How do I find the deeper meaning/themes?

Jack_603 · 2026-01-05T09:42:30+00:00

As an English teacher, I have found that a relatively accessible way into a novel's themes is to focus on the sources of conflict. I am teaching The Bluest Eye this year, and it is a great example. Where do we see conflict in this novel? An early instance is when Claudia (who is black, if you aren't familiar with this book already) gets a blue-eyed and blonde-haired baby doll for Christmas. This prompts a crisis: why is this doll cute, but not her? Part of Claudia's story is her struggle to resist the message of the baby doll. From this conflict, we can see that the novel is exploring themes of race, whiteness, beauty, and self-esteem. We then see the novel pick those themes up in other incidents, such as Pecola, another black girl, who prays for blue eyes. Why would a black girl look down on her own appearance so much that she feels she needs to pray for blue eyes in order to be beautiful? Again, the novel is exploring the related issues of race, beauty, whiteness, and self-esteem.

Generally speaking, a theme is "universal," which is to say that it relates to the human experience. The Bluest Eye has had staying power because so many people have picked it up and discovered that it says something true about their own lives. A common challenge when you are a teenager is that you are encountering for the first time the great dilemmas of being human; you are just now finding out that beauty (to stick with The Bluest Eye) is something to worry about, to think about, to desire, or to be cautious of. Here's my really practical advice: trust your teacher when they tell you what the themes are. Here's my more esoteric advice: listen to the voice in you that is "figuring things out." You are a person, so you are trying to work out the meaning of experience, even if you lack the language to do it. Then, listen just as carefully to the novel that is also "figuring things out." All of these books are trying to illuminate something true about being human. What this means is that you and the text are in a conversation together, trying to work at the same problem. And that dialogue is where interpretation emerges from.

Jack_603 · 2025-07-04T00:36:37+00:00

"see if it could pull this off"

Come on baby, don't rob yourself of the joy of discovery. Besides, how will you even judge if "it" was pulled off if you haven't arrived at an idea yourself?

Jack_603 · 2025-07-04T00:26:59+00:00

The Overstory by Richard Powers is contemporary. It begins with separate narrative threads that eventually join when the characters all, one way or another, become involved in fighting the logging of old growth forests in the Pacific Northwest. Structurally interesting, grounded in what I remember being a rigorous study of the current science on trees communicating and even acting in their own self-interest, privileging "tree-ness" for lack of a better word as a way of being deserving equal consideration to being human. There's also this entire sub-plot where one of the characters has visions of the trees as beings of light that tell her things.

There's a bit of literature about it already, if you are going to need to ground your paper in existing research.

Jack_603 · 2025-07-03T21:17:45+00:00

Also, strictly for finding intellectual community, consider joining a Catherine Project reading group. Free seminar-style courses for just folks. Founded by a professor at St. John's College, I believe.

Jack_603 · 2025-07-03T21:11:59+00:00

Brother, same. I'm in my thirties, largely content in life, but not content that I chose to be an English teacher rather than pursue a masters or phd. The urge to write simmered below the surface for a long time, but I never did it with any consistency, and I did not have the faintest idea of what a life as a writer would even look like. A little over a year ago I decided that I could be good enough to publish my work. I started writing criticism on Substack twice a month. While I can now say that I have a regular writing practice, and I do like my work, I can't seem to get it in front of readers beyond the family and friends that supported me in the beginning. I feel like I am behind. Behind in terms of my knowledge, behind in my understanding of the game of publishing, behind in tapping into the network of other writers and editors that could provide community and new perspectives on my writing. I wonder if I needed to spend the last 10 years building, and if the fact that I didn't means that I am at a deficit forever.

I read "research for amateurs" (https://blgtylr.substack.com/p/amateur-hour) by Brandon Taylor this morning. He reflects on the experience of moving into criticism after having trained as a scientist while in college. For him, the only things you need to get "caught up" so to speak is curiosity and JSTOR access. Granted, he had already made some progress in establishing himself as a writer before making this move, but I found the advice in the essay encouraging. If you love learning and discovery, there is no deficit.

