Final Paper Brainstorming

Curious Incident:

• All facts about father come from Christopher
• Christopher doesn’t seem to really care about other people’s emotions, so we have to make a lot of inferences
• Very separated from all of the other characters

Persuasion:

• All facts about Anne come from the characters around her
• Author doesn’t offer any explicit details about anne, past the fact that she is considered plain, and we learn about her from her experiences
• other characters all represent a specific idea
• walter=vanity
• mary=irritating
• anne is shown as being patient
• FFree Indirect Discourse (FID) – allows Austen to blend consciousnesses in the novel
• All other characters are almost a “part” of the main character

Thesis:

• So what is the connections
• Different writing styles
• Curious incident = 1^st person
• Reliable?
• Persuasion = 3^rd 
• What does this difference do for the author’s representation of the characters
•  Both go about their conveying the main character in completely different ways
• Yet we still feel like we have a very firm grasp of both anne and christopher’s father by the end of the book
• ·         Answer: empathy
  o   In both novels, the author relies on the reader’s ability to empathize with the characters of the story in order for their character developments to be conveyed.
  o   Even though both novels approach this task from completely different ends of the spectrum, they both are able to achieve the feat of characterization through this idea of reader empathy
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·         Thesis: While Austen relies on the clear depiction of secondary characters to express the characterization of the protagonist, Anne, in Persuasion, Haddon takes a different approach and relies on the social interactions of the main character, Christopher, in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, to highlight details about the secondary characters, namely Christopher’s father. The power behind these two approaches to characterization is reliance on reader empathy. By developing scenarios that cause readers to feel empathy for the main character, these authors allow one to make personal connections to the characters on the basis of human experience with emotion, social interaction, and personal conflict. Even though Austen and Haddon approach characterization of Anne and Christopher’s father from completely different ends of the spectrum, both are able to successfully and effectively paint a picture of their respective characters by relying on these specific factors of reader empathy.

·         Social Interaction:

o   Anne

§  Mary representing irritation -> shows Anne’s patience

§  Walter (Father) represents vanity -> shows Anne’s modesty

§  Audience relates to the situation of finding a loved one annoying, but being forced to put up with it because you care for them

§  Audience relates to the situation of disapproval from a parent, and realizes that Anne’s reaction takes a great deal of stamina -> expresses her modesty

o   Christopher’s father

§  Breathing through nose -> Christopher doesn’t understand what this means

·         but readers do and pick up on this, despite Christopher’s inability

·         Personal Conflict:

o   Anne

§  Captain Wentworth -> shows Anne’s humility

§  Audience relates to the struggle of being in love with someone who does not love you back, and the fact that Anne hides this so well and respects the relationship between Wentworth and Louisa shows a great deal of humility

o   Christopher’s father

§  becomes clear that Christopher’s mother left her father because she could not deal with Christopher’s unpredictable behavior anymore -> Christopher speaks of this without seeming to care. In fact, he still ventures out and seeks his mother, despite the fact that his father is the one who has cared for him for all these years

·         audience sees the personal conflict of the father, and the fact that he loves his son. Even though he killed Wellington, this is easily brushed aside by the audience who see the true sacrifice that christopher’s father has made, while Christopher is hung up on the fact that his father committed a crime, and is unable to understand why this is not the most important thing

·         -> can tie into the next idea of emotion from here…

·         Emotion:

o   Anne

§  Hysteria and emotion result from other characters when Louisa falls and hits her head, knocking her unconscious -> demonstrates Anne’s level-headedness and ability to be rational in a emotionally unstable situation

·         Audience relates to the fact that emotional situations can prevent one from thinking clearly

o   Christopher’s father

§  Christopher’s inability to recognize human emotions in other characters

§  Christopher doesn’t realize that his father’s silence actually expresses his anger

·         In the car on the way home from the police station

·         When he finds the book

·         Audience relates to this feeling of anger, potentially even imagining a time where they were so angry they were silent

Attention "Deficit"? Or Attention "Disruption"?

