One Phrase from Paradise Lost Cover Letter
When going through Paradise Lost in search of a word or phrase to write about, I came across the phrase “sufficient to have stood, though free to fall” and was immediately struck by the depth of meaning it conveyed in contrast to its simplicity and beautiful sound. I went back and read the passage this phrase was within to gain more context and began to see the importance of this singular phrase within the whole text. It encompassed countless ideas about creation and agency so simply. Because I felt like we had thoroughly discussed these ideas in class, it didn’t feel too difficult to write about, but I still struggled some in conveying my ideas correctly and organizing well. In addition to this essay, I chose to do an “artifact” relating to this phrase. Using watercolors, I painted the figures of Adam and Eve in their first moments of existence as they are still being made from the earth itself. I wanted the painting to be simplistic yet also detailed enough to have a sense of shape and depth. I drew the figures of Adam and Eve standing upright as God creates them. In the phrase I chose, God hints at the significance of his creations having free will being able to stand. This is also a nod to humans being created in the likeness of God. Because they are a gifted agency, they are made to resemble God and stand upright as God can.
"Sufficient to have stood, though free to fall"; One Phrase From Milton's Paradise Lost
Paradise Lost is a story of the creation of the world, and of humans, by God. It is a story of sin and sacrifice, revenge and redemption, freedoms, and failures. These things are defined by agency, the scope of agency maintained by each character and the effects of agency on the dynamic between the characters. In book III, God explains that the spirits he has created as well as humans have been made “sufficient to have stood, though free to fall”. This particular phrase stands out, not only for its poetic sound, but for all that it conveys about agency.
It is clear in Paradise Lost that closeness to God is recognizable through the ability to stand upright, something that, in the aforementioned phrase, God equates to freedoms. God suggests that his creations have been made to have free will, meaning that, whether God’s creations have stayed standing or fallen, they have done so freely. This particular phrase, “sufficient to have stood, though free to fall” conveys many significant things about different characters’ varying levels of agency.
This phrase suggests that beings created by God are made to be free. Their freedom means they have agency, the ability to act of their own accord within the societal structures they have come to understand. The phrase also revolves around the notion that God created other living beings such as spirits and humans, meaning that the agency maintained by humans or spirits is an allowed agency, only permitted by a greater force such as God. Therefore, through this phrase, we begin to see the varying scopes of agency that may exist. Though humans have agency, they only have this as a result of God’s agency, and God still maintains the power to take away that agency, or even to alter the societies that this agency he has awarded functions within. This suggests that God’s agency is more powerful than human agency.
Though God provides his creations with freedom and agency, because he remains in ultimate power, he retains the power to punish those who choose to reject or disobey him. For example, Satan’s rejection of God lands him and his “Host Of Rebel Angels” in “bottomless perdition”, where he is to be tormented by “lost happiness and lasting pain” for all eternity. Eve’s disobedience of God’s only request is punished eternally by the pain of childbirth and ultimately death, a fate that could have been much worse had the son of God not sacrificed his life for the sins of man. These examples support what the phrase “sufficient to have stood, though free to fall” reveals to us; that while both humans and God have agency, God’s agency extends far beyond the agency of humans.
Within the phrase “sufficient to have stood, though free to fall”, several aspects of Paradise Lost that are crucial to understanding the significance of this story can be found. Though these aspects, including the varying degrees of agency present in Paradise Lost, are displayed throughout the entire narrative in many ways, this particular phrase encompasses this idea and presents it very succinctly, helping clarify its importance for the reader. This is why this phrase stands out as an incredibly memorable and significant piece of text from Paradise Lost.
It is clear in Paradise Lost that closeness to God is recognizable through the ability to stand upright, something that, in the aforementioned phrase, God equates to freedoms. God suggests that his creations have been made to have free will, meaning that, whether God’s creations have stayed standing or fallen, they have done so freely. This particular phrase, “sufficient to have stood, though free to fall” conveys many significant things about different characters’ varying levels of agency.
