Another Touchstone

While reading for another class, I came across a passage that stopped me in my tracks. I read over the passage many times not because it was confusing, but because it was beautiful. It is from Jeanette Winterson's Sexing the Cherry and here it is:

"On more than one occasion I have been ready to abandon my whole life for love. To alter everything that makes sense to me and to move into a different world where the only known will be the beloved. Such a sacrifice must be the result of love. . . or is it that the life itself was already worn out? I had finished with that life, perhaps, and could not admit it, being stubborn or afraid, or perhaps did not know it, habit being a great binder.

I think it is often so that those most in need of change choose to fall in love and then throw up their hands and blame it all on fate. But it is not fate, at least not if fate is something outside of us; it is a choice made in secret after nights of longing."

"I may be cynical when I say that very rarely is the beloved more than a shaping spirit for the lover's dreams. And perhaps such a thing is enough. To be a muse is enough. The pain is when the dreams change, as they do, as they must. Suddenly the enchanted city fades and you are left alone in the windy desert. As for your beloved, she didn't understand you. The truth is, you never understood yourself."

This passage is a bit cynical, but the language is so rich and the ideas are so engaging. Everytime I read it, it puts me in a better mood and forces me to analyze my own relationships, past and present.

Apology Works Cited

I forgot to include a works cited page with my apology, so here it is:

De Cervantes, Miguel. Don Quixote. Trans. Edith Grossman. New York, NY: HarperCollins,
2005.

"John F. Kennedy Quotes." Brainy Quote. 2008. 10 Dec. 2008 .

Pater, Walter. "Conclusion from The Renaissence." (1873).


Aristotle. "Poetics."

I am continually in awe of the people in my major. So far I have seen close to ten apologies, and no two of them have been even the least bit alike. A class full of English undergrads can take a simple paper assignment in a mulititude of different directions. I doubt a class of engineering undergrads can do that. I am already excited for Monday's class so we can experience the insight of another set of students.

Literature Can. (My Apology)

Literature is the greatest thing in the world. I use the term great in two ways: the first being the most common, meaning that literature is a wonderful thing. The other way in which I use it to describe literature is that it is vast. Literature encompasses everything in the world. There is nothing that has ever been talked about that was not in a book, play, or poem. Literature has started wars, divided families, and showed this generation the mistakes made in the past. Nothing else in this world can contain commentary on or accounts of everything in the world, but literature can. So why on earth do I have to defend one of the most powerful entities in the world? Not only does literature teach us something, it also brings everyone that experiences it to a higher level of existence. Even with that said, apologizing for being a dreamy bookworm is really not that new to me. For some reason, we dreamers are hard to come by and, therefore, sometimes misunderstood. People tend to think that I am unrealistic and idealistic. They think that it is pointless to read all day and that literature serves no real purpose. I find that a bit humorous, as I find most things not pertaining to literature entirely pointless. There is no aesthetic purpose to numbers. Numbers cannot inspire. They cannot create a world with merely ink on a page. Literature can.
Literary analysis can be described as a pointless school of thinking, but it is in fact the most useful and infinite type of analysis. Economists can analyze numbers and risk variables, but the entire idea of analysis takes on a myriad of new levels when it relates to literature. Numbers can be analyzed once, but a book will never stop revealing its secrets to a reader and critic, teaching that person more than a grouping of numbers ever could.
In Don Quixote, the canon echoes Plato’s view that all literature must be didactic. Walter Pater argued for art for art’s sake. I argue for both. In my world of literature, Plato and Pater can get along like school buddies, because I argue that all literature and art teaches us something. Aristotle had it right when he said that literature must entertain and teach. I think that all literature entertains and teaches. I have never experienced a piece of literature that has not taught me something about myself or the world around me. Everything I read sparks a light inside my brain and soul and somehow permanently changes me. Hamlet taught me about guilt, Beowulf taught me about bravery, Holden Caulfield taught me about teenage angst and showed my sixteen-year-old self that I am not alone in the melodramatic emotions I felt at the time. Every time I experience a new piece of literature or revisit an old favorite, I am forever changed just a little bit. Nothing else in the world can cause a constant metamorphosis in the person experiencing it, but literature can.
Literature and poetry do not have to be literal to teach us not to get crushed by carts. A true critic will read between the literal words of poetry and find a way to dig out the magic, the message and the lesson. Don Quixote, for example, is not just a satire of chivalric novels, but it is a beacon that shows dreamers just like me that we really can live in the world of our imaginations if we truly want it. Windmills can become giants. Whores can become princesses because they are seen through the eyes of a person that wants them to be those things. Don Quixote and I both see the world through these poetic rose-colored glasses. Don Quixote was inspired to become a knight errant. Don Quixote, in turn, inspired me to remain a dreamer and to cast off perceptions that everything in life must have a practical purpose. I am a self-proclaimed romantic and idealist, and I have literature to thank for that. Literature allows me not to escape this reality, but to travel to a completely different (but still real) universe. In these worlds, animals speak, I travel through time, and the prince may either save the princess or kill everyone. In the reality that literature allows me to experience, anything is possible. The real world, or the low mimetic as defined by Northrop Frye, is boring! I refuse to allow myself to only experience the so-called “real world”. I much prefer to dive into the realm of the high-mimetic, the romantic, or even the mythic. Only with the aid of literature can a person, if even only for a few minutes or hours, count herself among the Gods.
For my final claim, I want to use one of my favorite quotes from John F. Kennedy: "When power leads man toward arrogance, poetry reminds him of his limitations. When power narrows the area of man's concern, poetry reminds him of the richness and diversity of his existence. When power corrupts, poetry cleanses." This quote shows the scope and power of poetry. It can bring even the most practical and power-hungry man into an existential level of thinking and remind him of his place in the world. Kennedy explains the importance of the immense scope of poetry to people most likely concerned with other things. Poetry can connect people to the beauty of the world and help them cast off unimportant concerns.
Without literature and poetry, the world would have one dimension and level. Literature gives it an infinite amount. When life makes our world look bleak and dull, literature shows us the omnipresent possibilities.

