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ENG. 1073G
Introduction to Literature
Section 1
Instructor: Dr. Anderson M. Rearick III
Credit: 3
Hours / LLRC 038
Summer 2004 MTWR first week
Online from thence: The Adventure Begins !
Time: 1:00p 3:30 pm
Office Hours: Online Chat
Dr. Rearick's Office: Founders Hall 214
(Within
219: Lit., Lang., & Comm. Dept.)
Office Ext. 3508
Home Phone 392-3738
(but please do not call after
8:00--Andy and Laura are hopefully in Bed)
email:
anderson.rearick@mvnu.edu
(checked twice,
daily)
The purpose of ENG 1073 Introduction to Literature is, as described by the Catalogue, "A study of literary genres through representative readings. Prerequisite: ENG1053G." This class will meet three times a week for fifteen weeks to discuss the nature of literature using as raw material the readings listed as well as a series of handouts to be dispersed during the semester. Discussions will center on some of the common themes that have haunted the human mind and heart throughout western history..Class Procedure:
ENG 1073 Introduction to Literature: This class will meet daily for the first week and then for the next seven weeks come together in online discussion and "chats" to discuss the nature of literature using the below reading list as raw material as well as a series of handouts to be dispersed during the semester. Discussions will center around the some of the common themes which have haunted the human mind and heart throughout western history.The purpose of this course is. . .The following reading list is not exclusive and, in fact, many important works (probably including your favorites) have been excluded. This class can only function as an introduction, not an exhaustive study. I encourage you to think of the texts for this class not as a single resource but a series of inexhaustible treasure chests, capable of refreshment and inspiration time and time again.
Students will be evaluated by a series of four, seven journal checks, a midterm, and a final. Also the option for extra credit will made available for those who are willing to do extra work.
1. to expose the student to a wide range of literary genres: poetry, drama, novel and short story2. to introduce the student to a wide ranger of authors of different cultures, genders and ages.
3. to encourage the student to consider what makes a work of literature worthy--how should the cannon be formed?
4. to introduce some of the important common issues which authors--in spite of their different backgrounds, cultures, and mediums--often examine.
A Note on the texts: Although the number
of texts for this class may seem extensive (and therefore costly), the student
should be aware that the college anthologies often used for such introduction
classes as this are massive to the point of being unwieldy, include so much text
that usually huge amounts are never covered by the instructor, and often are
even more expensive than the collection assigned for this class (think of the
cost of your Biology text). Thus, by using the Dover editions (a dollar
each) and some other paperbacks I reduce cost and allow myself more specific and
efficient control over the text I require for our class.
Furthermore, the central purpose of this class is to enrich your life. This is not a vocational training session in which the question of what information is actually applicable to one's present or future job is central to the class's worth. In point of fact most companies have programs to deal with that need. The purpose of this course is to broaden the student's understanding of the human condition, to widen his or her understanding of how people think, and develop their own sense of what is worthwhile and beautiful. Thus these texts have value long after the student completes this class and should be looked upon as the beginning of what may become a treasure trove of future reading.
Another side benefit is that by having a series of clearly titled texts rather than some unwieldy ugly textbook, the student will look upon these books less as a never to be re-opened book which is to be filed away, and more as the beginning of a library filled with books which can be returned to again and again for their treasures.
I know at times you
may feel like this
but stay with it.
Novels and Short Stories
These will be given throughout the class. Unless specified by Dr. Rearick, such hand-outs should be considered required reading like any of the assigned texts.
Grading Scale:4. Tests: 40%
7 Weekly Journals Checks: 20%Online Participation: 20%
Midterm: 10%
Final Exam 10%
As a sophomore level class there will be plus (+) and minuses (-) in the grading system this year
Class Participation with Online Discussions: Lecture will only play a part in the class activities. Literature is meant to be talked about. Students are encouraged to express their opinions and share their unique insights on the threaded discussions and in their journals (more about those later). Each of us brings something special to a text that is ours alone. Your comments are very important.
Here is a Rubric for online
discussion
Four point range of grade for online discussions (4 = best 1 = barely adequate):
for any coherent submission
for on topic of what is being talked about
if coherent and draws directly from the material covered
excels in argument and expression
I have been known to add extra credit to students who start threads of thought not overtly initiated by the professor. such activities indicate to me a truly involved student. Participants will be noted and extra credit could be allotted to them.
Your journal is IMPORTANT! You should write in it three times a week. It is your personal repository for what you think about the works you are reading and about the material being covered in class.
