Overall, the selections I read over the break were very insightful and I enjoyed the fresh perspective of the new authors. I was struck by the recurring relationship between good versus evil and how this influences behavior. At times it was hard to grasp what was happening in the text, so I focused on forming larger connections and taking away a greater picture.
I enjoyed reading the creation stories from Book I of Ovid’s Metamorphosis and am fond of Ovid’s poetic and sophisticated tone. I hope to learn about the symbolism behind all the references to nature, as well as analyze the various characters, because it was hard for me to keep track of all of them during my reading. I noticed an overall theme of power; as humans gained more power, they demanded more power of the earth in return. The power fostered this dialectic relationship between mankind and earth. As we gained power, we became more violent and cruel to everything around us. This relates to Greenblatt as it demonstrates how shifts in culture influence behavior and identity, and how we react to the forces around us. I am curious to see what humans do with their growing power as we continue reading Ovid. This theme relates to what we have previously read because it highlights how our identities and actions are shaped by the overarching forces that govern us, and how cultural shifts, such as increased power, change identity. Upon reading Lucretius, I formed the connection that both creation stories begin with chaos that eventually gets organized into the world as we know it. The main difference is the use of God for this organization, which does not appear in Lucretius. The theme of power is also apparent in this text, however it focuses more on the power of nature rather than the power of man. Lucretius writes “by now do you see, don’t you, how a frail nature can be most powerful, conjoined with a substantial body, as the air combined with earth, as our own power of mind joins with our physical natures?” Ending the passage with this rhetorical question was Lucretius’ was of allowing the reader to accept his conclusion as their own answer. He gives the reader what he wanted them to understand the entire time without merely presenting it as a fact. I am excited to continue drawing connections and comparisons between Ovid and Lucretius as we continue reading. This relates to Greenblatt’s analysis of power structures and how they influence identity. I continued forming connections as I read the first nine chapters of Genesis. Like in Metamorphosis, God is both the creator and organizer of the Earth. After reading the story of Adam and Eve, I am curious to know what the serpent represents. While in this story it can represent temptation or deception, serpents can also represent fertility or creative life force. I wonder if this dialectic was intentionally chosen for this story. The Old Testament relates to Scott and Greenblatt’s ideas by portraying the opposing forces of good versus evil, as well as the authority, God. Paradise Lost was the most challenging work for me to understand, and I look forward to sharing ideas and interpretations as a class to see how mine compares to those of my peers. Like the other works, this book shares the theme of man’s disobedience, specifically the loss of paradise due to this disobedience. Like in Genesis, it is the serpent that caused man to fail. However in this work, the serpent is represented as Satan, who revolted against God and brought angels into Hell, a place of darkness and chaos. The battle between Satan and God relates to Greenblatt’s idea of alien versus authority, and the identities that are fashioned by these forces are the angels who submit to their higher forces. This demonstrates how the opposition between the alien and the authority can result completely different identities who submit to their governing forces. This dichotomy of good versus evil portrays a dialectic relationship, which relates to Greenblatt, because without evil there cannot be good, and vice versa. Some particular phrases that stood out to me was the last sentence of the Argument for Book I, “Pandemonium the palace of Satan rises, ” as well as the tenth line of the same argument, “Chaos: here Satan with his angels lying on the burning lake, thunderstruck and astonished.” These descriptions paint a unique and dark portrayal of Satan in ways that clung to me as a reader long after I read them. Overall, Paradise Lost struck me as a darker retelling of Genesis, with the use of Satan as the serpent to represent man’s disobedience. Paradise Lost is full of vividly dark imagery to capture the eternal chaos and suffering of hell that Satan endures. Milton employs an elevated, dense writing style, and his study of insanity and evil serves has a darker explanation of what is not explained in Genesis.
