While Calvino’s book is like a story inside of a story, Scream 4 was a movie inside of a movie (about a book, about a real event…to branch it outward further). While I feel like Scream 4 was practically applied to the meta-like characteristics that Calvino’s book displays, I thought the movie itself was verging on comedy, based on how bad I truly found it to be. This sums up my feelings well.
I somehow let my friend sucker me into watching the 1984 film “The NeverEnding Story” over the weekend. While I found the movie to be poorly executed, I could not help but see a resemblance to Calvino in the plot line. The movie is about a boy reading a book, and in the story line of the book, it is found the book is actually calling on the boy and thrusting him into the dialogue among the characters…similar to Calvino and his “Reader.” So while I suffered through this movie, there was the silver lining that I would now have something to tumbl about.
1) n- a fictitious prose narrative of book length, typically representing character and action with some degree of realism.
2) adj- new or unusual in an interesting way.
I decided after class today to take the question “what is a novel?” literally, and this is the result dictionary.com yielded.
So then is Calvino’s work a novel? Each chapter reveals a chunk of a different text, so that would suffice for the “new” aspect as described. There is a narrative present, with multiple characters and plenty of action. I feel most people are trying to discredit this as a novel at this particular point, because the action is not necessarily from one, consistent plot. Eh. The realism in Calvino’s work is hard to believe at times…but conspiracy is not something unheard of and I believe that the situations that play themselves out are far fetched but not impossible. The realism is best seen in Calvino’s application of placing you, the reader, as “the reader”.
In short, and without revealing too much of the plot to those who have not yet finished, I would say yeah, Calvino’s work is a novel. A unique and great one at that.
So, in my attempted search for some sort of material for “ohrwurm”, I actually found a song titled the same thing. I don’t really know the band; but I found it ironic on two accounts: 1) the german definition of “ohrwurm” is literally “earworm,” which is what this song is ABOUT, and 2) the english definition of “ohwurm” is music that continually gets stuck in ones head, and this is a SONG.
As far as the poem goes, I think Muldoon is commenting on society being in continual repition, as the definition of “ohrwurm” states only musically. The only other reason I think that is because the last line of the poem says “and everything I’ve seen so far I’ve seen in flashback.” This could some how be related to the “repition” and how expirences are like a flashback because they have happened before.
I don’t know, sort of a long shot, but poetry is interpretive and at this point, I’m lucky if I can come up wit ANYTHING for Muldoon.
Muldoon’s first poem “Plan B” at first, appears to be like some sort of weird history lesson.
“Topsy” is introduced in the third subsection of the poem. I posted this picture because I am familiar with the story, and it is the first thing that “clicked” in the poem for me.
“Topsy” was electrocuted in New York in 1903, and the event was actually caught on film by none other than Thomas Edison himself. This is why Muldoon alludes to him several times…Edison proposed the idea, as opposed to hanging Topsy, and caught it on film in hopes of one-upping his rival, Tesla, in what is reffed to as the “War of Currents”. They fed Topsy carrots laced with a cyanide and electrocuted her with an AC current.
The allusions Muldoon makes to Edward VII and The Vilna are still unclear to me, but I fell like he is trying to make them all relate somehow. I feel like there is some sort of underlying message here about Muldoon himself and maybe his roots or ways of life, but he puzzles me and i can’t figure it out.
I didn’t really know anything about Paul Muldoon, so I typed him in on YouTube and thought this video was too funny to pass up. For all of you that are having a hard time understanding his poetry, allow me to provide you with some comic relief as he analyzes something we all are a bit more familiar with…Ke$ha. This might also help familiarize you with some “poetry lingo.” Side not, I am pleased he finds her “work” to be as lyrically lacking as I do. Enjoy.
I feel like Boland’s collection “The Journey”, specifically “Fever”, “Mise Eire”, and “I Remember”, revolve around a severe focus on the past, childhood, where the narrator came from, family history, immigration… you get my point.
So, I posted a link to a website where you can discover your family ancestry and get a family tree and such. Look it up. Maybe then you can write some mundane poetry about where you came from too.
I am finding it difficult to relate to and understand the messages most of these poems are conveying. Hopefully as the semester goes by I will be able to grasp the meanings more successfully.
Poetry is definitely hard to understand. I find it is beneficial to sometimes bounce ideas of another person to try and make something out of it. Also, a dictionary is your best friend. Just a suggestion…hope it helps.
“Domestic Interior” is definitely in reference to Jan van Eyck’s “Arnolfini Wedding”, since Boland does mention Eyck’s name. Boland seems to concentrate on the pregnancy of the woman and how it relates to the mirror. The convex mirror that she references multiple times is a key symbol in a sea of Eyck’s symbols. The mirror contains not only a reflection of the married (or to be married) couple but also the reflection of Eyck while he was painting the portrait. One common interpretation of the mirror is that it represents God’s eye, since there are biblical depictions in the mirror’s frame.
“The convex of your eye that is so loving, bright and constant yet shows only this woman in her varnishes, who won’t improve in the light”. There is somewhat of a religious reference to sin/premarital sex. Going with the feminist theme, I feel that Boland could be commenting on motherhood, a woman’s rights to her own body, and/or slut shamming. The line above seems to say that God is loving but the wife will remain in her current state/light of being judged.
I also agree with the idea Boland was making reference to Van Eyck’s painting in this poem. The third stanza (The oils…Eyck) is the dead give away. I also agree with the religious undertone you mention with the fifth stanza (The convex….light).
From an artistic standpoint, the mirror is not the only “religious” symbol…there is a single candle burning in the chandelier, which is also said to be representative of the eye of God, and the clogs on the floor are said to indicate holy ground.
As for the “premarital” thing, I can see that. But I can also see how that could NOT be the case. The oranges under the window sill actually represent fertility and the shams of the bed have been opened, which typically is associated with the readiness of the bed after marriage. There just seems to be too much focus on the sanctity of marriage here for there to be concern of “sin”. That’s just my interpretation. But I’m glad someone else caught this :)
“in her/his own image” is about an abusive relationship.
“anorexia”, about a girl that wants to be skinny so her boyfriend will love her, while boland draws some weird parallel to the story of adam and eve.
boland writes a few poems about women being stuck in the lull of everyday duties like laundry and cleaning.
she also writes several poems about a woman’s pressure to be beautiful, concerning things like plastic surgeons and make-up.
a few of her poems also allude to different paintings or art itself. i am told this is because her mom was a painter and grew up seeing these things. interesting.
basically, i find that eavan boland’s poetry revels in feminism and that she captivates typical “problems” associated with women with an extreme melancholic view. i like her so far though.
