115 Matching Annotations
  1. Nov 2015
    1. “Wickedness or not,” said the traveller with the twisted staff, “I have a very general acquaintance here in New England. The deacons of many a church have drunk the communion wine with me; the selectmen, of divers towns, make me their chairman; and a majority of the Great and General Court are firm supporters of my interest. The governor and I, too–but these are state-secrets.”

      This is an activist passage demanding total social reform

    2. narrow path

      popular religious term for a life of sin

    1. In this manner Mr. Hooper spent a long life, irreproachable in outward act, yet shrouded in dismal suspicions; kind and loving, though unloved, and dimly feared; a man apart from men, shunned in their health and joy, but ever summoned to their aid in mortal anguish.

      Batman.

    2. This dismal shade must separate me from the world: even you, Elizabeth, can never come behind it!”

      Maybe he was fooling around behind her back and is bound by guilt to wear it ...

    3. But there was something, either in the sentiment of the discourse itself, or in the imagination of the auditors, which made it greatly the most powerful effort that they had ever heard from their pastor’s lips.

      Was it the veil OR their sins? His veil OR theirs?

  2. Oct 2015
    1. Blush, ye vaunters of fortitude; ye boasters of resolution; ye haughty lords of the creation; blush when ye remember, that he was influenced by no other motive than a bare pusilianimous attachment to a woman!

      If you think about it, Adam succumbed to peer pressure/sexual tension, but Eve needed a talking freaking serpent (literally the devil) to convince her to eat.

    2. Adam could not plead the same deception; assuredly he was not deceived; nor ought we to admire his superiour strength, or wonder at his sagacity, when we so often confess that example is much more influential than precept.

      "What, do we praise Adam's ignorance?"

      If men truly went by this model, they'd discourage education for themselves too!

    3. It doth not appear that she was governed by any one sensual appetite; but merely by a desire of adorning her mind; a laudable ambition fired her soul, and a thirst for knowledge impelled the predilection so fatal in its consequences.

      We can't vilify Eve for wanting a better education! (fruits of knowledge)

    4. Strange how blind self love renders you men

      OH SNAP

    5. Mr. P

      her friend's husband?

    6. I AM aware that there are many passages in the sacred oracles which seem to give the advantage to the other sex; but I consider all these as wholly metaphorical. Thus David was a man after God’s own heart, yet see him enervated by his licentious passions! behold him following Uriah to the death, and shew me wherein could consist the immaculate Being’s complacency. Listen to the curses which Job bestoweth upon the day of his nativity, and tell me where is his perfection, where his patience–literally it existed not.

      the men in the bible, evidently, weren't perfect either. no human is warranted privilege based on anything human about them as far as god is concerned. the "flesh" is considered worldly and sinful to Christians. penis ... vagina ... it's all flesh.

    7. education hath set him so far above her, that in those entertainments which are productive of such rational felicity, she is not qualified to accompany him. She experiences a mortifying consciousness of inferiority

      Female futility is socially constructed by opressors

    8. Is the needle and kitchen sufficient to employ the operations of a soul thus organized? I should conceive not, Nay, it is a truth that those very departments leave the intelligent principle vacant, and at liberty for speculation

      Use of the word "liberty" is edgy because it's one of america's most cherished ideas. Any implication that people (men) are violating it to those entitled is a controversial claim.

    9. Is it upon mature consideration we adopt the idea, that nature is thus partial in her distributions?

      all created equal

    10. They rob us of the power t’improve, And then declare we only trifles love;

      I picture her holding a megaphone. This is a shot to the men who'd be saying "feminazi" if it made sense at the time. Or, not necessarily a shot to men, but a wake up call to women.

    11. But some there are who wish not to improve Who never can the path of knowledge love, Whose souls almost with the dull body one, With anxious care each mental pleasure shun; Weak is the level’d, enervated mind, And but while here to vegetate design’d. The torpid spirit mingling with its clod, Can scarcely boast its origin from God;

      Sure there are plenty of dumb women, but that's on MEN, not God.

