tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3458341.post8698891658944569015..comments2024-01-06T10:36:04.084-05:00Comments on A Commonplace Blog: Cunningham’s history of criticismD. G. Myershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10659136455045567825noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3458341.post-29590487914815535662012-08-22T17:34:51.630-04:002012-08-22T17:34:51.630-04:00I am enjoying these. Thought it was "black wi...I am enjoying these. Thought it was "black wink of eternity" rather than blue... Shall have to look it up. And I remember hearing in school long ago that it was a typesetter's error for "wing" but that Crane liked it.marly youmanshttp://www.thepalaceat2.blogspot.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3458341.post-66383747250890910102009-04-26T08:33:00.000-04:002009-04-26T08:33:00.000-04:00"Meter. Poets must learn, young, to speak and hear..."Meter. Poets must learn, young, to speak and hear it." Did he also say that you had to read poetry out loud? You can't read it silently.If you're in a quiet place like a library, you must at least mumble.Jay Livingstonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06652075579940313964noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3458341.post-10522303368881206772009-03-31T14:56:00.000-04:002009-03-31T14:56:00.000-04:00Thank you for posting these notes. There is conten...Thank you for posting these notes. There is content there that is truly inspirational.Anthonyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07452367263722647460noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3458341.post-20151147242026965632009-03-31T14:23:00.000-04:002009-03-31T14:23:00.000-04:00How I envy your experiences in Prof. Cunningham's ...How I envy your experiences in Prof. Cunningham's classroom. Thank you for your generous sharing of your rediscovered notes. When I get bogged down in sorting through literary criticism of the past quarter century, which happens often, I can now clear my mind of cant and return to your notes (which I have taken the liberty of copying), and those notes will help me understand again why I fell in love with the teaching of literature. POSTSCRIPT TO ANONYMOUS: Read Hamlet again, but think less about the substance of Laertes' comments to his sister, especially in terms of what it all must mean to Ophelia, and think more about the ways in which Shakespeare is laying the foundation for the audience's deeper understanding of Hamlet's problems as well as a foundation for the audience's realization that Shakespeare's play was rather covertly and politically topical.R/Thttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07791522136032565027noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3458341.post-11943354096722377092009-03-31T07:38:00.000-04:002009-03-31T07:38:00.000-04:00You've given me enough fuel to last a LONG while. ...You've given me enough fuel to last a LONG while. Thank You! Pithy, poignant - near heroic couplets in substance and brevity.<BR/><BR/><B>"The assumption of translation is that things can be said in several ways and that the ways can be compared."</B> <-- I've spent the last week or so vacillating between the English and French versions of Bouillier's The Mystery Guest and am miserable (it's all documented on my blog).... this is timely.<BR/><BR/><B>"The purpose of the plain style is to persuade, of the pretty style to charm, of the grand style to move or bend."</B> <-- I'm drawn to dandyism in literature, so it's definitely the charming, pretty style for me.<BR/><BR/><B>"An accumulation of bad habits marks the colloquial style."</B> & <B>"In modern literature we witness a widespread need for anti-formality which often takes the form of vandalism. It goes by the rubric Make It New."</B> <-- These are the reasons I've disliked many of the books I've recently read.<BR/><BR/><B>"When style is overpowering it takes us over. We think we have said what we have heard."</B> <-- Montaigne is the master of this plain, persuasive style. You'd think you'd come up with some of the self-realizations he documented. And these notes of yours, of Cunningham's, I find myself nodding in agreement and gasping in epiphany as I read them.<BR/><BR/><B>"How difficult it is to write in praise!"</B> <-- I started my own commonplace blog last week (this blog has been my inspiration) and already I feel I'm being too negative, finding fault with everything, being a literary *hater* (lol) - but it's much easier for me to identify and criticize the source of my dissatisfaction in what I read... which is strange because there's so much pleasure to be had in a book.<BR/><BR/>What a teacher Cunningham must have been!Rebecca V. O'Nealhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07920443685663707856noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3458341.post-69031858555010099582009-03-31T07:34:00.000-04:002009-03-31T07:34:00.000-04:00Only partly true. The context of Laertes’ warning ...Only partly true. The context of Laertes’ warning is obviously marriage. He tells Ophelia that Hamlet may love her now, but his choice—whom to marry—is not entirely his own, “for on his choice depends/ The safety and health of this whole state;/ And therefore must his choice be circumscribed. . . .”<BR/><BR/>If for Ophelia love is an affair of the heart, for the song of a king it must also be an affair of state.<BR/><BR/>Accordingly, Laertes advises her to show caution in listening to Hamlet’s love songs, weighing carefully what it would mean to “lose your heart, or your chaste treasure open/ To his unmaster'd importunity.”<BR/><BR/><I>Getting involved without marriage</I> is a modern concept, which Shakespeare would not have understood. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that Laertes warns Ophelia on the subject of marriage to Hamlet.<BR/><BR/>Hearing this warning, a modern thinks of sex. The Elizabethan audience thought of the political consequences of marriage between royalty and a commoner.D. G. Myershttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10659136455045567825noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3458341.post-74536308439540557892009-03-31T02:30:00.000-04:002009-03-31T02:30:00.000-04:00Laertes doesn't warn Ophelia against marrying Haml...Laertes doesn't warn Ophelia against marrying Hamlet. He warns her against getting involved without marriage.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com