Why You Should Be Watching “Portlandia”

Portlandia Friday Nights at 10PM/9PM Central on IFC

Portlandia is a satirical take on modern counter-culture. Based in Portland, Oregon, with the majority of the characters played by SNL Veteran Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein, the show is an entertaining advocate for being weird. Several hipster stereotypes such as DJ-ing, pickling, technology fads, intellectualism, coffee shop humor, environmentalism, etc.. are played upon in different episodes, demonstrating that in the pursuit of individualism and differentiating ourselves through trends or innovation, we wind up being very ordinary, really, and yet very impressive too.

 

This show HAS EVERYTHING

 

Great Customer Service

 

EFFULGENT CHILDREN MUSICIANS

 

 

Vegan strip clubs

 

 

 

 

Every episode is basically a vacation in itself

 

 

 

Still not sure if you should watch Portlandia?

 

 

Just sit back and RELAX.  If the show gets too intense for you,  just remember the SAFE WORD

 

 

 

And DO NOT PANIC when you finish Season 3. They’ll be MORE EPISODES

Barthes, Italo Calvino & Denis Johnson

Barthes’ The Pleasure of the Text describes the relationship between the reader and the writer in terms of the paradox a writer must coerce in creating a narrative that exhibits originality to interest the reader and tangibility so that the reader may understand the signification of the text. Barthes states that in writing he, the writer, must “seek out the reader without knowing where he is”(Barthes 4). Italo Calvino’s If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler and Denis Johnson’s Jesus’ Son epitomizes the paradox encountered by Barthes’ The Pleasure of the Text.

In writing, the writer must ascertain credibility over the reader in order to attempt to find the reader through the text. Barthes attempts this seductive control by initially writing in the first person narrative and then addressing the reader directly in the second person, switching back and forth throughout the essay. Calvino addresses the reader in the same way. The first sentence of the book speaks to the reader directly; “You are about to begin reading Italo Calvino’s new novel, If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler” (Calvino 1). Calvino continues to directly engaging the reader, narrating directions in order to prepare for reading the text. In order to achieve coercion of the reader, the writer must incite both pleasure, defined in text as “the text that comes from culture and does not break from it” (Barthes 14), and bliss, defined in text as “the text that imposes a state of loss” (Barthes 14). Barthes calls this “fight for hegemony” by language an attempt to become “doxa” or nature (Barthes 28). This stride to become “doxa” is the “essence of ideology” because as a reader “there is no other solution than to inhabit one of them” (Barthes 29). This ideological overcoming is the “signification” of the text for the reader (Barthes 29). Barthes states that “ideology can only be dominant” (Barthes 32), in that the “book creates the meaning, the meaning creates life” (Barthes 36). This signification begins with sentences which Barthes states that “the sentence is hierarchal” (Barthes 50) and describes writers as sentence thinkers (Barthes 51). Sentences imply “subjections, subordinations, internal reactions” (Barthes 50). In the completion of a sentence, it “runs the risk of being ideological” (Barthes 50), therefore providing signification to the reader. Barthes defines significance as “meaning, insofar as it is sensually produced.” (Barthes 61) This sensual production that Barthes described is achieved through interpretation through the reading. This analysis of text allows the reader to encounter their individuality which Barthes states “makes my body separate from other bodies” (Barthes 62). Barthes states that this is the pleasure of the text, the “value shifted to the sumptuous rank of the signifier” (Barthes 65) The simultaneous existence between bliss and pleasure in text is “”a living contradiction”: a split subject, who simultaneously enjoys, through the text, the consistency of his selfhood and its collapse” (Barthes 21). A text must balance originality for the reader with tangibility in order for it to be understood within the reader’s contextual perspective. Barthes describes this balance as “always and throughout between the exception and the rule.” (Barthes 41) Calvino balances this “living contradiction” by placing the reader in the context of buying the book, stating to the reader “you derive a special pleasure from a just-published book” (Calvino 6) in that the book is new and initially intrigued the reader in their selection to read it, portraying all the other books in the bookshop as superfluous in a personalized context since the reader has not read or bought them yet for many different reasons. By engaging the reader directly through hypothetical yet accessible contexts that the reader may encounter throughout their experience in purchasing the book, Calvino already asserts induction over the signification of his written text to the reader. The reader is instructed that “there is no message that indiscreetly outshouts the message that the book itself must communicate directly” (Calvino 8). The second person narrative commandeers respect through directly providing signification for the reader by directing the reader how they should begin reading the book. By confronting the reader as though the book is a book within a book, such as Barthes is a book about books, the writer develops seductive control in asserting their expertise through direct narrative. Calvino warns of this writing ploy, stating to the reader “watch out: it is surely a method of involving you gradually, capturing you in the story before you realize it-a trap” (Calvino 12). Barthes states that “Storytelling is a way of searching for one’s origin” (Barthes 47). Through engaging the reader in first and second person, Calvino draws the reader in authoritatively by inciting interest in the narrator’s origin as well as the reader’s own. Calvino alludes to the metaphor of a traveler who has missed a connection which is the position he puts the reader in by dictating the narrative directly, asserting control over the text and the story it signifies. The reader, the traveler, is hindered from their destination by the narrator’s control over the text as the narrator points out that this missed connection, the “something else” is what “makes it risky to identify with me” (Calvino 15). The narrator informs the reader of the paradox Barthes describes in his discourse, The Pleasure of the Text. According to the narrator the reader “must remain both oblivious and highly alert”, they must “take in the murmuring effect and the effect of the hidden intention.” (Calvino 18). The reader’s role as the signifier of the text is directly addressed by the narrator, affirming the responsibility the reader must exercise in order to interpret the text which is necessary to obtain any pleasure and bliss from reading. The narrator tells the reader that the text inhibits “a sense of concreteness that you perceived from the very first line bears in it also the sense of loss, the vertigo of dissolution” (Calvino 37). This sense of familiarity blended with a sense of loss is what Barthes ascertains where pleasure and bliss spawn from. The repetitive assertion of authority by the narrator to the reader creates bliss (Barthes 41). Barthes describes this excessive “eroticism” on “two opposing conditions: if it is extravagantly repeated, or on the contrary, if it is unexpected, succulent in its newness.” (Barthes 42). Calvino’s narrative exhibits both opposing conditions in order to create bliss for the reader as the first to second person narrative provides a repetitive yet unexpected method of conveying signification through the text.

