Rasselas (Johnson: III)
May. 7th, 2016 03:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
anghraineContinuation of this post.
IMLAC!
Okay, so Rasselas is not too downcast from the bat wing failure, as he didn't really expect it to succeed (though hoped so), but he gets mopey as the weather turns rainy and he's stuck inside. But one night a poet, Imlac, discourses of human nature and the poet's genius astounds him so much he HAS to talk to him, and he's enthralled by everything Imlac says.
Yeah, yeah, I see what you did there, Johnson. But in all fairness, Imlac never feels like a direct expy of Johnson. He's neither as amusing nor as grumpy, though he is definitely a mouthpiece for Johnson.
Anyway, Imlac pities Rasselas for his completely involuntary ignorance and is charmed by his burning curiosity about everything, so he gladly takes on a sort of mentorship role and tells his own life story.
Imlac is the son of a merchant in one of the Abyssinian provinces, who was honest and hard-working but narrow-minded and paranoid about being defrauded of his wealth by the corrupt minister of the region. Rasselas is appalled at the idea that there could be any corrupt ministers anywhere in the empire, and Imlac is like... it's an empire. That's how they work. ("Subordination supposes power on one part and subjection on the other; and if power be in the hands of men, it will sometimes be abused." Can't argue with that.) This is one of the less oppressive ones, so you don't need to judge your father. Rasselas swears that if he were emperor, every single subject of his would be completely free from oppression.
Imlac: Okay, kid.
So Imlac's father realized how bright he was, and hoped he would someday be... THE RICHEST MERCHANT EVER. So he sent bby Imlac to school, but as Imlac got involved with intellectual and creative pursuits, he became increasingly disenchanted with the 'we have more money than God, but there might be money somewhere we don't have' path. He also become frustrated with his teachers, because as he advanced, he became aware that they weren't any more intellectually gifted than anyone else (Rasselas has always been frustrated by this). Anyway, his father gave him some money to prove himself with and sent him off to make his way in the world at age 20. Imlac went along with it just to get new experiences and knowledge, and headed off to India for no particular reason.
Imlac was very excited by the ocean at first, but quickly grew bored. Arriving in Surat, he bought some frippery for show and joined up with a caravan, where others were jealous of his presumed wealth and smug over his ignorance. So they deliberately didn't warn him about anything, and so he lost valuables to servants and corrupt officials. They didn't gain anything by this, just lols. Rasselas, who doesn't grasp the concept of schadenfreude, is like... HOW COULD THIS BE??? Imlac tries to explain, but Rasselas is like, pfft, that can't be. I'm sure you're telling the truth, you just don't ~understand.~
Imlac showed up at the capital of Indostan (...) and quickly learned the language and got involved in local academic circles, as far as possible. He built up enough of a reputation to get presented to the emperor as a man of learning, and questioned by him. Bby Imlac was swept away by the genius and kindness of the emperor, though in retrospect he didn't say anything remarkable.
At this point, Imlac was doing so well that his shitty co-travellers asked him to smooth their paths with the court ladies. Imlac was like... wtf? your screwing me over is literally the only thing I know about you??? So then they tried to bribe him, which only annoyed him further.
Once he'd learned all he could, he headed off to Persia, which was awesome and fascinating, then into Arabia. He describes that as "both pastoral and warlike," as Arabs 1) don't actually want other people's possession, and 2) kind of hate everyone else anyway.
...Uh.
Throughout all this, he found that everyone considered poetry the highest art of them all (sure, Johnson). He also found that the most admired poets always seemed to be the ancient ones. Later poetry can be more refined and grateful, but early poetry is always the most vivid and creative and powerful.
