Think Hegel, spirit = consciousness/awareness
On 11/28/08 9:07 PM, "[EMAIL PROTECTED]" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: Well done, Mike. To me, it sounds like Whitman thought of "soul" as others might think of as "sensibility", or perhaps, as "sensitivity" in the nineteenth-century sense of an ability to react to exquisitely suggestive elements of "nature". Certainly I've known individuals with an extraordinary sensibility that I usually admired immensely, and which I discerned to be distinct from what I'll call the "mere consciousness" which every lout has. In a message dated 11/28/08 8:48:50 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: > ____________________________________________ Saul Ostrow | Visual Arts & Technologies Environment Chair, Sculpture Voice: 216-421-7927 | [EMAIL PROTECTED] | www.cia.edu<http://www.cia.edu/> The Cleveland Institute of Art | 11141 East Boulevard, Cleveland, OH 44106 ----- Original Message ----- > From: "William Conger" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Subject: Re: Proust review: Whitman > > > > We should decide if the issue is about soul or mind. > ________________________________________________________ > > In section 8 to Song of the Open Road Whitman says, > > "The efflux of the soul is happiness, here is happiness, > I think it pervades the open air, waiting at all times, > Now it flows unto us, we are rightly charged > > "Here rises the fluid and attaching character, ..... > > "....From it falls distill'd the charm that mocks beauty and attainments, > Toward it heaves the shuddering longing ache of contact. > > > James E. Miller, Jr. says, in the Walt Whitman encyclopedia > http://www.whitmanarchive.org/criticism/current/encyclopedia/entry_52.html > > "As the poem opens, the reader encounters the poet "observing a spear of > summer grass" and extending an invitation to his soul. He vows to "permit to > speak at every hazard, / Nature without check with original energy" (section > 1). Leaving "[c]reeds and schools" behind, he goes "to the bank by the wood > to become undisguised and naked" (sections 1 and 2), clearly preparing > himself for the soul's visit of section 5, which dramatizes the > transfiguring event that launches the poet on his lifelong quest. > > And I am mindful of the following passage, > > I have said that the soul is not more than the body. > > And I have said that the body is not more than the soul, > > And nothing, not God, is greater to one than one's-self is, > > > > Leaves of Grass > > http://imajesty.net/i_have_said_that_the_soul_is_not.htm > > I just received the Lehrer book and haven't been able to start it, but on > the question of the "soul" in Whitman, I would say that Whitman is speaking > of something different than the mind or conscious experience. Rather, IMHO > he is suggesting an energizing relationship, harmony, or acceptance of one's > naturalness. Whitman was familiar with Emerson and Emerson's cosmology > swirled around his Oversoul, which I take to be a presence allowing a person > to directly experience God as Nature. > > To restate my position, Whitman's "soul" is more akin to the idea of a > person's "true nature", than consciousness or mind in general. > > I am unwilling to defend the notion of a "true self" and believe as Richard > Rorty did, that such absolutist notions are not justifiable. Nonetheless, > that is the kind of notion I believe Whitman is working in his poetry. > > Mike Mallory > > PS: Of course after I read the chapter, I may find I have missed the point > entirely. ;<) > > > ************** Life should be easier. So should your homepage. Try the NEW AOL.com. (http://www.aol.com/?optin=new-dp&icid=aolcom40vanity&; ncid=emlcntaolcom00000002) --