In Denis Johnson’s Jesus’ Son a patient in the hospital F*ckhead works tells him “there is a price to be paid for dreaming” (Johnson 117). F*ckhead must come to terms with his drug addictive past in order be able to dream of establishing any hope for a future. Through F*ckheads personal accountability for the narrative of the text, the reader is seduced into the text through an original account of drug addiction which seduces the reader in discovering F*ckhead’s past in order to bear witness to his reconciliation. In order for the reader to conjure any hope for F*ckhead’s future, the narrative provides a historical background inciting relevance to the reader for F*ckhead’s improvement. The dysfunctional behavior of the narrator transitions throughout the text from the incoherent behavior of a drug addict to the resolution of that incoherence. F*ckhead begins the text without any regards to whether he lives or dies, prophesizing the car he has hitchhiked into crashing. He responds to this prophecy by stating “I didn’t care. They said they’d take me all the way.” (Johnson 3) Barthes definition of storytelling as “searching for one’s origin” (Barthes 47) becomes evident as F*ckhead begins to realign himself as a functional member of society. “Jesus’ Son ends with F*ckhead stating ““All these weirdos, and me getting a little better every day right in the midst of them. I had never known, never even imagined for a heartbeat, that there might be a place for people like us.” (Johnson 133) He transitions from not caring whether he died or not to actually caring about his life while acknowledging that he is a weirdo as remnants of his drug addled behavior still manifest themselves through his personality as F*ckhead develops a peeping Tom addiction to an Amish couple and viewing their dull and normal life excites him. As his drug addiction begins controlling his life to lesser extents, he obtains regular employment and “Jesus’ Son” ends with the hope that F*ckhead may transcend his name after all and become something more in his life than just a F*ckhead.

