I'm going through this phase lately where I'm trying not to feel so stupid and oblivious. I'm tired of having no idea what I'm actually saying or reading pages of theory, then realizing I have no idea what I've just read.
To that extent, I've been instigating some new policies when I read.
First, I'm actually paying attention. Paradoxically, this involves distracting myself, such as with my reading sweater (which has grown 11 inches since this weekend). By doing something mechanical and repetitive with my hands, I not only stay awake, but it keeps my mind from wandering to all the absurd places it likes to wander.
Next, when I come across unfamiliar allusions or foreign phrases, I'm writing them down and looking them up instead of simply going "Blah blah, something in French..." This adds all kinds of layers of meaning that I've been missing since my perspicacious high school years when I picked up on things and remembered them. Or before I became so apparently blasé about culture that I assumed I knew everything and didn't have more to learn.
Finally, when my tendency would be to gloss over words with which I'm vaguely familiar, without grasping true meaning, I've also been looking those up and writing definitions among my notes, forming a mini-glossary of theoryspeak for myself.
In the 9 page introduction to my most current reading, I had to look up the following for clarification:teleological, apologist, epistemological, concomitant, milieu, gemütlich, miasma, a priori, metonymically,subsume, positivist.
Yeah, I know, they should rescind my bachelor's immediately.
Anyway these strategies are proving quite useful, and I'm actually staying awake while I read, so there is a lot to be said for that.
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