Literature and Facets of Literature.
We are connected to everything that exists. Whatever we create, think, feel and every action we take we belong to that ultimate thing that makes us one. And because of this correlation we learn to put value on things whether living or non-living. We become conscious that we have the power to inspire others to do well or influence them to do bad deeds. Literature and society is also a unified subject matter. Literature is part of civilizations growth. The lives then and now have predominantly changed hence the conception of a modern-day literature. However I still believe that our past is what makes our future which only proves that we are profoundly involved with every other person and are accountable for all the happenings in this world.
All literary pieces give you an idea about various aspects of society from politics, economics and culture, by means of genres like romance, tragedy and comedy from time to time. It is a form of amusement that confers readers the knowledge of history. The up and coming generations will be able to learn of past experiences and not repeat mistakes. However literature can also be detrimental to society if not premeditated and its content is filled with cynicism and iniquity. The wonderful thing about literature is that each masterpiece has so much to offer to the person who reads. There is always a lesson to be learned from each good literary piece. Whether it be about a look at racism, the casualties of war, poverty, the class structures that exist, faith, survival, the past, the present, the future, love, and even hate. Every great piece of literature is didactic. Whether we decide to learn that lesson is up to us, but the endless opportunity is always there.
There are three recommended books which people can read in order to expand their knowledge on literature and to enjoy the same. The first one is The Yellow Wallpaper created by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. It is essentially considered her best work of short fiction. It is a about a young mother s illness and also based on Gilman s own experiences with post-partum depression. The young mother was advised of what they called rest cure of solitude. She must not do anything that will incite intellectual stimulation. She was not allowed to see and take care of her baby, not even to read and write. Her husband rented a cheap summer colonial house that looks peculiar as it was left untenanted for a long time. She was kept in former nursery decorated with yellow wallpaper but as she described it in her own words One of those sprawling flamboyant patterns committing every artistic sin (Gilman, 2009). It is dull enough to confuse the eye in following, pronounced enough to constantly irritate and provoke study, and when you follow the lame uncertain curves for a little distance they suddenly commit suicide--plunge off at outrageous angles, destroy themselves in unheard of contradictions. The color is repellent, almost revolting a smoldering unclean yellow, strangely faded by the slow-turning sunlight. It is a dull yet lurid orange in some places, a sickly sulphur tint in others. No wonder the children hated it I should hate it myself if I had to live in this room long (Gilman, 2009). The house will serve as rehabilitation but it was more of an imprisonment for her not to recover easily as she believes that some physical activity and enthusiasm would do her good but her thoughts were not given high regard. The interesting point here is how the trapped protagonist escaped the world she was forced to live in. There was nowhere else for her to go except into her own mind. The fact that she could name what was happening to her, meant she knows who she really is and I see her response as a success. How the modern woman should be.
The second book is The American Dream written by Edward Albee who s considered by many to be one of the most influential playwrights of the seventeenth century and received three Pulitzer Prizes for drama. The play is about a family consisting of a dominating mother, an emasculated Daddy and a shrewd Grandma. To Albee, Grandma epitomizes how the way life used to be, a time when real values and self-respect mattered. She is in general a representation of how American s have not learned from their past. It teaches that the past holds the truth to our future. I remember when I was young and was a little bit defiant. He told me how times have changed when the new generation dismisses the teachings of the old. They don t take anything from it and yet talk past it and ignores its existence. American Dream is a perfect depiction of the popular thing happening in America. As Albee quotes, The play is an examination of the American Scene, an attack on the substitution of artificial for real values in our society, a condemnation of complacency, cruelty, emasculation and vacuity ( Edward Albee The American Dream ). It is the interpretation of how artificial values have taken the place of the should-be real values in the American Society.
The last one is the 8th novel by Don DeLillo the White Noise which won the National Book Award in 1985 and was included in Time Magazine s 100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005. DeLillo quoted in 1984, Its about fear, death, and technology. A comedy, of course. It is the story of Jack Gladney, the chairman of the department of Hitler studies, his family, and the The Airborne Toxic Event because of their excessive fear of death. DeLillo claims his main inspiration for Gladney s obsessive fright of death was Ernest Beckers 1974 Pulitzer Prize-winning non-fiction work, The Denial of Death. Although the fear of death seems unnecessary, his worries grow in greatness. His tacit fears articulate to greater anxieties at play in late twentieth-century America. A never-ending stream of white noise, both technological and human, demonstrates Jack s life. As he moved forward through the boundless course of figures and chatter, Jack perceives something greater and more elemental emanating from behind, or possibly within, all the noise.