This phrase suggests that beings created by God are made to be free. Their freedom means they have agency, the ability to act of their own accord within the societal structures they have come to understand. The phrase also revolves around the notion that God created other living beings such as spirits and humans, meaning that the agency maintained by humans or spirits is an allowed agency, only permitted by a greater force such as God. Therefore, through this phrase, we begin to see the varying scopes of agency that may exist. Though humans have agency, they only have this as a result of God’s agency, and God still maintains the power to take away that agency, or even to alter the societies that this agency he has awarded functions within. This suggests that God’s agency is more powerful than human agency.
Though God provides his creations with freedom and agency, because he remains in ultimate power, he retains the power to punish those who choose to reject or disobey him. For example, Satan’s rejection of God lands him and his “Host Of Rebel Angels” in “bottomless perdition”, where he is to be tormented by “lost happiness and lasting pain” for all eternity. Eve’s disobedience of God’s only request is punished eternally by the pain of childbirth and ultimately death, a fate that could have been much worse had the son of God not sacrificed his life for the sins of man. These examples support what the phrase “sufficient to have stood, though free to fall” reveals to us; that while both humans and God have agency, God’s agency extends far beyond the agency of humans.
Within the phrase “sufficient to have stood, though free to fall”, several aspects of Paradise Lost that are crucial to understanding the significance of this story can be found. Though these aspects, including the varying degrees of agency present in Paradise Lost, are displayed throughout the entire narrative in many ways, this particular phrase encompasses this idea and presents it very succinctly, helping clarify its importance for the reader. This is why this phrase stands out as an incredibly memorable and significant piece of text from Paradise Lost.
Self-Fashioning through Aesthetic Experiences Cover Letter
Going into this assignment, I was filled with anxiety. I felt that I had a lot to say about key concepts, ideas, and rhetoricals moves that exist within Better Living Through Criticism and Renaissance Self Fashioning, but I didn’t know how to choose which of these concepts was the key intersection between the two texts. Discussing our ideas openly and reflectively in class felt much different than asserting one overarching theme and discussing, argumentatively and decisively, how these texts connect; the latter felt much more daunting. I spent a lot of time flipping through my commonplace book and course pack and writing down key ideas, but I kept feeling like every point of connection I identified correlated with one text much more than the other. When I spoke to Dr. Holt about these concerns, I was reminded of what first drew me to these texts: the idea of an aesthetic experience. When I first read Scott’s examples and explanations of aesthetic experience, I thought “this is so me.” Ironically, this experience of resonating with and being validated by art is a key aspect of aesthetic experience that I identified in this very essay. But once I thought more about aesthetic experiences, I was able to see how the concept of aesthetic experience is mirrored in Renaissance Self Fashioning through the concept of self fashioning itself and how self fashioning happens through aesthetic experiences. Though I still encountered many challenges throughout the actual process of writing this essay, once I landed on my “key intersection”, it was much easier to move forward in my writing and begin to craft my essay. Through peer editing and class, I was able to reign in my ideas and attempt to have a more cohesive theme throughout my writing. In addition to this, having Davis and Leila(who are both juniors and have never read any Greenblatt or Scott) read my essay really helped have an outside perspective and helped me examine the clarity of my writing and ideas for anyone who could encounter this essay.
Self-Fashioning through Aesthetic Experiences: An intersecting Theme in Scott and Greenblatt
Better Living Through Criticism by A.O. Scott and Renaissance Self Fashioning by Stephen Greenblatt are two enlightening texts that, when examined, reveal they share many connecting themes and insights. In Better Living Through Criticism by A.O. Scott, Scott describes a concept he calls the “aesthetic experience”, an experience one has when interacting with and experiencing art, in whatever form it comes. In Renaissance Self-Fashioning, author Stephen Greenblatt describes the concept of self-fashioning: the process of shaping one’s own identity through the submission to an authority and the rejection of an opposing alien. Though these two concepts may seem completely separate at first glance, after closer inspection, it is clear that they are the major intersection between the two texts.
