"Each philosopher, each bard, each actor, has only done for me, as by a delegate, what one day I can do for myself."
In this quotation, Emerson points out that while you can read as many books and try to take in as much information as you possibly can, it cannot become tangible until you take from those ideas and truly make it your own. There is a tendency to abuse the power of a book through simply imitating everything it says, but by detaching from that dependency of mimicking, it allows the reader to gain a unique perspective on what they study by connecting it to their own experiences. He emphasizes that one must create and be active in their education to get a hold on forming their own beliefs and opinions otherwise you are not free.
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Kafka on the Shore
I chose the story Kafka on the Shore for my journey narrative that mirrors the same characteristics of stories we've read thus far in class. Kafka Tamura, a boy of fifteen, runs away from home to escape an Oedipal curse set upon him by his father in search of his long lost mother and sister.
His journey is similar to a harsh sandstorm that will wrap him up in pain and blindness but when the storm blows over he will be completely changed. Explained to Kafka by his alter-ego, the boy named Crow, "Sometimes fate is like a sandstorm that keeps changing directions. You change direction but the sandstorm chases you. You turn again, but the storm adjusts. Over and over you play this out, like some ominous dance with death just before dawn. Why? Because this storm isn’t something that blew in from far away, something that has nothing to do with you. This storm is you. Something inside of you. So all you can do is give in to it, step right inside the storm, closing your eyes and plugging up your ears so the sand doesn’t get in, walk through it, step by step. There’s no sun there, no moon, no direction, no sense of time. Just fine white sand swirling up into the sky like pulverized bones. That’s the kind of sandstorm you should imagine."
Kafka leaves familiarity to break a curse set upon him where he doesn't know where he's going but he's determined to find the rest of his family. All he knows is this is an endeavor that he must seek out and conquer. He seeks refuge along the way at a library in rural Japan where he meets various people who help shape the story and introduce him to new ways of seeing the world around him. Oshima, the library's second-in-command keeper and homosexual, transvestite befriends Kafka and gives him a job at the library. However, when it is revealed that Kafka has run away from home and the police are after him, Oshima takes him to a secret location miles away in the middle of a forest. It is in this forest that Kafka as broken the threshold from what is real and tangible to an unknown world that becomes metaphysical and thought-provking. In this forest he spends his days living in fear of what lies ahead in the darkened trees and during the day he sets out to explore further and further. "I’m free, I think. I shut my eyes and think hard and deep about how free I am, but I can’t really understand what it means. All I know is I’m totally alone. All alone in an unfamiliar place, like some solitary explorer who’s lost his compass and his map. Is this what it means to be free? I don’t know, and I give up thinking about it.”
Crow forewarns Kafka at the beginning of the story that, "...once the storm is over you won't remember how you made it through, how you managed to survive. You won't even be sure, in fact, whether the storm is really over. But one thing is certain. When you come out of the storm you won't be the same person who walked in. That's what this storm's all about." What we know is that this is a journey narrative that deals with internal conflicts of innocence versus experience and known versus unknown. Like Rip Van Winkle and Young Goodman Brown, Kafka comes out of nature a whole new person where much has changed inside and outside of him. The story is a confusing one and has a very unsatisfactory ending that doesn't necessarily answer any questions the reader has thought of throughout, but all we do know is what makes the story so good is that it is about the voyage Kafka takes, not the end result.
His journey is similar to a harsh sandstorm that will wrap him up in pain and blindness but when the storm blows over he will be completely changed. Explained to Kafka by his alter-ego, the boy named Crow, "Sometimes fate is like a sandstorm that keeps changing directions. You change direction but the sandstorm chases you. You turn again, but the storm adjusts. Over and over you play this out, like some ominous dance with death just before dawn. Why? Because this storm isn’t something that blew in from far away, something that has nothing to do with you. This storm is you. Something inside of you. So all you can do is give in to it, step right inside the storm, closing your eyes and plugging up your ears so the sand doesn’t get in, walk through it, step by step. There’s no sun there, no moon, no direction, no sense of time. Just fine white sand swirling up into the sky like pulverized bones. That’s the kind of sandstorm you should imagine."
Kafka leaves familiarity to break a curse set upon him where he doesn't know where he's going but he's determined to find the rest of his family. All he knows is this is an endeavor that he must seek out and conquer. He seeks refuge along the way at a library in rural Japan where he meets various people who help shape the story and introduce him to new ways of seeing the world around him. Oshima, the library's second-in-command keeper and homosexual, transvestite befriends Kafka and gives him a job at the library. However, when it is revealed that Kafka has run away from home and the police are after him, Oshima takes him to a secret location miles away in the middle of a forest. It is in this forest that Kafka as broken the threshold from what is real and tangible to an unknown world that becomes metaphysical and thought-provking. In this forest he spends his days living in fear of what lies ahead in the darkened trees and during the day he sets out to explore further and further. "I’m free, I think. I shut my eyes and think hard and deep about how free I am, but I can’t really understand what it means. All I know is I’m totally alone. All alone in an unfamiliar place, like some solitary explorer who’s lost his compass and his map. Is this what it means to be free? I don’t know, and I give up thinking about it.”
Crow forewarns Kafka at the beginning of the story that, "...once the storm is over you won't remember how you made it through, how you managed to survive. You won't even be sure, in fact, whether the storm is really over. But one thing is certain. When you come out of the storm you won't be the same person who walked in. That's what this storm's all about." What we know is that this is a journey narrative that deals with internal conflicts of innocence versus experience and known versus unknown. Like Rip Van Winkle and Young Goodman Brown, Kafka comes out of nature a whole new person where much has changed inside and outside of him. The story is a confusing one and has a very unsatisfactory ending that doesn't necessarily answer any questions the reader has thought of throughout, but all we do know is what makes the story so good is that it is about the voyage Kafka takes, not the end result.
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