Do you still make these mistakes when reading classics? / Pro Tips

I have a question for you do you sometimes  feel intimidated by the idea of reading classical literature and you can be honest  there is no judgment here in fact you can leave your answer Down Below in the comments  I'll give you a moment now if you answered yes you're not alone I did a little poll on  my Instagram recently and a whopping 67 percent of respondes said that they felt  intimidated by reading classical literature for the reasons why two answers we surfaced again  and again language

is too difficult too old and I don't think I will understand it I don't think  I will get it so today in this video I'm going to give you a few tips and tricks on how to tackle  those problems how to better understand classical literature and how to avoid feeling intimidated or  overwhelmed by these actual great books so let's dive into the world of the classics again and  solve those problems let's talk language first and often heard complaints about reading classical  literature is that the la

nguage is not ours anymore it is too old it is too difficult it slows  down your reading and it feels like dredging to a swamp and for a lot of people this is a reason a  genuine reason to shelve the book again and never look at it ever again but this is how the book was  written so how do you solve this well there are a few ways that you could work around this first  solution is to actually Dodge the problem if um the very old classics are too difficult for  you then why not look at modern Clas

sics because modern Classics have a language that is very very  kin to our own it feels like you're reading a contemporary book almost any classic from the  20s on up to today is written in a language that we can easily get easily read and easily  comprehend so if you're not feeling up to the very old classics Dickens in Austin and you name  it then why not go for modern Classics instead but what if you want to read those old classics  well if English is not your first language then you can look

for a modern translation because  modern translations give you the same advantages that modern classic language gives but with  older classics it is written in a language it is translated in a language that you can easily  read and easily comprehend another great trick is to actually use an audiobook listening  to a language even an older variant of what we're used to today is much easier and goes down  much smoother than reading it and there are some excellent audiobooks of Classics of old cla

ssics  available there are some great actors and voice actors like David Tennant and Michael Sheen and  Maggie Gyllenhaal who bring these old texts back to life it is much easier to listen to those  six than to actually read them and in the end and that's the last tip with language concerns it  is a muscle it is a literary muscle that has to be trained in the end it is sometimes as simple as  the more you do it the better you get at it then there is this second reason why people do not read  Cla

ssics this fear of not going to understand what the book is about this fear of not going to get  it this is one of those topics that I would love to be able to invite each and every one of you  to the pub have a few points and talk about it bother us there is a lot to say about it  but I will restrict myself to two things one and if you have seen any of my videos on classical  literature already or on poetry we tend to over analyze our school years have ingrained this  notion into our brain that

if you're reading a classical piece of literature or a poem or  even a modern book that you have to analyze it but I don't necessarily agree sometimes you  can just read a story for what it is a story sometimes you can enjoy a poem for what it is  a poem without having to deeply analyze what it is about How It Was Written structured Etc today  there are entire genres dedicated to just vibes so why not read one of those classical stories  just for what it is a fun entertaining story on the other

hand though I will admit  that some level of background knowledge some research can help you understand these  books but that doesn't mean you need a degree a master's degree in literary Sciences it  doesn't mean that you will at least have to have a bachelor in history to understand the  circumstances these books were written in in fact I will Advocate I will say that understanding  classical literature better comes down to just three questions and those three questions are when  where and who

first and foremost let's look at one these are Classics it means they are written in  a periods down in history and that period might influence the book very very much in fact the book  might not have been written as we know today if it hadn't been written in that specific era let's  give a simple example let's pick a classic that everybody knows and at least everybody knows  what it's about the Lord of the Rings by J.R Tolkien now Lord of the Rings was written in the  last years of the second

