[This blog post takes the place of the class we would have had on Mon Mar 6]
Guys it‘S WORDSWORTH — watch all these videos! AND YOU WILL HAVE WORDSWORTH TO ADD TO YOUR COLLECTION OF PHILOSOPHERS!!!!
Comment below — I want to hear from you guys!
This is the video that my friend Brady sent me to make fun of me — and I embraced it as an accurate depiction of me:
I feel like Wordsworth's idea that real-life ordinary working-class people in his time were much more real than the rich sort applies to the society we live in today. It seems like stories that involve dangers, and modern problems in rough neighborhoods are more interesting than problems that a rich person may have because you wouldn’t always be able to relate or have an interest in what their problems are because they don’t always give you a sense of connection or realness to you. Although today it’s so common and obvious that you can write something that you saw or something you felt and at least people will care to read a story of you looking at flowers it’s interesting to think about how people saw this back then and how conflicted they probably felt when suggested that the working-class language and works are more realistic than what they see on their everyday lives and their problems. - Joel Garcia
ReplyDeleteThis is a great point! People for a long time thought art should deliver historical or cosmic truth but it was wordsworth who really popularized the idea that individual emotional truth was worth something, and that regular people, more than the 1% were the place to go to for that. Thanks for commenting — KEEP IT UP
DeleteWordsworth's philosophy is very true as most art that is made today such as music or paintings, are a direct correlation of how the artist must have been feeling when writing or drawing their form of art. Just as you mentioned in the video, a sad song with a sad tone of music can be a reflection of the author's emotions.
ReplyDeleteOne way of thinking about it is not that Wordsworth is correctly describing all art but that BECAUSE of Wordsworth our main way of thinking about art is in terms of the author’s emotions —but its worth keeping in mind there are other ways to look at art and this class is all about exploring those other ways
DeleteReally comforting to have class in a familiar format- you are for sure doing a better job than other teachers at making the transition as easy as possible. I'm late to these posts because of life, but i'm here and eager to learn!
ReplyDeleteThoughts Re: Wordsworth on poor people
"Humble and Rustic life was generally chosen because, in that condition, the essential passions of the heart find a better soil in which they attain their maturity are less under restraint, and speak a plainer and more empathetic language because in that condition of life, our elementary feelings coexist in a state of greater simplicity" Reminds me of the Potato Eater painting I saw when I went to the Van Gogh museum. I seem to remember reading that VG was fascinated by poor people in his really early work.
- Sofia D'Louis
also make Bernard an instagram!! <3 <3 <3 He's my everything
DeleteYes that is a great example!
DeleteI have not yet worked out Bernards role but I WILL!
I really enjoy this setup, it makes this transition much easier and enjoyable!
ReplyDeleteI like Wordsworth's idea on the language that's used in poetry or art in general. Since it's being used to express real feelings it only makes sense that it should be expressed the way people actually talk. The true meaning or emotion being expressed can get lost in the strange language he refers to some poets using. It's also interesting to know he invented this outlook of poets being sensitive or moody and how poets feel emotions that aren't there as if they were real. Overall I feel like it shows the idea of being sensitive and feeling things more deeply is a talent for authors.
-Delaney Murray
HeyI am glad you like it! Thanks for commenting! This is a great comment! keep it up!
DeleteSo did Wordsworth invent emo?
ReplyDeleteI've always pondered on how novel genres and writing styles are constantly evolving. I like reading Classics and find it fascinating how authors back in the days could be so eloquent, but at the same time I enjoy Contemporary Fiction and/or YA books. The latter is often criticized by "serious readers" about how the writing (or plot) is too "simple," but I've read Contemporary Fiction that feels like a punch to the gut and a fist around your heart. Its also been evolving into Diverse reads as society is opening up about so many things and accepting them, and now I can find these things in books. I know this might be unrelated but I find Wordsworth's shadow in there.
- Maya Wong
I think in terms of diversity that does seem like something Wordsworth would like — because in our culture its often people who are minorities / queer / disabled whose stories are not being told because people don’t think they have universal value — but just as Wordsworth found value in the rural poor a lot of contemporary writers have found universal value in these stories. (I may be wrong to identify it as universal value — one of the points of stories focused on diversity is that instead of universal values we maybe should think in terms of local or micro values instead)
DeleteProfessor Klock, thanks for being you and remaining your enthusiastic self throughout these videos- to be honest I thought I would dread the experience of having to watch 6 videos over the span of up to an hour, but it went by just like that, and now I'm genuinely intrigued by Wordsworth and his ideas/poems!
