Manic Depressive Treatments Essay -- Psychology Lithium Medical Essays

Manic Depressive Treatments Introduction Lithium was discovered in 1949 by John Cade as a treatment for bipolar disorder. Since then, lithium has become a highly utilized medication for manic depression. Chemistry of Lithium and Route of Access Name: Lithium Group number: 1 Symbol: Li Group name: Alkali metal Atomic weight: [6.941 (2)] g m r Period number: 2 CAS Registry ID: 7439-93-2 Block: s-block Standard state: solid at 293 K Color: silvery white/gray Classification: Metallic Lithium is a Group 1 (IA) element containing just a single valence electron (1s22s1). Group 1 elements are called "alkali metals". Lithium is a solid only about half as dense as water. A freshly cut chunk of lithium is silvery, but tarnishes in a minute or so in air to give a gray surface. Lithium is mixed (alloyed) with aluminum and magnesium for lightweight alloys, and is also used in batteries, some greases, some glasses, and in medicine. Lithium would not normally be made in the laboratory as it is so readily available commercially. All syntheses require an electrolytic step as it is so difficult to add an electron to the poorly electronegative lithium ion Li+. The ore spodumene, LiAl(SiO3)2, is the most important commercial ore containing lithium. The a form is first converted into the softer b form by heating to around 1100Â °C. This is mixed carefully with hot sulphuric acid and extracted into water to form lithium sulphate, Li2SO4, solution. The sulphate is washed with sodium carbonate, Na2CO3, to form a precipitate of the relatively insoluble lithium carbonate, Li2CO3. Li2SO4 + Na2CO3 Na2SO4 + Li2CO3 (solid) Reaction of lithium carbonate wi... ...y, Robert L. (Eds.) (2004). Psychology Treatment of Bipolar Disorder. New York: The Guilford Press. Kalat, James W. (2004). Biological Psychology. Canada: Wadsworth. Knable, Michael B. and Torrey E. Fuller. (2002). Surviving Manic Depression. New York: Basic Books. Leavitt, Fred. (1995). Drugs and Behavior. California: Sage Publications. Lithium's Effects on Bipolar Disease. Retrieved: March 5, 2005. From: http://sulcus.berkeley.edu/mcb/165_001/papers/manuscripts/_422.h tml Opresko, Dennis M. (May 1995). Toxicity Summary for Lithium. Retrieved: March 3, 2005. From: http://risk.lsd.ornl.gov/tox/profiles/lith.shtml. Winter, Mark (1993-2003). Chemistry: WebElements Periodic Table: Professional Edition: Lithium: Key Information. Retrieved: February 28, 2005. From: http://www.webelements.com/webelements/elements/text/Li/key.html. Manic Depressive Treatments Essay -- Psychology Lithium Medical Essays Manic Depressive Treatments Introduction Lithium was discovered in 1949 by John Cade as a treatment for bipolar disorder. Since then, lithium has become a highly utilized medication for manic depression. Chemistry of Lithium and Route of Access Name: Lithium Group number: 1 Symbol: Li Group name: Alkali metal Atomic weight: [6.941 (2)] g m r Period number: 2 CAS Registry ID: 7439-93-2 Block: s-block Standard state: solid at 293 K Color: silvery white/gray Classification: Metallic Lithium is a Group 1 (IA) element containing just a single valence electron (1s22s1). Group 1 elements are called "alkali metals". Lithium is a solid only about half as dense as water. A freshly cut chunk of lithium is silvery, but tarnishes in a minute or so in air to give a gray surface. Lithium is mixed (alloyed) with aluminum and magnesium for lightweight alloys, and is also used in batteries, some greases, some glasses, and in medicine. Lithium would not normally be made in the laboratory as it is so readily available commercially. All syntheses require an electrolytic step as it is so difficult to add an electron to the poorly electronegative lithium ion Li+. The ore spodumene, LiAl(SiO3)2, is the most important commercial ore containing lithium. The a form is first converted into the softer b form by heating to around 1100Â °C. This is mixed carefully