In the 16th and 17th centuries, the average reader did not have the financial nor geographical ease as we do today to acquire every book that they desired to read. Out of this conundrum arose the Commonplace book which were blank books where the owner would collect passages of prose or poetry. In essence, they were ways of compiling and perpetuating knowledge. Each were unique to its owners' particular interests.
To make a blog with such a purpose serves as a palpable anachronism in an age so infatuated with the technology of virtual recordation. Such then will be the purpose of this blog- an inventory of knowledge; knowledge that has been, more often then not, stymied by actors in my immediate world who preached a utilitarian philosophy towards education. Education was merely a tool for economic advancement. Personal and social edification or mere curiousity were not considered an acceptable impetus for learning. Within this context, I have approached academic studies, by mainly choosing practical subjects that I felt would more readily advance a career. The result: a Sarah Lawrence Graduate spending two years in corporate bankruptcy law. Enough said. I have since quit my job to pursue what I hope to be the beginning of a new path driven by my interests and sheer love of learning.
While I am not saddled by the constraints of a job or the pressures of institutionalized academia, I will take this summer to wander the different islands of knowledge and thought that are often not explored by the 'literary continentals' of academia; and to the traditional works that I do want to read, I will try not to view them as conquests in hopes of gaining victory over the material and concepts. But my chosen literature will serve as conquests in the secondary meaning of the word: an object of enchantment. I will allow myself to be seduced and enthralled by literature again as I did when I was a child.
