Helena's final paper about coincidence was so interesting to read and reminded me of oral traditions when Dr. Sexson said (I don't remember exactly) something about everything being a coincidence. There aren't really any coincidences we just make them up. This is meant to be humorous in terms of my blog because I swear I am always coming up with things that I think to be coincidences. But are they really or do people just force themselves to find striking similarities withing everyday life?
Helena went on to say, "it is hard to tell when coincidence stops and fate begins". I loved this line from Helena's term paper because it reminds me of what I said before. Also, where do we draw the line between coincidence and fate? If I were to describe the two I'd say that coincidence is something we make- up to please ourselves, to somehow find connections to things that are not there. It is like when you lose someone and all of a sudden everything you see or do or hear points to them. These things were ALWAYS in front of us but now that we don't have that one thing we find ways to hold onto it, I could go on and on but I won't. Fate on the otherhand is meant to be, it is something that you are not able to control, you don't foresee it and you can't run away from it. Some people though have a hard time separating the two and therefore force themselves to find a "coincidence" and they call it fate. It's a complex topic, but thrilling to say the least.
Saturday, December 12, 2009
More individual presentations
The last day of presentations was fabulous. Though I thoroughly enjoyed Helena's presentation, doug's very intelligent yet complex presentation and Christina's paper reading. Jon's presentation was hilarious and entertaining- very nice impersonation...
Individual Presentations
Jared: Transparent things and death
Jessica: Beauty and pity. Lolita/ pale fire- these 2 works help us to understand the work between fantasy and characters such as Humbert.
Kris: Unreliable narrator, it is more life than novel. Narration- deception, self-awareness, overall
Amanda: Gradus- short story
Rebecca: very indepth powerpoint presentation discussing consciousness, unconsciousness and reality. She also talked about how the unconscious takes over the conscious. Listening to her presentation was not only thoroughly entertaining but exciting because it brought to mind a presentation I did with a group in oral traditions regarding dreams, the unconscious and the conscious...very exciting to say the least.
Riley's presentation was intriguing because he wrote about a book we have not yet read, inspiring me to read it soon. The fact that he took all the notecards out of the original Laura and read it four times is amazing. I loved that he was so excited about this too. The excitement level of the presenter makes or breaks it.
Jennie Lynn has brought up Edgar Allen Poe many times in class, so when I heard that she was focusing her presentation upon Poe and Nabokov I was very interested. She discussed similar obsessions that they have such as "amorphous nuances" with reality and being. Both also have a fixation with death. Jennie Lynn is a fabulous speaker, intelligent and carries with her so much confidence. I can't wait to read her term paper more in depth. Brittini's term presentation was hilarious and I just have to say her personality made her presentation as well!
Jessica: Beauty and pity. Lolita/ pale fire- these 2 works help us to understand the work between fantasy and characters such as Humbert.
Kris: Unreliable narrator, it is more life than novel. Narration- deception, self-awareness, overall
Amanda: Gradus- short story
Rebecca: very indepth powerpoint presentation discussing consciousness, unconsciousness and reality. She also talked about how the unconscious takes over the conscious. Listening to her presentation was not only thoroughly entertaining but exciting because it brought to mind a presentation I did with a group in oral traditions regarding dreams, the unconscious and the conscious...very exciting to say the least.
Riley's presentation was intriguing because he wrote about a book we have not yet read, inspiring me to read it soon. The fact that he took all the notecards out of the original Laura and read it four times is amazing. I loved that he was so excited about this too. The excitement level of the presenter makes or breaks it.
Jennie Lynn has brought up Edgar Allen Poe many times in class, so when I heard that she was focusing her presentation upon Poe and Nabokov I was very interested. She discussed similar obsessions that they have such as "amorphous nuances" with reality and being. Both also have a fixation with death. Jennie Lynn is a fabulous speaker, intelligent and carries with her so much confidence. I can't wait to read her term paper more in depth. Brittini's term presentation was hilarious and I just have to say her personality made her presentation as well!
The soul...that is all there ever is....
