Response to: http://j91h.blogspot.com/2009/01/response-to-response-to.html

In Justine’s response to my post she disagreed with my description of Romanticism as “simple”, and I have to say that I agree with her argument. The word “simple” does not do the accomplishments and transformation of the Romantic period justice. However, in comparison with the intellectual accomplishments of the Enlightenment, which were based in trying to discover a logical reason or explanation to reality, the entire concept of Romanticism, to follow one’s emotions and impulses, seems to be, well, rather simple. The Enlightenment was not necessarily inaccessible, but just takes more effort in interpreting. When studying the Enlightenment, I felt as if I had to pick-and-choose between philosophe’s, and while I was by no means searching for an explanation for the meaning of life or anything of that sort, it is much easier for me to access and relate to the reality depicted in a Romantic work than that described by the philosophe’s.