Good Readers Good Writers V Essay

â€Å"Good Readers and Good Writers† (from Lectures on Literature) Vladimir Nabokov (originally delivered in 1948) My course, among other things, is a kind of detective investigation of the mystery of literary structures. â€Å"How to be a Good Reader† or â€Å"Kindness to Authors†Ã¢â‚¬â€something of that sort might serve to provide a subtitle for these various discussions of various authors, for my plan is to deal lovingly, in loving and lingering detail, with several European Masterpieces. A hundred years ago, Flaubert in a letter to his mistress made the following remark: Commel’on serait savant si l’on  connaissait bien seulement cinq a six livres: â€Å"What a scholar one might be if one knew well only some half a dozen books. † In reading, one should notice and fondle details. There is nothing wrong about the moonshine of generalization when it comes after the sunny trifles of the book have been lovingly collected. If one begins with a readymade generalization, one begins at the wrong end and travels away from the book before one has started to understand it. Nothing is more boring or more unfair to the author than starting to read, say, Madame Bovary, with the preconceived notion that it is a denunciation of the bourgeoisie. We should always remember that the work of art is invariably the creation of a new world, so that the first thing we should do is to study that new world as closely as possible, approaching it as something brand new, having no obvious connection with the worlds we already know. When this new world has been closely studied, then and only then let us examine its links with other worlds, other branches of knowledge. Another question: Can we expect to glean information about places and times from a novel? Can anybody be so naive as to think he or she can learn anything about the past from those buxom  best-sellers that are hawked around by book clubs under the heading of historical novels? But what about the masterpieces? Can we rely on Jane Austen’s picture of landowning England with baronets and landscaped grounds when all she knew was a clergyman’s parlor? And Bleak House, that fantastic romance within a fantastic London, can we call it a study of London a hundred years ago? Certainly not. And the same holds for other such novels in this series. The truth is that great novels are great fairy tales—and the novels in this series are supreme fairy tales. Time and space, the colors of the seasons, the movements of muscles and minds, all these are for writers of genius (as far as we can guess and I trust we guess right) not traditional notions which may be borrowed from the circulating library of public truths but a series of unique surprises which master artists have learned to express in their own unique way. To minor authors is left the ornamentation of the commonplace: these do not bother about any reinventing of the world; they merely try to squeeze the best they can out of a given order of things, out of traditional  patterns of fiction. The various combinations these minor authors are able to produce within these set limits may be quite amusing in a mild ephemeral way because minor readers like to recognize their own ideas in a pleasing disguise. But the real writer, the fellow who sends planets spinning and models a man asleep and eagerly tampers with the sleeper’s rib, that kind of author has no given values at his disposal: he must create them himself. The art of writing is a very futile business if it does not imply first of all the art of seeing the world as the potentiality of  fiction. The material of this world may be real enough (as far as reality goes) but does not exist at all as an accepted entirety: it is chaos, and to this chaos the author says â€Å"go! † allowing the world to flicker and to fuse. It is now recombined in its very atoms, not merely in its visible and superficial parts. The writer is the first man to mop it and to form the natural objects it contains. Those berries there are edible. That speckled creature that bolted across my path might be tamed. That lake between those trees will be called Lake Opal or, more artistically, Dishwater  Lake. That mist is a mountain—and that mountain must be conquered. Up a trackless slope climbs the master artist, and at the top, on a windy ridge, whom do you think he meets? The panting and happy reader, and there they spontaneously embrace and are linked forever if the book lasts forever. One evening at a remote provincial college through which I happened to be jogging on a protracted lecture tour, I suggested a little quiz—ten definitions of a reader, and from these ten the students had to choose four definitions that would combine to make a good reader. I have  mislaid the list, but as far as I remember the definitions went something like this. Select four answers to the question what should a reader be to be a good reader: 1. The reader should belong to a book club. 2. The reader should identify himself or herself with the hero or heroine. 3. The reader should concentrate on the social-economic angle. 4. The reader should prefer a story with action and dialogue to one with none. 5. The reader should have seen the book in a movie. 6. The reader should be a budding author. 7. The reader should have imagination. 8. The reader should have memory. 9.  The reader should have a dictionary. 10. The reader should have some artistic sense. The students leaned heavily on emotional identification, action, and the social-economic or historical angle. Of course, as you have guessed, the good reader is one who has imagination, memory, a dictionary, and some artistic sense–which sense I propose to develop in myself and in others whenever I have the chance. Incidentally, I use the word reader very loosely. Curiously enough, one cannot read a book: one can only reread it. A good reader, a major reader, an active and creative reader is a rereader. And I shall tell you why. When we read a book for the first time the very process of laboriously moving our eyes from left to right, line after line, page after page, this complicated physical work upon the book, the very process of learning in terms of space and time what the book is about, this stands between us and artistic appreciation. When we look at a painting we do not have to move our eyes in a special way even if, as in a book, the picture contains elements of depth and development. The element of time does not really enter in a first contact with a painting. In reading a book, we must have time to acquaint ourselves with it. We have no physical organ (as we have the eye in regard to a painting) that takes in the whole picture and then can enjoy its details. But at a second, or third, or fourth reading we do, in a sense, behave towards a book as we do towards a painting. However, let us not confuse the physical eye, that monstrous masterpiece of