Reading Questions: On Noticing in the Time of COVID-19
Verlyn Klinkenborg—from Several Short Sentences about Writing (2012)
1) Klinkenborg wants us to change how we think about a piece of writing and how we read (32-6). How does he want us to think about a text and read it? Why do we need to make this shift? What does this line mean: “It’s the living tissue of a writer’s choices, not the fossil record of an ancient, inspired race” (33).
2) Where does the authority to notice come from? Why do we often not “notice what [we] notice,” according to Klinkenborg? (36, 36-8)
3) Klinkenborg suggests that “practic[ing] noticing” is possible. How do you “practice noticing” and what does he mean by “noticing” exactly? (39-41)
4) What are “volunteer sentences” and why should they be avoided? How do you avoid them exactly? (44-7)
Teju Cole—“We Can’t Comprehend this Much Sorrow: History’s First Draft is Almost Always Wrong—But We Still Have to Try and Write it” (May 11, 2020)
5) Why was Cole hesitant at first to write down his thoughts about the pandemic? What is the aim of his journal?
6) What kinds of things does Cole notice (name at least two)? What kinds of things does he long for (name at least two)?
7) What is the form of each of Cole’s daily entries? How does he structure them?