One page that stuck out at me while reading Literary Theory was page 17. I was particularly drawn to the first major paragraph on the page where Eagleton talks about literature as a means of escape from industrial capitalism, rationality, and a mechanized way of thinking and doing.

This spoke to me because I feel that in many ways the oppression of necessity distracts many of us from soaking in the benefits of art. Art should be an escape. Eagleton speaks of how just the word 'poetry' had deep social, political, and philosophical implications. I wish that art, in any form, still had the impact that Eagleton speaks of. I realized after the exercise in class where we were making observations about the poem by E.E. Cummings that almost all of my 'observations' were really analysis. Why? Because that is all that literature has been to me over the past 4-5 years. Literature has become a game of picking out the literary devices and themes and focusing on the mechanics. The actual content, the meat of a work, was a secondary priority. After reading about a people that sought literature as an escape from form and oppression I wondered, when is the last time I thought of reading as an escape, rather than a necessity, or worse, an obligation? Sadly, it's been a while.
I want to see literature move me like it moved the people of England during a period of strife and hardship, because I feel that in many ways our world is not so different from theirs. Commercialization, industry, and the necessity of work and money and power overshadow almost every move Americans make. I can relate to needing an escape, and a break from my hectic and frayed life. This passage spoke to me because I once used literature as an escape, and I hope to return to that mindset.