Here’s one answer, taken from Terry Eagleton's How to Read a Poem. (Malden, MA: Blackwell Pub, 2007).
"... critics tend to assume, like almost everyone else on the planet, that the imagination is an unequivocally positive faculty, which is far from the case." (23)
"Acts of imagination are by no means always benign. Organising genocide takes a fair bit of imagination. . . . If William Blake (see image at left) [1] ranks among the visionaries, so does Pol Pot[2]." (24)
[1] William Blake (1857-1927) was an English poet. One of his best known poems, “The Tyger,” was published in 1794. It begins:
TIGER, tiger, burning bright
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In the forests of the night,
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What immortal hand or eye
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Could frame thy fearful symmetry?
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[2] Pol Pot (1928-1998) became leader of the Asian country Cambodia in 1975. He is said to be responsible for the deaths of more than 2 million of his fellow Cambodians.
IMAGE SOURCE:
http://media.photobucket.com/image/clockwork%20orange/Katsura-Kotonoha/wall2.jpg
IMAGE SOURCE:
http://media.photobucket.com/image/clockwork%20orange/Katsura-Kotonoha/wall2.jpg
I agree that Pol Pot should be among the ranked visionaries, people that have done great things should be recognized whether it is a good thing or bad one. Not saying he deserves a award for it.
ReplyDeleteI think it can make you more compassionate, yet, like Eagleton said, it can also swing the other way. Knowing and understanding people helps a person to better relate. The more you feel you can relate to a person, the more you can put yourself in their shoes which, in turn, causes you to feel more compassion for the people around you. If you start out as a selfish person with no compassion at the beginning, then literature letting you better understand other people can end negatively. That understanding can help you to better use the people around you, not only in sadist ways, but in other selfish, manipulative ways.
ReplyDelete-Jaime Howard
I believe literature can make readers more passionate. But, you have to read and understand what you are reading by every word to receive any compassion from literature. However, being a sadist would be hard to be compassionate when knowing how to dictate how a person may feel or react to certain situations or feelings. I do believe that we know how others would want to be treated because we should treat others how we ourselves would want to be treated. You sow what you weep. But certain literary texts can make a reader more passionate depending on the mood or attitude they have while reading. You can either skim through the words and only read it and not get anything from it OR you can read and listen to what the author is trying to say and take something from it.
ReplyDeleteMarissa Eaves
Literature can make a person more compassionate, yes, but only about something that the reader is already compassionate about. If the reader has no compassion for a certain subject I do not believe that literature could sway them and make them compassionate about it. Literature could also work against feelings of compassion and intensify other feelings, something that you were already prejudice against it could empower your prejudice and blind you to any compassion that you could feel.
ReplyDeleteRobert Darling
Well written literature can cause you to feel however the author wants you to. If the author wants you to feel compassionate toward a certain subject, they can certainly make you feel that way. If an author wants you to despise a character, and he does a good job in building those emotions in you, then you'll wind up despising that character.
ReplyDeleteLindsi Everett
I agree to also disagree that Literature can make someone compassionate. While reading Literature one is exposed to emotions they may have never expeirenced or understood before. On another note people who are expected and made to endure Literature may never give the emotion read a second thought. Therefore compassion is never given a fighting chance.
ReplyDeleteI think literature makes some readers more compassionate because it gives them an insiders view of a situation and the narrator's thoughts and emotions, however some will not respond compassionatly because some people are just not compassionate people.
ReplyDelete-Emmy Vinson
Literature can make people compassionate, but only if the author is able to flesh out the characters well enough. When something happens to the characters, they must react according to their nature, anything else ruins the experience and alienates the reader from the characters.
ReplyDeleteSo all in all, if the author is talented enough, then the reader should be able to feel for the people that they are reading about, unless that character is absolutely evil.
- Casey Fowler
I believe literature can and does make readers compassionate. Whether the reader is interested in the sublect or not most of the time you get lost in the story/ poem and the things you don't think you would like fit you best. It is like songs most of the time you can put yourself into it some how maybe not always as the main person but something relates to your life. and just because the author writes it and sees it his/her way doesn't mean that you are supposed to see it that way also thats the best thing about literature
ReplyDeleteLynden Lantz
Hm... I can only speak for myself. I definitely feel compassion towards literature, but only as long as I can relate to it on a personal level. The characters have to be real for me, but again that's just me.
