The chance of learning what you need to know when you need to know it

"A maid you had broken a porcelain cup, remark[ed], that what cannot be repaired is not to be regretted. This was obvious; and Rasselas reproached himself that he had not discovered it, having not known, or considered, how many useful hints are obtained by chance, and how often the mind, hurried by her own ardour to distant views, neglects the truths that lie open before her" (Johnson 9).

Indirect relevance to literature

I am increasingly amazed at the correlating ideas between Cultures of the World class and Legacy of Success class. In Cultures I'm reading an article about language. The claim is that "Language is essentially a code that people use both to think and to communicate" ("Conformity and Conflict," Hany, Spradley, McCurdy). The quote that specifically stood out as relating to the honors class was: "Richness of linguistic resource undoubtedly helps people to cope with subtle gradations in the things they deal with every day." This reminded me of something Professor Obenauf told me on the subject of, "what is the point of knowledge?" I may have already mentioned it, but basically he said knowledge gives people more choices, and that in itself can increase happiness. That is the indirect relevance to literature in this: such as the way language with more variations of specificity can offer its speakers more choices and therefore clearer ways to communicate and express their inner contemplations to the outer realm of speech, literature increases our experience vicariously (paraphrase D.H. Finn), which, as Prof. O. said, can increase the range of choices available to us. Do you see the connection? (I don't blame you if you don't- I'm terribly confusing tonight. Perhaps you can help me out, because I do not have time to elaborate or try, ironically, to express my inner contemplation to the outer realm of speech.

Imagination

In the context of political and social improvement:

Samuel Johnson in "History of Rasselass" argues that imagination is unproductive, foolish, and essentially wasteful because it diverts from reality. In Sir Philip Sidney's "Defense of Poesy," however, he urges that through imagination poets become the prophets and, in fact, creators of the future. They do this by proposing a BETTER reality and communicating a method clearly through the ageless mode of storytelling. So: is it futile to be an "idealistic dreamer"? Or, by the adjoining of what we imagine and how we live, could we actually become the poets who speak the words of fancy into the fabric of actuality?

Reflection Essay on Rasselas: 'Tis a Puzzlement

Like Prince Rasselas and Princess Nekayah, learning about all the possibilities of a situation and determining the best way to do something before making decisions that may be regrettable later on has always been of great importance to me. Especially at this stage of life, when it seems so many long-lasting effects will be determined by the choices I make now in so many important areas of existence, reason seems more vital than ever. Like Rasselas, some of the most difficult questions are, as of yet, undecided, including: what is the difference between happiness and amusement (ch. 17)? Who can you believe (ch. 18)? Where should you live (ch. 19)? How much money is too much (ch. 20)? What kind of job should you have (ch. 24)? How should you decide whom to marry (ch. 26)? Unfortunately, I keep finding truth in the opinion eventually expressed by Princess Nekayah when she objects, “Thus it is… that philosophers are deceived. There are a thousand disputes which reason never can decide; questions that elude investigation, and make logick ridiculous; cases where something must be done, and where little can be said” (Johnson 57). I have never traveled the world and observed people in every way of life to discover the best way to live my own life, but I have often played the deceived philosopher, spending huge amounts of time and energy in my mind, reasoning through possibilities, instead of in the world, actually trying to live. In this, Nekayah’s other warning applies directly, that “this is often the fate of long consideration; he does nothing who endeavors to do more than is allowed to humanity” (Johnson 58). The most terrible conundrum, to me, has been this: one may risk missing his own life while he spends his time thinking about the best way to approach it, but he who actively participates in his life and all its choices may later realize how unhappy he is and how much better things might have turned out if he had spent more time thinking about it. What, then is the purpose of knowledge?

One suggestion offered to me by my honors professor, Richard Obenauf, is that though the so-called perfect decision may never be reached, knowledge opens up more choices to a person. Though sometimes more choices can seem overwhelming to me, the fact remains that being aware of a broader range of alternatives can increase happiness simply by the fact that it reduces limitation.

Learning, then is commendable activity, and even, too, is philosophic reasoning. In the end, though, I suppose life consists of both learning and living, whether or not decisions based in reason will result in success (happiness), or not. In a song I wrote, I concluded:

I’ll try to avoid every foolish mistake;

I intend to make every best use of my mind.

But to be alive is to fall, and to fail, and find grace,

And in the end, every moment I’m going in blind.

Cited: Johnson, Samuel. The History of Rasselas Prince of Abissinia. London: Oxford UP, 1971. Print.

The rest of Johnson

Before finishing with Johnson...

"So convenient a thing it is to be a reasonable creature, since it enables one to find or make a reason for every thing one has a mind to do." ~ Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin

For the planners...

"'There are a thousand familiar disputes which reason can never decide; questions that elude investigation, and make logick ridiculous; cases where something must be done, and where little can be said.'" (History of Rasselass, Samuel Johnson pg. 57)

For seekers of happiness...

