Feb 042010
 

I spent all morning at the USD Law Library with my head buried in Terry Eagleton’s book, Literary Theory.  Really interesting stuff.  Some mind-blowing ideas, like what is literature, or more properly, Literature?   I liked this quote in particular:  “Literature transforms and intensifies ordinary language, deviates systematically from everyday speech.”   And this:  “Literature, by forcing us into a dramatic awareness of language, refreshes these habitual responses and renders objects more ‘perceptible.'”  (He’s paraphrasing Shklovsky’s essay in this quote.)  Then he turns all of these definitions on their heads and begins to show how none of these things can accurately define Literature.  (That’s when my head began to hurt.)  Departing from these lofty heights, I descended to attend to the daily rituals of being a stay-at-home spouse: the chores from my wife.  I spent the next two hours wandering around the grocery store, chanting “Thou still unravished bride of quietness.”  I think I’m still suffering from the post-packet flu.

—Richard Farrell

  2 Responses to “Strange Juxtapositions: Literary Theory in Aisle 3.”

  1. Keats and salad greens and perhaps Satori in the frozen foods aisle. Actually, life sounds pretty amiable out there in California.

    dg

  2. Notes from a New England outpost: I think you rather ascended to the grocery aisles (an habitual response, perhaps), then rendered them more perceptible.

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