Withholding knowledge is more then rude; it prevents friends, family, and tag alongs from a small piece of personal enlightenment. That's what I thought while leafing through my notes from a really stimulating class (one of the only stimulating classes, Literature wise) at Humboldt State.
A preface before these notes:
Since I love people so much, it's relevant to note that the mouth that these words came from is just as interesting and inspiring as the words themselves. This professor was supposed to be one of the top authorities on William Blake in California. But he gave up his Blake seminars long before I took him for a Practical Criticism class. The man has legal died (according to him) three times from alcohol consumption. He received his education by court order: which is to say he had the choice of joining the Navy (where he met a Harvard graduate and studied every book in the Navy ship's library) or to go to jail for hot wiring and stealing cars. He was a "D" student in high school. After his Navy experience he took some IQ tests and found out that he was exceptionally smart. Also he is completely nihilistic and a little crazy. Here are some of my class notes:
-"There are no messages in literature. There are only aesthetics."
-"Humanity is the connecting link between time and eternity."
-There are three levels of LOVE according to Ptolemy:
1.) 'the gold casket' (which is just physical sex)
2.) ?
3.) 'transcendence of the physical world' (platonic love)
-The above has something to do with a complete circle, or "the music of the spheres" (geez I was a bad student!)
-The North Star in older poems is a metaphor for fixed love. This is the star which we all navigate.
-The symbol of a Nightingale in Romantic poems represents a story of a woman who was brutally raped. Her voice box was cut out and she transformed into a nightingale. Here beautiful song symbolizes the anguish of a raped woman.
-"Tragedy is watching someone pay the ultimate penalty for being born."
-"There is no devil in the Old Testament" (My brother says this is untrue. If you look at the story of Job you will find the devil mentioned.)
-"Love redeems Sex."
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That's all of my notes, sandwiched in between history facts, scribblings, and my favorite: quotes from eccentric students. My mind is not a steel trap for these facts. I spent a great deal of time with this professor after the class ended. But he kept his healing knowledge to himself, as if it was not that important. He explained to me how to hot wire a car though. He shared his drugs with me (a long time ago). And he taught me how to theoretically kill a man by hitting him in certain vital points. Most of my education comes after class with these professors, and this particular man was one of my favorite teachers.
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
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