On Monday the temperature was above zero and so I put on one less layer of pretty much everything and though I had my winter gloves in my backpack just in case, I wore my spring gloves for my ride into class.
The classroom had suddenly had at least ten of those rounded bumper-car desks that we’d used in the other classroom during first term. I didn’t know what to do with them since there was time to set up the tables that we’ve gotten used to now as desks. I just rolled some of them to the side for stragglers who come in late. I think only Zanab used one.
I commented to Professor Weisman that spring starts this week. She said, “Supposedly!” I observed that the clouds are getting interesting while in the winter they tend to be boring and so it must be spring.
The professor announced that there would be a lecture on 19th Century studies at the Jackman Humanities building. The lecture is called “Frederick Douglas’s Pride and Prejudice” and it will feature new thinking on race and class.
She advised us on how to do citations for poetry. Generally one should cite poems by line within parenthesis if fewer than three lines, with punctuation after the parentheses. If there are more than three lines there needs to be a block quotation with an indent of two spaces. MLA asks for the simplest citations. Even with slight deviation from MLA guidelines, consistency and transparency are crucial. For a play or a dramatic poem, cite the act, scene and line.
We began our study of Lord Byron’s “Manfred” and jumped ahead to Manfred’s famous address to the sun and his lament that it is no longer worshipped. Professor Weisman asked, “In what way does this lament represent a central Romantic complaint?”
I said that the Romantics are nature worshippers and they stand in difficulty with established religion and so Manfred is lamenting that the sun is no longer worshipped. This part has the feel of some of Blake’s poems that speak of the sun as being the home of god. Man worshipped the sun when the societies of mankind were simpler and before corruption by religious dogma. But now with science having revealed the nature of the sun the orb has been robbed of its mystery and wonder by the human mind.
Look at galvanism and Frankenstein. How far will science go? Science and knowledge have replaced the integrity of human imagination. Some scholars see Romanticism as the beginning of modern consciousness.
The sun as an elemental force was mythologized. After the Copernican revolution man was no longer the centre of an anthropocentric universe. The sun is setting.
From the beginning Manfred’s power depends on his superior science.
Manfred is like Prometheus Unbound in that it is a closet drama and in that it is sometimes interpreted as a psychodrama. It proceeds by way of dramatic language and theatrical principles describe the scenes. A lot depends upon the reader’s imagination.
Manfred could be seen as a psychodrama but she prefers not to. The abbot for example is external to Manfred.
The epigraph is a famous quote from Hamlet: “There are more things in heaven and earth Horatio than are dreamt of in your philosophy.” In other words, we don’t know.
Manfred takes place in the realm of the sublime. There are high mountains and fierce waterfalls, awe inspiring and frightening. But the landscape is ennobling and strengthening as one internalizes the sublime power to become its equal. In Shelley’s “Mont Blanc” one looks up but cannot see the peak. In Wordsworth’s ascent of Mount Snowden the sea of mist is a fit emblem for one’s own mind. Experiencing the sublime gives one a sense of one’s own grandeur.
Manfred suffers guilt from an unnameable sin, which is very gothic. We never find out what he is so guilty about. Is it incest? There are hints in confessional mode. He embodies the fatal man haunted by a fatal sin.
Manfred does not sleep. He out watches the night and even sleep is a continuance of thought. This ties in with the Romantic obsession with interiority as can also be seen in The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and in Frankenstein with the imagination of the self-aggrandizing and self-obsessed human gone awry without relief.
Manfred is not quite a character.
There is a tree of knowledge but no tree of life. To grow in knowledge is to grow in sorrow. Manfred is well versed in the occult and can summon spirits.
Byron attracted a brand. He was known as mad, bad and dangerous to know and this of course made him very attractive on top of already being exceptionally handsome, titled, extremely intelligent, very well educated and talented. He had a lot of lovers of both sexes and one of them was his own half sister. He was driven out of England by his many scandals. He was brilliant but guilty. Byron is clearly evoked in Manfred.
Manfred conquered science and philosophy but to no avail as he remains cursed. He conjures spirits so that they might grant him forgetfulness of a memory that haunts him but which he cannot name. Remember that in Romanticism the self that understands the self depends upon memory and a sense of one’s own continuity. A question in neuroscience is, would there be selfhood without memory?
Manfred is calling for the negation of his own will. He wants powerlessness.
Manfred reminds the spirits he has conjured that they are his slaves. He warns them that his power is greater than theirs and threatens to use it upon them. The professor asked, "What is paradoxical about this speech?”
I said that Manfred is using the full extent of his power to demand powerlessness. He is reminding the spirits that he is more powerful than they are and yet he needs them to take his power away.
He’s calling himself man and god at the same time.
I will show you who I am if you don’t make me forget who I am.
The central paradox in the sublime is that the powerful human in asserting his power makes it impossible to subjugate himself.
The spirit appears as Astarte. Manfred tries to embrace her but she vanishes.
The professor asked, “How might this scene be compared to Shelley’s "Hymn to Intellectual Beauty". She told us to bring our answers back on Wednesday.
I told Professor Weisman that I think Manfred is Doctor Doom but she didn’t know who Doctor Doom is. I explained that he’s a brooding comic book villain who is a scientific genius but who also delves into sorcery. He has a small fictional kingdom in the Carpathian Mountains near the eastern border of Romania. She commented that there are actually quite a few characters that could be based on Manfred, like Voldemort.
I stopped at Freshco on the way home where I saw Dawn from Bike Pirates talking with a middle-aged guy. I waited to chat with her but suddenly the man started complaining about the Jews and so Dawn said, “I’m not listening to his!" and she stormed off, though she did say goodbye to me as she stormed past.
I bought bananas, asparagus, orange juice and Earl Grey tea. I ate the last of my walnuts for lunch and a banana with some raspberries.
I typed most of my lecture notes.
I had two potatoes and some asparagus with gravy for dinner and watched The Rifleman.
In this story North Fork finally gets a bank and a Texas gunslinger named Floyd Doniger to be the guard. Three old associates of Doniger show up to try to convince Floyd to help them rob the bank. Floyd tells them he wants to settle down and buy a ranch but their leader convinces him that he’d never be able to save up enough for land from his salary as a bank guard. The next day the men come in and rob the bank as Floyd just sits there without trying to stop them. But as the bandits are about to leave with the money Floyd shoots them all down. He then picks up the money and makes off with it. The rifleman has to stop him and kills him.
Floyd is played by Hollywood tough guy Claude Akens.
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