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Throughout the semester, not only have I learned about the complex relationships between art, criticism, and self-fashioning that we have grappled with as a class, but I gained confidence in my ability to analyze complicated texts and become comfortable with not immediately “getting” it. I have realized that confusion is a part of the process and only makes the eventual understanding more rewarding and meaningful. It has been interesting to step back and look at the intersections between the two texts we have spend significant time thinking about. All of these ideas connect in sophisticated ways; the powerful ideas of identity, curiosity, art, culture, and criticism allow us to progress and push the boundaries of innovation. Self-fashioning relates to everything we have learned because it encompasses everything humans do. Everything we create plays a role in self-fashioning which subsequently leads to the generation of identity. It is a never-ending process that explains how we have become the way we are and how this process is inescapable. While we may feel that we have autonomy and the power to control our identity, this is an illusion, regardless of how desperately we crave it. Discovering this after thinking so deeply about art and criticism during the beginning of the year has shown me that art and taste are illusionary product of self-fashioning and an attempt to feel like we have control over our identity. This leaves me with some inner tension, as I now realize that we have never had true, unfettered control over who we are and who we want to become. However, what results from this attempted control is beautiful and gives our life meaning. Whether or not we have autonomy over our identities, we still live in a world where people express themselves through creation of music, art, poetry, etc. Our attempted control over our taste and identity results in culture, which in turn shapes us, creating the unending, dialectic and reflexive relationship of the human experience. Regarding Renaissance Self-Fashioning, I have thought deeply about how power and structure, examining how the force of submission shapes our identities in relation to authorities in aliens. My commonplace book has been a space where I can project my ideas through language and drawings, whether I have concrete answers or not. It consists of questions about the 10 conditions, relationships between self, alien, and authority, and anything else that confused me during the thinking process. Viewing the text from a dialectical lense, I have realized that every aspect of self-fashioning is oppositely dependent on another structure to exist. We cannot have an alien without an authority or an authority without an alien, and there must be a self to be fashioned, and there is no truth outside of accepting that this dialectic, recursive, and reflexive process exists and is inescapable. The thinking I have done in this class both individually and with others has led me to a more comprehensive understanding of my own role in society as an artist, critic, self-fashioner, and questioner. I feel excited for the rest of the year, as I currently have more questions than answers about our content. I am excited to continue progressing as a thinker, reader, and writer, and look forward to reading Ovid’s Metamorphoses. I hope to make more connections between texts, to history and culture, and to my own life, as I continue to read, think, and fashion my own identity. I speculate that as we continue grappling with complicated texts, we will continue asking questions, feeling frustrated at times when we don’t understand, build off of each other’s ideas, and hopefully have meaningful and rewarding ideas. How does literature influence identity? What role does it play in shaping identity and society? These ideas are explored in Renaissance Self-Fashioning by Stephen Greenblatt took a closer look into how literature from the sixteenth century shaped identity. While this was the most challenging for me to read out of all the assigned passages, I thoroughly enjoyed the complexity. I found it interesting that the term “fashioning,” and the main idea of the text, has lost its original meaning. In the 16th century, the definition of fashioning was not just making or create something- it is constructing and shaping one’s identity. This type of fashioning refers to more abstract concepts, such as character, perception, and behavior. Religion is a prevelant guide for self-fashioning. I drew a bible in my commonplace book to represent the role that religious texts have on humanity and the construction of identity throughout history. Greenblatt used Christ as an example of this. Christ is a quintessential model for fashioning because people all over the world try to live like he did and imitate his character. People look to religious texts and figures to learn how to self-fashion and live their lives the way they feel is ideal. This can be true with figures in every religion. Literature plays a vital role in self-fashioning; people look after texts and use characters to guide their lives. However, doing this can blur the lines between fiction and reality. People attempt to shape their identity after book characters, which results in a culture that is heavily influenced by literature. The quote “there is no such thing as human nature independent of culture” expresses this dependency between literature and human behavior (Greenblatt, 3). Because people fashion or model themselves after literature, literature influences human nature, and behavior is shaped by literature. Literature, culture, and behavior are connected and constantly influenced each other in our ever-evolving society. In my commonplace, I drew a small diagram showing this cultural cycle. I loved learning about the many different roles of books. They manifests the behavior and ideas of the author, and also shapes the reader’s perspective.Books inform and are informed by cultural and social codes. An insightful quote that captures the role of