Dragon+1+(D+Block)

= What Must Be Done =

It is your task to PROVE the following proposition: “__//The world and everything in it is unplanned accident, existence is meaningless; the past is irrelevant; nothing matters//__.”

= Testimony =

For an endless span of time, I have watched. I have watched the rise and fall of mountains. I have watched the slithering torrents snake through open plains, and vast oceans swallow whole bodies of land. Through all the time of my hollow existence on this earth, I have watched and come to understand the undeniable truth: that all is a "mere ripple in Time's stream," (Page 71, Lines 13-14) and nothing can come to leave a lasting dent on this quicksilver called Time. "Things come and go." (Page 70, Line 10) Life springs up and withers away in a period of time utterly diminutive to what I have recalled and foreseen. What would that mean: that purpose is absent in this empty world in which things disintegrate with the past, as Time is ever-flowing. Take men and their insubstantial ideals for example. Why do they seek a figure who "reshapes the world"? (Page 49, Lines 2-4) What they believe, what they shed blood for, what they shout on behalf of their ancestors and the ancestors of their ancestors, all comes down to the very assumption of a higher deity. Sticks. What men revere are nothing but "lifeless sticks" (Page 52, Lines 20-22) that impose a false sense of meaning to this world. How foolish are they -- how stubborn -- as they can see for themselves that their little lunatic theories are full of fissures where bare truth betrays their very foundation of incoherent blabbering. Of course, all this is a of little importance to me, for I have come to understand that nothing, even a dragon like myself, truly matters in this desolate world.

= Major Points =

Overarching Principle

 * With wisdom, one can make predictions that are more accurate than those without it. A key factor in gaining wisdom is experience, which in turn is earned over time. Therefore, the longer one lives, the more knowledgeable he or she becomes of the world. Thus, the Dragon, who has lived long enough to be described as an "old-man" (Page 60, line 10) even by Grendel, who, himself, is very old in comparison to men, would be the wisest and most all-knowing of all the living entities. With that aside, the Dragon talks about the relationship between an absolute scale and the consequent conclusions derivable from it. He says, "It's extremely rash to extend conclusions derived from observation far beyond the scale of magnitude to which the observation was confined," meaning that as there is no real set magnitude to set one's observation upon, making an accurate prediction of changes to occur within, say, a million years will be impossible through just observing changes that occur within a thousand years. (Page 66, lines 1-15) **The Dragon is an exception to this because he is capable of seeing into the future, just like less knowledgeable living beings such as Grendel can recall the past. What can be concluded from this fact is the sole truth that the Dragon __//can// make accurate conclusions__ as he can foresee changes that occur throughout a span of an indefinite amount of time, and therefore, his absolute scale is infinity itself.** Who would be more credible: men, who can live barely up to a hundred years, or the Dragon, an entity capable of making sound judgments as he is not hindered by boundaries which limit lower beings such as humans in their ability to obtain true knowledge? Thus, when the Dragon says, "Such is the end of the flicker of time, the brief, hot fuse of events and ideas set off, accidentally, and snuffed out, accidentally, by man. Not a real ending of course, nor even a beginning. Mere ripple in Time's stream," (Page 71, Lines 13-14) it is only rational to accept that as a legitimate and justifiable conclusion drawn carefully from an eons worth of observations.

"The world and everything in it is unplanned accident."

 * To say that the world and everything was a planned act signifies the existence of a higher deity. In page 6, lines 13-17, however, there does not seem to be any sort of response back to Grendel's rather rude gestures. The sky "ignores" him, "forever unimpressed".
 * In page 49, lines 2-4, Grendel speaks of the Shaper as one who "reshapes the world... turns dry sticks to gold." The Shaper is wanted by the men, and by Grendel, as well, before he came in contact with the Dragon, to make sense of the world with "his cunning trickery." (Page 55, Lines 20-21) The men rely on him as their very selves are "cracked with theories," brought on by their foolish nature to connect "simple facts in isolation." (Page 64, Lines 19-20) The facts they have created to connect other facts are the "//sine qua non// (an essential condition)" of their science. But what is important, as the Dragon speaks of it, is the connectedness, which is the "essence of everything," and that "there are no such facts." The men sense at times that "all they live by is nonsense," and this is where the Shaper comes into play. He "provides an illusion of reality -- puts together all their facts with a gluey whine of connectedness," (Page 65, Lines 5-7) thereby making sense of the empty world that the men live in.

"Existence is meaningless."

 * If there were such meanings to existences, then how do you explain the lifeless qualities of animals which often come in contact with Grendel? The ram, for instance, is a stupid creature: far below the level of intelligence Grendel possesses. In page 6, lines 3-9, Grendel talks about how the ram, despite being stoned by him, continues to travel up the mountain slope every year, forgetting all previous efforts and their fruitless outcomes. Such is the case for the bull as well. By experiencing the stupidity of the bull firsthand, Grendel comes to realize that the "emptiness" of the animal's eyes shows its blindness to the world. The bull is, in essence, lifeless. (Page 21, Lines 20-22)
 * What the men revere are nothing but "lifeless sticks." (Page 52, Lines 20-22)
 * The Dragon appears, to Grendel, to have "been dead for a thousand years." (Page 60, Lines 11-12) This portrays the nature of the Dragon as he has inevitably come to realize that the world is "a swirl in the stream of time" (Page 70, Line 21) and what is now will just become the past: "things come and go." (Page 70, Line 10) The Dragon has understood the eventual fading of all things as nothing can escape the clutches of time; everything will eventually pass. Realizing the unavoidable end of all things and its never-ending repetition, the dragon may have come to the conclusion that he, too, is a meaningless existence that harbors no purpose. Thus, he is lifeless, so to speak, and that is why the Dragon continues to feed his greed for wealth.

"The past is irrelevant."

 * The Dragon has inevitably come to realize that the world is "a swirl in the stream of time" (Page 70, Line 21) and what is now will just become the past: "things come and go." (Page 70, Line 10) The Dragon has understood the eventual fading of all things and sees the past as merely something to reoccur sometime in the future.

"Nothing Matters."

 * If things were to matter, then how do you explain the never-ending sameness that Grendel experiences as he lives through his childhood years? As existence is meaningless, the absence of purpose brings about nothing in return, as said in the phrase //"nihil ex nihilo//." (Page 150, Line 5) Its literal meaning, "nothing comes from nothing," explains how the nonexistence of purpose contributes to the "sameness, age after age." (Page 9, lines 18-20)

= Letter Reflection =

To be frank, reading "A Letter from John Gardner" helped me immensely in understanding the various opposites that are portrayed within //Grendel//. I now know that Grendel's view upon the world, one of disdain and mistrust, was not of a productive one and that even if there really is no meaning to existence, one should still strive to make the best of the world, instead of falling into desolation, just like Grendel did. I also learned about the precise relationship between the presumed Beowulf -- as he is never named -- and the Dragon. Although both are characterized as dragons, their underlying perspectives differ from each other. While the Dragon tells Grendel that nothing matters and simply "seek out gold and sit on it," (Page 74, Line 21) Beowulf, on the other hand, points out the faults in Grendel's ideology as he smashes Grendel's head against the wall, saying, "Feel the wall: is it not hard?" (Page 171, Line 9) Beowulf did so to show the two types of behaviors one could take: one in which the wall is perceived as nothing but a wall and nothing is done, and one in which a revelation takes place and consequently goals are set to make the world a more meaningful and better place. I will implement this newly acquired knowledge of mine into certain points of my argument in the debate.

//Mr. Stephens, when we're recalling parts of the book, does it always have to be in past tense?//