First of all, do we even know if Laura was real? My bet is that she's a total fake. Well at least I like to think so because that makes Petrarch more deranged (in my opinion) and definitely more juicy! Even if she was real, I think he attached himself to her because she was so unattainable. It's like if you know you can't have something, you become fixated on the greatest of that something, because you know you will never actually be able to get that something, and it becomes a silly little mind game or show to put on. Or maybe he really did lust for Laura and as he is clearly socially awkward, never knew how to act. I think he was too interested in Cicero and other things that to really act on his love for her, even though his poetry is centered on her, I think maybe he was more in love with the thought of her and writing about her rather than really loving her. This thinking is what Dr. Shinners would attribute to my "soap opera" thinking, even though I have never watched a soap opera in my life! He thinks I'm too dramatic.
He's also leaning off-center when he talked about Cicero and friends enjoying their country stay together. Think about it, if one of your friends took a book along a plane ride and when you asked, how was your flight, he replied "It was great. Will [Shakespeare] and I had a really long conversation. He's a bit longwinded and I don't understand like 30% of the words he uses, but he's still a great conversationalist. He gave me his bag of peanuts, which I think was really nice. Have you met Will before? He's pretty cool." How would you react?
I don't want to completely slight dear old P. Arch. I think he has some great work and I really meditated on one line from his sonnets. The first sonnet on our handout has an ending line reading "That what pleases on Earth is a swift dream." I think it is true that so many pleasures are fleeting- and yet we still strive for these little flash in the pan moments of happiness. Depending on how you view life on earth, our earthly lives could be a flash in the pan anyway if our soul lives for eternity. I interpreted this line in multiple fashions. Those moments of pleasure on Earth are short lived and hardly deep, and a pleasurable life can be swift.
But concerning love, is it a swift dream? Should love be everlasting? I have come accustomed to think that your soulmate provides a love that is everlasting and unconditional, anything but a swift dream. I certainly don't have the answer... yet.
I'm still soaking in the sonnets, and trying to come out on solid ground.
I think your instinct about whether Laura was real because of the way Petrarch talks about her really gets at just that--the way he talks about her! The great effort he makes to distance himself in a physical sense from his love for Laura almost makes her feel, well, mythical, textual, and simply poetic. Hilarious, post, by the way :).
ReplyDeleteI don't think it's that strange to talk to historical/literary figures. Actually, it might be possible and slightly probable that I have said things concerning authors before. . .
ReplyDeleteAlso, maybe the only reason Petrarch's love for Laura was able to be so beautiful and epic in writing was because of their disconnect. Maybe she existed, but he created more dimensions of her in his mind/heart?
I KNEW you would love blogging. You are going to be great at this and become addicted by March, I predict.