ReplyDelete- James Goode
I think that literature makes me feel compassionate but i think it has to have a lot to do with me also. Literature to me has to make me respond on a personal level otherwise i wouldn't feel like literature could make me compassionate.
ReplyDeleteamber smallwood
yes, i believe literature makes readers more compassionate. -Brittini Flanigan
ReplyDeleteI agree that a literature has it ways to make emotions come out. Like uncle tom's cabin and how it started a war off of emotions towards slavery.
ReplyDeleteIn other words?
ReplyDeleteCompassion and literature are not connected. To suggest that by introducing me to other viewpoints and experiences literature will make me more empathetic and sympathetic is nonsense. Reading literature, no matter how carefully and thoroughly and thoughtfully I may read it, may give me a broader understanding of people and their complexity and diversity, may acquaint me with a world of possibilities that exceeds my own experience and imagination, but my response to that broader understanding is still my own. I may use it to exploit and manipulate others, to sell my ideas or products, or to reinforce my prejudices and misunderstandings just as easily as I may use it to sympathize or empathize, compromise or explain, forgive or accept. So what's the difference? What is possible for thoughtful interaction with literature to do is not quite the same question as what such interaction does. Does it always and inescapably do anything?
Beware conflating passion and compassion.
Marissa, Paul in Galatians (Christian New Testament) and much conventional wisdom suggest that we reap what we sow, and a biblical psalm suggests that those who sow in tears reap in joy, but your idea of sowing what we weep is a poignant poetic notion, intended or not. What we care deeply about, cry over, is what we plant with our lives. I love it. I have an idea in the back of my head about watering something with our tears, but I can't pin down a source. There's the Trail of Tears, the tears of a righteous man... no, that's prayers, tears in my ears from lyin' on my back starin' at the ceiling cryin' over you and a thousand pop and country songs. Are they literature?
What if we sow the wind? Does we reap what we sow mean we get what we deserve?
Stay thirsty my friends. (Is that literature?)
Not Dr. Benton
This is a tough one. At first, I was going to say that I do believe that literature can make readers more compassionate based upon the emotion and feelings, as well as the ideas and thoughts behind the author's story line. However, then I thought of our class discussion on "what is literature?" Is an instruction manual literature? Can an instruction manual make you feel compassion? Are we talking about capital "L" literature? In the instance of capital "L" literature, I do think literature can make you feel compassion. The author will usually put descriptive emotion in the text and have a protagonist and an antagonist that force the reader to feel a certain way about things.
ReplyDelete-Lindsey Elliott
Yes, I believe that it could make certain readers feel that way, jus depending on what it is there reading.
ReplyDeleteI think Literature has the ability to cause readers to become compassionate about the issues, or subject matter presented to them. However, I feel very strongly that it is very much dependent on the individual person. My son and my father-in-law are very moved while watching movies. If there is a sad scene or anything that might pull on their heartstrings, they will bawl like a couple of babies. They sit next to each other to share the kleenex box. While the rest of us are watching the same movie, we may not be moved quite so severly. So the question to whether or not literature makes readers more compassionate, I say yes, if the reader is so inclined. We all show compassion in different levels so eventhough I may not produce tears while reading a book or watching a movie, I can still feel compassion. Becky Moore
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ReplyDeleteI agree that literature makes readers more compassinate. But if the topic is something their interested in it will trigger more compassion than if not.
ReplyDeleteI think some literature can make people more compassionate, though other types of literature may turn people away. I think when you read a good piece of literature you want to read more, but when you read something you don't really care for your thoughts to literature as a whole may change. Though for the most part I do think it makes people more compassionate.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion literature can make readers more passionate because it might give them more of an interest to read because it is a work of art and might be extremely interesting. It's like finding a good book, you just can't put it down until it's done.
ReplyDeleteI, personally, believe that literature can make someone more compasionate and understanding. Reading someone's thoughts and being with them during thier situation definately changes your perspective on things. I know if something in a book is emotional i tend to get emotional and think of my own personal problems. Also, if I ever knew someone going through a situation like one that I read about, I know I would be more understanding and sympathetic towards them.
