Innovative [Subject] Meta-Structure (Beginner) with Lewis

As usual, if anyone has any questions on any topic, they should feel free to shoot. Otherwise, I'm going to dive right into these innovative subjects meta structure.

I might just honestly jump right to an example passage for this one. There's very little to say about this.

Well, I lied. I lied. Okay, first we have to talk for about three minutes. But I truly don't want to do much on this point.

It's kind of boring. Basically, these are, and these can be annoying passages because they are often much less argumentative than other passages.

And in my experience, the more sort of explicitly argumentative a passage is, usually the easier it is to to sort of read and correctly parse it as an argument.

So another way of putting this is the thesis in this kind of passage can often feel very weak. I'll show you what I mean.

So innovative subject, meta structures are basically characterized by the following. The author introduces some in the individual, or painting, or invention, or et cetera, cetera, Or law, or court case, or et cetera, that was usually historically significant for innovating in some way.

Okay? So it's almost always historical. It's almost always backwards looking in that sense, because it's basically impossible to say for sure, but there's something that's actually innovative in the moment.

There are, as you probably have experienced already, there are very inventions or something that seem like they might be groundbreaking, but then turn out to fizzle and not really matter much.

It's very hard to say without hindsight what ended up actually being, you know, the turning points in human progress on any given issue, whether that be science or artistic or whatever.

This can be a cross subject. you see, you can be a scientific, innovative subject. It could be a legal, innovative subject.

could be a humanities, innovative subject. It's often a humanities thing, I would say, actually, but it can very easily be anything above.

The thing about these passages that makes them, like I said, very argumentative and often pretty annoying to deal with is actually just that it often feels like they're just kind of reciting a lot of facts about the thing in mind.

So I'm going to say that the passage is on to give something like almost like a biography of that person's life or a rundown of the

history of the making of the work of art, etc. So this is where it can be like, okay, so and so this really important guy, he was born in the city of this year, he went here, he moved there, then he did this, and it was received like this, and he did, and it feels like, okay, you're just literally, you're just telling me a bunch of facts here.

So the question is extracting from this, what do you think the main point is of these passages? then I gotta look up the, I can't remember the example passage I want here, I have it somewhere, and I'm gonna look us up while you, any of you tell me what you think the main point would be, how about passage like this?

Anyone should feel free to speak up here. Oh, there are some answers in chat that I didn't see. My bad.

That's because I was all tagged trying to find it, trying to find my example pass the chart, giving one second since I just found it.

Okay. Alright, let's see what you guys have to say. Yeah, I knew it was doing a bit this fast.

Okay. Yes. Okay. Alright. So the answers I'm seeing are what exactly made the subject so innovative, but that's exactly right.

the major thing, the invented, okay. So I actually don't think that's right. think Joseph is more on point. There may be some overlap between your two answers in which case your answer is good.

If that's what you were meaning, it wouldn't be the thing. it was invented. would be what made it innovative.

And it isn't so much about what made it possible for them to do it. That's different also, right? How were they able?

if I were to write a passage about the Wright brothers inventing the like human flight, the main point wouldn't be like, what is the science behind their early invention and why did it work?

And it wouldn't be like a discussion of their like high IQs or something that explained why they were able to be the so it is in the biography of NASA.

would be what about the Wright brothers invention was innovative. What made it so important historically? That's the main point, okay?

So what made is really, you really wrote it the perfect way. It's what made the subject innovative, okay? Why, in other words, the author's answer to the question,

Why was this so significant, not how did it happen, not what was it, why was it significant? Notice that in general, main points always need to be essentially offering an explanation of some kind.

They're essentially answering, if they aren't literally taking a stand in an ongoing debate, then they're almost certainly going to be answering a why question.

So this is the innovative subject, meta structure. Like I said, it often comes up in the context of humanities passages.

It's probably one of the more common meta structures that I see students just fail completely to identify the thesis.

Often times I work with students who when I asked them, so what do you think the thesis was of this, they'll go, I don't really think there was one.

This is a very bad answer, first of all. I hate this best, by the way, it's so boring, but that's okay.

That's part of the game. Okay. Uh-huh. Here it is. Wait, is this right? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. All right.

Here it comes. Many of these humanities pastors I find unbelievably boring, and I say that as someone who actually loves the humanities.

Like, I love literature, love music, I play instruments, love art, but these are some more freaking passages. Okay. That's part of the game.

All right. I'm not seeing any questions. Um, so let's just do it. I'm gonna fill this and share my screen.

All right, what we looking at right now? Can you guys see this? I should probably make the text bigger, right?

I shouldn't What do you think, text size, yay, or nay? Let's get some votes. Good or bad? Acceptable, maybe?

A little bigger, OK. I think that's a reasonable request. That's why I asked. This is better, right? A little better?

Is that good? OK, I'll just have to scroll a little faster. So actually, you know what? I'm going to tell you guys where you can find this so you can read at your own pace.

