The Truth about All Art: It's Quite Useless

I don't really believe that art is useless. Don't get me wrong, Wilde is a badass but sometimes he's a bit wordy and I think he likes to come up with catchy phrases just to create conversation and have them repeated. Which is fine by me.

I'm going to begin with two quotes, one from Norris and one from Zola and then begin my rambling.

"For the novel is the great expression of modern life. Each form of art has had its turn at reflecting and expressing its contemporaneous thought." -Norris-

"There is neither nobility, nor dignity, nor beauty, nor morality in not knowing, in lying, in pretending that you are greater according as you advance in error and confusion. The only great and moral works are those of truth." -Zola-

Honestly I don't really know what genre Wilde's text really fits in but I'm going to force it into a Naturalistic ideal because it fits the mold. There is an extremely pessimistic view of morality, detachment, determination and a plot twist in the end. If we apply Zola's principles of reading as an observer we can certainly see the "truth" that is so incredibly important to both Norris and Zola. Wilde tells a story about what could happen if someone was giving the opportunity to do whatever they desired. Wilde clearly writes Dorian Gray into his grave due to his own vanity and obsession with the corruption of his soul.

Referring back to the two mentioned quotes: Beginning with Zola's...Wilde writes the truly pessimistic side of humanity. People are sinful and corrupt at times and he puts us in a position as spectator to see the true nature and evil that exists in humanity. With Norris's statement it leaves us left to observe and "reflect" at what exactly we are to do with the truth of the potentially gross nature of human existence.

When I first read this back in the day I caught myself reflecting on my own existence and not that I'm a bad person by any means but I'm a totally vain person and some of my favorite things fit into the seven deadly sins category, primarily sloth and gluttony. Dorian thinks to himself "But the picture? What was he to say of that? It held the secret of his life, and told his story. It had taught him to love his own beauty. Would it teach him to loathe his own soul? would he ever look at it again?" (89) Honestly, if I had a straight view into my soul I'm not sure I would want to look into it. Scary.

To briefly summarize: we as readers, and as human beings, need to properly "observe" the "truth" and then figure out what we can do with it. Hopefully we won't end up like Dorian, that would be sad.

Proposal Numero Dos

Alright, I've been working on cleaning up my proposal/final paper and I think I'm getting closer to a better finished product. I've changed the texts I'm using just slightly and I'm concentrating on a little bit of a different angle. So here are the texts I'm going to use for my paper.

The Picture of Dorian Gray-Wilde
Young Goodman Brown-Hawthorne
Edgar Huntly-Brown
Berenice-A Tale-Poe

I'm going to concentrate primarily on Wilde's text as it has the most support for my argument. So here it goes.

Throughout Wilde's work in TPODG there is a very clear example of influence and impressionism within the text. First, Dorian is influenced by Lord Henry then Dorian himself is able to influence others. Lord Henry acts as the foil to Dorian Gray which spirals the once "pure" adolescent into a corrupt and immoral being. The results of this contamination are visibly seen in the portrait of Gray and the protagonist becomes increasingly obsessed with the visible results of his sins and evil behavior which ultimately is the result for his demise.

The other texts will act primarily as further support that poor/evil influences and/or foils within the mentioned works lead to obsession which leads to an unhappy ending for the protagonists. For example:

In Edgar Huntly, Huntly himself becomes obsessed with avenging his friends death while being completely influence by Clithero's intense guilt. The obsession and influence nearly causes Huntly himself to lose his life but instead he is left feeling just as guilty as Clithero.

In Young Goodman Brown the protagonist is led astray from his path by the stranger in the woods causing Brown to begin to feel obsessively suspicious about his community and his wife leaving him to lead a miserable existence.

In Berenice, Poe's protagonist is influenced by opiates which causes him to brutally murder his love interest which leaves him left guilty and alone.

I know these are still really vague but I'm exhausted. Basically what I'm trying to argue is that the Foils, or variable influences to the protagonists, all are responsible for the constant/protagonists to become obsessed and or guilty and each is left which a negative result. Don't worry, I still plan on discussing the homoeroticism since Wilde's work is drenched in it, but really, you can kind of see it in all of the texts. Feel free to discuss with me how I can support that. Here are some outside sources that I have found.

"Poe and the Theme of Forbidden Knowledge" Jules Zanger
"Carnivalesque Freedom in Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown" S. Selina Jamil
"[Un]consciousness Itself Is the Malady": "Edgar Huntly" and the Discourse of the Other" Leonard Cassuto
"Come See About Me:Enchantment of the Double in "The Picture of Dorian Gray" Christopher Craft
"Aestheticism, Homoeroticism, and Christian Guilt in The Picture of Dorian Gray" Joseph Carroll
"The Strange Interest in Trivial Things: Seduction in Derrida and Dorian Gray" Forbes Morlock
"On the Discrimination of Influences" Andrew Elfenbein

I've really got all sorts of cool things to support my thesis, I just can't think of them right now because 2010 has been a crummy year (terrible excuse).

