Goal for meeting next Friday: present Mr. Sexson with a three page "plan of attack". Essentially, a rough-draft for the beginning of the paper, in which I am to focus most acutely upon Gnosis and Imagination "understood as". Because for my studying purposes, narrowing the focus is vital, especially in as broad-reaching a topic as Gnosticism. This also seems to be were I am having the most difficulty with; I seem to have the urge to read everything that can be read by the Romantics and about Gnosticism, which of course is impossible in the span of time available to us for this purpose.

So, my three-page plan of attack is likely to focus upon the chosen understanding of Gnosis and Imagination to be employed, which it is looking like will be about like this:

1. Self-knowledge as knowledge of God
2.Hence, one in possesion of gnosis becomes a kind of creator or artist; "divine in the world" as it were. The notion of apotheosis becomes central here.
It would probably be a good idea to discuss the idea of the Aesthetic Hero, as it relates to gnosis and the Romantic imagination as well.
4. The diminished trope of illumination to be found in Modernism: "matches struck in the dark" in To the Lighthouse, linked with Shelley's celestial fire, and with the Gnostic idea of the "spark" or "flame" to be found inside.

See, all of this is complex enough without Kari trying to make it even more so. We shall see how it ends up developing.