Attention: it’s one of the most debated topics in psychological research, yet it is arguably impossible to find an environment where it is absent. Even in this instance, your body is not only paying attention to the words on this page, but it is also paying attention to the temperature of the room, the oxygen levels of the air, and the ground beneath you. However, these are not directed forms of attention. Directed attention occurs when you focus on something, such as learning Spanish or watching Family Guy. But how do people specifically do this? And more interestingly, why do some people show deficits and differences in terms of how they pay attention, and how much attention they give, to certain things? This question has been partially answered with the establishment of certain disorders such as attention deficit disorder and attention hyperactive deficit disorder. In Frank McCormick’s poem, “Attention Deficit Disorder”, he tries to capture the very essence of the disorder. One thing that I want to highlight in this post is the fact that I believe that the naming for ADD is incredibly inaccurate, and I believe that McCormick may agree with me. His poem starts out as follows:

I guess I paid attention to the wrong things:/

the creamy empty space between the words,/

the silent edges of the textbook illustration,/

the worn lines along my teacher’s thick brown neck./

Still, I could re-draw them in my sleep.

This first stanza of the poem highlights a very interesting, important feature of ADD, in my opinion. This is the fact that the word “deficit” can be very deceiving and almost untruthful about the overall attention state of those who have ADD. People with ADD do not suffer from a strict deficit of attention, per say. From this stanza, I would say that McCormick argues that it is more of an altercation or reallocation of attention. The narrator says “I guess I paid attention to the wrong things”. So it does not seem like he does not pay attention, but rather that he believes his attention was on things aside from what he was specifically supposed to be paying attention to. It seems safe to assume the narrator is a school student. He goes on to refer to the “creamy empty space between the words” and the “silent edges of the textbook illustration”. It seems as if the narrator is paying attention to his school book, but not what normal people without ADD would most likely pay attention to. Most of us don’t spend time focusing our attention on the white space between the text, or the edges of pictures, but this caught the narrator’s eye for some reason. The most interesting line from this stanza, however, is the last one. He states that he could draw the “worn lines along my teacher’s thick brown neck…in my sleep”. No one would argue that the wrinkles on the teacher’s neck is a very particular detail. To pick up on such a feature requires extreme attention. But hold on….this is has attention deficit  disorder. Is he truly capable of such detailed memory for something when he was clearly not paying attention to the lecture material. Well, it seems that McCormick would argue “Yes,” and I would have to agree. I believe that the name Attention Deficit Disorder is extremely deceiving, and it makes you wonder if the disorder deserves a more fitting name, such as Attention Distribution Disorder.

Furthermore, I believe that N. Katherine Hayles has some very interesting contributions to this argument in her paper, “Hyper and Deep Attention: The Generational Divide in Cognitive Modes”. In this paper, Hayles addresses the ideas of deep attention and hyper attention. She states that “deep attention is superb for solving complex problems represented in a single medium, but it comes at the price of environmental alertness and flexibility of response” (p. 188) This seems to relate perfectly to the situation in McCormick’s poem, “Attention Deficit Disorder”, where the narrator says he is able to remember the teacher’s neck lines. In this situation, the narrator’s deep attention was focused on the teacher’s neck, and he was oblivious to the environment around him. Hayles also states that “hyper attention excels at negotiating rapidly changing environments in which multiple foci compete for attention; its disadvantage is impatience with focusing for long periods on a noninteractive object such as a Victorian novel or complicated math problem” (p. 188). This highlights the narrator’s inability to pay attention to the words on the page of his textbook. However, the teacher, who was a much more interactive object to hold the narrator’s attention, became the object of focus, and the vivid memory of the neck lines was the result. This displays the very intriguing allocation of attention that, I would argue, is in no way a deficit, but more of a disruption.

The Thoughts of a Closed Mind

If nothing else, I have learned this semester that writing is one of, if not the most, effective way to convey one’s thoughts. Not only does it allow creativity, but it also gives a writer a way to be freely expressive and completely passionate about what they are trying to convey, with no fear. I am not trying to suggest that writers “hide” behind their words. I see the words on the page as more of a tool. They are a device for conveying an idea. And by conveying that idea through the ink on a page, rather than simply by speaking the idea to a listener, the idea itself becomes sort of its own being. It becomes a separate entity from the writer. Suddenly a brilliant thought turns in to something concrete. It can be preserved this way. Just like Keats expressed in his poem “When I Have Fears That I May Cease to Be”, there is a fear that our thoughts are not permanent, and that they can be lost. Writing gives us a way to preserve these thoughts, whether for ourselves or in order to share with others. In the same way that I personally enjoy writing for this reason, I also love reading for the same reason. Reading the work of another allows me to dive into their thoughts, and sometimes even maybe get a better grasp of what exactly their thoughts were on a matter than if they were to try to describe them to me in person. After reading “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime”, by Mark Haddon, I can say I was not only completely engrossed in the novel as I read, but that I was also constantly fascinated by the mind of the author.