So this is on June of 2012, which is also, I believe, prep test 66, I think, boy, what? Yes, 66, OK?

it's the reading comp section. So it's got 27 questions. I think it's section one. And it's the third passage, OK?

And now I have to make it bigger. OK, so we're on passage three. So prep test 66, that's June of 2012, section one, passage.

Three, starting with question 15. OK, I'm going to be quiet now. Let's all just read this for ourselves. And then when we're done, we can discuss, OK?

OK, is this better? It might be a little easier for people to see more of the passage. And you can zoom in on your screen, maybe, I don't know.

Thanks for the update. Cool. OK, let's do it. You Okay, let me know in chat when you guys are ready You

Okay, I see one. One ready, but I haven't heard from anyone else yet, so I'm going to give 60 more seconds and then I'm just going to start talking.

Thank you. Okay, is anyone not ready? Maybe I need to ask the question differently. Okay, I think this is good.

Thank you guys. I appreciate it. Okay. So let's do it. So this is being classified here as an innovative subject, meta structure.

There's sort of, I guess the first question then is what is the supposedly innovative subject? That's not a very hard question, but there's almost two answers you might be tempted to give.

What's our innovative subject here? What's our subject I'll give you two possibilities is our innovative subject the novel jazz or is it the the writer Tony Morris Oh, we already have a disagreement, okay Okay, I think that's a vote for the novel, but I'm not sure it's a bit of a More thorough answer, so I see one

Over the right of one vote for the novel, and then one slightly more complex answer here, but it seems to be a second vote for the novel, maybe.

Although it is a big one. All right, Myers is defending her view here. Two votes for novel. What do the rest of you think?

How do other people aren't even here? Not true. Another vote for novel, Fotsma stands alone. Do you still think the writer, Fotsma, or have you changed your mind?

Don't let them bully you. Nirations, structure, of jazz. Is that a vote for novel? I'm not sure what that means, either.

OK, so why don't you explain why you feel that way? I think it's a reasonable question to ask, and I don't think the answer is obvious, Wait, jazz, does that mean you think the subject?

is jazz music? What do you mean the novel named jazz?

I see. Okay I don't think that's right at all actually. mean very almost nothing is said. Jazz is discussed but if I asked you why are they discussing jazz there should be a pretty answer to that right?

Why are they talking about Duke Ellington here? Why are they talking here about the way a jazz band plays?

What was the point of that anyone can answer? What was the point of talking about jazz music in this passage?

What?

Oh, you mean paragraph? By the passage I meant the entire thing. This is all one passage with four paragraphs, right?

So my question is what is the point of talking about jazz in each of these mentions throughout the passage?

I mean the point of talking about Duke Ellington wasn't because this is a discussion of Duke Ellington and I'm trying to prove point about Duke Ellington.

It was in order to illustrate something about Tony Morrison's novel. Yeah. Okay. And that's what Fatima just said in the message to me, I think Jess said here too, because the format of her novel is a literary version the same way you've got with Instructure.

Right. Exactly. drawing a pair of levels of Instructure, or Fatima says, because the authors try to show us how Toni Morrison used the structure of musical jazz in the novel and how music and literature relate.

Right. So, any mentions of specific claims about jazz music were only included for purposes of illustrating something about the novel itself.

Now, I admit the way I just phrased that also suggests what I think the right answer is to my earlier question.

But so, to go back to the earlier question then for one second, so I never got a defense from Fatima.

So, what made you want to say the writer rather than the novel? By the way, the answer you just gave in message to me was excellent.

How would we resolve this? How do we decide whether the subjects that we're interested in is better understood as the novel or as how do we make that decision?

Well, so Tony Morrison is the one who figured out how to do this, yeah, but so here, okay, so the correct answer was the novel, everyone who said the novel is right, but the innovative subject is the novel jazz, it isn't Tony Morrison in general, that isn't to say that Tony Morrison isn't, doesn't deserve credit for

The innovation of the novel, of course, the novel is just a piece of paper, Toni Morrison's the writer. But it wasn't a discussion of Toni Morrison holistically as an author.

In fact, here's how you know, you don't know anything about Toni Morrison from this passage other than about the novel Jaz.

You don't know how many other novels she's written, you don't when this novel was written compared to the rest of her novels in her career, don't know when she was born or died, you don't know what her other novels were about, you don't know which was her most famous novel, you know nothing other than about this one, right?

So the reason why conclusion indicators are not the most helpful guide to the main point of the passage this large is there are going to be too many of them throughout the course of the thing, right?

This is like a really notorious issue in general for reading comp. So, let me see if I can actually get this point across.

This is a slightly hard point to make, and not obvious, I would say. Conclusion indicator where it's like, however, because, therefore, are going to show up all over the place in four paragraphs of text.

A paper like this is going to be making a million local arguments. They're going to be making a ton of claims that function like conclusions in the context of the paragraph they're in with evidence.