evolution, with the mind, an even more monstrous achievement. A book, no matter what it is—a work of fiction or a work of science (the boundary line between the two is not as clear as is generally believed)—a book of fiction appeals first of all to the mind. The mind, the brain, the top of the tingling spine, is, or should be, the only instrument used upon a book. Now, this being so, we should ponder the question how does the mind work when the sullen reader is confronted by the sunny book. First, the sullen mood melts away, and for better or worse the reader enters into the spirit of the game. The effort to begin a book, especially if it is praised by people whom the young reader secretly deems to be too old-fashioned or too serious, this effort is often difficult to make; but once it is made, rewards are various and abundant. Since the master artist used his imagination in creating his book, it is natural and fair that the consumer of a book should use his imagination too. There are, however, at least two varieties of imagination in the reader’s case. So let us see which one of the two is the right one to use in reading a book. First, there is the comparatively lowly kind which turns for support to the simple emotions and is of a definitely personal nature. (There are various subvarieties here, in this first section of emotional reading. ) A situation in a book is intensely felt because it reminds us of something that happened to us or to someone we  know or knew. Or, again, a reader treasures a book mainly because it evokes a country, a landscape, a mode of living which he nostalgically recalls as part of his own past. Or, and this is the worst thing a reader can do, he identifies himself with a character in the book. This lowly variety is not the kind of imagination I would like readers to use. So what is the authentic instrument to be used by the reader? It is impersonal imagination and artistic delight. What should be established, I think, is an artistic harmonious balance between the reader’s mind and the author’s mind. We ought to remain a little aloof and take pleasure in this aloofness while at the same time we keenly enjoy—passionately enjoy, enjoy with tears and shivers—the inner weave of a given masterpiece. To be quite objective in these matters is of course impossible. Everything that is worthwhile is to some extent subjective. For instance, you sitting there may be merely my dream, and I may be your nightmare. But what I mean is that the reader must know when and where to curb his imagination and this he does by trying to get clear the specific world the author places at his disposal. We must see things and hear things, we must visualize the rooms, the clothes, the manners of an author’s people. The color of Fanny Price’s eyes in Mansfield Park and the furnishing of her cold little room are important. We all have different temperaments, and I can tell you right now that the best temperament for a reader to have, or to develop, is a combination of the artistic and the scientific one. The enthusiastic artist alone is apt to be too subjective in his attitude towards a book, and so a scientific coolness of judgment will temper the intuitive heat. If, however, a would-be reader is utterly devoid of passion and patience—of an artist’s passion and a scientist’s patience—he will hardly enjoy great literature. Literature was born not the day when a boy crying wolf, wolf came running out of the Neanderthal valley with a big gray wolf at his heels: literature was born on the day when a boy came crying wolf, wolf and there was no wolf behind him. That the poor little fellow because he lied too often was finally eaten up by a real beast is quite incidental. But here is what is important. Between the wolf in the tall grass and the wolf in the tall story there is a shimmering  go-between. That go-between, that prism, is the art of literature. Literature is invention. Fiction is fiction. To call a story a true story is an insult to both art and truth. Every great writer is a great deceiver, but so is that arch-cheat Nature. Nature always deceives. From the simple deception of propagation to the prodigiously sophisticated illusion of protective colors in butterflies or birds, there is in Nature a marvelous system of spells and wiles. The writer of fiction only follows Nature’s lead. Going back for a moment to our wolf-crying woodland little woolly fellow, we may put it this  way: the magic of art was in the shadow of the wolf that he deliberately invented, his dream of the wolf; then the story of his tricks made a good story. When he perished at last, the story told about him acquired a good lesson in the dark around the campfire. But he was the little magician. He was the inventor. There are three points of view from which a writer can be considered: he may be considered as a storyteller, as a teacher, and as an enchanter. A major writer combines these three—storyteller, teacher, enchanter—but it is the enchanter in him that predominates and makes him a major  writer. To the storyteller we turn for entertainment, for mental excitement of the simplest kind, for emotional participation, for the pleasure of traveling in some remote region in space or time. A slightly different though not necessarily higher mind looks for the teacher in the writer. Propagandist, moralist, prophet—this is the rising sequence. We may go to the teacher not only for moral education but also for direct knowledge, for simple facts. Alas, I have known people whose purpose in reading the French and Russian novelists was to learn something about life in gay Paree or in sad Russia. Finally, and above all, a great writer is always a great enchanter, and it is here that we come to the really exciting part when we try to grasp the individual magic of his genius and to study the style, the imagery, the pattern of his novels or poems. The three facets of the great writer—magic, story, lesson—are prone to blend in one impression of unified and unique radiance, since the magic of art may be present in the very bones of the story, in the very marrow of thought. There are masterpieces of dry, limpid, organized thought which provoke in us an artistic quiver quite as strongly as a novel like Mansfield Park does or as  any rich flow of Dickensian sensual imagery. It seems to me that a good formula to test the quality of a novel is, in the long run, a merging of the precision of poetry and the intuition of science. In order to bask in that magic a wise reader reads the book of genius not with his heart, not so much with his brain, but with his spine. It is there that occurs the telltale tingle even though we must keep a little aloof, a little detached when reading. Then with a pleasure which is both sensual and intellectual we shall watch the artist build his castle of cards and watch the castle of cards become a castle of beautiful steel and glass.   