            In this novel, it is immediately obvious that this is not an ordinary fiction novel (although I don’t know that it is fair to say that there is an “ordinary” fiction novel). The diction was like nothing I have read before. While I have not read this novel before, I did know a little background on the novel. I knew the narrator of the novel has Autism, so I was very intrigued to see what the book would be like. I don’t know what my expectations were (it is hard to look back now after reading the book), but I can safely say whatever I expected, I was far off. The mind of this narrator is purely amazing. I have always had a keen interest in Autism and actually almost joined a lab working with people with Autism instead of the lab I currently work in. However, I think I would have not enjoyed the book nearly as much had I done so. Every sentence was a mystery. Every sentence was unpredictable. Yet not. It was as if with every word, I garnered a slightly better understanding of the mind of one who had no desire to open up to anyone.

            According to the secondary reading from the Medical Encyclopedia, Autism “affects the brain’s normal development of social and communication skills.” Its causes remain unknown. It has no cure, and while theories have been made about the cause (these include theories involving diet, mercury poisoning, vaccine sensitivity, etc.), none have been proven. Essentially these children have mind of mystery. The most interesting part is the fact that one of the biggest symptoms and signs of autism is a lack of social skills and a tendency to be closed off to the world. Many kids with autism will even treat other people more as objects. They have a very hard time understanding feelings. I found the pictures of facial expressions that the narrator included, which he was taught in order to  help him try to understand feelings, pointed to this. As the book progresses, it is obvious that the narrator  suffers from Autism. “I could see him touching me, like I was watching a film of what was happening in the room, but I could hardly feel his hand at all. It was just like the wind blowing against me” (p. 114). This exhibits one of the main characteristics of Autism, which is the inability to process other’s feelings and to relate to people in a social way. Furthermore, this quote also displays the narrator’s general intelligence. He is by no means unintelligent. In fact, the fact that he knows every prime number up to 7,057 would strongly suggest otherwise. But why is this Autistic individual, who clearly does not have what we would consider to be a “normal” grasp of human communication and general social interaction, want to write a novel? And furthermore, what can we learn from it?

            I believe that this novel offers an exceptional view on Autism, and it allows people who do not have a distinct understanding of Autism to reach in to the mind of a person who suffers from the disorder. We learn from experience, and this novel only gets me more curious about the inter workings of the mind of individuals with Autism. How do they react to situations differently than people without Autism? What is going through their mind as they go about life in general? How does their thought process unfold when they are solving a problem, even as simple as something like tying your shoes? Haddon offers a very interesting take on the answers to these questions.

On the Idea of Neural Networks

Have you ever stopped to think about your existence. To think about your conscious mind and the fact that it exists when it more easily could have not. Each of us is here by chance. We were the lucky egg. And what does it mean to even have a conscience? This is the question that troubles both scientists and psychologists today. It revolves around the idea of cognitive science. But what even is cognitive science? One comprehensive definition is that cognitive science is the study of the mind and its interdisciplinary processes. But as we have started to notice in our class and discussions, the mind can be a confusing topic of conversation. “Handy Guide”, by Dean Young, puts an interesting twist on the idea of cognitive science, and I believe the poem successfully embodies one of the reasons the mind is so difficult to understand. This is because the world looks different to each beholder.

            In “Handy Guide” Young stresses the theme that what we see in the world is based completely on the viewer’s perspective and mind.

“My dragon may be your neurotoxin

Your electrocardiogram may be my fortune cookie.”

What does it even mean, to compare a dragon to a neurotoxin?! Dragons symbolize strength and power, and a neurotoxin is something that has the ability to infect the mind. Not only does this image outline the idea that people see the world differently, but it also plays on the idea that the mind is easily tainted. This serves to tie the idea of cognitive science to neuroscience. If the mind is truly a manifestation created by the brain, then one would think that altering that part of the brain responsible for creating the mind would indeed affect our cognitive abilities. We saw this in Jane Austen’s “Persuasion”, where damage to Louisa’s brain led to a personality shift, thus making her seem like an entirely different person. So where does the connect between the neurological part of the brain start? This is a questions that has puzzled researchers for decades, and solving this mystery would bridge the gap needed to make advances in terms of understanding of cognitive science, theory of mind, and development of AI.

