A Lengthy Response to an Offhand Remark Made by a Student in an E-mail

Dear X,

It's been good having you in class, and I'm looking forward to the paper on A Clockwork Orange. That said, I do wish you would've spoken up more. As an Honors Student, you should make a concerted effort to productively contribute in class discussions. And if you find the material difficult, push yourself to figure out why. Ask questions, no matter how naive they might appear to be. Chances are, you're not alone, and as a teacher, it's not easy knowing whether or not people are making sense of material or not.

I want to respond to your remark about not enjoying reading postmodern novels. While I can understand -- and to be honest, don’t care one way or another -- why you might not enjoy reading postmodern novels, I would ask you to consider the following question: what relevance does the alleged difficulty of the language in a particular text (fictional or non-fictional) have to do with one's ability to learn about a topic?

The language used in a text might impact the way you approach it. You might, for example, have to muster the self-discipline to study it regularly, or to consult a dictionary, but your like or dislike of a subject, for whatever reasons, shouldn't impact your capacity to understand or comprehend it.

What concerns me is that, based on your remarks, you appear to confuse your affective response to a subject (and a text) with your ability to understand the concepts and ideas discussed in that subject or text. I want to argue that, ultimately, these things—one's affective response versus their ability to reason and interpret -- are not directly related.

Now, of course, if you happen to 'like' (we won't unpack that term right now) something (say, Cubs baseball or postmodern novels or investing in the stock market) you may be more prone to familiarize yourself with texts about it more regularly, which should help you to increase your knowledge about it, but your liking or disliking it has no bearing on your ability to analyze, interpret, and understand it.

Moreover, I reject entirely your implicit claim that the 'difficulty' of the language used in discourses about a subject necessarily makes that subject inaccessible to the 'common man'. Who is this common man, and in what subjects does he or she naturally or automatically have an adequate grasp of the language? Politics? Sports? Literature? Economics? History? Molecular biology? Chemistry? Art history? Jazz? Hopefully you see where I'm coming from.

I'm trying to make a couple key points here. First, by the time you reach university-level study, every subject should be difficult (i.e., require a great deal of time and effort to understand) to the hypothetical 'common man' on the street (whom I generally regard as a 'straw man' figure; e.g., most everybody has a certain amount of knowledge that makes them uncommon or exceptional in some sense). Indeed, a subject will be difficult and challenging not just to those who are not versed in it, but especially to those who chose to specialize in it as well. That’s because life, the universe, and everthing is, in general, pretty damn complex, at least from our perspective as mere mortal homo sapiens. If the subject matter is not somewhat unfamiliar, difficult or challenging, it probably means the topic has been dumbed down or oversimplified to a level inappropriate for an institute of higher learning.

Second, the necessity of mastering a specialized vocabulary or a group of terms and concepts is not limited to academic study. Specialization is a fact of life in the modern & postmodern world. Every profession has its own way of speaking and its own ideas and concepts that, to the uninitiated will appear obtuse and difficult. This fact is not an insurmountable obstacle, though it is a fundamental challenge that the student of a subject needs to be addressed.

This phenomenon of (ultra) specialization manifesting itself in language holds for more than professions too. Think about music , or sports, or computers or a host of subjects that people get 'obsessed' with. I can talk in depth about rock music with my peers, at least about punk, indie, and alternative music from a certain period, but I’m lost when I hear aficionados of certain subgenres (electronica, hip-hop, death metal, etc.) discuss their bands and their scenes. And my ability to recite and interpret song lyrics from Paul Westerberg's oeuvre (both solo and with The Replacements, relating them to his biography & the sociopolitical & historical phenomena that he sang about) in no way necessarily enhances my ability to play guitar or produce a professional sounding record or to even understand what guitar players mean when they analyze chord progressions or what sound engineers mean when they debate the merit of Pro Tools versus another type of digital-audio software.

Let me give you another example. Because I visit certain websites regularly, have read certain books, and subscribe and read MacWorld each month, I can talk shop with my friends who are fellow Mac users (at least at a certain level, which is general from my perspective, but seems scholarly to my Mom, a stubborn PC user whom I’m tried unsuccessfully to convert to Apple for years) but if my friend who does graphic design gets too into a discussion of, say, how to produce an effect in Photoshop, I’ll need to reach for the reference manuals and interrupt him with questions. Likewise, my European friends who didn’t grow up with American football, often can’t make heads or tails of the discussions I have with my American friends about the NFL playoffs and the NCAA’s Bowl Championship Series. They have to ask about or look in a reference source about terma and rules that will, to them, seem esoteric until they become more involved in a subject. They've got to learn how the game is played. (I don't want to push the discipline as game analogy too far, because the metaphor will break down at a point).