I will be looking for the following in your journal:
1. Three entries per week (totaling 38 by the end of the semester). Going beyond that 38 entries could indicate to the instructor the kind of student who will achieve a high grade. Please note that writing in your journal is not connected with days on the calendar. Remember it is also allowable to write two entries on the same day as long as both are adequately developed. Now, please note. . .A Journal is NOT. . .A. Periodic class checks may occur to determine the currency of your journal entries. So, always bring your journal with you to class.2. A table of contents made from the thesis sentence found in each entry.B. Journals will be reviewed seven (7) times during the semester:
May. 28 (3), June.11 (6), June.18 (9), June.25 (12), July 2 (15) and July 9 (18).3. Journal entries must be at least 2/3 of a page long. Furthermore, if
you are one of those individuals like St. Paul with BIG handwriting--
"Ye see how large a letter I have written unto you with mine own hand" (Gal. 6:11)--then you should plan to write more than what I have suggested. I've seen some fill up 2/3 of a page with "I've been thinking about our reading."4. All entries should be numbered and dated
(For Example: Entry # 10; June. 23, 2004).5. Although I will not be grading the journal harshly concerning mechanics and restarts of thought, I do expect the final product to be neat and legible. Also you should write full sentences within paragraphs--no fragmented stream of consciousness experiments. "Split from society--bad." To be specific, I will be especially looking in your journal for. . .
A. Development of ideas. Remember that it is not necessary to finish a
work to have a good idea. In fact waiting till you have finished can be overwhelming. Keep your journal handy while reading.B. Interconnectedness of journal entries. This means that an idea you examine at one point in your journal might have relevance to another work discussed later. Works in literature should not be thought of in a vacuum.6. You will find possible journal topics within the syllabus schedule. These are not mandatory. Instead, they are suggestions of what the student could choose to write on. Also new ideas will be added to the online syllabus as the class progresses.
1. A diary. Your entries should be a mixture of commentary concerning what you read and what you discuss in and out of class about literature. I do not want to read (as I have in the past) what you had for lunch or who is presently percolating your hormones.
2. A place for notes. Class notes belong in the section provided for them in your loose leaf. I should not see your actually writing in your journal during class. This also means that a journal is not a re-hashing of what is covered in class ("today in class we talked about. . .etc etc.").To see an example of a possible journal entry see text included at syllabus' conclusion.
REMEMBER: Your journal accounts for 20% of your
grade. That's the same as your final: DO NOT PUT OFF TO THE LAST MINUTE:
DO NOT "BLOW IT OFF!" Midterm and Final Exam: Midterm will probably be given on Thursday, June 17 while the Final Exam will be given on Saturday July 10: 9:00-11:30. (More about that later)
Extra Credit: Although there will be no papers required for this class, a student can add extra credit to his or her grade by writing a paper or papers on outside reading concerning any of the works or authors covered within the parameters of the class. Furthermore, another option for extra credit is to view or listen to and then write a review about tapes or video films on reserve in the MVNU or your local library. Furthermore the web is always coming up with new literature sites. Adding to the links listed for this class as study aids will be considered very helpful.
Actual number credit will vary according to the task accomplished. All handed in material must be typed and in MLA format as attachments to email.
Class Schedule Summer
2004
At present it is impossible to give you an
exact breakdown of what will be discussed, but there is a listing of the
major works and some of the minor ones within the time frame I hope to cover
them during this semester. Also there are several long works which will be
covered at particular points this spring. Although Great Expectations, Red Badge of
Courage, A Grief Observed and In
Memorium will not be overtly touched until then, the student will
find recommended reading schedule throughout the schedule:
Note: this is not an Option; it
is expected: Remember
to look at the Glossary
available at Dr.
Rearick's Reading Corner under the heading: "Resources."
Mon. May 24
Introduction / The Nature of
Literature
My
Lecture on Pleasure: the Cornerstone of Literature
Othello [online text] by William Shakespeare
Possible Journal Topics:
What should be the requirements that guide a professor to include a work in an Introduction to Literature Class?
Does Dr. Rearick's definition of literature change your original concept of the material to be covered?
What do the poems of Emily Dickinson say about the importance of communication in the nature of Literature?
What does Literature say about Isolation?
What is the Nature of Literature?
My
Lecture on The Changing Canon
Some
Thoughts About Poetry
Shakespeare's
Bad/Good Woman &
Good/Bad Woman
Possible Journal Topics:
Wed. May 26
Possible Journal Topics:
Thurs. May 27
My
Lecture on The Romantics and Two Young Men Who Turned the World of Poetry Upside
down!
