Close reading

A proposed course in which Jiang plans to model critical line-by-line reading of authors such as Orwell and Shakespeare.

Jiang treats the class's abstract answers about loopholes or generic progress as misses because the passage requires literal attention to what Dante has just seen.

Jiang refuses to let the class jump ahead to later narrative material or abstract destinations like Paradise; he wants the meaning to emerge from the immediate visual clue in the shadow scene.

Jiang insists the correct answer is concrete: Dante is excited because he literally sees another shadow rather than just abstractly realizing that Purgatory is real.

Jiang treats Virgil's speech as evidence of emotional state, insisting the language must show how overjoyed he is to be admired.

Jiang insists that zombie, robot, ship, bird, and giant are still incomplete labels, because the point of the canto is to notice the exact descriptive machinery Dante uses to strip Lucifer of personhood.

Jiang says the best seminar questions come from students rereading the text, matching the argument against exact lines, and forcing the room to think more deeply about meaning.

He insists on a shared edition so interpretive discussion stays synchronized at the line level.

Jiang says he is preparing courses on occult traditions, future-school education reform, and close reading, and that his deeper ambition is to build schools with real-world impact rather than become an influencer.