I have been thinking constantly about the soul since I came up with my paper topic. Now though, my thoughts are consumed with Thomas Moore's idea that the soul is not able to be changed. Quite honestly, this is difficult for me to comprehend. Doesn't everything change? Some people are simply afraid of change so they deny the fact that it ever will- not that I know this from experience.... :) How does the soul not change if it goes through various chambers, always moving beyond a different vale? I understand the idea that we must learn to live with our feelings, even those that are disturbing, but do feelings not change the soul itself?
Gamelan
I dread writing this blog because I can honestly say that World Music is perhaps the worst class I have ever taken at MSU. I think it had potential...but no perhaps we were all just doomed. When I met with Dr. Sexson this past week, we looked at a map of a gamelan performance held here. Dr. Sexson was interested in this and said that it sounds like something Nabokov would say..these words are complex and unordinary...are they even words? Gunung, angklung, jegogan...I was reviewing my notes on the gamelan (mainly because if I don't pass this stupid music final I will be increasing to 21 credits next semester to graduate...bitter tone inserted). The instruments in the gamelan and the songs themselves "help us to remember". Again, connections. Everywhere I go, I think of Nabokov or The Shade cast, but mostly Humbert. I swear I have seen more Humberts in my life the last month (we will skip past this point because it is rather disturbing to me to think that perhaps these really could be HUMBERTS!). Similar to Frye's levels of understanding, the gamelan too is composed levels in which the music becomes something more...more important or more spiritual. You have to become nothing to really appreciate the music or in the case of english majors the text. It is not only about appreciating the music or text, but understanding it to a degree one never thought possible. Thanks to everyone who has corrupted my mind and allowed me to now read too much into things. I need to become nothing again.
I had a discussion with Dr. Sexson the other day after class, that really opened my eyes to eveything I have been doing for the last 3 1/2 years...which sometimes feels like...buying time until I really know what I want to do. Anyways, I have come up with a temporary plan to ease my anxiety about graduation and future life (whatever that is). I have been lucky enough to have Dr. Sexson as a professor 3 semesters in a row and adding 2 more of his courses to that list next semester. Any topic we discussed connected to another of his classes. Dreams, soul making, levels of interpretation, negative capability...I could go on and on. Nabokov and his works also connects to all of these courses. All I can say is thank goodness Dr. Sexson was the professor I had for all of these, otherwise I feel that connections would not have come so easily. "It all connects", so pay attention and remember.
Frye's levels of interpretation
Nabokov: Obsessive compulsive, hinged (similar to Edgar Allan Poe)
Dr. Sexson began talking about Northrup Frye and Plato on our last day of class. While I enjoy reading Plato's argument against poetry, he upsets me to some degree. Plato bans poets, referring to them as crazy, liars- out of their minds. Thankfully, my spirits were lifted when Dr. Sexson mentioned Northrup Frye, whom I consider to be one of the most interesting people that I have studied thus far in my english education (let'so omit Keats from this statement, we all know he tops the charts). Northrup Frye calls to attention out level of interpretation including: literal, analogical, moral and of course anagogical. The ultimate level of interpretation of any text is the anagogical- by that he means the mystical. A level of timelessness which Nabokov Of course believes in. This also reminds me of Keats, why wouldn't it?! You only get through this level (the vale is lifted) through divine madness...poets. The 3rd existential level, speaking to us across our own death (Hazel Shade). What lies beyond that level (or can I say Vale)?
Dr. Sexson began talking about Northrup Frye and Plato on our last day of class. While I enjoy reading Plato's argument against poetry, he upsets me to some degree. Plato bans poets, referring to them as crazy, liars- out of their minds. Thankfully, my spirits were lifted when Dr. Sexson mentioned Northrup Frye, whom I consider to be one of the most interesting people that I have studied thus far in my english education (let'so omit Keats from this statement, we all know he tops the charts). Northrup Frye calls to attention out level of interpretation including: literal, analogical, moral and of course anagogical. The ultimate level of interpretation of any text is the anagogical- by that he means the mystical. A level of timelessness which Nabokov Of course believes in. This also reminds me of Keats, why wouldn't it?! You only get through this level (the vale is lifted) through divine madness...poets. The 3rd existential level, speaking to us across our own death (Hazel Shade). What lies beyond that level (or can I say Vale)?
