I'm recreating this just as they had it on the board. (To the best of my abilities) ;)
Potent Potables Cliche People Key Concepts The Works History
100 100 100 100 100 100
200 200 200 200 200 200
300 300 300 300 300 300
400 400 400 400 400 400
I hope this turns out ok in the actual blog window, lol.
Friday, December 12, 2008
THE FINAL!
Make sure to show up at Rm. 222 at 8:00 a.m. on Thursday the 18th (this is more of a reminder for myself than anything els :) , and "NO LATER". If we show up later, punishment will be given. (I'm sure MS would be happy to give you a lecture on something wonderful, even if you were late for his test...but is that really punishment? ;)
300 - December 11th, 2008
Final - Thursday, December 18th, 2008
Chris - Talked about a power he had.... his English power.
John - Read his poem that was his term paper.
Alex - Talked about how he hates the world and the people who are not English Majors.
New Criticism
Values technique. Stay inside the text it says. STC, says that one part is integral to everything within the whole.
Deconstruction
Suggests that there is no absolute meaning to text. (Really, no absolute meaning to deconstruction either). It says there is no outside the text, creating story as we read it. *Counters the unity of New Criticism too. Says that the unity aspires to the Well Wrought Urn - Brookes. (Uses the Grecian Urn as a model, Keats's relation to unity in an urn). Deconstructors say there is no such thing as a unified whole.
Frye- "Everything is partially rhetorical and hence literary." Frye, pg 350
"Our literary universe has expanded into a verbal universe...." Frye is a deconstructionist because he says that there is no boundaries.
Feminism
Reductive Feminism - How many women, was it written by women, how does it think of them. Throw it out if it doesn't work for us.
Expansive - About forces of domination, suggesting Marxism and Feminism are related, what do we understand about sexes in the text...."What type of literary text is this?"
Reader Response
Spectacles of the reader - Depending on where you come from and what your background is, you will see different things in the text. Reader response SAYS you will see not only the text in the text, but see yourself in the text. THEY see it's important.
You can't make something mean whatever you want it to mean!
Psychoanalysis
Don't make fun of Freud. He has created our YOU! He created it. The truth is unseen so we'll have to look through a glass darkly. See into the mind of the author.
Marxism
Says that the culture and the system around us has made us the people we have become and the class/economical status that makes up our history and our stories.
Difference between a criticism and complaint? MAY NOT BE ON TEST :)
Harold Bloom's Intro - Compares Edith Grossman as THE GLENN GOULD OF TRANSLATORS
What secret echanted thing does Don Antonio tell Don Quixote about that will reveal the truth? THE ENCHANTED HEAD
What is the English translation of Don Quixote De La Mancha? Don Quixote of the Stains
What happened to DQ in the cave? -years added to his life
Name of the Knight that defeated DQ? Knight of the White Moon
Who really was the 3 different knights? The Bachelor Sanson Carrasco
pg. 804 DQ, "To believe that the things of this life will remain unchanged is to believe in the impossible."
Frye where's the spectacles of every critical theorist. Sexson has never read a man who sees through so many different views.
pg 346 Frye. "The culture of the past is not only the memory of mankind, but our own barried life, and the study of it leads to a revalation scene.....In which we see, not our past lives, but the total cultural form of our present life."
To make it original you have to go back to the origins.
Ezra Pound: "Make it new"
Chris - Talked about a power he had.... his English power.
John - Read his poem that was his term paper.
Alex - Talked about how he hates the world and the people who are not English Majors.
New Criticism
Values technique. Stay inside the text it says. STC, says that one part is integral to everything within the whole.
Deconstruction
Suggests that there is no absolute meaning to text. (Really, no absolute meaning to deconstruction either). It says there is no outside the text, creating story as we read it. *Counters the unity of New Criticism too. Says that the unity aspires to the Well Wrought Urn - Brookes. (Uses the Grecian Urn as a model, Keats's relation to unity in an urn). Deconstructors say there is no such thing as a unified whole.
