[lit-ideas] Re: Hylomorphism -- A Dogma?
- From: Scribe1865@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 25 Aug 2004 01:24:58 EDT
JL quotes Hospers:
But the term 'form' is an elusive one. Sometimes by 'form' we mean shape: we
say that two
pennies have the same form although they have different 'matter'. Sometimes
we
mean a species or class: thus, we speak of two compositions as both being of
the sonata _form_. Sometimes we have reference to a mode of arrangement of
things as opposed to the things that are so arranged: thus, three rhyming
lines
of poetry could be put in the orders AB, ACB, BAC, BCA, CAB, or CBA, though
the lines thus ordered are the same in each case. Sometimes we refer to the
'how' as opposed to the 'what': we take the underlying idea or theme of a
work
of art to be the content (the what), and the way in which it is expressed by
the artist (the how) is called the form.
"Form" is certainly subject to ambiguous analysis. Bartok's Piano Sonata is
called a sonata, even though it doesn't really follow sonata form. An English
"sonnet" can follow the patterns of Petrarch, Spenser, Shakespeare, or even
Hopkins' sprung rhythm. A French "sonnet" can be written in hexameter. One can
even speak of stories in "whodunnit" or "boddice-ripper" forms.
But from the point of view of the production of a narrative, rather than from
the vicarious analysis of literary products, form is the solution for the
problems of content. Form is the solution to the problem you set yourself by
the
content you select.
We spend our lives learning different narrative forms, forms that may have
unconscious roots, that we may sometimes intuit rather than analyze--and when
we
write, it is this lifelong immersion in narrative form that we draw upon.
It's like a guitarist improvising on a chord progression. The progression
lets you know where you are going, except in writing improvised forms, you edit
out the improvs that fail. The result is the unique and inseparable form of the
narrative.
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