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Finished the Dragon chapter and holy poo poo.The Dragon posted:The essence of life is to be found in the frustration of established order. The Universe refuses the deadening influence of complete conformity. And yet in its refusal, it passes toward novel order as a primary requisite for important experience. We have to explain the aim at forms of order, and the aim at novelty of order, and the meaning of success, and the measure of failure.. The correlation between philosophy and this book is definitely here. I wonder what The Dragon meant by "Seek out gold and sit on it" Does he want Grendel to leave behind a legacy?
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Nov 13, 2014 14:32
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I'll have to look into this Alfred North Whitehead person. Never heard of him before and by the look of it he sounds pretty interesting. I'm requesting Return of the Solider for December. It is about a dollar on the kindle store and this will hopefully apply for all countries this time around. The book is under 100 pages so if you are busy this December, it will fit right in. Plus someone I know said it was one of the best books ever. On top of that, the Modern Library copy of I own has a reader's questionnaire type thing at the end of the book. I do have more questions and comments about Grendel but I'll save time for that later. We still have about a week to talk about this book anyways.
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Nov 23, 2014 18:48
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Well here are some real  comments:It's interesting how most of the book was Grendel demeaning the humans. Would the book worse if it was just overblown thoughtsof Grendel in some way of stream of conscious thought? I felt like half the book was just Grendel describing what was going on in the meadhalls. He was a reliable narrator for he always told the truth in the end. He only added he personal, negative perception. It is funny how that turns out because Grendel appears to be the only fleshed out character. He is so cynical and searching for morality that it wouldn't be as good if there was other major characters. Grendel returning the solider that tried to kill him was an interesting example of how he couldn't make up his mind. Although in the end he chose to full on attack the meadhall and decided to become what he wanted to be in his instincts. I'm not sure if it was the boredom of his life or how he was born into his life as a monster that made him do it, but it seemed like the only way to go for him. In that case I am leaning towards to agree with Grendel's decisions. He had to take his chances to the next level. This is not a depressing book to me for his contemplative view he had and his inevitable fate that he chose and was satisfied with, given his last words. He did have free will, which would match up with Sartre's philosophy, again given the circumstances he didn't have enough wiggle room to be a friendly monster. The meeting with The Dragon changed his attitude despite The Dragon going over his head most of the time. I wonder what he took from it and made him angrier from that point on. The Dragon giving the pointless advice seemed like something he would do to incite Grendel's already hatred for humanity. It's like Grendel depended on a person smarter than him to give him an excuse to do all of the killings. Regardless of how badly he translated The Dragon's speech. The 'fiction should aspire to discover those human values that are universally sustaining' statement by Gardner resonated with me to a point. Yet I don't know what Gardner meant by his morality to other author's morality. That went over my head. Along with Gore Vidal's criticisms. Though I didn't really read into Vidal's problems with the book to be honest. The 12 Civilizations thing is a concept that is way over my head. I might never understand with this book and I don't know where to begin. Maybe the anachronism thing you brought up earlier, Hieronymous Alloy? I did really enjoy the book. Grendel is a book full of the processing of morality.
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Nov 24, 2014 16:51
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