The Coquette and 19th century Morality and Its Significance on the Genteel Socioeconomic Status

The greatness of a literary piece partly lies in its ability to provoke multiple reactions and controversies as to its purported meaning and message. The text and the responses to it would touch on various interpretative possibilities, as well as involve and represent the existing human societal structures wherein it was created. The author of the piece would also be the child of those structures. Hence, modernist readings would surely fall astray of the textual “effectuality” of the piece if they had not tied their assumptions on the significance of the piece to its times on this author-text background relationship. There might be a singular, unifying voice and advocacy that would arise in the criticism of the text. And this, it could be surmised, would also be the general realization of the reader at the time of the writing of the piece.

Survey of Existing Criticism on the Novel
In the modern standpoint, the view of The Coquette as a satire of the existing political systems that create women’s social realisms, and the sexist language that accompany them are very much valid in the Feminist-Socialist yardstick. The case made for the obsolescence of prevailing religious morality, which the protagonist transgressed, echoes more the Christian denominations that espouse forgiveness of sins just by believing in the Savior or even moral nihilism.

Other criticisms focus on the failure of conservative advice and female friendship in the novel and the delineation of marital obligations as designating women as property and the recognition of women’s proprietary claims. This implies more on the ascendancy of the individual and the emphasis on the sentimental, all of which are consonant with the personal vs. public oppositions in the social arena (The short descriptions of the criticisms can be located on the following web addresses: http://www.enotes.com/nineteenth-century-criticism/foster-hannah-webster and http://www.answers.com/topic/hannah-webster-foster .)

However, the Novel, it can be theorized, had affirmed and argued for, rather than undermine, the existing morality and social realisms of its era.

The Text represents and had Spread the Education of the Prevailing Morality through the Seduction Genre Novel

Literary creation of Profiles to be emulated or contrasted to one’s self-image. Three women in the text are surely the voices of the reason, sagacity, and the cognizance of the socioeconomic cultural structures of the time, so much so that the morality they counseled can also assure marital eligibility and economic security for the female reader. This also might have added value to the status and role of women for the male reader.

Mrs. Richman, Miss Lucy Freeman, and Julia Granby, represent the female friendship that would have provided the support group Eliza needed to settle down in the married state, had she not been too engrossed with trying to play risks in order to amuse herself. She might not have heeded them promptly and consistently, but they did not fail to give fair warning nor express sincere concern for her welfare.

Their statements in the text can be sufficient for the formation of the profiles representing personality types. One of the most typical of their stance and moral principles is taken from Mrs. Richman: “No, my dear, in my opinion he falls far below it, since he is deficient in one of the great essential of character; that is virtue…by triumphing in the destruction of innocence and the peace of families.”

As the obvious villain of the story, Sanford’s character was vilified by Eliza’s friends: (a) “… A man of vicious character – Freeman; (b)”… will a lady of delicacy associate with an immoral, not to say, profligate man?” – Boyer. Moreover, Sanford had indicted himself in his letters to the mute Deighton, who is probably symbolic of morally impotent and criminally permissive person: (a)”… were I disposed to marry… she would make an excellent wife… you know, is no part of my plan.”; (b) “She is a heiress; nevertheless, to a great fortune, and that is all the soul I wish for in a wife.”; (This one, makes him an outlaw to the current social and moral norms) (c) “I am independent their censure or esteem.”

Add to that his lack of pedigree, obvious source of income, and his glib-tongued charm, the text seems to stereotype a most-likely pretender of gentility and seducer of women, to be shunned by and loathed by the those scions of genteel families.

Inasmuch as Boyer was described as “…his taste is undebauched, his manners not vitiated, his morals uncorrupted (Lucy Freeman’s statement),” his character probably symbolizes the self-righteous moralist. The text may allude to the personality defect of those in the status quo themselves who are guilty as Sanford in placing personal interest above that of those they are supposed to protect. Boyers’s somewhat childish recoil and retreat, and subsequent abandonment of his marital intentions upon seeing Sanford and Eliza together in the garden, profiles a man who would not fight for the woman he’s supposed to love, despite his manly amorous declarations. This could also be a subtle jibe at clerics who hide behind the banner of righteousness, justifying their own cowardice or inaction on some controversial or personal issues.
It should be noted that Boyer wrote Eliza a very painful letter that might have drove her to depression, which in turn, broke down her will to resist Sanford.

The text somehow teaches a lesson on what thoughts to entertain, what opinions to cultivate, and which counsels should be needed outright. Her saying, “Marriage is a tomb of friendship, it appears to me a very selfish state” exposes a faulty logical thinking on an institution that could secure one’s status quo. Her confession of, “…craving after excitement and high action”…inability to calm the breast and repose in fixity,” lays bare her seemingly prioritizing her desires and emotions over the necessity of social expectations. However, she was by no means hopelessly wanton in her judgment as her prior actions were only that “…her omission was not design; it was juvenile indiscretion,” (Mr. Richman),” and having sought to placate the indignant Boyer, showed that even she, coquettish in action, did realize the importance of being betrothed. However, as prior stated, Rev. Boyer became the second villain by turning it down, not forgiving the repentant, and damning her conversion. It is action so ruthless and unbecoming of a man of his education and profession. It makes one reassess how one practices what one preaches.

As for the consequences of Eliza’s reluctance to either Marry Boyer or utterly repulse Sanford, none could be more powerful than her unraveling, her death and that of her innocent child, to send the message home on the importance of rationality and partial judgment as to the existing morality and social rules during those days.

