Free write. There is a lot of ambiguity in what Free Write means. Am I to list ideas? Am I to ramble on a topic? Very 19th century, that.
Well, if I was to choose which topic interested me that most I would have to say that topic "b)", or the question of authority, interests me the most. The question of what authority and, by design, authorship really mean has always fascinated me. You know the saying "The ones who write the history are the ones who won the war"? Eh, well it goes something like that. Anyway the point is that that statement is very true and has contributed to shaping the modern world. Imagine what the consequences would have been if the French had won the French and Indian War? Can anyone say Parlez vous francais? Or if we never had slavery in America, imagine what society would be like today if you even can fathom it. The culture of what it means to be black in the United States would be totally different, we might not have ever had the chance to bathe our ears in the sweet sounds of Aretha Franklin, Michael Jackson, and more contemporary, Kendrick Lamar.
I'm getting away from the point. The point is that by the 19th century americans were beginning to question authority because the pastoral bliss of the Revolutionary America of the 18th century was long gone and gone with it (or soon leaving, anyway) was the puritanical and religious notion of total submission to authority.
When looking at authority through the lens of our class, I am most drawn to "In Search of Local Color" by Brander Matthews and "Chickamauga" by Ambrose Bierce. I choose these two stories because they have two radically different main characters who embody the authority in the story. In "Color" De Ruyter is the literal authority as he is an author in search of something to write about. In "Chickamauga" the authority in the story, or who we view the story though, is that of a little boy that the narrator continues to tell us to distrust because of his age.
I have my direction and purpose in the paper now, but it is early days yet.
Such a long and winding road, to quote someone:
ReplyDeleteBefore you leap off to alternative histories, which appears neither here nor there for you present interest, you note that
*The ones who write the history are the ones who won the war"
You seem to be associating authorship with a certain political/social perspective here--which seems ripe for Local Color and very interesting for Chick...
You then detour into broad historical generalization that earlier in America...
was the puritanical and religious notion of total submission to authority.
Well, it's worth remember that a lot of those folk were bad ass who wouldn't submit to anybody. Hence, why they're here....
But it is worth considering that postCivil war there's a new need to author--to make sense of / to inscribe?--the strange changing world where religious security has been turned on its head (see religion in Chick)....
how do these stories go about doing this...?
You note:
In "Chickamauga" the authority in the story, or who we view the story though, is that of a little boy that the narrator continues to tell us to distrust because of his age.
More obviously needs be done here--what are the limits of his authority beyond age? where does get his early authority from? what is beirce doing with our perception of war here?