    12. Deep science, like a bashful maid retires, And but the ardent breast her worth inspires

      "there are obviously differences between the psychology of men and women, but women are in no way inferior"

    1. I would, I must repeat, by all means guard them against a low estimation of self.

      My fourth grade teacher, Mrs. Hooker, made my friends and I feel like complete idiots whenever we acted up. That year has always stuck out to me as my least favorite year of school, ever. Thankfully, I've had more teachers who challenge student's low self-esteem, a more effective effort. It's hard to believe that this might have been, at any point, a controversial teaching method.

    2. Now, I should be solicitous that my daughter should possess for me the fondest love, as well as that respect which gives birth to duty; in order to promote this wish of my soul, from my lips she should be accustomed to hear the most pleasing truths, and, as in the course of my instructions,

      her and jefferson somewhat agree on something

    3. She grows up, and of course mixes with those who are less interested: strangers will be sincere; she encounters the tongue of the flatterer, he will exaggerate, she finds herself possessed of accomplishments which have been studiously concealed from her, she throws the reins upon the neck of fancy, and gives every encomiast full credit for his most extravagant eulogy.

      A woman's life, void of education, is a sad thing. How does she accomplish? What do they say about her when she's dead?

    4. I would, therefore, have my pupils believe, that every thing in the compass of mortality, was placed within their grasp, and that, the avidity of application, the intenseness of study, were only requisite to endow them with every external grace, and mental accomplishment.

      nothing about god in this mission statement!

    5. Our bosoms never caught ambition’s fire;

      Ambition doesn't only come from the heart/mind, but through sexuality as well.

    6. Self-estimation will debasement shun, And, in the path of wisdom, joy to run;

      Education will give you a better attitude. The power of knowledge can't be estimated.

    1. Drag constitutes the mundane way in which genders are appropriated, theatricalized, worn, and done; it implies that all gendering is a kind of impersonation and approximation.

      So, if I dressed in drag, I'm not impersonating a woman, rather, I'm assuming the role of a woman's impersonation of a socially constructed "woman." But there's no "original" woman whom all women loosely model themselves after (even if you believe in adam and eve).

    2. gay men exist as objects of prohibition; they are, in his twisted fantasy, sadomasochistic exploiters of children, the paradigmatic exemplars of “obscenity”; in a sense, the lesbian is not even produced within this discourse as a prohibited object.

      dudes who publicly condemn homosexuality but exclusively watch lesbian porn ...

    3. That the identity-sign I use now has its purposes seems right, but there is no way to predict or control the political uses to which that sign will be put in the future. And perhaps this is a kind of openness, regardless of its risks, that ought to be safeguarded for political reasons. If the rendering visible of lesbian/gay identity now presupposes a set of exclusions, then perhaps part of what is necessarily excluded is the future uses of the sign. There is a political necessity to use some sign now, and we do, but how to use it in such a way that its futural significations are not foreclosed? How to use the sign and avow its temporal contingency at once?

      is she saying that there are politically correct ways to be a gay writer, but they always change to adapt to opposition/erasure, meaning there's no one politically correct way in specific to write out of the closet?

    4. In a sense I hope to make clear in what follows, lesbian sexuality can be understood to redeploy its ‘derivativeness’ in the service of displacing hegemonic heterosexual norms.

      Is she saying that lesbian sexuality is a valuable lens outside of traditional gender binary?

    5. there is no necessarily common element among lesbians, except perhaps that we all know something about how homophobia works against women— although, even then, the language and the analysis we use will differ.

      and there you have it

    6. What does it mean to avow a category that can only maintain its specificity and coherence by performing a prior set of disavowals?

      Can we support this "avowal" that mostly just shoves LGTBQ people in and back out of the political closet queer authors inevitably find themselves in anyway?

    7. What, if anything, can lesbians be said to share? And who will decide this question, and in the name of whom?

      the capacity for straight authors to incorporate homo eroticism in their writing (intentionally or unintentionally) makes it impossible to characterize an author's sexuality based on their work AND vice-versa.

    8. To claim that this is what I am is to suggest a provisional totalization of this “I.”

      It's sad that she felt the need to write this article, because her sexuality is only one aspect of her life (not necessarily her authorship), yet people define her work by it. What's this rule that academic author function needs to go undetected by the critic gaydar?