Component design assignment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Component design assignment - Essay Example h supports components proposes the possibility of making software applications by examining together software components in similar manner to how electronic devices are made from electronic components. This kind of method used to software development is referred to as component based development. Component based development demands to give a thoroughly new approach to the design, construction, putting into effect and development of software applications. Software applications are bring together from components from the different kinds of sources and these components maybe written in several different programming languages and run on different methods. The idea of this trend is to reuse components that is already completed instead of developing everything from the beginning each time. There are many advantages the component-based development brings such as gives support to the higher level of software reuse, it allows testing to be done by first performing a test to each of the compon ents before performing a test to the group of components, free to improve and/or add components as Components express themselves through interfaces. An interface is the connection to the user that will interact with the component. The function Application Programmable Interface (API) are the once who are exposed to the user. If there are any changes to the API, the user has to recompile his code also. In the case of the object-oriented world, the interface is a group of public methods defined for an object wherein this object is controlled through its interface. In the language of C++, the code can only be recompiled when the interface (code) is changed. The problem is that the user of the class must use the same programming throughout the entire development. In separating the interface from the implementation, the languages used are the COBRA and COM which is done through binary interfaces. There are three major component models that are successfully used today which show accurately

African american life through 1865-1920 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

African american life through 1865-1920 - Essay Example Thesis The establishment and crash of the Freedman's Savings and Trust Company influenced on social and economic life of African Americans starting from 1865 to 1874. A great contribution the FSB has made into genealogical research and records of the lives of African Americans during that period. The post Civil War period and the way African Americans have spent these years can be traced via documentation about each depositor and his family recorded by the FSB. Introduction A period to be considered in the essay is 1865-1874 years. This period was marked by the establishment of the Freedmen's Savings and Trust Company in 1865. This landmark was essential for further improvement and establishment of community bonds and social advancement of African Americans. These people have experienced numerous complexities and challenges starting from 1861, though 180,000 served in the army (The Long Walk, 2008). The first signs of the Freedman’s savings bank occurred during the Civil War a nd were initiated by the American officers. With the help of monetary savings, establishment of communal savings communities the African Americans wanted to support their relatives and families in economically hard times (Cox, 2008). Moreover, the deposit bank establishment provided key documentation and now it is possible to trace the actions of African Americans activities before and after war. In other words: â€Å"In many ways the FSB records document various aspects of collective economic activities in the transition from slavery to freedom† (Josiah, 2004). Bank’s establishment A specific nature of the FSB and its direct relation to African Americans can be explained by the nationality of depositors. The depositors consisted of veterans, ex-slaves and their families. The main goal of the FSB establishment is its influence on the social life African Americans. These people had a hope to deposit their savings and in such a way to invest in their future. Moreover, di fferent institutions and organizations received a chance to increase their financial power and expand their activities. Therefore, the interest of African Americans and an overall cooperation of this nation at all levels signify a strong social tendency to integration for a common good. For example, during that period such kind of organizations has occurred: ‘different hospitals, schools, the St. Elizabeth Home for Colored Children and the St. Francis Xavier Church’s Orphan Aid Society† (Josiah, 2004). Another important fact that means a trustful attitude of African Americans to the FBS is that the leading positions in the bank were occupied by the community activists: â€Å"A large number of African American soldiers and veterans of the Civil War held savings accounts in the banks; the management of their funds was organized through an allotment system supervised by the officers of the respective army regiments† (Joseph, 2005). As far as we can see, Africa n Americans were devoted to the FSB on the basis of a secure deposit management and supervision. A military background of the bank establishment and operation served as a perfect guarantee of a safe nature of deposits and was appealing for representative of any occupation among African Americans. Therefore, this bank has turned into â€Å"the largest single repository of lineage-linked African-American records with more than 480,000 names† (Joseph, 2005). At the highest point of its success, the FSB held assets that mounted up to $3.7 million. What is Freedman’s Savings Bank? African American