The Economic Pertinence of 18th – 19th Century Post-Colonial American Morality

This paper, though unsupported by historical study on the relationship between economics and socio-cultural morality on sex and marital commitment, theorizes that morality ensures economic security and protects the tenure on affluence, for genteel women and their offspring in 19th century America. Concern for fellow women, on this regard, might have prevailed in Hannah Foster’s writing of Novel.

Marriage assured economic support for women who have limited sources of livelihood compared to what they have today. Their husbands would be obliged before church and society to provide their needs and maintain the material bases of their status. Intermarriages among rich families bestow prestige on the couple and merge their wealth, which in turn, increase and provide capital for business ventures.

Sex outside marriage that results in pregnancy and illegitimate offspring can depreciate a woman’s status in her circles but more so, it can forfeit the source of the economic support needed by her and the baby. She would have to feed, raise, and educate the child on her own savings or assets, or would have to work on those jobs unbecoming of her genteel birth.

As what happened to Eliza, relative obscurity and less flattering conditions await those who would fly far in their fancy.

Additional children, whimsically procreated, would consume the precious resources and dissipate the wealth of families. Hence, great weight might have been placed on chastity, sobriety, and the predisposition to settle into the marital role, and on the value of being married to a fellow genteel, probably with an afterthought to secure status and consolidate the possession, accumulation, and generation of wealth. Needless to say, the same morally abiding and financially sound genteel families perform their part in the emergence of free market. American Capitalist society and the rise of the working middle class by putting on capital and purchasing the ever increasing number of goods and services.

It might be interesting to come across an interdisciplinary study on how culture and moral norms affect the economic flow of resources in a society, by comparing societies contemporary with the emergence of Capitalism and free trade.

Conclusion
If there’s any ultimate responsibility to be placed for the text’s tragic end, it would be on Eliza. She had been forewarned, warned, counseled and admonished numerous times. However, her fanciful disregard of her friends’ concern might have caused the depression she did not expect to have felt nor have the will and strength to dispel. Her fancy for the thrill of the forbidden brought upon her consequences that cost her mind, her life and that of her child. Many readers might have subconsciously or consciously acquired the text’s implicit grave meaning poignantly structured with Eliza’s experience and probably had taken note of its socio-economic implications.

Her sexual needs, most likely grossly neglected in her last marriage and seeking fulfillment in the physically attractive and aggressive Sanford, her behavior leaning toward it at the expense of a good match, may be valid and probably applauded by today’s’ women, in this era of contraceptives and abortion. However, that “foible” could cost one to pay dearly.

“The Coquette” does not aggrandize or sensationalize the virtues of a coquette or justify her frivolity, but rather, reflects on the reasons not to be one, or at least, to avoid being disgraced and victimized by seducers who were seeking to undeservedly appropriate genteel family wealth.

Discussion Questions for Students
a) Would you recommend the reading the novel to a young female friend or acquaintance? Why?
b) How can one’s morality affect one’s economic situation? Give examples.
c) Contrast Eliza with her friend Lucy.
d) What are the pros and cons of placing sentimentality above the opinions of others?
e) Can the expression and realization of personal sentiments be helpful in relation to one’s group? To one’s own personal development?
f) Can the exercise of personal freedom, especially on matters like sex and choices, be advantageous in the long run? Justify your answer.
g) Can a person learn more by allowing oneself more freedom from convention?
h) Which will you give more priority, sex or studies?
i) How can an unwanted pregnancy affect a woman?
j) If you knew someone whose situation is similar to Eliza’s, what exactly will you advice her?
k) Was Boyer correct in his treatment of Eliza? Explain.
l) Is the morality of Eliza’s time still relevant today, or valuable to the youth?
Critical Questions
a) What the Feminist significance of the Text?
b) Is the main character symbolic of the virtues of individualism?
c) What do you

Filed under: Behavior, Book Critique, Book Review, Deconstructionist, Literary Criticism, Psychology, Social Commentary, Writing, lovers, thoughts , Hannah Foster, Literary Criticism, Morality, Novel, Seduction Novels, The Coquette

The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin: An Analysis

The Text offers proof of the potential of Literature of forming minds, educating people, and supplementing Democratic Representation with Representation of Competing and Competent Ideas. Benjamin Franklin had stated on numerous occasions in his Autobiography how he attributed to Literature its quality of helping the reader order one’s thinking, making sound decisions, and modifying one’s behavior, not to mention the information it could provide. He had engineered three very essential factors in the intellectual, democratic discursive formation of and for his countrymen: the public library, the newspaper and pamphlet, and the men’s clubs, venues for intellectual discussions of pressing social issues of the time. These had been duplicated all over the country and further spread American Literature, the issues of public interests in print, and the involvement of the population with intellectualizing participation in public affairs so much so that the discourse, in assemblies and in print, provided the thought, behavioral, and cultural structures for the formation of American style democracy. We could say that no other situation would put a large democracy on its feet. No such expanded political system, later copied and modified in other countries, would evolve and persevere without a socio-behaviorally modified population cooperating and competing in the print public sphere and face-to-face dialogue, in terms of intellectual prowess and ingenuity in solving social/community problems or, the reconciliation of private and public interest. And that socio-behavioral modification was only made possible by this: Benjamin Franklin was a crucial human factor in making the print public sphere, representation of ideas, ethics, sound judgment through print, and the representation of the people’s interests and the common good through constituent assembly, highly successful in America in the beginning stages of modern Democracy. Benjamin Franklin was in the position to create the print public sphere in his area of influence and facilitate its actualization during his time. It could also be theorized that he made a great contribution in making representation of the people’s sentiments and public interests a practicable aspect of representational legitimacy in that historic experiment of democracy.

