# The Singers ## Ivan Turgenev

It is stunning to find that, when one slows down and looks at the constituent parts, a story, which might otherwise pass as a triviality or idle amusement, is full of intricacies and, moreover, that little else in life, no matter how engrossing, enticing, or entertaining, possesses such quality. For a work to be responsive to itself is rare and cannot truly be mass-produced. Somewhere in Benjamin's writings about technology's corrupting influence on art is this argument surely supported.

*A Swim in a Pond in the Rain* is more technical than Bloom's work, or, rather, it treats more of the techniques of writing and constructing literature. Bloom's literary criticism comes from a different tradition, that of Samuel Johnson, for one, Talmudic studies, for another. His commentary on the Russian greats would be entirely different, but Saunders's work is instructive, interesting, and deserving to be read.

On the point of giving meaningful feedback to writers, I have found that one needs experience writing, in order to provide the kind of feedback that is useful to another writer, and to have given considered feedback, in order to make use of feedback you receive from others to improve your writing.

1. It is the early spring and Marya Vasylyevna now is traveling by cart to town. As she has made the trip many times before, she is indifferent to the scenery. 2. Why is Marya unable to appreciate the changing world when it is depicted in these evocative terms? 3. I suppose I think she will be prevented from making it into town with any timeliness due to a problem with the cart or another reason.

## A Page at a Time ### Thoughts on “In The Cart”

# In the Cart ## Anton Chekov

What is teachable is often a function of what is memorable to the teacher. We differentiate more and remember better what we understand, whereas what we do not understand we tend to lump together. To teach, you would do well to guide others where they themselves feel the ground to be uneven, or marshy and barren, and to help them navigate that ground. The areas where you yourself feel unsteady are a good place to invest one's personal study.

### We Begin How old are these students?

_Testimonial:_ My primary point of contact for all literary criticism is Harold Bloom, but I am well-read in the genre. I picked up *A Swim in the Pond in The Rain* on the recommendation of a writer I publish. I had a copy of *Lincoln in the Bardo* that I never wound up finishing, although it was not because I found the writing to be bad. One of my hopes for my use of this platform is to try to make my understanding of literary criticism more publicly available, in part by re-reading Bloom, Auerbach, Johnson, and others, but also by integrating my understanding into the notes I take for works of fiction. To read and take notes on this book could be a start to that project.