Poetry and Physical Fitness

I do not believe in an authoritative interpretation of literature, or an authoritative ideal of health. Today, two events link these. The first came in my Comparative Literature course when the instructor spoke of an interpretation of a poem given by a student as being less right than another. His intention was benign, of course, but he spoke of interpreting literature in very narrow terms: being linked to a logical reasoning process. The second event was a friend to whom I gave the advice to exercise more. I did not mean this as an admonishment of his physical state as much as an attempt to realize a greater intensity of joy in feeling and knowing your body for it’s material character.

An ethics of joy links these two things in my mind. The ‘right’ interpretation for a poem should concern the reader’s (which reader? All readers, whoever happens to read at the right time in the right place) feelings of joy, and how the poem has raised or dampened those feelings. If one forking of meaning’s indeterminate paths gives you insight to a feature of living you did not know or appreciate before, then there should be no barrier to calling that meaning the truth. In my experience, the best interpretation of literature is the one that drives me towards new ideas concerning human experience and relationships (between humans, and non-humans). The more I feel changed by a poem, the better I find it, and if one interpretation leaves it politically innocuous, then I chose to believe my own instead.

In relation to exercise, the right shape for you relates to how happy you are with living day to day. Your body mediates perception fo the world in basic ways. Eyesight and other senses explain only one part of this. In the sense that humanity cannot be divorced from it’s myriad bodies, appreciation of the body plays a crucial role in defining our sense of self awareness and joy. Experimenting with bodies experiments with the very stuff of life and the meaning thereof.

Duncan