existential endnotes
Here's my existential moment: In twenty years, mid-Octoberish, will I be writing an entry encouraging students to blog their Grendel responses? Or, even darker, will I not and it won't matter? Or will I and it still won't matter? Is there a bigger picture or do I keep doing the same corner of the same painting? Or might I mock such existential nihilism like Gardner does?
Well. After you slog through another day of school, followed by another night of work and homework, have at it here.
posted by erdecker @ 4:57 PM
6 comments
6 Comments:
what a loaded set of questions...=)
According to the definition of existentialism, you will only be asking future students to blog if you freely choose to do so. Whether or not you ask them, you will have to pay the consequences for your actions (although I don't see a very solid example of a consequence at the moment).
If you do ask them, it won't matter, and if you ask them, it won't matter. The only thing that matters is what you do or say, because you are isolated in your own experience. And ultimately, even what you do doesn't really matter all that much because nothing is explainable; everything in life is meaningless.
You may continue working on the same corner of a painting, even though there is a bigger picture. You could never see the bigger picture because all that matters is your place. And even if you cease working on it, you will be replaced.
As a teacher educating young scholars, I really hope that you see existentialism for what it is: baloney. Life does having meaning, and people need to know that. Meaning is what ties us together and gets things done in the world. It lets us know we're needed. It is the lifeblood of memory and virtue.
In an existential world, we all may as well go the "coward's way" and commit suicide. Nothing matters.
-courtney
A lot of the comments you made have to do with the second part of question 15 in the Grendel packet. We talked a little bit about having a Grendel component in all of us. All of us do have freedom to do what we want, but many people do not see the point in what we do over and over again. I think many of us are stuck in a world of senses just taking things as they come. I don't know about you, but I do not analyze my every move looking for the bigger picture. Many people are existentialist because we take it one day at at time, I may not need to figure out my reason for existence today, but I do need to figure out how to get my homework done today. Maybe I will figure out why I do my homework tomorrow...
Going off what Kristine said, about how there is a little bit of Grendel or existentialism in all of us, I think of how some people believe in fate or destiny. That everything we do doesn't matter, because we all have our life planned out or that we can't do anything that will change what is inevitable in the end, such as death, so maybe some people believe that it is worthless to do anything in life, because in the end we all just die. I actually don't know if any of that made sense. And now that I think about, maybe destiny isn't existentialism at all, because existentialism says that people are free to choose what to do, but they have consequences for those actions, and destiny says that the choices people make don't matter, because in the end you end up in the same place. So now I think I'm going in circles. haha.
Meghan O'Keefe
To me, I think that i am more of an existentialist thinker. Because I could sort of relate to Grendel through my experiences, which is also why I really enjoyed the book. To me, existing isn't good enough but to try to find a meaning is pointless. In the larger picture, yes, i should do my homework to get a good grade to get a good college to get a good career and live a good life. But after death does it matter? Being dead what would it matter if a person lived a happy and successful life, or one that was harsh and cruel. The actions that an existentialst chooses do pursue in his/her life dont even matter and the consequences of those actions are just as insignificant. Nothing matters.
It seems a bit harsh in the world that we live in where success in life is the goal, but it's the ultimate reality that I see. And to take it a bit further, if everyone had existentialist point of view no one would exist to one another.
Also going off of Courtney, is suicide the 'cowards way'? or is it the logical one. To an existentialist, no one around them would matter so they wouldnt even think of what others felt about it, so an existentialst might feel that it's almost their purpose in life. Something to think about.
Im sorry if none of that made sense to anyone but it did to me.
Monica
Meghan, what you said about death really reminded me of a topic we were discussing in Humanities. We were talking about Native American spirituality and the concept of cyclical vs. linear time. I guess you could tie in linear time with existentialism -- at least with what Meghan stated. Linear time is not repeating, but it has a defined beginning and an end, and what we are ultimately going toward is death. A bit morbid to think about, but I couldn't help connecting the two as I read this discussion. Would anyone be able to connect circular time with perhaps a different philosophy? My brain is fried and I'm confusing myself. :)
Grendel
Are you so mighty to say
That an hour is nothing to the day?
Are you so willing to cry
That stars can pale the heavens awry?
Are you so ready to declare
That a hero has only down to wear?
Are you so quick to convey
That no thread alone causes the fray?
Are you so blind to tell
That monsters are even barred from hell?
Are you so commiserate to suggest
That men can die right where they rest?
Or are you too monstrous to say
That all this hurts you anyway?
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