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In the Bhagavad-gita. There is a famous passage where Krishna (God in human form) decides to allow Arjuna to see what few have ever seen before, namely, God's "Universal Form." Krishna explains to Arjuna that he cannot see the "universal form" with his ordinary eyes, so, Krisha must first give him "spiritualized vision." This spiritualized vision is very like the "literary eye." That is, it is God-damned hard or impossible to get, and if you get it, your not sure what to do with it, and when you have it, it makes you so uncomfortable that you want to get rid of it, and have everything go back to normal.
If you want to have some fun with "the Universal Form" and the "literary eye" then visit my page
Surprisingly there are not all that many "hits" in the search engines on "literary eye."
Perhaps taking a look and some of these example of usage will shed some light on "the literary eye."
As an interesting exercise (below), I did a search on:
wine connoisseur descriptions.
Professional wine tasters and purveyors have developed an elaborate and exaggerated style for promoting special wines; a style and vocabulary which borders on the unnatural, and even supernatural.
I ask myself what it really means for a wine to "show good concentration and a focused structure."
If I were a bottle of wine, fortunate enough to be interviewed by a big time New York or Paris wine magazine, and I were told, "well, you are commercial, not vintage, and that is ok, because we will be selling you under the Gallo label, but, could you try for more concentration and a focused structure?"
I might well leave the interview puzzled about what exactly it is I should do, and I would certainly feel the need for a good, stiff drink.
(the url for the following excerpt is expired)
However, if you want to look at his oeuvre with a literary eye, I would put him in the same tradition as Thomas Paine, Upton Sinclair or John Steinbeck -
(Sitaram comments: Paine, Sinclair and Steinbeck seem to be so very different! I'm not sure what it might mean to mention all three in the same breath.)
We see in this next usage, the notion of analysis. To seek the genre of a writing is to exercise one's literary eye
God: just who or what is he? What is his life story? For answers, Jack Miles looks with a literary eye at the Old Testament.
God emerges as the epic hero, from his first appearance as the creator to his last as the enduring Ancient of Days. A god-warrior, he fights his greatest battle with himself. Through his relationship with man, made in his image, God wrestles with his own conflicting urges. He is tender and ruthless, creative and destructive, omniscient and blind . . . wondrously mysterious.
What Can We Make Explicit about our Own Reading Strategies and Practices?
Reading comprehension strategies (understand the gist of what happens, annotations, internal summarization, webbing characters reading differently for different reasons (for information; for pleasure; for external information about the literature, e.g., history, jokes, author's life and times; for critical response, e.g., to connect with humanity, think philosophically, question life, read below the surface in "smart and elegant ways", see beyond the obvious, see possibilities, and for the intricacy of art, with a literary eye, between the lines) what real readers do, including connecting to characters (like me, different from me, with strong voices); enjoying language (as unique, shocking, taking you into the text and back out, savoring); choice and power as reader (selecting what to read, putting a book down, skimming, forgetting, escaping); becoming life-long readers (with tools so that we "become suspicious of texts" and as Christy says, "read them like a mystery"); first readings, second readings (rereading to appreciate language, to analyze/interpret/extend, to enjoy, to remember) connecting (bringing students' lives to the lives in the literature)
Programme Writers
These writers are responsible for creating quality articles for the editor of the programme. Each article should be written with a literary eye; although they need not be thesis papers. The articles should be interesting, well written and ready for the editor to add to the programme. One of the writers may be asked to help review the articles, looking for any grammar or contextual errors.
Thus, we find the matriarch of Everything That Rises Must Converge looking at the changing landscape of race relations in twentieth-century America and concluding: "They were better off when they were [slaves] . . . It’s ridiculous. It’s simply not realistic. They should rise, yes, but on their own side of the fence" (O’Connor 1971, 408).
This trenchant literary eye leads to O’Connor’s complex and ambivalent judgment of the South’s enduring cultural institutions. Her writing reveals a political vision that is almost Augustinian in tone, in this case crediting the inherited code of manners for establishing enough discipline to forge a coherent cultural identity while criticizing that ethos because there is very little grace in this form of graceful living.
Lessing's description of landscapes as "male and female" should suggest that her literary eye easily discovers concrete expressions of human consciousness in both our physical and social landscapes and consequently can reveal these correspondences to the reader. To do so, however, she has to cleanse our language of its weighted historical baggage as much as possible, and what better language for conveying basic patterns do we have than mathematics? The mathematical cities that appear at the end of Shikasta offer keys to the ways in which Lessing presents the "human patterns" of myth.
American Splendor/Unsung Hero – Harvey Pekar
Few authors are able to capture an honest snapshot of everyday life the way Harvey Pekar can. From ruminations on jazz musicians to back problems and traffic tickets, Pekar writes in a clear, unsentimental voice that not only explores the mundane, but celebrates it as well. This time out, Pekar focuses his sharp literary eye on Robert McNeill, an ordinary man who's lived an extraordinary life. McNeill recounts his time spent as a G.I. in Vietnam, on a tour through that surreal and horrific landscape that even now, thirty years later, we're struggling to define.
Unsung Hero is a tale of cynicism and endurance, tempered by McNeill's distinct sense of humor and Pekar's touching wit.
I think there may be some truth in what you've heard tgshaw - I won't put any spoilers in here, save to say that redemption through sacrifice is the theme of the last book.