    9. Can sexuality even remain sexuality once it submits to a criterion of transparency and disclosure, or does it perhaps cease to be sexuality precisely when the semblance of full explicitness is achieved?

      Lots of "is anything really ANYTHING?" questions.

    10. If the political task is to show that theory is never merely theoria, in the sense of disengaged contemplation, and to insist that it is fully political (phronesis or even praxis), then why not simply call this operation politics, or some necessary permutation of it?

      I never thought about this, but I agree to some extent. For what reason, other than recognition, do we theorize? Does it serve us in any way to not share our theories? What's the point of a theory's existence, if not to change the perception of the subjects of discourse? Does she think we should be calling this class Critical Politics?

    11. a Foucaultian perspective might argue that the affirmation of “homosexuality” is itself an extension of a homophobic discourse. And yet “discourse,” he writes on the same page, “can be both an instrument and an effect of power, but also a hindrance, a stumbling-block, a point of resistance and a starting point for an opposing strategy.”

      Foucault recognized the struggle of being a homosexual in the writing biz, but Butler is saying the fact that homophobia AS a discourse is a threat to homophobes.

    12. So it is unclear how it is that I can contribute to this book and appear under its title, for it announces a set of terms that I propose to contest. One risk I take is to be recolonized by the sign under which I write, and so it is this risk that I seek to thematize.

      lots of "I"

    1. Though we cannot help them, the distance being too great, yet we may sympathize with them in their troubles, and mingle a tear of sorrow with them, and do as we are exhorted to–weep with those that weep.

      not too masculine to show grief and sympathy

    1. Mores 

      Not-christians

    2. TITLE II Of the Inhabitants  Art. 3. – There cannot exist slaves on this territory, servitude is therein forever abolished. All men are born, live and die free and French. Art. 4. – All men, regardless of color, are eligible to all employment. Art. 5. – There shall exist no distinction other than those based on virtue and talent, and other superiority afforded by law in the exercise of a public function. The law is the same for all whether in punishment or in protection.

      Civil rights were a bigger deal than people think they were today.

    1. Music is invaluable where a person has an ear. Where they have not, it should not be attempted.

      Even the best musicians sound like crap at first, TOM.

    2. much poetry should not be indulged.

      EVIL.

    3. This mass of trash, however, is not without some distinction; some few modelling their narratives, although fictitious, on the incidents of real life, have been able to make them interesting and useful vehicles of sound morality.

      He's basically equating fiction to something like the crappy sitcoms of today. And this is all he let's his daughter read--you know, for the life lessons.

    1. Among the blacks is misery enough, God knows, but no poetry

      AND THEN HIP HOP CAME ALONG. EAT IT, TOM.

    2. Are not the fine mixtures of red and white, the expressions of every passion by greater or less suffusions of colour in the one, preferable to that eternal monotony, which reigns in the countenances, that immoveable veil of black which covers all the emotions of the other race?

      Don't get me wrong, I love candy canes and peppermints as much as the next guy, but what ever happened to good ol' Ebony and Ivory, Tom???

    3. Deep rooted prejudices entertained by the whites; ten thousand recollections, by the blacks, of the injuries they have sustained; new provocations; the real distinctions which nature has made; and many other circumstances, will divide us into parties, and produce convulsions which will probably never end but in the extermination of the one or the other race.

      "If we don't enslave them ... we have to kill them, right?"

    4. …Indian women, when married to white traders, who feed them and their children plentifully and regularly, who exempt them from excessive drudgery, who keep them stationary and unexposed to accident, produce and raise as many children as the white women. Instances are known, under these circumstances, of their rearing a dozen children. An inhuman practice once prevailed in this country of making slaves of the Indians…

      It sounds like he's saying, "We don't need to call these women our 'slaves' because they love work as is ... it's basically how they're programmed! Look at all the mouths they can feed!"

    5. he meets death with more deliberation,

      Was his genocide HIS deliberation?

    1. The message about Christmas was clear: if you don’t put in the effort, you won’t be rewarded with family togetherness.