Italo Calvino’s If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler and Denis Johnson’s Jesus’ Son epitomizes the paradox encountered by Barthes’ The Pleasure of the Text. The reader is seduced into the narrative through the ideological construction of the stories in which conflicts are demonstrated yet not clearly resolved, allowing the reader to lay at the mercy of their own prejudicial interpretations.

Works Cited
- Barthes, Roland, Richard Miller, and Richard Howard. The Pleasure of the Text. New York: Hill and Wang, 1975. Print.
- Johnson, Denis. Jesus’ Son. New York, NY: HarperPerennial, 1993. Print.
- Calvino, Italo, and William Weaver. If on a Winter’s Night a Traveller. London: Vintage, 1998. Print.

The Work of Art in the Age of Its Technological Reproducibility

http://www.democracychronicles.com/how-modern-consumerism-has-changed-art-and-culture/

 

 

In Walter Benjamin’s “The Work of Art in the Age of Its Technological Reproducibility”, Benjamin discusses the mass reproduction of art and its effect on what Benjamin coined as the “aura” of the art itself in which the artwork’s presence in time and space is lost through the means of reproduction. The reproduction strips the artwork of its function as an individual unit.

Although Benjamin’s discourse focuses on art itself, using film and photography as his main examples, his analysis is applicable to the culture industry itself. Popular culture is created to function in the best interests of the economy. Everything is filtered by the culture industry. The selection mechanism as to what is authoritatively produced and distributed to the masses is contingent upon investment capital and those who control it. Traces of spontaneity are controlled due to the dependency upon such vast amount of capital in order to be widely distributed. Culture itself is manufactured. Consumers are classified, labeled and organized by the manufacturers who view them only as statistics in which more capital, money and power can be gained through further distribution of reproductive cultural entities. Benjamin begins his discourse with a quote that summarizes how innovation and technology have been constantly transforming culture. “Our fine arts were developed, their types and uses were established, in times very different from the present, by men whose power of action upon things was insignificant in comparison with ours.” (Benjamin) The quote from Paul Valery alludes to the transformation of art due to technological breakthroughs that revolutionized the distribution and techniques of art itself. Access to art was severely limited due to technological constraints thus limiting art itself due to the cultural constraints that such confinement in terms of exposure caused. Benjamin’s discourse begins with a sense of optimism which deteriorates as the capitalist mode of production and its cultural effects are discussed. With such widespread reproduction of art and culture itself, the aura of the artwork itself is lost along the way as what is considered to be art becomes disillusioned amongst widespread reproduction with alternate motives. Through the capitalist mode of production art becomes intended to suit capitalist interests rather than being a unique form of individual expression. Benjamin states that such conditions of mass production “neutralized a number of traditional concepts-such as creativity and genius, eternal value and mystery.” (Benjamin) Benjamin goes on to quote Paul Valery once again in the first part of his discourse, stating that auditory and visual images became marginalized to something hardly more than a sign.

The aura of an artwork is lost during reproduction. It loses its “unique existence in a particular place”(pg.1053, Benjamin). The copying of the artwork detaches its essence from the artist and loses that personal connection. Famous artist Pablo Picasso said that “Art is a form of magic designed as a mediator between this strange hostile world and us.” Most recently in our culture technological innovations have distorted art and disrupted the function that art serves as a mediator in understanding the World we live in. “By replicating the work many times over it substitutes mass existence for a unique existence” (pg.1054, Benjamin). Technological innovations have led to the emergence of new art forms such as film and photography. In doing so traditional concepts of art have been overthrown and production has overflowed the cultural filter so that art as a form itself loses its own aura. The traditional concept of the definition of art is transformed by such technological reproduction but at the cost of its essence. Art was becoming so reproduced that it took on different goals and approaches such as dadaism’s attempt at counter culture which eventually was culminated with the surrealism movement. In a more modern sense art has been developed into so many forms of entertainment to the point in which the aura is so far removed that it lacks any artistic qualities or skills as technological advancements replace or remove these things. Due to the mass reproduction of art, art has transcended beyond its function as a specialized field of humanism for better or worse. Quality has been sacrificed for quantity as mass reproductions of imagery serve different functions without focusing on aesthetic representation in the form of beauty. Mass reproduction has outmoded the primary necessity for art to inhibit specialized techniques and training. Such exploitative motives ruin art and serve popular culture only as a means to reinforce elitism amongst the established power.

