Lit & Civ: Ezra Pound

I am not a realist.

That is one of those things you vaguely know about yourself but are rarely confronted with actually admitting such a label aloud, or here, through a blog. I do not like Ezra Pound's poetry, plain and simple. (At least the pieces we were required to read.) The Cambridge Introduction to Modernism states that Ezra Pound believed that poetry should "imitate spoken language rather than conventional meters and should contain 'nothing, nothing, that you couldn't, in some circumstance, in the stress of some emotion, actually say'" and that his slogan was "Make it New."

*Heavy sigh* That's like people who argue that "real movies" don't have happy endings because "life isn't full of happy endings." Yes, which is exactly why I don't want to pay $12 to see a movie end badly: there are enough bad endings in real life! I watch movies for the romantic notion that things do end happily ever after, that good triumphs evil, that the protagonist always gets his girl.

To me the very point of poetry is the beautiful, lyrical language employed by the poet, not to hear everyday language. Will contemporary poets soon be using texting slang in their poetry? Will they insert LOL after certain couplets? Shorten people to ppl? Insert brb instead of breath marks?

Label me a romantic, but I prefer my poetry to be poetic.

Literary Theory: Intro to Fairy Tales

I can honestly say that I have never enjoyed an introduction of any book as much as I enjoyed the introduction to The Classic Fairy Tales, edited by Maria Tatar. I am sitting in my bedroom at my lakehouse, doing homework aside three of my best friends after an afternoon on our seadoos. I was guffawing so loudly they insisted on having me read aloud. I mean really, how is spinning straw into gold the same story as downing seven plates of lasagna??

Joking aside (really only the first page is laugh-out-loud funny), I am pleased to learn that fairy tales are 'indispensable," even in times of war. I'm a bit surprised that fairy tales are second only to the Bible but maybe that's for the same reason - most people know Bible stories just like most people know fairy tales. The familiarity is what makes both comforting.

In another class, Lit & Civ 2, we were asked to define Literature and had to identify whether Shakespeare, a car manual, comic books, and a picture book about the state fair were all considered Literature. I was thinking about this discussion while reading about "the merit" of fairy tales.

The mention of "happily ever after" struck me as odd, because not all fairy tales end happily! American fairy tales do because Americans like happy ending. Many fairy tales are based on the Grimm brothers stories and in the original German of these stories, most all of them end with "und wenn sie nicht gestorben sind, dann leben sie noch heute" which roughly translates to "and if they're not dead, then they're still alive today." That's not only not "and then they lived happily ever after," but it ends that way to remind the reader/listener that the stories are FAKE because if they weren't, the characters would still be alive. (I should note I took a course on German fairy tales. I'm a German major.)

Okay, off my soapbox for today.

P.S. Ladies, comment if you definitely do NOT dream of being Sleepy Beauty, as page xiii claims, but rather dream of being Mulan and saving yourself and your country. (I realize Mulan is not technically a fairy tale but hey, it's Disney, so I'm going with it.)

Lit & Civ: A Clean, Well-Lighted Place

The conciseness of the language used in Ernest Hemmingway's "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place" is what makes the piece such a quick read as well as adds to the overall callous tone. But the tone is a direct contradiction, in my opinion, to what the piece is really about. The sentence defining this is "He had a wife once." I love pieces that slap youth across the face with the idea that "old people" are not "nasty things," as the waiter claims, but that they were young once too and that young people could find themselves to be the sad old man looking for a clean, well-lighted place to drink. Hemmingway also suggests that youth arrogantly believes that their time is more valuable than the time of the elderly, as seen in the following exchange: "I want to go home to bed." "What is an hour?" "More to me than to him." How sad. I feel exactly the opposite. I imagine that time would seem much more precious the older you get.

One fairly irrelevant note: one thing about this piece that struck me was the inclusion of the sentence, "The girl wore no head covering and hurried beside him." I love tiny details like that.

Another theme I scoffed at was the idea that money equals happiness. Now normally I laugh at that, saying that obviously no one ever bought a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel if they think money can't buy happiness. But in all seriousness, I wanted to smack the waiter for not being able to imagine why someone with plenty of money would want to kill himself. Money isn't everything; it certainly doesn't solve all of your problems aside from money-related ones!

The Story of the Good Little Boy / Bad Little Boy

These are two of the most interesting MT stories in my opinion because they are dripping with irony. Just by the title, you have a preconceived notion of how the stories are going to go, especially since I think most of us had not idea about MT's dark side.

The Story of the Good Little Boy is concise: boy is good, boy helps people, boy follows Sunday school teachings to a T, boy has bad thing happen to him, boy dies. The end! Righteousness is punished. In The Story of the Bad Little Boy, the boy is a total jerk and does awful things to everyone, grows up, murders his family, and becomes a respected politician. Sinfulness is rewarded.

Now, this could be categorized under the theme of Luck, but could just as easily fall under Training, in the sense that training ISN'T everything, that you can be trained to do the right thing but still find yourself unrewarded. MT must have had little respect for Sunday school teachings and organized religion in general.

