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adventurous
lighthearted
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
“Why, this is hell, nor am I out of it.”
Hell is a state of mind and power corrupts. Read a clunky Gutenberg edition on ebook, a physical copy from the library might be easier to follow. Still fun and witty play. Twenty four years does not seem like enough time pursuit all knowledge to just loose owns soul to hell for eternal torture. Although Faustus was more of a jokester than seeking knowledge. Binary of damnation and salvation, good and evil. Save further comments until I reread.
Hell is a state of mind and power corrupts. Read a clunky Gutenberg edition on ebook, a physical copy from the library might be easier to follow. Still fun and witty play. Twenty four years does not seem like enough time pursuit all knowledge to just loose owns soul to hell for eternal torture. Although Faustus was more of a jokester than seeking knowledge. Binary of damnation and salvation, good and evil. Save further comments until I reread.
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This work came at an odd time for me. The English class I read it for gave a quiz on it today, while my other English class went over Wordsworth's 'Tintern Abbey' in great detail, a poem that is heavily concerned with coming back to a familiar setting after five years gone and rhapsodizing upon the findings. The first time I read this work, it was fall quarter of Junior year of my UCLA Bioengineering degree and I was keeping my head afloat the equational sea with classical literature in my spare time. Looking back from my first of two quarters of community college needed before I return to the more auspicious campus, a novel would call it foreshadowing, human lives would call it perspective, and all I can think is my younger self would never have considered me a plausible future. I take comfort in the fact that coming this far was possible, but the thought of that past state of mind is still painful.
Between that 2011 pleasure reading and this 2015 academic one, my contextual skills went up, my trust in authority went down, and my writing improved if grades are anything to go by. While I'm very glad that Shakespeare is finally approaching the assigned reading stage, I now see the appeal of Marlowe beyond the his game changing repute of centuries past. This second reading left me far more amused, decently impressed, and a great deal more unsettled, for if my own reunion with the text is full of eerie coincidences, Marlowe's end makes his composition nigh prophetic. While one could stick with a universal meaning of the inevitability of death, Marlowe could have also made his Faustus less proud, less intelligent, and less probing of the veil between our mortal lives and everlasting damnation. Combine this with prose, comedy, and what must have been some really phantasmagorical stagings, and you have a recipe for the most addictive terror since the Oedipus Trilogy. Add in Marlowe's fate, and you have immortality.
My prof who assigned this jokingly said this was a warning to us English Lit majors to not get too full of ourselves in thinking we know everything. For me, after finally figuring out what breed of work seamlessly transitions into my effort to live, that way of thinking is a kind of death. Others can have their name dropping and their literary claims to fame; I have books to read and things to write and a hard-earned future to make use of.
---
(11/17/11 Review)
Eh. Reading this mades me want to reread Hamlet. As well as read Goeth's [b:Faust|14706|Faust, First Part|Johann Wolfgang von Goethe|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1435405022l/14706._SY75_.jpg|16721]. I feel I'll get more out of them than I did with this play. At least, in terms of appreciating plays and Faust's story. Most of it was pretty weird. And not much meaning behind it besides falling prey to temptation and the devil. Maybe I'm not a play person. Or maybe I need to read it in a group setting that facilitates proper discussion and analysis. Maybe the next plays will be better.
Between that 2011 pleasure reading and this 2015 academic one, my contextual skills went up, my trust in authority went down, and my writing improved if grades are anything to go by. While I'm very glad that Shakespeare is finally approaching the assigned reading stage, I now see the appeal of Marlowe beyond the his game changing repute of centuries past. This second reading left me far more amused, decently impressed, and a great deal more unsettled, for if my own reunion with the text is full of eerie coincidences, Marlowe's end makes his composition nigh prophetic. While one could stick with a universal meaning of the inevitability of death, Marlowe could have also made his Faustus less proud, less intelligent, and less probing of the veil between our mortal lives and everlasting damnation. Combine this with prose, comedy, and what must have been some really phantasmagorical stagings, and you have a recipe for the most addictive terror since the Oedipus Trilogy. Add in Marlowe's fate, and you have immortality.
My prof who assigned this jokingly said this was a warning to us English Lit majors to not get too full of ourselves in thinking we know everything. For me, after finally figuring out what breed of work seamlessly transitions into my effort to live, that way of thinking is a kind of death. Others can have their name dropping and their literary claims to fame; I have books to read and things to write and a hard-earned future to make use of.
---
(11/17/11 Review)
Eh. Reading this mades me want to reread Hamlet. As well as read Goeth's [b:Faust|14706|Faust, First Part|Johann Wolfgang von Goethe|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1435405022l/14706._SY75_.jpg|16721]. I feel I'll get more out of them than I did with this play. At least, in terms of appreciating plays and Faust's story. Most of it was pretty weird. And not much meaning behind it besides falling prey to temptation and the devil. Maybe I'm not a play person. Or maybe I need to read it in a group setting that facilitates proper discussion and analysis. Maybe the next plays will be better.
dark
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Dr. Faustus is a 500 year old classic of English literature. It explores the allure of power and its affect on the human spirit. Faust trades his soul for 24 years of magic power from the Devil himself. Although mercy always awaits, if only he would repent, the promise of power and pleasure proves irresistible. It forces us to ask what the power of technology costs us all. Do we, like Faust, trade our humanity for shortcuts, quick fixes, and fleeting pleasure? Will we repent before we lose ourselves all together? God have mercy.
funny
reflective
tense
medium-paced
mysterious
Read for English 521: 16th Century British Literature
I read this for pleasure my freshman year of college because I was bored and stuck at school during a fall break when everybody else went home and I was one of like 5 students left on campus. "I'm going to better myself out of boredom, I think," is what I wrote about it at the time. I do remember enjoying it, though.
dark
funny
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
informative
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Marlowe's play is so much fun. It moves quickly and has fantastic dialogue, and for such a short piece, there is depth to Faustus, philosophy explored, peculiarities of religions probed, and fascinating historical context.
The "English Faust Book" was mostly a drag. Marlowe's language is alive and vibrant, while EFB often feels like a bullet-point list summarizing the events of the Faustus story. I did like the last couple of chapters because it finally seemed to dwell on the human aspect of the story.
The "English Faust Book" was mostly a drag. Marlowe's language is alive and vibrant, while EFB often feels like a bullet-point list summarizing the events of the Faustus story. I did like the last couple of chapters because it finally seemed to dwell on the human aspect of the story.