“The genuine proverb is not the elaborately thought-out sentence of an individual, but the commonly adopted expression of long and wide experience. Its literary form is usually, crude, unpolished, and devoid of style, indicating that is obtained its currency among the lower classes, not the litterateurs. Hence the saying that proverbs are the “People’s Voice” is true in more senses than one. It is a popular speech in so far as it reflects the popular mind, but it is also an accurate record of the vernacular.”

Monday, January 16, 2012

Class Notes 1/16/2012 Pride and Prejudice

Pride and Prejudice was written in the time of Beethoven, Rossini, Schubert, Liszt, and Mendelssohn. Look up Turner's works.

-You should marry someone in a similar social position as yourself?
-You always marry someone as mentally healthy as you are?
-Is it OK to set up boundaries to protect your marriage?
-You are unique, no one is like you- there has never been anyone like you. Two unique people get married, and all marriages are different. This creation has never happened before.
-Wisdom: Is it derived from observance of others? Or from our own mistakes?

Read with a reason, a purpose. Read disinterestedly. Write notes, paragraphs outside the book. Code your own thoughts with a //. Have some sort of conversation about the book. Use the 1828 dictionary http://machaut.uchicago.edu/websters.

The whole book is a dance. Why?

PRIDE: Doesn't listen, Lizzy, Darcy
PREJUDICE: Listen, Mrs. Bennet, Lizzy, Catherine, Darcy

Louis L'amour: The Lonesome Gods
The Walking Drum/ The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind/Mainspring of Human Progress

What our business is determines our solace. The business of her live was to get her daughters married, it's solace was visiting and news. Q. What's your business? Your business and focus determines it's solace.

What are we choosing? Fame? Fortune? Happiness?

What has to happen so Pride and Prejudice can marry?

-Each has to change
-Humility
-Willingness to forgive
-Honest judgments
-Forgive past mistakes
-Heal wounds
-Help overcome fears

Take note of proverbs in Middlemarch. Read 2 parts each week. Pay attention to the quotes in the beginning of each chapter.





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