*bring warm drinks, warm muffins, warm things...we're in the deep of winter!
*email me if you don't know where "Same old place" is - sabine@whitefishreview.org
Optimism in the face of the postmodern human condition. Is optimism a farce, or is it preferable to the starkness of postmodernism without humor? Has the facing of starkness (ie existential crisis) always been a problem for humans with time on their hands, ie not bent on survival, or is it worsening now? Is it possible to be happy, to find meaning, and to be aware of the postmodern human condition which bucks off sentimentality and surety as its modus operandi, ad nauseum? Or is happiness and meaning a thing postmodernism has killed as well, except in those bent on delusion? Is it better to take the against stance and not have hope/delusions for happiness, to enjoy one's curmudgeoness, or is it better to be a sappy optimist whose hope offers a steady stream of angst when happiness doesn’t arrive? Or is it better to be delusional?
- Define postmodernism.
- Define optimism.
- Define ‘the against stance’ via Phillip Lopate, either in his current essay in Harper's "Between Insanity and Fat Dullness" (article link)or from one of his essays in his book Against Joie de Vivre.
- Is it possible to be a critically-minded, realistic optimist?
- What to you defines the postmodern condition of being a human?
- Define existential crisis.
- Explore whether undeveloped societies have existential crises comparable to developed societies, or not.
- Describe reasons personally that add to your starkness or sense of existential crisis?
- Describe your reasons for optimism presently.
- What are the advantages of the against stance or optimism?
- Shawna's contribution: John Wilmot's poem "A Satyre Against Mankind," written in 1675 (link)
- Sabine's personal stance summarized by John Keats' "Ode to a Nightingale" (beautiful audio link)
- Joel's contribution: Walt Whitman's "Song of Myself" (poem link, Joel suggested at least the intro)
- Pam's and Isaac's contributions were sent via email (ask if you didn't receive them)
Choose the one that most fits your approach to life presently, and prep yourself to defend (with some the above or with your own additional sources, which you may share with the group if you like).
Shawna's contribution to Banter 9:
ReplyDeleteA Satyr Against Mankind, John Wilmot
(many translations are available)
Were I (who to my cost already am
One of those strange, prodigious creatures, man)
A spirit free to choose, for my own share,
What case of flesh and blood I pleased to wear,
I'd be a dog, a monkey, or a bear,
Or anything but that vain animal
Who is so proud of being rational.
The senses are too gross, and he'll contrive
A sixth, to contradict the other five,
And before certain instinct, will prefer
Reason, which fifty times for one does err;
Reason, an ignis fatuus in the mind,
Which, leaving light of nature, sense, behind,
Pathless and dangerous wandering ways it takes
Through error's fenny bogs and thorny brakes;
Whilst the misguided follower climbs with pain
Mountains of whimseys, heaped in his own brain;
Stumbling from thought to thought, falls headlong down
Into doubt's boundless sea, where, like to drown,
Books bear him up a while, and make him try
To swim with bladders of philosophy;
In hopes still to o'ertake th' escaping light,-
The vapor dances in his dazzling sight
Till, spent, it leaves him to eternal night.
Then old age and experience, hand in hand,
Lead him to death, and make him understand,
After a search so painful and so long,
That all his life he has been in the wrong.
Huddled in dirt the reasoning engine lies,
Who was so proud, so witty, and so wise.
Pride drew him in, as cheats their bubbles catch,
And made him venture to be made a wretch.
His wisdom did his happiness destroy,
Aiming to know that world he should enjoy...
(email me if you want the rest, or Google it)