Theory of Symbols Diagram

cycles

ok. when we talked about circular or cycling tales i think the perfect example is Stephen King's The Dark Tower series.basically if you've read it you'll understand what i mean. if not, basically the story cycles back from the end to the beginning in one big never ending loop. it's seven novels long but it has elements of all of the modes in it with typical Stephen King dark themes.

Don Quixote

well let's see. I got to pg. 102, chapter 15. hilarious, somwhat violent but so humorous at the same time. Don Q's an interesting character. it seems strange that he's either getting him self beat up or attacking people.

the whole point of humoring the Don is just itching at my head. why? for their own fun? because he's relatively harmless? i don't know.

And where did the idea of humoring someone come from? humor-amusement- to amuse-... hmm, that will take some research.

Eve Sedgwick

Well, let's see. An American theorist in gender studies, homosexual studies, and critical theory. Published 7 books: two books of poetry, Fat Art, Thin Art (1994), A Dialogue on Love (1999), a work of criticism, The Coherence of Gothic Conventions (1986), and four works in gender studies, Men: English Literature and Male Homosocial Desire (1985), Epistemology of the Closet (1990), Tendencies (1993), and Touching Feeling: Affect, Pedagogy, Performativity (2003). Currently living in New York City and working as a Distinguished Professor at CUNY Graduate school.

i'm still working on it.

"Key West" and Aristotle's elements

all right. for starters the World or Universe in "Key West" starts off as the sea and changes as she, the author, sings. she makes her own world from the sea and the Audience's, the "we" in "Key West," World is changed as well makeing three Worlds. the Work of "Key West" is her song. the Artist is obviously the singer as well as Wallace Stevens. The Audience is the "we" in the text, including the Ramon Fernandez, and the reader. the reader's world also changes.
hmm. i'm not sure i can say anymore than that.

Modes: Thematic Myth

i'm a brat and haven't updated in a while. i am somewhat interested in the thematic myth or the works created with divine inspiration. the bible, koran, works of oracles,budhist and hindu mantras(?), it's all very out there with very little proof. legends, myths, stories about the beginning of the world. but gods came from men so really it's all human inspiration. after all, where would gods be without worshippers? i do wonder. besides the whole 'divine' inspiration all of these texts were written by humans who aren't so divine. but humans seem to want there to be some sort of perfect unfathomable being. so does that mean it's unfathomable inspiration? if so how can we make connections to it if we don't understand it? i'm confusing myself. but even if we dont consciously understand everything we can sometimes make the smaller connections and have a 'cosmic moment.' a moment where you feel like you can see and understand everything. its all so clear and... huge. but we lay those legends, those cosmic moments, and writings where we dont really have the words to describe or explain and it sounds unbelieveable into the divine and are left with myths. anyway i think i got lost there so it you have questions just leave a comment.

Diagram

Well, you can't really read it but this is how i kind of organized the diagram. i can try to make a better one later.

Born Not Made

"...poems, like poets, are born and not made. The poet's task is to deliver the poem in as uninjured a state as possible, and if the poem is alive, it is equally anxious to be rid of him, and screams to be cut loose from his private memories and associations, his desire for self-expression, and all the other navel-strings and feeding tubes of his ego."
-Northrop Frye, Archetypes of Literature pg. 701

If you are as great a procrastinator as I am then I know you'll have heard "that paper isn't going to write itself, you know" and all the variations thereof. And while that is technically true it is also very false. A good essay or strong idea or really any bit of art, be it carving, painting, writing or whatnot, will start itself, grow by itself, and finish itself. This sounds impossible but the (I'm going to call them the artist) artist isn't anything but a tool or, as Frye noted, the midwife. The artist does the least amount of work and gets the most credit for it too! The idea is sparked in the artists mind and continues to grow until it cannot help but be expressed outwardly by the artist, or, in other words, birthed. Once it reaches the outer world it grows until it has finished and there is now more to be done to it. It is at its strongest form, ready to take on the world. Kind of reminds me of growing up and hitting college. Oooh, scary comparison! Anyway, while the artist must deliver the piece he or she does not truly write it except in the most literal sense of pen to paper or fingers to keys or what-have-you.

Ideal

"With these words and phrases the poor gentleman lost his mind, and he spent sleepless nights trying to understand them and extract their meaning, which Aristotle himself, if he came back to life for only that purpose, would not have been able to decipher or understand."
-Don Quixote, Miguel de Cervantes, pg. 20
Anyway, this kind of touches on two topics. The intentions or meaning of the author, which according to class discussion, means nothing to the critic and, according to Cervantes, is inscrutable, and the ideal reader, ideal insomnia thing.
Ideal reader and ideal insomnia. I've been musing over this particular phrase for the last several hours and am still somewhat stuck. The ideal reader and his or her ideal insomnia where the person can never "sleep and, perchance, to dream?" Sorry, had to get it out of my system. Anyway the idea of the critic as an insomniac was simply too quirky for me to pass up. Our dear Don gets too caught up in the meaning behind Feliciano de Silva's work and looses his objectivity and his mind all in one go. Well, at least he had the insomnia part down.
I think I'll quit there because I'm not making much sense to myself.

English 300

Well, I've never done this before so I guess we'll see if this works. I'll be back later to actually write something interesting but this is just a test run.
thanks!