The Autobiography itself is a very inspiring narrative for the modern reader. The Author had communicated a very affable and admirable profile of a multi-talented, conscientious, highly perceptive, sensitive, witty, patriotic, civic, and Republican leader and entrepreneur that the youth of today could emulate. The text is highly recommendable reading for students and scholars alike

The Text is a Window looking into one of the roots and factors of American Democratic Culture. It could be supposed that a certain type of culture produces a certain type of government. Although such an assertion needs a highly extensive discourse to explain the connection, the American Case in Study as a Historical Narration in the Autobiography makes the job easier.

The Common Man made Uncommon by Print. The generative output and products of the three discursive elements increased the intellectual opportunities for civic mental exercise and the intellectual empowerment of the masses such that aside from their professions and everyday concerns, their intelligence were enriched by other pursuits, interests, ethical and philosophical questions, American literature, and printed public concerns, that enabled them to participate actively in their social and political affairs. This also became the fertile ground for the growth of a distinct American English Western culture shared by all of the citizens.

Intellectual and Cultural “Proximity” Between Classes is Tantamount to Solidarity and Democratic Cooperation. The discursive elements also fostered cultural oneness between rich and poor, proprietor and worker, farmer and townsmen, so that that might have facilitated solidarity and cooperation between social classes, a prime ingredient in a democracy where there is no class dictatorship, in sharp contrast to the separation of the society into the genteel and the common. The culture of equality is presupposed by the culture of being equally informed, read, and knowledgeable as to ease social intercourse, and eventually be amenable to social cooperation. Thus, consensus and resolution of differences in that fledgling democracy was possible without resorting to force.

Contrast with the behavior of the proprietaries and the governors (who view themselves as exempt from taxation, hence above that of the common people, including their culture) towards the Assembly, recounted in the Autobiography, underscores this essentiality of culture in that crucial stage of democratic history, although somewhat negligible, or downplayed, in modern times. Benjamin Franklin was truly deserving of the distinction of being, the Man who Built a Country, for having been the actual Human Progenitor in the American Democratic Cultural Discursive Formation, in the history of Pennsylvania in particular, and that of America in general.

Filed under: Essay, Literary Criticism, Personal Notes, Psychology, Social Commentary, Writing, thoughts , American History, Benjamin Franklin, culture, democracy, influential people, Literary Criticism, political discussion, print public sphere, reaction

Critical Discourse on the “Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano or Gustavus Vassa, the African”

For the entire text of the Narrative, click this link

A. Written Word as an Influential Force, Reconfiguring Social and Thought Structures and Systems

If the recounting of the deplorable treatment and living conditions of Negro slaves of the 18th-19th centuries, the cruelties and atrocities inflicted on Africans treated as no more than animals, and the glaring incompatibility of the existence of this ‘dehumanization of both the oppressor and oppressed’ (Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, 1970) with the Christian Religion held by the majority, would serve as consciousness-raising literary images and arguments so as to rouse public opinion of the apathetic and incite outrage towards slavery, the ‘Narrative’ most likely might have been successful, provided it had enjoyed a wide circulation among the sectors that were integral to the power structures at the time. Net research had yielded information on the bestseller status of the Narrative, how it made Equiano wealthy, and apparently had been one the notable literary factors and references for the Abolitionist cause; http://www.brycchancarey.com/equiano/

Add to that, the author’s command of the lingua franca, the skill in detail, the increasing prestige of the author as he imbibed more and more of his master’s culture, practices, norms, and religion, and the interspersing among sane experiences instances of insanity and barbarity in the Narrative, and we now have Equiano as the voice of Westernized, Christianized, Black African freedmen and the oppressed, admonishing non-enslaved Westerners to give the gradually integrating slaves better working conditions and just wages, and protection under the law. Equiano might as well have been the Black Karl Marx and Billy Graham rolled into one in his “Interesting Narrative”, though in a more pleading and deferring demeanor or tone. The Narrative could be an Occidental Afro-European Althuserrian Ideological State Apparatus of Black Europeans seeking an Identity and acceptance in the continent and a Socialist Manifesto in one package.

Equiano brought an otherwise acceptable face, as far as the ethno-cultural tribute to the dominant culture was concerned, to 18th-19th century Negro slavery, putting to the forefront his appeal to the recognition of the humanity of his brethren and that of his own seemingly made evident by his capacity for assimilation. This might have been brought itself to bear on the oppressors’ view of the integrating Africans. This might have debunked the prejudice of some who think Negroes as no more than brutes. Equiano in the text had the capacity for Western Style courtesy, restraint, English language fluency, and subtle sophistication. His deference, honesty, and affection for his adopted people (Mr. King, Mr. Baker, Mr. Pascal, Ms. Guerin, etc.) could even have scored points with his readership, The magnanimous personalities he mentioned were also examples of people, for the undecided or the bigoted, who at least recognized the humanity of the Negroes, and dared to empathize with them, at the time when racism and economics were so intertwined and fiercely fleeced, as to dwarf Nazism/anti-Semitism in 20th Germany in terms of global scope.
Certain pertinent questions can be formulated that delve into the author’s intentions, or in the non-existence of which, into the literary dialectic situated within that moment/era of geopolitical/socioeconomic relationships and structures far detached from the spheres of morality.
(a) Is Equiano trying to overcome ethnocentrism by taking advantage/putting on the cultural color of his oppressors and patrons?
(b) Would hybridism and adaptation be necessary for integration, resulting in humanization and self-actualization of the author or others like him, to an entirely culturally different society?
(c) Would the prejudiced reader be sympathetic and conscientious of the human rights of the author had he stayed within his own nativist cultural milieu, distancing himself from Western cultural identity?

