Quotes, Ghosts, and Ozymandias

In school, I'm taking a course called Literary Analysis for my Creative Writing minor. It's that stepladder course- the one NEEDED before moving on to the upper level electives. I've always appreciated the difficulty in writing a proper analysis of a writing or poem- and this isn't exactly the course that ineptitude and glamorous words can pass as a grade-A essay. Currently, we are focusing on poetry (see Ozymandias below), and I'm enjoying the chance to look at writing from a critical perspective.

I'm starting to consider myself a writer. Is this a dangerous thing to presume of myself? I am not sure. While I've looked into the writing styles of the authors I've enjoyed in the past, now I scan every word with an intellectual eye. I attempt to pick out what I "like" about each paragraph, how the author creates a certain "feeling" in each chapter. Slowly, I'm modifying my personal style to adhere to the likes of a novel I would be proud of completing one day.

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Time speaks at a slow pace, but when you listen to its recording or watch a video of the past, everything moves at a rate the eye cannot comprehend. So, as viewers, we delve into our minds for solutions to what our eyes see- memories become intermingled and amazing moments become highlights on a movie reel. To capture time we use words and photos. Streams of images that speak to us with color coated nostalgia.

Nostalgia from the graphic novel Watchmen

I trust this is why we have quotes, such as James Dean’s, “Dream as if you’ll live forever. Live as if you’ll die today.” Simply, as humans, we must live every minute to its fullest and not dwell on past happenstance. Move on. Move forward. Always progress.

However, as there is one positive quote, there is an alternative. Voltaire states, “Everything’s fine today, that is our illusion.” While we can imagine and pursue the perfect day where every second is magnificent, we may look back on moments with regret become void on our individual purpose.

Thus, is it best to look at life with a passive objectivity, or aggressive stance on living free and capable? Or, is it (as it is in many cases) advantageous to mix the two theories?

Ozymandias from the graphic novel Watchmen

I’d like to include Percy Bysshe Shelley’s (1792-1822) poem, Ozymandias here as a fluid example of living full and free only to be stranded in a counteracted past.

Ozymandias - Shelley

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: "Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
`My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!'
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away".

The "King of Kings", Ozymandias, lived a powerful life as a ruler of an impeccable empire. Yet, even as he urged to ascend to the highest of power with every breath, his memory is nothing more than a ruin, a "colossal wreck" of nostalgia and stone. Nothing surrounds him- thus, Ozymandias is the symbol of living life to its fullest without any shred of objectivity.

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Onwards with the writing process. Creative post coming next. Not sure as to what, but it will be there.

Best of health and luck,

-TWO-12