Self-fashioning, the shaping of one’s self and identity, happens through and is a result of aesthetic experiences. This connection is evident in Greenblatt’s introduction to Renaissance Self-Fashioning, in which he describes his first encounters with the idea of self-fashioning that led him to write his novel. His encounters with ideas of self-fashioning accumulate into his desire to further explore these ideas in the context of Renaissance literature which would eventually become the novel: Renaissance Self Fashioning. Greenblatt describes the initial feeling of inspiration he felt when he first knew he would write his novel: “this feeling, before the actual difficulties of writing set in, has always been for me the happiest moment in the composition process: you become alert to everything, including things that everyone including you had long regarded as boring or unimportant, and everything you encounter, however accidentally, seems potentially rich with significance. Things almost literally seem to leap off the page.”(Greenblatt, xiii) Greenblatt perfectly describes the inspiring and uplifting feeling of an aesthetic experience that will lead to self-fashioning and, as Scott says, “moral improvement”(Scott, 48). As readers engage with Greenblatt’s text meaningfully, they themselves begin to mirror his process, undergoing a series of aesthetic experiences that lead to self fashioning.
One reason aesthetic experiences actively fashion our perception of ourselves is because, as humans, we tend to try to relate to and look for ourselves in all the moving and meaningful art we encounter. Scott explains that, no matter what art form we interact with, if we truly connect to a piece of art and are moved by it, we experience similar sensations “of being seen, of feeling as if the vector of perception has been reserved”(Scott, 70). Seeing ourselves reflected back in art, the feeling of “being seen”, helps us to feel as if we have gained perspective on our own selves, grown, and in turn fashioned ourselves. Scott explains that there are three realms in which aesthetic experiences exist; the agreeable, the beautiful, and the good. An agreeable aesthetic experience is one of instant gratification, yielding nothing higher than simple pleasure or enjoyment. In comparison, the realm of “the good,” the highest level of aesthetic experience, refers to an experience in which the art or the experience itself inspires “admiration and respect”(Scott, 49). By striving to exist within the good, we will be striving for a mental space in which we engage with conceptually challenging pieces of art and literature, critiquing that which we engage with in order to bring meaning to both the art and to ourselves and to bask in the rewarding experience of grappling with intellectually challenging and enlightening material.
Both of these texts encourage readers to live within this more conscious, heightened, and stimulating headspace, to seek out aesthetic experiences worthy of “the good” that inspire self-reflection through which we may fashion ourselves. In the end of Greenblatt’s preface, he explains that, though his claim is that we have no autonomous agency over our identity, actions, or choices, his novel is not intended to be received as pessimistic. “Coursing through these chapters is an ineradicable principal of hope” that speaks to “the larger project [...] of grasping how we have become the way we are”(Greenblatt, xvi). This idea that we may use the ideas of self fashioning outlined to better understand ourselves and how we function is paralleled in Better Living Through Criticism as Scott exhorts his audience to seek out aesthetic experiences that will inspire us to be more introspective.
Self-fashioning, the shaping of one’s self and identity, happens through and is a result of aesthetic experiences. This connection is evident in Greenblatt’s introduction to Renaissance Self-Fashioning, in which he describes his first encounters with the idea of self-fashioning that led him to write his novel. His encounters with ideas of self-fashioning accumulate into his desire to further explore these ideas in the context of Renaissance literature which would eventually become the novel: Renaissance Self Fashioning. Greenblatt describes the initial feeling of inspiration he felt when he first knew he would write his novel: “this feeling, before the actual difficulties of writing set in, has always been for me the happiest moment in the composition process: you become alert to everything, including things that everyone including you had long regarded as boring or unimportant, and everything you encounter, however accidentally, seems potentially rich with significance. Things almost literally seem to leap off the page.”(Greenblatt, xiii) Greenblatt perfectly describes the inspiring and uplifting feeling of an aesthetic experience that will lead to self-fashioning and, as Scott says, “moral improvement”(Scott, 48). As readers engage with Greenblatt’s text meaningfully, they themselves begin to mirror his process, undergoing a series of aesthetic experiences that lead to self fashioning.