Test # 1
Possible Journal Topics: First Journal Check (3
entries expected)
As we make our way through the readings you may wish to visit my web page,
Dr.
Rearick's Reading Corner, located at the following address:
http://nzr.mvnu.edu/faculty/trearick/english/rearick/readings/re_intro.htm
This address is reachable both on and off campus. Those of you who are local and do not have a computer should remember that the Knox Public Library offers web access for a limited time, and--of course--the labs of the campus library and computer labs are available to you.
Other web pages relating to works of literature which might be of interest to the student can be accessed from this index page by title, author, genre, sub-genre, time period, or nationality.
I have tried to place some ideas and even sometimes some test questions connected with our class readings within these files. Also in several cases there are links to study guides, e texts, and even connections to relevant web pages on the net.
Note that every work is connected to a page which gives biographical information
about the author taken from the Encyclopedia Britannica.
One special point of note: Please
do not print off my pages until you find out how long the document is and have
asked yourself if you really need a hard copy. You can check the document
size by going into print preview and then zoom in so you can read the
text. At the bottom of the first page will be the page number in
comparison with the total pages. For example, my "Dickens’ Christian Carol
in Prose" article has at the bottom ‘1 of 13.’ This tells you that
there will be 13 pages of text printed. Not bad, but my Pride and
Prejudice study guild developed by Monarch Notes is 75 pages. Librarians
and computer lab assistants have been dismayed to find piles of such text
flowing from their printers. Please do not abuse this resource!
Remember that your journal should have a table of content page on which the big idea of
each of your journal entries should be found. It should look something like the
following:
Journal Table of Contents
Note that every entry should have the entry number,
the date, and the opening statement. Since one cannot always know where one is
going with a journal entry until it is finished, do not write the opening
statement until you have written the entry.
In my latest reading of Coleridge's "Rime of the Ancient Mariner," I noticed that even though the work is filled with supernatural elements, the hard edged description of nature itself also plays a dominate role in the work--either in setting the mood or in cueing the reader to what is going to happen. What I mean is that as memorable as are the ship of death, the vampire-like woman who claims the narrator, and the celestial beings who possess the dead crew members' bodies, there are also striking moments of natural beauty.
One of the most important is the florescent sea snakes that capture the narrator's imagination. They are beautifully and realistically described. The reader is encouraged to find them wonderful. And it is the narrator's agreement, in his ability to bless them, which signals to the reader that his heart has been touched by grace and is ready for redemption. (I disagree with those who think that his ability to bless the snakes brings on grace. That would suggest that the repentant heart is a gift of nature not of Heaven, and while Wordsworth may have thought this, Coleridge was always more orthodox in his Christian ideals. Even at the end of his life when he had returned to the church, the poet, who was constantly revising his work, never changed this passage.)
Another realistic description of nature occurs in the narrator's recollection of the storm that fills his water buckets and then clears to reveal a starry night. This concrete description shows the abstract change in the speaker's soul from chaotic suffering to peace. It can also be linked with the experience of Pentecost. However, most of all these passages show Coleridge's poetic imagination being touch by the concrete beauty of the world in which he lived.
This use of nature may actually anchor the fantastic in the reader's imagination. I think of the work by J.R.R. Tolkien. Although he has all sorts of fantastic beings in his works, the quality that I recall the most is his description of concrete landscapes. Even today when I go to parks filled with paths, trails, and stepping stones through rivers, I am reminded of Tolkien.
Back in the beginning of January 1983towards the end of my Masters program-a of mine professor pulled me up short as we were strolling into her class by asking: "What exactly is this stuff we study call 'Literature?"' Since graduate students are supposed to have the answers to everything, I actually tried to come up with an intelligent response:
"Why, (Ahem) Everyone knows what Literature is ... it's great ideas written down."
"So, it's philosophy." she pursued.
"Well, no, not exactly." I don't know why I didn't give up. I hadn't then learned about graduate school survival technique of becoming wisely silent. Instead I trudged on: "Although Matthew Arnold did describe literature as 'the best that has been thought or said.' it's all done in the form of fiction ... you know ... stories. "
"But who says something is great?' And how do we know they're right.?"
"Um. well ... Oh look! It's time for class! Guess we'd better hurry in Hmmm?"
