Book on reading fiction

[Mark Kohut]

How to Read Literature Like a Professor.  
It is worth reading, imho---Alice W. will chime in
with more if she has time, I'm sure, she knows it better than I do since I have only read into it
and not all of it. Reason below:  Covers the basics of 'getting fiction' for those who feel lost about "symbolism", 
quest myths, narratorial stances and so on
---I believe he talks not profoundly but soundly about Lot49 as a quest novel
in it. Uses classics as well as more modern novels; Shakespeare as well as vampire stories, and lots more,
I think.Guy is/was a prof at a solid mid-western University, if I remember right
 
I know something interesting about the history of this book:
It now sells hugely as a prescribed text for many college English/Literature courses. An example of 
slowly building success and finding that 'market' over time. Because:
 
I was with the originating publisher, Morrow, when it was new. We couldn't give it away, so to speak,
as a new book, even when it was a new paperback. Who wants to read 'like a professor"? most booksellers
told us, people just read for pleasure [meaning page-turningly, mostly 'commercial' fiction', with no
thinking afore thought] (I believe Morrow tried to sell off the paperback
rights, since they did not have a great paperback line then and did that with most  books. but they
could not get any takers (compared to many, many better-selling original books). Anyway, someone,
probably after I left the company, must have tried marketing it to college profs and---it started. Word
had spread but satisfied customers--the teachers in this case responding to its usefulness for students.  
 
Now, it even sells to folks like us who know some framing in the mind gives background, template 
considerations to feel reading pleasure at, it must be said, some "higher" level given the complexity 
of fiction to illumine the complexity of life. 
 
I should get a copy and read it all. Now matter what I think I know, lots of other such books read 
when I was a younger student, back to basics in a new interesting way 
always jars my mind's collection of thoughts anew. 
in new ways and
I 
 
 

From: Keith Davis <kbob42 at gmail.com>
To: pynchon -l <pynchon-l at waste.org> 
Sent: Friday, September 7, 2012 8:34 AM
Subject: Book on reading fiction


Recently, in a used bookstore in Atlanta, I saw an interesting looking book about how to understand
fiction. I thought the author's name was Forest (Forrest?) but foolishly didn't write it down.
Any ideas? Looked like a new book.

-- 
http://www.innergroovemusic.com/
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