Guided Reading
As you finish reading our essay on essays, focus your analysis and discussion on the following details. Use the comment section here to ask questions, and monitor the comments for my replies and and any feedback from your peers. You will be asked to attach your answers to an assignment on Google Classroom.
¶33 — “Err on the side of the river.” | Break down the river metaphor into actionable language. This is probably the most important metaphor for us in the essay, so make sure it’s clear to you.
¶40 — “At sixteen I was about as observant as a lump of rock.” | This is worth highlighting for a simple reason: You have to be more observant than this, regardless of age. It’s good not to know things, too; that’s the starting place for the next idea.
¶42 — “[T]he more you learn, the more hooks you have for new facts to stick onto — which means you accumulate knowledge at what’s colloquially called an exponential rate.” | Unpack this idea using the next quotation and Graham’s surrounding logic. Again, focus on actionable language — what we can do with this idea.
¶44 — “When it comes to surprises, the rich get richer.” | In context: What does it mean to get richer? How does it connect to writing?
¶45 — “I find it especially useful to ask about things that seems wrong.” | Connect this to the later idea of disobedience. What are you looking for when you search for subjects and approaches for an essay?
¶51 — “Whatever you study, include history — but social and economic history, not political history. History seems to me so important that it’s misleading to treat it as a mere field of study. Another way to describe it is all the data we have so far.“ | Put this in the context of the entire essay, which you’ll remember starts with a history lesson. Then reflect on your own habits here — your approach to history as Graham describes it, not as a subject in school.
The Main Ingredients
¶38 — “[I]f you want to write essays, you need two ingredients: a few topics you’ve thought about a lot, and some ability to ferret out the unexpected.”
This quotation is separated, under its own subheading, and out of order, so you can focus on it. First, discuss this idea of “ferret[ing] out the unexpected,” connecting it to the idea of “get[ting] deeply enough into it” in ¶39 and “mak[ing] a habit of paying attention to things you’re not supposed to” in ¶53.
Then see what you can do reach back to the start of school, when you got this course’s culinary metaphor:
I want you to see how things connect, and I want you to think about how we’re going to approach writing for the rest of the year. Take the time to reflect on this. Analyze your own habits, including what you think about a lot, what you’re “not supposed to” pay attention to, etc., and write some of this insight in the comments here to start an interstitial discussion.
Quick update: Below is an essay that fits this idea of river-writing almost perfectly. It’s also an example of the outside limits of what’s possible in a makerspace like ours. If you have the time, read it, and then fold it into your discussion of Graham:
If you want to see what essays in the real world look like, why they matter, etc., start with that.
Some things I think about are singing, life in general, what I want to be, what direction I want to go in and how I’ll get there. Focusing on writing in specific according to Graham it takes passion, observing and ideas that you have learned about that you continue to build upon. It takes the ability to be spontaneous and totally change the direction of your piece if that’s what’s best. Look for a topic that intrigues you, ask questions about things that seem wrong to you, and take the time to understand why those things seem wrong. There’s always more to be discovered and add just like in writing, history and life in general.
I completely agree with you! I think it’s great how you were able to connect Paul’s essay to the real world, even outside of writing. These kinds of comments remind me of how useful/different this class really is. Many of the pieces that we read and do in this class can actually go beyond simply writing an essay, and can be used as real life lessons. For example, our pareto projects extend outside the scope of the class, and even school. Like mine, many of these projects are very personal since we were given such absolute freedom with choosing our own topics. My project is very important to me, so even when the school year ends, I plan on completing it since I am so passionate about the subject. This shows how this class is truly unique!
My favorite quote was number 45, “I find it especially useful to ask about things that seems wrong,” because it challenges traditional learning, which was the main ideas of this grade abatement class. I think that “controversial” issues that are mainly unspoken of might actually be the best essay subjects. This is because usually no one else has written about them and they would be very interesting and surprising essays.
Maybe writing about an issue could help clear up a rumor/superstition/stereotype about it that makes it so taboo. It might be good therapy for you, as the writer, to think about something that is often looked over. I think that we just go along with society and if everybody thinks that something is wrong then we assume it is too. But in reality, you should be able to form your own opinion no matter how crazy other people say it is.
Your comment reminded me of something I read: “[A degree of skepticism] helps counteract the rule that gets beaten into our heads as children: that things are the way they are because that is how things have to be… everyone I’ve talked to while writing this essay felt the same about English classes — that the whole process seemed pointless. But none of us had the balls at the time to hypothesize that it was, in fact, all a mistake. We all thought there was just something we weren’t getting.” I think this idea is the heart of what Graham means by disobedience. I don’t see disobedience just as a discussion of “controversial” issues. In fact, I find that these are often written about and thus widely explored by authors. I believe that the key to disobedience is questioning- questioning things that others accept and refusing to justify it to yourself if deep down it feels wrong. Those are the questions that lead to essays that are surprising and interesting because they’ve never been explored before. Questioning what society takes at face value is ultimately one of the most disobedient places an essay could start because the author is not allowed himself to be pacified by the apathy of their peers. In that refusal lies an insatiable curiosity that is not bounded by jadedness or defeat: those kinds of questions challenge the world we live in, and therefore they are the questions that most need asking.
