Grendel, 1971 By John Gardner he published the controversial book, On Moral Fiction

Philosophies and belief systems – the great western ideas or “theories” “In Grendel I wanted to go through the main ideas of Western civilization – which seemed to me to be about…twelve? And go through them in the voice of the monster, with the story already taken care of, with the various philosophical attitudes (though with Sartre in particular), and see what I could do, see if I could break out. That’s what I meant to do” From Conversations with John Gardner by John Gardener and Allan Richard Chavkin

Signs of the zodiac

The Orphic Sages: Chapter One  6 th century BC - Human souls are immortal but are doomed to live for a period in a “grievous circle” of bodily lives. There are ongoing cycles that will repeat themselves.  Reincarnation; karma; cycles

Plato’s parable of the cave : Grendel leaves the cave and enters the world of sunlight  From Plato’s Republic: a group of people have lived their lives in a cave chained and facing a wall. There is a fire behind the prisoners and shadows are cast onto the wall. These shadows are all these people know of reality. When one of them escapes, he realizes that the shadows on the wall are not reality. Now he has to ask himself, does he return to the cave and share his knowledge?

Solipsism – Chapter Two The self is the only thing that can be known  Existence means for me my existence and my mental states. Existence is everything that I experiencee, -- physical objects, other people, events and processes – For the solipsist, it is not merely the case that he believes that his thoughts, experiences and emotions are the only thoughts, experiences and emotions. Rather, the solipsist can attach no meaning to the supposition that there could be thoughts, experiences, and emotions other than his own.

Sophism: Chapter Three  a philosophy that started around the fifth century B.C. and was made famous by Plato, Aristotle, and Aristophanes. Sophists were looked down upon, by these three, as teaching anything for a price. Their teaching was practical instead of ethical and they emphasized rhetoric rather than virtue. In The Clouds, Aristophanes mocks the sophistry of Socrates, who is elsewhere not critiqued as a sophist. Sophism was thought capable of perverting the truth because the sophists taught students to argue any side of an issue. Despite the detractors, for a short time, sophism was well paid and regarded, and sophists held certain civic privileges  ---Kerry Waldrep, Dade Schools

The Old Testament – Abrahamic Law Chapter Four The Shaper Good vs. Evil A Vengeful God

Nilhilism- all values are baseless and nothing can be known or communicated. Extreme skeptisicm: existence is meaningless  See the Dragon

Alfred North Whitehead, a mathematician and philosopher See the Dragon (5) and Chapter 9  Whitehead's process philosophy argues that "there is urgency in coming to see the world as a web of interrelated processes of which we are integral parts, so that all of our choices and actions have consequences for the world around us.  "Matter is divided into classes by its capacity for expression “Importance is primarily monistic in its reference to the universe. Importance, limited to a finites individual occasion, ceases to be important…But expression if founded on the finite occasion.”  Can I be honest? I think this will dumbfound most of us. Whitehead was a cerebral, arcane philosopher and I think Gardiner’s use of his thinking is not included with the intention that we necessarily understand it, but that we….

The New Testament – Chapter 7  Welthow  Faith  Vs. Grendels Skepticism

Machiavelli – Chapter 8  After establishing power over a kingdom, the only matter of importance is to maintain that power with no sentiment toward obligations of any sort.  Violence is an acceptable means of maintaining that power.

Nietzsche – Chapter 10  The Shaper dies

Existentialism: (11) through a combination of awareness, free will, and personal responsibility, one can construct their own meaning within a world that intrinsically has none of its own.  Existence precedes essence: people aren’t defined by inherent qualities (human nature) but by what they do  There is no meaning except what we create for ourselves  The absurd: there is no meaning in the world beyond what we give it  Existential angst", sometimes called dread, anxiety, or anguish, is a term that is common to many existentialist thinkers. It is generally held to be a negative feeling arising from the experience of human freedom and responsibility. The archetypal example is the experience one has when standing on a cliff where one not only fears falling off it, but also dreads the possibility of throwing oneself off. In this experience that "nothing is holding me back", one senses the lack of anything that predetermines one to either throw oneself off or to stand still, and one experiences one's own freedom.angstanguish

How to deal with existentialism  Suicide due to life being ultimately meaningless and therefore either too boring or too painful. Most of us rule that out!  Embracing a meaning framework such as religion or spirituality  Acceptance of the lack of meaning, and living on in spite of it.  Decisions don’t come easy: often (appropriately) accompanied by fear and trembling

Empiricism – Chapter 12  Knowledge arises from sensory experience  Can Grendel say “Only I exist” after he has felt the wall and written a poem about it?

Themes: Grendel  The role of Art in the world  The meaning of life  Community  How can we thrive in an indifferent universe

Further Reading  Even Mothers have Monsters Even Mothers have Monsters  Gardiners’ Letter to Susie West and Students Gardiners’ Letter to Susie West and Students