ReplyDeleteI personally think that a lot of art really struggles to strike the balance between existing as it is and communicating to the viewer what it is. (Although, must art communicate anything? That's another topic...) But it's the principle of Wordsworth romanticizing the poor, working class: he wants to draw from and connect to real people, but not so much so that one feels dirty, unclean, or gains the (for example) mental illness of schizophrenia by reading a poem and being put into the perspective of a schizophrenic, poor, homeless person. Just like how you said a horror movie would not actually succeed if it was so scary no one would be able to watch it because they were too afraid during the experience. No, art is indeed a translation, of feelings and ideas and thoughts and essence, but there is always a balance to be struck in order for the artist to fundamentally "accomplish" what they set out to accomplish: their own (emotional) expression. (Properly translating themselves to be understood by others through their art.) By having Wordsworth counteract the former, centuries-long prevalence of archetypes and detachment, he gains an ethos with the average person, and by making more universal the truth, he elevates everyone by not lowering himself to the esoteric, the posh and the flowery and the highly intellectual. To sum up, I'd like to quote an exchange of dialogue from the 2017 film called THE WIFE.
An aspiring, naive author tells a cynical peer, if I remember correctly, that most fundamentally: "A writer has to write."
To which the cynical peer gently, wisely responds that no: "A writer has to be read, honey."
That response knocked the hell out of me. And I think it follows Wordsworth's general philosophy of expression, because ultimately, have you really expressed anything if no one understood it? Does an emotion you cannot share really exist?
Stay healthy and well,
Justin Baraona
Wallace Stevens, who is one of my favorite writers, said that the audience does for the author what he cannot do for himself — receive his work. (Stevens also said that you write for a gallery of one’s own, if there are enough of one’s own to fill a gallery)
DeleteI agree with your comment about Method acting being related to toxic masculinity. I have had several conversations with friends about that topic, especially since we don't ever hear about female Method actors going crazy. It's certainly not that there aren't female Method actors, I think it's just that Method acting allows shitty men to blame their characters for their shitty actions. We hear about the worst ones because of publicity and how much human beings love watching other people screw up.
ReplyDeleteWhen you talked about horror movies being realistic but not too realistic, it made me want to know your thoughts on the movie Cats. That is a situation where it was both hyper-realistic and also surreal, which turned the movie into an unintended horror. Though some might argue that the musical Cats is already a little horrifying. What do you think?
-Mackenzie Winter
Is Elizabeth Moss a method actor? She must be. She is such a powerhouse. Invisible Man was real good — and I saw it in the BEFORE TIMES in what was known as a MOVIE THEATER.
DeleteYou are totally right that method acting gives assholes a chance to justify their shiftiness, and that shittyness is always MALE.
Cats I avoided — My friends love a good hate watch but I couldn’t do it.
Monika Galus
ReplyDeleteENG 250
Though I find his obsession with rural poverty and considering it more "authentic" to be a bit off-putting, I resonate deeply with his concept of, "A disposition to be affected more than other men by absent things as if they were present," where one (an artist) can feel things in oneself that might not actually have happened. I see this a lot in the classical music world. How is it that an aria about a cheating lover or murdered friend brings a singer to tears when they have never experienced these things themselves? Dedication, tenderness, empathy, and a degree of awareness of the pain itself. Pain is universal, so the context comes in second to the emotion. Everyone feels pain and artists bring it to the surface, to the stage, on paper, on a canvas, and display it for interpretation. I think this is an important skill for an artist, and can be very powerful.
I absolutely agree — and that is a great example
DeleteIf people like Ruessau, not too sure if I got the name right, like people who are real, I think they would really like the character Sang-Hwa from a recent and amazing zombie movie called Train to Busan. Sang is a side character but he is the most fun to see as he is a everyday family man who represents the best ideal of being a person. I don't want to spoil it but I can see Sang being their favorite character and liking the gradual change he brings out in the main character who starts as bad nut good-meaning person to be someone who cares about family.
ReplyDeleteThat is a good example! You could write about that!
DeleteI don’t like method acting. Acting isn’t supposed to leave set, don’t become the joker to the point that it kills u...
ReplyDeleteAGREED!
Delete