      If you don't make your famous yams, he will leave you.

    2. In the early 2000’s, this picture of Christmas started to change. The focus was now on preparation, as women were shown serving the food. The magazines also started to give women ‘how to’ instructions.

      The next wave will be "Mental Preparation: how to deal with the looming stress of your inescapable duty of biology to make a high stakes glutton fest for Jesus and your entire family!"

    1. Gallons of Corruption

      ... anybody trying to start a band?

    2. several of her own Children had frankly and fully confessed, not only that they were Witches themselves, but that this their Mother had made them so.

      This is some Brave New World/1984. When the kids are conditioned by society to sell out their parents ... creepy!

    1. Similarly, for any given period, it will refrain from selecting the most educated language, but will concern itself at the same time with popular forms more or less in contrast with the so-called educated or literary language,

      An example of subject matter analysis would be looking at old journals. Sloppy as their grammar may be, it gives us a better lens to see the linguistic trends of the period.

    2. Three phases
      1. grammar
      2. Philolologyy (critical examination of texts)
      3. comparison of different languages
  3. Sep 2015
    1. Anti-dialogical action proceeds by conquest which it achieves by depositing myths in the people,divide and rule, manipulation, and cultural invasion.

      If we let successful development make us complacent, we're sitting ducks!

    2. This indeed recognizes a truth; it is never the case in fact that theteacher always knows and the student never does. Even quite 'conventional' academic authorsoften testify to the contributions their students have made; this bears witness to the fact that ameaningful dialog has taken place between teacher and students.

      A little inspiration to the student to be critical, because we're not "real" unless we interpret all the information through the lens of the teacher. Unless we can instruct the teacher, to some extent, our education is pointless. Education can only be measured by interpretation of the material, but it's fleeting unless we entertain a dialogue shift.

    3. a contradiction in which they neither are fully human.

      was marx not fully human? i'm lost here.

    4. the formeraiming to suppress critical apprehension of reality the latter favouring the discovery of realitythrough critical thought and free communication

      People have asserted to me that being hypercritical of the entire world waters down my quality of life because it's not worth the effort of overthinking, "You should just LIVE" ... Now, I can be like "DON'T PUSH YOUR ANTIDIALOGIC ON ME, SUCKAAA"

    1. THE SONGE.

      I'm going to work on recording a contemporary version of this with guitar for my next blog post.

    2. to live without the meanes is dangerous, the Lord doth know.

      Again, with, "you can live happily, but it's a meaningless waste without the complications of western ideologies"

    3. Salvages

      I've been thinking this was a misprint of "savage" the whole time, but maybe "salvage" was the terminology for the natives seen as being pulled from the debris.

    4. According to humane reafon, guided onely by the light of nature, thefe people leades the more happy and freer

      Transcendentalist smacks forehead I guess it's basically saying that living a happy life is crying shame without the features of capitalism and the gospel. The negative connotation of "savage" isn't as strong in morton's work. Maybe it carried a more "blissful" connotation.

    5. Englishman ; and then he would be a good man. I asked him who was a good man ; his answer was that he would not lie, nor steal.

      Because an Englishman has never done this to anyone, ever.

    6. a savage (who had lived in my house before he had taken a wife, by whom he had children) made this request to me, (knowing that I always used him with much more respect: than others,) that I would let his son be brought up in my not savage house, that he might be taught to read in that book

      It bothers me that he uses words like "savages" and "infidels" when he not only lived and learned amongst the native people, but actually roomed with one, befriended him, and became the godfather of his child ... How can somebody have such a strong connection and still use such derogatory terms. It makes me think that the son was to be taken non-consentually, judging by his apparent distance from the people.

    1. ideology being nothing but its functioning in the material forms of existence of that functioning.

      Ideologies are only defined by what happens after they're conceived

      ideologies are an experience, not a phenomenon. phenomenons can happen without being experienced. ideologies require exposure to a conscience in order to actually exist.

