*Plato encourages censorship because it arouses emotions. He wants to take away Jackass so it won't influence people. (An example of poetry so real it influenced people was HG Wells' radio broadcast of War of the Worlds.)
*Plato, therefore, exiles poets from his Republic because they make life very difficult.
*In the Phaedrus, Plato rejects writing because it introduces "forgetfulness into the soul"
anamnesis: total recall, the recollection of spiritual truths through genuine living wisdom
*The greatest sin for Plato was ignorance (amathia)
"How do you know what you think until you see what you say?" -Auden
phonocentrism: the tendency to regard speech as central rather than writing
-Aristotle was the transcendental categorizer. He was the first formalist critic
The one word point of the Poetics is TRAGEDY
*Aristotle believed that we need to look at representations even when they cause us pain
*The tragedy of tragedies was Oedipus Rex
*Pain is an educational experience. We can experience painful lessons vicariously through literature and art
*If mimesis is the main category of criticism, we must, as critics, judge everything by its real life counterpart.
*Sometimes an artist strives for greater perfection. Van Gogh was not trying to copy the copy of he bed. He was trying to embody the essence of the bed.
*There is no reality except that of the artist. The artist creates the way you see the world. "There never was a world for her except the one she sang and singing made"
*Plato believed that aesthetic relativism was wrong. There is only one truth. Beauty is not always in the eye of the beholder because the eye can be informed or uninformed.
*"I am vast I contain multitudes" - Whitman is portraying the universal self. "myself" comes from outside - culture, society, parents and teachers
Distinctions between Plato and Aristotle:
Plato is a ghost Aristotle is a skeleton
Plato believes in the immaterial Aristotle believes in the material
Plato is a hedgehog Aristotle is a fox
Hedgehog knows one thing Fox knows many things
Hedgehog = one truth Fox = truth in the details
*The Answer to Aristotle is GOLDILOCKS and the THREE BEARS "It's just right" isn't a moral question, it is a formal question. Aristotle looks at art and asks which piece does the right work.
*Comedy features people who are below us. Tragedy features people who are above us. For example, Dr. Sexson said that it would not be tragic if I got hit by a Volkswagon. But if the Prime Minister of England got hit by a Volkswagon - that would be tragic.
tragodeia: Song of the Goat (originates from the pharmakon or sacrifice usually being a goat)
Tragedy (for Aristotle): is a mimesis of a praxis that contains mythos, ethos, and dionara
[or in English "an imitation of an action that is serious, complete and of a certain magnitude"]
misprision: making a mistake, getting it wrong. Harold Bloom says that mistakes in reading and interpretation are unavoidable
Sublime: lofty/noble ideas, inspires awe and reverance, elevates the reader, there are no words to express this idea, transcended sense, a moving away from the pragmatic
liminal: on the periphery or on the edge, not quite in the world
ecstasy: ek-outside stasis-to stand (standing outside of yourself)
5 parts of the sublime according to Longnius: 1. Noble Feeling 2. Lofty Mind 3. Figures of Speech 4. Diction 5. Dignified Word Arrangement
*Sublime and awe carry the baggage or pain or the element of suffering. See also: Deep and powerful feeling
*Harold Bloom said that Plato hated Homer because he loved Homer
*Aristotle is associated with the organic
*Tragedy does the job for Aristotle because it does the job cleanly, efficiently, organically and seriously. Tragedy shouldn't have any loose ends. If there's a gun in a play, it has to go off. Tragedy must have unity of time, action, and place.