I also enjoyed this quote. Asking about things that seem wrong can lead to interesting writing topics and can allow us to find answers to questions we didn’t know we had. I also like how this quote can be applied to things outside of writing. If you feel as though something is wrong or unjust and ask yourself about it, it can lead you to talking about the issues with others and making a change. A really simple example is this: if you are in school and see someone get bullied and then ask yourself what you just saw and why it’s happening, you’ll be more likely to do something than if you just walked away from the situation without observing, asking, and thinking.
I agree with this 100%. I find that I-and you may feel the same about yourself-do my best writing when it is on a topic I am passionate about, or on something that is highly controversial. These are the kind of things I feel I have a strong opinion about. When I don’t find the topic necessarily mentally stimulating or exciting, my writing tends to be somewhat bland.
This is one reason I like Graham’s take on writing: Anything can be interesting if you think about it enough. I’m curious to hear from you all, if we’re able to open up the writing as much as I hope, about your ability to generate passion and interest on any subject.
I’m the same way. If I’m writing a piece about something I really care about, the writing comes so much easier, and at that point the challenge isn’t the writing, it’s actually finding and recognizing a topic that interests you.
I wanted to make sure I was clear on the river metaphor that Paul Graham often referenced in his essay, since it is the most important metaphor of the piece. I understood how like a river, an essay twists and turns, yet follows a general direction/path. However, I don’t get what Graham meant when he said that both essays and rivers backtrack, so I was hoping someone could describe that part of the metaphor in detail.
Okay, so here’s two different interpretations of that detail as I understand it:
1) Think back to the segment entitled “Trying.” Do you remember how Graham argued that the author shouldn’t know where they were going when they started the piece, that they were using their train of thought in writing to find an answer to a question? Well, if they are exploring the issue while writing about it, they are going to be making mistakes. Graham explores the idea of the author being a proxy for the reader, experiencing the surprises of the essay to verify that they are good enough for consumption. Well, this is the same thing: the author is trying out new ideas just like the reader. Because they don’t know where they’ll end up, they don’t know if they are going in the right direction… maybe they aren’t going in the right direction at all. And since Graham argues that the way to convince the reader is to find the truth (not to have the best argumentation or manipulation of rhetoric), the writer has to turn around, has to backtrack to make his writing worthwhile to read. Graham goes so far as to say that if the writing didn’t meander and backtrack, it would be suspicious since it would be indicative that the author wasn’t exploring the topic in a genuine way, making it almost as meaningless as a school essay that adheres strictly to a thesis. The bottom line is that if the author is trying, they’ll be making mistakes too, and they have to backtrack to fix those mistakes.
2) Now let’s approach the idea of backtracking from the actual metaphor of the river itself. The foundational idea that you’ll need to understand backtracking is that both the river and the author don’t know where they’re going; they’re under the influence of some other factor. Rivers flow downhill according to gravity while (according to Graham) authors flow in an interesting direction, wherever that may be. Thus, an author is flowing wherever is interesting and they don’t necessarily know where that is. When rivers or essays flow unpredictably, there’s always a chance that they’ll run into something. When a river is flowing, it will sometimes encounter obstacles, like a boulder for example, that impede the flow of the water. Obviously essays don’t run into boulders, but they do run into errors, which need to be fixed. Upon meeting an obstacle, the river wouldn’t be able to just start flowing in the opposite direction, but it would make a very sharp turn back around. The writer could do that too, I guess, but wouldn’t that be confusing for the reader? I know that if I were reading an essay where the author said one thing and then randomly started saying the opposite, I would be totally discouraged from finishing the essay. Cutting out the incorrect portion of the essay (a.k.a. backtracking) is like when Graham says that backtracking is about the author copying over the pencil sketch. You, the reader, still see the spontaneity of the original thought process, but there’s no longer any confusion. In other words, the author has to take out the part that’s wrong because it would be bewildering to the reader if he didn’t do so.
I guess you could also think about it like this: Let’s say you have a river flowing down a hill. If the landscape changes, like if the hill’s slope and direction change, the river is going to change direction. When the author’s ideas about a topic change (which they must if the author is investigating the topic like I explained earlier), the essays will change direction too. It sounds like you already understand why the essay has to meander to flow in an interesting essay and to suit the author’s changing ideas about the piece. Try thinking about backtracking as an extreme version of the example you already understand: the river isn’t just shifting: it’s going in the wrong direction entirely, it has to completely turn around. The part of the essay that needs turning around has to be cut out so that it won’t be contradicting itself.
