Why fear confusion? The Pocket University 9 September 2023
You're watching a movie. You don't understand what you're seeing. You're reading a novel. You're lost. You've reading a poem. You don't get the references. What IS that?
So, if you’ve watched enough cinema, you will have had the experience of not understanding what’s going on, or not being able to figure out what you’re seeing. That may be the intent of the writer, director, editor or performer. It may not. But either way, you are confused.
It’s the same experience you have in a novel, especially, say, new ones, postmodern ones, that smash ideas or events or characters or language together in dissonant, puzzling ways. And you’re confused.
Or, like me, you read John Dryden’s poem “Alexander’s Feast, or, The Power of Music; an Ode in Honour of St. Cecilia’s Day.”1 You don’t follow all the language. You don’t see exactly how all the classical characters fit together, or whether and how it relates to the Christian martyr whose day it celebrates.
Confusion. Enjoyment. Irrational appeal. Irrational aggravation.
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