with hot sulphuric acid and extracted into water to form lithium sulphate, Li2SO4, solution. The sulphate is washed with sodium carbonate, Na2CO3, to form a precipitate of the relatively insoluble lithium carbonate, Li2CO3. Li2SO4 + Na2CO3 Na2SO4 + Li2CO3 (solid) Reaction of lithium carbonate wi... ...y, Robert L. (Eds.) (2004). Psychology Treatment of Bipolar Disorder. New York: The Guilford Press. Kalat, James W. (2004). Biological Psychology. Canada: Wadsworth. Knable, Michael B. and Torrey E. Fuller. (2002). Surviving Manic Depression. New York: Basic Books. Leavitt, Fred. (1995). Drugs and Behavior. California: Sage Publications. Lithium's Effects on Bipolar Disease. Retrieved: March 5, 2005. From: http://sulcus.berkeley.edu/mcb/165_001/papers/manuscripts/_422.h tml Opresko, Dennis M. (May 1995). Toxicity Summary for Lithium. Retrieved: March 3, 2005. From: http://risk.lsd.ornl.gov/tox/profiles/lith.shtml. Winter, Mark (1993-2003). Chemistry: WebElements Periodic Table: Professional Edition: Lithium: Key Information. Retrieved: February 28, 2005. From: http://www.webelements.com/webelements/elements/text/Li/key.html.

Experiencing Brave New World in 1998 :: Aldous Huxley Brave New World Essays

Experiencing Brave New World in 1998 Since good literature transports the reader to immersion, absorption and sensation of plot, the successful literary experience often unveils a segment of the self's concealed character. Aldous Huxley's Brave New World immerses the reader in a State scientifically constructed to produce perpetual happiness without hardship. Six centuries into the future, a world leader has designed a civilization flabbily devoid of balancing challenges by eliminating illness, geriatrics, fear of death, passion and love, parenting, poverty, and pursuit of anything. Its inhabitants exist in a bureaucratically controlled state of stability sans emotion. Brave New World is the citizen's polar experience to the prehistoric caveman's solitary existence of self. Today we struggle individually to establish satisfactory symmetry between these two states of bureaucracy and independence while bench-pressing multi-weighted challenges. A journey to Brave New World's civilization of the ridiculous elicits an excell ent measure of the 1998 reader's centeredness between the self's grip of autonomy and its interdependence with State. Franz Boas, primo cultural anthropologist, subscribed that studying the varied threads of cultural tapestry (what's different) facilitates the understanding of culture. Published in 1932, Brave New World presented greater bureaucratic exaggeration to a general readership unengaged in the battle of the balance. Government was barely a gadfly on the barbell, while the 1932 self indeed included the entire village of extended families and neighbors bolstering each other. Sixty-six years hence, government has infiltrated human life stealthily, while the individual has gradually isolated itself with a transient society and fast-track economy bearing down upon the burden-lifter like additional weights. Although hardship labels remain the same, the 1998 challenge of dealing with these afflictions is more complex. Health and psychiatric practitioners caution us that balance is next to godliness. Therefore, we strive in solitude to balance corporate positions with family disasters, our yin wit h our yang, our left brains with our right brains, and most importantly, our debits with our credits. Our state of autonomy depends upon our frame of reference, for it is easy to remain autonomous without adversity. Consider the reaction of the Brave New World reader who has experienced a loved one's serious illness and painful death as a solitary struggle to provide emotional, financial and HMO medical support. Through the assistance of Brave New World, the reader subsequently tours "The Park Lane Hospital for the Dying, a sixty-story tower of primrose tiles. The air is continuously alive with gay synthetic melodies.

