What "Sublime" Means to Me

     As I begin to delve into this project about the origins of the word “sublime” and how it has changed over time, I start with basic knowledge of two definitions of the word.  First, I know that the adjective definition is “of such excellence, grandeur, or beauty as to inspire great admiration or awe.”  Second, that “sublime” can be used as a verb with the chemical meaning, “[of a solid substance] change directly into a vapor when heated.”  I find this mix of intangible and physical meanings especially intriguing.  In addition, the almost magical sense of each definition – for both achieving the level of the sublime and the wondrous transformation of a solid into gas is awe-inspiring – makes this word even more of a curiosity for me.  I look forward to expanding my knowledge and learning much more about the word “sublime.”

Key Points in the Introduction to Frankenstein’s Shadow

1. The modern myth is an anomaly

     a. Myths are defined by “their exclusive anteriority to literate and especially modern culture”

     b. Faust, Don Quixote, Robinson Crusoe, Frankenstein, Jekyll, and Dracula are part of Modern myths

2. Frankenstein became a myth because of its story

     a. Levi-Staruss – a myth’s true substance as myth “does not lie in its style, its original music, or its syntax, but in the story which it tells.”

     b. Relationship between humans and nature

3. Vitality of a myth lies in its capacity to change.

     a. Most myths are prolonged by being retold or alluded to.

4. Myth is “a mythology of the mind”

The Timeless Hero

     Throughout the history of civilization, heroes have been the center of literary attention.  The greatest literary epics of each civilization – such as the Epic of Gilgamesh, Odyssey, Ramayana, Aeneid, Beowulf, and King Arthur – are by definition inspiring tales about heroes.  However, each society has had different expectations of how heroes behave.  The lovesick infidelity of Odysseus is extremely different from the chivalrous self-denial of Sir Gawain in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.  Modern society has created a multitude of new heroes (Marvel claims over 9,000 by itself) that has resulted in major deviances from the traditional noble-born hero whose greatest enemy is himself.  For example, there are heroes with every imaginable power, from laser vision to teleportation, and a new genre of a self-made hero whose claim to fame is incredible martial art skills.  It may seem like the traditional hero has been forgotten and supplanted by a new type of self-made hero, but he still survives, albeit with different clothes and accents.  One of the best examples of the traditional hero with a new wardrobe is monster-slaying Beowulf under the guise of Professor X from the X-men series.  Although the two are separated by a vast period of time and differ in their powers, they are fundamentally the same character with similar faults.

            In their youth, Beowulf and Professor X both embody the ideals of the traditional hero.  The son of Ecgtheow and thane to Lord Hygelac of the Geats, Beowulf is born into the warrior aristocracy of his Germanic tribe and blessed from birth with extraordinary strength and skill in combat (Greenblatt 29).  As “the mightiest man on earth, highborn and powerful,” Beowulf undertook many daring challenges and dangerous deeds, such as swimming through the sea in full armor and slaying sea monsters (Greenblatt 35, 42).  He is the undisputed leader of a group of soldiers that he brings along on his adventures, but does not truly rely on them for anything.  The greatest challenges of his youth are his fights against the demon Grendel and the mother of Grendel, a troll hag.   In these battles, he stays true to his society’s values, upholding his formal boasts to defeat each opponent single-handedly.  Grendel terrorized the country ruled by King Hrothgar of the Danes for years, killing all those who dared to feast and remain in the great drinking hall of Heorot after dark.  At last, Beowulf arrived and easily defeated Grendel, and ripping the arm off of the fleeing demon to prove it.  Consequently, Grendel’s mother sought revenge, and Beowulf was forced to kill her to bring peace to the land.  The troll hag, however, was Beowulf’s greatest challenge.  She was a match for Beowulf in strength and cunning, and Beowulf admits, “I barely managed to escape with my life,” (Grennblatt 76).  Similarly, Professor X is born into a wealthy family and receives an excellent education.  However, Professor X is a mutant with the power of telekinesis, not strength.  After graduating from Oxford University, he becomes involved in a plot by evil mutants to bring about a nuclear apocalypse so mutants can take over the world (It was more of a kill-all-the-humans-and-then-figure-things-out type of plan).  In response, he forms an opposing group of mutants (the X-men) and leads them in battle against the malicious mutants.  They defeat the leader of the evil mutants, but then split into two factions: one set on mutant domination and the other on peaceful coexistence.  Both overcome their initial adversaries, but find a more formidable enemy in themselves.