Frye- "Everything is partially rhetorical and hence literary." Frye, pg 350
"Our literary universe has expanded into a verbal universe...." Frye is a deconstructionist because he says that there is no boundaries.
Feminism
Reductive Feminism - How many women, was it written by women, how does it think of them. Throw it out if it doesn't work for us.
Expansive - About forces of domination, suggesting Marxism and Feminism are related, what do we understand about sexes in the text...."What type of literary text is this?"
Reader Response
Spectacles of the reader - Depending on where you come from and what your background is, you will see different things in the text. Reader response SAYS you will see not only the text in the text, but see yourself in the text. THEY see it's important.
You can't make something mean whatever you want it to mean!
Psychoanalysis
Don't make fun of Freud. He has created our YOU! He created it. The truth is unseen so we'll have to look through a glass darkly. See into the mind of the author.
Marxism
Says that the culture and the system around us has made us the people we have become and the class/economical status that makes up our history and our stories.
Difference between a criticism and complaint? MAY NOT BE ON TEST :)
Harold Bloom's Intro - Compares Edith Grossman as THE GLENN GOULD OF TRANSLATORS
What secret echanted thing does Don Antonio tell Don Quixote about that will reveal the truth? THE ENCHANTED HEAD
What is the English translation of Don Quixote De La Mancha? Don Quixote of the Stains
What happened to DQ in the cave? -years added to his life
Name of the Knight that defeated DQ? Knight of the White Moon
Who really was the 3 different knights? The Bachelor Sanson Carrasco
pg. 804 DQ, "To believe that the things of this life will remain unchanged is to believe in the impossible."
Frye where's the spectacles of every critical theorist. Sexson has never read a man who sees through so many different views.
pg 346 Frye. "The culture of the past is not only the memory of mankind, but our own barried life, and the study of it leads to a revalation scene.....In which we see, not our past lives, but the total cultural form of our present life."
To make it original you have to go back to the origins.
Ezra Pound: "Make it new"
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
300 - December 10th, 2008
Group 6
-Wonderful Psychoanalysis of different books like Oedipus Rex, Hamlet, Don Quixote, and Little Red Riding Hood.
-They did this by interviewing the different characters from the books (and Cervantes himself, who came out and had a very cool control of Don Quixote by rewriting the script and he was standing in front of him).
- Wonderful job of answering the questions afterwards about doing psychoanalysis without knowing who the author was and others like that.
Group 5
-Marxist Video incorporating Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, Marx himself, STC, Walter Benjamin, and George Lukas.
-Very good video (and editing) about Marxism and its importance in Quixote and other important works.
-Cultural criticism
-Property and economics are more important than imagination.
-The capitalist class taking control of the proletariat lowlies. (The rich critics are controlling Quixote and Panza)
-Physical existence and what we live and die for that matters.
-Went into an actual store in their outifts! :)
-Wonderful Psychoanalysis of different books like Oedipus Rex, Hamlet, Don Quixote, and Little Red Riding Hood.
-They did this by interviewing the different characters from the books (and Cervantes himself, who came out and had a very cool control of Don Quixote by rewriting the script and he was standing in front of him).
- Wonderful job of answering the questions afterwards about doing psychoanalysis without knowing who the author was and others like that.
Group 5
-Marxist Video incorporating Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, Marx himself, STC, Walter Benjamin, and George Lukas.
-Very good video (and editing) about Marxism and its importance in Quixote and other important works.
-Cultural criticism
-Property and economics are more important than imagination.
-The capitalist class taking control of the proletariat lowlies. (The rich critics are controlling Quixote and Panza)
-Physical existence and what we live and die for that matters.
-Went into an actual store in their outifts! :)
Monday, December 8, 2008
The Crazy Ones Hold The Power
"Was not all the knowledge
Of the Egyptians writ in mystic symbols?
Speak not the scriptures oft in parables?
Are not the choicest fables of the poets,
That were the fountains and first springs of wisdom,
Wrapped in perplexed allegories?"