            Furthermore, my favorite line from the poem is, “The minor adjustments in our equations/ still indicate the universe is insane.” The idea that the universe can even be “insane” suggests that it has a mind. Whoa. There’s a thought. Can the universe think? Or does this, perhaps, suggest that there is a universal train of thought? I’m not suggesting that people all think the same. In fact, if anything, Young shows us how individual differences cause us all to see the world in our own unique way. But there are some things that are indeed universal. People believe that they are mortal. People believe that the Earth is real, and that they are not the only person here. There are universal, seemingly natural, thoughts that we all share. But what does this mean for cognitive science? It seems to suggest that maybe there is a possible model for the mind that can be created. While we are not there yet, several advances have been made in this area in recent years.  

            One of these models involves the idea of neural networks. Neural networks are thought to essentially “map” human thought. Here is an example of a connectionist model, which is a theory about how human thoughts may be mapped in the brain: http://itee.uq.edu.au/~cogs2010/cmc/home.html. Specific pieces of information have connections in the brain, which overlap and connect to other pieces of information. The idea is that this would basically create a giant web of thoughts, which our mind can navigate in the blink of an eye when retrieving information.

            But what becomes complicated is when these networks are not the same for everyone. One person may connect the idea of skydiving with joy, while another connects it with the death of a family member – “My dragon may be your neurotoxin.” This relationship could lead to different mappings. Brain plasticity may allow for changes in neural maps as well. This makes it extremely difficult to come up with models that work for all human cognition, which leaves much room for discussion and exploration.

What Came First, Emotion or the Mind?

Emotion is universal. You can travel to any inhabited land across the world and find that people all experience sadness, happiness, anger, jealousy, love, etc., regardless of their culture, education, or social status. In fact, emotion is often one of the easiest ways to connect with another individual. But what creates emotion? According to Damasio in “Of Appetites and Emotion”, we like to think that “the hidden is the source of the expressed” (P. 29). The term hidden refers to feelings. Damasio claims, in his article, that feelings are the source of emotion. My favorite statement by Damasio is “Emotions play out in the theater of the body. Feelings play out in the theater of the mind” (p. 28). This statement puts the ideas of feelings and emotions into perspective and the visual brain. First of all, it seems very logical that feelings are more internal and emotions are more external. Feelings seem much more like thoughts than emotions do, and they are therefore much easier to keep hidden, within the theater of the mind. Emotions, on the other hand, have the connotation of making themselves known much more easily and being much more difficult to hide. This is where the phrase “wearing your emotions on your sleeve” came from. However, which came first, feelings or emotions? Most people think of them as being connected, but does this mean that they are the same thing? Well, this can’t be true; we have established that feelings are more internal and emotions are more external. Damasio argues, in his article, that emotions came before feelings. The reason he gives for this is evolution. This seems to touch also on theory of mind. If emotion came first and feelings second, then this seems to suggest to the brain came before the mind, and the mind developed later. But wait…haven’t we discussed that the mind is part of the brain? If it developed later, then where were our thoughts before the mind? Did we still have them?

            In relation to the article by Damasio discussing the ideas of feeling and emotion, the primary article of this week that included three poems also revolved around the topics of feeling and emotion. The first one, “Want me”, by Melissa Stein encompasses the idea of desire. Desire is a much easier feeling to feel than it is an emotion to express. This is seen even in the poem itself. Stein uses jumbled diction, and each idea seems unfinished, thrown together almost as if a running stream of thoughts. For example, the line “A duet for cello

and woodsmoke, violin and icicle” seems extremely jumbled. In fact, it seems as if it should read ‘A duet for cello and violin, woodsmoke and icicle.” This mixing of ideas creates not only a confused feeling, but it also helps express the idea of desire. Desire, as an emotion and a feeling, it often thought to be overwhelming and overpowering. The jumbling of words seems to almost suggest that the desire itself is overpowering the writer’s ability to keep words straight. This again stresses the idea that desire itself is more a thought-based feeling, rather than an expressed emotion.