Energy and the Environment: Fossil Fuels Essay -- Environment Environm

Energy and the Environment: Fossil Fuels Fossil Fuels are one of the most important things on this planet to the human race. Without fossil fuels we wouldn't have today's current means of transportation, we would have less heating for the general population, energy uses would be more expensive, and overall the economy and the world would not be able to sustain themselves. Even still, the fact that fossil fuels are on this planet will never change, but how we use them and what impacts their use has will always be an issue. Even though fossil fuels provide for the most percentage of energy usage in the world, there is still the issue of pollution and other environmental impacts. Just oil and natural gas alone provide for more than 60 percent of the energy consumed in the United States (US Dept. of Energy). With this amount of fossil fuel usage taking place, and the fact that burning, transporting, recovering, and processing fossil fuels creates pollution, one can see how much total damage that is occurring on a daily basis. Some of the many environmental impacts from the result...

Aldi Case

1)What are the core elements to Aldi’s business strategy? Be specific as to what they are doing that sets them apart from competition and WHY this is different than their competitors? The core elements to Aldi’s business strategy are to offer top quality and extremely low prices. One article states that in the Midwest, Aldi’s prices are â€Å"15% and 20% less than Wal-Mart and 30% to 40% cheaper than regional chains. † The company also focuses on selling goods that have a high turnover such as food and beverages. Aldi receives shipments of goods five to six times a week and it takes anywhere from one to four days for delivery.Aldi’s organized and simple supply chain allows for fast shipment. However, what makes Aldi unique is that while it carries a diverse set of 1,500 products, it does not compare to the number of products sold by Walmart at 125,000. Therefore Aldi offers an enjoyable shopping experience for its customers. Customers do not feel ov erwhelmed by all of the choices of products like they may do at a Walmart store. A major difference between the two companies is how fast they replenish their products. Walmart uses an extremely complex system that can create lag time in the supply chain.Also, Aldi strives on promoting its own brand unlike its competitors. 95% of its goods are the Aldi brand. I believe Aldi is different from its competitors because the company is foreign based and that it is a small format. In the New York Times article about why Aldi has succeeded in cities where Walmart has not it says a major reason is because of its small product line. A simple product line has allowed Aldi to be very profitable. Focusing on one genre of products to sell, Aldi can increase the quality of those products. The company does not spread itself out too thin and strives on brining the lowest best quality product to the shelves. )Why have they been so successful over the years? This should be from a consumer perspective. Different from #1 which is from the company perspective. What is the compelling consumer need or perception that they fill in the marketplace. How do they compare to our biggest discounter in food, Walmart? I believe Aldi has become so successful over the years because the company strives on simplicity. Employees of Aldi understand consumer behavior very well. They know consumers are lazy and want to be in and out of stores in the quickest time possible.Therefore, Aldi management has created a shopping experience meant for the â€Å"in and out shopper† which has seen great positive affects. To be the most efficient store, Aldi’s â€Å"do not accept checks or credit cards. There is no butcher or bakery, and fruit is sold in bags to speed checkout. † Compared to Walmart, a store that offers a far less enjoyable consumer experience, Aldi strives to be different. Unlike Aldi’s, Walmart stores can sometimes be intimidating to consumers because of the vast arr ay of product offerings. Consumers find shopping at Walmart to be difficult because there is not a lot of help and that the store is just too large.Aldi’s on the other hand, creates a much more consumer friendly atmosphere by offering only food and household items. Also when you walk into an Aldi store, you are immediately in a shopping aisle. The store is designed so consumers need to walk through every aisle creating more chances of incidental exposure. Aldi stores are not designed to look pretty. The only purpose they offer to consumers is to help them find products that they need. 3)After visiting our local Aldi’s store, why do you think this global powerhouse may struggle to do well in the US? What was your initial impression of the store?Who shops there? After visiting the store, I believe this global powerhouse may struggle in the US because the inside of the store is not very conducive to providing a great shopping experience. The aisles are messy and the produ cts look as if they were pulled out from the back of a truck. The store is dimly lit and seems almost dirty. When I walked into the store, I was originally taken back because I had a mindset that it was going to be very nice. However, I was wrong. I did not enjoy my surroundings and I did not believe that Aldi focuses on the high quality portion of their mission, but only the low cost.Also, the customers that Aldi attracts are lower class individuals. These people shop in bulk and are attracted to the store because of the low prices. They do not care about the sloppiness of the displays just that they can get the lowest price. 