Lesson #7

So, quotes that apply to life in no particular category or order---just some notes for higher thinking


1) From the Napoleon of Notting Hill, by G.K. Chesterton:

More often than we would like, things we become attached to, whether it be people, animals, or an object, turn out to be different than we thought, so different that we can no longer look at them the same way. Think about a person that was close to you, a politician you believed in, a pet you loved, or a concept/belief that you held, that upon further inspection turned out to be much different than you thought. Its a terrible feeling (I know from experience) when this realizations hits you, a sort of coldness washes over you and you feel like sitting in a corner (or at least I do) and holding your head in your hands. You want to bang your head against the wall, cry, be comforted, or just be by yourself for a long time (I experience a confusing mixture of all these). It feels terrible. Everyone feels this at some point or another---its part of our humanity. So in this way, old books can be comforting, knowing that people hundreds of years ago felt the same pain, experienced the same disappointment, and struggled through the same problems that you are experiencing at that moment.

2) Also from the Napoleon of Notting Hill:

Again, very relatable to our current world: how often do we let someone rise in power or authority without really examining whether or not they deserve it? How many times has someone been given awards or honors without really earning it? We want those in power, who govern and direct us to be smart people, who make our entire population not only content, but informed and smarter. And yet we award those in power who have done little to this effect. Not exactly comforting to know that people had this problem back in the time of Chesterton, but at least we can say its not something our generation has done on its own.

3) Also from the Napoleon of Notting Hill (Chesterton was a genius, I can't help but include a bunch of his work):

I was going to explain a bit, but instead I think I'll just let this sit here and let you guys think about it quietly.

4) I'm gonna try to lighten this pessimistic mood....hold on while I dig a happy quote out of my pile of quotes:

From the Importance of Being Earnest, a play by Oscar Wilde:

Not completely humorous, but definitely made me chuckle a little to myself when I read it. We put a lot of thought into what people wear, how they do their hair, what car they arrive in, and while that's all great and has some importance, we often don't involve a lot of sincerity or honesty in a lot of our "matters of great importance".....


I'm spent. This week was really hard, what with our school's peculiar circumstances,  a busy school week to begin with, and an unclear plan for the following week. Next week I'll be focusing on the beauty of the English language in old literature and poetry---cool words and phrases that make you feel nice inside.


Hope you enjoyed....
Claire

Lesson #4

So, for this week I found more quotes on enjoying life and general life lessons.
Without further ado:

1) This is a quote I came across when I was reading "The Moonstone" by Wilkie Collins. It's from Robinson Crusoe, a book that the narrator finds comfort in:

Can you read this? Click image to enlarge.

So: Fear of Danger is more terrifying than the Danger itself....I definitely think there's some truth to this and its relevant to every day life. How many times do we stop in our tracks and refuse to do something because we don't want to put ourselves in danger: at that point in time, we are more afraid of how we feel in danger than the actual danger. To give a (soft) example: in swimming, one of the most dreaded events is the 200 butterfly. In my own experience, as well as the experience of others I've found that I'm more nervous and anxious before the event just thinking about swimming the event. So in this case, the fear of danger---the fear of being in pain and swimming something I don't want to----outweighs the swim itself. I've had to swim it often enough to know what it's not that bad and I can do it, but before each swim I still get nervous just thinking about it. (Wish me good luck---I'm swimming it this Saturday!)

NOTE: the word "Burthen" is an archaic form of "Burden"

2) So this next quote is more about being happy in life, though it may sometimes be at the expense of another:

Context isn't super important here, you just need to understand what he's saying. And think about it----taking the term "neighbor" as a general term meaning "those around you"------how often do you tease and poke fun at those around you? With my own friends, its something we do regularly (though we make sure not to be really hurtful, so some of our teasing is along the lines of "Haha, you're so much like (insert least favorite literary character here)". Don't laugh at me, it can be hilarious if you know what you're talking about)

With my friends that don't have great understanding of lit characters, our teasing jousts are more "normal".....So know think about your own friends and how you guys interact and make fun of each other. Even think about the people you and your friends make fun of (your enemies? Frienemies? Which ever)......in those cases, you are "making sport of your neighbors" and "laughing at them in your turn". 

3) Finally, one short one more, just because I thought it was funny. Context here is a little more important: A precious Indian stone has just been stolen from a house, and we don't know who did it (we're pretty sure as to why). The butler is the narrator here and is telling about what they did the morning they found out the diamond was gone:

I don't think this needs much explanation: its pretty self explanatory: EVERYONE LOVES FOOD. Breakfast is supposedly the most important meal of the day and food is comforting. So in the event of a robbery (especially in England) BREAKFAST IS IMPORTANT

That's it!

PLAN FOR NEXT WEEK:

So next week I'm going to delve into the humor of classic lit more than the relevance....a lot of it will need a context explanation, but some of it you will be able to find amusing on your own.

Until then,

Claire

Lesson #2

Hi there......I told you last week that I'd do a post about virtues/vices etc this week, and as promised, here it is! I found two quotes (both Jane Austen this time, though I tried to go for a bit more diversity) on the topic at hand....

So, this quote is pretty self explanatory, but I wanted to include it because it struck me when I read it. It points out our common misconceptions of vanity and pride, despite the fact that the quote itself is about 200 years old. Vanity and pride are definitely related, but often confused, or as Austen says, used synonymously.