-Subtle, Ben Jonson's "The Alchemist"
We are the crazy ones. We've wrapped our minds in perplexed allegories, hidden our knowledge away in mystic symbols and speak oft in parables. Only we can understand the word power when I say that it is a power beyond all other powers which I hold and no one else does. No one.
Other people have a power that resembles mine, but it is not the same.
Don Quixote had a power that resembles mine, but it was not the same. I have a power.
Let me explain.
I continued my stroll down the sidewalk, and came across a marvelous ruby that sparkled with the most amazing deep color of red I had ever seen. It was about the size of my head, and when I tried to pick it up it did not move. "Oh well," I said to myself, "this ruby must belong to someone else." So I continued my walk down the street, leaving the most beautiful rock I had ever seen in the street behind me.
Pretty soon, I turned from the sidewalk and onto the grass, and began to walk across a lush field of green. The lushness was so much, actually, that it closed in all around me. I was the only human in this crushing jungle. The only thing that could feel.
I saw that only a few feet in front of me there was a castle, hidden mostly by an enormous amount of shrubbery. To be honest with you, all I could see was the entrance through the thick vegetation, but I knew this was the place I was going because I had been there before. Actually, this is where I started walking from, but it doesn't look like I remember it. I think that's a good thing, so I continue on in to the castle doors.
Once inside, I see staircases all around me. Staircases to my left, staircases to my right. I see a staircase right in front of me and a staircase right behind me. There's circular stairs, square stairs, pointy stairs and hairy stairs. The heavily carpeted stairs look nice to walk upon, and the old, rickety stairs look like they're about to fall apart. There's even a staircase on top of a staircase. I decide to take the old, rickety stairs.
When I reach the top, I find a door. This door has symbols on it, and they make perfect sense to me. I look in and see a room full of monsters, and it makes me smile. This is my destination. So I walk into the room of monsters and take my seat down beside them. One by one the monsters move up and down and all around. The monsters are not aggressive, and they speak beautifully of places I'd like to visit and thoughts I wish to share.
(These monsters have so much hair. All different colors, flowing, flying, whipping, and dying. The hair was all I could focus on. One hair was so different from the next. Why is there so much hair?! And why do they smell so funny?)
Then it came to be my time to step before these hairy, scary beasts that speak in beautiful words and talk to them about... a power I have.
I tell them about how I walked down the sidewalk to get to where I stood. I tell them about how I met a man who questioned me and fell into the sidewalk, and about how I saw the most beautiful ruby. Then I tell them about deviating from this sidewalk in order to find my destination, being stuck in an intense jungle of green, and how I discover a castle that I knew I was going to all along but had never seen before. I talk of many stairs, many hairs, and a little about.... a power I have.
Have I explained myself enough? Will your journey to you next class be slightly altered because of this? Perhaps. Perhaps you will look at the different hairs on every one of your peers head next time you enter class, realizing how beautiful each individual one is, yet without the others how horribly pointless one hair would be. Like the words of a work of literature.
Perhaps I will have affected only one of you, but one of you is all I need to be remembered.
You see, my power is in two things: my mind and my words. You have the power, but it is not the same. Other people in other majors have the power, but it is definitely not the same. It is much weaker. I wanted this power to be strong, so I became an English Major.
When I read you this story of my quest for class today, you were there. You might still be there.
You may still be watching that man fall backwards into the sidewalk, or the ruby that would not move, or the jungle as I walked up to our castle, or maybe my decision to come up these stairs to class. You may even, right now, be looking around at your peers as the grotesque creatures they are... stinky, sweating, hairy creatures of a type you never thought of until I gave you this gift. Until I sang you my song.
But you must remember, it is not my song anymore once it leaves my lips and enters your brain. After that, the song is yours to create as you wish. This is also the reason I became an English Major.
I wanted to create songs to pass onto others. I wanted to take others songs and play with them as if I were child molding my play-doh. Forming it to be my own, feeling it as if I too sang their song, as you too sang mine.
