Listen now | An episode discussing the recent article by The Atlantic on why elite college students are struggling to read books and why attention span is not the real problem.
Hello, Robin! This might not be related to your article so I apologize in advance. However, ever since I started taking your advice to heart by purposefully undereading (reading like 5 to 10 pages per day) I encountered a small issue.
And it has to do with the fact that I don’t retain the things I read, or only retain 5% of the things I read and this sometimes makes me feel like I’m wasting my time. I’m a very slow reader. It takes me about an hour or an hour and a half of full concentration to read 10 to 15 pages of a normal kind of book.
Do you have some advice for this based on your own personal experience with reading long books?
And by the the way the book I’m reading at the moment is “How to read a book” by Mortimer J. Adler.
The chapter on literature kind of spooked me out because it told that you have to read an entire novel in one sitting in order to grasp the overarching idea of the piece of literature. And I don’t think I have the stamina for it.
So, uh, thanks for taking the time reading my comment! ✨
I study Comparative Literature at University College London, which, also known as world literature in other institutions. I believe the humanities are incredibly important, especially in a time when anti-intellectualism is on the rise and individualism is becoming more dominant. There’s a growing sense that life lacks meaning—not necessarily in a nihilistic way, but more in an absurdist sense, where people question the point of anything since we all die anyway.
It’s crucial to understand that STEM and the humanities are not in opposition; they complement each other. Yet, media, politics, and broader societal systems often pit them against each other, reinforcing the idea that success is only found in the corporate world. The corporate world promises financial stability and prosperity, whereas the humanities are often dismissed because they don’t directly serve capitalist interests.
For me, the humanities are about life itself—the philosophy of life, its effects, and our understanding of it. They exist beyond the constraints of capitalism, offering a deeper engagement with what it means to be human!
And unfortunately, many people do not care about their sentiment because it does not provide immediate financial gain. You do not essentially ‘see’ what you get from humanities, from a capitalist perspective.
Hello, Robin! This might not be related to your article so I apologize in advance. However, ever since I started taking your advice to heart by purposefully undereading (reading like 5 to 10 pages per day) I encountered a small issue.
And it has to do with the fact that I don’t retain the things I read, or only retain 5% of the things I read and this sometimes makes me feel like I’m wasting my time. I’m a very slow reader. It takes me about an hour or an hour and a half of full concentration to read 10 to 15 pages of a normal kind of book.
Do you have some advice for this based on your own personal experience with reading long books?
And by the the way the book I’m reading at the moment is “How to read a book” by Mortimer J. Adler.
The chapter on literature kind of spooked me out because it told that you have to read an entire novel in one sitting in order to grasp the overarching idea of the piece of literature. And I don’t think I have the stamina for it.
So, uh, thanks for taking the time reading my comment! ✨
You're helping keep the humanities alive Robin! Totally love this...
Hi Robin,
I study Comparative Literature at University College London, which, also known as world literature in other institutions. I believe the humanities are incredibly important, especially in a time when anti-intellectualism is on the rise and individualism is becoming more dominant. There’s a growing sense that life lacks meaning—not necessarily in a nihilistic way, but more in an absurdist sense, where people question the point of anything since we all die anyway.
It’s crucial to understand that STEM and the humanities are not in opposition; they complement each other. Yet, media, politics, and broader societal systems often pit them against each other, reinforcing the idea that success is only found in the corporate world. The corporate world promises financial stability and prosperity, whereas the humanities are often dismissed because they don’t directly serve capitalist interests.
For me, the humanities are about life itself—the philosophy of life, its effects, and our understanding of it. They exist beyond the constraints of capitalism, offering a deeper engagement with what it means to be human!
And unfortunately, many people do not care about their sentiment because it does not provide immediate financial gain. You do not essentially ‘see’ what you get from humanities, from a capitalist perspective.
Thanks Robin 👏
🕳️