---- Oh give me a fucking break! Reading Plato in the original is a revelation. Reading De Sade's actual works is a revelation. Reading Marx rather than a commentary or text book is a revelation. Reading Chekhov's letters .....
Each such revelation allowed me to become aware of assumptions I didn't even know I had. Each revelation uncovered something about the world a writer comes out of and the specific gravity of his words.
In fact, when I had to give myself an education in computer science in order to do technical writing, the most useful reading I did was the orginal writing of Turing, Von Neumann, etc.
Stop the nonesense,
Joanna
^^^^^ CB: The situation of the professorate, especially in the US where publishing "original" writing is necessary to avoid "perishing", has a dynamic by which professors have to promote their own writing about classic or major writings. It is untenable to just have students read famous books and teach them. Over the years the derivative literary critical works accumulate, and the past ones must be endorsed by the present professors as a basis for endorsement of their own writings. Can't blame the professors. They are driven by economic self-interest and need . Don't cha think ?