Analysis #1 - Burke on the Sublime and the Beautiful

"Whatever is fitted in any sort to excite the ideas of pain, and danger, that is to say, whatever is in any sort terrible, or is conversant about terrible objects, or operates in a manner analogous to terror, is a source of sublime; that is, it is productive of the strongest emotion which the mind is capable of feeling" (p. 459, Burke).
This directly says what sublime or sublimity is, it doesn't necessarily need to be a feeling or pain or danger, or something terrible. It can be something wonderful that sends a shiver down you spine and makes you feel the same sensation over and over again ever time you hear it, feel it, taste it, with any of your senses.
"I say the strongest emotion, because I am satisfied the ideas of pain are much more powerful than those which enter on the part of pleasure. Without all doubt, the torments which we may be made to suffer, are much greater in their effect on the body and mind, than any pleasures which the most learned voluptuary could suggest, or than the liveliest imagination, and the most sound and exquisitely sensible body could enjoy" (p. 459, Burke).
This quite states that pain is the strongest emotion, but there can be a thin line between pain and pleasure, as there is between love and hate. All people have their own personal ideas as to what pleasure or pain, love or hate, are. And many of them will say there is a very, very fine line between all of them, but that they are all connected.
Ever since I first saw the film 'Independence Day', Bill Pullman's speech in the final act of the film has always given me goose bumps up my arms and gives me that shivery feeling all over. Though this speech isn't necessarily pleasing to the eye, but is to the ear, which gives more of a sensation than if you simply read the speech. It is in Pullman's voice that gives the sensation that can give you goosebumps, not necessarily the words themselves. This may not be the way it comes across to everyone, but to some, this speech is the one thing I can see that comes into relation with Burke's ideas on the sublime and beautiful. Though it does work with his idea that is does impact the senses through hearing, but not by sight.
This goes back to what I said previously about a picture being worth a thousand words, but doesn't necessarily mean that the words that are used to describe it are set in stone, but can be whatever words the viewer decides to describe it.
During his speech, Pullman talks about how everyone all over the world are no longer separate, but that that day, Independence Day in America, is now a world wide holiday, the day the world says that they will not go down without a fight and that those that endanger them will regret they ever came to Earth.
It's funny, as I write this analysis, I feel the goose bumps surfacing, my mind and body remembering the last time I heard the speech. Maybe when I am done writing this I'll go watch it again.

Works Cited
Leitch, Vincent B. The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. New York: Norton, 2001. Print.