A thread for students on understanding hard readings...
Yes, sometimes the reading you've been set is by an academic that's not the best writer.
Sometimes something else is going on - they are writing to a different audience and not filling in all the backstory.

This thread has been promoted by the interview with Judith Butler that is fascinating on many levels: https://www.newstatesman.com/international/2020/09/judith-butler-culture-wars-jk-rowling-and-living-anti-intellectual-times

Some people have chimed in to say, 'oh but she's *incomprehensible*...'

'I mean what does this even mean...?' And sure, it's a long sentence with a lot going on packed into a sentence. If I was giving feedback to a student who needs to 'show evidence of understanding' I'd be asking them to slow down and explain and unpack things a lot more.

But...

All the words and sentences here do mean things - it's not nonsense, but packed into it is a LOT of backstory. Don't know Althusser? Or about structuralism or debates about the ideas here? Then it's like coming into a series part way through where you don't know the characters...

...or backstory. Like take this from Game of Thrones. I've never seen it I so have no idea what's going on here - it's more or less incomprehensible to me. I think I have vaguely heard of Mother of Dragons but I have no idea about the significance of meaning of any of it.

It's not that I couldn't understand - but I'd need to go back & catch up through a series recap, a who's who overview or starting from the beginning. Sometimes screen writers do but in backstory or exposition to help people catch up but too much gets in the way of the new story.

It's a bit like that with reading - the more you read, the more you fill in the backstory & get a sense of how the academic conversation has developed. Textbooks or intro/overview articles help you jump in & catch up quicker from people who've been following it and can summarise.

Just as we might not expect to understand everything if we walked into a room of strangers and joined their conversation so we might not understand everything in an academic conversation (reading) straight away. It's always nice to have guides to help - so we always recommend...

... starting with intro readings, written for students, that try to not assume too much 'prior knowledge' or backstory. But the more you read in an area the more you build familiarity - you know who's who and what's what and can tell others (e.g. in assessments).

So don't think 'I'm stupid' if you don't get it straight away - it may be not-so-good writing but also give yourself time to immerse yourself in the storylines of what you're reading, and permission not to understand everything straight away.