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
This is the french poem that I said I would post...months ago...finally it is posted. It is not necessarily easy to translate but just read it and enjoy it, we have done enough work this semester. The poem is titled "The Butterfly".
Le Papillon- Alphonse de Lamartine
"Naître avec le printemps, mourir avec les roses,
Sur l’aile du zéphyr nager dans un ciel pur ;
Balancé sur le sein des fleurs à peine écloses,
S’enivrer de parfums, de lumière et d’azur ;
Secouant, jeune encor, la poudre de ses ailes,
S’envoler comme un souffle aux voûtes éternelles ;
Voilà du papillon le destin enchanté :
Il ressemble au désir, qui jamais ne se pose,
Et sans se satisfaire, effleurant toute chose,
Retourne enfin au ciel chercher la volupté."
Nabokov and the vale of soul making
Lisa Meyer
Dr. Sexson
Lit. 431- Term paper
December 8, 2009
Nabokov and the Vale of soul making
Vladimir Nabokov is in the business of soul making, mainly in Pale fire but in most of his works. The things in which Nabokov focuses upon most such as butterflies, photographs and remembering points directly to one thing, the soul. While the human soul is a complex thing to understand, it is perhaps easier for me to understand than Nabokov himself and his works. I looked to John Keats and his knowledge on soul making to clarify Nabokov’s business of soul making, finding that both of them reflect upon the creation of the soul in steps and address the idea that a soul is unique to the individual to which it belongs.
Nabokov has an obsession with three things closely related to the soul: butterflies, photographs, and time. As I mentioned above, the butterfly is closely related to the soul through the process of metamorphosis. Photographs, as Dr. Sexson captures the soul. Photographs can be startling, in a flash, your photo is taken and your soul captured. The soul is timeless, even when one dies, the soul lives on. The vales do not disappear; they are always there for the soul to continue to work through even if one’s life has come to an end.
The butterfly, in Nabokov’s works (as well as others) represents the psyche; the psyche in turn represents the soul. In Lolita, as Humbert attempts to capture Lolita, a butterfly comes between them. Touching on symbolism, this “inquisitive butterfly” represented one of the many vales in the process of soul making. The butterfly is a vale that Lolita and Humbert need to move past in order for it to be possible for Humbert to capture Lolita. While the butterfly symbolizes the soul directly, it also represents the soul in less obvious ways, for example through other allusions Nabokov calls to attention.
Allusions such as the phantom are shown through the white butterfly in Shade’s poem in Pale Fire. Similar to the butterfly, the soul itself goes through a sort of metamorphosis. Building on the idea of allusions and the soul, reflecting back upon Keats’ “The Vale of Soul Making”, Zembla seems to me like the place beyond the chambers. Zembla is what Keats would refer to as the place beyond the dark passages. It is the land beyond the veil which is where the allusion of the white fountain comes in. This misprint that Shade points out in his poem acts as a uniting of the soul to the woman who had a near death experience similar to Shade’s and may be considered to her “a sacramental bond” but Shade sees it completely differently because they did not in fact see the same image. The white fountain had been beyond Shade’s veil, not hers.
The near death experiences Shade discusses, similar to what Keats has said, leads to a mystery. It also leads beyond the heartache, pain and oppression one feels in the second chamber of Keats’ vale of soul making or the world of pain Shade describes. Moving further with Zembla, known as a dreamland, dreams it must be said can also be like a prison. Would it not make sense then to consider Keats’ chambers prisons? To me, that is nearly what the chambers in the vale of soul making are. There is either no thought, like in chamber one or the infant chamber or there is simply pain and heartache, like in chamber two, in which we are convinced that the world is full of misery. Chamber two is also the chamber that we begin to feel the “burden of the mystery”, according to Keats. How could one not consider that to be similar to a prison? That is only one other way in which Nabokov’s allusions are connected to Keats’ chambers.
To continue with John Shade’s poem and how it connects to John Keats, it would be necessary to point out what Keats feels poetry should be. Keats has said, “Poetry should surprise by a fine excess and not by singularity. It should strike the reader as a wording of his own highest thoughts and appear almost as a remembrance”. That is exactly what Shade’s poem is, a remembrance of Hazel. Reading Shade’s poem numerous times, it became more and more clear that John Shade put not only his highest of thought into it, but his most private, surprising thoughts that are deeply connected to the pain and suffering within his life. It is simply, as I see it, a reflection of his soul and a reflection of Hazel’s soul as well as a remembrance of Hazel.
