R... is for Romanticism

What an immensely rich body of work the Romanticism movement gave us. The 18th century poets, dramatists, theatre-artists, playwrights, authors, everyone gave us a tremendous plethora of intrigue, love, hate, awe, insanity... it was also a revolt against the aristocratic social and political norms of the Age of Enlightenment and a reaction against the scientific rationalization of nature.
It became important to feel fully and well, and to express this feeling in no uncertain terms. Lofty thoughts and ideals formed the pillar of this movement, both uplifting and humbling, all at the same time. Thought was secondary to emotion, and it was this emotion that took precedence over all else. It gave us beautiful things.
Some of the most noted Romantics include William Blake, Byron, Coleridge, Keats, Mary Shelley, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Robert Southey, Wordsworth. Just Imagine!

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This is the eighteenth post for the April A-to-Z Blogging Challenge 2014.
Previously, Archaism, British literature, Critical Analysis, Drama, Edinburgh, Faust, Gothic Fiction, Humour, Interpretation, Journalling, Keats, Language, Metaphysical Poetry, Narration, Ode, Papillion(ed), Quatrain

N... is for Narration

Narration is everything! Isn't it? Think about it, when you begin reading a book and there is a host of different characters, the author has the option of telling the story through one or many voices. This directs how the story is told, what the voice sounds like, and to a large extent even determines the tone of the novel. What could be a happy ending from the point of view of one of the characters could be a very tragic, or at the very least, a disappointing end for another.
Sometimes, multiple narrators annoy me. Wuthering Heights and My Name is Red, for example, failed me because too many people were speaking one by one and there wasn't a single point from which to approach the story. However, I make an exception for Treasure Island, what a tale! Dual narrations are good, though. Look at Gone Girl, look at Kafka on the Shore, both lovely examples of fabulous books. And then there's the autobiographical, the way Ralph tells the story in Coral Island, the voice of Dr Watson in Sherlock Holmes novels is unparalleled. No one tells a tale like they do. I also like the withheld information mystery, like the name of the second Mrs de Winter in Rebecca and the professor's young wife in Orkney. What kind of narratives do you like?

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This is the fourteenth post for the April A-to-Z Blogging Challenge 2014.
Previously, Archaism, British literature, Critical Analysis, Drama, Edinburgh, Faust, Gothic Fiction, Humour, Interpretation, Journalling, Keats, Language, Metaphysical Poetry

M... is for Metaphysical Poets

One of my biggest takeaways from this course is the knowledge of Metaphysical poets and their poetry. According to Wikipedia, "The metaphysical poets is a term coined by the poet and critic Samuel Johnson to describe a loose group of English lyric poets of the 17th century, whose work was characterized by the inventive use of conceits, and by speculation about topics such as love or religion. These poets were not formally affiliated; most of them did not even know each other or read each others work."
How amazing it is to imagine that there have been times when one's work would not have been inspired by another. I, for my part, cannot quite fathom how one creates a genre, how one starts to write without a precedent. John Donne, George Herbert, Henry Vaughan, Andrew Marvell, and Richard Crashaw were the centrepieces of this kind of poetry. Making love could be the bite of a flea, the soul could be a drop of dew and such other metaphors seem blasphemous even today, let alone in the 17th century. Back then, these parallels would be unheard of! I'll leave you with a few lines of Donne's 'Elegy XVIII: Love’s Progress':

Her swelling lips; to which when we are come,
We anchor there, and think ourselves at home,
For they seem all: there sirens’ songs, and there
Wise Delphic oracles do fill the ear;
There in a creek where chosen pearls do swell,
The remora, her cleaving tongue doth dwell.
These, and the glorious promontory, her chin
O’erpast; and the strait Hellespont between
The Sestos and Abydos of her breasts,
(Not of two lovers, but two loves the nests)
Succeeds a boundless sea, but that thine eye
Some island moles may scattered there descry;
And sailing towards her India, in that way
Shall at her fair Atlantic navel stay;
Though thence the current be thy pilot made,
Yet ere thou be where thou wouldst be embayed,
Thou shalt upon another forest set,
Where some do shipwreck, and no further get.
When thou art there, consider what this chase
Misspent by thy beginning at the face.

Thoughts ;) ?

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This is the thirteenth post for the April A-to-Z Blogging Challenge 2014.
Previously, Archaism, British literature, Critical Analysis, Drama, Edinburgh, Faust, Gothic Fiction, Humour, Interpretation, Journalling, Keats, Language

Y... is for Young, James

Well, I didn't have anything that began with Y; but I knew I wanted to do a post about Science in Scotland. Aside from the Literature side that we've talked about and Scotland's footprint in philosophy (read: David Hume), this tiny little country  has a massive contribution to science, especially in innovations! James Young, from Glasgow, was a Scottish chemist best known for his method of distilling paraffin from coal. His Wikipedia page will tell you more, for anyone interested in Chemistry, he was pretty fab!
But wait, you must must take a look at this page, for this blows my mind every single time I look at it. And I look at it at least once a month, to remind me of the greatness of this country!
I mean, Dunlop, Telford, Watt, Bell, Logie Baird, Napier, Maxwell, Higgs, Black, Fleming... absolute insanity to what we use everyday and don't realise was born in good ol' Caledonia :)

from Admit it: you can’t live without the Scots

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This post is part of the ongoing A-to-Z Challenge. Previously, Aye, Berwick, Cramond, Disability, Edinburgh, Forth Bridge, Glasgow, Hamish, Isle of Skye, John o' Groats, Kirk, Loch Lomond and Luss, Mogwai, Necropolis, Old Man of Storr, Portobello, Queen of Scots, Robert Burns, Stirling, Tantallon Castle, Urquhart Castle, Venison, Writers' Museum, Saltire.