The experience of reading White Noise, with its constant divergence and ostensibly futile anecdotes, bear a resemblance to what is recent occasion we see on the television news. Toxic spills were becoming such a daily occurrence that no one cared about them -- only those affected by the spills cared. We can understand this initiative plays out in the airborne toxic event in White Noise, when people are disconcerted that the media pays their crisis little attention, but it became apparent in more subtle ways when DeLillo scrutinizes the consumerist and industrial atmospheres of death we create for ourselves. Despite the fact that most readers find his view of American society unsympathetic and pessimistic, others see the ending of White Noise to be subversively elevating and exhilarating.
We are at the phase where advanced transformation and modernization is playing a great role nowadays, but we are also losing something important of our social value. Is it worthwhile I don t think so. Literature illustrates the ups and downs of economic, political and social succession of life. Those are worthy lessons for the new generation, as well as leaders, to learn of past experiences from different kinds of literature, and not to repeat historical mistakes. Whether it be poetry, prose, essays, fiction, narrative, diaries or proverbs, people should learn from them. In every form, however, the idea of a story is present, and it is this that ensures its value for readers as well as pleasure and understanding. Literature is not only about the artistic and imaginative works of writers, it is also about life and living - it is about an individual experience and humanness. Stories have great appeal to all of us because they are so closely connected to experience. Stories inspire instigation and can take young intellects into a world of imagination, wonder and surprise. By means of literature, we can reach out and connect to other people and make them comprehend the life each and everyone goes through. It reaches other countries and in this manner they understand and sometimes relate to different situations avowed through different literary pieces. Stories edify truth by the way in which good and bad characters are rewarded or punished.
Moreover, literature serves a universal function to express ideas and thoughts. Just recently a book written by Stephanie Meyer The Twilight Series has been turned into a movie to reach more individuals about her elusive imagination and creative writing. Stephenie Meyer says that the idea for HYPERLINK httpen.wikipedia.orgwikiTwilight_(novel)Twilight came to her in a dream on June 2, 2003. The dream was about a human girl, and a vampire who was in love with her but thirsted for her blood. It gained a lot of positive and rave reviews because of the protagonists respect to their own kind, trust and love for each other. That no matter what happens they will always care and make sure they are there for each other mortality or immortality aside. It is not a factual experience however this form of literature tickles a lot of ingenious minds of today and through this we connect with each other regardless of our culture, race and color. And because of this, one of the schools in America encourages their students to read the series as part of their program to make literature part of their study as well as their life again. To be able to read, ponder and enliven their imagination again.
I agree with you when you say we are made of one continuous thread. That we are spun from the same thread reason for us to relate and somehow comprehend each others delight or discontentment. We belong to that one invigorating source that makes us alive. I think literature is still important, but I would like to disagree with those who say there are those who are incapable of appreciating it. Everybody is capable of appreciating literature, I think that many people dislike reading because theyve been raised to be mentally lazy and fear they wont enjoy it. Im not saying everyone can like everything ever written (I certainly dont), but they can appreciate at least something that has been written. Ive always pitied people who arent interested in reading they dont know what theyre missing. Its very seldom that any movie based on a novel is the equal of the written work. Literature at its finest should be challenging, but accessible. Literature has a crucial role to play in our society, and what we indulge ourselves in reading is very important and should be carefully chosen.
Literature was not written for one type of person. Displeased people do not have a monopoly on inspiration. While it might be easier to enthuse a group of dissatisfied people, it is not easier for the dissatisfied to identify with or relate to literature. The dissatisfied group is looking for change, they are looking to be touched and moved. A group of people who are on the whole pretty happy, are in fact a harder crowd to reach. To truly achieve change in the satisfied person an idea must be great and effectual it must be original and thought carefully out. Any type of person is capable of finding meaning in writing and every person will probably be inspired a different way.
Finally, I would like to leave this quote for you to ponder upon that we are all connected past and present, the old and the new, white and black, love and hate, happy and sad. It is up to you and I truly hope that you can start your own form of literature to share and inspire other individual that needs to be revived through the art of writing. With that, C. S. Lewis who is a British scholar and novelist mentioned that literature augmented knowledge to reality, descriptionis not only its contribution. It also enriched the necessary complexities that daily life required and provided and in this respect, it irrigated the deserts that our lives have already become.
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