So Many Ways to Die

William Quirk in his essay "Minimalist Tragedy": Nietzschean Thought in McCarthy's The Sunset Limited makes connections and draws conclusions from many examples in

the play alluding to Nietzche and the characters Apollo and Dionysus.

What I found most interesting in the article, was Quirk's explanation of White's longing for death and Black's quest to stop White from following through- through tactics like creating a community for White, distracting him through conversation, and sharing a meal with White.

Quirk goes on to explain that White is so desperate for death because of "an excess of knowledge." White believes he has lost "all illusions" (or in Nietzche terms: "the essence of things") and because of this- he has no reason to  go on.

Black, on the other hand, is trying desperately to keep White

in his apartment building and not following through with his plan of suicide. By telling his jailhouse stories, he is appealing to White's curiosity and distracting him from his plan, Quirk writes. 

As I was driving home from work, listening to my iPod, a song by a band called Bombadil came on.  The song is "So Many Ways to Die" and it's one of my favorites.  While I was singing along, the lyrics suddenly hit me and I started to connect every lyric to The Sunset Limited with the help of Quirk's article.

Halfway through the song, singer Stuart Robinson ponders the line between wanting to live and deciding it's not worth it:

"So many ways to think

How differently we interpret the brink

Between the side of life worth living 

and the point at which we're better off to sink"

White has clearly been wrestling with the question: is life really worth it?

The chorus continues:

"You tell me all that you cherished is through

well that's not true, it isn't true, it isn't true"

White thinks that anything in life worth cherishing is gone and therefore death is the best option.

En-dark-enment

The Sunset Limited, a dramatic novel by Cormack McCarthy takes place some time after the character Black saves the other character White from throwing himself in front of a subway train in an attempt to kill himself.  The two men, back at Black's house, then discuss philosophical ideas like death, Heaven, religion, (T)truth, and forgiveness.

What stuck out the me was the constant juxtaposition between light and dark, black and white, maybe even good and evil (although neither of the characters are purely evil or purely good- so that may be a bit of a stretch), death and life.  These conflicts are personified by White and Black's existence in the story.

What I was really drawn to was White's mention of Enlightenment, and how when he felt like he had reached enlightenment he realized there was only darkness.  Enlightenment lead to darkness.  McCarthy took these typical allusions and flipped them upside down.  Only when we have realize the truth do we realize that there is nothing: darkness.

In the cinematic adaptation of the novel, White, played by Tommy Lee Jones says that he is the "professor of darkness." Let me break that down for ya...

Professor: keeper of knowledge, provides knowledge to others, expert in their field perhaps, leader

Darkness: (in traditional literature) ignorance, evil, wrong, etc.

Knowledge is supposed to lead to enlightenment and better understanding- but when the readers see that White is using this paradox of the professor of darkness we begin to question what we know as fact and truth.

This thought then lead me to Plato's "Allegory of the Cave"

So this brief explanation basically sums up the idea that darkness is only our biggest hope or best guess that what we know as truth is right.  Only once we pursue lightness do we find the truth.  But what if, like the professor said, the truth is simply darkness.

[There was a young girl from St. Paul]

[There was a young girl from St. Paul]
There was a young girl from St. Paul,
Wore a newspaper-dress to a ball.
The dress caught on fire
And burned her entire
Front page, sporting section and all.
-Anonymous

(Side note #1: It's 12:12 am on Wednesday and we have a blog due in less than 8 hours.  I must admit that I did read all of the poems from pages 597-611 and this was the only one my tired brain could even begin to comprehend.  It has a familiar rhythm, a clever and slight humor to it, and I can think of a dozen other poems with the same sort of beat from throughout my childhood similar to this one---"There once was a man from Nantucket..." anyone?!)

"There was a young girl..." has a great swing rhythm I want to say, it's almost as if my voice swings back and forth as it goes through the poem.  It's a very familiar Limerick style, with an almost Nursery Rhyme type of feel to it.  The meaning behind the poem, although entertaining and humorous, is not what I was initially drawn to.  It's that song-like swing to it.  I love anything I can put a tune to, being very musical, and these little Limericks are perfect for that.  In fact: I wrote one about how I'm feeling at this very moment!

There once was a girl who needs sleep

High grades she knew she must keep

But just look at the time

It's too late to rhyme

And I need to finish this blog!

(Side note #2: The original poem by Anonymous also reminded me of those people who made prom dresses out of duct tape. So strange- yet creative)

Response to "This Is Just to Say"

This poem is in response to William Carlos Williams' poem "This Is Just to Say" which can be found here

thank you for getting me breakfast

I accidently took
the entire bag
that I found in 
the fridge

I didn't realize
til much later
that there were 2 bagels
in the bag
one for me and
one for you

I ate them both
Forgive me TJ
but thank you
for getting me breakfast

When I read William Carlos Williams' poem it instantly reminded me of the time my boyfriend woke up at 6:30 am and went to Brueggars to get me breakfast.  Once I woke up for class, I grabbed the bag from the fridge in a rush and didn't realize til I'd gotten to school that it had both his and my bagels.  I didn't have any time to get his bagel back to him, so I just ate it (not wanting it to go to waste, of course). When I told Tommy about it he just laughed and wasn't mad, and I felt sort of silly.  Williams' poem really put me back in that moment, and I love the "sticky note message" sort of style of this poem.  

