510: Early musings on the elements and literature

As a way to organize my thoughts as to how elements relate to certain seasons and genres of literature, I drew a diagram. My fiance, the photoshop genius that he is, illustrated my amateurish diagram to the diagram below (although he was nice enough to try to give me credit for doing it).

Here is the diagram that helped me visualize all of this (an explanation follows):



What is important to realize is that the elements of earth and fire are both dry and do not change. They are consistent, just like the genres of irony and romance. Unlike earth and fire, air and water are wet and do have the ability to change. Air rises as it is warm and is thus closer to the sky. Water cools and sinks, both in rainfall and in currents in the sea, and is thus closer to the earth. Therefore, air resembles comedy (with the upward movement) while water resembles tragedy (where everything goes down toward the underworld).

Although some of the elements differ in their ability to change or remain sturdy depending on their wetness or dryness, the temperature of the element also gives them some attributes. Fire and air, for example, are both hot. Since fire is romance, the story begins well and by the end, not much has changed besides the fact that the hero has gone on a mission and succeeded. Air, on the other hand, starts off cool, just how comedy begins with some sort of problem that the hero has to solve. By the end of comedy, however, the hero has defeated the problem and lives happily ever after with the hero from romance. Therefore, warmth seems to be associated with a happy ending, as indicated by the upward movement toward the heavens.

Likewise, the endings of earth and water are similar because both of them are cold. Earth is irony, so things start off with a negative tone and that negative tone remains until the end. Tragedy, on the other hand, starts off with a "divine" hero who seems to have everything going for him when fate catches up and s/he falls. Earth and water both have a downward movement, toward the earth, and often have a more "real" tone.

Well, there is the basis of my paper. You'll have to wait until Wednesday for everything else.