ReplyDeleteYes, I do think so because you can better understand where people are coming from and it could open your heart up to new things.
ReplyDeleteWe're not talking about feeling compassion for the characters in a literary text, are we? The question is whether thoughtful interaction with literature (if I don't read and think about it, it won't affect me much at all!) will translate from the page to my life. Right? Sure I can feel compassion for Uncle Tom when I read about him, but then what? Good writing affects the reader - changes him or her in some way - but the question is whether or not that change makes some positive contribution to one's life. Or to the life of the society or the world. If not, why not read Pig Latin haikus on box lids? Or not.
ReplyDeleteNot Dr. Benton
This comment has been removed by the author.
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ReplyDeleteYes, I do believe that literature can make people more compassionate. For example, a lot of the time people who see homeless people on the side of the road they won't give them money in fear that maybe they will hurt them in some way or will spend it on alcohol. But if you had the chance to read some literature written about this person and how hard of a life they've had you may start to feel more compassionate about other people. Literature a lot of times give you the chance to look at things from a different prospective than just your own. So then you start to see your own life in a different way. Literature can evoke a lot of emotion in it's audiences which is also tied into compassion.
ReplyDelete-Taylor Johnston
I think that some readings can make you more compassionate about certain cultures, but just compassionate in general probably not. I mean wouldn't you be more compassionate for someone in front of you talking about how they feel rather than someone who is writing about how they feel? Its all in your own opinion. Do I know what makes some people more compassionate than others? No and I wont pretend to know, but I think if you are writing about the hardships of ones culture as a whole then you play on the compassionate feelings of others. So to answer the question I'm going with a maybe. Some people will feel compassionate and some people wont about certain things.
ReplyDeleteI believe that in order for someone to be moved by literature they have to be compassionate. Compassion comes from the heart and mind. I, personally, am a very compassionate person. Anyone that knows me will tell people that I am. Therefore, literature moves me and makes me more compassionate as a person. I believe they go hand in hand.
ReplyDeleteIf someone is reading a piece of literature, and the main character is going through a rough time or is a victim of some sort, the reader has to feel compassion. There's no way someone is going to read a piece of literature, and not get emotionally involved and not feel compassion towards the character. The picture from Terry Eagleton's How to Read a Poem made me feel compassion for the victim. If I was reading a piece of literature and that scene came up in my mind as I was reading I would feel compassion for the victim. However, the compassion I feel for a character in a piece of literature is going to indefinately depend on the piece of literature.If the character in the piece of literature is having the best day of their life, I'm going to be happy for them as well.
At the end of the day, I am more compassionate as a person because my experiences and I believe that literature can make a peson more compassionate also. Literature makes us think, and sheds new light on a subject and matter. Literature can change people on how they view things.
Literature, like any knowledge in this world, is power. It is what we do with this power that defines us. As human beings, it is easier to look out for our (or our families)own self interests. It is also equally easier to screw-over other people or groups in the pursuit of our own happiness. Then of course, there are people who do bad things just because they think it is fun or gives them a sense of power.
ReplyDeleteThis is a really tough question! Literature is beautiful, and can evoke many emotions in a reader. The difficulty in this, is the fact that the reader may not always dig into a piece with the idea that he or she is willing to be moved or affected by the words on the page. My belief is that people can be inherently good, and have the capacity to be compassionate or empathetic, but only if they chose to be. Life is full of different situations and contexts, and my hope is that literature would have an effect on how someone would handle that situation, but it really seems to be up to them. Literature is always available, ready to deeply change and move in someone's life, but in order for that person to be moved, they must approach literature being open to that sort of effect.
ReplyDeleteAt the end of the day literature can make the reader more compassionate however the reader must be open to the authors view points and must be subject the what the author is also feeling. No one can answer the question right or wrong but the piece that Eagleton wrote brings out some side of many sides that you can prove or disprove
ReplyDeleteChris Black
I personally think it dose not. The text the literature offers may make a reader more compassionate if the topic moves them. if it does not move them they are in the same position they were in the first place.
ReplyDeleteI honestly do not believe that literature does make one more compassionate.
