Nussbaum examines passages from Spinoza, James, Seneca and Dickens, showing how each writes in a very different style. I distributed these passages to my students, first in black and white. We read them aloud and then I asked the students to describe the writing style of each passage. I gave them a list of adjectives, including gentle, passionate, dry, detached, energetic, friendly, warm, cold, happy, sad, precise, vague, confident, excited, intellectual, funny and angry. Their assignment was to match the passages to several of these adjectives.

After they finished, I collected their answers and then distributed color versions of the same passages. Only this time, I inverted Nussbaum’s model: I designed Spinoza’s dry philosophical prose with the most energetic and flamboyant colors I could think of: magenta and bright green words on a glossy yellow background, with bold splashes of polka dots in purple and navy blue. For Seneca’s essay on anger, I used a gentle color palette, with soothing earthtones of brown, tan, maroon and dark green. For Dickens’ humorous introduction to Hard Times, I used dull shades of gray and black, with a dark checkered border. And for James’ The Ambassadors, a complex, meandering narrative, I used purple text on a cream colored background, surrounded by a soft halo of pastels.

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