One reason aesthetic experiences actively fashion our perception of ourselves is because, as humans, we tend to try to relate to and look for ourselves in all the moving and meaningful art we encounter. Scott explains that, no matter what art form we interact with, if we truly connect to a piece of art and are moved by it, we experience similar sensations “of being seen, of feeling as if the vector of perception has been reserved”(Scott, 70). Seeing ourselves reflected back in art, the feeling of “being seen”, helps us to feel as if we have gained perspective on our own selves, grown, and in turn fashioned ourselves. Scott explains that there are three realms in which aesthetic experiences exist; the agreeable, the beautiful, and the good. An agreeable aesthetic experience is one of instant gratification, yielding nothing higher than simple pleasure or enjoyment. In comparison, the realm of “the good,” the highest level of aesthetic experience, refers to an experience in which the art or the experience itself inspires “admiration and respect”(Scott, 49). By striving to exist within the good, we will be striving for a mental space in which we engage with conceptually challenging pieces of art and literature, critiquing that which we engage with in order to bring meaning to both the art and to ourselves and to bask in the rewarding experience of grappling with intellectually challenging and enlightening material.
Both of these texts encourage readers to live within this more conscious, heightened, and stimulating headspace, to seek out aesthetic experiences worthy of “the good” that inspire self-reflection through which we may fashion ourselves. In the end of Greenblatt’s preface, he explains that, though his claim is that we have no autonomous agency over our identity, actions, or choices, his novel is not intended to be received as pessimistic. “Coursing through these chapters is an ineradicable principal of hope” that speaks to “the larger project [...] of grasping how we have become the way we are”(Greenblatt, xvi). This idea that we may use the ideas of self fashioning outlined to better understand ourselves and how we function is paralleled in Better Living Through Criticism as Scott exhorts his audience to seek out aesthetic experiences that will inspire us to be more introspective.
Brain Pickings Piece Cover Letter
I originally misunderstood this assignment and thought it was supposed to be an emulation of one of Maria Popova's Brainpicking's pieces, but when looking back on how I could edit the piece, I decided not to make any changes because I feel that it still reflects the desired product of the directions. The piece still centers around the overarching theme throughout the three excerpts we had to read which I identified as authority in my concept map. Though the three pieces of literature we read this summer had many connecting themes, the few that stood out to me were the importance of questioning accepted internal and external authorities and criticizing them constructively, so I used evidence from every excerpt we had to read this summer. My concept map visually displays the many ideas present in each excerpt, but more specifically, it shows how each excerpt relates to authority. First, in "Better Living Through Criticism", Scott identifies consensus as a type of authority and describes how we have been conditioned to accept that rather than question in. In "A More Beautiful Question", Berger uses the example of the school system as an institutional authority that we do not often enough question and goes into depth about inquiry and how little we question accepted authorities. Finally, in "Renaissance Self-Fashioning", Greenblatt describes how, when we fashion our identities, we are submitting to a greater authority and therefore rejecting an opposing alien." Because I wrote my piece intending to emulate Popova's style, I included lots of textual evidence, and tried to use my own words only to make connections between the many exerpts. I began my piece using a quote from Warren Berger’s “A More Beautiful Question” in order to emulate several of Popova’s pieces that begin that way, including her piece “Alan Lightman on the Longing for Absolutes in a Relative World and What Gives Lasting Meaning to Our Lives” that I read as part of the summer reading. Throughout the piece, I continued to include large quotes and summarize other information from the summer reading, connecting the pieces and their ideas to create the fluidity that is present in Popova’s pieces. I also included images of the books I was referencing , something I noticed in Popova’s pieces, to provide more context and allow the piece to be more visually interesting. Overall, I tried to focus mostly on the material, and less on my own opinions, as Popova does, and authentically depict an idea, using evidence surrounding the idea from varying angels.
A Society Trapped in a Cycle of Acceptance
“Somewhere between ages four and five, children are ideally suited for questioning: They have gained the language skills to ask, their brains are still in an expansive, highly connective mode, and they’re seeing things without labels or assumptions”, writes Warren Berger in his novel “A More Beautiful Question. Berger goes on to explain, however, that as soon as children enter school, they seem to lose their affinity for question-asking. Berger provides an explanation for this phenomenon by describing how, when school was first designed, “a premium [was put] on compliance and rote memorization of basic knowledge-excellent qualities in an industrial worker”, so we are now still functioning in a society that teaches students “Look, here are the planets, now memorize this… The message was that in this class we don’t have time for questions-because that will take time away from the number of answers I have to cover.”
