Gloria Mundi
Who needs words in autumn woods
When colour concludes decay?
There old stories are told in glories
For winds to scatter away.
Wisdom narrows where downland barrows
Image the world's endeavour.
There time's tales are as light that fails
On faces fading forever.
October Trees
How innocent were these
Trees, that in mist-green May,
Blown by a prospering breeze,
Stood garlanded and gay;
Who now in sundown glow
Of serious colour clad
Confront me with their show
As though resigned and sad.
Trees who unwhispering stand
Umber and bronze and gold,
Pavilioning the land
For one grown tired and old;
Elm, chestnut, beech, and lime,
I am merged in you, who tell
Once more in tines of time
Your foliaged farewell.
~Siegfried Sassoon
Sunday, October 7, 2012
Saturday, February 25, 2012
Love's Philosophy
Percy Bysshe Shelley
The fountains mingle with the river
And the rivers with the ocean,
The winds of heaven mix for ever
With a sweet emotion;
Nothing in the world is single,
All things by a law divine
In one another's being mingle—
Why not I with thine?
See the mountains kiss high heaven,
And the waves clasp one another;
No sister-flower would be forgiven
If it disdain'd its brother;
And the sunlight clasps the earth,
And the moonbeams kiss the sea—
What is all this sweet work worth
If thou kiss not me?
The fountains mingle with the river
And the rivers with the ocean,
The winds of heaven mix for ever
With a sweet emotion;
Nothing in the world is single,
All things by a law divine
In one another's being mingle—
Why not I with thine?
See the mountains kiss high heaven,
And the waves clasp one another;
No sister-flower would be forgiven
If it disdain'd its brother;
And the sunlight clasps the earth,
And the moonbeams kiss the sea—
What is all this sweet work worth
If thou kiss not me?
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Love
“Doubt thou the stars are fire;
Doubt that the sun doth move;
Doubt truth to be a liar;
But never doubt I love.”
― William Shakespeare, Hamlet
Doubt that the sun doth move;
Doubt truth to be a liar;
But never doubt I love.”
― William Shakespeare, Hamlet
Sunday, February 12, 2012
Why Doesn't Literature Have Happy Endings?
Every semester, without fail, this is the question I am asked most by students in my Composition and Literature class, and I love that they ask it, though I don’t often have a nice, neat, compact answer at the ready for them. Each time it’s asked of me though, I think I get a little closer to having that answer (or an answer at least).
So why is that so many of the stories and plays we read over the course of the term have endings that aren’t “happy”?
Answer 1: Sometimes unhappy endings are the most memorable, the most important. They show the characters in stories/books/plays are not merely hyper-stylized beauty queens that the media often portrays characters in TV shows as. These people (yes, characters are real people) make hard life decisions – Nora in A Doll House, Connie in Joyce Carol Oates’ Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been – these characters make choices we (hopefully) don’t have to make -- either because social conditions for women have changed or because most girls make it out of puberty and the rebellious years safely.
But, people, real live people, DID have to make the choices that these characters do, and that’s part of what the author is trying to show. Literature isn’t created in a vacuum; it’s created in response to the world around it. We all have to make choices; some of them not as tough as Nora’s as she decides to leave her children and husband to find out if everything she’ been spoon fed is really true for her as an individual, but tough nonetheless
Answer 2: We get to test out possible choices. By discussing Nora’s choice to leave her family behind, we get a clearer sense of where our own personal boundaries are for life choices. By reading and responding to literature, readers have the chance to “put their money where their mouth is.” One of the most intense discussions we have in class is when reading Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants.” The women in class instantly pick up on how the American is pressuring Jig to have an abortion; the men defend his tactics because, as a man, he really doesn’t get a say in the choice, but his life is just as affected as Jig’s should they/she choose to keep the baby. We don’t discuss whether or not abortion is a “good” choice, rather, we examine how a couple navigates such a sensitive issue: how they communicate effectively/ineffectively and the effect that has on the relationship.
These tough life issues rarely fit neatly in the “happy” category; usually, in the best case scenario, readers are left feeling positively about the issues the story covered. In many cases though, the resolutions leave us feeling much more pensive.
