© Roger M Tagg 2016
Welcome to FROLIO – a new attempt to merge philosophy and the "semantic web" . This website is under continuing development.
'Between the Lines' was one of the earliest books I can remember really enjoying - one of my uncles passed his copy on to me in my teenage years. It was aimed at ordinary readers of newspapers and magazines, encouraging them to take a more critical view of what they were reading. The book includes lots of 'exercises' where Thompson (DT) presents a set of alternative text extracts which address the same events or issues but from very different viewpoints or prejudices.
'Reading and Discrimination' is a somewhat more learned treatment of much the same theme, although here he includes poetry and other literary forms, rather than just writing for the common reader. However DT follows much the same system of 'alternative' texts and highly contrasting styles.
From page 53 on the book is all 'Passages for Criticism' - there are some fabulous examples here. He even has a 'crib' afterwards showing sometimes the identity of the authors and his own assessments.
In 'Between the Lines' there is also a crib at the end, identifying the sources. Here the 'news items' discussed cover pre-war issues like re-armament, air raid precautions, the Spanish civil war, moves towards Indian independence and so on.
The first version of 'Reading and Discrimination' probably dates from 1934, so 'Between the Lines' is a later book aimed at a more 'popular' readership.
DT was also a collaborator with FR Leavis, and as well as other books on English and English Literature, produced 'Change and Tradition in Rural England': An Anthology of Writings on Country Life
| Chapter | Page | Highlight |
|---|---|---|
| Intro | 3 | The average person "reads uncritically ... he will live at second-hand". |
| 4 | "The supply of reading matter is now solely a matter of commerce; to pay, it must sell widely. The tendency is therefore for the author to appeal to the cheapest thoughts and feelings." | |
| "The individual is assaulted on an unprecedented scale; there are so many claims on his attention that it is no wonder if he is left with no power of discernment." | ||
| 5 |
"... people are duped and degraded by the advertiser, and 'democracy' fails because masses of people are easily manipulated by words - they are unable to recognize what politicians and newspapers are doing." [RT: This may still be true in 2016, although more people are 'capable' of seeing through the rhetoric. However with so many time pressures on them, they may be thinking 'we know they are trying to manipulate us' and so they generally lose trust and take the line 'sod the lot of them'.] | |
| 5-6 | DT quotes a contemporary advert for a cruise to the West Indies, which starts with a "dreary narcotic rhythm" of "pseudo poetical order", and emphasizes the "personal touch ... 'you too can ...' ". | |
| 6 | For the ordinary reader, "a susceptibility to crude emotional appeals is disastrous ...". [RT: People still muddle through, and the authors of these appeals haven't thought of stopping them.] | |
| 7 | A speech exhorting our troops to 'finish off the wounded German soldier' - at a function in London - was loudly cheered, despite such action being totally contrary to the Geneva convention. The argument was 'that's what they would do to our wounded'. | |
| DT recommends Thouless's 'Straight and Crooked Thinking' and Norman Angell's 'The Press and the Organization of Society'. | ||
| In 'passage for criticism' #2, which is a reflection on the 1918 Armistice, the general critical opinion was that "the writer poses as a prophet" - describing it in 'biblical' rhetoric. | ||
| 8-9 | DT proposed "The Rhythm Test" for how a text could be read aloud - this applies mainly, but not exclusively, to poetry. | |
| 12 | IA Richards (co-author of 'The Meaning of Meaning') identified four 'channels' of meaning': "1) Sense: writer presents items for consideration; 2) Feeling expressed by the writer about these items; 3) Tone: writer's attitude to readers; 4) Intention: the aims the speaker tries to promote." Even a dog can use 2, 3 and 4. | |
| 17 | "The 'ivory tower' attitude towards poetry largely accounts for the disrepute and hostility it has met with for many years." | |
| Sentime- ntality | 19 | 'Sentimental' passages in text or speech may be good or bad, but we need a better definition of what 'sentimentality' is. What we don't want is "indecently false pathos" - as instanced by cinema heroes or public school 'spirit'. An example he quotes is the school song 'Dulce Domum'. |