    2. Ideology is conceived as a pure illusion, a pure dream, i.e. as nothingness. All its reality is external to it. Ideology is thus thought as an imaginary construction whose status is exactly like the theoretical status of the dream among writers before Freud.

      if it has no physical effects on your body, you can just change it [preferably to communism] without getting hurt. Ideology warps social circumstances, but it's merely a thinking "routine", not a wired mechanism. Marxists want people to see ideology as a hypnotic brainwashing you can snap your fingers to escape from and nothing more.

    3. the educational ideological apparatus.

      I agree. It chronologically dictates/influences the political apparatus

    4. All the State Apparatuses function both by repression and by ideology, with the difference that the (Repressive) State Apparatus functions massively and predominantly by repression, whereas the Ideological State Apparatuses function massively and predominantly by ideology.

      The RSA's are supported by the ISA's ... the bourgeoisie by the proletariat ... are the ideological apparatuses the working class of the superstructure?? could ISAs ever become RSA's?

    5. This is the fact that the (Repressive) State Apparatus functions massively and predominantly by repression (including physical repression), while functioning secondarily by ideology. (There is no such thing as a purely repressive apparatus.) For example, the Army and the Police also function by ideology both to ensure their own cohesion and reproduction, and in the ‘values’ they propound externally. In the same way, but inversely, it is essential to say that for their part the Ideological State Apparatuses function massively and predominantly by ideology, but they also function secondarily by repression, even if ultimately, but only ultimately, this is very attenuated and concealed, even symbolic. (There is no such thing as a purely ideological apparatus.)

      RSAs and ISAs, can't have one without the other. if neither are purely distinctive, what's the point of distinguishing between the two? Couldn't you just hybridize the SAs just by noting their I and R functions? Less overlap in my opinion.

    6. What are the Ideological State Apparatuses (ISAs)?

      ISAs are distinct institutions established to control how we think through ideological influence

      RSAs are large scale government-controlled institutions that control what we do physically through acts of violence, affecting how we think.

    7. the reproduction of its subjection to the ruling ideology or of the ‘practice’ of that ideology, with the proviso that it is not enough to say ‘not only but also’, for it is clear that it is in the forms and under the forms of ideological subjection that provision is made for the reproduction of the skills of labour power.

      Does this mean the effect of the ruling ideology quantitatively affects one's condition by subjugating them to diverse labor assignments based on income/privilege?

    8. the labour power has to be (diversely) skilled and therefore reproduced as such. Diversely: according to the requirements of the socio-technical division of labour, its different ‘jobs’ and ‘posts’.

      We diversify our labor talents by associating people with different classes based on socioeconomics in the capitalist model.

    9. Remember that this quantity of value (wages) necessary for the reproduction of labour power is determined not by the needs of a ‘biological’ Guaranteed Minimum Wage (Salaire Minimum Interprofessionnel Garanti) alone, but by the needs of a historical minimum (Marx noted that English workers need beer while French proletarians need wine) – i.e. a historically variable minimum.

      Wages have to reach the biological minimum to sustain families (AKA households of workers/future workers). This is where the power comes from in Marxism, where production sustainability is entirely dependent on the wellbeing of the work force. Still, it's easy for folks with crappy paying jobs to fall into thinking the opposite.

    10. the reproduction of labour power takes place essentially outside the firm.

      The birds and the bees. If you see newborn babies as future employees, the amount of sex in media and advertisement makes a lot more sense.

    11. 2. the existing relations of production.

      the consumers?

    12. process of production sets to work the existing productive forces in and under definite relations of production.

      the process puts the workers to work in their respective branches of production

    13. every child knows that a social formation which did not reproduce the conditions of production at the same time as it produced would not last a year.[2] The ultimate condition of production is therefore the reproduction of the conditions of production.

      "any idiot knows that a [factory] that produces [things] without being able to keep the [employees working] wouldn't last long. The overall success of the factory is the work of its employees." ... accurate?

    1. But as I grew up to bee about 14 or 15 I found my heart more carnall, and sitting loose from God, vanity and the follyes of youth take hold of me.

      What, she had her first crush?

    2. what I knew was sinful, as lying, disobedience to Par- ents, &c., I avoided it.

      "... and I never got smacked!"