4)Knowing what you do about assortment, what part of the ROA equation do you think they maximize? Explain. I believe Aldi maximizes the total assets part of the formula. Because the company strives on stocking it shelves with a limited number of products, their total assets are relatively low. This creates a higher ROA. Aldi has done a very good job at maximiz ing sales while controlling expenses.The higher the income and lower the total assets shows how well Aldi is producing earnings from its assets. 5)Now, talk to someone that has shopped at a Trader Joe’s, also owned by Aldi. Why do you think this similar strategy with a completely different execution (in store look and feel) might be more successful here in the US. Look at their US locations for Trader Joe’s. How can they continue to have limited assortment and yet cater to a more affluent target than Aldi’s stores? Based on the article you read, why do you think Trader Joes and Aldi’s are so secretive about their business?Many US businesses see it as PR if they are covered in the press, these entities feel this is unnecessary. What would you do if the head of marketing for the parent company, adapt to US marketing standards of transparency builds relationships or keep your image hidden and let your products, locations, etc speak for themselves? (Explain y our rationale using marketing principles not just your opinion). I believe this similar strategy with a different execution of Trader Joe’s is more successful here because they are more aware of what American consumers want and how they shop.Trader Joe’s connects with its consumers on a more personal level. Their employees are friendly and their displays are unique, creating an overall enjoyable shopping experience. I think Trader Joe’s is more successful because the company swaps selection for quality. Customers have begun to trust Trader Joe’s in that what ever is on their shelves is the best possible product. Aldi does not have this trust yet. With time, more and more customers will begin to trust the foreign company in that their offerings are of the best quality. Also, I believe Aldi needs to focus ore on creating nicer displays. Currently, these stores are very messy and this could be a reason consumers do not like shopping there. Trader Joe’ s can target more affluent people by offering more unique products. Already it offers exotic, affordable luxuries and for it further differentiate itself from Aldi, Trader Joe’s should expand these types of products while cutting back on more common products they sell. Based on the article, I believe Aldi’s and Trader Joe’s are so secretive about how they run their individual businesses because they have been so successful.I believe they do not want larger stores such as Walmart and Target to figure out their key to success. Because Walmart and Target occupy a large sector of the market and are both extremely powerful, Aldi and Trader Joe’s do not want to be overtaken by them. If I were head of marketing I would continue with keeping the companies image hidden for a period of time. If this tactic was not working, I would soon then adapt to a more transparent company. US consumers like to hear from their favorite companies and they like to feel a connectio n to the upper levels of management, therefore companies who are more hidden from them may not fare as well.

Thalasemia

CSP Signs & Symptoms Carriers of Thalasemia generally do not have any sign and symptoms which makes to realize that they are suffering from it. It can be only analyzed by the blood test in form anemia. Symptoms of thalasemia are fatigue, pale skin, protruding abdomen, dark urine, and abnormal facial bones. The symptoms depend on the type and severity of the disease. These kinds of symptoms typically occur when oxygen is not able to pass in various parts of the body due to low hemoglobin and a shortage of red blood cells in the blood.People with alpha thalassemia trait or beta thalassemia trait usually have no symptoms. But people with alpha or beta thalassemia trait often have mild anemia that may be found by a blood test. Severe Symptoms, in more severe types of thalassemia, such as Cooley's anemia, symptoms may include fatigue and weakness, pale skin or jaundice, protruding abdomen with