            Although both overcome their adversaries, they almost lose their lives to their fatal flaw of hubris.  Rather than seek the help of his comrades, Beowulf fights the troll hag alone and almost loses his life.  King Hrothgar, whom Beowulf has freed from the burden of Grendel and the troll hag, recognizes this flaw and councils Beowulf: “O flower of warrior, beware of that trap. Choose, dear Beowulf, the better part, eternal rewards. Do not give way to pride. For a brief while your strength is in bloom, but it fades quickly…death will arrive, dear warrior, to sweep you away,” (Greenblatt 68).  Likewise, Professor X’s sudden decision to uses his telepathy to make someone launch a missile without alerting his teammates almost kills them.  The idea that the greatest danger is the hero himself serves to solidify the similarity between Beowulf and Professor X.

            Despite the modern shift away traditional heroism, close analysis reveals that the Gilgameshes, Ramas, and Beowulfs of ancient lore still exist.  They have simply been redrawn with modern attire and supernatural abilities while retaining the age-old struggle against their pride.  The traditional hero is truly timeless, with his honor and his hubris.

The Power of Linguistic Brevity

            In “The Case for Small Words,” Richard Lederer agues that short words are often more powerful and expressive than longer, more complicated words.  He writes, “Big words can make the way dark for those who read what you write and hear what you say. Small words cast their clear light on big things— night and day, love and hate, war and peace, and life and death,” and continues on with expressive, colorful prose consisting entirely of one syllable words.  Furthermore, Lederer points out that numerous proverbs such as "Where there's a will, there's a way," are entirely monosyllabic.  While, as he points out, there is no need to restrict oneself to only short words, doing so can help focus one’s writing.  Here, I attempted to create my own short work of monosyllabic prose:

            Lost in the wastes of time it walks, on and on and on.  A cactus here, rusted objects on the side, the odd flower there.  Here, there, it drifts, until – just past the next dune – could it be?  It runs, trips, falls, goes on.  And it sees only more sand, more time.  “Surely you knew!” the voice taunts.  It sinks into the sand, tense, scared, lost.  But then it says, with a gleam in its eye, hope in its voice, “There is still more time.”  It walks on and on and on.

After looking at the etymology of many of the words I used, I noticed that the vast majority of words are descended from Old or Middle English.

Word Etymologies:

Now: Old English nū, of Germanic origin; related to Dutch nu, German nun, from an Indo-European root shared by Latin nunc and Greek nun.

Cactus: from Greek kaktos ‘cardoon.’

Flower: Middle English flour, from Old French flour, flor, from Latin flos, flor-

Drift: originally from Old Norse drift ‘snowdrift, something driven’; in later use from Middle Dutch drift ‘course, current’

Desert: Middle English via Old French from late Latin desertum ‘something left waste,’ neuter past participle of deserere ‘leave, forsake.’

Gleam: Old English glǣm [brilliant light,] of Germanic

Hope: late Old English hopa (noun), hopian (verb), of Germanic origin; related to Dutch hoop (noun), hopen (verb), and German hoffen (verb)

Time: Old English tīma, of Germanic origin; related to

Walk: Old English wealcan [roll, toss,] also [wander,] of Germanic

The Power of Stories

            An excellent story is like a mirror.  While universal in some aspects, its most important qualities lie in what we see.  Or maybe it is like a piñata, and the ideas like candy – you can take whatever you want if you are willing to break open the colorful but useless shell.  While good stories all have some things in common, such as a plot and characters, they differ in their underlying aspects such as theme and writing style.  That is why there is no perfect story for everyone – the criteria are subjective.  For me, an excellent story is well written and explores philosophical themes that I care about at the moment.  If I can see myself in a story and use it as a tool to analyze myself, then I consider it good read.  This is why I chose to read Life of Pi by Yann Martel: it investigates the power of stories.

            The power of story telling is a major theme in Life of Pi augmented by story-within-a-story-within-a-story structure of the novel.  While somewhat confusing at first, the primary story – Pi’s tale of survival – is framed within another story that recounts how a writer meet Pi and learned of his story.  Furthermore, the story about Pi’s survival contains a condensed version of the same story with humans in place of animals.  These inner stories raise the question of which story is true and whether or not it actually matters, because the end result is the same for both and neither is verifiable.  Additionally, Life of Pi also investigates the role of stories in the religions of Hinduism, Christianity, and Islam.  For example, Pi says he loves the awe-inspiring stories of Hinduism, in which gods transcend mortality to kick ass (Yann Martel 92).  Similarly, Pi is attracted to Christianity by the humanity shown in the story of Christ (Martel 97).  Finally, it seems to me that Pi loves Islam for the feelings and imaginations it provokes, effects similar to those of a story (Martel 103).  To top it off, Pi later emphasizes his dislike of agnostics by telling the reader that he imagines them limited by their doubtful rationality at the end, “lack[ing] imagination and miss[ing] the better story,” (Martel 106).  I greatly appreciate Martel’s creative analysis of the power of stories in society and I believe it the primary reason I consider Life of Pi an excellent example of story telling.

