description: GILL discovered Allegory in Humanities was a Subject without a Syllabus, a Topic without a Reading List. To deal with the subject he had to conceive of the Allegorical Mind. To write on the topic his essays had to be original and innovative. Gill redefined "allegory" as "extended figuration." Platonic poetry is allegory. From Sir Orfeo through Keats to Wallace Stevens, allegory is personified abstract things. He agreed with Kant that if things were permanent, then our consciousness is impermanent. Our knowledge of physical objects, mental states, and texts is fragmentary, never total. Rather than Kantian "Categories," which were neither innate or universal, Plato saw psyche in terms of "needs" (appetite, reason, desire). SD Experiments prove our basic needs are fresh air, food and drink, warmth and sensory input. Thirst makes man a beast. Aristotle's claim that art imitated reality is undermined by New Criticism, which denies any concern of art representing reality. Allegories are "Thought Experiments." "World Systems" and fantasy are allegories. If our reality is dependent upon our consciousness, then we are all solipsists. A "Memoir" by his grandmother would be New History. Only through allegory (extended analogy) can we prove Other Minds exist. Gill argues in favor of Memoirs of Solipsists, Fragmentarianism over Totalitarianism, and Pluralism over New Criticism.
language: English
title: Memoirs of Solipsist
titlecomplete: Memoirs of Solipsist
publisher: Star Publish