An instructor in another class said we only get three exclamation points (!) to use in our life time. If that's true I just used two of mine, so I guess I'll save the last one for a special occasion... Well, I've been reading so much the last couple weeks I've been slacking on my blogs. I had to force myself to step out of Don Quixote's and Lyra's worlds back into my own so I could blog. There should be blogs in those worlds too.
Anyway this entry will be about my thoughts on the last test and some Frye.
I didn't think that last test was too bad. I remember taking it and noticing how the questions got progressively harder towards the end, concluding with, of course, the essay. Since I memorized The Idea a while ago I wasn't worried about that part but knew that Sexson would be also expecting some insightful commentary, which is always somewhat difficult. I received a 4 for my essay which means it could have been better, the max points being 5. But with time constraints and the non-avoidable stress that always tags along with tests, it's hard to guess exactly what the instructor is expecting. I on the other hand was not expecting the characters that we were supposed to assign with the phases of the seasonal cycle. It seems to me that we didn't spend much time on that, but then again with the cold weather setting in I could have been daydreaming about skiing - it's known to happen.
Since we won't be spending a lot more time with Frye this stuff may not come up in class but still deserves a little attention.
When discussing the fifth phase of comedy in the mythos of spring on page 184. These comedies tend toward romance and can contain tragedies. "The action seems to be not only a movement from a 'winter's tale' to spring, but from a lower world of confusion to an upper world of order... not simply a cyclical movement from tragedy and absence to happiness and return, but of bodily metamorphosis and a transformation from one kind of life to another. The materials of the cognitio of Pericles or The Winter's Tale are so stock that they would be "hooted at like an old tale", yet they seem both far-fetched and inevitably right, outraging reality and at the same time introducing us to a world of childlike innocence which has always made more sense than reality." Whew, that was quite a quote.
Though I'm unfamiliar with the works Frye uses as examples that's not exactly what stood out to me. 'A world of childlike innocence... has always made more sense than reality.' That these works are 'both far-fetched and inevitably right.' This may be a long shot but if we take a look at a well-known fairy tale, a world of child"like" innocence - the quotations are key - such as Jack and the Beanstalk we can kind of see what Frye is explaining. The tale is far-fetched in that Jack grows a huge beanstalk which he can climb into another world, one among the clouds and interestingly or coincidently a lower world to an upper one, talks with and steals from a giant and then kills him by chopping down the bean stock when he's on it. Ok... so if Jack and his mother are the lower class commoners, the giant is a metaphor for the upper class, the rich. I think this is working. Jack lives in a lower world of confusion where he probably doesn't understand why he and his mother are poor. Visiting the upper world, where the rich giants live, Jack notices there is more order: riches, gold, harps, hens that lay gold eggs, and an abundance of food. It is only natural that Jack would want to steal from this world in ORDER to bring ORDER to the lower world with his mother. (I love the irony that the rich giant gets his wealth from hens that lay gold eggs - it isn't even his wealth after all.) This tale is certainly far-fetched but, inevitably right. Well put Frye.
On page 192 Frye recaps the four mythoi and corresponds each one to an archetypal theme. This passage really helped my understand Frye's theory of myth. Here's a quick breakdown since this blog has become much more exhaustive then I anticipated.
Agon or conflict is the archetypal theme Romance; conflicts lead to 'a sequence of marvelous adventures.'
Pathos or catastrophe is the archetypal theme of tragedy where we see triumphs and defeats.
Sparmagos or tearing to pieces is the archetypal theme of irony and satire where the "sense that heroism and effective action are absent, disorganized or foredoomed to defeat, and that confusion and anarchy reign over the world.
Anagnorisis or recognition of newborn society is the archetypal theme of comedy where the new society rises in triumph around a still somewhat mysterious hero and bride.
And there you have it, agon and romance; pathos and tragedy; sparmagos and irony; and anagnorisis and comedy. I think I'll try to memorize these correlations so that when people ask me why and what I study in English I can baffle them with some Frye
