Ah, Cliffs Notes. Bane of English teachers, lifeline for the adolescent procrastinator. But here’s something interesting: it turns out that when used for their intended purpose, Cliffs Notes are incredibly helpful. I went to the library today to fill out the online application for the temp agency, (It didn’t work with any of my browsers – one would think that an agency that staffs tech people would have an application that works with Firefox.) and while I was there I decided to pick up some Greek tragedies. On the shelf with the classical literature was the Cliffs Notes for “Greek Classics.” It seemed that it might be worth taking home to use as background as it has been twelve years since I set down the mantle of classics major, and switched to a business degree so I could party and be employed after graduation (but not ten years after graduation, apparently). Anyway, before I dug into Euripides, I dug into the Cliffs Notes to refresh my memory about the context, etc. And it was a delight.
Greek tragedies. I don’t know. During one of the more recent moves, I finally got rid of all of the books from my days as a classics major. I hadn’t touched them in years and I realized that I was keeping them around mostly so people who looked at my bookshelves would think that I’m brilliant, and that sometimes, just for a lark, I spend an afternoon reading Sophocles and Euripides. Totally ridiculous. It’s much more efficient to go to the library and then blog about it. I’m brilliant and intellectually quirky! Hear me scoff!
And for the record, I never read the Cliffs Notes in lieu of the actual texts when I was in high school. My special form of procrastination was to put off assignments so long that I didn’t have time to read the Cliffs Notes.
