Reading Analysis 9/24

There is an interesting underlying premise found within John Milton's “When I Consider how my Light is Spent,” William Shakespeare's “My Mistress’ Eyes are Nothing like the Sun,” and Stacy Schiff's “Know It All: Can Wikipedia Conquer Experience.” Although in each story the main point is about human error and flaw, they also reflect the upside to these imperfections. Even though some of these works were written hundreds of years ago, they have ideas that parallel the issues we deal with in our blemished, contemporary world, but not without ensuring us that there is always a way to turn things around.

John Milton’s poem is depressing in the sense that he is looking back on his life with guilt thinking he had not done enough and how his talents were “lodged with him useless.” It is human flaw to take life for granted and it is one of every person’s biggest fears. To look back on life and know that you lived it to its fullest is a feeling that everyone wishes to attain. However, the upside to Milton’s lesson learned is that he was able to write about it enabling his readers to at least be aware of his mistakes and to possibly avoid them. It is almost a way to make himself feel better, because he can help others since he is past the point of helping himself.

In William Shakespeare’s “My Mistress” we also see this human flaw not only in the mistress’ looks but also in the narrator’s analysis of her. He compares her hair to wire and talks about her bad breath. Although her aesthetically displeasing features present themselves constantly to the narrator, he states at the end about how much he loves her; again portraying the underlying theme of upsides to negative things in the life.

Lastly in Stacy Schiff’s article, she talks about Wikipedia and how it cannot be trusted as a legitimate source for information due to human error. It is not a scholarly source and can not be trusted, because anyone can write on the site and human imperfection cannot stop even the smartest people from posting inaccurate information. However, the primary focus in all three works appears again when she confirms that the actual number of errors is not much greater than Encyclopedia Britannica, therefore Wikipedia and human flaw cannot be as bad as perceived. These works teach a good lesson in life, and no matter what the flaw or error, there is always an upside to it.