Usha’s Blog

Motif- Body

Occurences in the poem:

"hysterical naked,"
"who were expelled from the academies for crazy & publishing obscene odes
on the windows of the skull"
"purgatoried their torsos night after night"
"yacketayakking screaming vomiting whispering facts and memories and
anecdotes and eyeball kicks and shocks of hospitals and jails and wars,"
"who lounged hungry and lonesome through Houston seeking jazz or sex or soup"
"who distributed Supercommunist pamphlets in Union Square weeping and 
undressing"
"who broke down crying in white gymnasiums naked and trembling before
the machinery of other skeletons,"
"who bit detectives in the neck"
"howled on their knees"
"waving genitals and manu-scripts"
"who let themselves be fucked in the ass by saintly motorcyclists"
"hiccuped endlessly trying to giggle but wound up with a sob behind a partition
in a Turkish Bath when the blond & naked angel came to pierce them with a sword,"
"where the faculties of the skull no longer admit the worms of the senses"
"where you pun on the bodies of your nurses"
"fifty more shocks will never return your soul to its body"

The body acts as the agent of experience for both pain and pleasure. The
references to the body include examples that are both extremely gory and
painful, and pleasurable. The meaning of the motif itself switches back and
forth between the two emotions.There are also several sexual references
concerning the body. Even in this case, it is both a reference to pleasure and pain.
This motif is the powerful in fully expressing the absoluteness of pain and
pleasure. The title itself, "howl" is a reference to extreme pain and extreme
pleasure. The body is the bets possible agent for the extreme pain and the
extreme pleasure. A lot of the examples of the body imply the experience of
both pain and pleasure at the same time. The reference to nudity is also
important because it represents the complete removal of all layers until the
most human, basic, fundamental front remains- where the most ultimate form
of freedom can be experienced. Thus the body is the agent of freedom, the agent of
experience. 

The 1950s was the beginning of the Red Scare and the fear of communism was starting to spread. At this point, solidarity was important, especially for ethnic communities. Loyalty is important in this context because everybody is being targeted, in one way, for being immigrants. Moreover, being blue collar workers, it is more difficult for them to get the necessary amount of money to make ends meet. This also prompts a strong sense of community and loyalty.

Eddie is essentially driven by his own needs and he is not hesitant to undermine others in fulfilling his own desires. Thus loyalty becomes a very difficult value for Eddie. In order to be loyal to anyone, a certain level of self-compromise is necessary; and Eddie is not keen on making that compromise.

Eddie’s unawareness of his own lust for his niece, prompts him to further indulge in somewhat irrational behaviors that violate the codes of loyalty. He fuels all the confusion and displeasure into a hatred towards Rodolpho, instead of understanding his own true intentions behind his act. In his act of “protection”, he calls the Immigration Agency and reports Rodolpho and Marco. This act highlight his disloyalty for four people, in a way. Rodolpho and Marco are of course the direct victims of his irrational betrayal of loyalty. Additionally, Beatrice is betrayed too because Eddie acts without any concern towards the fact that it is her family. Lastly, since Rodolpho was set to marry Catherine, she is betrayed because her match is ruined by Eddie.

I think that within the story, the Native Americans are definitely depicted as somewhat primitive. The contrast between Nick’s dad and the husband is so sharp because of the methodical way in which Nick’s dad approaches the woman, and her pain. For him, she is just a patient, and it is his responsibility to cure her and fix the problem. The pain itself isn’t the central issue; the delivering of the baby is.

The husband, however, is profoundly affected by the pain, to the extent that he cannot bear it anymore and he decides to end his own life to stop listening to it. Within the story, this seems to be a primitive and rather unintelligent act. The deeper meaning behind the act, and the profound relation that the husband and the woman must have shared is unaddressed.

In fact, by the end of the story, Nick completely misses the point. He feels that death is a choice, one he will never choose. His father merely apologizes for what Nick has to see, but never explains it appropriately enough. Thus Nick derives a completely irrelevant message. To Nick, the husband seems almost foolish in his action, and nothing more. He is thus, portrayed, through the eyes of Nick as a primitive being.

The galleries of modern art from the Armory Show of 1913 represent modern art accurately in several ways. The juxtaposition of things that don’t typically belong together and the abstract nature of the paintings and sculptures make the message within the painting both challenging to decipher and subjective in interpretation.

The reason they are challenging to uncover is because of the abstract and peculiar arrangement of the paintings. For example, Mademoiselle Pogany, by Brancusi poses a challenge because of the proportional abstraction. On immediate view, it seems like a woman praying, but after a closer examination, it seems like someone else’s hands are holding her face. Whatever the ultimate message may be, it is definitely not apparent in plain view. This makes it a challenge to understand the possible message behind each painting.