| 22 | "Miltonics" [RT: presumably masses of classical allusions] is not suitable for minor poets. | |
| 23 | "... the most important poets are those who liberate themselves, and hence others, from the restraints of "poetic diction". | |
| 41-2 | DT asks: are "art or criticism" like behaving "too much like a passenger on a short-handed ship ..."? | |
| 42 |
But ... "the rearguard of society cannot be extricated until the vanguard has gone further". Art and criticism are to do "with the health of the mind". [RT: I guess he means that even the educated people who could criticize and see through the fog of what is so often written and spoken are failing to do so, and so the rest of us don't have a good example to follow and are hence doomed to non-thinking disasters.] | |
| 43 | DT opposes "the heresy ... that one man's taste is as good as another's". | |
| Other tactics DT hates are "hearty, good 'mixer' accent, ... feeble-jocular tone, ... affectation of reverence, (and) ... mock humility". | ||
| 44 |
"... the writer with an air of splenetic boredom attacks criticism [as] disloyalty to the herd ...". [RT: DT is 'knocking' the 'knockers' - those who try to put down anyone who puts their head above the parapet and suggests that the 'groupthink' is weak, or riddled with contradictions. Presumably that would include anyone that questions the 'finish off the wounded German soldier' speech, or indeed any 'fashionable' trend, artist or poet.] | |
| 51-2 | Many speakers and writers are keen to use 'imagery', but it may often be too contrived or disjointed. | |
| Pass- ages | 150 | [RT: I haven't written these up, except one I particularly liked. The two poems to be compared are Laurence "Binyon's 'For the Fallen' with Ezra Pound's 'They Died in any Case'." |
| Betw- een the | xi | Some people say "I never read much, except for a glance at the papers now and then - reading certainly hasn't any effect on me". DT says "it is on such a person that the printed word has its greatest influence, because he is not on his guard against it". |
| Lines | 17 | In WW1, "no princes of the Church called a halt to this (biased propaganda of the 'all Germans are semi-human' variety)". |
| 20 | "Newspapers do not exist to give news. Their purpose is to make profits from advertising revenue ..." | |
| 22 | "No newspaper can give the whole truth even if it wants to." As well as genuinely not knowing, there are many people who may try to stop unwelcome truths being told. | |
| 37 | "The modern newspaper might be described as an ingenious device to prevent us receiving and understanding the real news." | |
| 45 | "A death under abnormal circumstances is a tragedy, to be exploited from the Human Interest angle; ghoulish details, and the grief of the relatives are exhibited." | |
| 78 | "Irrational belief forms a large bulk of the furniture of the mind, and is indistinguishable by the subject from rational verifiable knowledge." |
Denys Thompson must have been a great guy - it's a pity I never followed up his ideas or listened to a talk by him.
It is still not very fashionable to think critically. Even in my former role as a University lecturer, there were not many students who had yet acquired a critical outlook - maybe that comes with Computer Science!
Regarding criticism in general, one can still find web pages (mainly of the fundamentalist Christian variety) that say it's a bad habit. Mind you, I think those authors are more concerned about criticizing others as people.
My own opinion is that the human race is still in a transition. In historical times only a few individuals could think critically - or even write coherently. But the gradient between the 'vanguard' and the 'rearguard' in reading intelligently and thinking independently is flattening. But we are by no means 'there' yet, and there is probably still a majority of humans who prefer simple irrational beliefs to evidence-based reason. They prefer to go with the flow of what they are exhorted to think by what they read and hear. While this may not be 'disastrous' as Thompson claims, they won't be doing as well as they could be doing.
Index to more highlights of interesting books
Some of these links may be under construction – or re-construction.
This version updated on 29th June 2016
If you have constructive suggestions or comments, please contact the author rogertag@tpg.com.au .