B. The Text as the Counterproductive Voice of the Author to the Evident Message of the Narrative

On the other hand, the consequence of the reading of the Narrative might had had other, more varied, interesting, Freudian nuances and implications that probably reinforced, rather than repudiate, the notions on the rationalizations for enslaving other peoples. Such that that could be one of the theories or real factors by which Abolitionism had not gained ground and claimed swift overwhelming victory over Slavery and the Slave Trade, because literature in itself is only part-creature of the existing discursive formations and other causes and circumstances made it difficult for the awakening population of slave traders, businessmen, politicians, and citizens alike to abolish slavery or to welcome with open arms foreigners kidnapped or bought to work for them.

Equiano’s Narrative may prove not as heart-wrenching and pathos-engendering as the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, published in 1845, thus, was not as effectual as a crusading literature, or worse, it was no more than an adventure story for some. His light treatment of Africans-enslaving-Africans in his earlier years might had come across to some as the precedent for the global practice of slavery, although human trafficking had been in existence since ancient times.

Another interpretation could be formulated or conjectured as the text might be the aggrandizement of Western Culture, with its counterproductive consequences. The text shows a former African tribesman as a practitioner of native, pure culture who acquires and acknowledges the ‘superiority’ of the said culture. If the reinforcement of the cultural superiority of the West in this text affirmed the ethnocentric and culture identity smugness in some readers, and if that chauvinism gave the conceptualization on treating other non-Western cultures as primitive and inferior, and also if this latter condition is the thought that justified the domination and denial of equality with those denizens of “primitive, inferior cultures and ‘uncivilized-ness’ of those non-Western civilizations” and their subsequent enslavement and maltreatment, then, the text was unconsciously or inadvertently defeating its own evident purpose of convincing all those coming into its sphere of influence of a singular vision, in the absence of any explicit advocacy on the part of the author. The Narrative might as well be account of his transformation from an Eboe, rural, animistic farming apprentice, having experienced a cruel rite of passage, to an avid Anglophile Christian seeking integration into 18th century Caucasian social circles.

A more dramatic and thought provoking text would have as its recurring theme the independence and inherent aesthetics of native African culture and whose adherent questions the underlying flaw of an aspect of Western thinking in its relentless pragmatism, and the violence with which the native culture was rendered worthless, trod underfoot, and pushed to extinction, by that flaw, as a modern reading would postulate but that which also understands the limitation of the discourses available to the author at that time when discourses and movements such as Nativism, Post-colonialism, and cultural relativity might be scoffed as pure sophistry of intellectuals.

If then Negro slavery, and its conceptualization would have been abetted or inextricably tied with feelings of cultural superiority, and its illegitimate offspring, racial superiority, then practicing, and being ‘awestruck’ by Western culture and civilization, and the crying out of its being superior, a single sentence spoken by the speaker in the text, would be tantamount to the contradiction between the author and whatever crusading quality his text might have been possessing, whose probable consequence would be that the slavery advocate/Western man would be dismissing or mentally shrugging whatever latent urging there was in the text.

The text is in sharp contrast with the Narrative of Frederick Douglass, who attacked American Negro Slavery ‘from within’ a White Dominated society, being a Negro born in the United States (Talbot County, Maryland) and bearing an Afro-American Cultural Identity, such that the voice in his Narrative would be an American, with a variant of American culture, speaking to a Fellow American, not as a transplanted African acknowledging the ascendancy of his acquired culture. Thus, in effect, Douglass’ inherent American identity cancels any consideration of stark cultural difference, of a greatness or degradation of any culture, but homes in on ethics, humanity in Race, and the questioning of the necessity of dehumanization of disadvantaged workers of different race. With Equiano’s, his acknowledgement came with repackaged entreaties, not blunt accusations from a citizen of equal cultural footing, as with Douglass. It can be surmised that the success of the Equiano’s Narrative could not be separated from the novelty of him being an African European author in the United Kingdom and Europe, and that his fame could have stemmed from his publication as a form of entertainment for a culturally proud citizenry, than a seriously taken moral pulpit.

C. SYNTHESIS

Taking into account the opposing viewpoints of the text and its structuralism (though not absolutely, mutually excluding each other), and its place in the discursive formation for the then nascent Negro-White integration in Europe and the discourse it represents within the superstructural geopolitical socioeconomic relationships, whose existence was not derived from culture and race conjectural oppositions but more on the appropriation of resources and the power that one gains from it, the text speaks of an author operating within the structure and seeking a few concessions in exchange for integration, which, altogether, is not bad in any moral sense of the word. He is what he wrote he was, as far as the modern reader is concerned, and he was where his being was, as far as the economics of slavery and power was concerned. Race comes a close second in the list of factors for societal events, and could have had influenced some of the social upheavals or unheralded moments.