enlarged spleen and liver, dark urine and abnormal facial bones and poor growth. Infants who hav e the most severe type of alpha thalassemia which is called hydrops fetalis generally die either before or soon after birth.What Are the Signs and Symptoms of Thalassemias? When oxygen is insufficient in the bloodstream then it causes thalassemias. The lack of oxygen occurs because the body is not able to make enough healthy red blood cells and hemoglobin. The severity of symptoms depends on the severity of the disorder. No Symptoms Carriers of Alpha thalassemia generally do not have any signs or symptoms of the disorder. The lack of alpha globin protein is so minor that the body's hemoglobin works normally. Mild Anemia People who are suffering from alpha or beta thalassemia trait can have ild anemia. But mostly people who have these types of thalassemia have no signs or symptoms to be recognized. Mild anemia can make to fee tired. It is caused by alpha thalassemia trait might be mistaken for iron-deficiency anemia. Mild to Moderate Anemia and Other Signs and Symptoms People who hav e beta thalassemia intermedia have mild to moderate anemia. They also may have other health problems, such as: †¢ Slowed growth and delayed puberty. Anemia can slow down a child's growth and development. †¢ Thalassemia may cause bone marrow to expand.Bone marrow is the spongy substance inside bones that makes blood cells. When bone marrow expands, the bones become wider than normal. They may become brittle and break easily. †¢ An enlarged spleen. The spleen is an organ that helps your body fight infection and removes unwanted material. When a person has thalassemia, the spleen has to work very hard. As a result, the spleen becomes larger than normal. This makes anemia worse. If the spleen becomes too large, it must be removed. Severe Anemia and Other Signs and SymptomsPeople who have hemoglobin H disease or beta thalassemia major (also called Cooley's anemia) have severe thalassemia. Signs and symptoms usually occur within the first 2  years of life. They may includ e severe anemia and other health problems, such as: †¢ A pale and listless appearance †¢ Poor appetite †¢ Dark urine (a sign that red blood cells are breaking down) †¢ Slowed growth and delayed puberty †¢ Jaundice (a yellowish color of the skin or whites of the eyes) †¢ An enlarged spleen, liver, or heart †¢ Bone problems (especially with bones in the face) Complications of ThalassemiasBetter treatments allow people who have moderate and severe thalassemias to live much longer. As a result, these people must cope with complications of these disorders that occur over time. Heart and Liver Diseases Regular blood transfusions are a standard treatment for thalassemias which have to be on timely basis failing to which leads to death. Transfusions can cause iron to build up in the blood. This can damage organs and tissues, especially the heart and liver. Heart disease caused by iron overload this is the main cause of death in people who have thalassemias .Heart disease includes heart failure, arrhythmias i. e. irregular heartbeats, and heart attack. Infection People who have thalassemias affected by infections which cause illness and this is the second most common cause of death. People who have had their spleens removed are at even higher risk because they no longer have this infection-fighting organ. Osteoporosis Mostly people suffering from thalassemias also have bone problems, including osteoporosis (OS-te-o-po-RO-sis). In this condition bones which are weak and brittle can easily be broken even from small injury.

Europe between the Wars: Fascism Essay

According to Stanley Payne, the term fascism rooted from the Latin word fasces which delineate â€Å"bundle† or â€Å"union†. Yet, these words cannot fully encapsulate nor even define what fascism; more specifically â€Å"Italian Fascism† is all about. It had been commonly misused as to refer to â€Å"violence, repression, dictatorship and brutality† removing any difference from the concept that were commonly associated with Communism. (p. 3) Seemingly, a clear cut definition of fascism is hard to come up with because it does not have any â€Å"seminal text† that should have defined its political, social and economic pursuit in contrast with other ideologies. Since this is the case, knowing the history of how the so-called â€Å"fascist† acts and the things they try to emphasize in the words they said, were substantial for anyone to have a more relevant understanding of the term or the word â€Å"fascism†. As an ideology, fascism considers the concerns of the individual along with those of the society as secondary or inferior to those of the whole state. Primarily, it views the state as an organic living thing that is mythical in a sense due to its belief in a â€Å"national rebirth† in the process of : nti-ideological’ and pragmatic ideology that proclaims itself antimaterialist, antiindividualist, antiliberal, antidemocratic, anti-Marxist, is