"'Those conditions, which flatter hope and attract desire, are so constituted that, as we approach one, we recede from the other. There are goods so opposed that we cannot seize both but, by too much prudence, may pass between them as too great a distance to reach either. This is often the fate of long consideration; he does nothing who endeavors to do more than i allowed to humanity...Of the blessings set before you make your choice and be content. No man can taste the fruits of autumn while he is delighting his scent with the flowers of the spring; no man can, at the same time, fill his cup from the source and from the mouth of the Nile'" (Johnson 58).

For students and politicians...

"'If we act only for ourselves, to neglect the study of history is not prudent: if we are entrusted with the care of others, it is not just. Ignorance, when it is voluntary, is criminal; and he may properly be charged with evil who refuses to learn how he might prevent it'" (Johnson 60).

For the saddened or depressed...

"'The state of a mind oppressed with sudden calamity... is like that of the fabulous inhabitants of the new created earth, who, when the first night came upon them, supposed that day would never return. When the clouds of sorrow gather over us, we see nothing beyond them, nor can imagine how they will be dispelled: yet a new day succeeded to the night, and sorrow is never long without a dawn of ease. But they who restrain themselves from receiving comfort, do as the savages would have done, had they put out their eyes when it was dark. Our minds, like our bodies, are in continual flux; something is hourly lost, and something acquired. To lose much at once is inconvenient to either, but while the vital powers remain uninjured, nature will find some means of reparation. Distance has the same effect on the mind as on the eye, and while we glide along the stream of time, whatever we leave behind us is always lessening, and that which we approach increasing in magnitude. Do not suffer life to stagnate; it will grow muddy for want of motion'" (Johnson 69).

For the troublemakers...

"The memory of mischief is no desirable fame" (Johnson 84).

For the dreamers...

"All power of fancy over reason is a degree of insanity" (Johnson 84).

Not a very uplifting outlook, I know... As a priest said in Italy, it is easy to destroy something (such as criticizing things that are not good) but it is much more difficult to create something (such as a way to improve what is at fault).

For those seeking fame, and for the old...

"'Praise,' said the sage, with a sigh, 'is to an old man an empty sound'"(Johnson 87).

For the narrow-minded...

"'For nothing is more common than to call our own condition, the condition of life'" (Johnson 88).

For the unsatisfied...

"'Such is the state of life, that none are happy but by the anticipation of change: the change itself is nothing; when we have made it, the next wish it so change again. The world is not yet exhausted; let me see something to morrow which I never saw before'" (Johnson 92)

Nothing Gold Can Stay

Nature's first green is gold,

Her hardest hue to hold.

Her early leaf's a flower;

But only so an hour.

Then leaf subsides to leaf.

So Eden sank to grief,

So dawn goes down to day.

Nothing gold can stay.

~Robert Frost

Rasselas

It's been a while... just haven't had time, I suppose, but I also suppose nothing has stood out to me enough to have the urge to share it. Since I found myself twittering quotes tonight while reading The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia, by Samuel Johnson, I realized it was time to revisit with a couple that caught my eye:

"'Envy is commonly reciprocal. We are long before we are convinced that happiness is never to be found, and each believes it possessed by others, to keep alive the hope of obtaining it himself'" (Johnson 35).

I don't agree with the part about happiness "never to be found", but perhaps the key point is in believing it something possessed by others, to be sought out and gained when it must be found within. Cliche, fine. That's my reflection; add your own.

"'...Yet, believe me, prince, there was not one who did not dread the moment when solitude should deliver him to the tyranny of reflection'" (Johnson 35).

I was just glad to see I'm not the only one to experience such torment, so I obviously needed to share this quote, as proof! ;)

"'For the hope of happiness... is so strongly impressed, that the longest experience is not able to efface* it. Of the present state, whatever it be, we feel, and are forced to confess, the misery, yet, when the same state is again at a distance, imagination paints it as desirable'" (Johnson 45).

*Efface: obliterate, remove

A.K.A. : "The seaweed is always greener/ in somebody else's lake-" except, this one caught me off-guard because the "lake" here was once our very own habitat! It introduces the idea of perpetual cycles of returning to how you once were but still finding it unsatisfactory... to dwell on this kind of unhappiness is dreary. Which is why I think I must return again to the "cliche" that I find to hold truest wisdom: "Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not." ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

This one's just for laughs, and is, admittedly, taken (a little bit) out of context:

"Marriage has many pains, but celibacy has no pleasures" (Johnson 51).

Next on the list will be the last for tonight:

"All that virtue can afford is quietness of conscience, a steady prospect of a happier state; this may enable us to endure calamity with patience; but remember that patience must suppose pain" (Johnson 53).

Ponder this while I try to go to sleep.