But its the sacrifice that any of us can make - the power of the individual as against the "machine" (whether that be religion or politics) is what Pullman emphasises IMHO. I think he has an almost Miltonic cast to his literary eye;) =========================================
Naipaul's writing strikes me as journalistic Marquez, save with a more psychological approach to magical realism: people who think anything will change in Africa, where big men dominate and foreign sycophants fawn over them, might as well be hunting for golden treasure with magnets. But where Marquez's literary eye reveals a love for even his most absurd creations, Naipaul strikes me as mostly tired and bored by them: Africa will remain Africa. The intriguing perspective of a middle class Indian in Africa is the element easily overlooked; Indian merchants in the region, like Lebanese merchants in West Africa and Chinese in much of Asia outside China, played a disproportionate role in many economies until, as in Uganda, they were expelled or fled the local conflict. The choice of subject as an objective outsider need not be taken as a literary device. Earlier reviewers compared Naipaul to Conrad; facial similarities of geography and image selection aside, the comparison is misplaced.
Conrad's use of ugly images in Africa is intended to explore human inclinations and to challenge colonialism. Naipaul's use of ugly images in Africa is intended to challenge post-colonialism and to imply that people are essentially the same power-grabbing, egomaniacs there that they've always been, modern slogans notwithstanding.
Read if you want your grim perspectives on 'dem poor ignurant black folks fightin' der wars Africa to be reaffirmed. Reaffirming such views, of course, played into the hands of those who stood back and watched Rwandans die, simply accepting that tribal peoples were 'just like that,' so why bother exercising responsibility.
I also have different expectations for my students in my different classes. I expect my AP students to develop their skill of reading with a literary "eye." After all, this is what they will be expected to do on the AP exam and in college. I try to move them beyond plot summary and into the field of literary criticism. In my college prep classes this year, I try to help them become more fluent readers and guide them in understanding why this is a symbol or allusion or metaphor.
Schrader carves his story into flat, broad dimensions as though it were a Greek tragedy, and the characters and their actions would achieve forceful meanings of their own. He spends less and less time trying to say anything with his camera, and so the most irritating aspect of Affliction is that we are always watching it with a literary eye for who represents what. We receive the picture not as a film but merely as a story, and not a terribly original one at that. Willem Dafoe, playing the character whom we care about the least (and doing so rather badly), is for some reason saddled with the most cumbersome, overdrawn, and unnecessary voice-over dialogue I have heard all year, including what seems like three or four minutes of pure talking at the end that egregiously refuses to show us, rather than merely describe to us, a resolution. The only way of recuperating this thudding conclusion is to understand Dafoe's remote appraisal of distant family events as comparable to the clearly specious psychiatric diagnosis in Psycho—we are meant to hear the inadequacy, inconsistency, and self-importance of Rolfe's appraisal—but even from this angle, the strategy is undeserved. Why is the film inviting us to heed or even to critique Rolfe's point of view, when Rolfe is the last character, particularly after the penultimate scenes, in which the audience can possibly hold any investment?
Of the books I mention either favorably or unfavorably, they represent those I have recently read or remember. Your literary eye may still be sufficiently innocent to find these less than adequate books enjoyable or perhaps you have friends whose critical sensibilities are so numbed when faced with detective fiction that they will read almost anything to distract them from the rigors of quotidian existence. The detective novel functions as a soporific. It is my despair that I seem to have lost this innocent ability to find value and solace in anything that is written, which happy faculty I once enjoyed. Otherwise how explain all the books I have enjoyed. For example, years ago I remember enjoying John Fowles "The Magus". In trying to reread it I found the book unbearably adolescent and romantic and the mystery absurd. I could not read beyond a few dozen pages.
As an interesting exercise, I did a search on:
wine connoisseur descriptions.
"Aroma: Bouquet of white peach, spice and apple with complex tropical notes. Palate: Mouthfilling texture framed by bright pear, hazelnut and sweet lemon drops. Overall Impression: Vibrant and well-balanced wine."
Tasting Notes: "Hazlenut, butter, citrus and vanilla notes show good concentration and a focused structure."
"A glimmering, pale straw gold color delights the eye while aromatic floral notes join with ripe apple, apricot, citrus and oaken vanilla. Tropical fruit bursts on the tongue - mango, and papaya, accented with gingery spice. Barrel fermented and aged seven months sur lies in French oak, the wine brings toasty oak into harmony with luscious fruit and spice. Simultaneous alcoholic and malolactic fermentations produce a wine with breadth and texture, but with uncommon balance and elegance. Subtle butter notes on the nose let the rich fruit show through, while a backbone of crisp acidity brings all the flavors into focus"
"Weaves together complex vanilla, earthy pear, mineral and juniper notes that linger nicely." "here is a fruity and fragrant nose, reminiscent of mint leaves and, at times, lemongrass. It is generally medium to full bodied with a characteristic flinty aftertaste. "
"It's a temperamental grape to grow and vinify, as its potent spiciness can be overbearing when unchecked. At its best, it produces a floral and refreshing wine with crisp acidity that pairs well with spicy dishes. When left for late harvest, it's uncommonly rich and complex, a tremendous dessert wine."
" It can also be rather ordinary, light, simple, herbal, begatal and occasionally weedy. It can even be downright funky, with pungent barnyard aromas."
The world is transformed with words, one person at a time.
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