(Part 2) Best products from r/AskLiteraryStudies

First off, good on you for taking the initiative.

For introductory books, I'd recommend Stephen Fry's The Ode Less Travelled. Now, I haven't read it myself, but it's been mentioned on this sub often enough for me to feel comfortable mentioning it. It might also be a good idea to pick up a miscellaneous collection of poems in order to get an understanding of the variety and depth of the subject matter. A more informal volume might be something edited by Garrison Keiler, like Good Poems. While that specific book is more bent towards Modern American poets, there's still a lot to draw from. A more academic book would be The Norton Anthology of Poetry ot The Norton Introduction to Poetry, which has a lot more to choose from. These two also give you a bit of structure – my copy of the Introduction has clear headings, like "Symbol" or "The Sonnet," with neat little introductory essays and poems chosen to help you understand how these concepts work. That being said, Norton tends to be a little expensive, though if you live in a college town you can probably find a cheaper copy. The benefit of these kinds of collections lies in helping you to find a poet whose style or subject matter you particularly like.

Regarding online sources, there's The Poetry Foundation, which has archives of poems and articles on the poets themselves. Their monthly articles can vary from the interesting to the banal, however, so keep your bullshit detector on. You can probably also find podcasts that deal with the subject. A personal favorite of mine is called "Entitled Opinions," and is run by a professor of Italian Studies over at Stanford by the name of Robert Harrison. Mind you, this particular podcast deals with philosophy and literature as well, so while I'd recommend listening to all their episodes you would have to do a little bit of searching in order to find a particular episode on poetry – though I would reccomend the one on "Dante and Prufrock." I imagine these kind of examinatioms would be useful because they can give you a sense of what poetry 'does' or 'how it means' beyond a surface play with words.

As for the writing of poetry, the first thing I'd recommend is that you read and meditate on a lot of poetry, good and bad, in order to get a sense of how its all done. Learn certain conventions – like, say, that of the sonnet – in order to see how poets follow through with them, or how they play with them. Learn prosody so you can understand how the precise meter, or 'beat,' of each line can affect the reader. I can't really give concrete advice with regards to this, save for a metaphorical "go west, young man!"

I second the idea that it really depends on what languages/literatures your cousin is thinking of studying. I'd hesitate to recommend anything too theoretical for an incoming freshman. But, if you are going to go that route, here are some suggestions:

Erich Auerbach's Mimesis is the closest thing that the discipline has to a foundational text. Generally, this is required reading for a first-year graduate student. Not sure how I would've handled this as an undergrad. That said, I wouldn't hesitate to assign a chapter or two from it to any class I teach, provided it relates to our other readings. It's a kind of survey that traces the development of Western Literature from Homer's Odyssey to twentieth-century lit. Each chapter deals with a different text. https://amzn.com/0691160228

You could also try a reader of some kind. I worked with this text as an undergrad in one of my classes: The Cultural Studies Reader. It's basically an anthology of theoretical texts that catalogues different theoretical approaches and introduces you to a lot of major thinkers. I thought it was great and it really sparked my love (...ahem..."love"...) for theory. In my opinion, it's a bit more approachable than something like The Princeton Sourcebook in Comparative Literature, which is also a good option if you're looking for something more serious.

If you're looking to follow up on /u/Caitlionator's suggestion suggestion about Critical Theory, I would suggest Adorno's and Horkheimer's The Dialectic of Enlightenment. Dense reading for an incoming freshman (IMO), but worth it for someone interested in Marxist-oriented theory.

If all of this is seeming too serious and/or dense (which it might be for an incoming freshman), you could try some of the graphic guides published by Icon books. Here's an example: https://amzn.com/1848311818. There are all kinds of options for these. To be honest, I don't really think these are that great; but the few that I've seen seemed fun and interesting. They provide some good context, so they might work as a kind of springboard for you cousin to explore some of these subjects further on his own.

Other than that, it's hard to make suggestions without knowing what your cousin's interests are. As an undergraduate, I always would've preferred to receive a literary text as a gift rather than a theoretical text (unless it was something I really wanted). Maybe a book from one of his favorite authors, or one of that author's favorite authors? Does he like Classics? Maybe a nice copy of Homer?

Edit: spelling

I discovered Fadiman and Major's book when I was 20 y/r and did this very thing. It was the best decision I ever made. A few notes:

1.) The Durant's "Story of Civ" is excellent, but is so antiquated that it's approaching literature more than history at this point. It's also so long that only segments of it are brilliant, and quite a lot is tedious for the non-historian. I suggest only browsing through it as meets your fancy.

For a good, condense, and reasonably up to date history the world, the best I'm aware of is by the late J.M. Roberts, found on Amazon for $25.

2.) I started chronologically, and had mixed results. If you take that route, take periodic breaks with newer material to keep things interesting.

3.) Don't worry about them being "too complicated to comprehend." These books will always offer you treasures no matter the age. Read and reread them as you see fit over your life time.

4.) The 4th ed of Fadiman's book is the best, but the third edition has a superior introduction. See if you can find a cheap paperpack of it somewhere.