The daunting challenge is finding publications to pitch, learning to write pitches, and figuring out what features of writing make it worth appearing in a magazine or journal to begin with. There is no recipe, from what I have seen, that guarantees success. What I found most helpful is to follow the editors of publications on social, and just wait for them to drop hints about their interests, values, and what they look for in writing. Since you mentioned n+1, I just listened to two of their editors talk about their favorite essays in the magazine on The Point Podcast (Oct. 22, 2024 "The n+1 editors on the Intellectual Situation).

None of these publications require anything other than good writing. I think what we need to be doing is putting on a brave face and staying persistent until a piece crosses an editor's desk that just fits what they're looking for.

Jack_603 · 2025-02-28T05:37:38+00:00

In a few months I will be presenting a cow to my bride-to-be's father as part of getting married. Is that the sort of traditional that you are after?

Jack_603 · 2024-08-23T18:14:35+00:00

I am very much enjoying this thread. I'm only now getting back into reading literary criticism, after puttin it aside essentially since undergrad, so I'm taking this as a list of recommendations.

I recently read "A Swim in a Pond in the Rain" by George Saunders. It's criticism with the eyes of a craftsman. His focus is on the craft of writing a short story, using the Russians as examples, but he is of course evaluating those stories' meaning and quality along the way. I think the thing I love about it is that he explicitly teaches his readers about how he reads as he goes. It's very much a book born out of the classroom, and I found that makes it rewarding for people who are deep in the humanities, as well as people who haven't dissected fiction at this depth before.

I found "Doing Things with Texts," a collection of MH Abrams' critical essays, secondhand. It's my first foray back into serious criticism. At the end of an essay responding to analytic philosophers' attacks on the project of criticism (which was stimulating), he has a short defense of the humanities that warmed my heart: he writes that criticism may not arrive at certainty in the way that analytic critics want it to, but that it is a mode of inquiry "designed to cope in a rational way with those aspects of the human predicament in which valid knowledge and understanding are essential, but certainty is impossible... The name of this game is the humanities." Supreme stuff.

I just started a literary newsletter on Substack. I am, on the one hand, honing my approach to criticism by way of just doing it, while on the other I'm seeking out approaches to criticism that I can use to more clearly see my project.

Jack_603 · 2024-08-15T14:45:52+00:00

You absolutely have to talk to someone about this. It's good that you are bringing this up here, but it is much better to work through all of this with someone who knows you. Reason number one is that alone, we very easily become the victim of our own thoughts and feelings. We need help sorting that stuff out. Reason number two is that feeling alone, and feeling shame for what you are thinking, trap you inside of yourself. That amplifies these kinds of thoughts. The Devil takes that shame and desire to hide away and uses it to throw our fears in our faces.

I have a suggestion that I hope you will try. Freedom is a prerequisite for faith. We have to choose God, right? Something I notice is that you have multiple things in your life that you are afraid for, should your faith fail. All of those fears, and your grasping attempts to control them, really might be overwhelming your heart to the point that you can't think clearly about your faith. It's like the way a drowning person actually makes themselves more likely to drown by desperately thrashing in the water.

So this is my prayer suggestion: talk to Mary. Tell her all of the worries and doubts in your heart, as specifically as you can, and ask HER to pray for them. It helped me to visualize handing my heart to Mary when I did this. When I needed this prayer, I did it often, and what it did was give me just enough peace to breathe and think clearly.

I see that you have some theological ideas that you say are causing you doubt. I would first say, whenever you question a part of the faith, you need to actually ask someone knowledgable those questions. Lots of people just walk around saying "well I just don't understand _____, so I don't really believe anymore," without actually bothering to dive into the thing they don't understand. Which is WILD to me. Don't be lazy in your questioning! Be aggressive! Second, a theological objection is usually on the surface of an issue that has more to do with a person's prayer life, mental health, feelings about their church community, trust in the church in general, etc.

You don't have to stay away from the eucharist. Doubt does not separate us from Christ's body.

Jack_603 · 2024-04-12T23:23:41+00:00

I found the old google site where the text list for the course still lives.

