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beccaelizabethI read another essay about Great Expectations.
Usually I'll read an essay and be half nod and half throw it across the room. There is frequently use of big words to say dumb things. But then I have to use big words to say why I think they're dumb.
Okay, it was saying about Pip and Plot - Pip goes in search of a plot, and thinks he finds he's in one, and then turns out to be in another entirely.
Put like that, Pip makes me think of Andrew sooooo much.
And the essay reckons the whole thing is futile because Pip's plots end up all splat.
Well that misses out the actual point, which is that the only plot Pip *wrote* for himself was the only one that came to fruition, albeit not quite as he'd expected. When he thought other people were writing him roles he sort of bumped along making a grand mess of them, but when he set out to write himself as benefactor to his friend, he did in fact make that happen. I think the book is more about the dangers of reading into rather than just reading, of interpreting other people in ways that go beyond the text. Seeing in others the secret benefactor when they've told you they're the ghost, or seeing a secret heart in the ice queen, or whatever. Sometimes a stick is just a stick.
But sometimes you can pick it up and build things with it.
So he found in Herbert a man who needed a bit of a hand to get started, and gave that to him, and that worked.
That bit wasn't in the essay.
So, yes, he goes sort of out of the story whenever he goes to the comfy bits with Herbert, but that would be because, on the whole, stories are about the uncomfy bits, and the things that go wrong, and the things that need explaining because they keep turning every which ways. The bit of the story that goes 'I help my friend and he helps me' doesn't get many words, because it works.
But its still a story, and for once Pip wrote it, and didn't be ambiguous about it at all. He wasn't being a blacksmith on the outside and a sekrit prince on the inside, he was just being a friend. And that worked out.
And then there's the bit where it calls Pip saying he loves Estella a conscious lie or a... a messing up of the plot, a getting stuck in the bad dream again. Well I don't think it has to be either. He can mean very many things by saying he loves her. What he's saying to the dying man is the man left a dutiful adopted son and a fortunate biological daughter, and the son loves (and possibly will look after) the daughter. Possibly not in a brotherly way, because of all that pasted on romance, but the words work either way.
ANYways
He's making it all mean something, and making a man's ending easier, and that's what humans do. I wouldn't call that futile. Or a lie.
So, I'm very much thinking Andrew. His stories mess him up, but they're all his trying to make sense of things too, and trying to make good meanings. Be a good human.
Want to see Andrew write a working story now.
I'm never sure how useful this lot is for class or anything. I just write down thoughts.
Usually I'll read an essay and be half nod and half throw it across the room. There is frequently use of big words to say dumb things. But then I have to use big words to say why I think they're dumb.
Okay, it was saying about Pip and Plot - Pip goes in search of a plot, and thinks he finds he's in one, and then turns out to be in another entirely.
Put like that, Pip makes me think of Andrew sooooo much.
And the essay reckons the whole thing is futile because Pip's plots end up all splat.
Well that misses out the actual point, which is that the only plot Pip *wrote* for himself was the only one that came to fruition, albeit not quite as he'd expected. When he thought other people were writing him roles he sort of bumped along making a grand mess of them, but when he set out to write himself as benefactor to his friend, he did in fact make that happen. I think the book is more about the dangers of reading into rather than just reading, of interpreting other people in ways that go beyond the text. Seeing in others the secret benefactor when they've told you they're the ghost, or seeing a secret heart in the ice queen, or whatever. Sometimes a stick is just a stick.
But sometimes you can pick it up and build things with it.
So he found in Herbert a man who needed a bit of a hand to get started, and gave that to him, and that worked.
That bit wasn't in the essay.
So, yes, he goes sort of out of the story whenever he goes to the comfy bits with Herbert, but that would be because, on the whole, stories are about the uncomfy bits, and the things that go wrong, and the things that need explaining because they keep turning every which ways. The bit of the story that goes 'I help my friend and he helps me' doesn't get many words, because it works.
But its still a story, and for once Pip wrote it, and didn't be ambiguous about it at all. He wasn't being a blacksmith on the outside and a sekrit prince on the inside, he was just being a friend. And that worked out.
And then there's the bit where it calls Pip saying he loves Estella a conscious lie or a... a messing up of the plot, a getting stuck in the bad dream again. Well I don't think it has to be either. He can mean very many things by saying he loves her. What he's saying to the dying man is the man left a dutiful adopted son and a fortunate biological daughter, and the son loves (and possibly will look after) the daughter. Possibly not in a brotherly way, because of all that pasted on romance, but the words work either way.
ANYways
He's making it all mean something, and making a man's ending easier, and that's what humans do. I wouldn't call that futile. Or a lie.
So, I'm very much thinking Andrew. His stories mess him up, but they're all his trying to make sense of things too, and trying to make good meanings. Be a good human.
Want to see Andrew write a working story now.
I'm never sure how useful this lot is for class or anything. I just write down thoughts.