Keats also addresses the veil of tears which is one vale a person must move past in order to reach the vale of soul making. One’s soul is not able to acquire identity until reaching this stage. While I feel as if I jump from subject to subject, theme to theme, it all connects back to soul making within the works of Nabokov. Tears are, in a sense, water which is a major theme in Nabokov’s works, not one single person can deny that.
While it is simple to say that, not all would connect water to soul when they first came across it. Immediately, the vale of tears comes to mind. The death of Hazel in Pale fire seemed especially ironic to me because tears and death are so closely connected, another undeniable point. Not only is Hazel’s death saddening and more than likely bringing tears to more than one person’s eye, but she drowns. Symbolically, it is as if she drowned in her own lake of tears.
Deciphering the soul making of Hazel is a difficult task though because I have mixed thoughts that, to an extent, contradict each other. My first thought was that Hazel had moved past the vale of tears when she died, the vale was simply her own tears. Therefore, before her death or at least when she reached the point of death her soul was already transcending into another stage. On the other hand, it seems to me that Hazel is caught in the second chamber and does not have time to escape that chamber before she takes her life. The second chamber of heartache, pain and suffering has imprisoned her. Hazel feels all of these things I am guessing if she could not live another day. Could it be that her soul was then made or did the suffering prevent that from happening?
Keats sees the vales as something we need to lift, to push through in order to get to the mystery. I agree wholeheartedly with this, yet find the vales to be symbolic to the troubles. Isn’t that what we try to push through, and what our souls must overcome. Pain and suffering, or troubles aid in the process of soul making and are unique to that individual. Not everyone suffers in the same way; we must all lift our own vales in our own way, at our own time.
Nabokov connects the soul to nature in his works which emphasizes the beauty and complexity of the soul. Nature in a way is something that can’t be touched or something that no one wants to be touched. Similarly, the soul is not able to be physically altered but can be affected greatly in other ways, for example, through experience and memories. Not only is the soul connected to land in Nabokov’s Pale Fire, but to the universe in general. Pale Fire points out that the planets are the landfalls of the soul. The “land beyond the veil” is similar to a chamber though, it is hazy and the haze acts as a sort of vale, or smoke beyond the orchard landscape that must be lifted or overcome.
In Lolita, Nabokov makes many references to the soul and Lolita’s soul I just as complex as that of John and Hazel Shade’s souls. Humbert Humbert contemplates the soul of Lolita a lot throughout the book and I contemplate how the many losses, such as innocence, childhood and a life free of pedophiles, will affect her soul. It is sickening to think that Humbert considers others harpies whom, I would like to emphasize, are soul stealers of the dead. I think that it is fair to say that Humbert himself is very similar to a “harpie” because he too steals souls. Humbert’s soul stealing could be considered far worse because he steals from the living Lolita. Humbert does not even consider himself to have his own soul. Referring to Lolita, he immediately makes it clear at the beginning of the book that Lolita is “my sin, my soul Lo-Lee-tah”. I think that perhaps, Lolita’s soul could be recovered through reflecting upon the things that happened throughout her life, especially the moments including Humbert.
In “Care of the Soul”, Thomas Moore touches on how the complexity of family and abuse affect the soul. The complexity comes with the idea that though abuse is present, family is still family. While this idea is somewhat disturbing, is it possible to deny that this is true? This brought me to the idea that the soul is not able to be changed and one must simply learn to live with disturbing feelings like envy and jealousy. Humbert portrays this idea well through his character because he does not seem to feel any remorse or negative feelings about his actions. Humbert is a father figure to Lolita and abuses her sexually. He realizes what he is doing and though it is not right, he comes to accept it for what it is, or I should say he accepts himself for who he is. With envy and jealousy, Humbert also has feelings of fear and desire.
Thomas Moore asks in The Care of the Soul, were the good old days so good?” He sees them perhaps as dysfunctional now, but does not see the “dys” in dysfunctional but “dis”, in connection with the mythological underworld. Ironically enough, Keats also believes that the “soul enters life from below finding an opening into life at points where the smooth functioning breaks down”. This again relates closely with Lolita in connection to both the underworld and the dysfunctional life of Lolita.
