The Educated Imagination: The Hero as Critic

Perhaps THE work that most Small Fryes begin and end with, as it is Anatomy of Criticism for little critters. It also foreshadows Words with Power. It is the DNA of all his ideas. I will begin with an overview than talk about each chapter briefly and separately. A study guide by Professor Willard exists already on the net; this is to complement that guide. Some teachers complain that EI is too repetitive; Frye does return to the same points but from a higher perspective.

For me EI moves in the 4Ms. Growing from a metaphor into a myth (a metaphor put into motion), then the myth grows into a mythology, then the mythology becomes a social mythology.
Conceptually, Frye moves musically, using his classic technique of the 3 identities (individual, dual, social) which is based on vocal melodies (solo, duet, chorus), taking the *voice* of the writer literally. The essay is built on the quest-romance myth, where the maiden literature (and the Bible) is saved by the hero as critic, using the powers of criticism to slay the dragons of ideology, philistines, bigots, popular culture, public relations and advertising.

Frye, Eckhart Tolle and Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

Given the choice to accept or reject Frye's work entirely, unlike Frank Lentricchia, I have chosen to accept. Still I find it quite interesting when popular works offer a different view. The Oprah Winfrey Bookclub The New Earth by Eckhart Tolle advises a life based on non-identification, on *no* motive for metaphor or *non*-existential metaphor. E.T. does agree with Frye, although not quite as eloquently, that time is the big illusion, and to *be here now*. And it seems both are well steeped in the works of mystics, visionaries and even"the kook books", in Frye's phrase. Unlike Frye's ideas, E.T. comments on time but not space as Frye does, with his 4 cosmic levels.

A great essay is waiting for someone to compare and contrast Robert Pirsig's Zen Bikes book with Frye's The Educated Imagination. One loves Aristotle, the other does not. One sees the constructive power of rhetoric and mythos, the other does not.

Both, however, are united in their use of the form of the anatomy to reach the masses.

Why Frye High?

Frye's goal is to make literary criticism understandable to the average 19 year old intellectual. Judging by the great work of Glenna Sloan "Child as Critic", Frye's critical methods are accessible by the average grade 4-8 intellectual as well, truly literary critters. The Ontario Ministry of Education actually got it right when the study of archetypes was positioned in the Grade 9 curriculum. 

Frye definitely deserves to be placed in high school, as this post's title (and my play co-written with Frank Adriano "Northrop Frye High") suggests. Frye thought teachers were like drug pushers, dealing literary products guaranteed to blow the mind. That's one scene from my play I like to see realized:  The local high school pusher pushing "heroine" and "lines" simply by distributing not drugs but literary works by Shakespeare and other classic writers:  "Hey kid, you want some stuff, hard stuff, here, join me in doing some lines, perhaps a couplet from Juliet or Cleopatra."

The text judges you

Many students tell me that "book sucks" or "Why do we have to read that book?"
You judge the book as good or bad a la Roger and Ebert, but using the C.S. Lewis reversal, the book judges whether you are a good or bad reader. Value statements like *Shakespeare sucks* reveal more about the reader than the text.

Two more points: the power of reading is to enter into another world where you are not yourself yet still find yourself. To try and read a book about yourself (e.g. choosing a book because the protagonist resembles you) guarantees nothing, except maybe the story of Narcissist all over again.

That is not to say that there are no poorly written books but a poor reader will more often than not mistaken a poorly written book for a great one and a great one for a poorly written book.

The Reader Response

The School of Reader Response is presently popular among my colleagues and students. While I applaud any reader or teacher who is engaged and inspired by a literary text, I still cite the Affective Fallacy, Wimsatt's idea that what a reader *feels* may not be what the work is about.

In short, the reader could be wrong, as the experience of reading must be absorbed and fine tuned by the knowledge of reading. Not *every* interpretation (I prefer to say *translation*) is valid. The reader cannot simply read and see in the text whatever they want. What gives the reader the heroic power to construct and deconstruct a text is simply their knowledge (grammar, rhetoric, logic, codes, conventions, criticism) of the text, how much text they already have swimming in their"black blood", in author F.G. Paci's phrase.

Simply read any page of Finnegans Wake or read any language not native to you. The reader's responses will be quite limited. Having said that, there are great methods of "reading" or "misreading" that are creative and not subjective, that can be proven by repetition and even taught to children.

What the FQA?

While this blog is to invite discussion on literary criticism and its cousins, in addition to the frequently asked questions, I would also like to frequently question answers related to literary criticism and theory.

Most of my answers (really yanswers), are based on Northrop Frye's theories. But other theorists will pop up in my thinking: Harold Bloom, Roland Barthes, C.S. Lewis, Thomas Kuhn, McLuhan among others.

Blog Origins

Teachers are notoriously conservative. Proof: simply look at their attire. In an attempt to ride the progress myth, the story that the latest is the greatest, this blog will use this technology to, in Northrop Frye's famous phrase, educate the imagination.

While the imagination is associated with creative works like poetry, stories, sculpture, painting, one more association I would like to add is the theoretical creative mind. There is a power to create and a power to understand that creation.

Disclaimer: Use anything here that you find of value. Whatever is not, simply discard.

Dedication: My muse for this blog is a former student and present friend. Thanks Andy for the inspiration.