{"id":2555,"date":"2009-09-15T00:52:08","date_gmt":"2009-09-15T04:52:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fryeblog.blog.lib.mcmaster.ca\/?p=2555"},"modified":"2009-09-15T00:52:08","modified_gmt":"2009-09-15T04:52:08","slug":"merv-nicholson-desire-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/macblog.mcmaster.ca\/fryeblog\/2009\/09\/15\/merv-nicholson-desire-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Merv Nicholson: Desire (3)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\"divine\"<\/p>\n

The third and last of Merv’s series on Desire.\u00a0 The first and second posts can be found here<\/a> and here<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The big point, the astonishing point, is that Frye valued desire.\u00a0 (His mentor, Blake, did too, of course.)\u00a0 This is a far bigger point about Frye than almost anything else.<\/p>\n

For example, a key passage from Anatomy of Criticism<\/em>:<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2019The desire of man being infinite,\u2019 said Blake, \u2018the possession is infinite and himself infinite.\u2019\u00a0 If Blake is thought a prejudiced witness on this point, we may cite Hooker<\/a>: \u2018That there is somewhat higher than either of these two (sensual and intellectual perfection), no other proof doth need than the very process of man\u2019s desire, which being natural should be frustrate, if there were not some farther thing wherein it might rest at the length contented, which in the former it cannot do.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0Frye was a radical thinker\u2014someone who went to the \u201croots\u201d\u2014but he was not a political radical (not in any simple way, that is).\u00a0 He was not a Leftist.\u00a0 He was, however, a committed Social Democrat and supporter of the New Democratic Party of Canada (in the U.S. that would make him an extreme leftist \u201cliberal\u201d).\u00a0 He detested Stalinism and authoritarianism of any stripe; there is an anarchist strain in his outlook.\u00a0 It\u2019s interesting that his wife seems to have been much further to the left than Frye was.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The most important thing that Freud and Frye had in common was that their name begins with FR and has one syllable.\u00a0 Freud, in Frye\u2019s view, was a pessimistic thinker and an authoritarian: Freud was deeply mistrustful of human desire and regarded desire as dangerous: it must be carefully clipped and pruned, whatever its value for ambitious men, like him.\u00a0 In this\u2014and this is the real point\u2014Freud was consistent with conservative thinkers generally.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0Most of tradition and traditional thought is hostile to human desire. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Why this is so is an interesting question.\u00a0 But the point is that it isn\u2019t Frye.\u00a0 Frye valued human desire\u2014indeed his whole way of thinking is an affirmation of human desire.\u00a0 This is an astonishing and vital fact about him.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Frye was different.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 The third and last of Merv’s series on Desire.\u00a0 The first and second posts can be found here and here. The big point, the astonishing point, is that Frye valued desire.\u00a0 (His mentor, Blake, did too, of course.)\u00a0 This is a far bigger point about Frye than almost anything else. For example, a key […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2555","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blake"],"yoast_head":"\nMerv Nicholson: Desire (3) - The Educated Imagination<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/macblog.mcmaster.ca\/fryeblog\/2009\/09\/15\/merv-nicholson-desire-3\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Merv Nicholson: Desire (3) - The Educated Imagination\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u00a0 The third and last of Merv’s series on Desire.\u00a0 The first and second posts can be found here and here. 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