Wanhope and Awakening
Have now been reading Piers Plowman for the last six hours. FML. Don't get me wrong, it is absolute brilliance. I am not sure this much brilliance has ever before been squeezed into flimsy paperback binding. But Middle English for extended periods of time is hard enough. Now Langland has to go and throw Latin phrases in the middle of sentences. And critics have to go into deep theological discussions of despair's medieval origins, its functions in Piers, and its early modern continuations.
Still, I am perpetually amazed by vernacular authors' linguistic experimentation. The process of reading the text actually forces the reader to undergo the mental processes it promotes. Who needs ecclesiastic auctors when you can get your readers to experience first-hand your claims?
Twelve Passus to go...
Wanhope setting in...
Drowning in river of despair...
Must maintain hope in the promise of potentially getting a paper topic out of this...