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Post by austinellerbruch on Jun 23, 2013 21:15:18 GMT
I have taken keen interest in the following quotation: "I understood that the world was nothing: a mechanical chaos of casual, brute enmity on which we stupidly impose our hopes and fears. I understand that, finally and absolutely, I alone exist. All the rest, I saw, is merely what pushes me, or what I push against, blindly–as blindly as all that is not myself pushes back. I create the whole universe, blink by blink." (Gardner 21) When I first read this in chapter two, I likened it to a famous quote in philosophy: "Cogito ergo sum" ("I think, therefore I am"). The quote is by French philosopher René Descartes, and what it means is that one can only be sure that he or she exists, where as the nature of the existence of all that surrounds him or her is to remain completely unknown. Basically, we all are aware of our own existence, but we all perceive the world in a different way, therefore we cannot be sure whether what we perceive is actually reality or an illusion of our own conscience. I think that Grendel dwells into the nature of individual perception. What does John Gardner reveal about perception in Grendel? I would suggest approaching this by comparing the narrative and viewpoint of Gardner's adaption to the original Anglo-Saxin poem, as well as by comparing the different characters in the novel (i.e. Grendel, the Dragon, Grendel's mother, Hrothgar, The Shaper, the other humans, etc.)
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Post by stever on Aug 6, 2013 22:21:54 GMT
John Gardner's main points about perception seem to emphasize that the universe is created through individuals' perceptions of the universe. Essentially, individuals create the universe in which they live. There was a quote on page 28 that seemed to reiterate this theme in which Grendel says "The mountains are what I define as them."
These points about perception are significant because of Gardner's choice of the story's protagonist. Grendel, who was the villain in Beowolf, becomes the tragic protagonist when the story is told from his perspective. This further emphasizes Gardner's theme that perception creates reality. When the story is told from Grendel's perspective, the characters who used to be heroes are now villains to Grendel. Gardener blurs the line between hero and villain and suggests that this binary opposition may come from the misunderstandings that arise from the limited nature of human perception. For example, early on in the book, humans who spot Grendel laughing in a tree mistakenly believe that his laughs are actually angry threats. The humans attack him as Grendel futilely tries to communicate to the humans that he is not trying to harm them.
Because of the limits of perception, the humans misunderstood Grendel's signals and simply thought him to be the enemy. Gardner suggests through this incident, and others throughout the book, that conflicts often arise through the misunderstandings that arise from the limited nature of perception.
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Post by mattagritelley on Aug 16, 2013 6:20:57 GMT
Grendel's own intrinsic perception of life strikes me as the best way to focus my answer to your question. Besides the disparity of perceptions between Grendel and the humans (which ultimately causes conflict, as Steve stated above), Grendel's true conflict comes from within his own mercurial mind.
Albeit trite in other threads in the forum, it is impossible to ignore the significance of the Shaper and the Dragon when analyzing perception. Grendel spends a good part of the novel in a constant internal conflict over the Shaper's teasing melodies and the Dragon's incomprehensibly undeniable nihilism. At the same time, we see Grendel's perception of the world change before him with each flip flop from one ideology to the other. Let's start with the Queen and her initial profound effect on Grendel: "And yet I was teased-- tortured by the red of her hair and the set of her chin and the white of her shoulders-- teased toward disbelief in the dragon's truth" (Gardner 108). This is clearly analogous to the Shaper's melodious charm on Grendel in the way it overcomes him, representing what many are calling "the Shaper ideology". It is evident that in this instance, Grendel's perception becomes jaded, causing him to suddenly feel content and emotionally compromised. Jaded is a strong word to use, considering its implication that some other "normal" perception precedes this altered mental state. However, I purposefully use the word to show that in each instance Grendel is caught up in the Shaper's ideology, he lives purely in the ecstasy of the immediate present. I like to compare this specific situation to tunnel vision, for it seems that Grendel's view of life becomes suddenly constricted as the Shaper calmly masks his lies with beauty. Moments like these, however untruthful, bring pleasure to Grendel's life. One could argue that this is why he allows himself to momentarily fall for the Shaper (and queen).
On the other hand, Grendel is also plagued by the constant reminder of his visit with the Dragon. Gardner writes, "I will count my numberless blessings one by one. I. My teeth are sound. I. the roof of my cave is sound. I. I have not committed the ultimate act of nihilism: I have not killed the queen. I. Yet "(93). The juxtaposition of these blessings and Grendel's temptation in the paragraph above perfectly demonstrates how fickle Grendel's perceptions really are. The dragon instills a belief in Grendel, telling him that the whole world is meaningless, that meadhalls are meant to be destroyed and Queens murdered. The world will end one day, so why not let loose? Grendel often cannot fight the logic that the Dragon crafts in his diatribe in chapter 5. In these instances Grendel broadens his perception of the world to encompass all of life instead of just focusing in on a specific moment. The dragon is unique in that it can see the past, the present, and the future. Consequently, its perception of life is incomprehensibly expansive and altogether nihilistic. He bequeaths these qualities unto Grendel, who realizes that life is sometimes so pointless-- that he really is insignificant in the grand scheme of life.
These are the two perceptions that Grendel switches to and from, oscillating from compression to rarefaction like a sound wave, captivated by the euphoria of living in the present but plagued by the pointlessness of everything that is, was, and ever will be.
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