But today, “the consensus seems to be that this new world demands citizens who are self-learners; who are creative and resourceful; who can adjust and adapt to constant change”, Berger suggests. There is a significant amount of evidence suggesting that curriculums that provide more opportunity for inquiry are more successful, but there has been no major shift in this direction. The reason for this is fostered within the current school systems. The schools systems in place now shut down our ability to question and inquire about the world around us. We forget to ask “how could this be better?” and we simply accept.
A.O. Scott identified this in his novel “Living Better Through Criticism”; “When confronted by the fleshy allegories of Titan or Rubens, or the grand, cinematic history paintings of David, or the mute strangeness of rough stones dug from the oblivion of ancient tombs, our own opinions are less than trivial. They barely even register; the work of evaluation has been done in advance. Our job is to accept, and to doubt ourselves.”
But we are not helpless in this area, according to Scott, “if we choose, we can be more defiant and obnoxious in our dissent, attacking established masterpieces as overrated and assailing the corrupt, conspiratorial thinking behind the consensus." But this is not so simple. In order to criticize, we must first learn to question, and tap into our wonder. In, “A More Beautiful Question”, Berger outlines a theory, developed by Luz Santana and Lawrence Rothstein that they called a Question formula. The formula assists both adults and students create and narrow down specific questions. Santana and Rothstein were firm believers that questioning was an important skill that could be practiced and improved.
Unfortunately, Authority may be tied closer to us than we expect. In Stephen Greenblatt’s Novel “Renaissance Self Fashioning”, he explains that our identity or selves can never be free from institutional forces. According to Greenblatt, “self-fashioning… involves submission to an absolute authority situated at least partially outside the self. Self fashioning is achieved in relation to something perceived as alien, strange, or hostile… The Alien is perceived by the authority either as that which is uninformed or chaotic.” While we may never escape the authority we aspire to become, we should continue to question the systemic authorities around us that we too often accept.
But today, “the consensus seems to be that this new world demands citizens who are self-learners; who are creative and resourceful; who can adjust and adapt to constant change”, Berger suggests. There is a significant amount of evidence suggesting that curriculums that provide more opportunity for inquiry are more successful, but there has been no major shift in this direction. The reason for this is fostered within the current school systems. The schools systems in place now shut down our ability to question and inquire about the world around us. We forget to ask “how could this be better?” and we simply accept.
A.O. Scott identified this in his novel “Living Better Through Criticism”; “When confronted by the fleshy allegories of Titan or Rubens, or the grand, cinematic history paintings of David, or the mute strangeness of rough stones dug from the oblivion of ancient tombs, our own opinions are less than trivial. They barely even register; the work of evaluation has been done in advance. Our job is to accept, and to doubt ourselves.”
But we are not helpless in this area, according to Scott, “if we choose, we can be more defiant and obnoxious in our dissent, attacking established masterpieces as overrated and assailing the corrupt, conspiratorial thinking behind the consensus." But this is not so simple. In order to criticize, we must first learn to question, and tap into our wonder. In, “A More Beautiful Question”, Berger outlines a theory, developed by Luz Santana and Lawrence Rothstein that they called a Question formula. The formula assists both adults and students create and narrow down specific questions. Santana and Rothstein were firm believers that questioning was an important skill that could be practiced and improved.
Unfortunately, Authority may be tied closer to us than we expect. In Stephen Greenblatt’s Novel “Renaissance Self Fashioning”, he explains that our identity or selves can never be free from institutional forces. According to Greenblatt, “self-fashioning… involves submission to an absolute authority situated at least partially outside the self. Self fashioning is achieved in relation to something perceived as alien, strange, or hostile… The Alien is perceived by the authority either as that which is uninformed or chaotic.” While we may never escape the authority we aspire to become, we should continue to question the systemic authorities around us that we too often accept.