A blog of randomness

I’m studying Marx in my philosophy class. This is not my first exposure to Marx, as my father is a Marx fan, and we joke about me being a “red-diaper baby”. It is, however, my first time studying him in-depth. Hearing things like “man creates, through his labor, a world he experiences as his own” struck me as similar to the Romantic idea of humans “creating the world”. The fact that my English class immediately precedes my philosophy class also may be why these connections popped up in my head. In my curiosity, I ran across this quote from Marx at the Marx archive. I totally believe this, despite the fact that I occasionally experience Shelley as a loquacious, whiny ass. Occasionally.
Keats, on the other hand, is one of my favorite Romantic poets. He and Coleridge are in a close race. I especially enjoy "Ode to a Nightingale" because it seems to me like Keats turns the poem into a tomb. It has the overt references to death and dying, but also the gloom and the darkness of the surroundings envelop the speaker like a coffin. He even refers to the “embalmed darkness” which, while meaning perfumed, I don’t think is generally associated with anything other than burial/preservation preparations. There are also the purple violets and the purple wine, a color of death. Unlike Shelley’s skylark, in whose flight “the pale purple even/melts” or overcomes death, Keats’ bird lulls him into a sleep/dream/death-like state.
One last side note: I was reading through poetry and "Christabel" and "Lamia" gave me crazy dreams. Crazy, crazy dreams. It also made me think that these poems may have inspired the bit in the last Harry Potter book with the giant snake bursting forth from the old lady.