besmudged_left_hand

Last night I went to the lecture by Dana Goia on why literature matters. I’ll copy out something I wrote as an extra credit assignment for one of my English classes on the lecture.

“Dana Goia suggested in his lecture that the answer to why literature matters is in what it teaches us: to imagine.
He listed the many kinds of knowledge in the world, scientific, conceptual, spiritual and poetic or artistic knowledge. Scientific knowledge is useful, as is conceptual and spiritual, he said, but life hardly ever is like those kinds of knowledge.
Life isn’t predictable like scientific knowledge. It isn’t always able to be interpreted objectively. Life isn’t all concepts either, like justice and humility. Life isn’t always so broad. Spiritual knowledge isn’t all of life either, though personally I believe that it plays a bigger part than perhaps Goia was allowing it does. However, he said that poetic or artistic knowledge addresses us in the “fullness of our humanity, in images, movement, sound, “ etc. He suggested that even Jesus knew this, and that’s why he told stories, he knew we’d understand.
Most of all, literature shows us options. He talked about how imagination is utterly important in all aspects of life, indeed even living itself. He mentioned how suicide victims often choose to end their lives because “they can’t imagine any way out of their situation.” Literature “awakens us to possibilities and enlarges them,” he said.
Another thing he mentioned that I found really interesting and encouraging, was a survey that was done of some of the most successful business people, to see what their academic background was. The answer? English! He said that to be great leaders, we have to be able to “create a story that other people want to be a part of.” Literature helps us to make the qualitative decisions that are so important in life. He encouraged us saying that if we’re in English or Literature, we can brag about it. We’re most likely there because we love it, and that is a wonderful reason to be studying something, not to mention we are learning skills that we use daily. I loved the lecture, it reaffirmed my decision to be an English major.”

Hooray for literature!

Blogging certainly is not one of my strong points. I believe it stems from my belief that I have nothing to write about except school work, and after a long day of classes, the last thing I feel like writing about is school.

But today is the day before fall break, so that is something to write about! I cannot express how much I am looking forward to a break, a chance to recover from taking exams and the disappointment after receiving them back and finding that the hours upon hours of study didn’t always turn into a good grade. I suppose that something I’m learning to wrap my head around. Hard work doesn’t always get a good result, unfortunately. However, when it does…boy is that satisfying!

Anyway, fall break is most welcome. I plan on visiting a friend at another school and heading to an amusement park nearby for some rollicking roller coaster fun. Even as a write, I’m getting butterflies. I have a strange relationship with roller coasters. I love them, yet I fear them greatly.

One more thing I’m looking forward to: reading what I want to read. My choice? Children’s literature of course! I need a break from academics. I will finally get a chance to finish From the Mixed of Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, which I bought at the Metropolitan museum of art a few weeks ago on an art trip.

Yep. That’s what happens when an English major goes to the Met. I looked at art, of course, but the whole time was thinking “I wish I had a copy of that book by E.L. Konigsburg.” Thankfully, the museum gift shop was able to satiate that desire. Next time I go, I’ll have to make a list of the places in the museum mentioned in the book and go look them up! If I was ever to write a unit study on that book, I would include a field trip to the Metropolitan to do just that. Ha ha.

Have a good break, fellow Messiahians!