Week 7

                      Apollo with Lyre at Versailles

In the Symposium of Plato, an inquiry into the nature of love is made by Socrates and his guests.  One story comes from Aristophanes:  “Mankind, he said, judging by their neglect of him, have never, as I think, at all understood the power of Love. For if they had understood him they would surely have built noble temples and altars, and offered solemn sacrifices in his honour; but this is not done, and most certainly ought to be done: since of all the gods he is the best friend of men, the helper and the healer of the ills which are the great impediment to the happiness of the race. I will try to describe his power to you, and you shall teach the rest of the world what I am teaching you.”

      He goes on to speak of an ancient myth recounted by Homer that humans were originally of three kinds or sexes, each with two heads, four hands, four arms and legs, and so on.  There was man, woman, and a combination of the two, the androgyne.  These were mighty creatures and they made an attack upon the gods, who repelled them and then sought to curtail their power.  Zeus decided to split them in two.  Thus, in this myth,  we have since spent our lives yearning for our other half, whether male or female:  

And when one of them meets with his other half, the actual half of himself, whether he be a lover of youth or a lover of another sort, the pair are lost in an amazement of love and friendship and intimacy, and one will not be out of the other's sight, as I may say, even for a moment: these are the people who pass their whole lives together, and yet they could not explain what they desire of one another. For the intense yearning which each of them has towards the other does not appear to be the desire of lover's intercourse, but of something else which the soul of either evidently desires and cannot tell, and of which she has only a dark and doubtful presentiment.   ­  –from Aristophanes's Speech from Plato's Symposium

------------ Essay 3 is due today.  Last week we watched Wings of the Dove, a film based on the novel by Henry James, about the complications people experience in their desire for acceptance and love: fear, mistrust, jealousy, betrayal, class and gender biases, illness, 
along with a host of others not portrayed in that film.

The theme of love, in its erotic or romantic role and its more pervasive role as a force connecting all human beings (potentially)– to ourselves and each other and to other creatures and the natural world– is one that we can read everywhere.  Love is something that calls to us, challenges us to go beyond our narrow selves and to see ourselves as a vital part of the world.  The journey of life, as many have said, is in so many ways defined by our relationships and connections, and the sweetest bonds are those of love.  That we may be frightened of love, threatened by it, or embittered by its loss go with the territory.

Review:

Figurative language is the primary mode of poetry, language compressed and concentrated and made expressive and evocative through association.  Figuration or tropes take different forms, as metaphor, personification, simile, symbol, synecdoche, metonymy, irony, hyperbole, pun.  We find literal and figurative language is used to make imagery, the patterns of represented objects, feelings, and ideas we find in poems.  We speak of literal and figurative language; the former expresses the ordinary sense or actual denotation of the word or words, and the latter expresses an unusual sense or use for expressive purposes, beauty, vividness, ect.  So to call a woman a rose is a figurative use of the word rose (and to give her roses . . .), the two become identified by close association.

In the photograph above, which I found on the Internet, and I don't remember where, it appears someone has literally carved the "dream" of love and home into this woman's back.  What does the image suggest figuratively?  A tentative response:  anguish, we bleed for these, for love, true connection, a happy and safe home.  Inwardly and outwardly our thoughts and efforts, whoever we are, resonate with people the world over, however they identify–black, white, brown, yellow, gay, transgender, aged and ill, heterosexual, young, vibrantly healthy–what have you.

 The image reminds me of Allan Ginsberg (author of "Howl") in his search for love and place, and all the outcasts and rejects of society, including those who  struggle for self-acceptance and inclusion and love and respect–or benign tolerance, at the least.  Identity politics.  The face and body we present, the voice we use, our sexuality, work, lifestyle– we make of ourselves what we can in the pure endeavor to fulfill what calls to us.  Often our "differences" put us in conflict with others, and we suffer.  Sometimes, too, a collective fight ensues and the culture must change to accommodate the "differences" inherent in people the world over, natural variations of race, color, creed, gender, sexuality, and age.

-------------

Sex Without Love                        by Sharon Olds

How do they do it, the ones who make love

without love? Beautiful as dancers,

gliding over each other like ice-skaters

over the ice, fingers hooked

inside each other's bodies, faces

red as steak, wine, wet as the

children at birth whose mothers are going to

give them away. How do they come to the

come to the come to the God come to the

still waters, and not love

the one who came there with them, light

rising slowly as steam off their joined

skin? These are the true religious,

the purists, the pros, the ones who will not

accept a false Messiah, love the

priest instead of the God. They do not

mistake the lover for their own pleasure,

they are like great runners: they know they are alone

with the road surface, the cold, the wind,

the fit of their shoes, their over-all cardio-

vascular health—just factors, like the partner

in the bed, and not the truth, which is the

single body alone in the universe

against its own best time.