There I go, off on religion again. It's just one of my favorite MT themes! His views on religion in this story fascinate me. Thoughts?

The Diaries of Adam and Eve

Tom Sawyer aside, The Diaries of Adam and Eve are my absolute favorite writings by Twain. I think they are absolutely hilarious and I have recommended them to pretty much anyone and everyone. Mark Twain must have been fascinated by Adam and Eve, for he mentions them often in many of his other writings, fictional and essays alike. But in their own diaries, they really shine.

Funny enough, The Diaries of Adam and Eve are less about religion than much of his other stories, which is quite ironic since you'd think it would be one of the ultimate religious stories. Twain's Diaries are more about love and, in my opinion, the relationships between men and women in general. Twain clearly loved Olivia and was amused by stereotypical womanly personality traits, such as chattering incessantly. Adam claims to be annoyed by Eve but he eventually admits that life is more fruitful (get it?!) with Eve in his life, obnoxious as she can sometimes be. The pair contrasts yet complements. Their diaries, in typical Twain style, are also true to Man and Woman form: Adam writes concisely and not as often whereas Eve's diaries are wordy and ornate with copious amounts of often erroneous details. Both have an immense amount of subtle humor.

The stories of Adam & Eve also has my absolute favorite line ever written by Twain: "Wheresoever she was, there was Eden." I don't think anyone has ever written such a powerfully romantic line. I believe that Twain was talking about Olivia in that line, for she was his very own Eden.

Was It Heaven? Or Hell?

Mark Twain's short story "Was It Heaven? Or Hell?" has stuck with me, though we read it nearly two months ago. I even used it as one of the main components in my final video project. It's such a strong stance on religion and one that I can really get behind.

The crescendo of the piece is when the doctor lectures two aunts about their morals and their souls. They adamantly believe that lying for any reason is sinful and would cause them the loss of their own souls. The doctor asks if they would lie to help someone - to ease their pain or to save a friend's soul. They stand strong that they would still never tell a lie, even to save someone else's soul. The doctor then poses the question: What kind of souls do they have? Why are their souls worth saving but no one else's? It's selfish to always look out for yourself and no one else! In fact, it's sinful, which makes them hypocrites. I love that the doctor yells at them to "Reform! Tell lies!" If their lies help people, I'd like to believe that God would forgive them. I am Catholic, after all, and we believe in forgiveness!

I'm so glad that Twain wrote this piece. He and I often see eye-to-eye when it comes to organized religion. The thing I have been the most surprised about in this class has been that Twain writes about religion so much. Since my previous knowledge of Twain includes mainly Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer, I was shocked to learn that religion is such a major theme in his writings.

4/12/2010 Readings

I can't begin to pick my favorite of these three essays: "The Turning-Point of my Life," "A Scrap of Curious History" and "Bible Teaching and Religious Practice." Well, the second one was not my favorite but it's a toss up between the former and latter.

In "The Turning-Point of my Life," Twain explains that the crossing of the Rubicon was the turning point because he, like so many others, was a result of that action. This first part of his essay really made me stop and think. You could drive yourself mad, living life thinking that way! "If only my grandpa had spotted the RIGHT 'girl in the green dress' then maybe I wouldn't have naturally meaty thighs." Obviously it is true that everything is an effect of something and a cause of something else, but Twain's portrayal of the crossing of the Rubicon really drove that home.

The second part of "The Turning-Point of my Life" had much more to do with Twain, describing how his case of the measles lead him to be the literary figure he became. I could easily connect with that, because had I not been bullied and teased in high school, I would not have become chemically addicted to exercise and had I not spent 2-3 hours in the gym nearly every day for four years, I would have broken my jaw, hip, and right knee when I was run over by a Range Rover my sophomore year of college. My doctor told me that my love of exercise saved my life. Funny how fate works!

"A Scrap of Curious History" interested me less than the previous reading because I had no personal connection to the stories mentioned, but one of the last paragraphs really pulled at my heart strings: "He was hanged. It was a mistake." I also appreciate the comparison between France and America and that Martyrdom is universal.

I was particularly excited by "Bible Teaching and Religious Practice" because my final project focuses largely on Twain's view of Religion. The analogy between the Bible and a drug store tickled my funny bone but had me nodding along thinking, "So true, so true." I am Catholic but not a particular fan of organized religion. I believe that religion should be between a person and God and that there's no need to brag about going to church three days a week, mainly because the worst people in my town are all the people who go to church every Wednesday and Sunday and look down on those who don't. One girl who tried to steal my now ex-boyfriend by doing the most dreadful of things actually told me that I was going to hell because I swear like a sailor. Apparently do not covet thy neighbor's wife didn't mean anything to her?

People pick and choose which parts of the Bible to adhere to and it makes no sense to me. Interpretations are different too. Twain's description of the witch fiasco drives that home. People thought they were ridding the world of people who offend God but shouldn't murder of those people offend God? I am totally on Twain's side here.