This reading experience has been very different for me than my summer reading experience for many reasons. Firstly, I felt much better prepared with the tools and resources needed to attempt to comprehend the information and the meaning behind why the specific pages and works were assigned. Secondly, I enjoyed the content and information provided much more because of their historical significance and because of their fictional attributes as well. I could also make many connections to the significance that human progression holds on both the summer readings and the Thanksgiving break reading. All of our assigned reading seemed to focus greatly on creation and human progression; with the two different interpretations of Metamorphoses, I understood the significance that Dr. Holt wanted to put on growth and human desire and passion. With A.O Scott and Stephen Greenblatt’s works, we saw an up close and personal attempt to influence and perceive our own progression as human beings. Stephen Greenblatt urged us to view our non autonomous agency in a positive and enlightening manner by giving us examples and instances in time that display those ideas and the placement of those ideas by important thinkers. This idea of unattainable autonomous agency has influenced so much of how we think today that it provides a perfect example of how significant the idea of philosophy and self understanding has influenced human culture and society. I think what struck me the most was Milton’s interpretation of creation and the discussions had between the devils. Although I do wish it was written in a manner that I understood and could easily comprehend, I was incredibly interested in the purpose behind why he approached the old creation stories in an almost comedic tone. The almost comedic setting in which multitudes of devils discuss in a town hall setting how they should take their revenge against God’s tyrannical rule created a rather confused sense of understanding within myself. I believed I understood the ideas that he was trying to express, but I wondered why the tone in which he chose to convey those ideas was comedic and mysterious.
In our future discussions, I believe we will be discussing how the creation story relates to our philosophical ideas as a species as well as its reflection of our progression. I also want to watch out for our discussion about the usage of tone and the differences between different renditions of popular stories. I noticed that although we read a great deal, we never truly strayed from the story of creation and metamorphoses, so I would definitely like to understand what we will be learning and absorbing from the same story being told multiple times in different time periods. Overall, I am very excited to see how the impact of fictional tales has affected or reflected our progression as a human race. I am also excited to see and learn about the progression of the usage of tone in fictional books to portray different ideas in different styles as well as the different writing style in different time periods.
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Avsha WeinbergArchives
November 2019
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