Desire       by Stephen Dobyns

A woman in my class wrote that she is sick

of men wanting her body and when she reads

her poem out loud the other women all nod

and even some of the men lower their eyes

and look abashed as if ready to unscrew

their cocks and pound down their own dumb heads

with these innocent sausages of flesh, and none

would think of confessing his hunger

or admit how desire can ring like a constant

low note in the brain or grant how the sight

of a beautiful woman can make him groan

on those first spring days when the parkas

have been packed away and the bodies are staring

at the bodies and the eyes stare at the ground;

and there was a man I knew who even at ninety

swore that his desire had never diminished.

Is this simply the wish to procreate, the world

telling the cock to eat faster, while the cock

yearns for that moment when it forgets its loneliness

and the world flares up in an explosion of light?

Why have men been taught to feel ashamed

of their desire, as if each were a criminal

out on parole, a desperado with a long record

of muggings, rapes, such conduct as excludes

each one from all but the worst company,

and never to be trusted, no never to be trusted?

Why must men pretend to be indifferent as if each

were a happy eunuch engaged in spiritual thoughts?

But it's the glances that I like, the quick ones,

the unguarded ones, like a hand snatching a pie

from a window ledge and the feet pounding away;

eyes fastening on a leg, a breast, the curve

of a buttock, as the pulse takes an extra thunk

and the cock, that toothless worm, stirs in its sleep,

and fat possibility swaggers into the world

like a big spender entering a bar. And sometimes

the woman glances back. Oh, to disappear

in a tangle of fabric and flesh as the cock

sniffs out its little cave, and the body hungers

for closure, for the completion of the circle,

as if each of us were born only half a body

and we spend our lives searching for the rest.

What good does it do to deny desire, to chain

the cock to the leg and scrawl a black X

across its bald head, to hold out a hand

for each passing woman to slap? Better

to be bad and unrepentant, better to celebrate

each difference, not to be cruel or gluttonous

or overbearing, but full of hope and self-forgiving.

The flesh yearns to converse with other flesh.

Each pore loves to linger over its particular story.

Let these seconds not be full of self-recrimination

and apology. What is desire but the wish for some

relief from the self, the prisoner let out

into a small square of sunlight with a single

red flower and a bird crossing the sky, to lean back

against the bricks with the legs outstretched,

to feel the sun warming the brow, before returning

to one's mortal cage, steel doors slamming

in the cell block, steel bolts sliding shut?

--------------Two Sonnets

To the Evening Star    by William Blake (1757-1827)

Thou fair-hair'd angel of the evening,

Now, whilst the sun rests on the mountains, light

Thy bright torch of love; thy radiant crown

Put on, and smile upon our evening bed!

Smile on our loves, and while thou drawest the

Blue curtains of the sky, scatter thy silver dew

On every flower that shuts its sweet eyes

In timely sleep. Let thy west wind sleep on

The lake; speak silence with thy glimmering eyes,

And wash the dusk with silver. Soon, full soon,

Dost thou withdraw; then the wolf rages wide,

And the lion glares thro' the dun forest:

The fleeces of our flocks are cover'd with

Thy sacred dew: protect them with thine influence.

And the Stars        by Robinson Jeffers (1887-1962)

Perhaps you did not know how bright last night,

Especially above your seaside door,

Was all the marvelous starlit sky, and wore

White harmonies of very shining light.

Perhaps you did not want to seek the sight

Of that remembered rapture any more.–

But then at least you must have heard the shore

Roar with reverberant voices thro' the night.

Those stars were lit with longing of my own,

And the ocean's moan was full of my own pain.

Yet doubtless it was well for both of us

You did not come, but left me there alone.

I hardly ought to see you much again;

And stars, we know, are often dangerous.

  

     Literature is filled with stories and poems about our quest for love in one or another of its forms.  We will spend some time looking at them in the coming weeks.

----------------Notes on the Persona, one of Carl Jung's Five Basic Archetypes--------

In dictionaries the word persona is defined as (1) person, and (2) the characters of a drama, novel, etc.  It is related to the familiar words personality, personal, personify, personate, and impersonate, each suggestive of the individual identity, and the ways in which that identity is manifest or portrayed–distinctive appearance, behavior, attitudes, voice, etc.  In Carl Jung's writings, the Persona–the social face or mask– is an aspect of the totality of Self.  It, along with the Shadow, Anima and Animus, coexist in the greater whole.  The Shadow/Unconscious Dark elements of Self stand in contrast to the Ego/Conscious Light elements and bear a compensatory relationship to each other.  Shadow elements are often associated with animal nature, the instincts, that which is ungovernable and uncivilized within us, but which is a source of primal energy, creativity and spontaneity.  Anima and animus are aspects of the Soul Image, an archetypal image of the opposite sex which may appear in dreams and fantasies and which is often projected onto others, particularly in the experience of falling in love.  The study of archetypes and symbols encourages understanding of  how opposites may be transcended or bridged, with the resultant experience being one of wholeness, consciousness and the unconscious melded.  The psychic reality is an essential aspect of Jung's thought, and includes even what is strictly "illusory."  Inner and outer worlds are perceived in images and the contents of psychic processes and experiences at times personified, as in the figures of gods and goddesses.

