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I have never had literature and science compared side by side in quite such a way before. I realized about halfway through the discussion that I had always seperated them as completely different ideas, but I really had no basis for this seperation except that I had been told that they were different concepts by my teachers. Upon evaluation of the class discussion, I can no longer beleive that it is a absolute truth. Since both subjects contain a great degree of subjectivity, due to "the crack" which I think exsists in both subjects and probably subjects to a certain degree, there really isn't a great deal of difference in the way that they operate. Students of literature look for the new and revolutionary to the same end as students of science. They both want to create a new idea to build upon.

I was also struck by how interpretations were vastly different. The discussion involving Lincoln and Obama as well as the "O Captain! My Captain!" poem really did exhibit some difference of experience. I for one had never read the poem before and would not have thought of Lincoln as being the subject of the poem if it hadn't been brought up. I had realized a certain degree of parallelism between Lincoln and Obama but I have to agree with the comments in class about it being hard to make so many connections and assumptions since they were inagurated under different circumstances and the time period that they revolve around are vastly different. It is hard to draw anything conclusive on so thin a basis.

I have really enjoyed the discussion this week and look forward to having new ideas to contemplate for the upcoming semester.