Standing alone
Jun. 12th, 2006 09:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
polutropeAn Essay, with reference to Toni Morrison, aria CDs, and Blake!
"Standing alone." This is something I think that 'great' literature, etc. should be able to do. Unless the author is explicitly writing a series, the reader should be able to read anything and enjoy it on at least some level. There is nothing wrong with enjoying it more after seeing how it fits into the entire opus of the author, but a poem shouldn't need to be read in collection. For example, we read a few Songs of Innocence and Experience this year, the Lamb first. It works alone, and it's pretty obvious it's talking about Jesus. Then you read the Tiger, and it works with the Lamb, or they work separately. This is Good.
Nor should you need to know the biography of an author or the history of the times she's living in to appreciate the work, and this is one (of many) place I feel Morrison falls flat. You have to know the social backround for it to have any revelence, which is one of the reasons I felt completely justified in telling my English teacher that she's only read because she's a Black woman*. She's a Black woman writing about the things that face Black women, and therefore she deserves recognition. I suppose she does, but she does not deserve to be hailed as a literary power. Dickens is also writing about social problems, but he does not sacrifice characters for his critiques. All of Morrison's characters are one, or at best, two dimensional - and it's not even that hard to get me to care about your characters. I cared about Meursaut, for crying out loud! So, Morrison does not stand on her own merits as a writer. This is Bad.
However, even though I firmly believe that things should stand on their own, I am opposed to the idea of aria CDs. I'm not sure why. It might be because an aria is part of a greater work - I like the Catalog Aria very much, but I like it even more when I listen to the absolutely ridiculous recitive before it. Similarly, Nessun Dorma is good fun (although not when it's stuck in your head for a week), but it has context, which is sobering, and it's even better if you know about the two reprises of the theme, one before (well, I guess that isn't really a reprise) and one after.
That's been in my head for a while. I'm glad it's out.
*And just because she is a Black woman doesn't mean she speaks for all Black women, nor that we all have to like her. Neither my mother nor I do, and the last time I checked, we were both black. I dislike being hit over the head with points.
"Standing alone." This is something I think that 'great' literature, etc. should be able to do. Unless the author is explicitly writing a series, the reader should be able to read anything and enjoy it on at least some level. There is nothing wrong with enjoying it more after seeing how it fits into the entire opus of the author, but a poem shouldn't need to be read in collection. For example, we read a few Songs of Innocence and Experience this year, the Lamb first. It works alone, and it's pretty obvious it's talking about Jesus. Then you read the Tiger, and it works with the Lamb, or they work separately. This is Good.
Nor should you need to know the biography of an author or the history of the times she's living in to appreciate the work, and this is one (of many) place I feel Morrison falls flat. You have to know the social backround for it to have any revelence, which is one of the reasons I felt completely justified in telling my English teacher that she's only read because she's a Black woman*. She's a Black woman writing about the things that face Black women, and therefore she deserves recognition. I suppose she does, but she does not deserve to be hailed as a literary power. Dickens is also writing about social problems, but he does not sacrifice characters for his critiques. All of Morrison's characters are one, or at best, two dimensional - and it's not even that hard to get me to care about your characters. I cared about Meursaut, for crying out loud! So, Morrison does not stand on her own merits as a writer. This is Bad.
However, even though I firmly believe that things should stand on their own, I am opposed to the idea of aria CDs. I'm not sure why. It might be because an aria is part of a greater work - I like the Catalog Aria very much, but I like it even more when I listen to the absolutely ridiculous recitive before it. Similarly, Nessun Dorma is good fun (although not when it's stuck in your head for a week), but it has context, which is sobering, and it's even better if you know about the two reprises of the theme, one before (well, I guess that isn't really a reprise) and one after.
That's been in my head for a while. I'm glad it's out.
*And just because she is a Black woman doesn't mean she speaks for all Black women, nor that we all have to like her. Neither my mother nor I do, and the last time I checked, we were both black. I dislike being hit over the head with points.
