What are your favourite tips for reading difficult texts? Specific context: I have a whole bunch of phenomenology texts on my shelves that I want to read but are so much work that they basically act as a denial of service on my reading queue when I try. I'd like to fix that.
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Replying to @DRMacIver
I just read bits. So I'll flick through e.g. Merleau-Ponty or Dreyfus til I find a chunk of text I'm on the cusp of understanding, and argue with it in my head for a while til I get further.
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Replying to @drossbucket @DRMacIver
Or for Origin of Objects, I found the one thing in the damn book I could get my head round (his 'middle distance' examples) and worked outwards from there
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Replying to @drossbucket @DRMacIver
oh and the other thing I do a lot is just give up. I look for things with the right level of 'lock' where I'm near to understanding but not there yet. If I don't feel like I'm near having a lock yet I don't bother. Being and Time can wait :)
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Replying to @drossbucket
Yeah, I'm pretty good at giving up when I find something too hard. My problems are: 1. A lot of stuff which *isn't* too hard but is harder than I want to do right now. 2. The boundary of what is comprehensible is starting to feel like a barricade and I'm on the wrong side.
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Yeah, 2. is familiar and frustrating - don't have any good advice for that!
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