This was one of those weird eighteenth century debates. Actually, two. There's the relationship of nature (as in, the natural way of being, not meadows and whatnot) and art (not painting, but ... artifice, without the connotation of falseness—craft and deliberation and whatnot). One of the most influential essays on P&P interprets Darcy and Elizabeth's opposition/reconciliation as taking on the art-nature dialectic, with Darcy taking the side of art and Elizabeth the side of nature and their marriage reconciling the two extremes. This only makes sense if you accept that Darcy and Elizabeth are opposites, which is stupid, but the essay still makes some good points. Anyway, the other major debate was about the greatness of the ancients vs people of the present. They knew they were living in a New Age and that the artistic movements of the time were important. It's all through Austen, btw—from Darcy's remark about how he just doesn't get how people could not be upgrading their libraries "in such days as these," all the way into Persuasion. Some people were like... this stuff we're doing now is so much more refined, so amazing, and others were all about Lo, These Degraded Times and longing for the past. (I suspect a lot of this divide had to do with the Civil War. People got very enthusiastic about contemporary art during the Restoration and after, when they weren't looking sadly back on the Good Old Days before it all.)
So that's why he's getting into this weird early version of the canonicity debate.
Anyway, Imlac wanted to be A Poet!!! and studied the greats, but "I soon found that no man was ever great by imitation." Nice line, not sure if I agree or not. So he started studying not previous poets, but the world around him and human nature. Suddenly he was interested in EVERYTHING, which was as it should be: "To a poet nothing can be useless." Imlac goes on for awhile about How To Poet. (This chapter is subtitled "A Dissertation on Poetry." *yawn*)
Imlac says that a poet doesn't need to commit literally every single object in the world to memory (obviously, except to Rasselas). Rather, poets need to understand and represent "not the individual, but the species." That is, to understand types and to be able to give descriptions recognizable to anyone familiar with that sort of thing—not so detailed that it can't actually be identified by people unfamiliar with the specific case. But they also need to intimately understand human life and human nature, the effects of society, culture, and geography, from youth to old age, all while rising above the preconceptions of their own time and culture and reaching universal truths. This means, of course, risking a total lack of appreciation in the present if your culture isn't in sync with transcendental universal truths, and they instead have to hope they'll be recognized by the "justice of posterity ... as a being superior to time and place."
Humility seems to be less important.
Funny thing: the next chapter is HORRIFICALLY DATED.
I did smile at Rasselas' response, though:
Enough! thou hast convinced me that no human being can ever be a poet.
IMLAC!
Okay, so Rasselas is not too downcast from the bat wing failure, as he didn't really expect it to succeed (though hoped so), but he gets mopey as the weather turns rainy and he's stuck inside. But one night a poet, Imlac, discourses of human nature and the poet's genius astounds him so much he HAS to talk to him, and he's enthralled by everything Imlac says.
Yeah, yeah, I see what you did there, Johnson. But in all fairness, Imlac never feels like a direct expy of Johnson. He's neither as amusing nor as grumpy, though he is definitely a mouthpiece for Johnson.
Anyway, Imlac pities Rasselas for his completely involuntary ignorance and is charmed by his burning curiosity about everything, so he gladly takes on a sort of mentorship role and tells his own life story.
Imlac is the son of a merchant in one of the Abyssinian provinces, who was honest and hard-working but narrow-minded and paranoid about being defrauded of his wealth by the corrupt minister of the region. Rasselas is appalled at the idea that there could be any corrupt ministers anywhere in the empire, and Imlac is like... it's an empire. That's how they work. ("Subordination supposes power on one part and subjection on the other; and if power be in the hands of men, it will sometimes be abused." Can't argue with that.) This is one of the less oppressive ones, so you don't need to judge your father. Rasselas swears that if he were emperor, every single subject of his would be completely free from oppression.
Imlac: Okay, kid.
So Imlac's father realized how bright he was, and hoped he would someday be... THE RICHEST MERCHANT EVER. So he sent bby Imlac to school, but as Imlac got involved with intellectual and creative pursuits, he became increasingly disenchanted with the 'we have more money than God, but there might be money somewhere we don't have' path. He also become frustrated with his teachers, because as he advanced, he became aware that they weren't any more intellectually gifted than anyone else (Rasselas has always been frustrated by this). Anyway, his father gave him some money to prove himself with and sent him off to make his way in the world at age 20. Imlac went along with it just to get new experiences and knowledge, and headed off to India for no particular reason.