Benjamin cites egalitarianism as the ideological condition for the constant decay of art. Benjamin cites two circumstances, “the desire of the present day masses to “get closer” to things spatially and humanly, and their equally passionate concern for overcoming each thing’s uniqueness by assimilating it as a reproduction” (pg.1055, Benjamin) as reasons for the loss of the aura in question. Capitalist motives are the root for such ideologies to gain influence over the masses in order to fuel reproduction. Benjamin cites the phrase “l’art pour l’art” which means “art for art’s sake” which was a sentiment to preserve the aura as a reaction to the first revolutionary means of reproduction and many counter culture movements have emerged since then.

Benjamin’s discourse advocates a sense of optimism with the emergence of culture industry and its role in transforming art. Benjamin cites massive active participation as a positive aspect of technological reproduction. He refutes notions that popular culture is a form of escapism from the drudgery of capitalism that causes the masses to be docile and subservient to the elite. Benjamin argues that by advocating contemplation and absorption of such art forms, such art forms are gradually understood and mastered, in other words through dialectics. By constantly searching for truth and maintaining an open mind for resolutions between disagreements, the masses could transcend such seemingly destructive influences as popular culture.

Popular culture serves capitalist interests because of the industries that depend upon it for reproduction. Such industries are indebted to particular ideologies that were formed in order to preserve and further influence upon the masses. Popular culture is an authoritative outlet for such extensions of influence.

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Venezuela Trip

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(A view of Caracas valley, with northern mountains in the background, as seen from a plane landing in the airport.)

Margarita Village on Margarita Island. This Caribbean island offers year-
round tropical weather, delicious international food, beautiful sandy beaches, and
duty-free shopping. At the resort, enjoy the tropical swimming pool, a children’s pool,
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Choroni, Venezuela

Cayo Punta Brava, Morrocoy Venezuela

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Malvolio in Twelfth Night

Charles Lamb states that Malvolio “becomes comic by accident”. His criticism portrays Malvolio as a tragic character. Lamb describes Malvolio’s dialect as “that of a gentleman, and a man of education.” Predisposed with Malvolio’s dialect and seemingly noble manner is hubris which leads to his downfall in the play. In Shakespeare’s ‘Twelfth Night’, Malvolio is not a tragic character but, the fool of the play in that he is a scapegoat for mockery and entertainment. Aristotle in ‘Poetics’ defined comedy as “an imitation of inferior people-not, however, with respect to every kind of defect; the laughable species of what is disgraceful. The laughable is an error of disgrace that does not involve pain or destruction. For example a comic mask is ugly and distorted but does not involve pain.” (Stott, Andrew McConnell. Comedy. New York: Routledge, 2005. Print.) Malvolio fulfills the role as the disgraceful, inferior person within Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night”.

 

The characters in ‘Twelfth Night’ despise Malvolio. Upon Malvolio’s entrance in Act II Scene V, Sir Toby states “here’s an overweening rogue!” (Act 2, scene 5, line 27) after plotting with Fabian and Maria to punish Malvolio, referring to him as a “little villain” (Act 2, scene 5, line 12). Upon his entrance in the scene, Malvolio states his ambitions for nobility, “To be Count Malvolio!’ (Act 2, scene 5, line 32) to the group. The disdain the other characters have for Malvolio throughout the play is only met with vanity, hubris and patronizing comments on Malvolio’s part, doing very little to conjure any remorse for the character following his downfall later in the play.

