Is it possible that when Van Gogh painted his sunflowers, he painted not the literal objects but instead their referents in the world of Platonic Forms? Or is it possible that when Dickinson wrote a “riddle” about a snowfall, she evoked not the literal snow but the ideal snow that “veils” heaven? Both artists thru their works penetrated their objects to their souls, to their ideal forms for the world to see. Both of them were diagnosed as psychotic by subsequent critics, but in both cases, something amazing happened… I had a friend who flatly refused to comprehend metaphors. I presented her with Shelley – I think it was “Ode to the West Wind” – and she either couldn’t get it or would not. With Dickinson she was even more stubborn. We parted ways just a fortnight after I began attending church. That was from mid-June to early July, 2017. Eight months before that time, I was already fed up with her logical positivism, her insistence on immanence. I was a trained English major and wanted to go places she refused… However: early in our friendship, there was one poet we agreed on. It was Stephane Mallarme, author of “Afternoon of a Faun.” We both dug deep into his use of poetic language to transcend the journalistic banality of the late 19th C. The question in my mind was, did Mallarme take his Symbolist transcendence to Platonic Forms literally, or was it for him a temporary contrivance of any given poem? I mean, did it go beyond the bounds of the poem or not? If poetry could achieve this, according to Mallarme, then he was doing what Van Gogh and Dickinson also did with their respective arts. The question in my mind merits research on what the whole Symbolist movement had been about. I will make this investigation my project for the week. Thank you for reading.
Mallarme was one of my favorite poets. The Absolute and the language…
The face of world changes but with symbolism we can preserve the science or knowledge of how to interact with this changing world, we can send messages to an upcoming unborn friend, and even make love to someone who is not alive yet…
If I ever understand the meaning of symbolism,
As a non-English major, this went over my head, but it sounds very scholarly and interesting. I haven’t tried analyzing literary works in ages.
Thanks, yeah. It’s the criticism aspect of literature. I put it under Creativity for lack of a better category. Besides, I’m still a little in the Unusual category as well. I do think the Vraylar is helping to shape my thinking into something a bit more logical, at any rate. I need to add to my comments on this med. Thank you for dropping by.
If you like, you can PM me as before and I’ll respond the best I can. Thanks for commenting.
I will when the right time comes, I see a treasure in you but I should see how to utilize it, if you let me,
Thanks for your generosity,
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