Fancy for Fiction

How much could we accomplish if we gave up watching television shows for an extra hour of work? Or gave up reading stories to our children and instead read them textbooks and biographies? Or if instead of supporting theater, we attended science conventions every weekend. Something would be missing. 

From the very first "Once Upon a Time" humans have illustrated an inkling for made up stories, folklore and tales--a fancy for fiction. But why is this? Why do we feel compelled to the network comedies, featured films, and best seller books? The answer is not to attempt escape from reality. And it certainly isn't because reality is boring. But if we look back to the Realist Age of Literature, we find that fiction is tool for exploring inner truths. (page 11)

Humans have a fancy for fiction because we find ourselves in it, as a people. Even when I read a tale of someone as different from me as Huckleberry Finn, I'm looking for a new understanding of myself in God's world. Next time you think to yourself that your fictitious fancies might be a waste of time, think again. The discoveries made through stories will doubtlessly lead to some of your own. Read, react, respond. Endlessly. 

Raven Racism

Sometimes, I feel bad for Ravens. So many times throughout literature and in movies and in folklore, they are always portrayed as bad. In Edgar Allan Poe's famous poem, "The Raven", the bird's fate is no different.

Why are they considered to be so bad? Devilish and conniving? Is it because they're black? Because that's a bit racist. European folklore associates ravens with death, war, and departed souls (this last one makes sense for Poe's poem). However, many other cultures, like the ancient Greeks and Native Americans, associate the raven's apparent intelligence with light, goodness, and truth.

It's interesting that at the period "The Raven" was written, American writers were trying so hard to find their own distinct writing style, yet Poe used British folklore to inspire his poetry instead of American.

But I think that's just because Poe didn't care.

Third Time's the Charm

The Scarlet Letter is all about groupings of three. It takes three lines to make an "A," there are three main appearances of the letter "A,"there are three words in the title, there are three main characters who deal with the consequences of guilt (Hester, Dimmesdale, Chillingsworth), and there are three scaffolding scenes placed throughout the text. In the last  chapter,s the final scaffolding scene wraps up the excitement, guilt, and unfortunately, Dimmesdale's life.  Three is obviously a significant number in Hawthorne's work, especially illustrated by the third scaffolding scene.

However, not only is three an important number in the text, but it is also a prevalent number on our campus, specifically in Christianity. The Holy Trinity is a grouping of three that I believe is silently underlying the three occurrences on the platform. When Hester is being ridiculed, this reflects Jesus Christ, the Son, and His humiliation. When Hester and Dimmesdale and Pear meet, this reflects the bond of love that is the Holy Spirit. And finally, when Dimmesdale comes to truth within his sermon, he reflects the truth that is found in God.

And obviously, the third scene was the charm as Hester and Pearl finally began to find peace after Dimmesdale's death.

Sunshine+Pearl=Fatality

Most of my favorite songs have to do with sunshine (eg, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6tV11acSRk) so Hawthorne's motif of the light rays is most appealing to me.

The first time you get a taste of it is immediately upon Pearl and Hester's entrance into the square. THe light stings the baby's eyes, causing it to wink.

These rays stand for the concept of shedding light upon her guilt, literally. That light represents the particular societal moral standards of her onlookers; for if it wasn't for the standards being so opposed to the cause of her guilt, then the light wouldn't be quite so shocking to the baby's eyes.

"Pearls are formed inside the shell of certain mollusks as a defense mechanism against a potentially threatening irritant such as a parasite inside its shell, or an attack from outside, injuring the mantle tissue. The mollusk creates a pearl sac to seal off the irritation." -http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pearl#Origin_of_a_natural_pearl


While Hester was creating Pearl, she was technically sealing off the irritation of not having a husband around. However, perhaps her husband was the parasite all along because she did not love him. So then the husband would have been the cause of the baby after all. THough that really does make sense--it wouldn't have gone down as such a scandal if he never married her and brought her to Boston near Dimmesdale in the first place. CHapter ten is even labeled "The Leech and His Patient." A leech is sort of a parasite. 


