Five Works of Theory You Should Consider Reading

[alice wellintown]

see Abrams,  http://www.news.cornell.edu/chronicle/99/6.10.99/Abrams.html
see Jesus, Sermon on the Mount
see The Terror of the Tongs (1961)

> It seems that theory has its tongue so far in the cheek that the
> phrase no longer works for the theorist even when taken with a grain
> of salt. In other less figurative words, the figure of speech must be
> taken in its original meaning, as indication of contempt. For whom?
> For the dear reader him or her self or elves. Or maybe the theorist,
> so drawn to his mental mirror by the reflexive nature of language, has
> neglected the salt of the Earth and put a bushell on the lamp of
> thought so that we ordinary readers can no longer taste the salt on
> the cheeky tongue of the theorist. Aristotle is a great theorist; his
> Poetics, though out of flavor with the theorists, who may find
> Longinus more tastey, are still influential.
>
> from Longinus, On the Sublime
>
> It is proper to observe that in human life nothing is truly great
> which is despised by all elevated minds. For example, no man of sense
> can regard wealth, honour, glory, and power, or any of those things
> which are surrounded by a great external parade of pomp and
> circumstance, as the highest blessings, seeing that merely to despise
> such things is a blessing of no common order: certainly those who
> possess them are admired much less than those who, having the
> opportunity to acquire them, through greatness of soul neglect it. Now
> let us apply this principle to the Sublime in poetry or in prose; let
> us ask in all cases, is it merely a specious sublimity? is this
> gorgeous exterior a mere false and clumsy pageant, 12 which if laid
> open will be found to conceal nothing but emptiness? for if so, a
> noble mind will scorn instead of admiring it. 2 It is natural to us to
> feel our souls lifted up by the true Sublime, and conceiving a sort of
> generous exultation to be filled with joy and pride, as though we had
> ourselves originated the ideas which we read. 3 If then any work, on
> being repeatedly submitted to the judgment of an acute and cultivated
> critic, fails to dispose his mind to lofty ideas; if the thoughts
> which it suggests do not extend beyond what is actually expressed; and
> if, the longer you read it, the less you think of it,—there can be
> here no true sublimity, when the effect is not sustained beyond the
> mere act of perusal. But when a passage is pregnant in suggestion,
> when it is hard, nay impossible, to distract the attention from it,
> and when it takes a strong and lasting hold on the memory, then we may
> be sure that we have lighted on the true Sublime. 4 In general we may
> regard those words as truly noble and sublime which always please and
> please all readers. For when the same book always produces the same
> impression on all who read it, whatever be the difference in their
> pursuits, their manner of life, their aspirations, their ages, or
> their language, such a harmony of opposites gives irresistible
> authority to their favourable verdict.