Questioning is often overlooked as a facet of daily human life that has always been and will always be, but can there be more in a question? Can questions themselves hold more information and inspire more knowledge-seeking than the answers to those questions? The ability to ask the “more beautiful” question, as referred to by Warren Berger, is an ability overlooked by many. Why is it important that we as future AP Lit students educate ourselves in the ability to ask questions in order to share and enlighten creative thought?
I believe that questioning and critiquing, the subjects of the first two pieces of writing assigned, will be the two most important aspects of our experience not only as AP Lit students, but as present and passionate members of the literature community. Without the knowledge of the strength of asking the right question, we would simply, as Warren Berger warned, ask with the purpose of receiving an answer. After reading about the importance of not asking for an answer, I wondered why? What could be so horrid about wanting a fast response to a simple inquiry? I came to the conclusion that there is nothing truly horrid about it at all; I will simply be deploring myself of the possibility of sharing creative ideas and getting a better understanding of the topic of my inquiry. The major ideas I elaborated on in my CPB involved the connections between inquiry and criticism. The writings by Warren Berger and A.O. Scott have allowed me to further my understanding of these two ideas respectively, but my curiosity has led me to question the overlap created when critique and questioning are juxtaposed. The conclusion I arrived on was not simple; the relationships that questioning and critiquing create are vast but not straightforward. A critic must understand how to create and form the “more beautiful question”; they must be able to understand and share creative ideas while also enthralling and captivating readers and listeners. They understand that the sharing of creative ideas is crucial and vastly overshadows the significance of the answers to those questions. This has led me to arrive at the conclusion that our position as literary critics will be crucial to our experience next year as AP Lit students. We are not simply followers that accept every word and every idea that is presented to us on the written page, but we must ask why and reach our own conclusions. We must not accept every piece of writing that is presented to us simply because that is our instruction. We must not view a piece of writing as a “classic” simply because it is presented to us as such; we must review the reasoning, explanations, and details that support that conclusion and decide for ourselves whether it is appropriate to deem it classics for ourselves. This will, I believe be a crucial focus next year: the transformation of ourselves from simple readers to critics, skeptics, and ponderers of difficult concepts and ideas as well as texts.
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Avsha WeinbergArchives
November 2019
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