Yet, as an adult, I have come to demand of any really “great” book a self-consciousness about the tenuous nature of representations of reality, a critical contextualization of florid detail, and a self-awareness of the role of ideology in our lives.
How would you break down the sentence and get the main idea? I don't understand the anything after Yet, as an adult,.
Source: https://www.ets.org/s/gre/accessible/gre_practice_questions_verbal_explanations_18_point.pdf Page 40
Yet, (conjunction)
as an adult, (parenthetical phrase)
I have come (subject/verb)
to demand (prepositional phrase modifying "come")
of any really “great” book (prepositional phrase modifying "demand")
a self-consciousness (object of "demand")
about the tenuous nature (prepositional phrase modifying "self-consciousness")
of representations (prepositional phrase modifying "nature")
of reality, (prepositional phrase modifying "reality")
a critical contextualization (another object of "demand")
of florid detail, (prepositional phrase modifying "conceptualization")
and a self-awareness (yet another object of "demand")
of the role (prepositional phrase modifying "self-awareness")
of ideology (prepositional phrase modifying "role")
in our lives. (prepositional phrase modifying "role")
A paraphrase in plainer language could be: "I think a great book should be careful. All representations of reality are fragile, and the reader should get some sense of that. Detailed description should come with some link to the bigger picture. A book should be aware of how we are all guided by shared ideas we rarely question."
Unlike some of the other commenters, I don't think it's meaningless, though it is presented in dense language that leans a little hard on Latinate jargon. Each of the clauses refers to some existing idea in cultural criticism and it may be unfamiliarity with those arguments that makes it a bit impenetrable.