 

Malvolio opposes the fun and festivities of the “Twelfth Night” and chastises the characters in the play several times for their celebrations. Malvolio questions their actions in the form of patronizing dialogue by asking “My masters, are you mad? Or what are you? Have ye no wit, manners, nor honesty, but to gabble like tinkers at this time of night? Do ye make an alehouse of my lady’s house, that ye squeak out your coziers’ catches without any mitigation or remorse of voice? Is there no respect of place, persons, nor time in you?” (Act 2 scene 3, lines 81-86) Sir Toby responds to Malvolio’s self-righteousness mockingly by asking him “Dost thou think, because thou art virtuous, there shall be no more cakes and ale? (Act 2 scene 3, lines 115-116). Even Feste, the clown, mocks and makes fun of Malvolio. Viola recognizes Feste as an intelligent character, describing him as a  “fellow is wise enough to play the fool, and to do that well craves a kind of wit, he must observe their mood on whom he jests, The quality of persons, and the time, And like the haggard, check at every feather That comes before his eye, This is a practice As full of labor as a wise man’s art, For folly that he wisely shows is fit, But wise men, folly-fall’n, quite taint their wit.” (Act 3 scene 1, lines 59-67).Malvolio is an example of an educated wise man that taints their wit with distorted egotism and self-righteousness. Feste mocks a quote made by Malvolio while reading a fabricated love letter, “Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon ‘em (Act 2 scene 5, 144-146)(Act 5 scene 1, lines 370-371). Malvolio returns the resentments towards him throughout the play. Upon his advances being deemed “midsummer madness” (Act 3 scene 4, line 53), Malvolio states in an outburst “Go, hang yourselves all! You are idle shallow things: I am not of your element. You shall know more hereafter.” (Act 3 scene 4, lines 116-118) Despite being ostracized, Malvolio maintains his stubborn ego even at the end of the play in which his last lines are “I’ll be revenged on the whole pack of you.” (Act 5 scene 1, line 391) Feste, the clown affirms that Malvolio received what was coming to him as he states to Olivia “and thus the whirligig of time brings in his revenges” (Act 5 scene 1, lines 389-390) which is another way of saying what goes around comes around.

 

The function of the character Malvolio exists in every comedic drama. To emphasize laughable dysfunction, an enemy is presented in the comedic drama. Malvolio’s character is paralleled by several characters in many contemporary works such as Principal Edward Rooney in “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off”, Principal Vernon in ‘’The Breakfast Club” and several other villainous characters in a wide variety of comedic dramas. Malvolio is the villain, the disgracefully inferior character of Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night”

 

 

Outside Works Cited

 

- Stott, Andrew McConnell. Comedy. New York: Routledge, 2005. Print.

Brutus & Caesar

Brutus is the true protagonist of Shakespeare’s play, Julius Caesar. He defends his killing of Caesar with the quote “Not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more.” (Act 3 Scene 2 Lines 23-24). Brutus’ actions and behavior throughout the play are based on virtue and gauged by his own moral compass. Antony benefits more from Caesar’s murder than Brutus does as Brutus defends the murder as an act of service for Rome and its people. He does not pursue personal gains through his actions. Cassius states to Brutus in regards to Caesar’s rise, “The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, But in ourselves, that we are underlings.” (Act I Scene 2 Lines 140,141).Even Caesar recognizes Cassius’ astuteness stating “He is a great observer and he looks quite through the deeds of men” (Act I Scene 2 Lines 202-203). Brutus admits the moral dilemma Cassius’ observations have incited in him stating that “Since Cassius first did whet me against Caesar, I have not slept. Between the acting of a dreadful thing and the first motion, all the interim is like a phantasma, or a hideous dream: The Genius and the mortal instruments Are then in council; and the state of man, Like to a little kingdom, suffers then The nature of an insurrection.” ( Act II Scene 1 Lines 61-69) Brutus recognizes the oppression that stems from Caesar’s rise to power but, does not want to incite a riot or cause the people of Rome distress or grief in ridding them of the tyrannical icon that Caesar threatens to be. In response to Cassius’ claim that they should murder Antony as well Brutus disagrees and portrays his virtuous and noble reasoning for Caesar’s murder in defending the life of Antony, stating to Cassius “Let us be sacrificers, but not butchers, Caius We all stand up against the spirit of Caesar; And in the spirit of men there is no blood: O, that we then could come by Caesar’s spirit, And not dismember Caesar! But, alas, Caesar must bleed for it! And, gentle friends, Let’s kill him boldly, but not wrathfully; Let’s carve him as a dish fit for the gods, Not hew him as a carcass fit for hounds: And let our hearts, as subtle masters do, Stir up their servants to an act of rage, And after seem to chide ‘em. This shall make our purpose necessary and not envious: Which so appearing to the common eyes, we shall be call’d purgers, not murderers.” (Act II Scene 1 Lines 162 180).Brutus views murdering Caesar as eliminating a problem rather than fulfilling a vendetta or serving envious sentiments. Brutus does not want to make the murder personal by killing Antony as well just because Antony is a beneficiary to Caesar. Antony responds to these sentiments at the end of the play, describing Brutus as “the noblest Roman of them all: All the conspirators save only he Did that they did in envy of great Caesar; He only, in a general honest thought And common good to all, made one of them. His life was gentle, and the element So mix’d in him that Nature might stand up And say to all the world “This was a man!” (Act 5 Scene 5 Lines 68-75) Brutus kills himself by running onto a sword acknowledging that he cannot escape the consequences of Caesar’s murder despite it being an act of sacrifice, Brutus must also sacrifice himself in order to set things right. Brutus’ last words are “Caesar, now be still: I kill’d not thee with half so good a will.” (Act 5 Scene 5 lines 51-52). Brutus’ actions and behavior limit any personal gain he would acquire from such endeavors. There would be no tragedy without Brutus in the play as Caesar’s death would not have been able to occur as it makes the conspiracy to murder Caesar possible. Brutus is the tragic hero of the play due to his steady resolve to do the right thing by taking into account the common good and the people of Rome over his own interests.