Ways of Praying Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Ways of Praying - Essay Example Prayers of corporate confession focus on the wrong that is committed jointly, rather than the sins of each person. Paul Bradshaw, in his book Two Ways of Praying, describes these prayers as cathedral prayer and monastic prayer. Cathedral prayer is mainly led by ordained, formally appointed ministers, while in monastic prayer each person in the community takes obligation to take turn at the reading, speaking or singing that is part of the prayer (Bradshaw, 1995). Cathedral prayer is the obligation of the whole congregation while monastic prayer is more of individual activity. In addition, cathedral prayer is mainly outward, involving occasional gatherings for prayer that is reinforced by praise and intercession. Monastic prayer is mainly inward-looking, that is communicated through a person’s mind and heart, and thus it assists in forming the person who prays. Moreover, cathedral prayer is supported by externals of worship actions and materials such as candles and vestments, wh ile monastic prayer does not necessary require material support, since it mainly involves silent meditation. Generally, prayer enable us to communicate with God by allowing us to be aware of the encounters with God we experience at various times of our lives. Prayers therefore help us to learn to arrive with fullness of our heart, mind, body, feelings, and experience into the living presence of God and to receive the revealed fullness of God’s own heart, word, body, love, and reality for us in ever-deepening mutual intimacy (Dahill, 2005, p.10). The next part of this paper will be based mainly on corporate prayers of confession in the church. One’s spiritual wellbeing is much related to the spiritual wellbeing of others, thus, goodness of the community is very essential for the goodness of individuals. God uses confession as a means for helping people to move past their sins to better and deeper self lived existence within the communal interdependence. Through corporat e prayers of confession, community is able to turn away from sin and begin the process of healing from the suffering. This type of confession enables community to receive God’s will towards wellbeing, as the sins are washed away because they normally block the community from receiving the goodness. Sins therefore lead to isolation and fragmentation of our society, as we concentrate on seeing the problems as originating outside ourselves, rather than concentrating on ways of resolving these problems as a community. Fragmentation in turn leads to powerlessness, as fragmentation makes us focus on perpetuating the problem rather than participating in forms of it resolution (Suchocki, 1996, p.80). The powerlessness makes people to refuse responsibility for problems that are caused by evils in our society; hence, they distance themselves from efforts to seek forgiveness and addressing the problems. The powerlessness makes people to be more individualistic, thus, the church does not confess its corporate sins. By church shunning confessions of its corporate sins, the God’s merciful power of social renewal is left uninitiated, as church member are more concerned about addressing their individual problems while hiding from the social aspects of all personal sins. Christians therefore become more involved in privately confessing their personal sins, while forgetting that personal confession only is not sufficient to attract God’s forgiveness for social sins of our society. As individuals, we participate in various corporate evils that warrant corporate confession. When the church

