The Phases of symbolism

In class today we talked about passages in Frye's book which describe some of the phases of symbolism.

Literal (motif)- "And if a poem cannot be literally anything but a poem, then the literal basis of meaning in poetry can only be its letters, its inner structure of interlocking motifs." Ben pointed out this passage. The passage that explained it the best for me was this one. "Understanding a poem literally means understanding the whole of it, as a poem, and as it stands." Literal means that the poem is nothing but the poem itself. When describing "The Idea of Order at Key West" one can only respond with, "She sang beyond the genius of the sea..."

Descriptive (sign)- "Descriptively, a poem is not primarily a work of art, but primarily a verbal structure or set of representative words, to be classed with other verbal structures like books on gardening." Dustin pointed out this quote. It means that the descriptive phase is concerned with saying things as clearly and unambiguously as possible. It is also concerned with realistic tendencies and being didactic or teaching something. "Literature deeply influenced by the descriptive aspect of symbolism is likely to tend toward the realistic in its narrative and toward the didactic or descriptive in its meaning."

Formal (image)- This phase is concerned with hypothetical events and representations of representations as pointed out by Maggie. "One could hardly find a more elementary critical principle than the fact that the events of a literary fiction are not real but hypothetical events. For some reason it has never been consistently understood that the ideas of literature are not real propositions, but verbal formulas which imitate real propositions."


We also had a tragedy occur in our classroom today, I will relate this "story" to you now. We had the murdering of an innocent fly by Alex in the front row occur only after the fly viciously attatched itself to the side of Dr. Sexson's head in an attempt to dig out the plug to the storage container that holds all of the seemingly endless poems that Dr. Sexson has memorized. The fly was working covertly and alone in his burglary attempt. No one in the class noticed this thief of knowledge and as Dr. Sexson shook his head the fly escaped unharmed, or so it seemed, from his head almost causing a heart attack. The fly then tried to seek cover in Karrie's hair since she, knowing all the answers, would be the next logical brain to steal from in our classroom. Karrie however noticed the fly and brushed him away violently so she could protect her endless amounts of information. The fly, looking for more smart people, found the top of Alex's desk where the hand of justice came crashing down on the dirty crook!

*** This account was based on a true story.**

The English major's creed

"The poet does not affirm anything therefore he can't lie." Every single English major has said this in some form or another. We are English majors because there is no wrong answer in literature. --There is nothing further from the truth when it comes to grades at the semester's end.

Frye discusses the power of detachment from imagination in his book. This is essential to reading with an open mind. We have to learn to detach.

All literature has many meanings. It is polyseamus. Poetry shows us not what is but what could be, all the possibilities.

Sidney argues that nature can only give you brass and the poet can give you gold because the poet uses nature to enhance nature therefore making it better.

pregnant pole vaulter

Ok... we talked about how Dr. Sexson can't say keep your eyes peeled. I have always used the saying "that went over like a pregnant pole vaulter" which made me visualize it. It was pretty comical! That's my rambling for the day! I found it funny, and I hope you all do too.

Sydney thinks that the poet is the most important teacher because he teaches what the historians and philosopher don't. The poet gives us precepts and examples. The poet not only teaches he delights.

Understanding originates in poetry and poetry has value. We began recording history not by writing it down but by reciting it in the form of poetry. Our historians started out as poets.

Who is to differentiate between poetry and history or philosophy? There is no one person who can determine what is fact and what is fiction. Every history that has ever been written has been written by someone. Someone has a skewed view of history because he cannot see it from my eyes or your eyes. So, who is to say that history or philosophy is more valuable than poetry? All of it is written from a skewed perspective, the poet's view is just usually a little more abstract than, " on this day in history the lightbulb was invented". A poet would find a much more "flowery" way of saying the same thing such as, " on a gloomy dark and dismal day in cold december, a man realized his full potential." It does not mean that it isn't saying the same thing!

Poetry is better than the real thing in the fact that poetry can be exactly what you make it. The example used in class was a picnic without ants. Who wants to go to a picnic with ants when you can experience one through the reading of a poem about one without ants! HECK YES!!! I'll take the ant free version please.

AHA!!!

My AHA!!! moment with Frye came on page 124 when the text says, "The literary universe, therfore, is a universe in which everything is potentially identical with everything else."

This seemed very interesting to me at first because it seems impossible, but its true. We can make a metaphor out of anything. Anything can be like anything else in literature because they are never separate. I think what Frye is trying to get at in this entire passage is that we cannot argue literature because it is what it is. It is a representation of a representation. The two things are not like one another. They are inseperable from one another. It is just another way to look at a metaphor that I've never encountered before.

Symbols

We talked about the "cat" in Frye's book on page 73 today. It basically said that there is nothing except the thing that is the thing... everything beyond that is a symbol for a symbol. They are representations of things.



