How and Why We Read: Crash Course English Literature #1

In which John Green kicks off the Crash Course Literature mini-series with a reasonable set of questions. Why do we read? What's the point of reading critically. John will argue that reading is about effectively communicating with other people. Unlike direct communication though, the writer has to communicate with a stranger, through time and space, with only "dry dead words on a page." So how's that going to work? Find out with Crash Course Literature! Also, readers are empowered during the open letter, so that's pretty cool.

Crash Course Literature 100 Reading List:
Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Catcher in the Rye
Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson

Want to find Crash Course elsewhere on the internet?

[daraamadea]

I just found out that THIS John Green is actually THAT John Green!!

[danielraftery]

I've never been particularly interested in john green's works, but the fact that he encourages readers instead of just seeing them as beneath him says a lot about his character and his connection with his audience.

[talayanina]

Who else got assigned this for online schooling

[IlusionHunter]

My literature teacher told us to come here. I now understand why and that literature goes beyond being entertained by a book or for the sake of pleasure. I now see reading is a 'tool' that will help us in our lives, experiences, feelings (good or bad ones but still feelings) and so much more but it would be a very long list. Greetings from Argentina.

[RebeccaBT]

Dear everyone at crash course, english specifically, I would just like you to know how much I appreciate what you do. I was never someone who especially loved reading, but now, I well, do. It seems odd even to me that the few videos made on this channel have changed my opinion in such a big way, and yet I swear it's true. I would love to see more of these if it is at all possible, I know I am just one and have no impact on what videos are made. Most of all, I just wanted to say that these videos mean a lot to me, thank you.

[Ebolson]

THANK YOU my english teacher once told my class, "take this Edgar Allen Poe story and find 10 symbols". If we didn't have 10 we were failed and the most anyone had was 7. They then told us about the "symbols" we missed and none of them made any sense! One was that cat represents the devil because the cat died.

[AwesomeJaneUniverse]

"Go out there and make a WORLD! 
Best wishes."
-John Green

[stevegovea]

Faulkner beneath the stars...LOL. Good one Green.

[Tombert]

Typical high school student:  The curtains were blue.
Typical high school symbolic teacher:  The blue curtains represent the characters sorrow and depression.
Typical college symbolic teacher:  What do you think the curtains mean?

[SexyMadCovv]

I have been watching crash corse for a couple of years and had no idea that he wrote a fault in our stars

[nyheemjohnson]

When ur teacher assigns this on google classroom

[alannar.]

I know you guys are doing more CC Lit, but this is my favorite CC series, and I have read entire novels for the sole purpose of watching two 10-minute videos on them. So it would be so amazing if you made this a more regular series, because this series is what really broke the ice for me learning how to analyze books. Seriously, CC Lit has changed my life.

[curtishammer]

Literature 300 series:

Les Miserables
Moby Dick
Don Quixote
Great Expectations

Make it happen, John

[memetime]

*When you mentioned Hyperbole, for the first time I felt like I can learn this without feeling bored, you guys should do a series on literal devices and hard grammar stuff*

[mohammidjohnson]

John Greene I would be so impressed with you if you could do a series on why mathematics is important in life, whether in a historical or just using real life examples. Please DO this, you can change lives by teaching people why they should learn math.

PLEASE DO NOT IGNORE THIS!

[jenniferbarrett]

History, Literature and overall nerdiness...I love this man.

[chunieboo]

I can’t believe it’s been 8 years and still this video gives one of the best explanations on why reading is important.

[adamdonovan]

Showed this clip to a reading class I'm teaching here in the SF Bay Area-9th graders. And one of the ideas that came out of the class is that imagination and empathy-two of the main skills strengthened by reading-can be antidotes to cynicism and indifference, two of the really toxic aspects of the culture young people have to deal with.

[samleheny]

The Green brothers have always been very good at communicating why knowledge is so valuable.

[AndyRaslan]

I like the fact that you put Circular Gallifreyan on the blackboard.