fandomhigh | Literature, Class 11: Period 3, Thursday, March 26

Miss Bennet was in a particularly bright mood as she sorted papers into three piles on her desk.

"Today," she said, "I am a particularly cruel Literature teacher; I am going to make you read. Fear not, there is a purpose to it, although as your literature teacher, I am honor-bound to inform you that there is always a purpose to reading. Entertainment, education, whiling away a few hours: all these reasons are quite important. I digress. I assure you, the reading today is light, and it is my hope that you will find it to be worthwhile."

"We've touched briefly on the concept of influence, within a work; that is what I wish to discuss, today. No work exists in a vacuum. We have, in the past, talked of how a work cannot easily be separated from its particular place within society, that it retains those characteristics and assumptions; I would argue that the same applies to a work and its place within the living process of literature. Every writer is influenced by what he has read. What comes before does not dictate what will come after, but we would be remiss to say it does not shape it, in many ways."

She picked up the first stack and began passing the pages out. "This," she stated, "is Canto Twenty-Seven of Dante Alighieri's Inferno. The Inferno is part one of a trilogy known as the Divine Comedy, and I should stress that that is not the modern use of the term 'comedy,' which indicates humour. Dante's Divine Comedy was a journey through Hell, then Purgatory, then Heaven itself. Strikingly, it is Hell that receives the most attention, from critics and readers." There was a bemused smile to go with this.

"Dante is taken through each circle in Hell to meet the sinners who reside there, and learn of their crimes. Each ring holds those guilty of specific sins, with similar transgressions clustered together in nearby circles. Canto Twenty-Seven is the story of Guido da Montefeltro, an advisor to Pope Boniface VIII. Boniface asked da Montefeltro for his insight on how best to conquer a particular land, and assured his advisor that, should the advice prove unfortunate, His Holiness had already granted preemptive absolution. Da Montefeltro's counsel was disastrous, and the losses were great. Upon his death, he reminded the eternal powers that he had been forgiven before he had even transgressed. A devil laughed and informed him that forgiveness must be sought with atonement. One cannot atone before one sins; therefore, one cannot be absolved in advance."

She reached for the next stack as she continued speaking. "What I would like to call your attention to -- aside from the usual: the tone, the structure, the meaning of the piece -- would be da Montefeltro's opening lines to Dante. He presumes Dante is another of the damned, and will never leave Hell, which means it is safe to give his name and tell his story. These lines are quoted, in their original Italian, as the introduction to this next work."

"T.S. Eliot wrote 'The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock' nearly one hundred years ago, which places it six hundred years after Dante's work. It is not a story of a voyage through hell; it is a lyrical poem which depicts a man looking back upon his life, and realizing that he has been more observer than actor for a majority of it. He feels much of it has been repetitive and lifeless, hauntingly so. He longs for the ability to change the world around him; he wishes to reach that which is just out of his grasp. He notes, sadly, that even if he opened his arms to that which he desires, it would refuse him. I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each. I do not think that they will sing to me."

"Our last work today," she said, taking the third and final sheaf of papers, "is very different from the previous two, and yet perhaps not so very. This is Octavio Paz's 'Blue Bouquet.' Octavio Paz came later than either Eliot or Dante, though only a few decades from the former, whom he has stated to be a major influence. The story is prose, but briefer still than either of the two poems. The unnamed narrator wakes in a vivid, sensory-filled small room in the middle of the night. He finds it far too hot to sleep, and chooses instead to walk in the night air. He has a brief, surreal and violent encounter with a stranger, and flees town the next day. To say more would ruin the tale, I fear."

"Three works. Dante influenced Eliot, who influenced Paz. Can you find a common thread between the first two, or the last two, or possibly all three?"

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

With vivid blue eyes, drowning, or trapped in Hell.

Harper Finkle

Lee Adama

Angela Montenegro

Ronan Nolan ~~who finds the keyword on this icon rather appropriate, natch~~

Jack McTeague

Sam Winchester

Hyuuga Hinata

Bender

Agnes Nitt

Katina Choovanski

Warren Peace

Temari

Take notes. Pass them, briefly, with your fellow students, though tread carefully lest you seek detention.

Lee took lots and lots of notes as per usual. His poor brain, it always got a good workout in this class.

Angela would've rather been in bed, really, but here she was.

She was leaning on one hand, scrawling some notes during the lecture.

There was something about reading about hell, even if it was only one person's imagination about it, that unsettled Sam a little, and made him focus more on his note-taking.

Life sucked, thought Bender, which it would for everyone else. Not everyone could have the life of a bending unit, but did these windbags have to be so intent on broadcasting it.

And everyine one knew that green eyes were worth most.

Agnes scribbled notes furiously, although she wasn't sure she understood the poems much better when she was done. Still, she thought she understood HERSELF better, from the ways in which she failed to understand the poems, and that was something, wasn't it?

For any or all of the works: what moves you about this piece, or does not? What do you make of Dante's verdict? Do you sympathize with Prufrock's lament? How does the dream-like quality of Paz's narrative affect the impact of the assault? For any or all: what moments or phrases do you find especially compelling, and why?

"I... I think I like this Prufrock fellow," Agnes hazarded. "I mean, sure, he seems awfully wishy-washy, but there's a depth there, and a... I guess I just feel like I can relate." She shrugged. "Um. And the other two kind of creep me out. Is that okay to say?"

"That's perfectly fine," Miss Bennet said with a gentle smile. "None of you will like all of the works presented. I would be quite concerned if you did. Paz's story is particularly dark, moreso for the dreamlike quality it exudes."

She considered the rest carefully. "It's hard not to sympathize with Mr. Prufrock," she agreed. "He seems to understand just enough to see his cage, but not well enough to discern a way out."

What do Dante and Eliot's works have in common? Are there shared themes, use of metaphor, similar topic choices? What about Eliot and Paz? Are there shared elements between all three? Can you see facets of the former works appearing in the latter?

"Uh... Eliot's using Dante as a metaphor, I think? Saying that Prufrock is trapped in Hell, metaphorically speaking, and only telling us his story because he thinks we're there with him. And... Paz's story seems to feel similar to Prufrock, in a way I can't really define. That doesn't make any sense, I know. But the threads between them are there, and stronger than you'd think."

"I agree," Miss Bennet nodded. "Prufrock, like da Montefeltro, is speaking to those who are similarly damned. For a different reason, in his case: because no one else would understand him. Do you think it is the surreal, dreamlike quality of the latter two that connects them?"

Have you read works which call to mind other authors, other genres, or other literary movements? If you write, have you found your writings to be influenced by what you read? Is influence necessarily good (or necessarily bad)?

"Well... someone writing can't help but be influenced by what they've read, I don't imagine. Otherwise, we wouldn't end up with so many common themes in literature, like we've discussed before."

Miss Bennet nodded. "True," she said. "Though I find some of that to be a limitation of the human condition. There are only so many situations, after all."

Perhaps she will discuss her own influences?

If pressed to, she might, but for the moment Hinata was more content to take her own notes and make herself available should assistance be required.

For she is here.

I have long lamented that "mermaidssingingeachtoeach" is too long to be an LJ name.

Literature, Class 11: Period 3, Thursday, March 26

Sign In [LIT-11]

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During the Lecture [LIT-11]

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Discussion #1 - The Three Works, Separately [LIT-11]

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Discussion #2 - The Three Works, Together [LIT-11]

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Discussion #3 - Influences [LIT-11]

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Speak to the TA [LIT-11]

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Speak to Miss Bennet [LIT-11]

OOC [LIT-11]