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English
Literature
Welcome to the world of classic literature!
In this world, you will “read things you will never forget.
Some of the characters you meet on these pages are likely to live with
you forever” (Jago 27).
It’s an elite world, a passport to great ideas
of the past, present, and future. Once
you’re in it, you’ll suddenly find classics live all around you—in
journalism, in cartoons, on television, in music, in movies—even on the sports
page. Classic literature is
enduring (and endearing) literature.
When you tackle a classic, it’s not like reading the sports page: “Be
prepared to adjust [your] recreational reading habits to a different kind of
text. Reading a classic, like
learning a language, takes applied effort” (Jago 26). But if you keep at it,
before you know it, you’ll be caught up in Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s theory
of optimal experience:
Contrary to what we usually believe, the best moments in our lives are not
passive, receptive, relaxing times—although such experiences can be enjoyable,
if we have worked hard to attain them. The
best moments usually occur when a person’s body or mind is stretched to its
limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish something worthwhile. (qtd.
in Jago 90)
So let's get started . . .
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