I didn't escape. This whole thing turned out to be a trap set for the entire the class. In fact, it was our first writing assignment. So that night found me home scribbling in my journal what I thought literature was and what qualified some of it as good or even "Great." What I wrote is by no means the final solution, but I give it to you one possible answer which may serve as a wall off of which you may bounce off some of your own ideas. I've kept it in a journal format:
Jan. 27 '83; Thursday
A note to myself: "Tad! When, oh talkative one, are you going to learn that if teachers ask leading questions there is usually some barbed catch that goes along with them? Well, on with my task..."
What is Literature?
The first definition given in the American Heritage Dictionary is "a body of writing in prose or verse." Now that's a pretty inclusive definition. Are my comic books literature? They have prose. Are the statements that come with my bills literature? How about all that interesting information I get to read off the back of cereal boxes? What about instructions on soup cans? All of these contain prose. And what about poetry? Are Hallmark Greetings Cards literature? (Gack! I hope not!) It seems that some solution must be found or literature classes could get pretty weird. I can see it now, "Victorian Advertisements 101" or "An Overview of important Memos sent through Hasbro Toy Company and the style Therein"
How about a class on cereal boxes.? I read them every morning.
Is this journal literature? Grief! It better not be, but knowing what I have been forced to read in my studies, such as the private poetry by Donne, the nasty notes Chaucer left for his scribe, as well as the Journals of Boswell, I am left with the possibility that some poor student someday might actually be assigned to read this thing. (Sigh!) If this is so, "Dear Reader," I apologize. I should have tossed this into the flames where it would have done less harm. Well, back to Literature. How can I define it?
Well, I suppose that I could limit the prose I put under the "Literature" category by allowing that only fiction can be literature. That gets rid of the bill statements, the soup instructions and the cereal box information. But does it eliminate my comic books? And what about the form of the nonfiction essay? Isn't that literature? If not, why did they make me read Thoreau in American Lit.? And, of course, there are still the journals of Boswell and Bradford. Obviously literature must include prose both fiction and nonfiction. So what makes Literature?
In my opinion ... the first and foremost task of a work of literature is to entertain. It does not matter how brilliant an author is, or how deep his or her ideas are, if none reads the work, then none benefits. A work of literature must be enjoyable; it must give pleasure. If it fails in this then it has failed in its prime reason for existence.
This prerequisite removes some of the prose which I don't wish to include in my studies. Most text books are written as storehouses of information; instructions just give facts, and entertainment is the last thing the writer of notices for late payments has in mind. Tales, meanwhile, either as short stories or novels certainly entertain. So do poems, and although essays often give information, their primary purpose is to entertain. The same is also true of the better biographies. Indeed, the journals mentioned above all have an entertaining quality to them, even if it were solely to allow the writer to look back on past observations and smile only to himself. Pleasure, not fiction or non fiction status, nor number of pages, nor a leather cover determines whether a work is literature or not.
If this is true, then I must include my comic books as a type of literature. (Boy are my folks going to be happy with that!) Also I must include every western, romance, pulp science fiction, and erotic paperback found on squeaky metal racks in pharmacies everywhere. But that's not what I'm studying-is it? Could it be that what I have been slaving over these last few years are only the equivalent of dime-store novels from the past?
I have always assumed in my graduate and undergraduate work that I was being given "Good Books" to read . In fact, for the money they charge me, I should be reading "Great Books." Perhaps the important factor is not what is and is not literature, but what is good and great literature? That makes sense. But what, the heck, makes a good or great piece of literature? Well, I suppose that one good place to start is with literature's primary reason for existing-pleasure. A good or great work of literature must-like all its dime store relatives-give pleasure.
That sounds simple, but I can quickly see that in practicality it becomes
intensely complex because "pleasure" is such a vague work, and in literature
pleasure can be drawn from various sources: Some readers enjoy romance (not me),
some enjoy action, some enjoy eroticism (but might not admit it), some enjoy the
fantastic, some enjoy the workings of a mystery, some enjoy a scare, and some
(the poets among us) enjoy the very texture, flow, and imagery of the words.
There are even those who actually enjoy the mental exercises of critiquing
literature.1
These are just a few of the sources of
pleasure in a literary work. The chances are that the more an author
incorporates these into his or her writing, the greater the number of readers
will enjoy it. As my Chaucerian Professor. once noted "All the world loves a
good story." This is the basic appeal of The Canterbury Tales; it's also
the thrust of Shakespeare and the secret to Dickens' success. To create an
enjoyable story with a good sprinkling of some of the above characteristics is
the first step toward producing great literature. But I do think there should be
more. However, my head's beginning to buzz, so I'll stop for now.
