Cliff Notes
For those who don’t know, Cliff Notes are a popular brand of book summaries and study guides. If you pick up a Cliff Note on Scott Fitzgerald’s Great Gatsby, you will find an outline, a chapter by chapter summary, and descriptions of the main characters. There is an overview of the main themes, sample essay questions, and even a pop quiz at the end. Each Cliff Note looks and feels more or less the same, follows the same format, and is condensed to about 50 pages or so. I quite like Cliff Notes, but there is an important distinction to be made.
Cliff Note is far from the real book. It is a reflection or representation of the real thing, someone else’s portrayal of “reality”. Why does it matter? Consuming a Cliff Note is almost like hearing someone talk about a painting for an hour without you actually seeing it. The real work of art contains more substance and depth. The actual book provides additional plot points that are missed in the summary; it introduces additional characters and gives more context, texture, and color to the story.
Most importantly, reading the actual book allows you to formulate your own thoughts. It provides you with a space to reflect on how you feel about the plot, characters, and themes as they are described by the author, not someone else’s interpretation. By reading the exact words as they were written by the author, you are drinking directly from the well. Relying on Cliff Notes all the time can harm your ability to think for yourself and create a bad habit of relying on others to distill what is true. Over time, you may become accustomed to consuming recycled knowledge, which is shorter, friendlier, and more digestible, but lacks the depth and substance of the original.
The same comparison can be made to how we think about our personal relationships. We constantly write Cliff Notes about the people around us. When we meet someone at a dinner party, discuss a new boss, or witness an argument, we write mental Cliff Notes about them. The left side of the brain, which is less analytical and more judgmental, loves this activity. But truly getting to know someone takes time, effort, and desire. In the same way that it takes time to read and understand a complex book like War and Peace, getting to know someone truly takes effort and a desire to do so. Is it better to be surrounded by hundreds of Cliff Notes, or to have a few original literary masterpieces that you read, re-read, discuss, and thoughtfully dissect?