This reply got a little long, and probably convoluted at some point, so if you have any questions, feel free to ask.
Something that I’m always thinking of his my career and what my future is going to look like and how I can get there. Paul Graham’s Essay focuses on different types of advice that can help you observe and create ideas that you can build upon. In writing he says it’s important to be spontaneous and have the ability to alter your writing to make sure it’s the best. The key was to find something that really interests you and to even ask questions about things that you know are wrong and to take time to figure out why it’s wrong. There is always more to everything he wants us to question what we do and why ,is this what we want, is this going to help you. The overall purpose is that everything has a reason for why it’s happening whether or not is it’s your future or your writing piece. Both things can take you places you can’t imagine and you just have to push yourself to take that extra step.
I was looking at this sentence “¶45 — “I find it especially useful to ask about things that seems wrong.” from “The Age Of Essay” and was wondering what you guys know about “Animals Welfare” or “Veganism”?
when he talked about the more you learn the more hooks you have for new facts i related to a skill like something that you use to bad at but you worked on it constantly and it starts to get better your knowledge on it expands and you learn how to do it so it becomes easier. like for me i used to be so bad at reading i couldn’t even get pasted a sentence and i’m not saying i’m amazing at it now but it starts to flow now and becomes a lot easier because i worked on it so much so what is a skill that you had a hard time with that now you improved in.
I thought that the quote regarding the river metaphor was interesting, so here’s my take on it: To “err” on the side of something is synonymous with leaning towards a specific position. A common phrase, for example, is that “it’s better to err on the side of caution.” The translation of this saying is that you’d be better off being overly cautious than not cautious enough. In the context of this essay, I believe that the river symbolizes the author’s contemplative mind. Graham includes the Meander river in Turkey in this section. Despite being a long, weaving body of water, this river is the most efficient available route to the sea. The lesson here is that, like the Meander, a train of thought can exhibit the best results when it is provided with few restrictions and allowed to travel in any which direction. However, Graham emphasizes that it’s best to remain on the side of the river. I think the author advises to stay on the side of the river because it is best not to get caught up in the river’s current. While it’s important to let your ideas flow freely, it’s also important to stay focused on the task at hand. If your ideas are completely unrestricted, it’s possible to go off on a tangent.
I like your focus on the word “err”, which I briefly considered as well. The conclusion I came to is that it suggests that there is a balance. “Err” suggests that it’s better to lean to one side in particular even though it seems hard to strike a balance. In “err on the side of the river”, Graham is suggesting that one has to “err” because there’s no complete compromise between being completely clear and linear, and being spontaneous and learning as you’re writing. I cited the example of copying over a pencil sketch in an above comment, but it applies here as well: there’s a balance- authors can’t just be going in any direction and backtracking all over the place because the author also has to make their work clear to the reader. Another way to put it is when Graham says an essay is like a cleaned-up conversation: there’s lots of missteps and corrections but some of them have to be done away with for clarity, just as author’s clean up conversations when they write dialogue.
I like your focus on the word “err”, which I too considered briefly. I think “leaning” is also a great word to use in this case: the author is sort of tilting slightly to one side instead of staying to strictly in the middle or to extremely on one side. To me, “err” suggests that there is a balance to be had: the author can’t just stay linearly focused, nor can they backtrack and meander too much. “Err on the side of the river” says that taking a more interesting approach is usually more worthwhile than a school-like plodding along the path dictated by a thesis. But I think we have to return to the balance in this style of writing.
I brought up the metaphor of an illustrator inking over pencil drawings in an earlier comment but it applies here as well: the reader has to see the changes in course and the twists and turns and surprises but there has to be some coherence to the essay as well. There’s another analogy that Graham presents too: dialogue is to cleaned up conversation as an essay is to a train of thought. There’s still missteps and some level of clumsiness to it (like in a book when you read dialogue where the characters are stuttering or confused or interrupting each other), but you see where it’s going to some extent. Your essay is a train of thought, which can be random and awkward at times, but it has to be cleaned up so the reader can understand it. All in all, there’s a balance between clarity and spontaneity, and the word “err” in that line you pulled out is crucial to our understanding of that balance. Thanks for making me notice that connection!
Yikes, sorry I commented that twice! I guess I thought that it was deleted the first time I posted it, so I retyped it again.
I think line 33 is a interestingly funny play on words. It was interesting to see the author use the phrase “err on the side of the river” because I’ve heard the coined phrase “err on the side of caution” before. Using this phrase to get across to readers that it would be better for a flowing unpredictable essay than a straight to the point one really stands out because it is unusual way to word what he was trying to say, but effective in forcing the reader to look into it, or read it again to understand its meaning
paragraph 33***
The different lines of the text really does describe how an actual essay is going to be written the way you want it to be written without a set of rules