But that doesn't tell you how those are meant to factor into the overall holistic main point of the passage.

Now, admittedly, you could do this, and it would work. You'd find, okay, here's a local conclusion, here's a local conclusion, here's a local conclusion.

Now, how do I tell from these 10, which one is the main point of the passage? Well, I have to ask myself the old, the old Y test over and over and over again.

Is this true because of this or vice versa? Is this true because of this and vice versa? But with so many of them, this is just very tedious.

It doesn't really work. What you want to instead do is try to get a sense of the, if you can, this is why meta structures are so valuable.

The meta structure, that will guide you to the main point. Once we can figure out that this is an innovative subject and a structure, then we need to ask, what is the innovative subject that we're discussing?

Well, it's the novel jazz. Once we see that, then we know what the main point is gonna be. Whatever the author thinks makes the novel jazz so innovative, so significant, that's the answer.

So then, I ask you now, what does the author seem to think makes the novel jazz so significant? And I can't help it, I have to make fun of what I think is one of the dumbest lines I've read recently.

Yeah. it's just somehow the interplay with jazz music, right? It's the idea of using a musical genre to structure a literary work.

Apparently, that's what makes this innovative. Now, I hate to say it, but like this sentence I truly think is unbelievably stupid.

But while many African-American writers have used musicians and music as theme and metaphor in their writing, none had attempted to draw upon a musical genre as the structuring principle for an entire novel until Toni Morrison did so in jazz.

I mean, I hate to say... I remember when I was like 13 or 14, I traveled for a month in my family to...

Sorry, I'm not supposed to stupid. We traveled to Singapore, and we were there for about a month. Yeah, I think I was like 12 or 13 or something like that.

And one of the things that I thought was so funny about Singapore was... Singapore, just researched... suddenly become sort of wealthy and was having a renaissance.

It was a beautiful city and unbelievable food. Really exciting place. But they were just, they loved that they plaques like everywhere you went.

They were bragging that they had some Guinness Book of World Records breaking thing. It was like, this is the largest blank in the world.

But it was always the most hyper specific possible thing to qualify. It would be like, this is the largest statue of a half fish, half cat creature in the entire world.

It's like, I believe you. But like, how many of those are there, right? This is what this line feels like to me.

Many people have drawn on musicians and music as theme and metaphor, but none have attempted to draw upon an entire musical genre as a structure, for an entire novel.

It's like, that's just like a really specific, I don't even know why that's supposed to be so impressive. It's kind of interesting.

I'm not opposed to it. I'm not saying I think the novel's bad. I'm sure it is a great novel.

That's just like... To me that's a really got a goofy brag point like it reminded me of being like this is the tallest hat hat half fish statue in the entire world.

No, seriously? Okay. Anyway, I'm sorry. I'd be really mean. I don't have much more to say about this passage.

I found this passage incredibly boring every time I've it. Okay, no confusing. I don't like the sound of that.

What's confusing? That's what it's talking about, Okay, so they bring It is of course just in service of establishing the way in which the novel is mirroring what's it called, right?

But nevertheless, that is, I think, worthy of discussion. So yeah, let's discuss it. It's a good thing to bring up.

So what's the point about Duke Ellington? Why is this being brought up? How does it, how does that discussion differ if it does it all from?

So I scroll to a better spot here. what's the point of Duke Ellington's stuff here? Okay, you're right. I'm being irresponsible.

Can someone tell me with greater specificity what the analogy is here between the way how does the novel mirror jazz as an art form?

What is the idea here? Because there is a very precise idea. He was a composer like Morrison was the author.

Yeah, that's true, but that's definitely not the point of speaking. He's a jazz great improv under an overarching framework.

Now, that's much better. The analogy wasn't even the author at all. first thing you said, actually, I shouldn't have, I was too nice when I said it was true.

It's not true. That's not the analogy in the first place. He isn't being an to her. That is a misreading of it.

He isn't saying it didn't say Tony Morrison is to Duke Ellington as that wasn't the idea, but improv under an overarching framework.

That was the point that was being illustrated, but I want to hear why, but personally read what Justin said.

Celebrating unique voices or characters. They did say those words, but I think we're getting further from an explanation here.

He is a jazz great and therefore a good example of what some people might think shows essential elements of jazz.

jazz. Okay, I'm not sure about that. And those essential elements are what? Okay, but what are those essential elements that you by the end of this answer, you've gotten back to my question but haven't answered it.

I asked what is the, what is the point of bringing up in particular and separately or maybe related. What is specifically the sense in which her novel mirrors the form of jazz.

You said Duke Ellington is being used as a quintessential example of jazz and an analogy is being drawn between the way he played music and the

way she wrote the novel. Okay, I'm asking what that is, right? The soloists within an ensemble. Okay, so that's a big part of it.

And both of you have gotten this aspect of it, right? So the distinction here, okay, actually hold on, I want to answer it for Moira.

