Enjambment

Feb 04, 2008 18:19

"Does such a thing as 'the fatal flaw', that showy dark crack running down the middle of a life, exist outside of literature? I used to think it didn't. Now I think it does. And I think that mine is this: a morbid longing for the picturesque at all costs." - The Secret History, Donna Tartt.

We spoke of the fatal flaw in English today, and I have to abolish Shakespeare from my mind before I can successfully do anything else. Does the fatal flaw exist outside of literature? I caught myself half-wishing it does on my way home, as I was reading "the egg book" (The Melancholy of Anatomy, Jackson), and wondering what mine is. Arrogance? A longing for the, if not picturesque, intellectually picturesque at all costs? Julius Caesar as a comment on ideology as justification? And I cannot decide whether Brutus' fatal flaw is idealism at all costs, or naivity? I do not quite dare to speak up in the group (university) yet, but I will have to get a grip and participate. If I am to present myself as one of the brightest students, I will have to speak.

I want to read T.S. Eliot, not history. And I am restless and feeling more than slightly petulant - I wanted to throw books around yesterday. PMS is a most intriguing thing. At the very least, I do not feel like a buoy that has been pumped too full of air, today.

"julius caesar", the secret history, literature, fatal flaw, shakespeare, "introduction to british literature"

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