Grendel / Zodiac Introduction by Stuart Kantor

John Gardner

[essayist, cartoonist, professor, medievalist, children’s author,

poet, inventor of the Shamwow]

Grendel

1971

Beowulf

Grendel’s POV

• Interior Monologue

• Is a Monster Created or Made?

• Animals vs. Humans

• Existentialism – isolation, an indifferent universe, disheartening existence, unexplainable

• Solipsism – knowledge outside one’s own mind is uncertain; subsequently, the world and others’ minds don’t exist

• Nihilism - all values are baseless; nothing can be known or communicated; extreme pessimism and a radical skepticism that condemns existence

Terms / Concepts – Beowulf & Grendel

Wyrd

Heorot (Herot)

Wergild

Comitatus

(Northern) Germanic Warrior Code

Scop

Beot & Flyting

Lineage

Each chapter …….

The Shaper

(scop) of Man’s constructed and mechanized world.

And if the Babe is born a BoyHe's given to a Woman Old,

Who nails him down upon a rock,Catches his shrieks in cups of gold.

-- William Blake (The Mental Traveller)

Epigraph – prior to the test, you must understand the connection from Blake’s poem

to Gardner’s text

Philosophical Themes

* If the world really is meaningless, how

should I live?--John Gardner on the central

question of Grendel

* Art, Song, Language

* Community

Plato’s Allegory of the Cave – Beautiful analogy to Grendel’s philosophical plight

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69F7GhASOdM

Optical illusions show HOW we seehttp://www.ted.com/talks/beau_lotto_optical_illusions_show_how_we_see?language=en

Philosophical Journey / Quest –Active Read; Close Read with an Eye on Understanding the Multiple Philosophies that Shape Grendel’s World

Songs with Existentialistic themeshttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDA708XlFIo

Song with Solipsistic themehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKY-smJ6aBQ

Illuminated Excerpt from Grendelhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZkhzPg-Y3I

Q: If you’re not conscious when you’re in a deep sleep or under anesthesia, what does it mean to be conscious when not asleep or under anesthesia?