Friday Jan. 28, '83
The question of pleasure also covers how well something is written. This strikes me as a judgment call. What one person thinks is full of wonderful and explicit description another may find wordy. My father used to read Cooper's Leatherstocking Tales (The Deerslayer, Last of the Mohicans, etc.), but he told me he skipped pages of Cooper's novels until he found where the plot picked up again. Obviously descriptive passages which Cooper felt were needed to help the artistic quality of his work were of little value to my father. Still, there is a general agreement among readers that there exists a writing which is both concrete in its exactness but which also manages to be beautiful in its form. Martin Luther King's "I have a Dream" speech would not be the same if someone just summarized his main points. What he says can be noted rather quickly:
"I Have A Dream"
by
Martin Luther King
A Report
Martin Luther King says that he looks forward to a day when all the citizens of the US. can live in harmony and be free.
Without his cadence and repetition of theme, this work looses much of its power. However, with his skill with words and images, King's speech stands as one of the great oratory pieces of literature in American history. It is a pleasure to listen to.
What is a pleasure to listen to brings up the entire question of poetry. I doubt I can give a full description of the pleasures of poesy here. But in Poetry and Meter the comment is made that with poems, the pleasure of the sound of the work is even more important than the work's meaning. A lot of ideas have been bounced around as to why humans like words which have similar sounds and are said in cadence. Some have suggested that it is just our inward drive to create order out of disorder. Patterns are pleasing to us. Also, we tend to remember words in patterns better than otherwise. The All of the epic poems were memorized originally and sung by poets. So rhyming was not only entertaining to the king it made story telling easier for the speaker. So there's a lot of pleasure in just the physical nature of poetry.
All of this may be true, but for me meaning must be still be important. I don't care how nice words sound together; if they're not saying anything, its not great literature. I guess I differ from some modem poets who do not seem to be overly involved in communicating to their readers. Personally I expect a writer to attempt to communicate with me, and to communicate something of value.
The second step that raises a work of literature from the general milieu to a cut above (moving it from just being dimestore literature to good or great literature) is its honesty both to itself and to the world around it.
What I mean by being honest to itself is how, when a writer uses several of the sources for literary pleasure mentioned above, there is a danger that the different sources will not naturally and logically fit together. For example, if a writer is telling a story about a captain at sea (a tale of high adventure) and in the middle of the voyage he adds a murder for his hero to solve just to gain the interest of "crime-buff" readers, then it
seems to me that there is a problem with internal integrity. Since when does a captain have the skills to also be a policeman? Where in his training on how to navigate the high seas would a seaman also be exposed to deductive reasoning? I am not making judgments on how intelligent sailors are, solving crimes is just not part of their training any more than the ability to read the stars for location or navigating around the Cape of Good Hope would be within the experience of Sherlock Homes. Making a man trained in the ways of the sea into a supersleuth sacrifices the internal honesty of the main character. Yet how many times have we seen something exactly like this happen-especially on television dramas in which main characters return show after show with ever widening abilities?
A more general example of a source of literary pleasure often inserted in books and movies (which are nothing more than plays made for the silver screen) without attempting to integrate it into the fabric of the work is the depiction of sex. In so many works characters are pressed into intense relationships for no more cause than they happen to have careers which bring them together. I can almost hear the "hack" type author saying to himself (or herself): "Gee, The plot is moving a little slow; better add a little steam to keep up reader interest." Now certainly love, romance and the joy of marriage are legitimate sources of pleasure in a literary work, and with humans thinking about these things at such a high percent every day, it is not difficult to have human situations which naturally lead to romantic moments. However, when sex, mystery, adventure, or any other source of literary pleasure is merely plugged into work without consideration whether it belongs there or not, there is a danger of the story's internal integrity suffering and the work being weakened.
The reference to "human situations" in the above paragraph introduces what I feel is the final, most important aspect of a work's honestyit is a reflector of the human world around it. Literature is always about human beings. It does not matter whether they look exactly like one's neighbors, or have long ears and a little cotton tail as they do in Watership Down, or have fur on the tops of their feet and live in warm cozy holes as they do in The Hobbit, a work of literature must always represent human beings in ways that the reader can recognize as true to life
It must be obvious from what I have just said that when I write that literature must be "true to life" I do not mean that only literature written in the 20th century manner of realism or naturalism can be categorized as good or great literature. xx Works in the genres of pastoralism or allegory, and tales following the ideals of Courtly Love may not seem realistic in their portraits of humanity to the 20th century reader, but the best of all such literature always reflect truths about the human condition and were readily understandable to readers when they were written. Part of the process that students of literature must go through is relearning such guidelines so they can understand the intent of those past authors.