books is, “great art is an extraordinarily sensitive register of the complex struggles and harmonies of culture” (Greenblatt, 5). This quote touches on how literature can be a reflection of morals and society, and often serves as an expression of social rules and instructions. Studying historical literature can reveal deeper cultural patterns and structures of power that we might otherwise miss. Reading and analyzing texts allows us to uncover larger cultural and social patterns throughout history. I drew a stack of books in my commonplace notebook to represent the importance of books and stories throughout history. Storytelling is a crucial form of documentation that connects us to our past and results in figures of a shared culture. I find the concept of human autonomy fascinating. After reading and thinking about these ideas, I wonder if there is more or less autonomy to self-fashion now than in the 16th century, and how the structures of power have changed throughout the centuries. Autonomy is crucial in the construction of an authentic identity. How much freedom we truly have in shaping our identities? Is pure, unfettered autonomy attainable? Or is everything we do influenced by the social orders that surround us? Are we simply "fashioned by cultural institutions?" (Greenblatt, 256). Another question I asked myself was, how do literary and social identities form within a culture? Are they shaped by the existing culture, or does culture shape them? As we move forward into the school year, I am excited to continue asking questions and discuss this intricate passage with my peers. When we discuss as a class, I want to delve deeper into the idea of “culture poetics.” I also hope to continue reading more from this author. While Greenblatt did not go into depth about the different 16th century writers, I would be excited to learn about More, Spenser, Morlow, and Shakespeare, and see how they have influenced culture and society. Reading texts from the 16th century would allow me to better understand the world from that time period and see how it has evolved since then. I want to learn about how structures of power and social status are woven into their writing, and attempt to uncover and analyze them. Questions are the single most important tool for innovative thinking. They are the starting point for new ideas. In A More Beautiful Question by Warren Berger, he describes why questions are such a fundamental part of our lives. It is the ability to organize our thinking around what we don’t know. Questions helps us process the world and attempt to understand what we do not know. They are an incredibly vital part of society but are too often overlooked. We become too focused on what we know, that we lose track of what is unknown, which is often more valuable. In my commonplace book, I drew a child asking "why?" to represent the never-ending inquisitiveness of children. I was shocked to learn that a child asks approximately 40,000 questions between the ages two to five. This makes sense; we’ve all been pestered by little kids who don’t stop asking us about how everything works. Children are the best questioners because of their intense curiosity. They are constantly encountering new things they do not understand and trying to categorize the world around them. Their brains are forming rapid neural connections, and their world is full of novel things to explore. Adults often suppress their curiosity and get frustrated by the never-ending questions, because often, they don’t know the answers. But instead of shutting down their questions, we need to encourage inquiry. Children notice many things that adults don’t notice because they simply aren’t looking. Not only should we encourage the curiosity of children, we should emulate it. We must “attempt to adjust the way [we] look at the world so that [our] perspective more closely aligns with that of a curious child” (page 75). Once we “step back,” we notice what others miss. In order to ask valuable, innovative questions, we must stop “knowing” and begin to wonder. In my commonplace notebook, I drew a polaroid camera to show a real world example of a simple question that sparked a revolutionary idea. “Why do we have to wait for the picture?” This was the question that Edwin Land’s daughter posed of her father after he explained they needed to take their pictures to a darkroom to be processed. Anyone could have asked this question. What matters is whether you act on it. In this case, this simple question inspired Mr. Land to invent the Polaroid camera. A question asked by a three-year-old lead to valuable insights that resulted in a revolutionary idea and successful product. If questioning is so fundamental, why does our education system seems to discourage it? Schools are focused on squeezing so much information into a curriculum that it leaves little room or time for questioning. When school starts becoming more rigorous and test-based, young children’s curiosity starts to fade. We start penalizing wrong answers. The classroom no longer feels comfortable, creative, or curious. The education system should promote questioning and not knowing all the answers, not punish students for wondering. Having the answers is important, but having the critical thinking skills to ask informed questions is more important. Many times in school I begin a question by saying, “this is a dumb question, but….” I realized this is an unhealthy way to preface valuable thoughts. No one should ever view their thoughts or questions as “dumb.” This book touched on the social pressure that causes people to hold in their questions. People don’t want to defy authority or appear incompetent or insubordinant. To ask meaningful questions, you have to be comfortable with not knowing and exposing vulnerability. We have to challenge what everybody else just accepts. We need to stop acting like we know everything because this makes us less receptive to new ideas and possibilities. We need to become children again. We need to keep wondering; we must encourage inquiry. It is the only way to open