populist and anticapitalist in tendency, expresses itself aesthetically more than theoretically by means of a new political style and by myths, rites, and symbols as a lay religion designed to acculturate, socialize, and integrate the faith of the masses with the goal of creating a ‘new man’ (Payne, p. 4) It was believed to be founded by Benito Mussolini as a political movement that espouses authoritarian dictatorship. It does not promote the concept of â€Å"class struggle† which makes it different from Marxism; it is a revolutionary ideology which seeks to promote the Italian race as part of aggressive nationalism programs which was associated or was said to have influenced German’s Nazism. (p. 225) It was believed to have started as an anti-communist group in the leadership of Mussolini, in addition with the anti-socialist sentiments that had flood Italy during the 1920’s as a result of the worker’s upheaval. Mussolini’s power doesn’t actually come from his own cunningness but was derived from the ineffectiveness of the government and the miscalculation made by the Socialist party. (p. 23-35) As the government of his time side with him in order to combat the socialism and the problems that it brought to the government and as the Socialist party remained confident that they would reign Italy, Mussolini have managed to gradually gain popularity, trust and power. (p. 27) Domestically, Mussolini’s actions were directed towards the restoration of Italy. He favored militarism and internationalism. He calls for the separation of the church and the state. There was also a movement which replaced the labor unions with co-operatives that works ideally with the government in able to look create plans that would benefit both the workers and the state. (p. 55-67) He legislate laws which were in favor of private ownership and capitalization. His foreign policies include the invasion of Ethiopia and the recognition of Roman Catholicism as the only religion in the state. (p. 55) This had resulted to the Anti-Semitic laws resulting to several other actions that were now being referred as racial discrimination. Seeing that his goals paralleled with those of the Nazi German’s, he had establish an alliance with them. His economic policies involve public works and the imposition of a state police under his party. (p. 25-317) Mussolini started the promotion of imperialism by directing a war with Ethiopia in view that this would redirect the attention and sympathy of the citizens. He had also aided fascist movement in Spain and accepted alliance with Germany. It is during these years that he started to decline in his prominence. (p. 225-317) Violence are viewed by Mussolini as liberating, deaths as a necessary sacrifice and wars as trials that must be overcome in reverence of the state. This is quite different from the Marxist Communism which according to Payne (p. 355) have â€Å"qualified violence as an indispensable means to an end—while gratuitously employing it en masse—and almost always preached peace as ideal and goal, while massively militarizing their systems in practice†. Italian Fascism might not have a core value system or an organized history, yet it had managed to influence other nations and it had been successful in eradicating or at least minimizing the Socialist movement that have dominated in the 1920’s. It promotes cultural liberalism by promoting capitalism under authoritarianism and nationalism. Although the ideal desire for hegemony and false judgment have led to the downfall of Mussolini, his actions, practices and ideology as whole have prompted several leaders into developing strands of political movements that resembles fascist vision and methods. The idea of focusing and putting the needs of the state above any personal needs indeed capture the hearts and minds of most citizens and has so far work even in the expense of many lives. (p. 355-358)

Close Reading Essay

Because if what people mean is: Can the love of lauguage be taught? Can a grft for storytelling be taught? thenthe enswer is no. Which may be why the’question is so often asked in a skeptical leng imFlying that, unlike the multiplication tables or the principles of auto mechanics, creativity can’t be tansmitted from teacher to student Lnagine Milton enrolling in a graduate program for help virh Paradire Lost,orKa{ka enduring d1s semirlsl in which his classmates irrforn. him thaq franklp they just don’t believe the part about the guywaking up one morning to find he’s a giant bug. VLrat confuses me is not the sensibleness of the question but tJre fact that, when addressed to me, it’s being asked of a writer who has taught writing, on and off, for almost twenty -What years. would it say about mq my students, and the hours’wete spent in the classroom if I said drat any attempt to teach the writing of fiction is a complete waste of timl? I should probably just go ahead and admit that lve been com mi tting criminal fraud. to f-l an creative *iting be