Adidas is better..

Converse is best...

Arts, like music, usually include two sides. You need to understand the rules of composition, how to play the piano etc., but then you need personal expression and creativity. The way i see it, math is purely logical...it's either right or wrong, there's can't be any variation. The reason I was never fond of math is because, yes, its extremely important and useful, but there's nothing particularly human about it. The answers exist independent of whether or not I figure it out, humans merely discover the answers, but as far as i see, there's no room for individual expression or creativity in a black and white, purely logical subject.

 

Of course, logic is the soul of reason, you can't dismiss math or you'd end up an idiot. I just direct it towards things that interest me more, like philosophical reasoning. Kant for example, reduced everything to complicated math, but i care more about the result than I did in chemistry. Both subjects are vital.

 

You do need creativity for math though unless you're just learning rote memorization or simple arithmetic... most proofs for complicated mathematical theorems are stunningly beautiful and utterly original. Sadly, though, most laypeople who are taught in regular schools never learn an appreciation for this. Math does have a creative side to it.

Is it well-written?

 

Does it follow the rules of good literature, or break them in an interesting way?

 

ie. Is the plot interesting? Is it well-structured: Does it have a good arc to it, or if taking an unconventional approach does it work? Is it engaging? Is it relevant? Does it have something new and/or good to say? Does it make the reader think?

 

Are the characters (whether flat or rounded, static or dynamic) well developed? Do they serve the plot well? Do they seem real? If they are caricatures, are they entertaining, and do the fulfill their intended roles well? Is the dialogue well-written? How is the setting handled?

 

How does the narration impact everything? Is it the right tone for the story? Are the words well-chosen?

 

 

If it's non-fiction, (like a textbook or scientific journal) how well does it present the information, and what is it's intended audience? Is the language well-chosen? Does it get the point across? Is it engaging? Is the structure logical and easy to follow?

 

This.

 

Ahah, having read the thread til the last page, my assumptions proved to be true. I knew you must've been a lit student at some point!

 

My lecturer tells me there IS such thing as good lit and bad lit. Just because you like a piece of writing, it doesn't necessarily mean it's good. Like how millions love Twilight, but critics generally agree that it's bad literature. And just because you hate something, on the other hand, it doesn't mean that the literature is bad. I, for one, hate TS Eliot's The Waste Land, and may never understand why it is deemed one of the 20th Century's most important poems...

 

The lecturer pointed out that good literature must have these traits:

 

1. Cosmic and human significance: Meaning the work of literature must stand for something bigger. It must be relevant to society, etc.

2. Aesthetics. Meaning... beautiful language. Formalists would argue beautiful language is anything that is outside of normal, everday language. "Literature is an organized violence committed on ordinary speech," says Roman Jakobson, a Russian Formalist critic.

3. Literariness. I'm still figuring out what this means. Jakobson says literature must have literariness, which are "devices that distinguish literary language from ordinary language." This probably explains why John Donne's sermons are included in the literature canon, as are some of George Orwell's essays.

4. Canon. The work of literature must be included in the canon. I don't really agree with this point, because more and more universities these days that study modern and post colonial literature are disregarding the canon as the canon was earlier established by an elite group of people who were mostly western men...

 

When studying literature, there are different schools of thought. One school of thought may completely disagree with another. For example, Russian Formalists look at literature as art just for "art's sake", while Marxists believe that literature is the work of an entire society, and not just the writer's.

 

So what's good literature? I'm still trying to figure that out... But I do believe that cosmic and human significance as well as aesthetics and literariness elevates a piece of text from being your average words on some paper, to literature.

on a vaguely-related note, I hated this arrogant prick. (the interview from 4:00 onward)

 

YouTube- Final Round & Close of 2007 National Spelling Bee

 

I thought that kid was great!

I like very girly books. :P Cute stories, funny stories, and I LOVE murder mysteries. I've read every Sherlock Holmes book ever written.

 

My three favorite writers ever are Kyra Davis, A. Conan Doyle and Cecelia Ahern.

Math really can be though. My dad is a mathematician, so there are all sorts of weird math books around the house, and the way some of them can turn something so rigid into something so beautiful... there are moments when great math can stir the soul in the same sort of way that great poetry can, especially when it's applied to the world.

 

The way I see it, it's like binary .jpgs. Digital code is made of ones and zeros. A bit is either on or off, one or zero, high or low. There is no 1.5. There are no other options. But when you start stringing those ones and zeroes together, patterns emerge. Put enough together, and you may end up with an image of one of the great works of art.

 

The same can happen with other forms of math. You may see a list of numbers and equations on a page, but it's a language, and if you knew how to read it you could see the poetry of what it's describing- the stars and planets, seashells, the rhythms of life, how everything comes together. Math can be crude or elegant, just like anything else. But to see the poetry, you need to speak the language.

 

Ah, you said it so much better than me. Thanks. :thumbsup:

this was fun, threads like these bring me off of the brink of ditching this place.

Good books make good literature.

deep, thoughtful stuff. or at least i can translate it into something deep.

 

so what if it's a literature book? :dozey:

i love my literature book. :wacky:

deep, thoughtful stuff. or at least i can translate it into something deep.

 

so what if it's a literature book? :dozey:

i love my literature book. :wacky:

 

lolwut