A lot of the modern paintings were cast off by some critics as being too simple or meaningless. Some people cast them off as just being accidental, and comical. However, in closer observation, certain patterns and structures stand out. For example, Dances at the Spring, by Picabia, looks like a simple arrangement of shapes and shades. However, I also found a loose pattern of a woman and a man holding each other closely. It can be argued, though, that this is a subjective observation. The arrangement of these paintings leaves a lot of space for possible interpretations, marking them as modern art.

The juxtaposition of different shapes, colors, and patterns adds to the mystery of these works of art. The difference in these allows more possibility for interpretation within the painting. The possibility of different interpretations makes it modern art. Moreover, the paintings don’t follow any sort of logic or standard. It is just an abstract arrangement of color. This nature of the paintings makes the perception of the painting more interesting because of its abnormality. The defiance of traditional patterns is a glaring feature of modern art; it is this quality that makes interpretation more interesting as well as challenging.

The narrator in Sister Carrie plays a sigificant role because of the fact that he is so outspoken in his judgment of the characters. From teh language he uses, it can be assumed that he is an educated person. The comments he makes about gender dynamics indicate that he is male. He plays a prominent role in defining the characters and commenting unreservedly on their behaviors. Because he has the epistemological advantage, he often knows more about the characters than the characters themselves.

Throughout the story, the narrator describes her discontent with the room and her disdain of the yellow wallpaper. More than anything, being confined to the room completely and being disallowed her freedom, has driven her more insane than anything else. In that regard, she is victorious towards the end because she finally does what she wants to, even though it is crazy. However, it is also a defeat because she has succumbed to her psychosis. Though she starts off as just a little bit strange, she ends up being completely insane as she perceives herself to being the person within the wall.

Tell all the Truth but tell it slant –

Tell the truth, but take the margin when you need to?

Success in Circuit lies

What does she mean by circuit? Success lies in circled lies?

Too bright for our infirm Delight

Beyond our immediate understanding. Too blatant to be received gracefully on the first stroke.

The Truth’s superb surprise

The truth is powerful enough to throw you completely off your guard

As Lightning to the Children eased

The impact eased

The analogy seems a little bit abstract; because we can’t really ease lightning.

With explanation kind

Making it kinder and less harsh

The Truth must dazzle gradually

Truth’s illumination should come slowly, with time it will deliver its full impact.

The gradual nature of it will make sure the message is delivered wholesomely as well.

Or every man be blind –

When we’re just hit with the truth, we tend to just reject it.

Or we fall apart because of it.

Both strategies really don’t do much to help.

Observations:

The poem is actually pretty well connected and it transitions smoothly. Though the word “slant” makes the beginning ambiguous.

I am still lost as to what the word “circuit” serves to do in this poem.

I vs tide and I vs crowd poses a problem to Whitman because it is being viewed as two seperate entities. For Whitman, the seperation undermines the nature of common experience. Everyone is united, according to Whitman, by the commonality of experience. Throughout the poem, he emphasizes the fact that even distance and time don’t stand to the nature of experience. He resolves this issue by uniting the experience of people. Towards the end, there is a shift in tone as he speaks of everyone as “we” and not just “I”.

The assignment was good in that, it had us thinking about the material in a different way and it was more interactive. I really had fun looking for an appropriate picture because it seemed like so many pictures correlate with the material but very few clicked with the verses exactly.

I really don’t have any complaints about this assignment. I really liked it. It was refereshing as well. It gave a different light to the poem, especially when all the pictures were compiled together. I would really like to do this for some of the other pieces we read.

“Clear and sweet is my soul . . . . and clear and sweet is all that is not my soul.”

I chose the image of the ocean and the sky reflected on it to explain the quote, “clear and sweet is my soul…”

The picture represents absolute clarity because of the nature of its reflection of the sky. It is extremely natural and so pure. This in turn reflects Whitman’s reflection of his soul being clear and sweet amidst nature.

When we place aside the false protocols, norms, and expectations, I think we finally come upon what we would really love to be, naturally.

What do we want to do, naturally?

Stripped of all this culture.
All these expectations.
All these standards.
All these rules, codes, norms.
All the ways we’re taught we’re supposed to live.
Stripped of all of it.
Only thoughts concern core needs. No worries of anyone but the clear soul.
No protocol.
Just life. Coexistence without judgment.

Now tell me, how are you going to live your life?
If you can be who you are, without the constant worry of what you are being perceived as, what would you be?
If you can follow your heart without being thwarted by insecurity, culture, and approval, what would you do?
How do you, at the core of it all, want to live this one great chance

I cant insert the picture in here for some reason so I’m including the link:

http://flickr.com/photos/patrick-smith-photography/3086025194/sizes/o/