Current Reading Progress: Finished with Summer Reading
Wow. That was certainly a long ride, indeed, but I am so glad that I did it. Almost everything I read was supremely fascinating and engaging. I want to dive right in when we get to class and talk about all the nitty-gritty details in all the pieces.
Renaissance Self-Fashioning was an interesting read, and I really cannot wait to read the rest. I got a lot of what Greenblatt was saying and I found it extremely interesting. The whole idea of autonomy and making ourselves who we are is not only intriguing but of the utmost importance with regards to understanding and solving the ontological problems we encounter. I also LOVE that Greenblatt references Clifford Geertz as he quickly became one of my favorite thinkers through my sociology class (see common place book for more thoughts). The other thing I found interesting was Greenblatt’s “three interlocking functions of literature.” I provide what I think is a nice illustration of the idea in my common place book (picture below). The functions are 1) a manifestation of the concrete behavior of [the] particular author, 2) itself the expression of the codes by which behavior is shaped, and 3) a reflection upon those codes. I think it is fascinating to think about literature (in my opinion more of a synecdoche for human creation) as a mirror to creator and culture.
And I CANNOT get over the Popova articles! They are all just so fascinating. I love that she spans a wide range of thinkers and really digs into one of their ideas and is able to present it to the reader in an understandable fashion while still preserving the integrity and poetry of the original thinker. Quotes and thoughts from the readings are littered in my common place book and I cannot wait to add more. I particularly enjoyed the reading about Nietzsche, and as is evident from the second picture included in this post, I fully intended to read more of his work. I think that he and I think in astonishingly similar ways and I am readily able to connect and understand his writing. His ideas on anthropomorphic truths are something that I have already, independently come up with (and which I have previously included in my common place book), which is something that fills me with joy and excitement. As well, I enjoyed the thoughts from Ursula K. Le Guin. In the last image I show an illustration I made of her impassioned words for, well, words. As well, I included her quote about how home is just nothing but something we have imagined and must teach our children about. This quote just really shocked me because I never thought about home being something that you would have to teach someone about—cool stuff. I also think that the idea has some serious connection to Nietzsche’s anthropomorphic truth spiel… or maybe I’m just hopped up on German Philosophy.
I really really really hope that we discuss Nietzsche in class. I cannot wait to have all of these discussions. As the year comes closer, I am also starting to consider work life and how much homework we will have. This has been on my mind regarding the class lately, so I will soon find out.
