Soul to Self

We have discussed the transition from SOUL TO SELF. That is to say, the transition from:

-a consciousness and morality organized around the concept ofan eternal/sacred”soul”-, connected to an omniscient (all knowing) and transcendent God (transcendental certitude)

— to thedevelopment ofa modern secular/materialistic “self”that uses personality and charm to secure satisfactions in a secular world of constantly shifting loyalties and uncertain realities.

This shift from SOUL to SELF is also a shift from an Age of Faith to an Age of Science

While this shift results in a” loss of transcendental certitude”,the scientific method is able to offer a substitute: more certitude about the workings of the secular world.

The “self”no longer defines itselfin relation to a transcendent truth, but only in relation tohow it can shore itself up by using “others.”

This modern relationship of self-to-otherbecomes inherently vampiricin that it needs the admiration of others (in vampiric terms, this admiration is equivalent to the “blood” of others) to keep alive its own fragile self-worth.

The extraction of energy from others, to shore up the self,is paralleled by capitalism,which also extracts resources (ivory, rubber or cobalt in the Congo, for example) to enrich itself, also at the expense of others.

Mass production, mass consumption and mass advertising all combine to offer a new equivalent of the sacred object: the commodity. Commodities are configured as offering to the insatiable self the continually defered PEPSI myths: Perfection, Efficiency, Progress, Satisfaction, and Innovation.All of these mythsmimic transcendental certitudeby promising perfection, progress, etc., but only at a point thatseems to remain just out of reach, at some point in the future.

All the works we have read so far, in their various ways, wrestle with this dynamic.

Using the quotes belowas your evidence (no need for outside sources), discuss/illustrate how this overview I have outlined above is reflected in these quotes. Some quotes will emphasize the panic/anxiety; some quotes will attempt a solution; some serve as a warning about the dangers of pursuing self-fulfillment at the expense of all else (illustrating both how seductive it is, and how destructive).

Remember, there is nooneright answer, only more or less persuasive ones.You will be evaluated on how persuasively youmake use of the quotes as evidence foryour statements/arguments/assertionsabout the interrelationship between the crises of the Twentieth Century and Twentieth century Literature.Some tips:

—Be sure tobe conciseandcome to your point quickly.

–Stay alert for opportunities torestate your case more clearly,as your argument develops, by taking the time to re-read and revise.

–Try andconnecteach pointyou makeabout the soul/self transitionto something specificin one or more of the quotes.

–In addition to showingwhat all the quotes have in common, look for opportunitiesto differentiate them as well.

QUOTE ONE

You have thrown it all away. You are shallow and stupid. My God! how mad I was to love you! What a fool I have been! You are nothing to me now. I will never see you again.

I will never think of you. I will never mention your name. You don’t know what you were to me, once. Why, once . . . Oh, I can’t bear to think of it! I wish I had never laid eyes upon you!

You have spoiled the romance of my life. How little you can know of love, if you say it mars your art!Without your art, you are nothing.

Dorian Gray to Sibyl Vane,The Picture of Dorian Gray

————————————————————————
QUOTE TWO

The conquest of the earth, which mostly means the taking it away from those who have a different complexion or slightly flatter noses than ourselves, is not a pretty thing when you look into it too much. What redeems it is the idea only. An idea at the back of it; not a sentimental pretense but an idea; and an unselfish belief in the ideasomething you can set up, and bow down before, and offer a sacrifice to. . . .

fromHeart of Darkness

QUOTE THREE

Turning and turning in the widening gyre

The falcon cannot hear the falconer;

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,

The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere

The ceremony of innocence is drowned;

The best lack all conviction, while the worst

Are full of passionate intensity.

The Second Coming WB Yeats

QUOTE FOUR

THE SISTERS

There was no hope for him this time: it was the third stroke. Night after night I had passed the house (it was vacation time) and studied the lighted square of window: and night after night I had found it lighted in the same way, faintly and evenly. If he was dead, I thought, I would see the reflection of candles on the darkened blind for I knew that two candles must be set at the head of a corpse. He had often said to me: I am not long for this world, and I had thought his words idle. Now I knew they were true. Every night as I gazed up at the window I said softly to myself the word paralysis. It had always sounded strangely in my ears, like the word gnomon in the Euclid and the word simony in the Catechism. But now it sounded to me like the name of some maleficent and sinful being. It filled me with fear, and yet I longed to be nearer to it and to look upon its deadly work.
The Sisters, James Joyce

Last Completed Projects