The ancient goddess figure called Aphrodite/Venus personified feminine beauty, the bloom of spring, love, and uninhibited, unself-conscious sexuality.  Only the virgin goddesses Athena, Artemis, and Hestia were said to be immune from her power (Huffington The God of Greece).  She has a heavenly and earthly aspect, a light and a dark side, to which our instinctual desire for love may have acquainted us.  She is not to be toyed with.  The arrows of her son Cupid (Eros) will magically transform some, and fatally poison others.

                                                   Venus at Her Mirror

In the Morning                      by Steve Kowit (1938-  )

In the morning

holding her mirror,

the young woman

touches

her tender

lip with

her finger &

then with 

the tip of 

her tongue

licks it &

smiles

& admires her

eyes.

Cosmetics Do No Good           by Steve Kowit (1938-  )

Cosmetics do no good:

no shadow, rouge, mascara, lipstick–

nothing helps.

However artfully I comb my hair,

embellishing my throat & wrists with jewels,

it is no use–there is no

semblance of the beautiful young girl

I was

& long for still.

My loveliness is past,

and no one could be more aware than I am

that coquettishness at this age

only renders me ridiculous.

I know it.  Nonetheless,

I primp myself before the glass

like an infatuated schoolgirl

fussing over every detail,

practicing whatever subtlety

may please him.

I cannot help myself.

The God of Passion has his will of me

& I am tossed about 

between humiliation & desire,

rectitude & lust,

disintegration & renewal, ruin & salvation.

Response 4  (350 words minimum, due week 8 or 9):  Discuss what you find most compelling in recent story, poem or film presented thus far.  Refer to specific scenes and images and the ideas and feelings they elicit.  You may convey freely your personal associations and /or memories of like experiences in the development. Handout with questions included for film option.

Final Project Composition Description

Due week 10 or, if you must, week 11, the final composition is an individual creative piece of 1000 words length, fictional or non-fictional: poetry, short story, brief play, essay, or some combination of the genres.  You might consider rewriting or remaking some well-known story, myth, or fairytale. If you choose to write a short story or other fictional piece and the word count falls short, an introduction to the piece, discussing your creative intent and influences, may serve for any shortfall in the main text. Short stories or fictional works should be plausibly developed and structured to maximize aesthetic and dramatic engagement of the reader.

Original illustrations in whatever medium you choose may be used to enhance the presentation and substitute for any minimal word shortfall (of 200-300 words). Double space and title your piece.

All essays must address themselves to a literary text(s) and/or theme and make reference to particular textual sources.  You may write on a theme developed in any one or several of the various texts looked at this quarter.   You may choose to write a personal essay that recounts your own “journey,” with references to and/or comparisons to stories or poems read; in short, you may write a piece that illustrates certain literary plot lines or themes in terms of your own personal experience. Double space and title your piece.  

If you are writing a standard interpretative essay that focuses on the specific construction and meaning of a text, introduce subject texts by title and author up front.  The introductory paragraph(s) should make clear what point you intend to develop as a thesis, and the body paragraphs should set forth the material textual evidence and examples that have led to your thesis claim.  Your aim is to show readers how a text may be read in the manner you are claiming.  Provide support for your thesis through use of direct quotation, paraphrase and summary where necessary. 

Topic Suggestions:

*Explore natural images that provide us with a way of thinking about human feelings and the self, the life cycle from birth through death, the effects of time’s passing, our place in the natural world, what we need and want from life.

*Explore stories that illustrate particular conflicts between generations, as between children and parents, men and women, or between the relatively powerless and those who have power– be it superior physical strength, age, or perhaps the authority of tradition, custom, and law on their side.  

*Explore the individual’s search for meaning in the world, or of those characters whose experience is of a kind that seems to offer insight and understanding as regards some particular subject, whether the importance of family, role models, the need for independence, distance, freedom, strength, courage, fortitude, a quiet space to reflect and create, etcetera.

Quiz:  Use complete sentences and paragraphs to answer the following.

1.     Discuss the aptness of the title “Lucky To Be Me” and its apparent reference(s).

2.     What makes up the bulk of the story? Summarize exposition, plot and setting of the story and provide a clear elaboration of the central conflict.

3.     Is this a love story?  If not, what kind of story is it?

4.     Discuss the final paragraph and image in terms of the story’s trajectory or arc.  What symbolism may be seen in the image of the deer?

5.     What fairytale is alluded to in “The Lingerie Salesman”?

6.     What is the narrative point of view of “The Lingerie Salesman”?  And what are we led to think of Nelson?

7.     What genre best describes the story, love? horror? adventure? dark comedy?

8.     Describe the climax of the story.