Let me know if you have any other questions.

Edit: If you want to add the bible to your collection, this is the best edition out there. (A new ed is coming out April 1st!)

1. The Outlaw Bible of American Poetry 1 -
   
   This book is heavy, so it doubles as a brick for smashing in the windows of capitalist bourgeois pigs. Reading it is like taking a shot of tabasco sauce and injecting it into your eye with a hypodermic needle.
   
   
2. Surrealist Poetry in English 2 -
   
   I had to buy this one on ebay, but it's a damn fine collection. Makes me want to hand out LSD-laced lollypops to schoolkids, then piss on the grave of H.W. Longfellow.
   
   
3. Norton Anthology of Modern & Contemporary Poetry 3 -
   
   These two have all the good ones of the 20th century, a clean layout, and a fine selection. Good for reading beneath a tree in the autumn, in a graveyard.
   
   
4. Penguin Anthology 4 -
   
   It's edited by Rita Dove, so you know this collection has good taste. The poems are from a wide spread of poetry movements, but personally, I find a lot of the pieces in it to be a little too 'delicate'. But very good for reading naked in bed, while softly stroking the hair of your sleeping lover.
   
   
5. English Romantic Poetry 5 -
   
   Got all the biggies like Byron, Shelly and Keats. I fuckin love Keats. This book is a great introduction to 19th century poetry. This is good for reading on a bus while driving past a field of flowers on a humid summer evening with the windows open, reminiscing about your high school crush.

>So, since you seem to know a good bit about this, could you recommend some alchemical literature, and perhaps some advice about how to glean as much as possible from reading them?

So that I could glean as much as possible, to begin (and this is a no-no to some people), I read a few alchemical dictionaries. I started with a symbolic dictionary like this one, then got Mark Haeffner's alchemical dictionary, and moved to Lyndy Abraham's dictionary of alchemical imagery. Reading these saturated my mind with these symbols and their meanings.

I noticed you like music - you might look into some of the operas of Monteverdi. He practiced alchemy, was friends with many alchemists of his time, and certainly incorporated the art into his music. Also check out Music in Renaissance Magic. While alchemy isn't covered explicitly nor the term mentioned explicitly in the text, the concepts are all in that volume in a different guise.

As for literary texts, have you read much Yeats? Nearly all of his poetry has an alchemical tinge, and his alchemical triptych of short stories influenced me greatly. This may sound silly, but John Granger's introduction to alchemy via the Harry Potter series called Unlocking Harry Potter (written prior to the final HP book) is quite good. His later Deathly Hallows Lectures is good too, for similar reasons, though I'm not sure he truly grasps the profundity of the last few chapters of this book. If you're into hermeticism you'll (I hope) like especially his Lectures.

Have you read Boehme? He influenced most of the developments in alchemy post-17th century, and I consider him essential to understanding Qabalistic alchemy since his time. Manly P. Hall's Secret Teachings of All Ages is a good introduction to alchemy and alchemical thinking, but Hall comes off a bit wacky sometimes.

After you get a foundation in the symbolism and such, just read. Visit Adam Mclean's Alchemy Website and check out what he has there. Read The Mirror of Alchemy, read Golden Dawn letters, documents, treatises. Read Crowley, read Regardie, Dion Fortune, and Atwood. Try to read in a way that sends you back in time to trace the development of the tradition. It's difficult to jump right into a fifteenth- or sixteenth-century (or twelfth- or thirteenth-century) alchemical text without the schema/foundation in your own contemporary dialect. I really believe you have to ease yourself slowly into the tradition moving backward in time.

The last recommendation I have for you to glean the most from alchemy is to keep a dream journal, either a notebook or a digital recorder of some kind.

I feel like I'm not being helpful. Let me know whether I answered you.

> Do you feel you gain something more than this, either through the meaning of what is read, or the process of deciphering it?

Yes, definitely, to both. What is gained cannot be expressed in rational dialogue, however; it can only be gained, conceived, and communicated through symbol.

Dear Despondent,

I am not the Highly Qualified Literary Academic you really need, but I've spent enough time in academia to have an opinion anyway.

The vast majority of literary study work that I have come upon in the 21st century consists of incredibly arcane deconstructions of minutiae that have a very small chance of ever helping someone trying to understand literature.

I don't know anything about your professors, but my guess is that they are (a) desperately trying to justify their own existence in the academy by writing material of the type described above — and therefore unable/unwilling to carefully review your work to see if it fits the mold; and/or (b) too unclear on what exactly you should be expected to compose in order to grant you a seal of approval for your own work.

This is a common trend in cultural studies, sociology, and some schools of philosophy as well. I wish I had some advice on how to navigate it all, but I can only tell you, as someone who enjoys reading the 10% of well-written, worthwhile literary analysis that makes it into print: Please make sure your work actually contributes meaningfully to the world, instead of merely pumping it full of more fashionable nonsense to acquire tenure and/or publication.

Good luck!

Kind regards,

HS English Teacher Who Wishes He Could Do More Analytical Scholarly Work Instead of Grading Papers All the Time