Answer 3: Literature does more than tell a good story (and thus should have more than just a happy ending). Plenty of books, films and TV shows tell good stories. Literature isn’t about escapism; rather, it examines situations. Steven King tells good stories, engrossing stories, but his body of work is not necessarily dealing with the life situations that Faulkner’s is.
I’m not criticizing King either; we need his work and the work of other master storytellers. Stories are necessary. But literature is not the same as a story. Literature is more than simply the story itself; it is how the story is told. Faulkner’s A Rose for Emily is literature because it’s part of the Southern Gothic literary tradition and also because of how it’s crafted. It’s also literature because it aims not simply to tell a story about a woman who sleeps with her beau’s corpse, but the reasons why she is the way she is and how other people perceive her. These efforts combined often lead to an “unhappy” ending. Disney isn’t noted for complex, nuanced storylines, which is why those stories end happily.
These are not all the possible answers to why Literature doesn’t end happily, but for now, it’s what I am able to articulate to my students. I hope as the semester progresses, they will come up with their own answers as well.
So why is that so many of the stories and plays we read over the course of the term have endings that aren’t “happy”?
Answer 1: Sometimes unhappy endings are the most memorable, the most important. They show the characters in stories/books/plays are not merely hyper-stylized beauty queens that the media often portrays characters in TV shows as. These people (yes, characters are real people) make hard life decisions – Nora in A Doll House, Connie in Joyce Carol Oates’ Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been – these characters make choices we (hopefully) don’t have to make -- either because social conditions for women have changed or because most girls make it out of puberty and the rebellious years safely.
But, people, real live people, DID have to make the choices that these characters do, and that’s part of what the author is trying to show. Literature isn’t created in a vacuum; it’s created in response to the world around it. We all have to make choices; some of them not as tough as Nora’s as she decides to leave her children and husband to find out if everything she’ been spoon fed is really true for her as an individual, but tough nonetheless
Answer 2: We get to test out possible choices. By discussing Nora’s choice to leave her family behind, we get a clearer sense of where our own personal boundaries are for life choices. By reading and responding to literature, readers have the chance to “put their money where their mouth is.” One of the most intense discussions we have in class is when reading Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants.” The women in class instantly pick up on how the American is pressuring Jig to have an abortion; the men defend his tactics because, as a man, he really doesn’t get a say in the choice, but his life is just as affected as Jig’s should they/she choose to keep the baby. We don’t discuss whether or not abortion is a “good” choice, rather, we examine how a couple navigates such a sensitive issue: how they communicate effectively/ineffectively and the effect that has on the relationship.
These tough life issues rarely fit neatly in the “happy” category; usually, in the best case scenario, readers are left feeling positively about the issues the story covered. In many cases though, the resolutions leave us feeling much more pensive.
Answer 3: Literature does more than tell a good story (and thus should have more than just a happy ending). Plenty of books, films and TV shows tell good stories. Literature isn’t about escapism; rather, it examines situations. Steven King tells good stories, engrossing stories, but his body of work is not necessarily dealing with the life situations that Faulkner’s is.
I’m not criticizing King either; we need his work and the work of other master storytellers. Stories are necessary. But literature is not the same as a story. Literature is more than simply the story itself; it is how the story is told. Faulkner’s A Rose for Emily is literature because it’s part of the Southern Gothic literary tradition and also because of how it’s crafted. It’s also literature because it aims not simply to tell a story about a woman who sleeps with her beau’s corpse, but the reasons why she is the way she is and how other people perceive her. These efforts combined often lead to an “unhappy” ending. Disney isn’t noted for complex, nuanced storylines, which is why those stories end happily.
These are not all the possible answers to why Literature doesn’t end happily, but for now, it’s what I am able to articulate to my students. I hope as the semester progresses, they will come up with their own answers as well.
Monday, January 16, 2012
Inspired
"If you run, you are a runner. It doesn't matter how fast or how far. It doesn't matter if today is your first day or if you've been running for twenty years. There is no test to pass, no license to earn, no membership card to get. You just run."
~John Bingham
~John Bingham
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