Cassidy LaPointe Period 7 3/2/23

 Cassidy LaPointe

Period 7

3/2/23

Modern Mythology 2023

Literacy & Learning

In all honesty, I wasn’t all that interested in Beowulf, so I went into reading Grendel not knowing how interested I’d be. I knew it would be good, as Mrs. Fusaro had mentioned it was her favorite piece of literature covered in the class, but I wasn’t sure how connected I would be to it. What happened surprised me: I was hooked on Grendel from chapter one. The prose, the humor, and Grendel’s childish characterization drew me in from the start, and the book only got better–especially with added context. I could and would rant about all of my favorite little details the whole blog, but in the interest of organization I’ll break it up into sections.

Prose: I am, admittedly, a picky and tad pretentious reader. My favorite kind of prose isn’t too simple, but also isn’t so complicated that you need to sit and reread the sentence a billion times–Gardener finds that healthy middle ground I adore, resulting in lines like “Space hurls outward, falconswift, mounting like an irreversible injustice, a final disease. The cold night air is reality at last: indifferent to me as a stone face carved on a high cliff wall to show that the world is abandoned. So childhood too feels good at first, before one happens to notice the terrible sameness, age after age.” The text is accessible but still retains a sophisticated tone with pretty strings of words, making it an instant favorite in my book.

Context and Structure: By context, I don’t just mean the real world events of the 60s/70s, but the added context of the zodiac signs. Grendel follows the cycle of the zodiacs, with Grendel’s personality reflecting the sign that chapter aligns with–there are even mentions of that sign’s animal throughout the chapter! I’ve never seen anything like that done in literature; it creates a little game to keep readers interested. Not only that, but the switch from normal writing to stage direction/poetry structure was mind blowing–I really enjoy how Gardner plays with structure and other elements authors wouldn’t usually alter to represent his characters. Grendel realizes that the humans will never let him in their story, so he begins to tell it himself.

Other?: most of all, I appreciate the topics Grendel covers: commercialism in art and religion, nihilism, human hope, and the power of language and art, just to name a few. The way Gardner discusses these issues is timeless, still applying to the world today. After hearing the Shaper’s tales, Grendel decides to embrace the role of the villain, even if it’s not what he wants, just because it means he can be in the tale. The power of language and art is a topic I really like exploring, and Gardner does it masterfully.

I wouldn’t say Grendel gave me any new insight or thoughts on critical theories, but it definitely deepened ideas I’d already had. The class as a whole definitely gets me to consider other perspectives, which I’d like to think results in patience outside the classroom as well.