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!