Alexander Pope & Samuel Johnson

Alexander Pope in “An Essay On Man” and Samuel Johnson in “The Vanity of Human Wishes reflect the idea that man occupies a middle sphere in what Pope referred to as the “great chain” (Pope, Alexander, “ Essay On Man”, Epistle 1, line 33). Man is beneath God, the supreme creator of the universe but reason and free will allow humans higher faculties than animals even though many animals are physically superior. With reason and free will though, man has the ability to develop the pride to challenge God and his structural plan of the universe. Pope poses the question in his discourse, “Heaven from all men hides the book of Fate, All but the page prescribed, their present state: From brutes what men, from men what spirits know: or who could suffer being here below?”(Pope, Alexander, “Essay On Man”, Epistle 1, lines 1-4). Johnson poses a similar question in “The Vanity of Human Wishes”; “Where then shall Hope and Fear their objects find? Must dull Suspense corrupt the stagnant mind? Must helpless man, in ignorance sedate, Roll darkling down the torrent of his fate? “(Johnson, Samuel, “The Vanity of Human Wishes”, lines 343-345). Both questions are rhetorical in that fate is hidden from men by God for reasons beyond human comprehension which should be accepted by faith. Pride of humans aspiring to control their fate causes the downfall of man by disrupting the order that God has created.

 

Both Johnson and Pope ascertain that on the subject of destiny humans should accept who they are by submitting to God rather than being tainted with pride in seeking happiness in material things. Johnson states that humans should “But leave to heaven the measure and the choice.  Safe in his power, whose eyes discern afar, The secret ambush of a specious prayer,  Implore his aid, in his decisions rest, Secure whate’er he gives, he gives the best”(Johnson, Samuel, “The Vanity of Human Wishes”,  lines 354-358). In “An Essay on Man” Pope ascertains that the universe’s order, which was created by God, should not be disrupted by humans because it is “but part one stupendous whole, whose body nature is, and god the soul” (Pope, Alexander, “Essay On Man”, Epistle 1, lines 267-268). Pope continually urges man to let God place every man in his fated position in life, and explains that due to man’s inability to fully understand God’s intentions, man will want to make his own direction, which will ultimately interrupt God’s universal order. Pope ends Epistle One with his main thesis, “Whatever is, is right” (Pope, Alexander, “Essay On Man”, Epistle 1, line 294). This statement illustrates that all of God’s actions are for the best of man despite the fact that man will never truly be able to grasp the meaning of his fate.