I ask myself while writing this, even after all these thoughts, “what is beyond these vales and how do we choose which vale to lift, which opening to do we enter through?” The human soul is not necessarily meant to be understood, for it is far too complex and it is not meant to be changed or forced through its metamorphosis, yet I can’t help but constantly study Keats and many other writers in regards to the soul. The fact that Keats raises the idea of many entrances filled with light beyond the two chambers allows us to see that there is mystery beyond these two soul making chambers. The saying that there is light at the end of the tunnel could easily be applied, lightly of course, to Keats’ letters and one could also say, there is light at the end of the chamber.
John Keats, Thomas Moore and Nabokov are perhaps three of the most intelligent writers that touch upon soul making. They understand the complexity and clarify that the human soul must develop and is unique to each individual’s life experiences in which the soul goes through a unique metamorphosis of its own. Nabokov uses images and characters to symbolize the soul in a complex yet intelligent way. His readers must work to understand not only his characters and the images he uses, but the soul itself. The soul is not necessarily good or bad, though intricately unique to each individual no matter their character which Nabokov clarifies through his works.
Dr. Sexson
Lit. 431- Term paper
December 8, 2009
Nabokov and the Vale of soul making
Vladimir Nabokov is in the business of soul making, mainly in Pale fire but in most of his works. The things in which Nabokov focuses upon most such as butterflies, photographs and remembering points directly to one thing, the soul. While the human soul is a complex thing to understand, it is perhaps easier for me to understand than Nabokov himself and his works. I looked to John Keats and his knowledge on soul making to clarify Nabokov’s business of soul making, finding that both of them reflect upon the creation of the soul in steps and address the idea that a soul is unique to the individual to which it belongs.
Nabokov has an obsession with three things closely related to the soul: butterflies, photographs, and time. As I mentioned above, the butterfly is closely related to the soul through the process of metamorphosis. Photographs, as Dr. Sexson captures the soul. Photographs can be startling, in a flash, your photo is taken and your soul captured. The soul is timeless, even when one dies, the soul lives on. The vales do not disappear; they are always there for the soul to continue to work through even if one’s life has come to an end.
The butterfly, in Nabokov’s works (as well as others) represents the psyche; the psyche in turn represents the soul. In Lolita, as Humbert attempts to capture Lolita, a butterfly comes between them. Touching on symbolism, this “inquisitive butterfly” represented one of the many vales in the process of soul making. The butterfly is a vale that Lolita and Humbert need to move past in order for it to be possible for Humbert to capture Lolita. While the butterfly symbolizes the soul directly, it also represents the soul in less obvious ways, for example through other allusions Nabokov calls to attention.
Allusions such as the phantom are shown through the white butterfly in Shade’s poem in Pale Fire. Similar to the butterfly, the soul itself goes through a sort of metamorphosis. Building on the idea of allusions and the soul, reflecting back upon Keats’ “The Vale of Soul Making”, Zembla seems to me like the place beyond the chambers. Zembla is what Keats would refer to as the place beyond the dark passages. It is the land beyond the veil which is where the allusion of the white fountain comes in. This misprint that Shade points out in his poem acts as a uniting of the soul to the woman who had a near death experience similar to Shade’s and may be considered to her “a sacramental bond” but Shade sees it completely differently because they did not in fact see the same image. The white fountain had been beyond Shade’s veil, not hers.
The near death experiences Shade discusses, similar to what Keats has said, leads to a mystery. It also leads beyond the heartache, pain and oppression one feels in the second chamber of Keats’ vale of soul making or the world of pain Shade describes. Moving further with Zembla, known as a dreamland, dreams it must be said can also be like a prison. Would it not make sense then to consider Keats’ chambers prisons? To me, that is nearly what the chambers in the vale of soul making are. There is either no thought, like in chamber one or the infant chamber or there is simply pain and heartache, like in chamber two, in which we are convinced that the world is full of misery. Chamber two is also the chamber that we begin to feel the “burden of the mystery”, according to Keats. How could one not consider that to be similar to a prison? That is only one other way in which Nabokov’s allusions are connected to Keats’ chambers.
