"A Person's Soul Should Be Like An Ocean"

When we were listening to the online story about the guy who questions the mentally ill he said something that stood out to me, "A person's soul should be like an ocean." This is probably the most memorable quote for me, because I have no clue what it means, but it sounds just right. He seemed to really know what he was talking about, because he realized that his sanity was just as questionable as those who were legally titled insane. The thin line between sanity and insanity has been a question all week. I just went to see Shutter Island Thursday night. That movie really blurred the line between two. A line in that movie was almost exactly the same as something we mentioned in class this week. We said that when we say we're not insane that's when we most likely are. When we have the ability to question our sanity, it is probably still within our possession. In that movie, someone says to Leonardo DiCaprio's character something along the lines of: If I tell you I'm not insane that won't help anything. In fact, the more you try to convince someone of your sanity the more you work against your own point. I know that reading Edgar Allan Poe certainly raises questions on the topic of sanity. I don't think it should. None of us really know what sanity is anyway. "Ligeia" is a story of passion. Unhealthy passion, maybe, but what does healthy passion look like. I'm sorry that I am about to reference the Dead Poet's Society again, but there is a relevant quote that I love. Mr. Keating says to his students, "We don't read and write poetry because it's cute, we read and write poetry, because we are members of the human race, and the human race is full of passion." Well, I think that passion is what the soul is made of and sanity is reason. "A person's soul should be like an ocean." The ocean is vast, volatile, and unrestrained. I see all of these qualities within the work of Edgar Allan Poe. The passion is fascinating. This passage is my favorite from this weeks readings, "I am possessed with a passion to discover. Those eyes! those large, those shining, those divine orbs! they became to me twin stars of Leda, and I to them devoutest of astrologers." I know this will sound cheesy, but I admire the soul of this passage. The passionate devotion. Literature to me is a passion to discover- to discover the heart of the story. That's why I fell in love with it. I want to be the devout astrologer to the endless sky of literature. Whitney kept arguing for "Ligeia" as a romantic story. I completely agree with her. I don't really consider Edgar Allan Poe's insanity. Really, I admire it. Poe quotes Bacon within "Ligeia," "There is no exquisite beauty without some strangeness in the proportion." I think the strangeness of Poe's writing is what makes it so beautiful.