            In the second poem, “Dreamsong”, by John Berryman, the author expresses the idea of boredom. In this case, boredom serves to be more of a lack of emotion and feeling than anything else. The author uses extreme sarcasm and several examples of instances in which he believes other people generally find amusement, in which he does not. He even mentions his mother speaking of boredom, telling his as a boy that “Ever to confess you're bored means you have no Inner Resources.” The author’s mother seems to be referring to feelings with the term “Inner Resources”. The author, admitting to being bored, also admits that he is lacking these inner thoughts, or feelings. Therefore, since emotion and feeling are attached, it can be concluded that he lacks both. He stresses this idea at the end of the poem when speaking of a dog, which is generally a happy or joyful experience for most people. He speaks of the dog leaving, stating it “has taken itself & its tail considerably away into the mountains or sea or sky, leaving behind: me, wag.” The term “wag” seems to poke fun at the dog for its happiness, and by pairing this word along with the reference to himself, he stresses even more the fact that he lacks this happiness or joy, and thus emotion.

            These two poems address a few of the many feelings and emotions that are known to mankind. In fact, some would say that these are limitless. It is interesting to think about these feelings and emotions, especially with the idea of the mind at hand. How do things such as boredom and desire originate, and where does the mind play a role in comparison to the body and brain. This, I think, is a very intriguing idea, especially when it comes to theory of mind. It touches on one of the most difficult challenges that exists in science currently with fully understanding the mind, and that is the idea of emotion and feeling, which have yet to be completely understood. Doing so would allow us to make further advances not only with things such as Artificial Intelligence and brain modeling, but also with understanding why people’s mind are so different from one another.

Bookworms: Nerds or Social Butterflies?

            As an active reader, I am fully aware of the stereotypes that are generally associated with people who read for fun. In general, people tend to picture people like me as quiet, timid hermits who would rather sit in a room alone buried in countless boring pages rather than enjoy the real world and the people in it. However, those who share my enjoyment for reading understand that reading is much more than a pass-time; it allows to you explore another world. However, what few tend to consider when judging those who read is the fact that, in general, most reader’s book of choice is not a textbook. I personally have found few non-fiction books that I enjoy reading with the same vigor as I do a fictional story involving dragons and princesses. While I do not doubt there are a select few who choose history books over Harry Potter, I can safely say that this is not true of me. But what does this tell us about all the bookworms then? In fact, research has been done within the past few years that actually shows that readers of fiction actually tend to have high social abilities.

This week I opted to read the paper, “Bookworms versus nerds: Exposure to fiction

versus non-fiction, divergent associations with social ability, and the simulation of fictional

social worlds”, by Mar et al. (2005). I found this study to not only be very intuitive and easy to relate to, but also strikingly similar to several observations that I have made regarding “Persuasion” by Jane Austen. Not only does it pinpoint several things that have been mentioned in class discussion, but it also can be related to the concluding events of the book as well. In my blog this week I plan to explore the results and implications of this study as well as the implications that can be made about “Persuasion”.

            In “Bookworms versus nerds”, Mar et al. (2005) examine the correlation between social abilities and readers of fiction compared to non-fiction. In order to do this, participants completed a series of surveys, where they were asked to indicate from a list which authors they had heard of before. They were strongly discouraged from guessing, and were told that there were some people listed who were not, in fact, authors. It was accepted that exposure to authors generally accompanies activities that relate to the act of reading itself, so this was taken to be a reliable measure. Results found that familiarity with fiction authors was correlated with social ability, which familiarity with non-fiction authors showed no correlation. “Thus, frequent readers of narrative fiction, individuals who could be considered ‘bookworms,’ may bolster or

maintain social-processing skills whilst reading stories, although they are removed

from actual social contact during this activity” (Mar et al, 2005). Unlike the usual stereotype, it turns out that book worms are not socially inept after all. However, what does this mean about the fictional stories found in books? Does this mean that experience with social situations found in fictional tales better prepare readers to deal with real-life social situations? In “Persuasion”, there are countless instances that could very well be considered support for this exact idea.

            First of all, several of the events from the first half of the book arguably deal with very stressful situations that many readers can surely relate to. The main character, Anne, faces oppression from both society based on her financial situation as well as family manipulation that ultimately leads her to breaking off engagement with her lover. These conflicts are easily to relate to, making “Persuasion” and extremely relatable book for readers. Mar and colleagues would surely argue that situations such as these are high stress, and by reading about the mistakes and accomplishments of characters in fictional tales, readers may very well be better prepared to face their own social dilemmas in the real world. Reading is an experience, and every experience is a chance to learn. Therefore, it is very possible that  by experiencing Anne’s hardships with her through reading, the audience learns more about different social situations, thus increasing their social ability.