The author,and his brainchild, the text, was more of a “conservative Tory”, than a Gandhi literary shaker of structures of ingrained social thought. However, Equiano was the proof that men from “primitive” or agricultural societies could hold their own and satisfy then standards of competence and productivity, so much so, that any notion of “primitive cultures” producing only “primitive men” is exposed as a fallacy upon knowing Equiano (Why else his masters were reluctant to sell him to prospective buyers?), or coming into contact with any African of acute intelligence.

Today’s reading of texts similar to Equiano underscores the general direction of the power relations and cultural/racial contrasting that enrich human thought systems: progression toward the Transparency of Diversity within the Structures, a part of the ongoing process of human enlightenment.

Here, as a part of the conclusion of this critical discourse are a couple of questions that could be raised as points of further discussion of the Narrative, whether in the classroom, conference hall, or cyberspace entry. There are two variants of one point in each question, and there is no assurance that each query in the pair would generate identical answers. In each pair there is a question designed for graduate students (G), and one for undergraduate students (UG).
(a) G – What makes a powerful, discursive, thought-system varying text on slavery and its abolition, or any perceived modern social evil?
UG – Do you see the Narrative as one of the effective literary pieces in its potential to awaken/rouse public opinion against slavery and racial discrimination?
(b) G – Describe the author in terms of his cultural background and acquired culture.
UG-Explain the various aspects of Equiano as a person based on the text.
(c) G-What would be the unifying theme of the text?
UG-What is your initial and persistent reaction to the text?
(d) G, UG-If you would be an author (blog, journalistic piece, short story, book/novel, poetry, visual art, screenplay, stage script, etc) what would you advocate for in today’s society?
(e) G, UG-What kind of speaker or writer are you? Would you be a calm pleader of principles, or an outspoken, no-holds barred, direct advocate of an important issue?

Filed under: Behavior, Book Review, Deconstructionist, Literary Criticism, Psychology, Social Commentary, Writing, thoughts , African, literary papers, Negro slavery, Olaudah Equiano, racism

WHAT IS ENLIGHTENMENT? A Diversion of Views Between Kant and Foucault

FOR THE COMPLETE TEXTS OF “WHAT IS ENLIGHTMENT?” IMMANUEL KANT AND FOUCAULT’S CRITIQUE OF KANT’S STATEMENTS, KINDLY CLICK THE FOLLOWING LINKS BELOW:
A) IMMANUEL KANT’S WHAT IS ENLIGHTENMENT (1784)
B) MICHEL FOUCAULT’S WHAT IS ENLIGHTENMENT (1984)

Kant’s Essay on Enlightenment

Kant might have been only responding to a newspaper query in answering the question, however, the views expressed therein might as well
encapsulize the aspirations and ideals of the intellectual movements that have been acting proactively and reactively to combat the stifling forces of the socio-political systems of the eighteenth century.

He described the means to attain an aspect of humanization of the individual, to achieve one’s full potential as a thinking being, wherein one takes active part in the pursuit of knowledge, and to have sole responsibility in teaching oneself of the truths encountered in that pursuit, so as to arrive at a perspective independent of the prevailing institutions of the time. In short, to be one’s own man.

His statements appear deceptively innocuous and very carefully worded s far as political and military authorities were concerned, but totally uncharitable to religious views and their adherents. It might as well be so, writing in Prussia, one of the most powerful military states of the time, and the Unifier of the then highly fragmented German states.

Other philosophers and scientists might have been exercising more or less restraint in attacking the superstitions and the obduracy of the authorities when it comes to being pilloried, however, the implications of serving the creed of individual/self-determination, on how far freedom and reaction to the realizations of critical thinking could be obtained with lasting results were not lost on those who were under the yoke of colonial domination or any form of intellectual or political repression.

It it debatable whether Kant was arguing for a more radical form of exercising that freedom, of totally overthrowing the Guardians upon proven guilty of being hindrances to that “freedom from immaturity”, but cursory study of the events that suddenly were precipitated after or during Enlightenment, we could theorize with conviction that the peoples in nation-states touched by these concepts of which Kant is one of the spokespersons, had acted on these views to the fullest, if not, to the extreme.

Let us be clear that Kant’s Essay explicitated the necessity of disregarding religious authorities insofar as their guidance was flawed, while rulers/superiors that demand obedience were, by inference, tolerate no dissent leading to open rebellion. Thus, Kant had indicted oppressive governments/rulers and intolerant religious hierarchies as the adversaries of human individual and social progress and/or expansion of knowledge.

Thus, without stating it, it would follow, a reader could reason, that a confrontation or open conflict with these “adversaries” would be inevitable, in the pursuit of one’s reasoning and search for Truth.

It goes without saying that the sudden explosion of scientific discovery, social criticism, critical and satirical literature, and the great political upheavals in the French, British, and American Revolutions, especially the American Revolutionary War, had had their seeds planted during the Enlightenment, and that was followed by the Modern Era. On a local note, Jose Rizal’s Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo novels recounting the abuses of the Spanish overlords and friars in the Philippines further inflamed the Filipinos to revolt from the Spanish Crown.

