Oh glorious inquisitor! Have you come today for more? I thought I had given you all I had this past week, but let me see if I cannot round up some more! Oh of course not, you have not come in vain, for you I will do anything I can. You see, I relish every time you appear to me. Your requests and questions are like sweet wine for my heart. It soothes my soul to hear your voice, a voice of millions, a voice for millions. I admit I was not expecting you today, but no, do not be offended, have you not heard my words? You are always invited here, always welcome. This one? No? This one then, see the fine shape and color. Does it please you? I have more, always more. This one came to me quite by accident the other day. I saw him walking down by the railroad tracks. Yes? You know the place? Then you certainly know the quality, this one could satisfy you for days at least! And this one over there in the corner, she was a nurse. She took care of my old next door neighbor. Yes, that’s right, the one from your last visit. Well she came over to my house yesterday to see if I knew what happened to him, and well, you can see….Oh it will please you my luminous spirit! I try so hard for you, you know this, can’t you see? I try so hard. You are never satiated, and yet do I stop? Of course not! When you came and ask for my full self do I resist? No, I reveal all, everything you ask, even those things which frighten me most, even those things, yes. But do not let me burden you with my small troubles, they are not important, only you, always only you, beauty. Not merely beauty, no, complete range and connection of completion. Completion of myself. And you. You are full? See? Yes, like I said, I always have what you need. I await your return, my resplendent deity. And I will have more, always more. I will find some, I will do it tonight.

ok, ok i know i havent updated in a long ass time, and itll be a few more days before i get back to my alphabet thing, so to tide you over, here's something i wrote for a message board for school about the value of literature :) good times....

The term literature as meaning language that has been de-familiarized from ordinary language is useful to many people, mainly those of higher class. As Eagleton states, to have literature as unfamiliar language means that there is a common familiar language, in other words the language of everyday use. So to those in the working classes, literature has little or no value, being so removed from their recognizable forms of communication. In order to understand literature and its value, people must go to school and learn from a teacher who knows everything there is to know about the subject. Assuming that literature has value, and that the professors, and upper classes know that value, then it is in their interests to promote the idea that literature is unfamiliar and therefore not knowable to the lower classes who do not have the benefit of an upper class education to familiarize themselves with the language of literature. In this way literature can be used as a means of oppression. The upper educated classes state that there is valuable knowledge but then say that the knowledge is not available for everyone, only those who know how to look. This kind of thinking creates another problem. As long as the educated upper classes insist that there is valuable knowledge in literature, the lower working classes will continue to draw further away from valuing that kind of knowledge, in other words, it pits the working class against the intellectuals, and fuels animosity between the two. The working classes will deny that there is any value to literature, for them at least, because they are continually being denied access to it. And the upper class will continue to assert their claims because it feeds their ideas of superiority. This leads to an anti intellectual sentiment which can prevail long after the idea that literature is an upper class pursuit dies. Even when higher education is available to everyone, some will still resist the idea of studying literature because it is taught to them that literature has no value. Of course, Eagleton talks a lot about what “value” means and how the idea of value is a value judgment. Or something like that. Anyway, what I’m saying is that literature is thought to have little importance in the practical world, and little real world application. Eagleton talks about this also, about how some might say that literature is the absence of pragmatism, and if this is so, then literature is not supposed to have any real world application so what are those crazy people (the working class) griping about anyway? Ha-Ha just kidding. But this is an interesting point. If literature doesn’t have the value of say a text book on small mammals, then what is it good for? (oh, those crazy people have a point after all…..) Well my best guess it that the literature has the point we read into it. I agree that literature is a functional term and tells us what we do, and not what we do to it, so I suppose the same goes for value. The value of literature is the value we put on it. If we want literature to enhance our understanding of the world then it can do that, but it can also help us explore human emotion, literary structure (like the Russian formalists) and many other things. Speaking of those Russian formalists, I think its silly. yes, silly. I mean, why read literature if you’re just wanting to go from point A to point Z? and what happens if the book is all A and no Z? Or stuck somewhere between? Well then I’d say you’re a few letters short of an alphabet, but that’s not my point. You have to enjoy the content, at least a little, because that’s what literature is written for after all. People don’t write stories just to show off how good they are at building suspense. Ok, well some do, but the content has to be interesting too, it’s not all about structure. But I suppose I am making a value judgment, which is of course a construct of my culture, ect…….I also realize that the Russian formalist approach is a lot like this posting. It doesn’t really matter what I write about, just that I get to 800 words so I can get my A. But I would hope that what I wrote about does somebody good, if only myself. So in conclusion, I do think that there is an advantage for some people to say that literature is language de-familiarized, and those people are the educated upper classes. Literature does have value, it has the value we wish to see in it, and that is a worthwhile pursuit. oh, and I also think the Russian formalists are silly. Ok I just looked at my word count and it said 799. but after that sentence its 816. ha! I did it.