Monday, February 28, 2011

Journal #37

Oh, my goodness, this might have been the most difficult piece to understand, but, after trying to read it multiple times (trying), Whitman's Language of the Self reveals an extremely egotistical side of Whitman. Why would someone elect to write fully about himself unless he is simply in love with himself, or narcissistic. Many scholarly works give hint to Whitman's obvious self-absorption and the great effects it has on his writing. The main point of his writing is to define the "self." Unfortunately, however, his "self" only includes his own self. His attempts to portray his self led to much self-imposed conflict about how he could possibly be a respectable figure. It was not that he had some sort of spectacular writing ability, but he just chose to talk about a new subject, and, apparently, that subject is no longer interesting to audiences of today. His comparisons to God of how "I" am God and how God is myself make a sense of impossible circularity in that, then, everyone would be a God, and who would really be a God if everyone is a God. I think "God" is a relative term because a "God" should be a figure that has more power or significance than other people, but if we are all godly, then we are all on the same level of significance again, and no one is truly godly anymore. Also, how can he just assume that he is a God? I would neve just assume that I am that amazingly important to the entire world because I know a lot better than being that stupid, honestly. It seems just disgusting to think Whitman could be that in love with himself to think that he is so much more amazing than any other part of humanity. It just is not fair. Also, like I said, this criticism was very difficult to read, but it is still very credible because the author is clearly well versed on Whitman's views of his writing. There is a lot of support, and it is very evident just on first glance because of its immense length. This support was embodied enough for me to really dislike Whitman, not only because we are no doing a "unit" on his writing, but also just because he is so wrapped up in himself, and it is really just not respectable.

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