            Furthermore, as the book proceeds, Anne’s situation becomes very real for readers. She experiences one of the most relatable social situations for readers: falling in love. Love is a natural and evolutionary human emotion. The fact that “Persuasion” introduces such a realistic social situation (especially for the social expectations of the time when Jane Austen wrote the book) makes it incredibly powerful in the eyes of the reader, and it seems to be a logical argument that this exposure to this type of situation would, in fact, influence the reader’s perception of social situations.

Paper Outline (Version 1)

Hey guys,

So as you may have seen in my email, I have been pretty sick. This outline is from my original draft. I am skyping with Dr. Phillips in the morning regarding my paper, and plan to post another outline sometime tomorrow when I hopefully feel better and have a chance to work on my paper more. If you read this and want to make comments, feel free, but I won't be offended if you don't (especially since this is super late). Thanks all, and drink your Vitamin C!!!

1. Title: The Maze of the Mind
2. Introduction: What a mind-spinning task it is, to think about the brain. The brain, believed by most to be connected to our mind, controls every aspect of human function, including our mental processes. Yet, when one thinks about thinking, it does not seem like a detailed or calculated function of human survival; thinking is freedom. Many would argue that thinking knows no bounds. If this is accepted as true, then it can be concluded that thinking about the brain, and thus the mind, can be done in a limitless number of ways. But even more mind-spinning than the concept of thinking, is how we are able to convert these thoughts into words. Thoughts do not occur as if there is a typewriter in the brain, with words that can be spoken or written on command. The person doing the thinking must decide which symbols to use to create the words that will best convey the precise ideas that are being calculated and manipulated by the mind. This is the beauty of written language. It is an admirable feat to create writing that is both engaging and thought-provoking. Combining these two facets, the idea of thinking about the brain and the idea of transferring thoughts from mind to paper, is no easy task. The brain has yet to be fully understood by humans, and the mystery of the brain will arguably never be completely solved. For this reason, perspectives on the brain and its existence as a whole are sure to vary and even clash for the rest of time. This is what makes it fascinating to look at literature from earlier times regarding the brain and the mind. Many literary artists have attempted this difficult task over the years, and one of the most interesting places to look at this feat is poetry. Like the mind, poetry is free. Two poets, in particular, captured this idea remarkably well. John Keats and Margaret Cavendish both display eloquent use of language and creative manipulation of words to convey precisely what they perceived the brain to be, and how it functions. By using poetry as a vice, these two authors successfully conveyed to the audience not only their thoughts on the mind, but also the very idea that the mind is a free body of thought, unable to be contained by the physicality of the human body.
3.

Margaret Cavendish’s view of the brain differed tremendously from other people studying science during her time.

Knowledge of the brain during this time was quite trivial. In fact, the mind was a relatively new concept during the 15^th century.

Cavendish drives her point home with the wittiness of her persona throughout the poem.

Through both the comparison of the brain to the ‘squaring a circle’ quandary and the use of clever diction to poke fun at scientists of the time, Margaret Cavendish successfully portrays the image of the brain as a circular mystery.

John Keats poem has quite a different message from that of Cavendish. In “When I have fears that I may cease to be”, Keats conveys the idea that thinking about the mind is a terrifying endeavor.

Keats discusses the idea of the mind being limitless, and his fear seems to stem from the idea that he will run out of time to transfer all of his thoughts from his brain to paper before he dies.

Keats becomes reflective as he discusses the idea of emotion.

Keats ends “When I have fears that I may cease to be” with inarguably one of the greatest fears for mankind: losing your mind.

Much different from Cavendish, Keats followed the traditional Shakespearean sonnet form.

4. Conclusion: The two authors would surely agree that the mind is an unsolvable mystery. More importantly, Cavendish and Keats address two facets of the human mind that amazingly were regarded as valid centuries ago as well as in present day. Cavendish, in revolutionary insight for her time, remarks on the fact that the mind is a mysterious manifestation that should and will remain so, and Keats expresses the fear that results from this very fact. Together the poems of these two authors encompass the undefined and the unknown that is the mind. Through clever diction, vivid imagery, wittiness from Cavendish, and emotional connection to the audience from Keats, the combined efforts of these poets demonstrates the freeness and unbound nature of mind and thought and, most significantly, the fact that it will forever remain this way.