Keats knew the secret. He knew that no other curriculum in school could give you the same happy ending, the same fulfillment, as that of the study of the arts, especially literature. For it is literature that defines us, literature that makes us the society that we are, and to be oblivious to that knowledge would be to never try to know who you, or the people around you, "truly" are. "And, although all men observe a similar, they observe not the same order, in the motions of the dance, in the melody of the song, in the combinations of language, in the series of their imitations of natural objects." (Shelley, A Defense of Poetry)
Literature gives you my reality, it gives you Don Quixote's reality, and it gives me your reality. The arts shape our reality, as Oscar Wilde got at when he said "life imitates art", and it is this knowledge and this love for the stories we all hold dear to our hearts that make me proud to say I'm a Literature Major. I'll always be a Literature Major, no matter where I go in my life, and that's all that matters to me.
Deconstruction Trial
Judge: The case of the People vs. William Blake is now in session. You may proceed with your opening statements counsel.
The People have accused William Blake of obscenity in his poem “The Sick Rose”. It is wrong that such vulgarity should be lauded as a contribution to literature! It reflects our own moral deficiency as a culture and this amorality is perpetuated because we teach it to our children in schools.
It will be up to you, ladies and gentlemen of the Jury, to determine for yourselves the value of such profanity in the literary canon, of teaching our children the poems of a man who describes a violent sex act in his poem that is falsely praised for genius. Please use your best judgment, and remember that “The Sick Rose” is sick and vulgar.
Defense:
William Blake is innocent of these ridiculous charges. This poem can in no way be considered immoral or obscene, because the meaning of this poem is not set in stone. It is ambiguous and the interpretation and any meaning which can be derived is a meaning which can only determined by the individual reader.
Prosecution: The People call William Blake to the stand:
Please state your name and profession.
Blake:
My name is William Blake and I am a visionary.
Prosecution: Is this your poem, Mr. Blake?
Blake: No, that poem doesn’t belong to me!
Prosecution: Did you write a poem entitled “The Sick Rose” that is the same as this poem, line for line?
Blake: Oh, well yes, I suppose I did.
.
Prosecution: The People would like to submit this evidence as Exhibit A.
(Pass out Exhibit A to class)
What did you intend for “The Sick Rose” to mean?
Defense: I object on the grounds that the author’s intent has no importance in the theory of Deconstruction under form C3 of intentional fallacies.
Judge: Sustained.
Prosecution: No more questions your honor.
Defense: The defense has no questions for the accused, he and so he may step down.
Prosecution: The People call Dr. Sigmund Freud to the stand.
Dr. Feud, please state your profession for the court.
Freud: I am a psychoanalysis and literary critic.
Prosecution: And in what way are you qualified to relay your expertise on “The Sick Rose”?
Freud: I have extensively studied the human psyche and have come to the conclusion that sexual references are everywhere. You see the rose signifies the female reproductive organ and the invisible worm, oh well, you can guess what that is!
Prosecution: In your opinion, is “The Sick Rose” about a rape?
Freud: Undoubtedly so. The rose is slowly dismantled by a number of destructive elements. All very sexual of course. Simply look to the fifth and sixth lines of the poem if you don’t believe me, “has found out thy bed of crimson joy.” Truly, the rose doesn’t stand a chance.
Prosecution: No more questions, your Honor.
Defense: Dr. Freud, does your knowledge of literary criticism extend to all fields? Are you as familiar, say, with the literary school of Deconstruction as you are Psychoanalytical theories?
Freud: Well, of course not.
Defense: So isn’t it possible that because of your extensive study in Psychoanalytical that your objectivity may be off? Perhaps you have a case of tunnel vision? I mean you were taught to see the world with sexual connotations attached. So why not find those sexual undertones in this poem as well? Isn’t it just one man’s opinion you bring to this courtroom?
Freud: Yes, I have given my opinion based on my literary and career background. I will say no more.