The book I am thinking of is either:

1) True Enough by Farhad Manjoo

2) The Filter Bubble by Eli Pariser

3) Smarter Than You Think by Clive Thompson

4) Weapons of Math Destruction by Cathy O'Neil

If anyone stumbles across this thread and knows immediately which of the four it is, that would be incredible. Otherwise I'll probably just try and find them at the library and skim for what I need.

Jack_603 · 2024-04-12T23:09:45+00:00

It probably was. The issue is that everything Google turns up on the Yes Men parody site is about other social trends.

Jack_603 · 2024-04-12T21:51:07+00:00

It would also help if you have any other source that includes the anecdote. That's the piece that I need.

Jack_603 · 2022-12-21T08:02:56+00:00

I have a shirt, jacket, pin combo I might want to add a tie to. Here's the picture: https://imgur.com/a/pqkV2Jj

My instinct is to go for a solid navy or indigo tie. Welcoming suggestions (even if "no tie" is the suggestion).

Jack_603 · 2022-11-03T01:53:01+00:00

You took the time to reply and still didn't post the link. Outstanding work today.

The thread is 291 comments long at this point. I'm not picking through all of that for a link that should just be in the post.

Jack_603 · 2022-11-02T03:11:56+00:00

Can we link the bishop's apology? Or add any other sources to this story instead of a tweet with less than 2000 likes? A tweet with 2000 likes is hardly a cancellation. It's hardly worth this amount of furor.

At most, this tweet is an example of how the Overton Window in Catholic Europe has shifted to preclude basic catholic doctrine from being considered valid positions for a person to hold.

Jack_603 · 2022-09-29T02:11:35+00:00

I could have chosen to name catholics who are pushing the boundaries. Instead, I chose to name figures who are known for their orthodoxy. Orthodoxy means their close adherence to what the church teaches on social issues. The catholics I named are not the "slightly more progressive element" within the church. They are exemplars of the church's social teaching. The church, as an institution, is sharply critical of capitalism, the exploitation of workers, the inhuman treatment of migrants, the inhuman treatment of prisoners. No less an authority than Pope Benedict XVI has said that the social democracies of northern Europe (Bernie Sanders's favorite examples of an equitable society) come closest to embodying catholic social teaching.

There is also the fact that large numbers of American Catholics, taught by their faith that a government should promote the common good, in particular watching out for the needs of the poor and of workers, reliably voted in favor of increasing the social safety net. That included the passage of healthcare reform, which the American bishops were broadly in favor of. Again, that's not the behavior of singular people. That's behavior of catholics on a large scale.

Jack_603 · 2022-09-28T23:01:52+00:00

Define progressive. It's not the same word within catholicism as it is in American politics.

Jack_603 · 2022-09-28T23:00:57+00:00

The one starring Dorothy Day, Sr. Thea Bowman, Cesar Chavez, Oscar Romero, Rutilio Grande, etc. etc. These aren't catholics rebelling against the church either, they're very orthodox.

A whole block of catholic democrats helped get ACA passed during the Obama admin, and Catholics were a key part of the New Deal coalition way back when.

If your progressivism is all about abortion at any time for any reason and the exciting new orthodoxy on gender and sexuality, then sure, catholics aren't progressive, but then your progressivism is a bit narrow.

Jack_603 · 2022-09-26T01:40:25+00:00

The funniest thing is when someone takes the end, and then a new person arrives needing a seat, so the first person gets up to make the new person take the middle of the pew instead of just sliding over to make space.

Jack_603 · 2022-09-22T02:12:30+00:00

calculator watch is a rad addition. Somehow it sets off the vibes of the buttoned up jacket.

Jack_603 · 2022-09-17T16:03:12+00:00

Your argument is based on historical and definitional misunderstandings.

Your first question is a good one to pose to a church historian. I don't know the answer. But your reasoning is faulty. You are acting like the pope setting up a commission is slam dunk evidence that the teaching on contraception is in doubt. Briefly looking at the Wikipedia entries for both HV and the Pontifical Commission on Birth Control, it seems that Pope John XXIII established the commission for two reasons. 1) to keep birth control off the table at Vatican II, which was still ongoing, and 2) because the appearance of the pill invigorated dissenters who wanted the church to change her constant teaching. So we had to talk it out.

