Bartleby Close Reading

"He is useful to me. I can get along with him. If I turn him away, the chances are he will fall in with some less indulgent employer, and then he will be rudely treated, and perhaps driven forth miserably to to starve. Yes. Here I can cheaply purchase a delicious self-approval. To befriend Bartleby; to humor him in his strange wilfulness, will cost me little or nothing, while I lay up in my soul what will eventually prove a sweet morsel for my conscience." (p53)
The narrator tried befriending Bartleby but was unsuccessful. This quote made it seem like the narrator was concerned for Bartleby. Bartleby didn't seem to want to go anywhere else to work, even later in the story when the narrator was trying to get him to leave and trying to find him other work he turned all other locations down. I felt like the narrator wanted to understand why Bartleby was refusing to do the work and what was going on with him but didn't know how to go about getting him to open up. He seemed more interested in Bartleby than he did in any of his other employees. That could be because Bartleby was the defiant and refusing to do what he was paid to do and then refusing to leave.

Pablo Sanchez from Prague, Czech Republic

Summary vs Annalysis

Summary vs Analysis

A summary is a description of a story, poem, movie, etc.. the

plot, what happens in the story. It does not give great detailed

information about the story just the quick replay of what went

on. Like doing a book report when we were in grade school and

school. Summarizing explains to the reader what happens,

describes the scenes and does not leave the reader with a reason

to argue that this is not what happens or that is not how they

that. It just explains the book.

To do the analysis you are proving your personal points of a

story. Making argumentative statements about the story and you

need to be sure you can back your arguments up with points that

you make in your analysis. Asking yourself if someone could make 

an argument out of what you are analyzing. Break the story into

smaller pieces. An analysis assumes the reader is familiar with

the story so the summary is irrelevant to the

reader. 

The links I have attached to Summary and

Analysis I feel are good explanations of

what the answer is in a nutshell.  

Good Readers and Good Writers

Good Readers and Good Writers

What does Nabokov think makes a good reader? Do you agree? What do you believe are the characteristics of a good reader? Do you consider yourself a good reader?

1911Vladimir_Nabokov_caricature

Nabokov thinks a good reader is someone who has an imagination, good memory, a dictionary and some artistic sense. He says that a good reader is a creative rereader. I do agree with what he says, you have to have an imagination, you have to be able to put yourself in the story to relate to what you are reading. Having good memory of what your are reading to be able to tell others about what you read. You may not necessarily need a dictionary right there while reading a story but depending on what you are reading  some of the words may need to be looked up to understand better what you are reading. The characteristics of a good reader would be someone who has an imagination that could possibly put themselves in the book they are reading, be able to comprehend the words and put details and descriptions together for other people to better understand. 

I personally do not consider myself a good reader, I do have a good imagination, but my memory and artistic sense are very small. I have a hard time explaining what a story is about, whether it is a book or a movie, I do not do a good job with explaining the details or summarizing what it is about.