure?

Reading for understanding focuses on finding arguments, propositions, and philosophical principles by parsing through the text, while reading for aesthetic pleasure is about appreciating the beauty of words, the sensory and emotional joy derived from the language, and not necessarily explicating everything.

Why are philosophy books often considered difficult to read?

Philosophy books are often considered difficult to read because they are laden with complex arguments, justifications, and evidence, which require the reader to jump through mental hoops to understand the philosopher's viewpoints or system of thinking.

What is the role of skillshare in today's episode?

Skillshare is the sponsor of today's episode, and it is a platform offering a variety of classes in creative fields such as graphic design, UX design, creative writing, and more.

What is the 'Back to Basics' course mentioned in the script?

The 'Back to Basics' course is a Skillshare course created by the host, which serves as a cheat sheet for essential reading concepts covered in the host's channel, including how to select books, establish a reading habit, and entry points into literature and philosophy.

How does the host describe the experience of reading literature for aesthetic pleasure?

The host describes reading literature for aesthetic pleasure as a magical experience that allows readers to see different shades of the world, build empathy, and appreciate the beauty of words beyond their literal meaning.

What is the importance of being able to distinguish between reading for understanding and reading for aesthetic pleasure?

Being able to distinguish between reading for understanding and reading for aesthetic pleasure is crucial for a strong reader as it prevents confusion and allows for a deeper appreciation of the text, whether it's meant to educate or provide aesthetic pleasure.

What advice does the host give to those who are struggling with reading complex texts?

The host advises not to be afraid to engage with books and to practice reading to develop sensitivity towards words, which will eventually lead to the ability to read through a book like an X-ray, identifying its purpose.

Outlines

00:00

📚 Introduction to Content vs. Form in Reading

The video begins by introducing the topic of 'Content vs. Form' in reading, focusing on how to read between the lines in literature and philosophy. The host highlights the importance of understanding the underlying meaning and not just the surface text. The episode is sponsored by Skillshare, a platform offering various classes in creative fields. The host also mentions their own course on Skillshare, 'Back to Basics,' which serves as a comprehensive guide to improving reading habits and understanding literature and philosophy. The video promises to delve into the two modes of reading: for understanding and for aesthetic pleasure.

05:01

🧠 Reading for Understanding: Philosophy and Arguments

This section discusses the first mode of reading, which is reading for understanding. It emphasizes the need to parse through texts that are dense with arguments and statistics to grasp the author's viewpoint. The host explains that this type of reading is not about enjoying the form of the writing but rather about following the author's line of thought to achieve a moment of enlightenment. Philosophy books are highlighted as a prime example of texts that require this mode of reading, with their often complex and challenging language. The host also notes that some philosophers, like Bonoan, manage to write beautifully and rigorously, offering both aesthetic pleasure and philosophical depth.

10:03

🎨 Reading for Aesthetic Pleasure: Literature and Poetry

The final paragraph shifts focus to the second mode of reading, reading for aesthetic pleasure. This mode is about appreciating the form and language of a text for its sensory and emotional impact, rather than seeking a deeper meaning. The host argues that literature and poetry gain their profundity from ambiguity and that the joy comes from engaging with the text's surface rather than trying to explicate everything. Poetry, in particular, is highlighted as a form that stands on its own, carrying its own weight beyond meaning. The host encourages readers to practice distinguishing between these two modes of reading to become stronger readers and to enjoy the full range of what literature and poetry have to offer.

Keywords

💡Content vs. Form

Content refers to the information or message conveyed by a piece of writing, while form refers to the style or manner in which the content is presented. In the video, the distinction between content and form is crucial for understanding how to read literature and philosophy. The script discusses how readers often focus on the content's meaning but should also appreciate the form's aesthetic qualities. For example, the video explains that reading for understanding involves parsing through text to find arguments and propositions, whereas reading for aesthetic pleasure is about enjoying the language's sensory and emotional impact.

💡Reading Between the Lines

This phrase means interpreting the implicit or underlying meaning in a text rather than just the explicit content. The video emphasizes the importance of reading between the lines to fully grasp the depth of literature and philosophy. It suggests that readers should not only focus on the surface meaning but also consider the subtext and the author's intentions, which can lead to a richer understanding of the material.

💡Aesthetic Pleasure

Aesthetic pleasure is the enjoyment derived from the sensory and emotional experience of art, including literature. The video discusses how reading for aesthetic pleasure involves appreciating the beauty of words and the sensory experience they provide, rather than seeking to understand or explain their meaning. This is contrasted with reading for understanding, where the focus is on deciphering arguments and propositions.