In short, X, you’re an Honors Student. You’ve taken English Comp. If the terminology used in a text confuses you, you should know enough and have the discipline to consult the appropriate reference sources in the library. And if you don’t know offhand which sources to check, you should know enough or have the initiative to ask me, or a professor, or, hell, even a librarian.

Anyway, I don’t mean to sermonize, but since I was supposed to direct your honors paper, & you didn’t come to my office hours, I figured a few “words of advice for young people,” as William S. Burroughs would put it, were in order. Basically, I want to make a point about one of the things you should be doing while you’re attending a university as an undergrad: exposing yourself to different subjects and figuring out how to make sense of & orient yourself within a field/subject/discipline. You needn’t enjoy all of them; indeed, the point is to figure out which ones most interest you so that you can pursue them further down the line, as a professional &/or as simply a curious person. I hope you’re in the process of developing an intellect and that, regardless of your taste in fiction (which, I’ve found can fluctuate radically depending on external factors entirely unrelated to a text’s content) my class has shaped you in a positive way by teaching you how to think more rigorously. As ol' Friedrich Nietzsche put it, “That which does not kill me only makes me stronger.”

It’s almost 3:30 a.m. 'Nuff said.

Take care, and drop by my office occasionally. I like to hear how my former students are doing, and I can let you know my reaction to the Swedish metal you recommended.

All best,

Eric R.
=====
From: [deleted]
Date: Sun, 25 Apr 2004 19:18:12 -0500
To: ericrasmussen@mindspring.com
Subject: RE: [engl105s04] Engl 105: Participation Grade questionnaire

Responses are directly underneath the questions. Enjoy!


>===== Original Message From ericrasmussen@mindspring.com =====
>Dear Class,
>
>Below are a few questions that you will need to answer. Please e-mail me your
responses by Friday, April 30 in a reply to this message.
>
>In your responses, please write complete sentences and be as informative as
possible. This is your chance to 'lobby' on behalf of yourself for the
participation grade you believe that you deserve.
>
>Before answering, please reread the course attendance and participation
policy on your syllabus and then answer the following questions.
>
>1. How many days have you been absent &/or tardy this semester? Be honest,
and if you truly cannot remember, offer your best estimate. If you wish to add
any additional explanations, feel free to do so.

I have been absent a few times lately due to medical reasons. Tardy often due
to class running long beforehand. Outside of that, its the discretion of the
prof.

>
>2. Do you participate actively in &/or out of class? If so, please
characterize your participation (class discussion comments, questions,
Blackboard posts and responses).

I do, but mostly outside of class, not inside. Noone really participates in
class, and the class feels more like a lecture than a discussion, which suits
the class with the difficult readings we've undertaken. My honors assignment
in the class also shows active participation in English Fiction.

>
>3. Have you come to talk with me during my office hours or on another
occasion (after class, during the breaks, etc.)?

I have spoken with you a few times after class and via email.

>
>4. Have you gone to the Writing Center outside of class? If so, how many
times and with whom did you have a conference? Did you find the visit helpful?
Why or why not?

I did use the Writing Center for the Lolita paper, and the counselor's name
escapes me. I did not find it helpful, because I am an active editor of
others papers within the dorms. I feel that I can do this myself, and plan to
take Engl 222 next year, Spring, to increase my skills as an editor for a
career in the field.

>
>5. How do you feel about your progress in the course thus far? Are you happy
with your efforts and the work you've produced? Where do you feel you made the
most improvement?

My coursework has been fundamentally sound, as shown in my stellar midterm
short answer section. My reasoning in postmodern literature, however, has
been lacking a bit, as I have struggled with the fine points. I would like to
add that I personally do not enjoy reading post-modern novels for the reasons
that they exclude the common man with difficult languange. Some discussions
in class linking this material to modern day examples have aided me some.

>
>6. What participation grade do you think you deserve?

Between a B-B+, -A if the Honors Activity paper counts towards my
participation grade and not my total grade.