English Blog

The first chapter of Gutenberg Elegies is about the increase of technology and how it affects reading. As electronic resources expand, paper books are becoming less and less common. The second chapter is more focused on Birkets personal life and his introduction to reading. While his mother was an avid reader throughout his childhood his father wasn’t. He also struggled with his cultural identity growing up, outside of his house he spoke English but Latvian at home. Birkets was jealous of other children who knew all of the English slang as he was still developing his language knowledge. Later in his life, he worked in a few different bookstores in Michigan while trying to pursue a career in writing. 

My experience with reading is different from Birkets’ in the sense that English is my native language so I grew up speaking, reading, and writing English while he had to learn a second language. Learning a second language gave him a greater appreciation for the literary arts. He knew both the dictionary definitions of words and how they are used in everyday conversation which in some situations can be vastly different. Birkets also noted that he felt like he wasn’t growing up in America. This likely made engaging with his local community more difficult. His isolation from the community appears when he reads in a closet and then writes in a closet as an adult. He feels separated from his community and alone. As he becomes older he stays a “lone wolf” for most of his life. He does have a relationship with a woman and they move east together but they both maintain their clear individual identities. 

Birkets experience working in bookstores is very interesting. While he worked in multiple bookstores the most significant was the first used bookstore in Michigan. He was allowed to explore and search for unknown and non-mainstream books. As a little kid, I did a similar thing in my school’s library, walking around to a random section picking a random book off the shelf, and seeing if it was interesting. Finding books that you might not typically seek out can be a helpful way to expand your thinking and appreciate new topics. It shows his intellectual curiosity. This also contributes to his fondness for printed materials because printed books were so important when he was working at a bookstore. 

Birkets passion for printed media comes from his childhood where books were such a big part. Reading was a safe place where he could be fully immersed in a story and not worry about the outside world. He is worried about future generations losing this escape as the use of technology increases. In a sense Birkets is afraid of change. He doesn’t want this core childhood experience he had to be a thing of the past. In the next chapter I think Birkets is going to continue exploring his writing journey in addition to continuing his argument against the expansion of technology.

In Graff’s piece Hidden Intellectualism he is defending intellectualism that is not typically presented in a traditional education setting. He is referring to what is known as “street smarts.” These are the skills needed to have situational awareness and real-life skills, such as a trade or sports, that aren’t usually taught in school. Graff describes himself as a “typical teenage anti-intellectual of the 1950s.” He also acknowledges that while he didn’t have a strong interest in literature he did have a profound interest in sports. In Berry’s In Defense of Literacy, he strongly argues for securing the practices of traditional education. He writes, “The published illiteracy of the certified educated is on the increase.” Berry is noticing an increase in people who have gone through the education system but do not possess the same level of academic skills that was once the standard.

Intellect that would be considered “street smarts” goes unnoticed because “these intellectual resources go unnoticed because they are tied to ostensibly anti-intellectual interests.” Graff argues that intellect considered “street smart” only goes unused because it is commonly used in nonacademic scenarios. The word “ostensibly” in this phrase is critical to understanding the connection between intellectual resources and anti-intellectual interests. The appearance of these skills being not useful in academics simply because they are used for nonacademic pursuits is a big contributor to the thinking trap that Graff is arguing against. This word shows the deeper connection real-world skills and intellect can have that not everyone notices on the surface level. 

Later in his piece he acknowledges, “there is a latent intellectual trying to break out, an identity that it is my job somehow to tease out and articulate itself.” Graff’s use of the word “latent” is important because it acknowledges that everyone is an intellectual but it might not be fully developed or visible to the outside world. Just because the world can’t see it doesn’t mean the intellect doesn’t exist. He views the school’s job as not just to teach the basic skills that everyone needs but also to pull out the intellect from every student because it exists in everyone. 

It interests me how Graff plans on extracting the intellect from students who would typically be considered “not smart.” Are there specific techniques that can be used to pull on someone’s inner knowledge? I would be interested to see if my fellow students agree or disagree with Graff’s opinion of being able to extract intellect from everyone. Do professors agree or is this a principle that is not commonly shared? Throughout elementary and middle school I never heard about intelligence that wasn’t book smarts. Only in high school did I start learning about other skills such as the trades which are just as valuable and important. My experience in my pre-teenage years was much more in line with Berry’s perspective of exclusively teaching book smarts. The contrast between Berry and Graff is very clear and it is interesting looking back on my educational experience and seeing both of their arguments being presented in different forms.