Wandering in this library of letters forming words forming sentences, reading Moby-Dick as a class has helped me improve my close-reading and critical thinking skills. It’s interesting to see the different perspectives people have with this novel, and I enjoyed hearing how people interpreted the text in an effort to uncover its larger meaning. The socratic format of this class has definitely facilitated my understanding of the book since I now know that there are other people who struggle on big books as much as I do when reading alone.

My final takeaway for this class is that close-reading can help us think beyond the medium, even if said medium is a smorgasbord of unrelated concepts vomited from the author’s mind. If you think about it, close-reading is merely psychoanalysis in book form. We take apart a passage to reveal its hidden, often larger meaning, then use our interpretations to help understand our world. Not only that, close-reading can also be a form of art, as seen in the adaptations of Moby-Dick from last week. The medium is a place where we can share our interpretations with other people, which encourages them to share their own interpretations about a work to others and build upon our existing knowledge.

I may be here again for the AI literature class next semester, and I am looking forward to apply what I’ve learned this class for that class as well. Until then, happy reading and good luck on your final!