World War and it was published somewhere in the early 50s now is this  important at all for a book about Orcs And Hobbits and dwarves and elves well it is although Tolkien  always said that his books were not about World War one and World War II they are still heavily  influenced by it Sauron is a force of evil it is about metal and grinding gears and leaving behind  a landscape that is Barren and torched it is also a book about deep forged friendships forged by  war in the trenches it doesn't t

ake a leap to see how two Hobbits bonding over this gruesome  experience could easily be two English soldiers in the trenches forming a friendship if you look  at the end of the book where the hobbits return to the Shire after the war has been fought you  see that war changes people people that come back to their homes and everything is different not  just their home but they are as well now while the Lord of the Rings might not be a book about  World War One or World War II it is certainly a bo

ok that is influenced by Tolkien and by the era  he was living in so the question when is the book written is sometimes a very important question  to understand why a book is written as it is and it doesn't always take a deep dive into history  to see the influences but sometimes the question where it was written is equally important let's  take another well-known classic The Great Gatsby is there a more American book than a Great Gatsby  it is a book about the American dream about the idea that

everyone can make it as long as you work  hard but it is also a book about a clash between old money and new money it is a book about idle  hope about the cruel idea that even if you're a nobody you can work your way up to the highest  of echelons of society it is a book about the prohibition which is as American as Al Capone  Scott Fitzgerald paints a picture of America of the 20s and it could not be written anywhere  else in the world so if you understand where it was written you will underst

and the book much much  better and then there is who has written the book Tolkien was a soldier in World War one and saw  these atrocities Fitzgerald saw what was happening to America in the 1920s and decided to write it  down but an even better example and there is no greater ego In classical literature than this one  is Ernest Hemingway now if you know anything about Ernest Hemingway he had quite a life in 1917 he  volunteered as a Red Cross paramedic down in Italy where he was shelved by a gr

enade and got over 200  pieces of metal into his leg he was committed to a hospital over there in Italy and somewhat grew  a very fond of the nurse that was taking care of him sounds somewhat familiar well there you have  the plot for A Farewell to Arms one of his best known and in my opinion best books ever written in  a Movable Feast by Ernest Hemingway we can almost retrace his own steps in Paris and relive his  own relationship that he has there even although it is not a biography and even i

n The Old Man and  the Sea we meet the Hunter and fisherman that was Ernest Hemingway you can impossibly understand  any book that was written by Hemingway without understanding the man himself and there you have  it by asking yourself three simple questions when where and who you can gain a much deeper  understanding of those well-beloved Classics and yes I already hear you ask but doesn't this take  an enormous amount of research well not exactly because a lot of this information is already  c

ontained in the book itself look at the preface look at the notes look at the appendices a lot  of Classics have these little add-ons with people explaining what the book what the author what  time period it was written in is all about but we just never bothered to read them and even if your  book doesn't have this information a quick Google search can give you a lot of the information  already even a simple Wikipedia page on the author audiobook might give you a ton a treasure Trove  of insight

s and understandings into the book or author you're going to read so no it doesn't need  hours and hours of research 5. 10 minute tops and you'll have all the information that you need and  this again is also a literary muscle by doing this research by just investing those 5 to 10 minutes  for each book you will start to recognize things you will start to recognize Styles and what  they're all about you will start to recognize commonalities between books that are written  in the same period and

you will gain a much much deeper understanding and what is classical  literature in the end these books are not more difficult than let's say a modern epic fantasy  book with all of its maps and World building and long we invest so much time in learning about  places and people that are somewhere out in fantasy and will never exist but we shudder at the  thought of learning about places and people that actually existed so don't be intimidated do give  it a try and use these simple techniques to

get a better understanding and use it somewhere easy  with a short story or a book that you already know in fact let's do it together let me know Down  Below in the comments a classic that you already have read or just would love to read but are a bit  intimidated by try to do your when where and who and let's try to do it together Put it Down Below  in the comments and I'll help you I'll help you answer these three questions now if you're about  to rush off and read a classic I will happily let

you go do Boop that like button and subscribe  button if you haven't already and happy reading if you're still a bit on the fence about Classics  or modern classics then I advise you go here