To continue with John Shade’s poem and how it connects to John Keats, it would be necessary to point out what Keats feels poetry should be. Keats has said, “Poetry should surprise by a fine excess and not by singularity. It should strike the reader as a wording of his own highest thoughts and appear almost as a remembrance”. That is exactly what Shade’s poem is, a remembrance of Hazel. Reading Shade’s poem numerous times, it became more and more clear that John Shade put not only his highest of thought into it, but his most private, surprising thoughts that are deeply connected to the pain and suffering within his life. It is simply, as I see it, a reflection of his soul and a reflection of Hazel’s soul as well as a remembrance of Hazel.
Keats also addresses the veil of tears which is one vale a person must move past in order to reach the vale of soul making. One’s soul is not able to acquire identity until reaching this stage. While I feel as if I jump from subject to subject, theme to theme, it all connects back to soul making within the works of Nabokov. Tears are, in a sense, water which is a major theme in Nabokov’s works, not one single person can deny that.
While it is simple to say that, not all would connect water to soul when they first came across it. Immediately, the vale of tears comes to mind. The death of Hazel in Pale fire seemed especially ironic to me because tears and death are so closely connected, another undeniable point. Not only is Hazel’s death saddening and more than likely bringing tears to more than one person’s eye, but she drowns. Symbolically, it is as if she drowned in her own lake of tears.
Deciphering the soul making of Hazel is a difficult task though because I have mixed thoughts that, to an extent, contradict each other. My first thought was that Hazel had moved past the vale of tears when she died, the vale was simply her own tears. Therefore, before her death or at least when she reached the point of death her soul was already transcending into another stage. On the other hand, it seems to me that Hazel is caught in the second chamber and does not have time to escape that chamber before she takes her life. The second chamber of heartache, pain and suffering has imprisoned her. Hazel feels all of these things I am guessing if she could not live another day. Could it be that her soul was then made or did the suffering prevent that from happening?
Keats sees the vales as something we need to lift, to push through in order to get to the mystery. I agree wholeheartedly with this, yet find the vales to be symbolic to the troubles. Isn’t that what we try to push through, and what our souls must overcome. Pain and suffering, or troubles aid in the process of soul making and are unique to that individual. Not everyone suffers in the same way; we must all lift our own vales in our own way, at our own time.
Nabokov connects the soul to nature in his works which emphasizes the beauty and complexity of the soul. Nature in a way is something that can’t be touched or something that no one wants to be touched. Similarly, the soul is not able to be physically altered but can be affected greatly in other ways, for example, through experience and memories. Not only is the soul connected to land in Nabokov’s Pale Fire, but to the universe in general. Pale Fire points out that the planets are the landfalls of the soul. The “land beyond the veil” is similar to a chamber though, it is hazy and the haze acts as a sort of vale, or smoke beyond the orchard landscape that must be lifted or overcome.
In Lolita, Nabokov makes many references to the soul and Lolita’s soul I just as complex as that of John and Hazel Shade’s souls. Humbert Humbert contemplates the soul of Lolita a lot throughout the book and I contemplate how the many losses, such as innocence, childhood and a life free of pedophiles, will affect her soul. It is sickening to think that Humbert considers others harpies whom, I would like to emphasize, are soul stealers of the dead. I think that it is fair to say that Humbert himself is very similar to a “harpie” because he too steals souls. Humbert’s soul stealing could be considered far worse because he steals from the living Lolita. Humbert does not even consider himself to have his own soul. Referring to Lolita, he immediately makes it clear at the beginning of the book that Lolita is “my sin, my soul Lo-Lee-tah”. I think that perhaps, Lolita’s soul could be recovered through reflecting upon the things that happened throughout her life, especially the moments including Humbert.
In “Care of the Soul”, Thomas Moore touches on how the complexity of family and abuse affect the soul. The complexity comes with the idea that though abuse is present, family is still family. While this idea is somewhat disturbing, is it possible to deny that this is true? This brought me to the idea that the soul is not able to be changed and one must simply learn to live with disturbing feelings like envy and jealousy. Humbert portrays this idea well through his character because he does not seem to feel any remorse or negative feelings about his actions. Humbert is a father figure to Lolita and abuses her sexually. He realizes what he is doing and though it is not right, he comes to accept it for what it is, or I should say he accepts himself for who he is. With envy and jealousy, Humbert also has feelings of fear and desire.