Imlac was very excited by the ocean at first, but quickly grew bored. Arriving in Surat, he bought some frippery for show and joined up with a caravan, where others were jealous of his presumed wealth and smug over his ignorance. So they deliberately didn't warn him about anything, and so he lost valuables to servants and corrupt officials. They didn't gain anything by this, just lols. Rasselas, who doesn't grasp the concept of schadenfreude, is like... HOW COULD THIS BE??? Imlac tries to explain, but Rasselas is like, pfft, that can't be. I'm sure you're telling the truth, you just don't ~understand.~
Imlac showed up at the capital of Indostan (...) and quickly learned the language and got involved in local academic circles, as far as possible. He built up enough of a reputation to get presented to the emperor as a man of learning, and questioned by him. Bby Imlac was swept away by the genius and kindness of the emperor, though in retrospect he didn't say anything remarkable.
At this point, Imlac was doing so well that his shitty co-travellers asked him to smooth their paths with the court ladies. Imlac was like... wtf? your screwing me over is literally the only thing I know about you??? So then they tried to bribe him, which only annoyed him further.
Once he'd learned all he could, he headed off to Persia, which was awesome and fascinating, then into Arabia. He describes that as "both pastoral and warlike," as Arabs 1) don't actually want other people's possession, and 2) kind of hate everyone else anyway.
...Uh.
Throughout all this, he found that everyone considered poetry the highest art of them all (sure, Johnson). He also found that the most admired poets always seemed to be the ancient ones. Later poetry can be more refined and grateful, but early poetry is always the most vivid and creative and powerful.
This was one of those weird eighteenth century debates. Actually, two. There's the relationship of nature (as in, the natural way of being, not meadows and whatnot) and art (not painting, but ... artifice, without the connotation of falseness—craft and deliberation and whatnot). One of the most influential essays on P&P interprets Darcy and Elizabeth's opposition/reconciliation as taking on the art-nature dialectic, with Darcy taking the side of art and Elizabeth the side of nature and their marriage reconciling the two extremes. This only makes sense if you accept that Darcy and Elizabeth are opposites, which is stupid, but the essay still makes some good points. Anyway, the other major debate was about the greatness of the ancients vs people of the present. They knew they were living in a New Age and that the artistic movements of the time were important. It's all through Austen, btw—from Darcy's remark about how he just doesn't get how people could not be upgrading their libraries "in such days as these," all the way into Persuasion. Some people were like... this stuff we're doing now is so much more refined, so amazing, and others were all about Lo, These Degraded Times and longing for the past. (I suspect a lot of this divide had to do with the Civil War. People got very enthusiastic about contemporary art during the Restoration and after, when they weren't looking sadly back on the Good Old Days before it all.)
So that's why he's getting into this weird early version of the canonicity debate.
Anyway, Imlac wanted to be A Poet!!! and studied the greats, but "I soon found that no man was ever great by imitation." Nice line, not sure if I agree or not. So he started studying not previous poets, but the world around him and human nature. Suddenly he was interested in EVERYTHING, which was as it should be: "To a poet nothing can be useless." Imlac goes on for awhile about How To Poet. (This chapter is subtitled "A Dissertation on Poetry." *yawn*)
Imlac says that a poet doesn't need to commit literally every single object in the world to memory (obviously, except to Rasselas). Rather, poets need to understand and represent "not the individual, but the species." That is, to understand types and to be able to give descriptions recognizable to anyone familiar with that sort of thing—not so detailed that it can't actually be identified by people unfamiliar with the specific case. But they also need to intimately understand human life and human nature, the effects of society, culture, and geography, from youth to old age, all while rising above the preconceptions of their own time and culture and reaching universal truths. This means, of course, risking a total lack of appreciation in the present if your culture isn't in sync with transcendental universal truths, and they instead have to hope they'll be recognized by the "justice of posterity ... as a being superior to time and place."
Humility seems to be less important.
Funny thing: the next chapter is HORRIFICALLY DATED.
I did smile at Rasselas' response, though:
Enough! thou hast convinced me that no human being can ever be a poet.
