After thinking back on the blog posts I’ve made and the texts we have read, a few things stand clear to me. It appears that history is a key component to our identities. It’s the main theme in Winterson’s Stone Gods, as a re-imagining of history, as greentealea phrased it in her blog. It’s the main argument between Bloom and Zappa’s disagreement – Bloom wanted to stick to a rigid, closed-minded history while Zappa wanted to create his own. History was forever changed in Ancient Rome because Socrates dared to believe differently and to believe in something grander and more spiritual than his peers believed.
Texts, literature, art, music, architecture, archeological evidence – these are all pieces of history. Our history, the history of humanity. Do we agree with everything that ever happened? No, of course not but we don’t need to believe everything either. We need to believe only the things that make us stronger, more aware personally, as an inward focus. Do we have answers to all the questions? No, but we don’t need answers to everything so long as we keep asking questions.
Has humanity always been the same, throughout the course of the human history? Not a chance. Through art and literature, societies have been able to read and absorb information about what occurred ten, one hundred, one thousand years ago and take that information as part of a piece of their own personal history. When we each have different, unique, personal histories, our humanity will evolve and flourish. We need to keep compassion alive, keep curiosity alive, keep history alive to keep ourselves alive.
hannamgilley 
April 19, 2014 at 9:38 pm
What a great interpretation of the class. It’s true, everything relates back to history. We can evaluate ourselves over time, the history of humans by examining various text, art and literature. I also think it’s important that as a society we continue to ask questions. Great post!