Continuing in the same vein as pride and vanity, the next quote (also from Austen's Pride and Prejudice) is about humility.

 This one is a bit more complex than the first quote......The first bit I agree with---nothing is more deceitful than the appearance of humility---and I agree for one important reason: think about people who are humble: you are more likely to trust them, you know you can depend on them, and they do their best to make you feel your best, regardless of their own feelings; in short, they are amazing individuals in whom you trust. But then think about someone you know is a liar: they are not someone you trust, they often annoy and irritate those around them, etc. What if your supposedly humble, trustworthy friend turned out to be an untrustworthy liar. Obviously you would be furious, because you trusted this person and thought they were a good friend. All in agreement? Good, moving on. The next part "It is often only carelessness of opinion..." is much harder to decipher. By "carelessness of opinion" I think Darcy is referring to a carelessness of opinion of their own accomplishments, which is not humility, but instead indifference. This can be considered rude, because if one seriously doesn't care about the things they've done, they are diminishing the similar accomplishments of others, and essentially telling them they have nothing to be proud of. The last part, "sometimes an indirect boast" comes easily enough after having considered the previous portion. If not humility or carelessness of opinion, the feeling toward one's own accomplishments is either a) blatantly boastful ("Look what I've done!!"--not even an attempt to be humble) or b) indirectly boastful (Darcy's point: "Oh, that's no big matter, I've done better"/fishing for attention). This, for me anyway, is the worst kind of false humility. Those who fish for attention are not only keeping an appearance of humility, but are also inwardly consumed with pride and vanity (See first quote).

I hope you enjoyed this weeks post (if you even got through it?). Next week I'll being pulling quotes on relationships (there are TONS so this should be fun and easy).

Thanks! If you have any suggestions, comment please!

Claire

Lesson #1

As this is the first post, I'm going to begin with a very general topic. As I said in my introductory post, I'm endeavoring to show that classic lit isn't obsolete---it has real life applications and can be interesting and even (dare I say it) exciting (crazy idea, right?!!). Without further ado, here are some tips from classic lit on

Living an Enjoyable Life

Our first quote with regard to "Living an Enjoyable Life" is from Mansfield Park, a novel by one of my favorite authors, Jane Austen. 

Alright, so breaking this down a bit, we find there are two parts: the first, "Run mad as often as you choose" tells the reader to enjoy their life (the extent to which is up to your own discretion), and the second half is more cautionary. The piece, "...but do not faint" warns the reader against going overboard, having too much fun, or being too wild. In Austen's time, an overabundance of fun resulted in a tired and broke individual, with a bad reputation of wildness that prevented them from finding work and thus climbing out of their debt. In today's time, the situation isn't as drastic, as we seem to care less reputation, so a new job would be more easily found. Today, if someone were to have "too much fun" and become burdened with debt, the results are still devastating---a large amount of debt can ultimately result in extreme poverty. In both today's modern consequences and Austen's time, the results of having "too much fun", the "faint" as the quote puts it, leave the individual in an uncomfortable, if not miserable state.

In researching this topic and finding the above quote, I stumbled across another one of my favorites, and after finding that it didn't fit any of the categories I wanted to address, decided I'd include it in this post. This particular quote addresses how we speak, and how others speak. This quote really struck me; I found it relevant to many real life situations and so here it is:

Just think about that for a minute. Let it process for a bit..........Alright, if you're done processing, here's what I thought about it: Think about what happens when a politician or celebrity says something that is offensive or surprising (in a bad way). (Think of events such as this and this) The incident gets blown up and is all over the news, radio, TV, etc. As Collins points out, our words become "giants". However, when we say something to our credit, the media shrugs as if to say, "Yeah, I guess that was nice. But its not juicy, its not important, its not BIG. Can you get me something more.....scandalous?". Collins' lesson here is to watch what you say---think before you speak---so that you aren't hurt by the giants you create.

I hope these "lessons" were helpful for you; I tried to find a few really basic, general, and yet thought provoking quotes to ease into this. Next week, I'm planning on talking about how classic lit is relevant with regard to virtues, vices, and other characteristics. I have a few quotes already picked out and I'm sure I can find a few more. If, at any time, you think of a suggestion for me---something you want me to find, something you want me to relate to real life or explain, PLEASE comment it somewhere or email me. That'd be great :) I'm doing this to help you and to come to a greater realization of the importance of classic lit. Hopefully, others will see this and help make classic lit interesting for their friends and students as well.

Thanks and Enjoy!

Claire

Introductory Post

Hello! My name is Claire, and I'm doing an informational blog about classic lit. I find that many people tell me they don't read older literature on the basis that it is bland, boring, irrelevant, and slow. This blog has been created to disprove that argument. I hope to show any readers that classic lit can be exciting, thrilling, adventurous, humorous, and above all, relevant to every day life. Hopefully we'll all be the better for it! I first decided to do this project when it was suggested to me. The idea started a wild fire of possibilities and now, here I am. Each week I plan to post with a few quotes of excerpts from some of my favorite classic lit books, demonstrating their relevance, humor, and interesting content.

PLAN FOR NEXT WEEK:
So next week, I'm going to be doing my first post. I don't know exactly what the "moral" of next week's post is, but this week I'm going to scour my favorite books looking for quotes and their potential relevance. Check in next week!

Thanks and Enjoy!
Claire