ReplyDeleteAccording to the dictionary, compassion is the sympathetic consciousness of others' distress together with a desire to alleviate it. Literature can make someone aware of the suffering, but they have to have the desire to alleviate it. That is something that literature cannot give someone. As mentioned before with Uncle Tom's Cabin, it was used to show people the suffering of slaves, but that doesn't mean everyone who read it gained the desire to help them.
Literature can only have the effect that the readers heart allows. In many cases literature can make someone more compassionate, but in instances it can inspire someone to be more insensitive. I think this is due to the complexity of human nature. In my experience I've seen literature cause me to be more compassionate and understanding of other cultures and people groups.
ReplyDeleteI think that literature can make a person understand a little of what the author wants them to know and how the author would like the reader to feel. Will literature make you stand up and want at change the world? Well, maybe for some people. But I think those are the ones that were compassionate about the subject in some way before they read the literature.
ReplyDeleteCompassion, I feel comes within a person. Compassion is something that you feel; such as love, sympathy and concern. I also think that you have to have compassion before you can read a piece of literature that is going to "move you". I feel that literature can make you think and feel a little more about something that you where already compassionate about before.
Literature is the fuel that lights the compassion you already had inside.
Melissa Little
The definition of compassion is sympathetic pity and concern for the sufferings of misfortunes of others. So yes i believe that Literature does make one more compassionate. We read the literature of others and it is often about life experiences or related to such. Even if the work is a fiction like William Shakespears Romeo and Juliet, one can not help but to feel sorry for the fate of the star crossed lovers who through their intense love for each wind up killing themselves. Compassion though is sometimes just the love of literature in general and not what we feel from it. For many literature is very important they love to read and study and become school in it.
ReplyDeleteLarry Carnell
I believe literature can make a reader more compassionate, but it really depends on the reader. Like imagination being used for positive and negative creations literature can lead people to be more compassionate or do the exact opposite. Stephen King wrote a novel called Rage that was about a school shooting. A student brought a gun to school and after shooting his teacher held his classmates hostage. This novel is no longer published because Stephen King pulled it from publication after finding out about a school shooting where the shooter had a copy of this book in his locker. I think it depends on the person and their interpretation of the literary work on if the work can make them more compassionate.
ReplyDeleteI think literature can cause people to have compassion to some things that catch a person's heart or that they can relate to but I don't think it makes someone "more" compassionate.
ReplyDeleteThe best way I can describe this is pretty much as we talked about in class. That there is no one way that is right or wrong. Just that there are many valid ways to look at things and as long as there is an audience you can validate it as art/ literature.
ReplyDeleteThe best way I can best relate how I feel about this piece is to relate it to our class discussion which leaves the topic open for debate. There is no right or wrong way to validate what is literature. The way I interpret this is as long as there is an audience then it is valid art/literature. Maybe good or bad but at long as it is being viewed then that is its purpose.
ReplyDeleteChris Black
Good writing can elicit many emotions, especially compassion. Most people wont read something that has no effect on them. It may be just to inform them, but it will draw some emotion.
ReplyDeleteI believe literature makes makes people more compassionate because of the way it makes us feel. When every I ready a story I sometimes feel the way the writer feels. And it brings out our true emotions.
ReplyDeleteI think the only way I can seriously answer this is to say that yes literature can make a person more compassionate, but it can also do the exact opposite. The person will be changed when reading literature but he or she will choose what change it brings in them.
ReplyDeleteI believe that reading can make a reader more compassionate, depending on the reader's heart and mind set. Reading opens a person up to so many different experiences, different mindsets and different points of view. When reading something, a book, magazine, blog, etc a reader can be put in another persons shoes to what is going on for the person or character they're reading about. Through these different experiences a reader might just open up more to others and feel more compassionate to what else is going on around them.
ReplyDeleteI feel as though literature could make a reader more compassionate if they let it. The reader must be willing to open up their heart and mind to other people's views and ideas. If the reader is stuck on everything being their way or the highway then no form of literary work will influence them much at all. Reading can open your eyes to a completely new world if you let it.
ReplyDeleteSamantha H.
I believe literature class does make us more compassionate. It helps us look at different points of views. It also gives us a different perspective on life. For me it is already changing my way of thinking.
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