            While Life of Pi is great at story telling, it does have some critical weaknesses that prevent it from reaching the top of my list of books.  The first weakness is the almost overwhelming bias in the book.  The second is that Martel does not fully analyze the main ideas of the novel by exploring them until they fail but leaves out that which could weaken his arguments.  In his book, Martel is highly opinionated on his view of religion and other people.  As I mentioned before, Martel is unceasing in his criticism of agnostics and writes as though he were the prophet of a new religion of tolerance.  Although I appreciate his views on tolerance, his one-sided view about religion is somewhat of a turn-off and makes it hard for me to appreciate the sections of the novel that deal with religious criticism.  Concerning his bias against other people, I think Martel is excessively condescending in caricatures of humanity.  For instance, his accusation of humanity for not understanding animals as “human” creatures unfairly excludes those who pioneered our understanding of animals, such as Jane Goodall.  Moreover, his portrayal of the two Japanese investigators comes across as haughty and is not balanced.  In doing so, he does a disservice to those readers who are intelligent enough to understand the underlying messages in his book without the need for his obvious condescension of the human race.  In the end, I would enjoy Life of Pi more if it were not so partial.

            Life of Pi is a good example of story telling because explores the important idea of the power of stories and does not shy away from providing an answer.  Whether or not his view that stories are more powerful than reality is true, I respect his courage in answering the question he posed rather than going half way and telling the reader to decide.  Unfortunately, this same courage leads to too much bias that makes it hard for a temperate reader to connect with some parts of the novel.  Despite the obvious prejudice, I enjoyed his writing style and the way he explored the central theme of stories.

Favorite Books

1. Infinite Jest, David Foster Wallace (still reading) – I enjoy Wallace’s writing style as well as his sarcastic and ironic analysis of modern society.  Wallace seems to exemplify excellent writing, and I really need to finish this book sometime.

2. Consider the Lobster and Other Essays, David Foster Wallace – These were the first essays by Wallace that I read, and his essay on dictionaries greatly influenced my perception of the English language.

3. Lord of the Rings, J.R.R Tolkien – These books are amazing.  They combine excellent character development and interesting philosophical question with a fantasy world of unparalleled combination of the human experience and creativity.

4. Silmarillion, J.R.R Tolkien – I greatly enjoyed the detailed descriptions and background story in this novel.  It’s quite inspiring to read about the whole world Tolkien developed but never got to publish himself.

5. Discworld, Terry Pratchet – I loved this book for the quirky sense of humor and for its overall weirdness.  In addition to being an entertaining read, it can be evaluated as a critique of humanity’s flaws and a celebration of an almost medieval sense of honor.

6. 2001: A Space Odyssey, Arthur C. Clarke – This book was my first introduction to space-adventure and technology novels, and it left a lasting impression on me.  “I’m sorry, Dave.  I’m afraid I can’t do that.”

Life of Pi: Quality Storytelling

The Life of Pi by Yann Martel strikes me as an excellent example of storytelling.  Besides being a story within a story, food for thought by itself, this novel explores many questions that I find very interesting and important to understanding the human condition.  The passage concerning the validity of Pi’s story with the floating bananas seems to exemplify the deeply questioning nature of this novel that I enjoy so much:

“Bananas don’t float.”

“I’m sorry?”

“You said the orang-utan came floating on an island of bananas.”

“That’s right.”

“Bananas don’t float.”

“Yes, they do.”

“They’re too heavy.”

“No, they’re not.  Here, try for yourself.  I have two bananas right here.”

…

Mr. Okamoto: “Damn it.  No, that’s all right.”

“There’s a sink over there.”

“That’s fine.”

“I insist.  Fill that sink with water, drop these bananas in, and we’ll see who’s right.”

“We’d like to move on.”

“I absolutely insist.”

…

“So, are they floating?”

“They’re floating.”

“What did I tell you?”

By examining the potential impossibilities of Pi’s story, Martel not only makes the reader think more carefully about the story and whether it could actually happen, but also invokes deeper questions about human nature.  He calls for the reader to examine his or her assumptions and explore the world with a different attitude.  I, for one, tried the test for myself and confirmed that bananas do in fact float (I think Martel would approve of this exploration rather than relying on his fictional story).  While this example is rather overt in its critique of human ignorance, it symbolizes the egotistical attitude many people take against new ideas that disprove what they believe, such as the idea of natural selection, that global warming is a problem, or that free-market capitalism is the preferable economic system.  This manifestation of the fear of the unknown is one of the many philosophical themes discussed throughout the book, and it this consistently questioning and exploring nature of the novel that makes it and example of excellent storytelling.

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