The bar was set pretty high

To be completely honest, I came into class on Monday expecting to be a little bit bored listening to presentations for the entire class period. After having experiencedeveryone's presentations on their critics, I should have known better. Every presentation was different, and furthermore every presentation was fascinating! It amazed me to realize how many different directions one assignment can go in if given to an intelligent person. I obviously know about the connection between literature and culture, but Doug took it to another level. Jessica and Kelsey both took the idea of the love of literature beyond just books and poems into the realm of movies and song lyrics, which can serve just as important a purpose in literature. I completely agree with Lisa that literature takes us everywhere in the world and beyond, an idea I actually plan to touch on in my own apology. I also agree with Kyle's affinity for touchstones. Heather cracked me up with the idea that people offended by literature have only offended the literature itself. Willing suspension of disbelief, one of Claire's topics, is something that I believe sets literary-minded people apart from the more practical literal minds surrounding us, and willing suspension of disbelief allows us to catapult ourselves into any world we wish. How lucky are we? And what a perfect finish, a presentation completely based on the lovable Don Quixote by Carly. All in all, I was very entertained and enlightened (as well as even more nervous for my presentation) by the speeches on Monday.

Apology Ponderings

As I think more about my apology for literature, I am trying to pin down exactly why I love my major. I began to form a list of the reasons why I love English. I actually found it harder than I would imagine. I don't know exactly why I bacame an English major, other than the fact that I love to read and talk about books. When asked why I am an English major by other people, I usually answered with just that. When people pushed the question, which was rarely, was when I had to dig a little bit deeper. Why do I love to read and talk about books? What do they do to me, where do they take me that after almost twenty years of being a bona fide reader am I still so enchanted by these pages bound together to form a book?

I think a lot of it would go back to the fact that I am just a dreamer by nature. Books transform my world and take me to lands beyond my imagination. If I had to go an entire day without being catapulted into a different world by literature, I may go insane.

Literature does not only take me to another world, being exposed to so many different ways to live a life has opened the world in which I live. I have never lived outside of Montana (though I have traveled), but my view of the world and the people of the world is drastically different than that of some of my peers. I have met some bizarre, complex people just in my readings. I am by no means an expert on any world culture, but I do feel more accepting of the people surrounding me. The fact that I am more accepting may also stem from the diversity of my peers in this major. Everyone is different, and everyone has had a different literary background. No two English students have read all of the same literature, which makes discussions almost always fascinating.

These were just a couple of ideas I have been tossing around.

What a Bubble Birst

Here is where I admit my painfully slow progress on Don Quixote. I was very surprised when I found out that Don Quixote dies at the end of the novel for a few reasons. Probably the biggest reason the idea that he dies at the end never crossed my mind is because the idea that the hero dies never crosses my mind. I, even at age twenty, still habitate the fairy tale world of happy endings (or at least I wish I did). I am a self-proclaimed romantic, and in my ideal story the hero always lives. This romantic, idealistic view on life is probably what made me ao mad at Don Quixote during his last speech when he apparently "comes to his senses" realizes that silly novels about knights are not worth reading. Don Quixote doesn't come to his senses when he realizes this, he loses his senses. He loses the spirit that makes him a hero of such a classic novel. I identified with him more when he was a dreamer. That is when he had the most sense! Who cares if literature teaches us something?

The best literature will speak to our soul and spark a fire that inspires us to be something great. Don Quixote was inspired to become a knight errant. Don Q., in turn, has inspired me to remain a dreamer and to cast off perceptions that everything in life must have a practical purpose. Don Q. had it right the first time. The world is full of possibility and vitality. Without literature, we would forget that.