Last week I was ecstatic : I walked in to my European Tragedy lecture and there sat my favorite lecturer of all time Professor G. He was playing the role of guest lecturer. He is The Man who introduced me to the wonderful world of Romanticism and Fairy tales. Needless to say I really got sucked in to the lecture and the seminar.
He initiated a conversation with the class about poetry (poetry anything from drama to music to art) and in this case Tragedy in particular and how it feeds man's desire to mourn ( mourn in the sense of being overwhelmed by the passing of a loved one). During the seminar he brought up an interesting question; something along the lines... Was the Passion of Christ (the story of Jesus' death) a Tragedy?
My opinion... No but it does have tragic elements and tragic characters. I said... Jesus had a choice on whether to suffer or not which could be seen as his fatal decision. He was powerful and could have used that to opt out of a painful death but he instead chose not to for the greater good of the people, however once the hour was upon him and death was around the corner he had a moment of anxiety and he prayed for his fate to be change. This moment was heart wrenching, stone growing in your throat sad and we all knew his fate was sealed.
But what was interesting about this story to me in this seminar was its writers. I had never really thought much about the behind the scenes of 'THE PASSION OF CHRIST'. The invisible men. Turns out that they were very well educated men and their learning background deeply embedded in the form of TRAGEDIES. At this stage my Irish friend who totally misinterpreted what was said; posed a question to Professor G. "Are you implying that Jesus was familiar with Classic Greek Tragedies like Antigone?" =)
Anyway it was a great seminar and 'kept the people going' as Kanye would say SIDE-NOTE: I GOT TICKETS TO JAY Z's and KANYE WEST'S WATCH THE THRONE CONCERT AND IM SO EXCITED 'DONT LET ME GET IN MY ZONE'. BACK TO THE MAIN TOPIC - On my way home I was thinking about the lecture, listening to Adele and reading the Metro. There was a short clip on Rihanna speaking about Adele's music being so amazing but really depressing her when she listened to it.The appreciation of an amazing artist (poet) and the emotion that they induce from their audience/spectators is what Rihanna was talking about. You remember the thing we talked about earlier ...about mans desire and love of mourning. THAT FEELING YOU GET WHEN LISTENING TO ADELE 'NEVER MIND I'LL FIND SOMEONE LIKE YOU'..... 'WHO WANTS TO BE RIGHT AS RAIN ITS BETTER WHEN SOMETHING IS WRONG' We like to mourn the passing of a loved one even those that haven't died but are simply no longer part of our lives. We like to be moved by some one else's experiences and to then identify ourselves in that situation. We are in love with mourning and thus we are in love with tragedy. Philosopher Aristotle suggested that the reason we enjoy watching drama as much as we do is because we like to watch the imitation of human actions, we are trying to find and understand ourselves through the actions of others.
PLATO HAS ONE THING TO SAY TO YOU ALL, THAT IS ALL OF YOU WHO ENJOY A BIT OF DRAMA, A BIT OF ADELE A BIT OF TRAGEDY. AND THAT IS THAT YOU SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF YOURSELVES AND MAN UP! YOU WOULD NORMALLY ADMIRE A MAN WHO CONTAINS HIS EMOTIONS AND DEALS WITH HIS PROBLEMS IN A DIGNIFIED MANNER SO WHY ARE YOU SUDDENLY PRAISING A MAN/POET/ARTIST WHO IS EMOTIONALLY FALLING APART IN FRONT OF YOUR EYES? IT SHOWS YOU ARE WEAK AND INDULGING IN THIS FORM OF ENTERTAINMENT ONLY MAKES YOU WEAKER.
NOW GO FORTH AND ATTACK POETS.PLATO
PLEASE NOTE THAT WHAT I SAID PLATO SAID IS MERELY AN INTERPRETATION OF MY UNDERSTANDING ON HIS THEORY ON POETRY IN RELATION TO THE EMOTION IT EVOKES, I REALLY LIKE MY IRISH FRIEND AND HE IS ACTUALLY A GENIUS, I AM NOT ASHAMED OF MY OCCASSIONAL INDULGENCE IN ADELE AND SAD FILMS AND STORIES AND FINALLY IM GOING TO WATCH THE THRONE =) HOPE TO SEE YOU THERE!!!! DONT LEAVE WITHOUT SAMPLING THE MUSIC.
Wow! This is a fascinating post, full of lots of interesting ideas! I love poetry, and I absolutely agree that we need poetry - it's food for the soul and I find that poetry is the most disciplined form of language. Poets use language in a highly structured and disciplined way, which makes it very powerful. I've often found solace in poetry - when we are grieving, poetry can be hugely helpful and consoling.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing your wonderful reflections!!