    3. not to sett forth myself, but the Glory of God.

      this type of phrase always ends up in our readings one way or another. it must have just been a figure of speech, like how we would swear to god.

    1. She rack't, she sack'd,

      RACK 'EM SACK 'EM QUEENBOTS

    2. Since first the Sun did run, his ne'er runn'd race,

      this line is SO GOOD.

    3. (though out of date)

      is this bradford's hipster way of saying that paying respects to Queen Elizabeth is retro, since she died so long before the poem was published?

    1. earth

      My christian mother would always condemn things that are "worldly". Funny how christians tend to make the physical planet a symbol of evil, yet the urge to consume it is labeled "manifest destiny".

    1. And for thy Mother, she alas is poor, Which caus'd her thus to send thee out of door.

      this is heartwarming to me ... she's basically telling her genius thoughts (her offspring) that she would never forsake them despite being kicked out by her own mother!

    2. Thou ill-form'd offspring of my feeble brain, Who after birth did'st by my side remain, Till snatcht from thence by friends, less wise than true, Who thee abroad expos'd to public view,

      this sounds like its about idea stealing. I love how you can have a creative thought, but if you don't record it, it'll abandon you. Keep the good ones hidden from the snatchers! Good advice.

    1. For such despite they cast on female wits, If what I do prove well, it won't advance-- They'll say it was stolen, or else it was by chance.

      Oh, so this prologue is basically saying "Here's my material. I'm a woman, so nobody's going to take it seriously, but I'm going to do it (in the shadow of this Greek guy) anyway."

    2. Nor perfect beauty where's a main defect: My foolish, broken, blemished Muse so sings; And this to mend, alas, no art is able, 'Cause nature made is so, irreparable.

      it sounds like she's putting down her own writing here, especially when she compares herself to Bartas. I wonder why she opens up with such insecurity right away ...

    1. Poems have to lend themselves to the "social mentality" in a way, granted, there's no social universality. To connect with a poem, one must feel either more connected OR more contrasted with their surroundings. It's all in reference to the way people around the reader think.

    2. Literature isn't only text, it's a social function. This goes back to "The Poem as an Experience."

    1. and spoke to them in broken English

      Wait, Bradford, who's speaking in broken English?

    2. [T]hey that before had been boone companions in drinking & joyllity in ye time of their health & wellfare, begane now to deserte one another in this calamitie, saing they would not hasard ther lives for them, they should be infected by coming to help them in their cabins, and so, after they came to dye by it, would doe litle or nothing for them, but if they dyed let them dye…

      This is SO SAD. He didn't need to add this bit, but it must have been out of guilt. He could have easily said, "We ye done ye everything we could do ye, but to no avail." but he offers true sincerity here.

    3. halfe of their company dyed

      The recorder hardly ever dies. I know that it's most important to keep him alive for the sake of history, but he must have been sitting in the lap of luxury compared to these other guys. I would consider mutiny, too. And it wouldn't be suppressed by the ye ole gov wisdom or god. I'm not saying Bradford was bad for being the most privileged, but it must have really made him think about his life in reference to the loss of others. I'm curious to see if this gets more existential the more people die. I'm expecting more god talk.

    4. Northerne parts of Virginia,

      they're not in the cape??

    1. faine would they doe what could be done for their wages sake, (being now halfe the seas over,) and on ye other hand they were loath to hazard their lives too desperatly.

      I don't know how these type of wages work, but it'd only be fair if every man got more for everyone thrown overboard. Unless 'wage" means something else, like their best effort.

    2. which ye shipe was shroudly shaken, and her upper works made very leakie; and one of the maine beames in ye midd ships was bowed & craked, which put them in some fear that ye shipe could not be able to performe ye vioage. So some of ye cheefe of ye company, perceiveing ye mariners to feare ye suffisiencie of ye shipe,

      YE YE YE YE YE YE YE YE YE

    1. certain men who wore beards like us, had come from heaven and arrived at that river; bringing horses, lances, and swords, and that they had lanced two Indians.

      This just makes me think of the classic, hideously muscular vikings from the operas with horned helmets atop bushy blonde hair. Perhaps the Indians were visited by the Metal Gods??