Behavioural Intervention Grading Scheme Case Study

Behavioural Intervention Grading Scheme - Case Study Example Alyssa will get a chance to showcase her potential and overcome the obstacle of Autism to thrive in the world of education just like her peers and mentors. Alyssa’s problem behaviour of punching and scratching her legs and arms when upset has led to her being moved away from her peers and other care givers. This has led to her being examined by her physician, Dr. Taylor who has recommended a rationale and monitoring her behaviour since she does not have any history. The Joint attention process is one of the underpinning skills of communal behaviour. A joint attention is a communal contact between a child and another whereby they carve up attention on a familiar subject matter or purpose. Joint attention develops by whats more responding to one’s awareness directive or developing joint attention with an extra person. The major rationale of the Joint attention program is the â€Å"application of an objective as the way for obtaining a grown-ups attention†. The involved child (in our case Alyssa) develops a significant social contact with the adult care givers by directing their gazes at the mutual objective or coming to terms with the adults’ satisfaction of the objective by smiling and responding properly. Imitation is the foundation for gaining a new-fangled skill set. A child suffering from autism will observe a skill and emulate the behaviour in anticipation of competently learning and generalizing the new skill into all domains. Alyssa will definitely benefit from taking part in such a task since she will feel accommodated and gain the confidence of her peers and care givers. Social play manners is a multifaceted set of inherent behaviours used to pilot peer play. Restricted ability to act in response to joint attention bids, kick off social interaction and emulate social behaviour diminish social play

Fate or free will Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Fate or free will - Essay Example As he told me, he was only forced by his circumstances. I myself believe in determinism – that all events are ultimately determined by causes that are external to human will. These events, or the things that happen, even include human action. That man was hungry that is why he stole. It is therefore preposterous to think that he wanted to steal out of free will. There was an explanatory cause, or a cause that ultimately explains his action of stealing. That explanatory cause was hunger. Had he not been hungry, he would not have stolen the money. I am sure you understand and agree with me, Socrates. Socrates: You are right, and no man can ever separate himself from the appetitive and spirited parts as long as he is alive. Moreover, one should know that â€Å"For when [the soul] tries to consider anything in company with the body, it is evidently deceived by it† (Plato, Phaedo, 64c). Therefore, the soul is not free as long as it is with the body, as long as one is alive. This is the part of the soul that conforms to determinism. Socrates: Indeed, it was. However, it was not purely free will on his part, because the fact that he has within him and working at the same time – the appetitive, spirited and rational desires – may have in fact deceived him. What is human choice then? Me: Human choice is the action that results from being governed by external determinism and possessing internal free will – both existing at the same time. So, in short, what are you trying to tell me about that man, Socrates? Socrates: That he did make a choice that he could otherwise have refused or that he had the power to cancel, but that he did make this choice only after his appetitive desires have deceived him, human as he was. However, we cannot conclude anything whether he was a good man or an evil man. We can only say he was not wise

International Accounting Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

International Accounting - Research Paper Example This essay stresses that financial reports will always need to be produced to satisfy statutory requirements, such as filing accounts or for the presentation of tax returns. As the harmonization of accounting standards takes place on a global scale, corporate reports become more comparable. This is useful for the investors who should be able to compare financial information from different business that are located in different countries. This paper makes a conclusion that in International accounting, the purpose of corporate reporting is to compliance with accounting standards. Despite the number of accounting standards in issue and the requirement for accounts to present a true and fair view, there are still number of companies that fail to comply with requirements of the standards. The financial reporting review panel in UK has the aim of ensuring that both public and private companies comply with the companies Act and accounting standards. It has expanded its role to assess financial statements prepared under international accounting standards in the UK. There are key differences between UK Standards and IFRS. The presentation of single company and group accounts in UK is governed by Companies Act 2006. but for companies or groups listed on stock exchange within European Union, they are obliged to prepare annual financial statements in accordance with International accounting standards.... The framework does not define these ideas, but compliance with international standards and the framework will help to achieve these ideas. Assessment of International Accounting The International accounting framework provides a conceptual underpinning for International financial reporting standards. One of the objectives of the framework is to provide a basis for the formulation of international financial reporting standards. The another advantage of international accounting is that the framework forms a basis for dealing with any accounting issues that arises which are not covered by accounting framework. The framework’s approach builds to corporate reporting around the definitions of assets and liabilities and the criteria for recognizing and measuring them in a statement of financial position. This approach views accounting form the perspective of the statement of financial position whereas most of companies would not consider the measurement and recognition of assets and l iabilities as the starting point for the determination of profit. In many jurisdictions, the financial statements form the basis of dividend payments, the starring point of the assessment of taxation, and often the basis for executive remuneration. A balance sheet fair value system, which International accounting standard board seems to favor, would have a major impact on the above elements. Current Development This is a long term joint project between International accounting standards and the US FASB, which was first agreed in 2004. The end point of the eight stage project will be approval of single, self-contained document which will create a foundation for the development of future accounting standard that are principal based, internally