Concluding Reflections
By way of concluding reflections, I have quite enjoyed this class. The emphasis on fictional literature is unique and is quite a welcome change of pace and perspective. Seeing and benefiting from how fictional narrative, especially when it includes elements of adventure, can really bring timeless and profound concepts to life is a worthy way to spend a semester.
The pub atmosphere certainly added to the experience. Good food and drink always add to intellectual pursuits. I only wish I could repeat that experience next semester.
I enjoyed also the times we incorporated film into the course, particularly the Star Trek episode and the clips from Midnight Express. Drama can add new and stimulating components to conversation, particularly on the question of narrative, particularly in the realm of fiction.
The assignments, particularly the ones with some creative license, have also been a lot of fun and quite honestly profound. Having the chance to exercise the reality-revealing power of narrative myself was certainly a high point, and one that I'll take with me for a long time.
On that note, I must say that Dr. Redick's eulogy for the liberal education was something of a high point. I've spent a lot of time thinking and talking about the liberal education as a means of forming a well-rounded citizen for a liberal and democratic society, as a space for formulating a self, as training in critical thinking, as situating oneself in the broader context of the human experience/condition, etc. This represented a unique and deceptively simple take, which I believe will stick with me for a long time yet. The liberal education as a means of being liberated from the bondage and concerns of society as we know it... very interesting.
If I could change one thing about the class, I do wish we had spent less class time reading from supplemental works (I'm not taking about our creative essays, but the things that Kip often read). Not that they were useless or anything, but looking back I wish we had spent that time in more open discussion. The few times where the discussion took off, sometimes in unexpected directions, were some of the high points of the class for everyone, I believe. I think fostering that more intentionally would be a good place to start next time.
I didn't enter this class with any particular questions, but I am leaving with some wonderful literary tools for the enrichment of life and understanding. I also leave with a few questions to be explored further down the path: what are the limitations of myth to express truth? To what extent does language reveal truth vs. create it? Is the author or the audience responsible for a narrative's meaning, or both, and to what extent/capacity? At any rate, this promises to be a lifelong field of inquiry, whether in academia or in bed with a good book at night. This has been a good class, and for that you have my gratitude.
The pub atmosphere certainly added to the experience. Good food and drink always add to intellectual pursuits. I only wish I could repeat that experience next semester.
I enjoyed also the times we incorporated film into the course, particularly the Star Trek episode and the clips from Midnight Express. Drama can add new and stimulating components to conversation, particularly on the question of narrative, particularly in the realm of fiction.
The assignments, particularly the ones with some creative license, have also been a lot of fun and quite honestly profound. Having the chance to exercise the reality-revealing power of narrative myself was certainly a high point, and one that I'll take with me for a long time.
On that note, I must say that Dr. Redick's eulogy for the liberal education was something of a high point. I've spent a lot of time thinking and talking about the liberal education as a means of forming a well-rounded citizen for a liberal and democratic society, as a space for formulating a self, as training in critical thinking, as situating oneself in the broader context of the human experience/condition, etc. This represented a unique and deceptively simple take, which I believe will stick with me for a long time yet. The liberal education as a means of being liberated from the bondage and concerns of society as we know it... very interesting.
If I could change one thing about the class, I do wish we had spent less class time reading from supplemental works (I'm not taking about our creative essays, but the things that Kip often read). Not that they were useless or anything, but looking back I wish we had spent that time in more open discussion. The few times where the discussion took off, sometimes in unexpected directions, were some of the high points of the class for everyone, I believe. I think fostering that more intentionally would be a good place to start next time.
I didn't enter this class with any particular questions, but I am leaving with some wonderful literary tools for the enrichment of life and understanding. I also leave with a few questions to be explored further down the path: what are the limitations of myth to express truth? To what extent does language reveal truth vs. create it? Is the author or the audience responsible for a narrative's meaning, or both, and to what extent/capacity? At any rate, this promises to be a lifelong field of inquiry, whether in academia or in bed with a good book at night. This has been a good class, and for that you have my gratitude.
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