A cool quote from page 56:
"But there is a fatality, a feeling so irresistible and inevitable that is has the force of doom, which almost invariably compels human beings to linger around and haunt, ghost-like, the spot where some great and marked event has given the color to their lifetime; and still the more irresistible, the darker the tinge that saddens it."


No wonder so many people stick around my hometown.....

Scarlet Rant

It's so nice to reread a novel of this kind--especially when you are at an entirely different place in your life then when you last flipped the pages.

However, the intro almost ruins starting the book. Though it does set up that really cool (as in "ridiculously thorough") framework. I love knowing that this is what someone's imagination created out of a couple findings. And that someone else's imagination created that imagination's imagination. Way to go Nathaniel Hawthorne. His themes on love and lust, secrets, and guilt are generally universal and timeless and his characters are easy to relate to and picture. However, if he had written the book nowadays with that intro, I high doubt that it would have sparked as well. My attention span isn't even long enough to write more in this blog.

DIY Cool Stuff

"Who knows but if men constructed their dwellings with their own hands, and provided food for themselves and families simply and honestly enough, the poetic faculty would be universally developed, as birds universally sing when they are so engaged?" -pg 868

You know, Thoreau? I've had the same thought many a time. I believe it was Johann Wolfgang von Goethe who once said, "Let everyone sweep in front of his own door, and the whole world will be clean." And then I roll over in my ridiculously comfortable bed and I go to sleep. The statement is probably very close to the truth--if we were all honest and took care of ourselves, we would all be as one. If we were all perfect, life would be perfect. But this world wasn't made to be perfect. 


"I am wont to think that men are not so much the keepers of herds as herds are the keepers of men, the former are so much the freer."


Our stuff owns us! It's so difficult to travel, to leave my cool stuff and my cool room behind so that I may travel lightly and freely. It's so sad! After reading this, I legitimately tried to get rid of some of my stuff. But... it's just all so cool! I have to work so hard to pay for my apartment and the gas for my car. Life is not so simple as it could be (if I was Thoreau back in the day). The bit of comfort that I take is that I like to arrange things artistically--my stuff, my outfits, my makeup--it's, ya know... a typical means of expression. The question is whether that's wrong. 


I'm not sure yet. I think if my habits became habits for habits' sake rather then habits for a higher purpose (art), then that would be wrong. So now, everyday, I just need to remind myself of that day's purpose. 

Thoreau Your Money Away

Right away, I was a little thrown off when Thoreau stated that, though others may think his "model of life" was impertinent, he found it "very natural and pertinent." It made me think of this very pretentious person I once knew, who didn't know that he was pretentious. But I may have only thought about that because pertinent and pretentious are both fancy words that start with p. So I looked up the word "impertinent"... just to be clear.

Don't judge me.

The clearest definition I found was this:


Impertinence: exceeding the bounds of propriety. 

Then I looked up propriety.

Propriety: the state or quality of conforming to conventionally accepted standards of behavior or morals.


Mk. So I was right. People thought he was being douche-ily unconventional for the sake of it and Thoreau's all, "Naw, I'm being myself. It's cool, man."


ANYWAY. 


one very famous quote from page 847

"The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation."

Holly balls. Basically, he's just challenged my entire life. We're so busy fighting and fighting for... something, that  we lose sight of the true meaning within our battles. I'm a solid procrastinator and a ridiculously busy person. I'm currently involved in three shows, working two jobs, balancing two majors, and failing to keep up with my homework. What oftentimes tends to happen is that I'll eventually get so desperately busy and behind that, instead of fighting to the finish, I give up. This can be summarized in pictures in this wickedly awesome and honest blog:
http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2010/06/this-is-why-ill-never-be-adult.html

ANYWAY.

After reading this very famous quote, I looked to see what Thoreau actually suggests we do.

But I never got time to finish reading. Would you call that irony? Not sure.

Good thing we had a great class discussion about the true necessities of life. Ways to simplify our lives to focus on God. Like don't own/buy so much stuff. Or don't try to juggle 3 plays, two jobs, and two majors.

The end!