Clay Burell's Bookmarks tagged criticism →  View Popular

But first I want to quote some favorite lines in The Character of Criticism. They appear in a section drawing out, at some length, the parallel between literary criticism and the kinds of responsiveness and responsibility before “The Word” one finds in, say, Saint Augustine.

“The act of writing a critical text,” as Harpham puts it, “reaches deep into oneself, testing one’s acuity, responsiveness, erudition, and staying power. But critical writing also tests attributes normally considered as moral qualities, including the capacity to suspend one’s own interests and desires and to make of oneself a perfect instrument for registering the truth of The Word.”

Easier said than done, of course. Harpham goes on to describe the obligations thus imposed on the critic, thereby fashioning a new identity in the process. Here’s a passage in a format suitable to be printed out, clipped, and posted near one’s computer monitor for sober contemplation:

“One must .... wish to be regarded as a person who can overcome insubordinate impulses, remove clutter and distractions from the field of vision, isolate the main issues, set aside conventional views, persevere through difficulties, set high standards, see beneath appearances, form general propositions from particulars, see particulars within the context of general propositions, make rigorous and valid inferences from concrete evidence, be responsive without being obsessive, take delight without becoming besotted, concentrate without obsession, be suspicious without being withholding, be fair without being equivocal, be responsive to the moment without being indiscriminate in one’s enthusiasms, and so forth.” —Geoffrey Galt Harpham

That final clause — “and so forth” — is really something. Talk about criticism and crisis! The prospect of adding more to that list of demands is either inspiring or terrifying, I suppose, depending on the state of one’s character....

To my chagrin, after a few months of daily annotation and study of Burton's writings, i realized that the version i'm using begotten online is actually the popular yet abridged version and there exists a unexpurgated version.

Here's a quote from The New Encyclopedia Britannica, 15th edition (1974-1997), on Sir Richard Burton:

He also published openly, but privately, an unexpurgated 16-volume
edition of the Arabian Nights (1885-88), the translation of which was
so exceptional for its fidelity, masculine vigour, and literary skill
that it has frightened away all competitors. Moreover, he larded these
volumes with ethnological footnotes and daring essays on pornography,
homosexuality, and the sexual education of women. He railed against
the “immodest modesty,” the cant, and hypocrisy of his era, displaying
psychological insights that anticipated both Havelock Ellis and
Sigmund Freud. His Nights were praised by some by for their robustness
and honesty but attacked by others as “garbage of the brothels,” “an
appalling collection of degrading customs and statistics of vice.”

The unexpurgated version is huge, in 16
volumes, and each volume includes a preface and a dedication, and with
several pages of annotations. To read them all and understand them all
is pretty much equivalent to a year of study of Middle East and
Islamic culture. Yours truely can't be making such undertaking. The
text you see on this site are the ones i read and annotated before
discovery of the full version. In the coming months, i will read and
add tales from the unexpurgated version, with inclusions of some if
not all Burton's original annotations. The outlook is that any content
involving sex or offensive to Christians or otherwise moral persons
will be absolutely included, while, some esoteric stuff related to
study of Islam and does not contribute to the story or of interest to
modern readers will be excluded.

The complete 16 volumes of unexpurgated version can be found at:
http://www.wollamshram.ca/1001/Vol_1/vol1.htm
.