It isn't, the analogy isn't Duke Ellington to Tony Morris. Who is he being analogized? The narrator in the novel, exactly.

excellent. Really good. Yes, that's the point. Okay, so essentially what they say is, we'll start with jazz and in particular the way Duke Ellington does it, you have, as you guys have all correctly pointed out, this interplay between solo, the individual performers and the ensemble as a whole.

So in some versions of jazz, know, the individual performers will get chances to have solos where they in some sense take center stage, but still they're never breaking away from the context of the ensemble and at some level, the I don't know if it's the right way to put it, but like the point of what's happening first and foremost is the on the point of is the ensemble itself, right.

So they're still in service to the whole. Now that's that's layer one, layer two, is what about you going to himself.

He was in particular composer and conductor. And apparently, in contrast to earlier jazz, he paid more attention to individual musicians and their unique voices that still didn't equip the ensemble.

Okay, he would give them lengthy improvisations, but even so, even if they were bold and innovative, even if they were long, they always performed.

the undeniable logic of the composer's frame. So somehow, Duke Ellington as composer, even when he let these guys go off, was still structuring their sort of display of individuality.

They were operating within his frame. The analogy here is, over the course of the novel, we move back and forth in our narration.

So some of the time, we're listening to an omniscient narrator. the omniscient narrator is, you guys know it omniscient narrators, right?

It's like not a character in the story. He and he knows everything, right? Ebony says it's reliable. There's no in principle, there should be no psychology leading him to skew his presence.

of attacks. Okay, so there's this omniscient narrator, but he isn't the only narrator. He's often the narrator, but then he'll turn narration over to characters to give first person narration.

the characters are characters. have individuality. They have psychological motivations and so on, and they're probably therefore not omniscient and have unreliability to them as well.

Okay, so then the idea is throughout the novel, even though the omniscient area keeps turning things over at some level to these other guys, they're never completely, I don't know the right way to put this actually, they're never totally letting go.

So even when they turn it over, they're not, sorry, even when he, the omniscient narrator, turns it over to the characters, he's still, he's like Duke Ellington, creating the frame in which they're allowed to perform their solo.

So that's the analogy, okay? All right, we're definitely moving the hell on now. Not only was I bored reading this, I bored myself even more about this discussion, but thanks for sticking with me and thanks for participating.

Okay, so let's solve these questions now. I'm going to give you guys 75 seconds and then I want you to tell me what you think the main point is.

You you Okay, I didn't actually time you what I said I would, but I feel like 75 seconds have gone by.

I was the answer. Sorry that I didn't scroll down to eat much sooner, I assume you guys have pulled this up for yourselves also on the side though, I admit I was operating on that exception if that's false.

that I do apologize. Actually, I don't apologize. I'll never apologize for party racking. Okay, we have a vote for D.

I have a mixed vote for E and C, although it looks like it's actually a vote for C. I have to say we're off to a disappointing start because I think you're both wrong.

I've tipped my hand. I'm disturbing. I'm just I'm just bored. So I'm saying crazy things. Hold on. What do you guys think?

You can't trust anything I say. Don't listen to me. I'm lying to you. Maybe one of those answers is right.

Maybe they're both right. Maybe this is a trick question. Maybe this is a fake L sentence. And there's two right answers.

don't know. All right, come on. Other votes here. What's the answer? I mean, what were you looking for going in?

We already talked about the main point. What was the main point? You're going in. I don't think anyone should be getting this wrong, given that we already said what the main point is, frankly.

I'll scroll back up to when you guys said the main point, because was correct. So, Joe, your answer earlier was because the 400 of novels, the literary version, say, no, that was my bet.

I read the wrong thing. It was a good answer, that was. Yeah. Oh, no, I was reading the main point, So, what you would say we were looking for earlier was that her novel is innovative.

because it structures itself like a jazz couple. That's actually true, right? And it's the first novel to use their language up here, the first novel to the one I was making fun of, to draw upon a musical genre as a structuring principle for an entire novel.

So which of these answers gives that answer? I mean, there's only one of them. So let's go. Okay, I'm going to go one by one.

A says, in jazz, Morrison has realized this is giving artistic achievement. Sounds good so far. In creating the first African American work of fiction, whose plot, themes, and settings, setting are all drawn from the world of jazz.

Well, that's not even true. None of those things are true. The plot is not drawn from the world of jazz.

The setting is not drawn from the world of jazz, right? So this is a misunderstanding of the nature of the relationship between the novel and jazz music.

The whole point wasn't that it's not a novel about jazz music. It's a novel about something else entirely, but that its narrative structure echoes the way jazz music is structured.

That's the analogy. So A is just inaccurate. B says, Morrison's striking description of a musical ensemble performance containing solo improvisations.

So far, I'm loving this answer. Constitutes an important artistic innovation. I'm happy with that. Oh, wait, hold on, wait, I don't want this answer.