taught? t ] rt† † r. â€Å"roo.6l† qu†Jtiorr, but no matter how -/ often I’ve been asked it, I never krrow guite what That’s the experience I describe, the answer I give to people who ask about teaching creative writing: A workshop can be usefirl. A good teacher can show you how to edit your work. The right dass can encourage you and form the basis of a community that will help and sustain you. But that dass, as helpful as it was, is not where I learned to write. *itirg ike most-maybe all-vriters, I learned to write by and, by example, from reading books. Instead I answer by recalling my owu most valuable experienee not as a teacher, but as a student in one of the few fietion workshops I have ever taken. This was in the 1970s, during ny brief careLr as a graduate student in medieval English literature, when I was allowed the indulgence of taling one fiction dass. Its generous teacher showed me, ,mong other things, how to line-edit my work For any writer, the abiJity to look at a sentetce and see what’s superfluous, what cen be altered revised, erpanded and, especially, cut, is bssential. It’s satisfring to see that sentence shrinl, snap into place, and ultimately emerge in a more polished form: clear, e conomical sharp. Meanwhile, my classmates were providing me with my first real audience. In that prehistory before mass photocopying enabled students to distribute manuscripts in advance, Irre read our work aloud. That year I was b†g*ning what would become my first novel Arld what made an important d. ifference to me was the attention I felt in the room as the others listened. I was very dncouraged by their eagerness to hear’more 8  Long before 6e idea of a writer’s conference was a glimmer in anyone’s eye writers learned by reading the work of their predecessors. They studied meter with Ovid, plot consuuction with Homer, comedy with Aristophanes; tl:ey honed their prose style by absorbing the lucid sentences of Montaigne and Samuel Johnson- And who could have asked for better teachexs: generous, uncriticel blessed with wisdom and genius, as endlessh forgiving as only the dead can be? Though writers have leamed from the masters. in a formal.  methodical way-Harrv Crews has described aking apart’a Graham Greene novel to see how many chapters it contained, how much time it covered how Greene handled pacin& tone, and point ofvieiv-the truth iS that this sort of education more often involves a kind of osmosis. A-fter I’ve written an essay in which lve quoted at length from great writers, so that fve had to copy out long passages of their work, I’ve noticed that my own work becomes, however briefly, just a little more fluenl In the ongoing process of becoming a writer, I read and reread the authors I most loved. I read for pleasure, firsg but also more aualytically, conscious of stylef of dicrion, of how sentences were formed and information was being conveyed, how the writer was structuring a plot, creating characters, employing detail and dialogue. And as’I wrotq I discovered that writing like reading, was done one word at a time, one punctuation mark at a ti-e. It reguired what a friend calls lputting every word on u-ial for its Lfe†, changing an adjective, cutting a phrase, removing a sqttrlna and putting the comma back in. I read closely, word by word, sentence by sentence, pondering each deceptively minor decision the writer had made. Arrd though I can’t recall every source of inspiration and instruction, I can remember the novels and stories that seemed to me revelations: wells of beauty and pleasure that were also textbooks? courses of private lessons in th†e term paper on the theme of blindness il Oedipus Rex and Kinglear. Newere supposed to go through the rwo tragedies and cirde every reference to eyes, light, darkness, and visiort then draw some conclusion on which we would assigned  a art of fiction. When I was a high school junio4 -our English teacher base our final essay. The exercise seemed to us dul! mechanical. We felt we were way beyond it AII of us knew that blindness played a starring role in both dramas StiL we liked our E. nglish teacher, and we wanted to please him. And searciing for everyrelevantword turned out to have ari enjoyable seasure-hunt aspect, a Were’s Waldo detective thrill. Once we started looking for eyes, we found them everywhere, glinting at us, winking from every page. Long before the idea of a writer’s conference was a glimmer in anyonds eye, writers leamed by reading their predecessors. Th*y studied meter with OYi{ plot construction with Homer, -omedy with Aristophanes. T’ong before the blinding of Oedipus or Gloucester, the language of vision and its opposite was prepariag us, consciously or uncousciously, for those violent mutilations. It asked us to consider what it meant to b6 dear-sighted or obtuse, short-sighted or prescieng to heed the signs and wamings, to see or deny what was right in front of one’s eyes. Teiresias, Oedipus, Goneril, Kent-all of them could be defined by the