Thomas Moore asks in The Care of the Soul, were the good old days so good?” He sees them perhaps as dysfunctional now, but does not see the “dys” in dysfunctional but “dis”, in connection with the mythological underworld. Ironically enough, Keats also believes that the “soul enters life from below finding an opening into life at points where the smooth functioning breaks down”. This again relates closely with Lolita in connection to both the underworld and the dysfunctional life of Lolita.
I ask myself while writing this, even after all these thoughts, “what is beyond these vales and how do we choose which vale to lift, which opening to do we enter through?” The human soul is not necessarily meant to be understood, for it is far too complex and it is not meant to be changed or forced through its metamorphosis, yet I can’t help but constantly study Keats and many other writers in regards to the soul. The fact that Keats raises the idea of many entrances filled with light beyond the two chambers allows us to see that there is mystery beyond these two soul making chambers. The saying that there is light at the end of the tunnel could easily be applied, lightly of course, to Keats’ letters and one could also say, there is light at the end of the chamber.
John Keats, Thomas Moore and Nabokov are perhaps three of the most intelligent writers that touch upon soul making. They understand the complexity and clarify that the human soul must develop and is unique to each individual’s life experiences in which the soul goes through a unique metamorphosis of its own. Nabokov uses images and characters to symbolize the soul in a complex yet intelligent way. His readers must work to understand not only his characters and the images he uses, but the soul itself. The soul is not necessarily good or bad, though intricately unique to each individual no matter their character which Nabokov clarifies through his works.
The Vale of Soul Making
This is the link to Keats' letters regarding soul making which I based much of my term paper off of in regards to Nabokov. The other source I used was a book Dr. Sexson LOANED me, Thomas Moore's Care of the Soul.
My paper will be posted this afternoon!
http://67.104.146.36/english/Romantic/Rm-Ks.html
My paper will be posted this afternoon!
http://67.104.146.36/english/Romantic/Rm-Ks.html
Monday, December 7, 2009
Nabokov- Keats- Soul
I have been working on my term paper for what seems like an eternity and continuously get stuck with a lot of random, yet intriguing points that do not really seem to connect. I am liking Nabokov, BUT I am in LOVE with Keats. I do not even fully understand Keats but just his name raises excitement within me (yes...perhaps SOME of you may consider me a "nerd"). I think not.
The letters in which Keats talks about "The Vale of Soul making" are so complex yet exciting. He discusses the two chambers in which the soul is, for lack of better word, developed. The soul is like a personality, each person has their own unique soul that forms based on thoughts and experiences. The first chamber is the infant chamber in which there are no thoughts...I will expand on this in my term paper, but to keep it short, this chamber makes me think of Lolita. Lolita is still young and is stuck in this chamber "Developing" she has not yet fully reached the scond chamber to experience the pain or suffering but does eventually move into that chamber. Hazel in Pale fire is in the second chamber because she does feel pain and suffering. clearly, she takes her own life, she was unable to move onto the passages of light beyond the second chamber where mystery awaits.
Music is over....I will continue this later...
The letters in which Keats talks about "The Vale of Soul making" are so complex yet exciting. He discusses the two chambers in which the soul is, for lack of better word, developed. The soul is like a personality, each person has their own unique soul that forms based on thoughts and experiences. The first chamber is the infant chamber in which there are no thoughts...I will expand on this in my term paper, but to keep it short, this chamber makes me think of Lolita. Lolita is still young and is stuck in this chamber "Developing" she has not yet fully reached the scond chamber to experience the pain or suffering but does eventually move into that chamber. Hazel in Pale fire is in the second chamber because she does feel pain and suffering. clearly, she takes her own life, she was unable to move onto the passages of light beyond the second chamber where mystery awaits.
Music is over....I will continue this later...
Sunday, December 6, 2009
Blogging...
I love blogging.....well I think I would if it weren't on the computer but quite honestly I hate the idea of this "on-line thoughts" silliness! I will get right on this...
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