Defense: No more questions your honor, the witness may step down.
The Defense calls Jaques Derrida to the stand.
Please state your name and occupation for the record.
Derrida: My name is Jaques Derrida and I have been called the father of Deconstruction.
Defense: Thank you. And could you tell me Mr. Derrida how many interpretations this poem, “The Sick Rose,” could have?
Derrida: It has any number of interpretations. The absence of the author when generally reading a work of literature leaves us only with the text as a source of meaning. Texts are read in various ways and on multiple levels. Now, I do encourage close reading because this is a heavy responsibility. One can’t merely read about a rabbit and make up interpretations that the rabbit represents old age and stinginess. No, of course not. At the same time there is no fixed meaning of a work just as the sun is not our only star in the universe. It is the most obvious, but certainly not one of a kind.
Defense: What advice would you give those that wish to condemn William Blake today?
Derrida: ALWAYS rethink your interpretations, play with texts you read, be willing to hear what it is saying and above all, QUESTION it - for this is when understanding (deconstruction) takes place.
Defense: Thank you, Mr. Derrida. No more questions, your honor.
Prosecution: Mr. Derrida, why should the reader have so much power? Shouldn’t it be up to better educated peoples to decide what material is inappropriate based on content?
Derrida: It is my understanding that to read is to experience. If a person is reading, then they have enough intelligence to listen to what the work is telling them. A person’s commentary or interpretation of a work of literature is a very personal aspect, and since there is such diversity among the peoples of this earth, that leads to multiple interpretations. And who has the power, knowledge or hubris to say which of those is the correct interpretation?
Prosecution: I’ll ask the questions, Mr. Derrida. What do you think the poem means?
Derrida: Well first I would take it line by line and determine what each word means. Because words themselves are quite ambiguous.
Prosecution: The meaning, Mr. Derrida?
Derrida: Right, well I see it as a struggle for life. A once beautiful flower has come to the end of her long life. She has been through many storms in her life and has but one more obstacle ahead of her. Death is wooing her, and I think she will answer him. But that is one interpretation, my dear.
Prosecution: Thank you; I have no more questions your honor.
Defense: The Defense calls Hans-Georg Gadamer to the stand.
Please state your name and profession for the record.
Gadamer: Yes, my name is Hans-Georg Gadamer and I am a philosopher and literary critic.
Defense: And your School of Criticism would be..?
Gadamer: Deconstruction.
Defense: And why is that?
Gadamer: I take the experience of beauty to be central to an understanding of the nature of art. The beautiful is that which is self-evidently present to us (as ‘radiant’). And we must explore the close relationship between the beautiful and the true. It is this continual exploration that leads to different points of view. I mean just look at all the Literary Schools of Criticism. Their arguing actually supports Deconstruction. All these varying point of views, interpretations, and criticisms are what make up the fabric of literature. How boring it would be to be constrained to one idea or thought process. I couldn’t live in a world like that.
Defense: What do you think the line, “The invisible worm,” means?
Gadamer: One can make a word anything they want it to be. Invisible can mean withdrawn from, out of sight, hidden, not visible, not perceptible by the eye, or any number of things. The word ‘worm’ has even more definitions. Did you know that worm can actually be traced back to legends of dragons? And that’s just scratching the surface. We haven’t even discussed portmanteaus or homonyms yet.
Defense: Thank you, professor. That will be all. No more questions, your honor. Defense rests.
Prosecution: No questions, your honor.
Judge: Closing Arguments
Prosecution:
The People have argued that “The Sick Rose” is a poem about rape, a poem about a violent, disturbing sexual act that doesn’t need to be taught in schools as a work of outstanding genius or act as a pillar in the canon of English literature. The Defense has argued that there is more than one way to view a piece of literature. If this is true then it is also true that the vulgar interpretation still stands, and if “The Sick Rose” can be interpreted in such a way, then it should be banned in schools and not heralded as a beautiful poem but denounced instead.
