My apology

According to Reason and Imagination, as well as other students and peers of mine on the Montana State University campus, the subject of English should be avoided at all costs. I am actually worse than most English majors: I am majoring in English education in the secondary level. Why would a person choose to study English first of all? Second, why would any sane person choose to make English or literature their major of choice? Well, I will tell you. Rather than apologize for my unforgivable mistake in majoring in English teaching at the high school level, I could tell you, the reader, why I choose to continue to love my major and why I chose it to be my major in the first place.
To be able to incorporate such broad ideas into a single work of literature is something that no other class can fully encompass at all nor on a daily basis. In Literary Criticism, we often venture into the unknown. We escape from the reality of existence and into the worlds of imagination, thought, and poetry. These little tangents, in which we decided were not wrong but actually stories within stories and quite necessary to venture to, allow for the imagination to blossom fully and without restraint. Without full-embodied imagination, we would not be able to read the literature that almost makes reading worth it. This is the literature that makes us crazy people decide to enrich our learning and make the 'horrendous' subject of English our major. Without imagination, life would be boring and as we discussed in class: If you are bored by something (life, literature, not having something to do and cannot think of anything), then you are boring!Without imagination, there would be no Shakespeare, no Stephen King, no Nicholas Sparks, no Jane Austen, no Edgar Allan Poe... no (gasp) Northrop Frye!
Northrop Frye and the Anatomy of Criticism would no longer exist without imagination. No claims could be made, no examples brought forth, and no charts and diagrams could be mapped out. Northrop Frye's ideas would not be available to us readers and literary critics alike. “Who?,” You ask. Maybe an example of someone more well-known would better exemplify my point that imagination is key to literature. Imagine the world without a key character, Don Quixote. He lives a life that is not real to us, but through his imagination, he lives an eventful and noble life. The entire novel Don Quixote would not exist without imagination and, yes, a crazy gentleman-turned-knight-errant. Don Quixote explores a new territory of the time and allows for laughter, realism, irony, plot summary and analysis, as well as imagination take part and unfold into the span of a novel.
Another reason I love English is because so many things are incorporated into the literature. Poetry, novels, novellas, textbooks, and song lyrics are brought in and a person can experience so many different cultures and ways of thinking from them. While reading a book, a person can climb into the pages with the narrator or the main character and explore a new jungle, be scared out of their wits, or even fight some windmills. By reading of another person's adventures, the reader can experience a new life apart from their own and venture into the unknown with a better grasp of what lies ahead. Lyrics and poetry allow for a release of sorts, a catharsis of emotions, and a way to fully express what the underlying feelings are. By reading and writing any form of literature, I am transported to a different time, a different place. Unlike what I was used to and who I used to be, I too scramble to find myself along with the narrator. I experience similar emotions in response to the difficulties and hardships expressed. I feel sorry for those who do not experience the same things, because it helps instill my inner self and helps with my growing vocabulary.
After considering how much literature and English give to my overall education, how could I not like English? It allows for me to release emotions, it connects me to the world and current events, it helps my vocabulary become better, and literature helps me and others to better understand the importance of accepting people as they are. Literature and English classes allow for life experiences to be related and stories to be told. It also allows for a more understanding part of the soul to develop. It allows me to experience a lifestyle different from my own and for that, I am grateful. English, along with all of its components, allows me to morph into a better person who is more accepting, more articulate, and well-read. It allows me to be truly myself and to fully express myself with words, actions, and thoughts. Imagination takes over my mind when I read and I give in to the overwhelming sea and am fully submerged.

Tangents

Tangents are not wrong just stories within stories. When are they wrong? I do not think ever unless everything else is not getting done and all of one's time is on the tangents themselves. Some of the greatest poetry and literature is written in stream of consciousness which is just writing about whatever pops into your mind at that moment.

The poet...

The poet never affirms anything, therefore he or she does not lie.
That is quite the observation; Maybe I could try it with my parents, although they would probably tell me to answer the question and thus the experiment would be no more. It is interesting that the poet would have to resort to this self-enclosure to defend one's self. I guess it would be nice to not have to defend myself against people about what I wrote, why I wrote it, or some other issues like politics, religion, and other interests.

Dante's Levels in Can Grande

1. Literal

2. Allegorical

3. Moral

4. Anagogical

Another random reference

While we were discussing the role of literature in class (should be didactic and entertaining), I thought of those old movies they made us watch in elementary school. They are the School House Rock videos, and boy were they entertaining... What's kind of sad is I bet you could go to almost every student and ask; they would remember at least one song! It did the job though. Students learned what a conjunction is and a noun (really pretty basic stuff) and were entertained. Learning is so much more fun if at least entertains you!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODGA7ssL-6g
School House Rock Conjunction Junction taken from Youtube.com

random reference

While we are constantly going back and forth to Goldilocks and the Three Bears and Little Red Riding Hood, something came into my brain. For some odd reason, I thought of Mary Poppins and the song "Just a spoonful of sugar." It is entertaining and it kind of goes with Aristotle. What I mean by that with his "too big, too small, just right" theory, couldn't we substitute words for big and small? What if something is too bitter/sour or too sweet? Wouldn't it be nice if a spoonful of sugar/spice/something made everything "just right?"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9Pbd3RSbLo
It is the sing-along version of "A Spoonful of Sugar" from Youtube!

OH BOY!

Random.

I noticed I have written in my notes that drama is the best genre to create suspense and drama (notice the tautology?) Totally meant to write emotion..

Aristotle's theory of Goldilocks and the Three Bears:
Too big
too small
just right!

Literature shoud teach and have good morals, not just entertain!