About Beeswax
The title of this journal takes its name from Jonathan Swift's essay, "The Battle of the Books," in which a bee reasons that what he does is nobler than the spider. Whereas the spider whose "overweening pride, feeding, and engendering on itself, turns into excrement and venom, producing nothing at all but flybane and a cobweb," the bee makes wax in which he stores honey. The wax is also used for candles which in turn give light. What he has to offer to humanity is sweetness and light.
Beeswax, then, is a wonderful symbol for Christianity to signify the love (sweetness) and truth (light) of Christ's salvation for us. Victorian Matthew Arnold appropriated Swift's fable in a slightly different way. In his book Culture and Anarchy is a chapter, "Sweetness and Light," which argues that the world needs both art (sweetness) and religion (light). In response to Swift and Arnold, the Department of English and ML has provided this space called Beeswax where undergraduate writers may engender their own sweetness and light through outstanding essays and research papers. The banner for this journal was designed by Graphic Design major Brittany LaBarre.
