Hi Class 🙂

My name is Calvin Su and welcome to my Oh, Canada …. Our Home and Native Land blog. I am a third year English Literature major, a proud Vancouverite, and currently residing in Waterloo, Ontario. In Professor Paterson’s class introduction, she explains that the course will explore Canadian literature in the social, racial, and historical context. Through critical interactions and active participation, our class can conduct a cultural and contemporary critique of Canadian literature.

The best way to describe how I view the world, and its many occurrences is through Heraclitus’ idea of “Flux.” Heraclitus is my favourite pre-Socratic philosopher, and Flux is a principle philosophy in his works. The concept of Flux employs an analogy of a man and a river. Heraclitus explains that due to flux, there is no way a man can step into the same river twice. There are many interpretations to what Heraclitus said and meant exactly, but my understanding is that because the water in the river is forever flowing, the river is also forever changing, just like society, race, and history. In this sense, if a man were to step into a river, the river would technically be a different river by the time the man steps in it again.

Since the man whom steps into the water changes as well through time and experience, (also describable with Flux,) there is no way a man can step into the same river twice. With this analogy, I am the man and life is the river. On the micro-scale, the experiences I have are forever changing. Since, I am constantly changing through experiencing new things with of my five senses, I do not believe I actually ever listen to the same song twice, nor can I read the same pieces of literature twice. I believe the philosophy of Flux applies to literature because literature is very time-sensitive, or dare I say, time-dependent. For instance, during one time of human history, only the wealthy knew how to write, while during another, the novel was targeted at women. These factors affect the exposure readers have to the past, which makes it very valuable to the contemporary. Pieces of literature must have some sort of “power” in influencing societies; this is why some were destroyed by certain regimes due to their historical nature. Hopefully, this course can assist me in understanding how and why some pieces of literature get more exposure than others.

Su, Calvin. “Up In Vancouver.” 2013. Jpg

W., Graham, Daniel. “Heraclitus.” Stanford University. Stanford University, 08 Feb. 2007. Web. 08 Jan. 2014.

“The Burning of the Books.” The Burning of the Books. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Jan. 2014.