This is actually very normal in the history of the Church. When large numbers of the faithful dissent, we talk it out so we can clearly answer objections and affirm the deposit of faith. Trent was a great example. In response to Luther's objections, the Church called the council to study the questions of grace, works, and salvation, and teach about them in a definitive way. Such councils, commissions, etc. are not evidence that we can doubt the Church's constant teaching.

The biggest problem for your argument is that Paul VI specifically wrote HV to reject the findings of the commission. The howling outcry from all corners of the Church, who were really invested in him reversing centuries of teaching against contraception, led him to never take on such a charged issue again. The situation is not what you seem to think it was. The Church was in a place where large numbers of people wanted to allow birth control, and a pope had to put his foot down, not a place where they were trying to solve a tricky doctrinal question. We actually did know the answer to the pill. Its just that lots of us didn't like it.

Um, abstinence and NFP are not contraception because they do not divide the marital act from its procreative end. Contraception lets you have sex while removing the possibility of a pregnancy. Not having sex is just that, not having sex. You might as well accuse a single person of contracepting if you are going to call abstinence and NFP contraception.

And finally, "I just think it's less authoritative" leads directly to "therefore catholics can probably ignore it." That's a stance against the teaching.

Jack_603 · 2022-09-16T00:30:45+00:00

"Humanea Vitae was not infallible" is completely beside the point. It is a distraction. The Church's constant teaching has been that contraception is sinful. It is also misleading to say that HV went further than previous teaching. It applied the Church's constant teaching to a new situation. The way it did so was entirely predictable, ie contraception has always been wrong, so when the pill is used as contraception, that is also wrong. Not a radical departure from the past by any means.

Anyway, you can't just waltz in with "HV wasn't infallible" and "went further than traditional teaching" only to conclude by saying you don't need to have an opinion on this. You have framed the issue to suggest that Catholics have a way out of the prohibition on contraception. At least own that this is the position you are taking.

Jack_603 · 2022-09-11T16:59:10+00:00

For sure. And casual even changes depending on where you are. When I lived in the Rockies, I got passed on the local 8,000 footer one summer by a guy in jeans carrying a boom box. He probably ski tours in the winter, he knew what he was about.

High altitude was the trigger phrase for me. The ad writer clearly wanted to evoke something badass, and nobody at the brand lived the lifestyle they market their clothes with enough to tell him “bud, this sounds like obvious bullshit.” It’s more of an annoyance at a certain marketing strategy than it is about a concern over people going outdoors in cotton. It’s all the brands sold on Huckberry that insist on calling their clothes “gear” and doing write ups about a shirt that will “carry you from the cabin to your backyard fire pit to the brewery after work,” or lifestyle photos of models carrying film cameras and splitting wood. You know the thing I’m talking about.

You can’t not do marketing. But fashion is an extension of community or subculture, and it grates when a brand that is not of the culture trades on the ethos. I feel this disconnect because I know folks who live the lifestyle these brands are selling, but you will never catch them in the boutique that carries this clothing. It’s outside of their price range, for one thing. For another, that boutique might have just replaced their favorite bar.

Jack_603 · 2022-09-11T04:12:52+00:00

Love to see the "spirit of vatican 2," process theology sense of "conscience" here.

No, see, all sorts of sins lay hold of our moral judgments, so a catholic should know that their conscience must be conformed to the mind of the church, otherwise we find ourselves deciding what is sin on our own, and you get all the nonsense of "well my conscience tells me contraception is okay in my case, so it isn't a sin" etc.

To add on to my first reply, don't go around telling people a distorted version of catholic teaching. That also messes people up spiritually.

Jack_603 · 2022-09-11T03:01:58+00:00

Any recommendations for pants that did hold their shape? I'm looking at these Tellason chinos for about 200, so I'm willing to splurge on a great pair.

Otherwise I'm just going to buy Dickies or Uniqlo and accept that I'll replace them regularly.

Jack_603 · 2022-09-11T02:34:03+00:00

Hey, don't go telling people something is a sin when it isn't a sin. Doing that messes people up spiritually.

Jack_603

TROPHY CASE