Response to "Barbie Doll"

This poem is in response to Marge Piercy's poem Barbie Doll which can be found here

Doctor

Now, this is the doll that

every little girl must have!

The sales girl slides the box

closer towards my hands.

I squint my eyes

and look at the plastic princess-girl

beneath the cellophane.

So this is what good mothers

give their good daughters? 

You bet!

These dolls will inspire your daughter-

see this one!- she's a doctor- 

don't you want your daughter to be a doctor?  

Especially in this day and age-

it's a man's world.

A doctor.

I place the pink and purple box in my cart.

My daughter's going to be a doctor.

We Uncertain Step

As we go through our daily activities, weekly promises, and yearly goals to get to where we want to be- we soon realize that life doesn't bend around us.  Life doesn't actually care whether or not we are emotionally prepared for a road block.

When that road block inevitably springs up and we are caught without any preparation- we must adjust.  Emily Dickinson illustrates this adjustment period in her poem "We Grow Accustomed to the Dark" (“419” (H 174) from Fascicle 15).

But it's so much more than that! It's not just a flat tire on your way to work, or a long line at Starbucks- this is DARKNESS.  Think about a time you were immersed in darkness.  This darkness is internal darkness,"Those Evenings of the Brain / When not a Moon disclose a sign".

Dickinson shows us that with some adjustment, if we allow our eyes to correct themselves, (even with some "groping") there is a way to get back on track- "Life steps almost straight".  Not 100% straight, but almost- just straight enough to handle the next road block.

So, are we in charge of what we know?  Or are we purely reactionary? What sort of control do we have?  Dickinson does allude that the Darkness can alter.  One side, either fate or our sight must give a little.

Paragraph Assignment: A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings

Pelayo stumbled upon a very old man with wings buried deep in the mud.  This angel stumped the man and his wife.  The winged man took refuge in the family’s chicken coop, the towns people began to take notice.  They demanded of him answers and miracles.  They all had different explanations for his existence; he must prove himself to the masses.  The angel did not pass the priest’s tests of divinity.  The winged man stayed with the family and regained his strength.  One day, the old man sloppily flapped his wings and flew away.  Just as quickly as he appeared, the townspeople forgot about their sideshow angel.

A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings

While reading A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings (A Tale for Children) I kept expecting for the end to have some sort of lesson, like most children's stories and fairy tales do.  

Such as: one would maybe be to not believe false prophets/or people that claim to be something extraordinary.  Or maybe the inverse of that would be to always have faith in the powers above, etc.

Neither of those lessons, nor any of your "cookie cutter" child hood lessons (don't touch a hot stove, don't play with guns- you'll shoot your eye out, etc.) were taught.  And the more I sit with this story, the more I'm okay with it.

When I first began to read I automatically thought of the story of Icarus (a greek character who made wings out of wax- his father warned him not to fly close to the sun, Icarus (of course) did fly too close to the sun and fell.) Lesson: Don't be careless and over-ambitious. Done.

The Lament for Icarus H.J. Draper

This story, however, left me with a slight sour taste in my mouth.  I started out very skeptical of the winged man, but was soon convinced that this man did in fact have real wings and maybe even "magical" powers, "the child woke up without a fever (Marquez 270)" once the old man arrived after all.  And because we weren't left with this beautiful little lesson tied up in red ribbon at the end, I felt slightly disappointed.  I wanted my fairy tale ending!  The old man eventually flew away and Elisenda was relieved to be rid of the nuisance.

I believe this story illustrated the idea that blessings are usually misinterpreted by others- even the people these "blessings" are happening to.  The family eventually made money off of having the angel in their coop (this "angel" lived in a chicken coop!) but they really didn't grow close to him at all.  The towns people, once he didn't produce any obvious miracles, were disenchanted and had reduced him to a side show act.  It shows how differently people perceive something quite unique and wild.

 I mean, a man with wings?! Come on!  

Sonny's Blues: Music and Flashbacks

(http://students.cis.uab.edu/leshay07/Mainprojectpage.html - Harlem Renaissance)

James Baldwin in Sonny’s Blues frequently employs the use of flashbacks to propel the story further, give background information, and to clarify and complete certain characters’ personalities and what drives them throughout the story.  There is also the theme of music throughout the plot- it’s what eventually helps the narrator understand and accept his brother.  I made the connection between the music theme and flashbacks because I feel that music has the unique ability to immediately transport people to different times in the past- to seamlessly cause that person to flashback to the first time they heard the song, or a huge event in their life while the song was playing, etc.  Smells, pictures, and other sensory experiences can also cause a person to relive an event for flashback to their past- but they only last a few moments where as the flashback caused by familiar music lasts the entirety of the song or longer!  I’m not sure if that connection is really all the obvious (or necessary, really) but it’s one that my brain went to almost immediately after finishing.

Charlie "Bird" Parker- Sonny mentions him as being one of the greatest jazz musicians alive and someone that he admires