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skhemka's picture

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Walt Whitman's representation of the unconscious through his writing in Leaves of grass is an interesting one. Although I think it is not something that can be understood initially by anyone. When you first start out to read the book, you think that it is crap and not making sense and it is just this old guy rambling about everything and anything and nothing really. Why I think we don't understand it initially is because this representation of the unconscious is being presented to the conscious mind of the reader. The conscious mind understands pattern and organization. It only makes sense it the conscious can fully interpret it, but according to me the conscious does not have the faculty to understand the unconscious and that is why the book fails to make a good first impression.

Reading the poems helped me understand the randomness of the order of thoughts that go through my head. Sometimes thoughts that have no connection to any topic at hand might just pop in my head, some I might discard immediately and some I might relate to quite a bit. But this randomness even though at times unsettling is in my opinion an opening to the unconscious where everything is stored. I still haven't figured how helpful it is in the practical way but reading the book has made me look forward to letting my thoughts come to me without trying to think a certain way.

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