Assignment:
This Reading Response Journal is based on your readings from
Section III: LIVING WELL
Chapter: Vulnerability and Suffering
W.H. Auden, Musoe des Beaux Arts
Pieter Bruegel (the Elder). Landscape with the Fall of Icarus. c. 1554-1555. Panel painting transferred to canvas. Musees Royaux des Beaux-Arts, Brussels.
Visit the website for the Musees Royaux des Beaux-Arts, Brussels, as well as this site: for more background about the image: Bruegel's Icarus and the Perils of Flight
Visit Khan Academy for an explanation of how art historians approach an analysis of the painting done by Goya in his Third of May, 1808.
Also, an interesting graphic novelesque take on the Icarus story.
1. Why might Auden call this the "human position" of suffering? Has it another position?
2. How ought one respond to the truth Auden has identified? Is it reassuring or distressing? Does our recognition of this truth impose any obligation on us, beyond our "sailing calmly on" ?