The importance of Kant’s assertions do not lie in whether he was directly responsible for influencing revolutionaries, anymore we can credit Nietschze of the superstition of Aryan racial superiority or Marx with the Communist Revolution, rather Kant had been a famous element in “internationalizing” liberalism, as was his French, British, and American counterparts, thus helping corroborate the universality of the individual reasoning and its social expression and actualization. Here, philosophers, scientists, and thinkers buttressed each others’ conclusions and modes of thinking. We could perceive here an “underground international democratic movement” as far as the number of unforgiving military, political, and religious authorities were concerned.

The question now remains, “Is Kant’s call to ‘dare to know’, with its revolutionary undertones necessarily relevant in today’s society?” The answer to that would be taken up vigorously by Michel Foucault.

Michel Foucault: What is Enlightenment?

According to Foucault, the reasoning “component”, and thus, its published or publicly expressed intentions, of the Enlightenment, is but a part of the complex power relations and historical circumstances and factors that birthed the Modern Age, subsuming any philosopher, or their theories and convictions, into a greater whole, that Foucault seems to require laymen to comprehend from its totality to its minute machinery. So, any defintion of Enlightenment, in a few facts and explanations, would not suffice without contrasting it to other eras, and making anyone a scholar if one dares to match Foucault’s challenge.

As for his take on achieving enlightenment, one should be aware of one’s own capabilities, or even one’s attitude, and taking into account present reality, the lessons of history, before philosophizing and then undertaking the insinuated quixotic admonition of Kant, “aude sapere”, lest our collective or individual action following this misguided direction lead to the “return of the most dangerous traditions”.

This he adeptly illustrated by mentioning National Socialism and Stalism as humanisms, and that the Enlightenment nourished a plethora of humanisms enthusiatically making good “thinking without guidance from another”, thus pointing out the possibility of people/societies overstepping their “aude sapere”.

Thus, Foucault appears to advocate a more moderate approach to the concepts of enlightenment, one that is in accordance with modern sensibility and stability.

However, it seems ironic that Foucault, a Frenchman, faults the Enlightenment and propaganda/discursive formation, whereas his countrymen

aided the American cause in repudiating the Divine Right of Kings, an Enlightenment political contention, and radically enforcing “Give me liberty or give me death” against British Rule, the political “guardian” of the Colonies.

The victory of the American Revolutionaries could by no means be attributed to blind luck. American and French leaders were visionaries, as far of the reality aspects of the war and the confidence of securing victory, was concerned. They had Foucault’s view of Enlightenment in mind when they

utilized tactics, logistics, and knowledge of terrain to break British Hegemony of the Atlantic, and establishing the world’s largest democracy since the first democratic assembly was held in Athens, Greece.

Question to be asked of Foucault’s polemics on Kant’s assertions is: Is it absolutely necessary for Foucault to discredit Kant, whose views were absolutely IMMEDIATELY PERTINENT to the Enlightenment Era in general, and to the American Revolution and Nation-building in particular, or does his philosophizing beg the question? Furthermore, is he guilty of theorizing for theorization sake?

A follow up question would be: What realizations could a student attain in the analysis of the two essays?

For the former, Foucault should have had recognized Kant’s words value for its reflection on the dependency of the Guardians’ (rulers, governments, church, or any other authority) mandate on the sufferance of their constituents, on the majority’s perception of their maintenance of civil liberties and rights, and the truth about each person being responsible for their learning and decision-making. His perambulation on Enlightenment, his own application of discursive formation, historicity of power relations, is nonetheless brilliant, yet, is far from what a layman would have time for, unlike Kant’s easily comprehensible text, the facility of which easily urges one to action. One could surmise that Foucault strove to be only understood by a few, while Kant was trying to reach a great number of people with his simple-worded text. For the latter, a student should realize: (a) Responsible to learn as much as possible not only to be good at one’s profession but to also uphold dignity and to be in the best position to protect one’s own rights; (b) institutions are established to serve the interests of the constituents. Failure to do so would invite censure, and the people should readily speak out against such abuses of power and advocate reforms; (c) radical liberal views, though attractive and seductive in their passionateness, should be critiqued in the light of today’s due process of law, primacy of social order, the best forums for the redress of grievances, proper expression of dissent, etc., just to name a few possible student responses.

The best definition of enlightenment remains in the hands of the individual, by how far and how purposeful one’s own desire to conscientiously advance oneself in knowledge, skill, and self-actualization and humanization, and in doing so, one would best serve the family and society.

Filed under: Behavior, Deconstructionist, Essay, Literary Criticism, Logic and Philosophizing, Philosophy, Psychology, Social Commentary, Writing, thoughts , Enlightenment, Foucault, Kant, logic, Modernism, philosophizing, Philosophy

Lightning Rod

If you want to see your beau fighting it out for ya
Getting bloodied and bruised for the love of you
Defending your honor, fueled by the jealousy
Dishonorably ovulated through your subtle wiles
Directed at me.

Had I not my paranoia with sexy women so unbelievable single
Then you’d had your fun at that coliseum
And me screaming at the top of my
Are you not entertained?
Are you not entertained!
While testing the limits of true love
While wrapping him around your finger
While I feel used and loserized by cheerleaders like ya
Your jock jockeying for the missionary position at my expense.
In this game, I win
By not playing games.

The reason I have this title “Lightning Rod” for this piece is I had been attracting this kind of sticky situation so many times now and in the past that I’m beginning to question my looks and purpose in life, lol. Women with bully boyfriends feigning affection and lust towards me, only to discover myself responding to a set-up with a boyfriend lying in wait for my advances, seeming in ambush, all the while being led by the girl, through text, e-mail, and the feminine charms.