💡Philosophy Books

Philosophy books are a type of literature that often requires reading for understanding due to their dense arguments and complex ideas. The script mentions that philosophy books can be difficult to read because they are not always written with aesthetic pleasure in mind but rather to convey intricate philosophical concepts. The video uses philosophy books as an example of texts where the form of writing might be challenging, but the content is meant to lead to a moment of enlightenment.

💡Skillshare

Skillshare is an online learning community with a vast array of classes in creative fields, mentioned as a sponsor of the video. The video's creator highlights Skillshare as a resource for learning various skills, including those related to reading and literature. The creator also mentions their own course on Skillshare, 'Back to Basics,' which serves as a comprehensive guide to the concepts discussed in their video series.

💡Analytical Reading

Analytical reading is a method of reading that involves breaking down a text to understand its structure, arguments, and underlying ideas. The video briefly touches on this concept, suggesting that it is a key aspect of reading for understanding. The script mentions that this type of reading is about finding the important information in the text and understanding the author's viewpoints.

💡Reading Habit

A reading habit refers to the regular practice of reading, which is discussed in the video as something that can be established and improved. The video suggests that developing a reading habit is important for becoming a better reader and for integrating more reading into one's life. The script also mentions that the 'Back to Basics' course on Skillshare covers how to establish a reading habit.

💡Literary Criticism

Literary criticism involves the analysis and interpretation of literature, often focusing on the form, style, and literary techniques used by the author. The video discusses how some readers may not appreciate the aesthetic aspects of literature, which is a form of literary criticism. It contrasts this with reading for understanding, where the focus is on the content and meaning rather than the form.

💡Empathy

Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of others. The video suggests that reading literature can build empathy by showing readers different perspectives and experiences. It implies that through reading for aesthetic pleasure, one can gain insight into various shades of the world and the emotional experiences of characters, thus fostering empathy.

💡Reading Comprehension

Reading comprehension is the ability to understand and interpret written material. The video discusses the importance of reading comprehension in distinguishing between reading for understanding and reading for aesthetic pleasure. It suggests that developing this skill allows readers to navigate different types of texts and to identify the purpose of each piece of writing, whether it is to educate or to provide aesthetic pleasure.

Highlights

Introduction to the concept of 'content versus form' in reading literature and philosophy.

The importance of reading between the lines for deeper understanding.

The challenge of discerning meaning in complex texts without proper training.

The need for different reading strategies for various types of material.

The distinction between reading for understanding and reading for aesthetic pleasure.

Skillshare's sponsorship and its offerings for creative learning.

The author's personal use of Skillshare and its impact on their business.

The 'Back to Basics' course by the author on reading habits and literature.

Skillshare's one-month free trial offer for new users.

The analytical approach to reading for understanding in texts like philosophy books.

The difficulty of philosophy books and the need for careful reading.

The contrast between the clarity of writing and the complexity of philosophical thought.

The immersive experience of reading for aesthetic pleasure versus the analytical approach.

Poetry as an example of reading for aesthetic pleasure and its focus on form over meaning.

The importance of not mixing reading for understanding with reading for aesthetic pleasure.

The ability to discern between different reading forms as a mark of a strong reader.

The practical advice of practicing reading to develop sensitivity and understanding.

Encouragement for readers to explore books and refine their reading skills.

