Gnomon in “A Painful Case” and “The Dead” from Dubliners, Joyce
Here’s another quick rendering of some notes into a more solid idea, focusing on one of the short stories from Joyce’s Dubliners short story collection. This is sort of a prelude to a longer essay on Joyce’s “The Dead” that I hope to have up before long (probably as the first post in 2009!).
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Language in Portrait, Joyce
This is mainly a quick attempt to pull together various notes I took on my first reading of James Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. Don’t take this as a complete essay, or a fully investigated line of reasoning–more like the start of one. [just trying to get some stuff that I think is worth mentioning posted before the last few hours of 2008 tick by]
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Cooper on Fabliaux and Romances in CT, Chaucer
This quick write-up refers to Helen Cooper’s book Oxford Guides to Chaucer: The Canterbury Tales.
[this is from Fall 2007]
Cooper points out that there are five fabliaux in The Canterbury Tales and conveniently, also five romances. While this may just be chance, it still shows that Chaucer considered the fabliau form essential to his collection, and the form falls within the traditional literary training he would have received regarding French literature. While the fabliaux are tales of great “solaas” and are told for pleasure, they offer a necessary alternative to the romance forms that are also present. This contrast of literary levels (fabliaux being common and comical, and romances being more courtly), I find personally very interesting, and I think it is essential to how we perceive the work as a whole.
That may seem obvious, but I think that further investigating the balance between what would be considered lower class stories and upper class stories could yield significant results in regards to how the stories establish similarities and difference between the social classes. We know there is an established form for the order these tales should go in, and then we know there is the contrary order/disorder that they do go in. This seems to relate closely to the issue of fabliau turning over to romance and vice versa during the course of the work.
The arrangement of fabliaux in amongst preceding and succeeding tales shows a well-planned variance in form (as is evidenced by the “Miller’s Tale” in relation to the “Knight’s Tale”). This could also lead to an important argument as to the proper ordering of the tales. With a close look at how the fabliaux are distributed and are used to comment on other tales within the collection, a different way of looking at the ordering could be attained. So while getting a more in-depth look at Chaucer’s commentary on social classes and society as a whole, we also get a deeper understanding as to how the tales relate to each other both intertextually and intratextually (individually and interdependently).
Helen Cooper on The Knight’s Tale from CT, Chaucer
This quick write-up refers to Helen Cooper’s book Oxford Guides to Chaucer: The Canterbury Tales.
[this is from Fall 2007]
In Cooper’s analysis of “The Knight’s Tale” she includes a section entitled “The Tale in Context.” Cooper mentions how “The Knight’s Tale” is first so it cannot reflect on a tale prior to it, which makes it unique amongst the stories. Cooper also suggests “The Knight’s Tale” establishes precedents or “normatives” that later tales provide variations on. This way of looking at structure and theme throughout the Tales interested me.
The example of a normative that Cooper gives is Emelye and then how the later female characters are reflected in comparison or contrast to her. Cooper also mentions the love-triangle motif that is in several of the subsequent tales. Looking at parallels as they relate to “The Knight’s Tale” throughout the stories, allows for a different analysis of the Tales.
This analysis is important because it gives us deeper insight into the characters within the Tales themselves. We see Emelye in her purity and elegance. But when we see Alison flirty and somewhat wild, Emelye’s qualities become more sharply defined in contrast. Our first impression of the pilgrims’ storytelling techniques and the sorts of stories they will tell–characters they will talk about, et cetera–are established in “The Knight’s Tale.” The ways in which Chaucer uses these initial perceptions he has defined in order to create a series of subsequent stories that to some degree include a retrospective look back on “The Knight’s Tale” make for a powerful cohesive bond between the tales and the pilgrims that deserves attention. Taking note of these normatives from “The Knight’s Tale” allows us to see new connections between the travelers.