sincerity or falseness with which they mused or ranted on the subject of literal or metaphorical blindness. tacing those patterns and making those connections was fun. Like cracking a code that the playwright had em. bedded in the text, a riddle that existed just for me to decipher. I felt as if I were engaged in some intimate communication with dre writer, as if the ghosts of Sophodes and Shakespeare had been waiting patiendy all those centuries for a bookjsh  .attention to whatever each word or phrase is tr4nsmitti’. Word by word is how we learn to hear and then read† which seems only fitting, because that is how the books we are reading were written in the 6rst place. The more we read, the fasterwe can perform that magic trick of seeing how the letters have been combined into words that have meaning. The more we read, the more we comprehen{ the more likely we are to discover new ways to read, each one tailored to the reason why we are reading a particular book. At 6rsq the  thrill of our own brand-new expertise is all we ask or expect from Dick and Jane. But soon we begin to ask what else those marks on the page can give us. We begin to want information, entertainmeng invention, even truth and beauty. W’e concentrate; we skim, we skip words, put down the book and daydream, start over, and reread. We firrish a book and return to it years later to see what we might have Tissed, or the ways io which time and age have affected our understanding. As a child, I was drawn to the works of the great escapist chjldren’s writers. Especially if I could rerurn to my own bed in time to turn offtl:e lights,I Iiked trading my famiJiar sixteen-year-old to come along and fiad them. I believed that I was learning to read in a whole new way. But this was only pardy uue. Because in fact I was merely relearning to read in an old way that I had leamed; but forgotten. e all begin as close readers. Even before we learn to read, the process ofbeing read aloud to, and of listenirig, is one in which we are taking in one word after another, one phrase at a trme, in which we are payrng  world for the London of the four children whose nanny parachuted into their lives on her umbrella and who turned t}re mo$t routine shopping uip into a magical outing. I would have gladly followed the white rabbit down into the rabbit hole and had tea with the Mad Hatter. I loved novels in which children stepped through portals-a garden, a wardrobe-into an alternate uoiverse. Children love the imagination, with its kaleidoscopic possibilities and its protest against the way that children are always being told exacdy what’s true and false, what’s real and what’s illusion. Perhaps my taste in reading had something to do with the limitations I was discovering, day by day: the brick walls of time and space, science and probabfity, to say nothing of whatever messages I was picking. up from the culture. I liked novels with plucky heroines like Pippi Longstocking, the astringent Jane Eyre, and the daughters in Little Wonzw grls whose resourcefulness and intelligence donot automatically exclude them from the pleasures of male attention. Each word of these novels was a yellow brick ia the road to Oz. Some chapters I read and leread so as to repeat the dependable, out-of-body sensation of being someulzere ebe. I read addictively, constantly. On one-family vacation my father pleaded with me to close my book long enough to look at the Grand Canyon. I borrowed stacks of books from the public libraxy: novels, biographies, history anything that looked even remotely engaging. Along with pre-adolescence came a more pressing desire for escape. I read more widely, more indiscriminately, and mostly with an interest in how far a book could take me from my life and how long it could keep me there. Gone With rlze LVind Pearl Buck. Edna Ferber. f’at James Michener best-sellers with a dash of history sprinkled in to cool down the steamy love scenes between the Hawaiian girls and the missionaries, the geishas and the GIs. I also FtcTtoN rssuE 2006 lO THE ATLANTIC MoNTHLY appreciated these books for the often misieading nuggets of information they provided about sex in that innocent era, the 1950s. I turned the pages of these Page-turners as fast as I could. Reading was like eating alone, with that same element of bingeing. I was fortunate to have good teachers, and friend. s who  were also readers. The books I read bdcame more chal’ lenging, betterwritten, more substantial. Sieinbe& Camus. Hemingway, Fiugerald, TWain, Salingea Arrne Frank. Litde beatniks, my friends and I were passionate fans of Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, Lawrence Ferlinghetti. We read . Truman Capote, Carson McCullers, and the proto-hippie classics of Herman Hesse, Carlos Castenada-Mary Poppiru for people who thought they’d outgrown the flying nanny. I-must have been vaguely aware of the power of language, but only dimly, and only as it applied to whatever effect the book was having on me.