Transcripts

today's episode's proudly sponsored by

skillshare and more in a sponsor a

little bit later hello and welcome back

to yet another episode of Rapid Fire

reading tips to help you become a better

reader and today given the results from

the community poll that we did uh the

winner here is actually content versus

form a video on content versus form and

this is basically going to be an

introduction into how to read between

the lines When You're Reading literature

and philosophy and when you're engaging

with pieces of writing on the Internet

or when you're engaging with some very

complicated pieces of writing this is a

general rule of thumb that you can live

by and you can sort of Judge different

forms of writing using this general rule

and hopefully you can take this tip away

with you to apply to all of your

readings so let's start with a question

that plagues every English major ever or

every beginner reader ever so if you're

just interested in literature or

philosophy or some other kinds of

esoteric reading material at some point

you're going to find yourself staring at

a page asking yourself what does it all

mean the trick with better reading is

that if you're you're not equipped to

deal with the reading material if you

just kind of like naively assume that

you can kind of Glide your eyes across

the page and somehow make sense of

what's on the page then you are going to

set yourself up for confusion and

episodes of getting mad at yourself in

episodes of banging your head against

the wall because writing and reading

these are fields that we've completely

taken from granted and the education

system really uh hasn't supplied us with

much guidance or proper training in this

faculty and I guess we've never learned

to tree different reading material with

different frames of reading and you

can't just tree everything with a one

size footall solution and this is very

difficult to do because words all look

the same on the page they're basically a

collection of densely packed words in a

format of a book with a with a pretty

cover and sometimes without proper

training it's really hard to tell them

apart because they just all look the

same they're all just words and today

we're going to make a clear distinction

between two forms of reading first mode

is reading for understanding and a

second mode is reading for aesthetic

pleasure so for the rest of this video

we are going to explain these two points

in a bit of depth so hopefully you can

walk away from this video knowing which

one is which but before that I have

something really exciting to kind of

talk about which is today's video

sponsor skillshare in short skillshare

is a schoras board of different classes

that you can take that are specifically

specialized more in the creative field

so if you want to learn about graphic

design if you want to learn about ux

design if you want to learn about

creative writing

Fine Arts skillshare will have a right

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personally I used skillshare a lot

during the beginning phases of my

business and skillshare as a platform

really provided me with all those skill

sets that I needed to learn and they

really perfected those skills with these

targeted courses in ux design uh graphic

design and of course photography and

videography and one course course that

I'm particularly proud of because I've

created it is my Back to Basics course

on how to bring tum reading into your

life I created and curated this course

about a year ago and this is basically

like a cheat sheet of my over over 200

videos that I've done on my channel and

this course is basically a cheat sheet

that's going to give you an expressed

lanway into every concept or the

essential Concepts that I've covered on

this channel and of course we talked

about how to select the right books we

talked about how to establish a reading

habit and of course I provided you with

two entry points wind into literature

and wind into philosophy to sort of

complete the whole package of guiding

you into the basics of bringing more

reading into your life and I think if

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one and here's another piece of good

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you Skiller for sponsoring today's video

