Proposal for Teaching Literature, Book Reviews, and Literary Criticism: Find at least one thing that makes no sense either to you or literary theory.

To turn yesterday’s post about advancing the understanding of literature into a practical proposal:

If you teach literature, when you assign a novel, ask each student to find one thing in the novel that does not make sense. Most of the things they don’t understand, you will, but occasionally they will cite something that makes no sense to you, either.

If you write book reviews, make it a feature of all your positive reviews—especially your most positive, rave reviews—to mention one thing in the novel that made no sense to you.

And in literary criticism, demonstrate your intimate knowledge of the work, and show your mastery of literary theory, by citing things that make no sense to you and are not adequately explained by any established theory.