Defense: As we have seen from these various witnesses and Mr. Blake himself, The meaning of a poem or any piece of literature is not a static thing which has but a singular meaning, Since so much symbolism can be locked into a single word and this meaning can only be derived through the individual understanding of the reader, it only stands to reason that due to the complexity and infinite possibilities which can arise from the text…it only stands to reason that as a judge and jury that in your personal wisdom you can see the fault with in accusing Mr William Blake as being obscene and will allow readers to derive their own interpretation from the words which are found in this simple yet complex poem.
Opening Statements
Prosecution:The People have accused William Blake of obscenity in his poem “The Sick Rose”. It is wrong that such vulgarity should be lauded as a contribution to literature! It reflects our own moral deficiency as a culture and this amorality is perpetuated because we teach it to our children in schools.
It will be up to you, ladies and gentlemen of the Jury, to determine for yourselves the value of such profanity in the literary canon, of teaching our children the poems of a man who describes a violent sex act in his poem that is falsely praised for genius. Please use your best judgment, and remember that “The Sick Rose” is sick and vulgar.
Defense:
William Blake is innocent of these ridiculous charges. This poem can in no way be considered immoral or obscene, because the meaning of this poem is not set in stone. It is ambiguous and the interpretation and any meaning which can be derived is a meaning which can only determined by the individual reader.
Trial
Prosecution: The People call William Blake to the stand:
Please state your name and profession.
Blake:
My name is William Blake and I am a visionary.
Prosecution: Is this your poem, Mr. Blake?
Blake: No, that poem doesn’t belong to me!
Prosecution: Did you write a poem entitled “The Sick Rose” that is the same as this poem, line for line?
Blake: Oh, well yes, I suppose I did.
.
Prosecution: The People would like to submit this evidence as Exhibit A.
(Pass out Exhibit A to class)
What did you intend for “The Sick Rose” to mean?
Defense: I object on the grounds that the author’s intent has no importance in the theory of Deconstruction under form C3 of intentional fallacies.
Judge: Sustained.
Prosecution: No more questions your honor.
Defense: The defense has no questions for the accused, he and so he may step down.
Prosecution: The People call Dr. Sigmund Freud to the stand.
Dr. Feud, please state your profession for the court.
Freud: I am a psychoanalysis and literary critic.
Prosecution: And in what way are you qualified to relay your expertise on “The Sick Rose”?
Freud: I have extensively studied the human psyche and have come to the conclusion that sexual references are everywhere. You see the rose signifies the female reproductive organ and the invisible worm, oh well, you can guess what that is!
Prosecution: In your opinion, is “The Sick Rose” about a rape?
Freud: Undoubtedly so. The rose is slowly dismantled by a number of destructive elements. All very sexual of course. Simply look to the fifth and sixth lines of the poem if you don’t believe me, “has found out thy bed of crimson joy.” Truly, the rose doesn’t stand a chance.
Prosecution: No more questions, your Honor.
Defense: Dr. Freud, does your knowledge of literary criticism extend to all fields? Are you as familiar, say, with the literary school of Deconstruction as you are Psychoanalytical theories?
Freud: Well, of course not.
Defense: So isn’t it possible that because of your extensive study in Psychoanalytical that your objectivity may be off? Perhaps you have a case of tunnel vision? I mean you were taught to see the world with sexual connotations attached. So why not find those sexual undertones in this poem as well? Isn’t it just one man’s opinion you bring to this courtroom?
Freud: Yes, I have given my opinion based on my literary and career background. I will say no more.
Defense: No more questions your honor, the witness may step down.
The Defense calls Jaques Derrida to the stand.
Please state your name and occupation for the record.
Derrida: My name is Jaques Derrida and I have been called the father of Deconstruction.
Defense: Thank you. And could you tell me Mr. Derrida how many interpretations this poem, “The Sick Rose,” could have?
