I will not be lying when I say that I expect Gardner to be so sassy; his work Grendel absolutely oozes of it. He feels no shame in sitting down and telling the kids that wrote the papers every way in which they we’re wrong, but he somehow makes it enjoyable.
What first shocked me the most is how much I missed when reading his work. I certainly enjoyed the novel, but I don’t think that I gained that level of understanding that Gardner hoped for. As I read his letter I realized that Grendel was in indeed a piece of art. When Gardner broke down his philosophies and his reasoning I began to actually think about it; this time however from a different point of view. I knew from the get-go that this book was philosophical, but I dumbly believed that he was pressing his ideas of philosophy and religion on the audience. Reading this letter I can see that he wasn’t and how he cleverly hid it within other philosophies he found.
I hate to deviate from the topic of the letter, but reading it has made me rethink so many different things. Gardner reminds me almost of my father. Though my dad knows I loath politics, he still makes me watch, follow, and read about different political view points. At first, I believed it was to show me why his was right but later I realized it was only to make me think. This view is reflected within Gardner’s work. He believes his novel is art -a title it rightfully deserves- and therefor wants the readers to find something of themselves within it. He lets the readers decide for themselves what each philosophy means to Grendel and what it means within life itself. I thoroughly enjoyed reading him talk about his work; you can feel the passion about Grendel in his words. Though he is incredibly sassy and blunt it seems as though he’s excited that the younger generation is reading his novel and not just enjoying it but thinking about it.
When I read this book I caught onto how the Dragon was actually a snake and therefore assumed it was a reference to the devil. Later in the novel when Grendel describes Beowulf with wings and spitting fire as a dragon does, I had no idea what to think of it…especially what to think about him ordering Grendel to “sing the walls”. As I read Gardner’s analysis of this it made me understand much more about Grendel’s death scene and causes me to love silly Unferth as I had wanted to so badly. All around, regardless of the initial harshness we find Gardner to say, I found so much more that I lived about his piece of art and I appreciate it on a whole different level.
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