ourselves up to new possibilities and breakthroughs. I am excited to grapple with philosophical, profound questions throughout the year in APLit. I hope to ask insightful questions that will enhance the conversation and lead to new discoveries. As a class, I hope we can find answers, but most importantly, ask the right questions. Not only do I want to ask the right questions, but I want to act on them, like Edwin Land did in response to his daughter’s question. What makes something beautiful? Who decides what is beautiful? Why do I like what I like? Is taste instinctual or developed? What is the purpose of criticism? What is art? How does art connect to culture? These are some of the many philosophical questions explored in A. O. Scott’s book, Better Living Through Criticism. However, this book does not give us all the answers. Scott doesn’t give us instructions or a clear answer to any of these questions; he simply gives us the knowledge and insights to draw our own conclusions, because the answer is different for every single person. While it may sound cliché, beauty truly is in the eye of the beholder. Taste is one of the most personal things we as human beings have- taste is determined by feelings, and you are the only person who knows exactly how you feel. Your taste is the most personal, specific representation/projection of your feelings towards the world. This was a central theme that I focused on in my first page of commonplace notes. Taste evolves through life experiences and is shaped by personal growth. We mold and develop it over time. I do not think I will like the exact same things 10 years from now, because my experiences will change and my feelings towards things will shift with them. If this is true, why do we also consider taste something unchanging that we are born with? How much of what we like is simply because of an instinctual, innate part of who we are? Scott acknowledges this contradiction when he says, “taste, we assume, is innate, reflexive, immediate, involuntary, but we also speak of it as something to be acquired” (pages 43-44). Personally, I think it is a combination of both, but I am sure it is more nuanced than that. “It’s beautiful because everyone thinks it is, and everyone thinks so because it’s beautiful.” This quote stuck out to me and led me to question the fundamental ideas of beauty and individualism. If art and taste are subjective, and everyone has different feelings and different tastes, what qualities can possibly be viewed by everyone as beautiful? Are there universal traits that are considered beautiful? Art is a ubiquitous, ever-evolving concept. From reading this text, I have found my own definition of art, which probably differs from many other common definitions. For me, art is anything with the power to move people emotionally. It is the attempt to physically manifest true beauty. We are drawn to art that makes us feel new emotions, that serves as an escape from reality. An example of art that does just that is “The Artist is Present” by Marina Abramóvic. This piece is unconventional and modern, unlike anything I had ever considered art before reading this book. In her piece, she simply sat in a chair at the MoMA and guests sat in a chair across from her and stared into her eyes. I tried my best to draw this picture in my commonplace book. However, what I could not draw was the unspoken connection between the artists and the guests, the true art. This piece stretched the limits of what can be considered art. Abramóvic was her own work of art, but she was also a mirror, the true art being the members of the audience. Everyone who attended the museum that day looked into her eyes and saw something completely different. They formed unique connections and felt unique feelings from the silent conversation. They were all touched differently; this is art. Not everyone will understand this type of art. It is completely okay to look at something and say, “I don’t get it”. Not everyone will understand art in the exact same way, and if they did, it wouldn’t be art anymore. There would be nothing personal about it. People feel pressure to accept art that society deems significant or beautiful, not actually judging it for themselves or feeling moved by it. They feel like if they don’t appreciate it, they are somehow viewing it incorrectly. This is why I included my sketch of the Mona Lisa, one of the most famous paintings of all time. Surely, not everyone looks at this painting of an expressionless woman’s face and is moved by it. We feel like we are “supposed” to get it because we think that everyone else gets it, but it is okay to look at the Mona Lisa, and not feel emotionally touched. I haven’t even referenced the title of this book. What is criticism, and what role does it play in society? Criticism is a way of challenging or affirming beliefs to enact social change. Because of criticism, society is constantly changing and amending itself to new beliefs. A critic is not just a critical person- it is someone who challenges conventional ways of thinking and uses it to enact change or make a difference. It is essential for societal progression. Criticism is its own art form, but it exists to enhance other forms of art. It enhances literature, or maybe even cooking (like the critic in Ratatouille)! Criticism is not just praising or disliking something. It is the engine of social change, and allows society to adapt and evolve, challenge and confirm ways of thinking and systems of beliefs. So, it’s not better to live through criticism. It is essential. I hope we use this text to become better critics of the literature we read in AP Lit throughout the year. It has certainly changed my perspective of art and beauty, and I am excited to discuss as a class and challenge and be challenged by my peers. I anticipate that we will talk deeply about art and how it connects to society and plays a role in our everyday life. I am excited to use the knowledge I have learned from this reading throughout the year. |
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