Anyone else out there want to compete for Most Peripheral Reference To Salinger In An Otherwise Totally Unrelated Essay? (: I worked Holden into an essay on Romeo and Juliet, which wasn't *that* difficult really - how about the rest of you? (Managing to force Nabokov into a discussion on Wilfred Owen remains another high point) Camille verona_beach@geocities.com @ THE ARTS HOLE http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Theater/6442 @ THE INVERTED FOREST http://www.angelfire.com/pa/invertedforest > somewhat on topic and obSalinger: today in my later British Romantics class I > compared Byron's Childe Harold to Holden Caulfield. the prof. didn't know > what the hell i meant so i had to go into all this disillusionment with the > present state and idyllic journey that puts the traveller right back where he > started but oh so much the better for the travelling. it was all very much > off the top of my head (or out of my ass, depending on your level of > propriety) and i'm getting the feeling i've botched it terribly here. it may > be enough to note the prof eventually understood and told me never to bring up > american lit in his class again. and we all had a good laugh and burrowed > through the rest of the second canto (i mean of canto the second)...matt > (stevenson, who will henceforth sign his posts as yahweh due to the rising > population of "matt"s on the list) > > > On Tue, 09 Feb 1999 17:15:38 -0500 (EST) jrovira@juno.com (blah b b blah) > wrote: > > >Thank GOD Wordsworth wasn't the only English Romantic Poet :) I always > >thought he was Up to Here in Feces. I much prefer Blake -- more honest, > >more real, more thoughtful, plenty of ideas without idealism. > > > >Blake also provides a good paradigm for the growth out of innocence. > >While we do pass through experience (disillusionment, selfishness, etc) > >we do not have to stay there. We can enter into the Old John state, > >where we attain an informed innocence once again. If you want to give > >Wordsworth some credibility, I would say we pass out of a "body-centered" > >experience into something less "physically" passionate into something > >more thoughtful, directed, and "effectively" passionate. > > > >In short, we know what we want, value, and how to serve those ends in the > >real world. We accept limitations and work within them; and when we're > >really experienced, we use them to our advantage. In short, we learn how > >to win and how not to defeat ourselves. > > > >At least, we CAN know :) We can also stay Stupid our entire lives... > > > >Jim > > > >