I'm really not surprised by this guys cockiness. I knew it was coming. Even if I look past his rudeness and sarcasm, I still cannot find out what this guy is talking about! He's constantly contradicting himself and it gets really confusing! Like when he is talking about theories. We all know from his interview that he does not like books that are constantly talking about theories; however, he is doing exactly this in his book! There's theories of existentialism and nihilism in Grendel. I don't know if he thinks these don't count or what? In his essay, he says, "It's also true that man can only learn control of nature and himself by making up theories, and the worst thing one can do is adopt Grendel's position, that all theories are nonsense" (Gardner, par 7). I'm still confused on whether or not this guy supports theorizing and philosophising.
Overall, I honestly think John Gardner's point with Grendel and his letters/interviews is to confuse us and make us think, which I actually totally respect. I like that we had really deep discussions about Grendel and it brought up a lot of really good theories on life. This book really made me think about what the point of life was (hence my blog a couple of weeks ago). Are we all here for a purpose or is life a total void, and nothing really matters? Yeah, Gardner was cocky and arrogant but that's what makes his book so interesting and fun to read. I must say that I liked Grendel a lot more than Beowulf simply because it made me think more.
1 comment:
Gardner is really cocky. I think he needs to settle down and take a breather haha. Its not like he wrote Beowulf or anything. He's not that good. He just makes you think really hard. The only thing that I really liked about the book was that it showed the other side to Beowulf. Another interpretation if you will.
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