Trancendentalism...I finally get it!

   I have to admit... my years at BYU majoring in English were sometimes grueling! I started off in nursing because two of my sisters were nurses. However, I soon discovered that you have to be good at blood, bed baths and numbers so.... that changed pretty quickly. What could I do? What was I good at? There were no majors for experts in "Mad Magazine" trivia, so I did the second closest - English Literature. I was excited until I saw the people in my "neighborhood". My classmates were mostly pre-law brainiacs that sat with one arm perched on their worn briefcases that hid the remains of a pb&j, the other arm shooting directly and permanently into the ceiling because they knew the answers to EVERYTHING! Case in point, discussing Hermann Melville's "Moby Dick". This one I get.  So this guy, Captain Ahab, is kind of a lunatic who goes out into the ocean by himself on a mission to kill this massive killer whale that is tormenting him. And... who wouldn't be tormented by a massive killer whale? Solution? Stay away from the whale. But... I digress...The professor asks, "Can anyone tell me what the fishing line is symbolic of ?" I think... duh.... dinner? But I hesitate raising my hand thinking that is too easy. Mr. Law Guy practically bursts a neck vein trying to answer. "Yes, Merwin?" 
    "Well, as I sat in my cubicle on the 4th floor of the library last night and purused the meaning of Captain Ahab and this fish who metamorphizzified into Ahab's metaphysical preponderacismist (see blog post September 14, '10) child, it dawned on me that the fishing line represented a sort of societal dental floss, if you will. Ahab is so focused on destroying this mammoth creature, that he doesn't realize the spinach, or little common annoying people, that are crowding between his teeth which are his entrenched beliefs taught to him by an obviously abusive father and sickly, fish-loathing stepmother- which will eventually decay his enamel - family. That fishing line is death to Ahab, death to Moby Dick, death to Amedika!"
"Why, yes Merwin. How insightful of you!"
   Now I'm flipping through the pages thinking I'm in the wrong class.That's about how it went for the first year. Then I slowly began to understand. You gotta have a dorky briefcase to survive in English. Anywho...
   This chapter of "A Patriot's History..." I loved! It's all about the emerging literature and arts. Granted, you have the loonies who believe in "social reform, social justice, all religion stinks" crowd (some things never change, eh?) But it's been so fun to actually understand what the Naturalists, Transcendentalists, Romanticists all believed and why. It was a dark and sad part of our history. They had to escape somehow. Worst of all Alfred E. Newman was just a twinkle in Howard Kurtsman and William Gaines' eyes.