We also talked about truth. Truth cannot be found in literature because it is just that literature... a story. There are fictional elements to any sort of writing. Who is to say that one person's truth is the same as another person's. I'm pretty sure that slaves did not view the Civil War the same way that the Rebel soldiers did, even from a historical point of view. We also cannot pigeonhole one piece of work into just one single box on our chart. Antony and Cleopatra was a play Frye talked about that fits into many aspects of our chart. This was on page 51 in Frye's book.



Literature is didactic or multipurpose. It can tell a story to entertain as well as to teach morals or values.

Don Quixote post #1

I'm having the greatest time reading Don Quixote. It really isn't hard to read and it goes by pretty quickly. Well, I'm around page 200 somewhere and I can't stop laughing at Sancho Panza. All I can think when he gets mad at Don Quixote for being so stupid is, "you're even worse!" He is following this man as if he were a knight and he waits on him and believes everything he says about getting rich. This makes Sancho look so dumb! He is willingly following a guy who he knows is crazy and believes the crazy stories he tells if they are beneficial to him. He's a dreamer even more so than Don Quixote! Then again, I did just get to the part where they found a weird boy's saddlebags and found money. Maybe they are going to become rich and famous and I'm the stupid one, but I doubt it!

Low Mimetic Tragedy

Low mimetic tragedy is one in which the hero is like the audience and is isolated from a group or society. The hero being like the audience, makes the audience feel pathos. This means that the audience feels what the hero is feeling, basically. When the hero is ostracized or isolated it is usually because of some sort of misunderstanding on the hero's part about what is real and unreal. It really reminds me of Don Quixote when he's trying to kill the "giants"! I am not sure what box in our chart Don Quixote fits into, but I think that his character fits into this category. I do know that Frankenstein by Mary Shelley would fit into this category. In the book, Frankenstein becomes obsessed with trying to create life, which drives him from his family and friends. While extinguishing one fire, Frankenstein started another one... an obsession with killing the beast he had created. This drove Dr. Frankenstein from society, his family and friends, and also made him miserable inside. We also feel pathos for the monster himself because he only wants the same comforts and joys that every other human is entitled to, like a wife and family. This evokes emotion in the audience because we all know what it is like to be alone or at least feel lonely... I think.

Here is a link to pathos on Wiki if you just do not get it! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pathos

Just some notes

The heart of this class is:

The theory of modes-- historical criticism

The theory of symbols-- ethical criticism

The theory of myths-- archetypal criticism

The theory of genres-- rhetorical criticism



We learned about Vico an 18th Century Italian philosopher. He believed that he entire human race is in decline. If we look at it in relation to the modes our race is in decline according to our literature. Vico's decline of history went from Gods to heroes (things like epics) to men (the language of commerce) to chaos (Words: like, dude, awesome, cool). Right now we are living in the age of men which is quickly becoming the age of chaos... maybe. I don't feel like I should be making a claim like that because I am not sure if I am completely sure of what I am claiming.

Anatomy of Criticism

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anatomy_of_Criticism This is where you can find the example chart of Northrop Frye's Anatomy of Criticism. Here is my interpretation of the same chart. I couldn't get my chart to just copy to my blog. This is the first two columns of the chart. I didn't quite get to the third column.

Tragic
Myth This is the story of the death or fall of a god or god-like being.

Romance This is the “sentimental” story of the passing of a legacy to the next generation.

High Mimetic This is the story of the isolation and eventual fall from his society.

Low Mimetic A story common people can relate to which evokes extreme emotion over the conflict of reality and imagination.

Ironic Murphy’s law. (?)



Comic

Myth “The story of how a hero is accepted by a society of gods” (Frye 43).


Romance The idea of escaping reality and getting back to nature.


High Mimetic The story of a (wo)man who achieves greatness in spite of overwhelming opposition, greatness is recognized.


Low Mimetic Boy wants girl, boy can’t get girl, boy fights for girl, boy gets girl.


Ironic This is the story of the defeat of something considered morally bad or evil by society. “deliverance from the unpleasant” (Frye 46).

You know that feeling!

While reading through the introduction of Frye's book(because that's as far as I have made it) I chose a passage that seemed quite like something I have heard from Dr. Sexson at least twice if not a million times. It is the last paragraph beginning, "Naive induction..." on page 16 and it ends in the middle of page 17. The entire paragraph brings up some intriguing thoughts but I would like to focus on the latter half of the passage, since I am the girl from classical lit or whatever that Golden Ass class was!

"...as we find the primitive formulas reappearing in the greatest classics-- in fact there seems to be a general tendency on the art of great classics to revert to them." This statement is true as I have learned time and time again in my daily life. Ever since the idea that the classics are living today and have been told at least once before was introduced to me, I have been consumed by it! Giving this statement some credibility does not take much either. How many movies have been made and remade about Shakespearean plays in your life, in the last century, in the last few years? I didn't google it, but I can think of at least 10 off the top of my head! We are still learning this man's history and studying him today. We have classes dedicated to his works. The stories are built out of the formula of words. You can tell the same story ten different ways and still get the same message across to the audience.