I had preempted most of them, simply turning my back after a few exchanges and the Spider Sense tingling, saving me a lot of trouble extricating myself from that web of intrigue, which is probably in practice since the Middle Ages and in King Henry VIII’s Court. This must be the seldom written about experiences. Like rape victims, guys emasculated by vamps and their thugs resort to selective amnesia. I refresh my memory once in a while with that of the belle who literally led me to dark alley, supposedly for a kinky make-out, only to be socked by the lover who took to his heels while I was recovering my cracked eyeglasses from the asphalt, some knight in shining armor, so brave, so chivalrous. So you see, that explains my wariness. Feels like being in the movie called Cruel Intentions, lol.

MOOD MUSIC: MANEATER/HALL AND OATES

Filed under: Behavior, Peoplepoemage, Personal Notes, Poetry, Psychology, Writing, free writing, humor, lovers, relationships, thoughts , actual experience, actual persons, cheerleaders, cruel intentions, experience the best teacher, intrigue, jocks, players

Rock Love Poem

I am the Rock
And upon this Rock I will build my church
Within we will form the Altar of Love
Visible to the Heaven above
So we will show what is Love.

My Love is a Rock
So I will rock you
So that my Rock
Will be your Rock
And that Rock is Love.

Like every rock
Our Rock will wither
But the Soul of the Rock
The Love of Rock
Will stand the Test of Time.

Mood Music: Just So You Know/Jesse McCartney

Filed under: Behavior, Love Poems, Poetry, Writing, love, lovers, relationships , cheesy, corny, sappy, simple, sincere, sweet, true

My Bed Besieged by a Phantom Student: A Halloween True Story

I was not alone in dreading the come of lights out in our high school dorm. Many have begged their parents to be transferred to another school, while those who were left had to pray so hard for the haunting to end. Sometimes, it just gave them a short respite. And then, it started all over again.

Others have heard chains being dragged by some sort of prisoner, others have felt hands touch their faces as they lay. We just had the assurance that the scare would not be so fatal or so horrid that someone would not wake up the morning after, being together in a dorm filled with boys with two rows of 40 beds. But, we were used to wake up with one classmate gone, with nary a farewell. Only the bullies and the economically challenged or the ones with the strongest faith were left behind.

I had heard the slap of wet feet walking on the cold smooth cement floor of our dormitory, starting from the back where the statue of the bloody crucified Christ was standing, arms outstretched. Then, it would come closer and closer, until, I was so positively sure that it now was at the foot of my bed. I was an adolescent then. I remained shaking under the sheets, never daring to peek as the wet feet went around my bed many times. I’m quite sure my dorm mates heard them too, but like telepathy, we all knew we’re all under our covers praying so hard. Those feet had no body, because as the city lights shone through our windows, and we could still see through our bedsheets, we were so sure not a shadow moved, or that somebody, not even a prankster, did walk. But the steps of wet feet even had echoes in that dormitory. It was the sophomores’ dormitory.

I was thankful that when we moved to the juniors’ and seniors’ dormitory, those places were not haunted. They told us that a sophomore was found dead in the showers during one morning when the students had to freshen up for the mornings’ classes.

Filed under: Horror Thriller, Personal Notes, Psychology, Writing, death , belated halloween story, fright, ghosts, paranormal, phantom, scary, supernatural

True Supernatural Halloween Story: In the Elevator with Ghosts

I was awake all night and had to go early in the morning in the following day to the office of my boss. I was working with a theater outfit as a costume designer and was itching to know our next assignment.

I arrived at the building and took the elevator. I was headed for the 11 floor. At the sixth floor, the door opened and in came two kids, a boy and a girl, cute kids who seem having fun riding the elevator. I paid them no notice since, despite the half hour travel, I still feel drowsy and I was looking forward to crashing on the office sofa, but I did feel them sort of whispering behind me like two conspiratorial kids making fun of me behind my back. Still I paid them no notice.

The elevator door opened and I was shocked to see that I had overshot the floor I was supposed to go to, instead we came to the thirteenth floor. That’s when the two kids ran past me as they went to the corridor to the left. I was already spooked and disappointed with myself because I couldn’t recall having pressed the floor number or not having done it at all so I just decided to take the stairs back down the the eleventh. Lo and behold, when I went out, the two kids were headed the same way, as they were laughing or giggling, towards the stairs.

I tried to follow them, almost at trot, wondering, why in the heck they have to go back down when they came up to that floor?

The moment they reached  the stairwell, and I myself reached it, it suddenly struck me: the noises they made were gone. No laughter, no sounds of shoe or feet slapping the cement stair steps, nothing. It was as if they were never there. Another thing I realized, there was no one in the corridor but me. Not a soul was in sight. Or souls?

When the hairs at my nape and ears started to bristle and chill, I ran all the way down the stairs from that floor to the ground floor. Later, I discovered, the building was virtually deserted because it was a Saturday morning and I came at six a.m. and the guys were to come at nine a.m. The tenants of that office-condominium were all still in their units, but the thirteenth floor, no one rented a unit there.

A tenant there, upon hearing my story, told me that a family who owned a unit there went on vacation and suffered a fatal accident, but it seemed that two members have returned after all, and they have always used the elevator ever since.

