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