and now we are going to get back to this

distinction between reading for

understanding and reading for aesthetic

pleasure so let's start with reading for

understanding as a broad generalization

anytime you spot a text that's kind of

dry that's Laden with Statistics and

arguments and uh the person trying to

sound smarter than they are it's

probably the case that it is a piece of

writing that demands your attention to

understand it broadly speaking reading

for understanding is really all about

finding arguments finding propositions

finding overarching you know

philosophical principles by parsing

through the text line by line by finding

out the important information in the

text I've covered this kind of

analytical reading in a short video of

mine it's a actually quite a popular

video so you can watch it you know it's

probably going to pop up somewhere on

the screen right here you're essentially

trying to get behind the text you're

essentially trying to use texts as

indicators for what the text is supposed

to mean because the author is always

trying to put forth arguments and

justifications and evidence and

elaborations to convince you of their

viewpoints of the world or their entire

system of thinking and one of the Prime

examples of reading for understanding is

philosophy books and have you ever

wondered why philosophy books are so

damn difficult to read we can proudly

Crown philosophy as the home of bad

writing because actually the for these

kinds of reading isn't really about the

form of the writing isn't really about

writing beautiful Pros so you get lost

in the sea of great stories and visions

and aects but it's really about walking

you through the Hoops so that you you

would eventually understand where this

thinker coming from and some of these

frames of thinking could get really

complicated real fast for example

Emanuel kant's famous three critiques

critique of pure reason critique of

practical reason and uh critique of

judgment you know they're really

philosophically

rigorous works but God are they awful to

read on a daily basis and we can say the

same for Theodore dorno which is the

critical theorist and we can say the

same for Hegel we can say the same for

Jameson so there are many of these

examples where uh they've got some good

thinking going on up in up in their

heads but God their writing is just

sometimes really tedious to get through

in summary reading for understanding

isn't necessarily about putting your

attention on the form of the writing

that's why sometimes the form could be

bad and difficult to read the point

isn't really to enjoy these texts but

the point is for you to jump through all

these mental Hoops to reach where the

philosopher is reaching you're after

that sudden vision of Enlightenment

after parsing through some tedious

writing after weaving through some

complicated arguments and after tracing

the author's line of thinking and

finally the fog parts and man you

understand this piece of writing or you

understand this philosopher or you

understand that sociologist or whatever

else and just as a bit of a reversal

here there are cases in philosophy where

the authors are really good writers and

bonoan is a very good point his books

are beautifully written yet also

philosophically rigorous so in a sense

you're getting the pleasure of reading

and philosophical understanding out of

the same book but man doing this kind of

stuff is really hard because it's really

hard to carry complicated thinking into

readable language and this is a

challenge every thinker needs to face

and that leads us to the second most of

reading which is reading for aesthetic

pleasure you can usually tell where

someone's reading levels at once you

showed them a passage from a piece of

literary work are they irritated at the

pros of the work do they not see it a

point of describing everything in a

flowery language do they think the

author being purposefully opaque with

their writing and most importantly do

these people ask you to explain what the

passage means if a person enters

literature from this Frame of view of

like I don't see the point in Hest

language I don't see the point point of

this passage or I don't see the point of

uh creating the kind of language to

communicate the story then that

basically tells you that they're

confusing reading for understanding with

reading for aesthetic pleasure now

reading for aesthetic pleasure is not

reading for understanding because

aesthetic pleasure stems from a place

where you have to give up that need to

explicate everything you're kind of in

it to get lost in a moment you're in it

to seek out the way the words make you

feel you're there to appreciate this

passage or this paragraph from a moment

to moment basis and you're trying to

gain some sort of sensory joy out of it

some sort of emotional joy out of it and

honestly if Reading literature is all

about asking what it means then all

novels will be written in lists not

paragraphs this knee-jerk reaction for

us to get to the bottom of a piece of

literature without realizing that hey

actually everything's already on the

surface you're supposed to derive the

point of this literature from the

surface of this text is in a sense

barricading us from accessing what

literature is actually for it's supposed

to be there as an aesthetic object it's

there for us to appreciate the beauty of

the words one of the exemplars of

reading for aesthetic pleasure is poetry

and our friend Beno Han here who I just

referenced uh a few minutes ago has some

pretty important things to say about

poetry quote a poem a form made of

signifiers linguistic signs is a thing

because it cannot be dissolved into

meanings like I explained in the last

video the form exists in its own Riot it

carries its own weight

and there's really no point for us to

remove the form and somehow get to a

deeper meaning of the thing and a point

of reading these forms that stand on

their own is to gain as much pleasure as

possible from words beyond their meaning

so in summary poetry and literature

unlike philosophy gain their profundity

from ambiguity The Joy doesn't stem from

Sudden visions of Enlightenment like

philosophy but they stem from lingering

with the worst they stem from asking

different questions they stem from

getting kind of confused by the whole

story of of certain phrasing in a novel

or they stem from this adventure in

hunting down different ways of

portraying the world and different ways

of viewing the world and different ways

of feeling the world so it's a very

magical experience and perhaps the most

important gift literature and poetry

could give us is to show us different

shades of the world that were previously

inaccessible to us that's how reading

these kinds of books builds empathy

within us in the final analysis reading

for understanding and reading for

athetic pleasure these are two very

different things that you shouldn't mix

up and if you mix them up you're signing

yourself up for some major episodes of

headache just as a bit of a side note

there are certain books that sort of

contain both forms of reading for

example you can have a novel that

employs some pretty heavy Year Edition

that employs a lot of sort of like

explanation or expository writing that

drives you insane and vice versa there

could be a book that's trying to teach

you a concept through a beautiful story

and the hmark of being a really strong

reader is being able to tell which is

which even within the same paragraph you

as a reader this is one of the skills

that you really have to practice which

is to read between the lines and to tell

which is which because without this key

distinction here a text gets confusing

real fast and just has a bit of a

practical takeaway at the end of this

video practice makes perfect so don't be

afraid to dip your toes into a book and

don't be afraid if you can't quite tell

reading from understanding from reading

for aesthetic pleasure just yet once

you're exposed to enough texts and once

you get into some episodes of confusion

once you sort that confusion out one day

you will be able to develop that

sensitivity toward words one day you

will be able to read through a book like

an x-ray so you can identify clearly

this book is about this this book is

trying to educate me or this book is

supposed to give me some aesthetic

pleasure so all in all everything's fine

you just have to read a little more to

get to this point nevertheless that's

all I want to cover in today's video

hope you guys have gained some value out

of it and leave me a comment down below

let me know what you think are you also

struggling to tell form apart from

content are you also struggling with

books related to understanding and

related to gaining aesthetic pleasure so

let me know I'd love to hear your

thoughts on this topic anyway thank you

for watching yet another episode of

Rapid Fire reading tips to help you

become a better reader and Robin Walden

here I will see you in the next video

for now take care happy reading and

goodbye