Filed under: Horror Thriller, Personal Notes, Writing, death, thoughts , ghosts, Halloween story, haunted, paranormal, scary, supernatural

Halloween Notes: My Experience with the Supernatural

Me and my bud were chatting at around 3 am infront of his house in a condominium complex ground floor, enjoying the cool morning breeze while we’re munching on nachos and having ice-cold beer cans in our hands, but not at all drunk because we’re just enjoying the evening and were even getting ready to call it a night.

There was a playground situated some ten meters from where we sat on wrought iron garden chairs painted white, the moon was full and grey clouds scudded, as if they slided on a dark floor full of gems. I thought, the playground looked so desolate and gloomy at night as I recalled how vibrant it was when kids and parents would be out and around those slides, seesaws, and playbars.

That was when I saw a dark figure walking from the street towards the playground, coming from the left. We’ve never seen a soul for hours and here came this man, who had a burden slung over his shoulders as he made for the playground. It’s like seeing a shadow, all black, with no reflection of the lamp posts or the moon on him, just all black. And the thing he’s carrying looks like a body in a body bag. There’s no sound coming from him, footfalls, his exertions, or his breath.

I thought, heck, he’s just a guy on an errand, laughing it off. But then, when he reached the playground, he just went straight through the bars, slides, and whatever obstruction he should’ve went around of, but, he never paused, turned, or checked his pace ever. Going to the right, passing all the bars of the playground as something immaterial, he disappeared into the trees of a vacant lot on our right.

I asked Mick, “Did you see that?”

“Yes”, he was pale like paper. That’s when I ruled out hallucination or imagination because both of us saw it, how that phantom with his phantom burden stiff yet sagging across his shoulder, went through all that metal and plastic.

Both of us had to jostle each other as we made a dash for his front door.

Music Video: Thriller/Michael Jackson

Filed under: Horror Thriller, Writing, death , ghost story, paranormal, phantoms, real ghosts, scary, supernatural, terrifying

Navarro’s Synthetic Atomization further expounded in Relation to the Definition of Man

Concept-groups are handy not in analysis, which by in itself narrows rather than expand understanding, and logical atomism meanwhile is in ignorance the nature of comprehension of concepts, whose totality of comprehension is tied with the interrelationship of concept-groups within them, and this relationship specifies their consequences or results of their accidental essentials together with their interaction within an act of comprehension/judgment/definition/description of an event-action of the objects explained.

So, concerning the judgment of a person, to talk about who is a person, how can someone really determine the definition of a certain person, nobody can really be in the position to judge a whole person’s being just with the experiencing of the actions of that person, even that would define him or her at that moment.

Described under the light of Synthetic Atomization, the total definition of a person is to take into account his or her whole life, the summation of his or her actions and his or her relationship or non-relationship within the milieu. We may try to simplify with the definitions that man is a rational animal, a social animal, a person who did something or that something, but from an eagle’s vantage point, that is not a complete definition/description of a person, deep within ourselves we know that we could not exhaust the knowledge of a person in just a few sentences. The whole life of a person, from birth to death, would constitute the WHOLE DEFINITION OF THAT PERSON, and still, nobody can ever know each and every interaction that person has with others, or with the environment. Again, here synthetic atomization underscores man’s infinite ignorance about another person’s totality, though has a finiteness, is still beyond a person’s comprehension, memory, and knowing, such that sometimes religious people infer an infinite intelligence or Supreme Being that would KNOW a whole person’s life so that there would be SOMEONE who would have a complete definition of a person.

However, despite the voluminous obligation Synthetic Atomization imposes on its application of the definition of a person, a person’s actions meanwhile would be easily judged based on the consequences of his or her actions and its immediate results on others or on objects. This is where Atomization occurs, the result of the act, or the end result of an interaction between objects, would be the atom that unites the actors within the event or reaction between persons and their actions, and that would facilitate judgment of a logical exercise upon a statement or event in time. That judgment is another addition to the synthetic description of an object/person/term’s definition, but their involvement is atomized by their specific effect in that moment in time that would provide direction for perception, awareness, and judgment, for direction is presupposed by the finiteness, or atomization of concepts involved, the melding of concept-groups into a singular concept-group, i.e., the result or consequence.

Thus, a criminal behind bars, convicted justly and within legal bounds of his/her milieu, is adjudged as such for the action committed against humanity, against society. That is the atomization of the action, the doer, the recipient of the action, the time it occurred, how it was done, into the end result: being behind bars, and something more simplified for judgment, that is, bad, as far as the limitation imposed on the felon on freedom and reputation. Nobody would know if he/she would reform, become a saint, what subsequent actions and interactions would occur involving the convict within prison, all of which would comprise his/her the synthesis of being, the totality of existence up to the time of death, the endpoint of existence in the material sense. However, when the judgment is made to bear on a consequence of an action that impinges on the duty of society to take action, then, he or she would be atomized together with others in another exercise of judgment, the conclusion of a logical exercise.

Synthetic Atomization has many applications in the field of logic and philosophizing so much so that it would be the restatement of the obvious as pointed out by prior movements of literature and philosophy, however, delineation of the lines of thought and logical actions would clarify more than obfuscate more than the abstractions offered by logical atomism and idealism that many ideologies have offered earlier generations of credulous students.

Filed under: Literary Criticism, Metaphysics, Philosophy, Psychology, Writing, thoughts , challenging the old schools of thought, direction of thinking, logic, new theory of philosophy, philosophizing, Philosophy, rationalism