Value
In an episode of The Big Bang Theory, Sheldon and the boys are shopping for new comic books when the storekeeper comes over and tells them that the new issue of Hell Boy is “mind-blowing”. Sheldon is furious at this information and complains that now his mind has already been blown, thanks to that information, it cannot possibly be blown again.
Undoubtedly everyone has had a similar experience of a friend giving their opinions on something. Ascribing their own personal value to something, and this in turn affects your own perception of the value of that object. Your opinion of the value may not have changed, but your perceptions have had to alter to this new opinion, and so you cannot remain the same.
In chapter one of Barbara Hernstein Smith's book, Contingencies of Value: Alternative Perspectives for Critical Theory, she explores how this value is created, how we react to it, and how we ensure or dismiss its continuing value. In particular, Smith calls for literary theory to, “explore and describe the dynamics of that system and to relate its operations to everything else that we know about human behaviour and culture.” (p. 16) This rather grandiose idea obviously has inherent problems, of which she points out a few, but the sheer imposibility of creating a universal resource like that is what strikes me first.
Forget for a moment about the historical problems and the fact that we cannot possibly know the peoples of that history. Forget about the problems of our cultural understandings, and the problems of our Western viewpoint in approaching other cultures. Imagine that we are building this database right here, right now, and only with the immediate and contemporary information. Is it even geographically possible to visit every single collection of peoples on the planet? Is it possible to record every single viewpoint? And what of the cultural activities that simply cannot be expressed intellectually, that are all in the process of being there and personally experiencing?
When I consider the magnitude of that impossibility I have to look back to Smith's earlier statement, in reference to Shakespeare's sonnet 116, “its really nice to hear a good strong, unqualified absolute or two.” (p. 8) Which, I feel, describes completely our very Western and modern desire to know the definite scientific answers to the great questions in life. The need for boundaries and rules that we can, in turn, play off and develop ourselves in relation to. Smith acknowledges that our ideas of value are very specific to out time, place, history, etc. and I for one am glad that I have that background with which to approach novels.
Without my personal history and values I doubt that I would have the first clue where to start with evaluating a novel. And Smith praises this type of personal standpoint as a way for more evaluation, not less. To acknowledge yourself and your values in order to explore how these interact and react with the novel.
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Hernstein Smith, Barbara. Excerpts from Contingencies of Value: Alternative Perspectives for Critical Theory. Cambridge and London: Harvard University Press, 1988.
Absolutely true. The whole process of learning to read, write, and our education into books themselves is a personal experience, so where do we start if not there?
ReplyDeleteI think Hernstein-Smith's example of the Sonnets is an excellent one; they're an example of literature which is quoted over and over and over again, and their quotability is due to their relevance to our personal, emotional lives. Her reference to Sonnet 116, as you said, shows how what we appreciate artistically is that confidence in assertion, as Shakespeare delivers in regards to the love between "true minds", which is why it's constantly being read at weddings and such. But she points out that there is even a different way of reading the seemingly confident assertion of love; that is, the poet, "in a fury of despair, attempting to sustain the existance, by sheer assertion, of something which everything of his own experience denied" (p7). The fact that there can be both joy and despair read in the same sonnet attests to the importance - necessity, really - of personal values and experience, so I couldn't agree with you more.
Love the Big Bang Theory reference, too!
I wonder if there is a literary value which has remained 'constant' from its very birth. By this I mean, is there a novel which, upon its being written, was ascribed a good value, an interesting value, a heretical value, whatever kind of value, and has maintained a very similar value for the rest of its time.
ReplyDeleteJane Austen, perhaps? My Best Friend's Wedding? Perhaps only feel-good, fairly uncontroversial things can only ever maintain the same value. And is this a good thing or a bad thing?
I agree. While it is the most common thing for us to begin evaluating a piece of literature from our own personal and emotional standpoint, it is also a very interesting place to begin.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if something can be ascribed a constant value. It seems there will always be a person who can come up with an alternative... Having said that, I guess if there were to be something which could, it would be an uncontroversial novel, film, etc. I wouldn't see it as a bad thing. I guess works with changing values are simply more complex which require greater interpretation and therefore have multiple values by different people. I think one of the most interesting things I encounter uni is the incredibly varied responses to complex novels, readings and especially films different people come up with. Perhaps more of this should be encouraged.
That's an interesting idea Anna. It seems hard though to imagine that the value of any text could remain 'constant' unless in a very general sense. If taking individual responses into account surely there would be so many different responses that uniformity would be impossible. Maybe though, we could try to make a text with a constant literary value, something either so amazing in its goodness or so amazing in its badness that it could only ever be seen that way. Probably the latter is more attainable so I think that's the one we should go for. But maybe it would be so bad that it would actually be good...
ReplyDeleteWhat I thoroughly enjoyed and finally was so happy 'an important person' acknowledged it is how personally, value is produced and reproduced depending on time. Her analysis of the sonnets, and her varied personal responses to them validated my own opinions on many 'literary greats' that I wildly oscillate between loving and hating them, an example of that is Emma by Jane Austen and Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew. The changeability of value though is a great framework to look at value, and that could be its constant 'value' - its moldability?? Interesting idea....
ReplyDeleteI found Hernstein very refreshing - it's good to read something that acknowledges the relative nature of value and how it changes over the years. I really wonder if there is such a thing as an objective assessment of value, if value is something that you can point at with a stick. I wonder if believe in a constant value is really just to buffer up our own assessments of literary value by identifying them as having a constant value. I'm intrigued by your comment, Elizabeth,that the essence of true value may come down to its moldability. If this is true, its constant fluctation would make indefinable and ungraspable (probably)
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