Kenyon Review to consider Volpert review
I finished my review of Megan Volpert’s forthcoming work the desense of nonfense, which is coming out January 2009. It is fantastic. Anyone interested in cutting edge poetry should snag it. It is experimental confessionalism, but for as much as people would pigeon-hole it as New York school, there is definitely something new and exciting about what it does. The review has been submitted to the Kenyon Review’s online blog with the hopes of being accepted, so others will discover this enjoyable work. The Kenyon Review is of course a very well-established, and a very respectable institution; what I’m saying is it would be an honor to make it in, and I wouldn’t be surprised to get rejected (but here’s hoping!). If it doesn’t make it in, I will probably try a couple other places, and if nothing else, the review will be posted here. I also intend to do a more in-depth analysis of the work once it hits bookshelves (although I have already started on it), and hope to get the critical end of things for the work rolling, or at least lend a healthy shove. That’s all for now.
Happy New Years! (in about 10 and a half hours for me)
Next from the WWW–Lilacs & Landmines
Lilacs and Landmines has long been a link off of my blog, and its creator and I have also exchanged a series of comments on one another’s work. For a long time her blog was poetry only with the occasional thoughts of an aspiring writer about things, stuff, and life. It’s sort of like Roland Barthes’ Mythologies, except most writers have yet to discover how to make money off of their random thoughts (or how to make them quite so analytical). Her poetry certainly has its own sense of style; although, many of the poems that are posted are early drafts, so while interesting and entertaining, there are still some sparks that can only be acquired by request (or hopefully one day in published versions).
She has had a review of Megan Volpert’s first book face blindness published recently, and she has put together a chapbook, the pieces of which are strewn in various states of completion throughout the blog. And recently her work online has expanded to include critical articles, including an interesting one on autobiography, about Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home.
There’s a lot to read and enjoy over at Lilacs and Landmines. [Sorry this review isn't as interesting as the material its about; I'm sort of out-of-it today--you'll just hafta trust me, and check it out!]
Seen Your Scene
My WIP manuscript is coming together in some new and exciting ways. After making a few minor revisions to the original story to make it more captivating and better infuse the mythological elements, something struck me, and now the changes have become more dramatic (pun intended). Here’s one new scene in particular that I am fond of:
Cayden held up a pill, half-red and half-blue.
“What is it?” Brody asked.
“Fear.” Cayden pulled apart the two colored halves, dumping the dust inside into his open hand. The powder looked white, but it was hard to tell because some of it was tinted red and some of it was tinted blue from the light in the room filtering through the capsule halves onto it. He brought it up to his nose and breathed it in. He didn’t snort it, like it was cocaine; but instead, he inhaled it like he was seeing the doctor for a physical and had been told to take deep breaths. Cayden then licked the remainder from his palm, including the empty red and blue shell. His muscles tensed, veins rising up as bright as lines on a map, and shivered. “Fear in a handful of dust.” And Brody looked away, walking back out onto the mats to put fresh fists to the punching bag, which was still slightly swaying from before.
Something of a tribute
How can one read a book of poetry and not respond to it? It would have to be of poor quality indeed.
“weaponizing the cure for the narrator”
windmill island floats in over sandymount strand
windmills don’t do that but it floats so we see
and understand that there is that reason behind
windmill island floats in over sandymount strand
a tapestry in the great hall hanging on a wall
a nail privately soliciting it to stay off the floor
like that windmill island that floats for no sense
we don’t see the nail but think it must be there
what a sight to look behind that tapestry to find
there was no such nail holding its stock and store
what a sight that windmill island floating in from sea
we think the windmill has something to do with it all
we think that there must be a nail somewhere near
the easy rotation of those windmill blades holding on
i never hold pencils in my left hand during work hours
Something new sounds like something old
“fighting trim”
they faded in from the dark
of night brought into view by
the overhead lights of the
parking lot first presented in
the bobbing burning embers
at the tips of cigarettes that
crackle quietly to themselves
lucky strikes camel non-filters
aging fighters all though not
past that age where strongarm
tactics are useful billy still hits
like foreman in his formidable
years but he hacks hard into
the backs of his hands after
only running a mile what once
would have been trivial to him
there are stories still told about
their big fights by regulars at
bars statewide but there is a
bleakness to them their fights
seem like concession speeches
even the fights that they win
i once asked big john about it
and he told me that on the day
his lung collapses he’ll be in the
ring with the gloves on his hands
he wasn’t after the fighting trim
that kept him in the gym late in
his youth he was now fit to die