Derrida: It has any number of interpretations. The absence of the author when generally reading a work of literature leaves us only with the text as a source of meaning. Texts are read in various ways and on multiple levels. Now, I do encourage close reading because this is a heavy responsibility. One can’t merely read about a rabbit and make up interpretations that the rabbit represents old age and stinginess. No, of course not. At the same time there is no fixed meaning of a work just as the sun is not our only star in the universe. It is the most obvious, but certainly not one of a kind.
Defense: What advice would you give those that wish to condemn William Blake today?
Derrida: ALWAYS rethink your interpretations, play with texts you read, be willing to hear what it is saying and above all, QUESTION it - for this is when understanding (deconstruction) takes place.
Defense: Thank you, Mr. Derrida. No more questions, your honor.
Prosecution: Mr. Derrida, why should the reader have so much power? Shouldn’t it be up to better educated peoples to decide what material is inappropriate based on content?
Derrida: It is my understanding that to read is to experience. If a person is reading, then they have enough intelligence to listen to what the work is telling them. A person’s commentary or interpretation of a work of literature is a very personal aspect, and since there is such diversity among the peoples of this earth, that leads to multiple interpretations. And who has the power, knowledge or hubris to say which of those is the correct interpretation?
Prosecution: I’ll ask the questions, Mr. Derrida. What do you think the poem means?
Derrida: Well first I would take it line by line and determine what each word means. Because words themselves are quite ambiguous.
Prosecution: The meaning, Mr. Derrida?
Derrida: Right, well I see it as a struggle for life. A once beautiful flower has come to the end of her long life. She has been through many storms in her life and has but one more obstacle ahead of her. Death is wooing her, and I think she will answer him. But that is one interpretation, my dear.
Prosecution: Thank you; I have no more questions your honor.
Defense: The Defense calls Hans-Georg Gadamer to the stand.
Please state your name and profession for the record.
Gadamer: Yes, my name is Hans-Georg Gadamer and I am a philosopher and literary critic.
Defense: And your School of Criticism would be..?
Gadamer: Deconstruction.
Defense: And why is that?
Gadamer: I take the experience of beauty to be central to an understanding of the nature of art. The beautiful is that which is self-evidently present to us (as ‘radiant’). And we must explore the close relationship between the beautiful and the true. It is this continual exploration that leads to different points of view. I mean just look at all the Literary Schools of Criticism. Their arguing actually supports Deconstruction. All these varying point of views, interpretations, and criticisms are what make up the fabric of literature. How boring it would be to be constrained to one idea or thought process. I couldn’t live in a world like that.
Defense: What do you think the line, “The invisible worm,” means?
Gadamer: One can make a word anything they want it to be. Invisible can mean withdrawn from, out of sight, hidden, not visible, not perceptible by the eye, or any number of things. The word ‘worm’ has even more definitions. Did you know that worm can actually be traced back to legends of dragons? And that’s just scratching the surface. We haven’t even discussed portmanteaus or homonyms yet.
Defense: Thank you, professor. That will be all. No more questions, your honor. Defense rests.
Prosecution: No questions, your honor.
Judge: Closing Arguments
Prosecution:
The People have argued that “The Sick Rose” is a poem about rape, a poem about a violent, disturbing sexual act that doesn’t need to be taught in schools as a work of outstanding genius or act as a pillar in the canon of English literature. The Defense has argued that there is more than one way to view a piece of literature. If this is true then it is also true that the vulgar interpretation still stands, and if “The Sick Rose” can be interpreted in such a way, then it should be banned in schools and not heralded as a beautiful poem but denounced instead.
Defense: As we have seen from these various witnesses and Mr. Blake himself, The meaning of a poem or any piece of literature is not a static thing which has but a singular meaning, Since so much symbolism can be locked into a single word and this meaning can only be derived through the individual understanding of the reader, it only stands to reason that due to the complexity and infinite possibilities which can arise from the text…it only stands to reason that as a judge and jury that in your personal wisdom you can see the fault with in accusing Mr William Blake as being obscene and will allow readers to derive their own interpretation from the words which are found in this simple yet complex poem.
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