    1. It is com- mon among them all to leave their wives when there is no conformity, and directly they connect themselves with whom they please. This is the course of the men who are childless ; those who have children, re- main with their wives and never abandon them.

      Normally, the sexualization of tribespeople goes toward women, but this log pins the men as the real "sexual savages." Still offensive, yet refreshing.

    1. Near the shore a wave took us, that knocked the boat out of water the distance of the throw of a crowbar,

      Crew: "HEY LOOK, LAND! WOOHOO, YEA--" splash

    1. so much can necessity do, which drove us to hazard our hves in this manner, running into a turbu- lent sea, not a single one who went, having a know- ledge of navigation.

      Up sh*t creek without a paddle! How could none of these adventurous explorers know a thing about sea navigation? You'd think they'd cover that in training. This includes Cabeza de Vaca??

    2. destroyed by the Indians

      Not killed; not murdered; not slaughtered; not massacred; destroyed.

    3. Grod, our Lord

      Praise be Grod.

    1. Not merely a statement of positions and distances, animals and vegetation, but of the diverse customs of the many and very barbarous people with whom I talked and dwelt

      The ways he so aggressively asserts that he stays loyal and faithful to the crown in the beginning might have been forced assurance to potential skeptics who might judge him differently for "dwelling" with "savages."

    1. The reading of a text is an event occurring at a particular time in a particular environment at a particular moment in the life history of the reader.

      What if an author COULD design intent for a poem that surpasses the limitations of the affective fallacy by privately publishing something that a reader needed to send in an application in order to read ... a ridiculously extensive survey of one's life history to judge his/her compatibility with the poem's "proper" interpretation. What if the EVENT of reading the poem is more-or-less the same for everyone in the audience? If there was a poem where an author could say "this was the intent of my poem, here's the author's note, as confirmed by not only me but everyone who has read the thing. If you were not selected to read it, your critique is welcome, but does not apply. If the intended EVENT did not occur as you were reading, you have not experienced the life-historical requirements to properly evaluate the text."

    2. This reader later explained that he was leading man in an amateur play then in rehearsal and that he had been having trouble with a temperamental leading lady

      The poem unintentionally evoked this attitude from the reader, strengthening the argument from the intentional fallacy reading. People read poems with the intent of putting themselves in the loop, even if it's self constructed. The more we learn in the class, the less concern I have for the author's intentions. That's what we're SUPPOSED to be feeling, right?

    3. The play seems out for an almost infinite run. Don't mind a little thing like the adore fighting. The only thing I worry about is the sun. We'll be all right if nothing goes wrong with the lighting.

      The production (life?) seems like it goes on forever. Don't mind the approval of others. I only care about living. Everything is fine as long as we're alive.

    1. .

      (highlight problems, meant to get the entire sentence) An example I can think of would be the word "fat" here and its translation in Asian cultures. In America it represents ugliness and gluttony, where in places like China, it can represent wealth and happiness.

    2. he Affective Fallacy is a confusion between the poem and its results (what it is and what it does), a speci

      I always considered a poem, in the long run, to BE its legacy (what it does), but now I'm wondering what exactly a poem IS. What defines a poem, if not creative intention, uninteded consequences, or form???

    1. I saw some with scars of wounds upon their bodies, and demanded by signs the of them; they answered me in the same way, that there came people from the other islands in the neighborhood who endeavored to make prisoners of them, and they defended themselves. I thought then,

      "... marvelous! They'll be my prisoners instead."

    2. but the true one which he kept to himself was seven hundred and seven leagues.

      So what happens when everyone finds out? Why not just be honest, considering that they're going 20ish leagues a day?

    3. Two pelicans came on board, and afterwards another,–a sign of the neighborhood of land. Saw large quantities of weeds today

      We should have gone with the pelican instead of the bald eagle, would have made enough sense.

    4. They were all very cheerful, and strove which vessel should outsail the others, and be the first to discover land

      I couldn't even imagine ... imagine how the crew members who kept their expectations low must have felt when they found it.

    5. really throwing his crew members under the bus ... not the type of captain who sinks with the ship.