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Unit One
Text A How to Read A Book
Introductory Remarks
“Some books are to be tasted, others to be swan and the pains of hell will be perfected in that those present will also be capable of physical bliss/pain. After the last judgment the universe itself will be renewed with a new heaven and a new earth.
2. The rhetoric “anticlimax”
In rhetoric, climax is a figure of speech, in which words, phrases, or clauses are arranged in order of increasing importance. Climax comes from the Greek word for "ladder".
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Examples:
There are three things that will endure: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love.
"I think we've reached a point of great decision, not just for our nation, not only for all humanity, but for life upon the earth." George Wald A Generation in Search of a Future, March 4, 1969.
"...Lost, vaded, broken, dead within an hour. William Shakespeare, The Passionate Pilgrim, XIII.
"...the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." Martin Luther King, I Have a Dream.
Similarly an anticlimax is an abrupt declension (either deliberate or unintended) on the part of a speaker or writer from the dignity of the idea which he appeared to be aiming at; as in the following well-known distich:---
"The great Dalhousie, he, the god of war,
Lieutenant-colonel to the earl of Mar."
An anticlimax can be intentionally employed only for a jocular or satiric purpose. It frequently partakes of the nature of antithesis, as in,
"Die and endow a college or a cat."
3. Belles lettres
Belles letters (from the French for literature, literally "fine letters") refers to literature that is appreciated for the beauty, artistry, and originality of its style and tone rather than for its ideas and informational content. Earlier the term was synonymous with literature, referring particularly to fiction, poetry, drama, criticism, and essays. However, belletristic literature has come to mean light, art