I misread this, wait, go back. Morrison's striking description of a musical ensemble performance. She doesn't describe a musical ensemble performance.

It's the same mistake as A. The novel isn't about jazz music. It's just in a very metaphorical way, structures its narrative like.

take jazz's structure. So B is just a misunderstanding of the analogy in the first place. B and A are out for the same reason.

Now C, although many African writers have used music as essential metaphor in their works, I don't know if they said that anywhere.

They said many African Americans have used music as theme and metaphor. I don't know if they said it was essential metaphor.

None had attempted to draw upon a genre as a structuring principle for a novel. Although many of them use music as a central metaphor, they never quite said that.

That's okay. I'll give them a pass maybe. Morrison's novel is unique and innovative. I like that for using jazz as its central metaphor.

It doesn't use jazz as an essential metaphor. That's not what they said. They said it uses it as a structuring principle for the novel and later they said the novel structures its narrative by analogy to the way jazz music is structured and jazz performs this structure.

That's not the same thing as using it as a central metaphor. If that's unclear, Sure, let me give you an example of what it would actually mean to use something as a central metaphor.

Have any of you ever read John Dunne's Great Home, The Flea? Okay, it's a short one. It's three stanzas here.

It's about how he was trying to sleep with this girl, even though he's like a clergyman, so he wouldn't do it, but he has desire in his part, okay?

Fine, we're going to read The Flea. I'll show you what it means to have a central metaphor, okay? Mark but this flea and mark in this how little that which thou denies me is.

It sucked me first and now sucks Thea, and in this flea are two bloods mingled Thea. noticed that this cannot be set as sin, nor shame, nor loss of maidenhead, yet this enjoys but for it woo, and tampered swells with one blood made of two, and this alas is more than we would.

do. Okay, I'm not going to read this whole thing. You should go read this, but the whole point is that the metaphor of home is the flea bit him, then a bit her and now their blood is mingled.

Okay. And he's saying, look how small this is. entire time he sticks with the single metaphor, there would be union that they haven't consummated is being analogized to the experience of their blood mingling than the flea that bit them both.

Okay, that's a central metaphor. But a metaphor is like explicitly brought up, right? Again, it's a much more subtle mistake that C makes than A and B.

They are much worse answers, but it's the same mistake. The point wasn't that the novel ever even mentions jazz music.

It might not. That's not the nature of the relationship. So C misunderstands the nature of the relationship here, although that was an unbelievably tempting answer.

So I mean, I could see picking this answer. This is an easy mistake to make. Now D building on the work.

To many African-American writers and musical composers, Morrison has over the years developed an innovative jazz-like style of narration, which she uses especially effectively in the novel jazz.

There's no indication or mention ever that she's done anything like this anywhere other than jazz. And it's not true, actually.

If you've ever read Morrison, this isn't like, oh yeah, Morrison's always writing like she's doing jazz. That's not part of it.

And nor did they say that. Also, this is missing the point. The point of the article wasn't that she's gotten especially good at writing like jazz music.

It's that this novel is innovative because, this answer mentions that it's an innovative style, but the main point is why the style was innovative.

So this doesn't answer the right question. Again, it feels to me, by the way, rockin' it, you gave this answer right.

It feels like you're still not grasping the same thing you didn't grasp in general in the whiteboard. What is the main point of an innovative subject passage?

It's why, or maybe it It wasn't you. It was someone else that said the wrong answer. I apologize if it wasn't you.

take that back. don't think it was my bet. But maybe it was wait. I can't remember. I'm sorry. If it wasn't, I thought this.

But no, no, I'm wrong. I'm sorry. I misidentified that. But then then the mistake you made here by picking Dean reminds me of the mistake that whoever was said earlier, oh, main point of an innovative subject passage isn't how was this person able to get good at doing this.

That's irrelevant. It's why was this thing innovative. Here, the thing is the novel jazz and D doesn't explain why it's in there.

Now, E is a perfect answer here, which you talk yourself out of death. So in jazz, more than a succeeded in creating an original and effective narrative strategy that is a literary analog of Duke Ewington's style of musical composition.

This is just the only, it's not a brilliant answer. It's just the only one that's accurate. It's the only one that correctly understands the nature of the relationship.

Between jazz music and Morrison's novel. It's an it's a literary analog of his style of composition It isn't a metaphor.

It isn't The basis for the plot themes and setting and it isn't a the novel isn't a description of jazz Performed, okay, it's an analogy.

All right I beat a horse on this one, but I truly think the most important thing is getting these main point questions, right?

Especially if you have some in-road into that through the the meta structure So I'm gonna go much faster through the rest, but I'll give you guys 60 seconds or something 90 seconds and think about this one I'll scroll down to e in bit too You

Oh, no problem. Okay. Thanks, Jeff. Oh, I'm gonna spin on the E. I guess we could have moved up to the first paragraph here.