not fit to give in or fit to lose no
this was something else entirely
but i understood and scan daily
looking for his obituary in the paper
WWW–Korafox on Deviant Art
Korafox is one of the longest standing links on my blog. I originally linked her Deviant Art gallery in the first month of this blog’s existence, October 2006 (for those keeping score). Although she’s been in Japan recently, hopefully she’ll be making her triumphant return to the States and more importantly a scanner within the next 5-6 months. She’s already told me that she’s been quite sketch-happy while abroad. I will admit that I’ve always been a bigger fan of her sketchwork than anything, not because her finished work is lacking but because of all the strange things she comes up with that she doesn’t turn into completed projects. Her style is truly original. I’ve seen a wide variety of artists and scribble a little myself, but her style has a unique blend of American, Japanese, and traditional art student woven together. Her sense of action and foreshortening I would suggest are from American sources, while her sense of personality is brought on by the more subtle (and I believe distinctly more realistic, generally speaking) Japanese sense of identity (she has a minor in Japanese language and culture). She graduated with her degree in art–old school painting, drawing, and the like. And this too shows its influence in unique and marvelous ways. Largely, her use of realism–drawing from life techniques–to flesh out details of her characters and their clothes is what I enjoy most about her work. We can recognize real people in the way she draws faces, and yet they maintain a comicbook quality that is hard to define. I suppose if I fully understood this infusion of realistic and animation styles, I would be using it by now. While her gallery is not currently updating, it will be shortly, and I advise everyone to take a look–you’re sure to find something you’ll like.
Determinant #1 of the TBD Series
So the To Be Determined or TBD series works like a poetic philosophical theory: the central body of poems with their somewhat undetermined titles act as a developing theory, and then side-poems called determinants are specific information focused through that theory to be tested, so then the value and accuracy of the information can be determined. This is the idea that ties it all together, but of course the poetry resists analysis in a lot of ways, so while I hope people can keep this concept in mind while reading the work, also know that it will be quite difficult to determine the full extent of the connection right away.
1.1—–
Determinant (1)
The Ballad of Roland
and the Black Right Arm
:
–first, wake up
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Meditations on the Mentor
Context: Since context seems to be so important, allow me to establish where these thoughts are coming from. I received a satisfactory grade from one of my literature teachers, whom I have had numerous classes with and developed a comfortable relationship with. Still, this grade is lower than what I am capable of. My familiarity with the text written on, the amount of time I had, and the chosen topic were all well within what I would consider my ability. While I am not saying anything here for certain, I want to present some thoughts. This is being written mainly for my own benefit, so I can think this through.
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Old Thoughts–David Jones & Heart of Darkness
Another old and somewhat flung together essay that will probably never see revision, this brief analysis focuses on a definition of Modernism given by David Jones in a response to a claim about his work. The response was titled “Past and Present” and was written in March of 1953. This quick write-up is especially rough.
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Old Thoughts–The Waste Land, T.S. Eliot
This is a bit old, but I thought there were some good thoughts in it, so I decided to go ahead and post it. It’s a very quickly written draft of an analysis of T.S. Eliot’s “The Waste Land.”
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Volpert Anew and a Forthcoming Review
I recently was contacted about writing a review of a forthcoming book of poetry by Megan Volpert. I reviewed her first book, and even though I wrote things such as
“Still, the combination of these things comes off as contradictory, creating a feeling of immaturity and conceitedness.”
and
“This lends itself towards a feeling that the speaker is somewhat of a clichéd graduate student. If the author Megan Volpert is in fact the variety of voices that are the collective Megan Volpert speaker in the book, then yes, she has recently come from graduate school; still, the inherent childishness in some of the poetry reads less like a concession of inexperience and more like an unfortunate flaw.”
I was still contacted to review the new book. Now, I will not presume that Volpert is a masochist, but instead will commend her on willingly offering her work up for scrutiny by someone who obviously is willing to scrutinize. My review of the first book was overall positive, and I did enjoy it, so I look forward to reading this new work. It has some heft to it, and given the complexity of her previous work, I know this will be quite the undertaking. Look for a more analytical review here within the next month, and I will post a notice if the more conventional version of that review gets published. I am very excited to have this privilege, and hope that my early analysis of the work will prove beneficial to the popularity and study of contemporary poetry.