Final Paper Proposal

Alright fellow students...I have a vague idea of what I'm going to write about and I'm not going to deny the fact that I'm kinda looking forward to my research. The writing part I'm not super keen on, mostly because I'm a poor writer, but the content will be at least somewhat rewarding to me. I'm going to concentrate on the following texts.
Byron's "The Giaour"
CBB's Edgar Huntly
Hawthornes "Young Goodman Brown"
Wilde's Dorian Gray
I may have to restrict this to only two of the four, but I would like to use all of them as they were some of my favorite readings from this semester.

Here's what I plan on doing:
I will argue that the following literary works all display a certain feeling of Christian Guilt throughout the texts that is illustrated by a loathsome self-image of the central characters in which self-destructive and immoral behavior is prominent throughout the progression of the stories. I plan to support my claim with specific examples which I will desperately attempt to support. I will touch on the fact that each of the protagonists are partnered with a central figure throughout the text that acts as an outside influence ie:Lord Henry to Dorian, the staffed man to Goodman Brown. These secondary characters represent the fight between moral and immoral desires in the characters struggles.

I know this is a grossly vague description of what I'm writing about but I've already found several interesting articles that will help me prove that I'm somewhat accurate in my claims. Also, as per usual there will be some discussion on homoeroticism and other sexual desires throughout some of the texts. I can't help it, sex is fun to write about. Sorry Julie!

If anyone has any suggestions or, more accurately, concerns feel free to leave me some feedback, I'd really like to write a good paper this semester and I tend to drop the ball when it comes to structured essays. Happy research and writing class!

Daisy is actually a Dandelion...

I gotta say that Henry James is hit and miss with me. I've expressed my undying devotion to The Turn of the Screw on several occasions but I have a really tough time with his female characters. I was unable to complete Portrait of a Lady due to extreme boredom and throughout Daisy Miller I found myself continually rolling my eyes at the ridiculousness of Daisy. Yet there is some sort of genius in the progression of his female protagonists.

In the supplemental article we read for this blog assignment there is a really interesting analogy, or comparison, as to how James depicts his female characters. The author writes "Those who complain that he has not drawn the portrait of a noble and superior woman should remember that an artist may sometimes justly prefer to paint a dandelion rather than a rose." I love this statement. It helps me get over the so-called boredom. James writes and "every woman" type character which when I take a step back a realize this I find it easier to identify with.

Daisy is a somewhat boring character. There really is nothing that separates her from any other girl. She's not completely retarded, but she certainly isn't a genius either. She hits middle class, mediocre and medium in pretty much every aspect. And of course she's "pretty." The thing that sets her apart in this novella is she is the American "foreigner" so it's easy for her to capture the attention of her two suitors as they would find her more aggressive demeanor intriguing.

Really Daisy is no different than any other female and she encapsulates a sort of timeless feel. She could be someone who exists today that is just "playing the field." I hate to speak poorly of my own sex but some of us living ladies are a little overly flirtatious and speaking plainly are just kinda skanky. It's ridiculous to me that any one would string along two people simultaneously but people do that, they did it back in the day, and they do it now. I have to give James mad props for being so skilled at creating a generic female lead while he himself remains to be male. (I suppose that where some of the gay rumors stem from).

So there was one line in Daisy's many conversations that totally made me like her, a little. When having a conversation with Winterbourne he says to her "I beg your pardon if I say it wrong. The main point is to give you an idea of my meaning.' The young girl looked at him more gravely, but with eyes that were prettier than ever. 'I have never allowed a gentleman to dictate to me, or to interfere with anything I do." (40) I like that. Why should anyone let anyone interfere with their choices? Now after saying that I'm going to have to point out that Daisy made some foolish choices, but as she pointed out they were always her decisions. So good on her. I just wish she hadn't been killed off. I feel like this was completely parallel with The Coquette. I've already discussed this with Heather and I'm sure the other 371 students were made aware of the similarities but really it is disheartening that women are killed off for making their own decisions. It really defines woman as irrational and incapable of survival without the help of a man. So pathetic.

Anyway, as per usual our dear professor has given us some thought provoking material and even though I will probably never read this again I'm still looking forward to hearing what everyone has to say. So thank you teacher and thank you Mr. James.

ps-the above photo was taken with my hipstamatic again. I love having an iPhone!