Read: "Howl" (2592-2600) and Ginsberg biography (2590-92)
Read: "For the Union Dead" (2535-2537) and Lowell biography (2526-2529)
Read: "The Paradise of Bachelors and the Tartarus of Maids" (HTML copy here, PDF scan from the original magazine article here, and there are already several photocopies in the blue basket but the TA will make more) and Melville biography (1089-92)
And the final presentations by Lucille, Tady, and Caleigh/Letitia/Esther!
185 (Crystal). What would Walt Whitman say about "Howl"? Try to note some things he might like and some he might not like, or maybe some things that might surprise him.
186 (Joy, Teresa). Compare the poetic technique of "Howl" to the poetic technique of "For the Union Dead." Be as specific as possible.
187 (Viola, Caleigh). Compare the symbolic meaning of male homosexual love in "Song of Myself," "Howl," and "Paradise/Tartarus." (In other words, it functions as some kind of symbol in each, but its meaning differs greatly.) Given our earlier discussions about gender roles, you may consider that it relates somehow to the idea of authorship or authorial identity.
188 (Zoe, Ken). As you can see, Melville's story was first published in Harper's magazine in 1855. This magazine is still published in the U.S., so imagine you are the current editor. You need to choose one of the living authors we've read and explain how you want him/her to write an updated version; it should retain the same core themes but also reflect our lives in 2010.
Grades for the essay have now been e-mailed. I do apologize for the delay... I believe this is the longest I've ever held an essay in my 7 years of teaching! I should also confess that I find it rather strange to give essay grades as percentages. The American system uses letter grades (A, A-, B+, B, B- and so on)... the percentages perhaps give a false sense of accuracy. I believe my grades are not subjective in the sense of "arbitrary"; each essay is properly ranked within the set on a number of central criteria. I focus mainly on the ability to articulate, develop, and organize a specific thesis. (I hardly commented on English usage... if you have a specific question for how to use a certain construction, please feel free to ask.) But it is still a difficult judgment, so I think it would be more honest to admit an error range of something like 2 or 3 percent. Would that even be a "grade," so to speak? Anyhow perhaps this does not concern you, because I am told that my scale is quite high for NTHU! For this assignment the average score was about 83%. I think it was well deserved; I have been impressed all along with both your talent and your effort, and this was no exception.
Oh, and the presentations have been graded too. Except the ones going on Tuesday. The average for that has been something like 86% or 87%.
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This is Teresa’s answer to question no. 186.
ReplyDeleteBy roughly browsing though two poetic, the structures are totally different from each others. Lowell constructs four sentences in a passage. This kind of technique is a bit like a longer quatrain. Unlike Lowell, Ginsberg writes “Howl” like a whole long essay without separating the poetry into passages. Moreover, Ginsberg puts the word, which he wants to emphasize the most, on the head of the incomplete sentences. He may leave a blank before the sentence, if the other sentences’ head are not the emphasized word. For example,
who sank all night in submarine…….
through the stale beer afternoon……
crack of doom on the hydrogen……
who talked continuously seventy……
to museum to the Brooklyn………
The first word of the sentence may keep repeating in the same poetry such as “who” for example. It’s an interesting and unique way to write a poetry.
As an editor, I would ask Toni Morrison to write an updated version of Melville's work.
ReplyDeleteThe reason is that I think both of them share the idea of confronting a great old enemy (the disturbung fate which is incarnated as Moby Dick in Melville's works, and the African American discrimination discussed in Morrison's works)
I would ask Morrison to write something more modern and fitting the busy city life and also changing the original white male captian into black female CEO, and to discuss the disturbance that female manager encountered. (as a reference to Melville's work)
Don't know why, but I keep thinking of the Vietnam War as an Age of schemes & war & oppression & liberty & hippies & drugs &....a whole lot of these unconnected or opposite themes that come colliding together into a chaos when reading Ginsberg's "Howl."
ReplyDeleteSeems like the American Imperialism during that time could no more focus on its own domestic controversies while concentrating on the Cold War or many of these international issues that shouldn't have been interrupted by the Country of Police or the Big Brother -- United States of America.
Also I find it ironic when I think compare this insane poem to the nice and peaceful plot of "Forrest Gump."
Hmmmm....curious.
This is Zoë speaking…
ReplyDeleteIf I a were the editor of this magazine I would choose Sherman Alexie to write a story responding to Melville's story. Both of them face the theme of "black and white". In Melville's imaginative story, "white" is described as virtuous and full of prosperous future. While in Alexie's story, he talked about the created myth about black and sexual ability. The two stories is talking about the same issue at two sides of the point. If I would have Alexie to rewrite the story, I'd make him write it the other way round. And the minor reason to choose Alexie is because his humourous writing style would make a great ironic reflect. However, Alexie must contain new conceptions within the new story. Maybe things about urban life and the situation after "white flight" that made new concepts about the relationship and stereotype of "black and white". Creating imaginative scenery would be great and he should make the place isolated also.
Finally, a few words from the editor complaining that it's so hard finding a living author that we've read!!
Hi this is Crystal, posting the answer to Q.185
ReplyDelete185. What would Walt Whitman say about "Howl"? Try to note some things he might like and some he might not like, or maybe some things that might surprise him.
Whitman, who advocates using a wide range of vocabulary to increase possibilities for poetic expression and defies the conventional poetic standards, I consider he might appreciate Ginsberg’s new technique of run-on sentences, repetitive phrases which do not follow the normal tradition. Moreover, being a democratic poet, Whitman favors and lays emphasis on individual potential and features. Both of Whitman and Ginsberg do not like to be like others and follow the main stream. In this way, Whitman might also admire Ginsberg’s personal style that he wrote his works without restrictions and reveal his stance through his own voice at the same time.
However, on the other hand, I think that Whitman might feel surprise to see Ginsberg’s stunning and bold language in expressing sexual images. Although both of them openly and freely reveal their homosexual love in their works, Ginsberg’s controversial word use even forces him to face an obscene trial afterwards.
In addition to the sexual language, Whitman might dislike the overloaded dark and gloomy images in Ginsberg’s Howl. As an urban poet who wrote much about things in the metropolis, in Song of Myself, Whitman portrays a more balanced situation, both positive and negative sides, about America at his time. Nonetheless, in Ginsberg’s Howl, he bombards the readers with endless depressed and hopeless images such as violence, evilness in the society.