HtRaB Ch 15: Suggestions for Reading Stories, Plays, and Poems

 I think Adler could safely have cut about 2/3 of the previous chapter, squished it with the intro to this one (which is already partially repeated) and had a better single chapter. He includes specific recommendations for fiction, plays, and lyric poetry (and short notes about epics and tragedies). They're mostly good.

He repeats trying to suspend your disbelief and trying to get through fiction relatively quickly and as uninterrupted as possible. All good so far. He then says we want all great novels to be big (I like novellas!) and whines about fanfiction for a while. Truly, the GRRM of his time.

For plays: imagine staging them in your head (I'm glad it's not too hard to find staged videos now) and notes that the key problem of all tragedies is time (almost all tragedy problems could be resolved if the characters had more time to plan/talk). I think that goes to most fiction (the often mentioned "ticking clock" element of tension). Also, Shakespeare is hard, because the language has changed. I think the Shakespeare difficulty is generally overstated, and was kind of surprised to see if from Adler, who seems to think anyone can aspire to be an intellectual.

He says poetry is hard to define, and goes with basically a "you know it when you see it" test. 

I love his suggestion to read all poems aloud. I learned that in undergrad, and it made a huge difference in my ability to understand poetry. I think if I had to make a list of the top 5 things I want to make sure my students learn it'd be on there.