I'll go down to the end of this. Now that we have a slightly better view. You So, you might notice from just looking at these answer choices, they keep making distinctions between essentially things like, oh, well, is it, does it start from a specific example or a general claim, so things like that.

So, we should be able to form an anticipation on that point. It looks to me like we're starting general, we're talking in general about the relationship between music and literature, and historical, for what it's worth.

We're talking about, oh, since the beginning, typically it's in this way, right? Ever since literature developed, okay? This is all general.

Then we transition it to talking about a specific, time and place the African American tradition. Okay. Now we're talking about the African American tradition.

So we got more specific, but it's still talking about an entire literary or musical tradition. And then at the end, now we've gotten even more specific.

And we're talking about a specific novel by a specific writer, the novel jazzed by Tony Morrison. Okay. So that's my anticipation.

We're going from a general discussion of topic to a specific, discussion of a specific tradition to a discussion of a specific novel.

Does that track? Let's see. From a common claim about the arts, I already don't like that. don't know why I've had was a common claim.

I don't remember that, but maybe to a denial of this kind of there's no denial. There's no back and forth.

So that's wrong. From a general remark about two art forms, that sounds right, to a similar observation about a particular tradition, I'm not sure about this similar observation business, we'll have to check up on that, but the particular tradition part makes sense, to a specific comment about a particular work that exemplifies the prior remarks.

Okay, now this could be a good answer, it at least has my broad anticipation. General remark about art forms, observation about a particular artistic tradition, to a specific comment about a particular work, that is correct.

Now, are they right in how they're categorizing a general remark, a similar observation, and then exemplifying both of the prior claims?

I'd have to make sure that's right, but let me see if there's anything else that's even worth considering before I worry about that.

You guys see the way I'm approaching this? From a description of a common claim about two art forms, again, I don't know where they're getting this common claim business, but it is about two art forms.

To some specific like evidence that supports the squam. No, no, that's not what happened. From an observation about a specific art form, and that's already wrong, to a more general claim, no, it doesn't get more general as it goes.

That's backwards. From general comments about the arts, okay, I don't love that, but it's okay. To a purported counter example.

No, there was no purported case. it's just me. don't have to worry about any of details I wasn't sure about, because nothing else was even, was even worth considering.

Okay. Oh, look at that. These are both hard questions. This was passage three. Okay. All right. Next one. We'll go right to these wimes.

Here we are. Oh, I wide these lines. I'm sorry. What? What just happened to my brain? Okay. These are the wines.

Oh, the wines I was making fun of. I think this is like the stupidest pieces I've ever seen in my entire life, but that's okay.

Okay. I don't not relevant. It's probably true. I mean, I don't see why that would be a problem. So this is a weekend.

Hold on. Let's be a little more thorough here. We're trying to... So what's the claim that's made here? It's that this novel's unique in that it drew upon musical genre as a structure principle for the novel.

Okay? So how do we undermine that claim? Well, one way we can it would be, I guess, to show that that's not true about her novel, but I don't think that's a good anticipation because it is true about her novel, and it would be crazy to deny that at this point.

So that's not the right direction to go in. So that's the only other direction to go in is to establish that she is an action in the first person to do this, that there already existed.

African-American writer before her that used a musical genre as a structuring principle for their novel, right? That's so I'm looking for a basically a non-uniqueness clan, a small number of African-American novelists writing earlier in the 20s entry sought to base their form of their work on the typical structural blues music.

This looks like exactly what I'm looking for, so I'm wiking B, but what to read on, all novels about non-literary arts and artists appear as if their authors have tried to make their narrative styles reminiscent of the arts in question, know, but is just confusing, but this is a dog- answer.

Depending partly on whether or not it is read aloud, any novel can be found to be somewhat musical in nature.

Again, they're breaking down the wrong thing, okay? The question wasn't, oh, are there lots of novels that are in kind of in some big way drawing on music or analogous to music?

That's not inconsistent with their clan. Their claim is just- This was the only novel that attempted to draw on a musical genre as a structure and principle for the novel.

Okay, so C and D are like not relevant. They're like, yeah, maybe in some sense novels are kind of this.

That's not what we're talking about. A smaller number of African-American writers than if not African-American writers have written novels as well.

Okay, we are not talking about whether plot and character has to do with these. We're also not comparing. Yeah, so B is clearly the right answer.

So B gave me exactly what I wanted, right? We just needed non-uniqueness. Oh, actually, there were a small number of African-American novels in particular who had tried to do exactly this before.

If so, then this claim is wrong, the claim which she was the first, right? That's it. Okay. Okay, the information in the passage most supports which of the following statements regarding Ellington.

The person has explicitly credited him with inspiring style. Don't think they said that, but let me go down. No.

They never said. They never said. They gave good reason for thinking implicitly that she probably was trying to emulate Ellington, but they never said one way or the other about whether she's explicitly credited him as her inspiration.

A is probable. A could very well be true, but there's just no information on the passage to support that specific factual claim.

