Using SparkNotes to Read Difficult Texts
One strategy I use to read difficult texts is looking at the SparkNotes page for them before even opening the book. SparkNotes is a website that gives overviews of many classic literary texts, along with some philosophy and other subjects. By reading the SparkNotes page before the actual text, you can jump into the text with a basic understanding of what it’s about. This makes it easier to understand, which means you can dedicate your energy to picking up interesting details for class discussion or even an essay, rather than just trying to understand what the writer is saying.
If you’ve taken an Odyssey class in philosophy, you’ve probably read bits of Nichomachean Ethics by Aristotle. Let’s take a look at the SparkNotes page.
Notice the advertisement on the right hand side. One downside to SparkNotes is that it has a lot of advertisements, and tempting ones at that, so it’s best to only visit the site when you’re not in a very clicky mood. To get to this page, I just searched “nichomachean ethics” on the homepage.
Below is a little snippet of the overview SparkNotes gives on Nichomachean Ethics. The entire thing, which I didn’t have space to paste, is about a page and a half long. You can read it here.
Below is a glance at the Themes page. For those of you who studied Nichomachean Ethics with Odyssey, a lot of this should sound familiar. We’ve talked about these themes in class every time I’ve seen it taught.
Take note that SparkNotes and similar websites are not substitutes for reading difficult texts. Rather, they are a tool that can be used to experience difficult texts on a higher level. If you have a basic understanding of a philosopher’s argument, it will be easier, once you read his or her actual words, to do things like point out contradictions, places where elaboration is needed, and much more. SparkNotes is also useful for literature and some poetry. If you had trouble understanding the short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” that was posted on this blog last week, you might check out its SparkNotes page!
For texts like Nichomachean Ethics, which were translated from Ancient Greek, and thus have very dense language, SparkNotes can be a godsend. However, don’t shy away from utilizing it to gain a basic understanding of texts that appear simple before diving into them, as well. Happy reading!
Mining Literature for Deeper Meaning
By TED-Ed (2013)
Understanding the deeper meanings present in literature can both give you more to talk about in class, make the text more fun to read, and speed up the paper-writing process. This four-minute video summarizes how to approach a literary text or poem in order to understand its deeper meaning, and gives side by side examples of surface-level and deeper analysis, so you’ll have an idea of what each looks like.
Lesson by Amy E. Harter, animation by The Leading Sheep Studios.
Odyssey, Extra! 