Molly Teller found in her commonplace book an opportunity to collect, collate, and further ruminate on all the literary moments that made her pause this past semester. Her use of collage as the primary medium for her commonplace book as well as her thematic selection of excerpts make for a captivating, visually arresting experience. This comes as no surprise, since Molly considers herself a deeply visual learner and thinker:
I consider myself to be visually oriented when I think of how I interact with the world and so in collecting these works, I wanted them to be accompanied by visual representations that were paired with the significance of each work. I’ve grouped together these excerpts in five different groups, each containing works from the four time periods that we covered.
As Molly experimented with the mise-en-page of her book, she made conscious decisions regarding thematic organization and the overall artistic effect of each page. The pages tackle unique topics, including (1) passages to ponder; (2) wisdom from unexpected places; (3) the hands as conduits of affection and loyalty; (4) temptation; and (5) the quest for fulfillment. We’re so pleased to share Molly’s commonplace book below, along with excerpts from her insightful commentary.
Passages to Ponder
On the first page of the book lies the page full of passages that stick with me throughout the day. While not every work has been a winner in my eyes, whether due to stylistic preference or disinterest in plotlines, I’ve also found beauty in so many of them. It’s upsetting to reflect on how many recitations we held in which we reviewed the fact that so many works had been lost to time. [. . .] [This collage] came together because I felt that the eyes said what I felt about these poignant passages, but since this is for a final project I’ll give a bit more of a solid explanation here. The way that I choose to think of it at the end of the day is that I fall within that beautiful photograph of the mountain and the cowboys that sit atop them, and throughout the day the passages pop their heads in and take a long look at me to remind me of what I’ve read. How lucky to have encountered these things so much older than I.
Wisdom from Unexpected Sources
[In this collage] we have a bit of a stranger layout. This was done intentionally as the theme here is the frequency with which authors and their characters draw inspiration and wisdom from unusual places. Included here, there is the excerpt from Bede’s Ecclesiastical History noted as The Sparrow in the Hall in the textbook. You can also find Creation as a Hazelnut, Pangur Bán, Earth’s Complaint, and the section describing The Cave of Spleen. It’s no new feat for people to find solace from nature and I’d venture to say it wasn’t new in any of these passages by any means. All the way back to when I was in high school, my environmental science teacher spent a full day lecturing about the recreational and mental benefits of the natural world. I drove out to the Smoky Mountains while the world fell to a pause this summer, because to me, I find myself breathing easiest when surrounded by nature. I love to see that authors that I spend my time with find the same value in the natural things around them.
The Hands
The hands here serve to display the work and emotion involved in the name of affection and loyalty. Figuring out what was to be said with this section took me the longest. I wanted to discuss love and how it developed over the course of time that these works span, however in looking closely at those it felt improper to dedicate an entire section of the book to love and divorce that idea from the significance of faith. When I use the term faith, it does hold a connection to religion for many of these pieces but also represents the idea of loyalty and trust within relationships. I had expected for there to be a much stronger presence of religion throughout the works in this class, and it was present for a great deal of the works, but it took a backseat more often than I would have thought. The presence of religion within the works helped to give insight into societal changes that were occurring between pieces. It helped to signify what the role and independence of women was like, whether those women were characters or authors. Faith was also significant here in telling us what mattered most to people and their relationships in these times long gone.
Temptation
. . .we then come to temptation. A frequent presence within our reads was the Devil, however, unless reading through a religious lens for the entirety of the compiled works, temptation mostly comes from everyday issues and encounters. Different motives appear in each of these writings, but what stands out is how constant and at times mundane the appeal of taking the low road is. The power of temptation works against characters’ relationships with others, asking of them to betray some level of trust from one near to them, yet it’s not a topic that I included in order to condemn. The ability for the writers to have written sympathetic characters with troubled motives not only displays their own understanding of the complexity of wrongdoings, but also provides us once again with insight into what that means for life at that point in time.
Striving for Fulfillment
I’ve dedicated [the final page] to one of my favorite discussions held throughout this semester’s recitations. The mention of what fulfillment might be during our sharing of discussions between Julian of Norwich and Margery Kempe brought about a spell of quiet thinking. In completing this project, I went back to see what jumped out to me as characters and authors striving for fulfillment. Fulfillment isn’t something easily defined, however, the process of achieving it seems to have quite a few common themes. [. . .] Not everyone has had or does have the ability to do what they yearn for. To feel at peace with your place in the world should not be a limited offering, and seeing the transformation in how easily the subjects of these writings were able to pursue their own purpose adds a certain urgency for myself in reflecting on what to do to even out those abilities to a greater extent today.
