When Frye writes this, it is easy to take the meaning out of it that human's have a natural sense of rebellion towards authorities, and this instinct "can never stop". His observation here is one I agree with, and also an instinct I believe is beneficial for humans to possess. As discussed in class, rebellion against authorities causes us to challenge what would otherwise remain the standard, and were it not for this instinct, we would risk stagnation. As far as the lessons to be taken from this, I would have to say that it goes to show that human nature is no fluke; and to not abandon your intuition. There's an interesting parallel from Frye's message to McCoullough's, in that both contain the idea of not missing the big picture. Many could view this fact of human's not producing aeroplane's for flight, as simply that. Whereas McCoullough encourages readers to look deeper into the text, and to pull out a more significant meaning.
In fear of simply reiterating what my classmates have already posted, there is another meaning to this quote that I noticed, although it is slightly far-fetched.
When Frye writes that our motive for flight is nothing more than a desire to save time, one can't help but think that 10 years ago, in our own lives, the concept of flying was exciting to us because it was something that we thought shouldn't be possible. In our eyes, it was a miracle. However, in the eyes of the "matured" population, the concept of flight does not offer any significance other than saving time. This gives the idea that as we "evolve" as humans, we begin to take more for granted, and that perhaps the insight of the immature is one that we have undervalued. Both Frye and McCoullough have a similar message in this sense. McCoullough states that although some literature may be outdated, its quality will never be matched. Frye, states that opinions which are not as "advanced" are ones that we are overlooking, and that they contain lessons we must learn as adults. The key differential here is that we acknowledge aged literature for its worth, where as we still must learn to appreciate the lessons we once knew.
I quite enjoyed your far-fetched idea and actually thought it to be quite rational. I immediately think of the Internet and how although it was a thing of wonder when it was invented, nowadays we take for granted the time that it saves us and get annoyed when it takes longer than 2 seconds to load a page.
ReplyDeletePerhaps the fact that literature doesn't evolve, or improve, or progress actually helps us to appreciate it better as even classics from a hundred years ago are still novel in their own way.
kaela