An example of a series of literary works which I feel are not true to human nature are the James Bond thrillers by Ian L. Fleming. Make no mistake, I find these stories loads of fun and wonderfully diverting. However, the character of agent 007, a man who lives in constant violence and has countless intimate love affairs, is presented to the reader as constantly fresh and wittyan unscathed man. He never seems to feel remorse for the human lives which his job requires he eliminate nor concern for the women whose lives he walks in and out of.
The emotional strain of humanity's two greatest emotional calamities, Love and Death, never seem to leave their imprint on James. Thank goodness they don't. Who would want to read tales centered around a moody and grim Bond? It's contrary to his basic character and would deny us the very escape from the human condition we seek whenever we open a Fleming novel or watch a movie based on his work. However, since the author decided never to allow Bond to experience a close reflection of human reality, the adventures of the British agent will probably never be considered "great" literature.
Now, while holding the mirror up to human nature, it seems to me that the best of literature attempts to reveal what is not generally known or accepted about people in a particular society. The best literature is always in some form countercultural.
This quality of "going across the grain" is easy to see in some modem novels which have attempted to delve into the hidden truths of human nature. However, it has always been true of the "greats" in literary history: Chaucer's characterizations of the Monk, Friar or Prioress not only reveal their humanity but demonstrate the short comings of the very church to which the author belonged. Shakespeare, while creating a great villain in The Jew. Shylock, also presses against his anti-Semitic culture by making the Jewish villain a real, persecuted, and hurting human being. And Dickens, while certainly a man of his age in his concerns for respectability and the sanctity of the home, is famous for his outrage over his society's treatment of the poor and its children. He demonstrates the very humanity of the poor even if some of his situations seem less than authentic. Thus, experience seems to dictate that the greatest of literature is counter cultural in nature.
This quality forces a revelation upon readers in some form or another. Yet, that only brings us back to our original premise of pleasure for what can be more delightful to the human mind (even though it is sometimes painful) than the gaining of new understanding about itself.
Ah, but what if the reader does not what to have his or her eyes opened? Is there pleasure then? Also, what does a reader do if much of that which gave the writer and his culture pleasure is different than the reader's culture? Shakespeare often bores the living daylights out of modem readers who are not familiar with his culture (modem teachers don't help often either). Alsoas is often the case in contemporary literature-what if the
writer presents material which is acceptable to his or her culture but is not acceptable to others? What an urban New Yorker may enjoy does not necessarily match the taste a Midwestern farmer. I as a Christian may find that in a secular culture a lot of what is praised as great literature is difficult for me to read.
Yet in both the case of Shakespeare and contemporary literature there is enough of what has already been discussed to give a reader pleasure if he or she is willing to make the effort. To get maximum pleasure it would seem that an individual must be willing to listen to a number of voices while evaluating what is being said. "garbage in, garbage out" is an old maxim, but the reader had better be careful what he or she labels as garbage. Just because something shocks a reader doesn't mean that there is not the dawning of pleasure in truth still yet to be found. Too often we assume that pleasure means no work, and yet we have all felt the pleasure of a good workout, a hard day's manual labor, a or a difficult if worthy task accomplished. It should not surprise us if reading is not sometimes the same.
Well, this has been a long ramble. And I certainly do not think that I have come up with any exact formula that will help me write great literature. As far as I can tell, most of the "greats" didn't think about writing great stuff, they just did it. Also, while I have defined what I feel helps qualify a work of literature as great, the actual judgments for individual authors and works are still wide open (even for Mr. Fleming since I have not read all of his works), and convictions will always vary as greatly as the spectrum of human opinion will allow. But then even that is part of the fun of literature.
Thus as I sit here wearily with my scrawling pen, I have come to these conclusions: I believe that the mainspring of literature is pleasure, and that works of value entertain on multiple levels. All that we read which entertains is literature. However, literature attains greatness only as it helps us, the entertained, gain a new understanding both of ourselves and the world in which we all live. This can only be done when a work is honest both to itself and the world around it and when what it reveals is not found in the general wisdom of its parent culture.
For me, however, this form required a primary
textthe work about which the author is writing. That, for me, takes it
out of the realm of literature since it can not be enjoyed by itself. But many
others disagree with me. [Return
to text]