He prevented his musicians from performing lengthy solos. No, it contradicted that claim. This is false. They said he gave them crazy solos.

just still was structuring things. He's a minor character. No, this is, again, this is an answer if you just really don't understand what a metaphor is.

I mean, not a metaphor, even. What an analogy is. There's no reason to think he shows up in the novels.

He composed music that was originally tended to be performed by the specific... I don't think that's what they said, but it's

the best answer yet. We'll keep it around for one second. Though he composed and conducted primarily Jazzy I guess it probably is D, but let me see.

In jazz, composer and conductor Duke Ellington was the first to construct his compositions with his individual musicians and their unique voices in mind.

Never mind. They said D exactly, right? So yeah, D is a perfect answer. It had to be D, but now we can at least be confident.

The author's primary purpose in the passage is to do. Okay. Well, I mean, this is, I don't, I don't ask this in addition to the main point, and I don't know the difference between these questions.

This is the same question. We've already answered this question. The purpose was to explain why Toni Morrison's novel jazz is so innovative, is so unique, is so significant.

What it accomplishes is to explain the relationship between her narrative structure and the structure of jazz music, something like that.

Analyzing command, variety of contributions, the art of the novel made by a writer. So actually, I I anticipated this question.

when I asked you, what was the innovative subject? Was it the artist or the novel? That was a very important question.

That's what this is asking. If you thought the answer was, it was the it was Tony Morrison, not one novel by Tony Morrison, then you might pick A here, right?

Oh, yeah, it's all about the contributions of a particular writer, but it's not that's wrong. about the novel. to particular African American writers work with the work of African, it's describe a particular aspect of one work by a particular writer.

This sounds right to me. I could imagine a better answer than this, but this sounds right. What's the particular aspect?

It's the the structural analogy to jazz. What's the work? It's the novel jazz by Tony Morrison. Who's the particular writer?

It's Tony Morrison. So this looks accurate. So this is probably the right answer. demonstrate the fact that it Okay, so reasons why you might not like this when you read it.

Oh, is that down playing the significant of the particular aspect, they never said either way whether it was important.

It's just one particular aspect of the work. It happens to be the most important aspect of the work according to them, and the reason why it's innovative, and the reason why it matters, it's still just one aspect of one particular work by one particular writer, right?

So it's probably going to be C. D, demonstrate the ways in which two apparently to similar arts are no.

is a terrible answer. Detail, the thematic concerns in the work of a particular writer, and now already the scoping is off.

We didn't talk about, holistically, the work of a particular writer. We talked about a work of a particular writer, okay?

So I have no idea anything about the overall dramatic concerns of Toni Morrison's over, because I don't know anything about it other than one novel, so let's just see.

Notice, they really want you to be able to be precise in your structural breakdown of what in particular? Are we talking about the works of Toni Morrison or A work of Toni Morrison?

Are we talking about a genre? Are we talking about the African-American literary experience? No, we're talking about A particular work by A particular African-American writer.

And beyond that, we're not even talking about everything there is to say about that work. We're only interested in one structural thematic aspect of that work, okay?

And that's what C is all about calling out here. It's the same way I answered 16, actually. And it's basically the same way I answered.

No, I lied. That was it. 16 and 19. That was the one I won. All right, 20. I'm just gonna finish this off.

then if anyone has any parting questions, I'll gladly feel them. But otherwise, I'm gonna let you guys go. Each of the following excerpts from the passage exhibits the author's attitude toward the novel jazz, except whose music is often considered its greatest artistic achievement.

one of the great... I'm confused, but this doesn't, this already seems like it could be the answer. I don't see how that exhibits the author's attitude towards the novel jazz.

The novel doesn't have any music. Okay, this was in reference to the African American tradition. I'm already confused. In jazz, the connection to music is found not only in the novel's plot, more strikingly.

Yeah, well, that's obviously a good example. The narration slips easily from the idea that this is an example. Morrison has found a way of paradoxically, yep, this is correct.

By simulating the style of a genius in music was to bring Morrison's own linguistic virtuosity. Yeah, that's, yeah, so it just was A.

A just has nothing to do with the novel jazz at all. This is just a statement about how African American musical contributions have been terribly significant in America, which is true.

Nothing to do with the novel jazz. Okay, that was a weird question. It can be inferred from the passage that the author would be most likely to believe which of the phone.

In jazz, Morrison's perfected a style of narration that had been with little success. They never. made that claim, and I didn't mean to pick that.

was trying to destroy that answer. Not A. Because of its use of narrative techniques inspired by JAS, Morrison's novel represents the most successful representation to date of the milieu.

No, it's not about the milieu. Again, this is the same misunderstanding, okay? In JAS, Morrison developed. So actually, you'll notice, sorry, I went too quickly here.

B was more subtle bait than I realized, even if it didn't catch me. Now, admittedly, it didn't screw up in the first half.