 

Johnson and Pope both cite pride as a human flaw in man’s attempt to improve or change one’s destiny. Pope concludes that man is “A being darkly wise and rudely great ,With too much knowledge for the skeptic side,  With too much weakness for the Stoic’s pride” (Pope, Alexander, “Essay On Man”, Epistle 2, Lines 4-6) and the “riddle of the world” (Pope, Alexander, “Essay On Man”, Epistle 2, Line 18). The conflicting feeling on humanity is revealed. We see an admirable trait of knowledge tainted and corrupted, with wisdom “dark” and greatness “rude”.  Johnson comes to a similar conclusion in his discourse. He states “Enlarge my life with multitude of days! In health, in sickness, thus the suppliant prays; Hides from himself his state, and shuns to know, That life protracted is protracted woe,  Time hovers o’er, impatient to destroy, And shuts up all the passages of joy” (Johnson, Samuel, “The Vanity of Human Wishes”, lines 255-260). According to Johnson man’s pride and overzealous ambition taints the life of man by shutting the “passages of joy”. Pope advises man to be humble in their position in the universe as well in order to live life to the fullest capability of their fate chosen by God. Pope states that man should not blame our life on Heaven, Pope says “Then say not man’s imperfect, Heaven in fault; Say rather, man’s as perfect as he ought; His knowledge measured to his state and place, His time a moment and a point his space” (Pope, Alexander, “Essay On Man”, Epistle 1, lines 69-72). Men should not blame their lack of perfection or knowledge on Heaven because God gave man the position in the universe that they are in for reasons only God can comprehend. Human faculties are sufficient for the role of man, there is no need for perfection as that is God’s role.

 

Johnson and Pope cited pride as a constant source of man’s aspirations to become more like God.  Pope writes, “In pride, in reasoning pride, our error lies, All quit their sphere, and rush into the skies, Pride still is aiming at the blest abodes, Men would be angels, angels would be gods, Aspiring to be gods, if angels fell, Aspire to be angels, men rebel, And who but wishes to invert the laws, Of order, sins against Eternal Cause.” (Pope, Alexander, “Essay On Man”, Epistle 1, lines 123-130).  According to the bible, angels fell in their rebellion against God in which Satan and several angels were cast into hell for aspiring to be higher entities than they already were. Pope accuses man of the same pride, unable to accept their role in the World, man wishes to climb the chain of being. Milton begins book 1 of “Paradise Lost” with the lines “Of Mans First Disobedience, and the Fruit Of that Forbidden Tree, whose mortal tast Brought death into our world and all our woe” (Milton, John, “Paradise Lost”, Book 1, lines 1-3). Original sin spawned from Eve’s pride in disobeying God and taking fruit from the forbidden tree. Pride is the downfall of man, because understanding and accepting the order of the World is imperative to be a good man.  Johnson similarly explains, “Where wavering man, betrayed by venturous Pride, to tread the dreary paths without a guide,” (Johnson, “The Vanity of Human Wishes”, lines 7-8).  Fate is man’s guide and when man wavers from that guide due to the pride that deems fate as unsatisfying, man betrays himself. Johnson emphasizes faith in one’s destiny that was created by God. “Implore [Gods’] aid, in his decisions rest, Secure, whate’er he gives, he gives the best” (Johnson, Samuel, “The Vanity of Human Wishes”, lines 355-356). In other words we are only part of a whole and since we belong in the “chain of being”, we are only meant to serve a certain position in life and that lies between angels and beasts. We must be able to limit ourselves because humans were not made to have God like qualities. By accepting the role God gave man, man will be at their best.

 

Alexander Pope and Samuel Johnson wrote their discourses with similar goals in mind which they state at the beginning of each of their works. Pope in “Essay on Man” intends to “Expatiate free o’er all this scene of man” (Pope, Alexander, “Essay On Man”, Epistle 1, line 5). Johnson begins “The Vanity of Human Wishes” with the stated intention to “survey mankind” (Johnson, Samuel, “The Vanity of Human Wishes”, line 2). Both Pope and Johnson describe pride as the source of man’s fall from the order of the universe God has created.