tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post5966398248213264325..comments2024-03-29T03:04:00.853-05:00Comments on Wuthering <br>Expectations: Beginning Frank Kermode's The Sense of an Ending - You remember the golden birdAmateur Reader (Tom)http://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-59053922317901572922018-10-04T13:42:45.291-05:002018-10-04T13:42:45.291-05:00I will warn you that Kermode's book is not as ...I will warn you that Kermode's book is not as good as <i>War and Peace</i>. Who needs that warning? No one.Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-14405133151916843182018-10-04T13:18:16.671-05:002018-10-04T13:18:16.671-05:00Well, yes, Truth and Reality are imaginary moving ...Well, yes, Truth and Reality are imaginary moving targets and all of that. Plato backed up his moral claims about Homer with the suggestion that Achilles would never have been wrathful at Agamemnon, that Homer was not being true to life. So Plato would fit in very comfortably with many of today's readers/critics. <br /><br />I think, unsurprisingly, that the arguments are all on Kermode's side, and I suppose all art is probably part of the search for truth, that imaginary moving target. Art is a good tool for that search. I laid aside my copy of <i>SoaE</i> to finish Tolstoy. I should find where I put it and get back to it.scott g.f.baileyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05726743149139510832noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-38434503185321656552018-10-04T13:04:39.549-05:002018-10-04T13:04:39.549-05:00I guess the response Kermode notes, and I am seein...I guess the response Kermode notes, and I am seeing more of today, is moralistic in the sense that it is a search for Truth. People used to put up with this nonsense, but now we want books that are True, or show us Reality. "We" being, you know, other people, not me. I like art as art. <br /><br />Kermode argues that seeing through one fiction just leads to a new fiction, that fictions are a necessary part of making sense of the world. That creating or accepting fictions is also part of finding Truth.Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-70523751804543308452018-10-04T12:57:42.578-05:002018-10-04T12:57:42.578-05:00Plato in the Republic said that most of the fictio...Plato in the Republic said that most of the fiction of his day should be banned, including the works of Homer. Of course he was looking at the moralistic uses of fiction, but I still claim that as Plato looking at the skeleton of <i>The Iliad</i>. Or maybe the kidneys. God knows that a lot of literary criticism over the centuries has not limited itself to structure and theme.scott g.f.baileyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05726743149139510832noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-55524737376692755832018-10-04T09:17:25.625-05:002018-10-04T09:17:25.625-05:00Oh good. I will make the knowledge of the audienc...Oh good. I will make the knowledge of the audience - the original audience, not me - a recurring theme. And I may make one or two snide comments along the line of yours. "Since the beginning of fiction" is apparently the answer to your question, but at least in the mid-1960s they were getting an especially strong French dose of it.Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-6334198986470544812018-10-04T08:49:35.452-05:002018-10-04T08:49:35.452-05:00There is the question, also, of our growing suspic...<i>There is the question, also, of our growing suspicions of fictions in general.</i><br /><br />In 1965! I just read a similar statement in the latest <i>New York Times Book Review</i>. How long have people been saying that?Languagehathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13285708503881129380noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-30939101688926435412018-10-04T08:43:28.345-05:002018-10-04T08:43:28.345-05:00Finally I have the occasion to read this sacred mo...Finally I have the occasion to read this sacred monster that's been gazing at me for years with its basilisk eyes! Of course, I'm just beginning, while you've read it twice, but I'll try to catch up (at least I remembered the bird right away). Looking forward to the discussion.Languagehathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13285708503881129380noreply@blogger.com