The Scribe's Scribblings Archives - Page 3 of 4

21/07/202305/09/2023

Cosmic Wisdom Within Literary Archetype

If one were to try and define true wisdom, they would not struggle to find potential answers offered by all forms of thought and philosophy from all corners of the globe. Here, I ponder the differences but also the overlaps between Western and Eastern answers for this most paramount of questions, and also the transcendental, unifying truths that underly all great works of literature, no matter which culture or race they spring from. Ultimately, I believe that such a search would take us to the very core of civilisation- that is, the root of human narrative.

16/07/202321/10/2024

Pozzo and Lucky, Control and Chaos: Beckett’s ‘Waiting for Godot’

There are many unsolved questions surrounding Samuel Beckett’s enigmatic, nebulous masterpiece of a play, Waiting for Godot. But rather than attempt to outline the figure of the mysterious main character, or speak to the significance of the two trampy protagonists, today I would like to turn my attention towards a perhaps even more ambiguous duo; a bullish, tyrannical master, and a slave who is mute but articulate, meek yet explosive, and dignified yet savage.

08/07/202305/09/2023

Percy Shelley’s Everlasting Universe of Things: ‘Mont Blanc’

Political activism was not rare amongst the Romantic poets, and perhaps burned most strongly in the heart of Percy Shelley. More than any other of his contemporaries, he believed that the poet had a moral duty to share their understanding of beautiful truth with the rest of humanity- an understanding that derived from the spiritual and soaring power of the natural world.

02/07/202319/07/2023

Seeds of Light in Totalitarian Darkness

[Serious spoilers for Philip K. Dick’s The Man in the High Castle ahead] Hello readers, The state of today’s world may often seem dire— indeed, it sometimes does not give much cause for hope. But it is hard to imagine a more dismal, despondent, and demoralising society to live in, one that makes our present situation appear like Utopia, than that which would have come to pass if the Second […]

25/06/202321/10/2024

On Fair Verona

Hello readers, I recently travelled to Verona, and would like to take some time here to agree with Shakespeare’s assessment that it is indeed fair. And yet, I feel that one needs slightly more than a single word to describe just what an impact visiting Verona (and in my particular case, Italy as a whole) for the first time truly had on me. The first thing that knocked me for […]

17/06/202302/11/2024

Hamlet, A Tragic Anomaly

Hello readers, I must admit, I did not once choose a module on Shakespeare whilst at university. I believe that this is likely because of the less-than-ideal way that our English education system handles our Bard (frankly, I have often thought that the only thing it does is instil a deep impatience for his plays). I studied Macbeth almost to the point of murdering it myself, poured over the minutiae […]

11/06/202319/07/2023

Meaning in the Madness of Heavy Metal

Hello readers, I have recently seen a certain video online, of a certain actor on a certain talk show asking another actor whether anyone actually enjoys heavy metal. As a huge fan of that genre of music myself, it first had my hackles raised, then my mind thinking about what it is about such a cacophonous style of sound that is so appealing to so many people. I intend to […]

04/06/202319/07/2023

Woes of Windermere

Hello readers, I’m afraid that I am not approaching this week’s scribbling in the usual spirit of passionate inquiry, but instead with a feeling of indignation. It appears that not even this country’s most revered and storied jewel of nature is held sacred, for in a chilling turn of events surely Blakean in its hellishness, certain repugnant organisations deem it appropriate (or even worse— whisper it— profitable) to dump large […]

28/05/202319/07/2023

Don Quixote and the First Modern Novel

Hello readers, For the past few months, I have been slowly and steadily making my way through Cervantes’ sixteenth-century burlesque of all things chivalrous, Don Quixote. It is a hefty work, with the Penguin Classics edition clocking in at just under one thousand pages, and so I have been consuming it in small, easily digestible mouthfuls, leaving much time to chew in between each bite. Fortunately, the form of this […]

20/05/202304/06/2023

The Importance of Being Empathetic

Hello readers, In last week’s scribbling, I wrote about the necessity for the novelist to boldly present their work as a rival to real experience, and the notion that truth, at least in the reader’s mind, can be found in well-crafted characters as much as it can (and perhaps more so) in real people. It is this latter point that has attracted some attention, in how it perhaps threatens to […]