It did correctly identify that we're talking about the use of narrative techniques inspired by JAS. That actually sounds right.

But then it goes on to say that what, and then what that enabled it to do was represent successfully the milieu in which JAS musicians live and work.

That's not what it's representing. It's talking about like life and for one. in 1926. I mean, I'm sure there was some jazz music happening there, but it's the point of mirroring the structure wasn't to tell you all about jazz musicians and how they live.

They are at the subject still. See, in jazz, Morrison develops her narrative in such a way that the voices of individual characters are sometimes difficult to distinguish.

No, no, no, no, no, no, it's not about I can't tell them apart. It's the opposite, right? The whole point was she was like Duke Ellington.

She's giving them extensive solips. Their voices are unique and standing out. They're still structured by the ensemble, but the point is they are standing out, not when they're in.

So this seems backwards. structural analogy between jazz and Duke Ellington's compositional style involves more than simply the technique of .

Okay, this is a great LSAT answer. Okay, I can't think of a single example they gave other than that, but this has to be the right answer.

This has to be the right answer. Here's how you know, okay? I can give you two ways to never, ever, ever miss the beauty of an answer like this.

One, if you wanna get really into it, okay? You wanna get into the logic. It's a weak claim in terms of its logical structure.

The claim that the analogy involves more than simply one thing. That's a some claim. That just suggests that there is at least one example of something else, okay?

Some claims are weak claims that are very, very, very easy to prove, so they're always good answers, safe answers to pick.

There must be true questions. This is essentially a must be true question, right? All these minor point questions are must be true questions on reading code.

So weak answer, they're already happening. But it's better than that. Why does this have to be the right answer?

Because it said it's more complicated. On every humanities passage, it's always safe to say it's It's more complicated. Okay, that's what these kind of people love.

They love these vague nonsense. Oh, it's actually very complex and complicated. of bullshitty. Yeah, it's meaningless. It's stupid. I don't even think it's true, but it's got there's no way it's not the it has to be the bullets ready to eat.

More than disguised as the important structural connections between her narrative and Duke Ellington's jazz. No, it's not about appearing easy.

That's it. It's not about disguising. No, she's not trying to disguise it. It's just deep. I have no idea.

couldn't possibly name for you. What else they think is involved? I'm sure if I dug, there's something they said, but I don't need to.

I just know it's the right answer. That has to be the right answer. Okay, the passage contains information that most helps to answer which is calling questions.

Do you any African American visual artists also attempt to anyway? I have no idea. I couldn't possibly answer that because they didn't say.

In one way is jazzed, biologically similar. I couldn't possibly say they didn't say anything about any other work by Morrison.

After the publication of jazzed, quickly acknowledged the intervention. have no idea. Oh, did it? Did it mention critical reception, actually?

Mm. Did they say critical, anything? I don't think so. I don't think they ever mentioned critical response, so I don't think I know the answer to that question.

But I'll leave it around. How many works? I couldn't pop that and say, I mean, I don't think anyone can answer that question.

They didn't give us any basis to form it to give a number. What characteristic of jazz is also present in the work of some other African-American writers?

That has to be the answer because everything else was terrible, but I... Okay. Let's see. Oh, there is apparently a connection in the novels plot, too.

Maybe I did miss that before. I still don't think I got any questions wrong on this, but yeah. Let's see, when did it talk about other African American writers?

Let's see, it's got to be here, it's got to be in a sense. Use musicians and music as theme and metaphor.

Oh, it may be the use of theme. Maybe the correct answer is one characteristic of jazz is that music is used as theme.

That's not the main point. The main point is that it's used as structure and principle of the novel, but it's also arguably used as theme.

Maybe. I think it has to be, the other answers were really bad. We didn't mention the critics or how soon they acknowledged it.

They didn't talk about her other works. We didn't talk about visual artists, almost like I just forgot that. Wait, no way I can count that.

Most of it said count was somewhere. I think it's got to be E. This is the only question I haven't felt totally confident on.

I'm little confused by that question actually. Okay. So it was correct. All right. So there you go. No mistakes.

Okay. So that's what I run down to that passage. Not an easy passage. Wasn't meant to be an easy passage, mostly four and five difficulty questions.

Good illustration of the innovative subjects. Metastructure. You always need to find the main point is why was this thing innovative and the important questions to ask are one.

What is in particular the subject that's meant to be innovative and why? Answer those two questions and you can basically defeat these passages.

If you fail to answer either those questions correctly, though, you're going to suffer. You're going to suffer mightily. Okay.

And that's all I have to say. Sorry. That was the world's most boring passage. but hopefully it was a helpful process.

Any last questions here before I go on with my life? No problem, it was great to see you. Thanks everyone for coming.

Thanks for the participation. It looks like I already lost Joseph to the road and Moira a little earlier, but thanks everyone for your engagement and chat.

I really appreciate it. It makes these more lively and and way more fun for me. So thank you.