"This coincides with a feeling we have all had..." This sentence in its entirety sums up my entire attitude about college and what it does to me everyday. We want to be interested therefore entertained by what we read. When there are many turns, twists, and unexpected things in a story it will captivate it's reader, if those are captivators are used to the writers advantage. Who is to say what one person will like compared to another? We may not like reading the original manuscripts of Shakespeare unless Middle English is your thing, but we can enjoy his work.When people like ideas they are talked about and others want to know what is going on. Word of mouth is bound to make literature well read and liked. If it is that good... just about EVERYONE in the world will come into contact with the work at one point in time, in some form or another.

NOTES

centripetal- goes in-- stays inside the text

centrifugal- goes out-- brings in sources outside the text such as author, history, intent and other criticism

Dr. Sexson summed up Frye in one line: "All literature is displaced myth." He also told us, "this class is an apology for literary criticism." I assume that apology part is instructions for reading Frye and what it all means.

We should ask not what a piece of literature means, but what it IS.

"If you put lipstick on a pig its still a pig!!!"

(picture on left: pig with lipstick, pic on right: the "very same" pig with no lipstick)

Stages of Anatomy of Criticism

1. myth

2. romance

3. the high mimetic mode

4. the low mimetic mode

5. ironic

"All of life is an affair of the weather." --Did anyone catch who said this? I looked everywhere!

Alice's Restaurant

When the song "Alice's Restaurant" by Arlo Guthrie was mentioned in class today I was elated! I was forced to sit and listen to that song every single Thanksgiving since I can remember when The Moose, a local radio station played it in honor of the holiday, once in the morning and once in the evening. Holy COW!!!! It's a long song. If you want to hear it here is a link to a live performance and the lyrics. Arlo Guthrie - Alice's Restaurant lyrics LyricsMode.com



I took the time to read the lyrics for the first time today. (I am honestly disgusted with myself too! No one has to tell me.) Wow! I never realized what that song was about. I think it is a war protest song now. When I was a kid being tortured to death by that song twice a day once a year, I thought it was just another crappy holiday song that was a prelude of the even crappier Christmas songs to start the next day. I wish I could go back and force myself to enjoy those days even though now I enjoy thinking of them. All of this is not pointless rambling... it is just proof that "you can get anything you want at alice's restaurant". "Alice's Restaurant" brings to mind happy memories, dreadful feelings, food, garbage, police, blind people and now war protests among other things. There are many underlying meanings to "Alice's Restaurant" which brings me to my next point.



I would like to argue the quote from class, "what it means is what it is." I do understand this is a start to interpreting and analyzing any form of literature, but it is not the only way to look at it. Words have meanings and inferences and weights added to them differently for different people, though generally equal across social groups. These words begin to hold meaning parallel with memories which hold meaning, making them more weighted for that individual because they refresh memories. So, I am not trying to argue that words do not hold a definite meaning, but that phrases or words can trigger memories that do mean more.

Six Degrees

"In short, we can get a whole liberal education simply by picking up one conventional poem and following its archetypes as they stretch out in the rest of literature." Anatomy of Criticism By Northrop Frye pg. 100

When I read this passage in the book it really hurt my head at first because I was thinking of how that could be possible. Then after thinking about it for a long time I almost gave up. Then I came upon a picture of an old roomate who introduced me to the game six degrees to Kevin Bacon. He was a total movie nut and seriously had over one-thousand movies! I not being a huge movie buff, totally stink at the game! It did help me to conceptualize how you can achieve an entire education from one poem.

For those of you who are not familiar with the game of six degrees the purpose is to connect one actor or actress to Kevin Bacon in six movies or less using other actors who were in movies with him. If you don't know how to play you can ask me... or here's the same concept except it is called the theory of six degrees of separation. http://www.fortunecity.com/emachines/e11/86/sixdeg.html

So this whole Frye idea is easy to conceptualize if you use this concept... at least it is for me.


Terms

Parasite- Lives off of a host and sometimes ends up killing the host.

Gauntlet- An armored glove used to challenge someone to a duel.

Ecstasy- (ec means outside, stasy means to stand)- out of body experience. We are not talking about the drug!

Monad- simplified it means a single unit or entity but can be used differently in different subjects. Here is a better definition from dictionary.com http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/monad

Savant- This is a person who has severe mental handicap yet still has profound mental abilities. To learn more about savants here is a website. http://www.wisconsinmedicalsociety.org/savant_syndrome/

Tropes- This is a figure of speech with unexpected meaning or a twist.

Welcome!

Welcome to my English 300 blog page everyone!