Meggie's A6

For my creative project, I organized quotes about creation from Pygmalion, Paradise Lost, and Frankenstein in the form of God’s hand touching Adam’s in “The Creation of Adam” from the Sistine Chapel, painted by Michelangelo. I decided to transpose the words in the form of a famous piece of art because, just like the literature itself had to be created by the authors, the original image was created by an artist. Thus, there are multiple layers of creation occurring: First, the creation of the literature by Shaw, Milton, and Shelley. Second, bits of those creations are placed in the likeness of a painting, a creation by Michelangelo. The final product is a creation by me, combining two distinct mediums which each tell stories of creation. In this reflection, I will discuss not only the the context of the books themselves, but also the quotes relating to our journey as writers.
Each hand represents a different aspect of creation. The left hand deals mostly with the initial act of creation, and what comes with it. The first quote is from Higgins in Pygmalion, in which he asks “Would the world ever have been made if its maker had been afraid?” Creations cannot exist in the first place unless the creator has a reason and the drive to create them. Though this is relevant to the book itself, it also relates to our own CORE 111 course. Ed mentioned that many of us wrote on our self-reflections that we were intimidated by how smart the class was, and that perhaps we were afraid to share our thoughts in writing. However, we all eventually overcame “the fear” and learned to be very comfortable with ourselves as writers and our classmates. The next is from Frankenstein, when he finally understands “what the duties of a creator toward his creature” are. He realizes that he should have cared for his creation and raised him instead of just letting him live on his own. Just like Frankenstein, we need to stick with our essays after they’ve been “created” or written, and edit them and help them grow. And obviously as awesome Thematic Option students, we are all “bounteous and benign” creators. Thanks for that description, Paradise Lost!
The right hand covers what happens once the creation begins to “think for itself,” and to what degree the creator is still responsible. The first quote on the right hand is from Frankenstein, and is quite fragmented. However, the point still remains: The “creator... would tear [the thing] to pieces” after it’s been created. In Frankenstein, this quote represents the theme of disappointment in one’s creations, which cropped up quite often in CORE 102 (God disappointed in Adam, Gods disappointed in Odysseus, etc). In terms of our essays, we had to learn to “tear to pieces” even work that we genuinely loved. Ed pushed all our limits by making us question the quality of our creations. In fact, the quality of the essays’ “existence depended on [the] creator,” so the more work we put into our papers, the more we got out. Finally, just like God in Paradise Lost, as creators we all are filled with “invisible glory.” Although the majority of the essays we wrote in the class will probably never be looked at by anyone ever again, we all have improved as writers throughout the course. Even if it was only one great line, paragraph, or essay, or every single one, every person has something to be proud of that they created in this course.
The topic of creation is very important within many of the works themselves, but it must be noted that without the concept of creation, the works that discuss creation would not exist at all. This blog, itself is a creation. During CORE 111, we were all creators. Even though these blog posts seemed silly and occasionally pointless, the fact that created something every week means we left a little bit of ourselves out in the world.