The story that most spoke to me from the Mary Austin book was "The Pocket Hunter". I liked it because it dealt with an eccentric character, in a series of really absurd circumstances. Furthermore, it really kept an upbeat tone, which made it kind of like the anti-Blood Meridian. The protagonist is optimistic, cheery, and sociable, which lends him a highly likeable quality.
The pocket hunter seems to be in a transcendent level of peace within his natural surroundings. He doesn't carry a gun, and pretty much just lives off the land. This peaceful coexistence seems to be allow him to cross the border between humanity and naturalism. He is intimately tied to the desert and the mountains. When he becomes lost in a blizzard, he takes refuge with what he thinks is a flock of sheep. When daybreak comes, however, he discovers that he had been snuggling with wild mountain sheep! This kind of thing could only come from the Pocket Hunter.
The pocket hunter seems to bordered in by his fate. He has cosmopolitan tendencies, and every time he strikes a rich claim he travels abroad to spend his money. However, he always ends up back in the desert, pocket hunting. Austin uses this image to show the confines of our fate. We have things that we're good at, that we're meant to do, and try though we may, we are unable to cross that border. She ends the story by saying that "no man can be stronger than his destiny".
Friday, May 7, 2010
Gender Borders
Sandra Cisneros is my favorite Latina author. This is due, in part, because I've been reading her for so long. It seems like I've been going through her work since Grade School, just because she's been anthologized so much. "Woman Hollering Creek" is not a story for Grade Schoolers, though. It contains a lot of adult themes, and the plot builds up to a really epic border crossing.
"Woman Hollering Creek" is basically about a reverse border crossing. We often think about people crossing the Mexican Border in order to come here and stay in America, but this is about a woman who goes back. The protagonist, Cleofilas, marries a man and comes to America with him. They have a child together, but their marriage quickly falls apart. He begins beating her, and when she is pregnant with their second child she decides that she has to leave to return to her father. The woman who takes her back is a wild, liberated individual, which shocks Cleofilas.
This story crosses the border of Gender Roles. Cleofilas had novel ideas about how her life should play out, and what her role was as a wife. However, after she begins being abused, she has to muster the courage to break the bonds of tradition, and reject her husband. This destruction of a relationship is a rarity in the family-centric latino culture. The woman who transports Cleofilas across the border represents the end-stages of the liberation that Cleofilas has began to undertake by leaving her husband. She is unmarried and drives a truck, and Cleofilas finds this strange and admirable. This story is a stirring piece of feminist literature, and will be remembered as such.
"Woman Hollering Creek" is basically about a reverse border crossing. We often think about people crossing the Mexican Border in order to come here and stay in America, but this is about a woman who goes back. The protagonist, Cleofilas, marries a man and comes to America with him. They have a child together, but their marriage quickly falls apart. He begins beating her, and when she is pregnant with their second child she decides that she has to leave to return to her father. The woman who takes her back is a wild, liberated individual, which shocks Cleofilas.
This story crosses the border of Gender Roles. Cleofilas had novel ideas about how her life should play out, and what her role was as a wife. However, after she begins being abused, she has to muster the courage to break the bonds of tradition, and reject her husband. This destruction of a relationship is a rarity in the family-centric latino culture. The woman who transports Cleofilas across the border represents the end-stages of the liberation that Cleofilas has began to undertake by leaving her husband. She is unmarried and drives a truck, and Cleofilas finds this strange and admirable. This story is a stirring piece of feminist literature, and will be remembered as such.
Cabeza de Border
Cabeza de Vaca.
The literal translation of this is "Cow's Head", so first of all, badass name. Second, his epic story "The Account" reads like a Russell Crowe movie. You could totally see Crowe wandering the desert, eating prickly pears, and being enslaved by Indians. So that's cool as well.
But more importantly, I think "The Account" illustrates the thin line that exists between worship and hatred. Essentially, the natives in the book first enslave de Vaca because he's different from them, and then worship him as a kind of holy-man for the exact same reason. I think the dichotomous concepts of worship and enslavement really illustrate the entire Spanish Conquest. The Spaniards were often so foreign to the natives that in many places, they were initially revered as Gods. Likewise, the Spaniards viewed the natives as inferior because they were different than them, and used that to justify their conquest. The differences which spurred these actions on the part of the two peoples ranged from anything like language and religion to the color of the people's skin.
I think its interesting that de Vaca was able to walk on both sides of this border. His brief tale provides a nice frame for the ensuing settlement of Mexico and the Southwest.
The literal translation of this is "Cow's Head", so first of all, badass name. Second, his epic story "The Account" reads like a Russell Crowe movie. You could totally see Crowe wandering the desert, eating prickly pears, and being enslaved by Indians. So that's cool as well.
But more importantly, I think "The Account" illustrates the thin line that exists between worship and hatred. Essentially, the natives in the book first enslave de Vaca because he's different from them, and then worship him as a kind of holy-man for the exact same reason. I think the dichotomous concepts of worship and enslavement really illustrate the entire Spanish Conquest. The Spaniards were often so foreign to the natives that in many places, they were initially revered as Gods. Likewise, the Spaniards viewed the natives as inferior because they were different than them, and used that to justify their conquest. The differences which spurred these actions on the part of the two peoples ranged from anything like language and religion to the color of the people's skin.
I think its interesting that de Vaca was able to walk on both sides of this border. His brief tale provides a nice frame for the ensuing settlement of Mexico and the Southwest.
Thursday, May 6, 2010
Border-Gone
"Long Gone" by Sterling Brown was undoubtedly my favorite selection from The Harlem Renaissance Reader. This is because it works on so some interesting levels.
First of all, "Long Gone" is a poem that tears down conventional standards of poetry. 'Proper English' was the poetic language of the time, as was being used by people like T.S. Eliot and Langston Hughes. Indeed, Sterling Brown even shows his competency with standard verse in other anthologized poems. However, "Long Gone" casts off the yolk of expectation in favor of a more realistic kind of dialogue. The improper grammar, terrible spelling, and twisted syntax is completely forgettable because of its catchy rhyme scheme, and effective story-telling ability. When you read it, you can just imagine some down-home southern guy telling this poem to his girlfriend right before he hops on the next train out of town.
Second, the subject matter of long gone is able to transcend race and class. I am not black, and I do not speak anything like the narrator of the poem. However, I feel for him! His impulse - the restless drive that keeps him moving - is found universally. I have the itch for traveling too, especially when I've stayed somewhere for a little bit too long.
Finally, I like the inconsistent metrical pattern. The first stanza of the poem is divided into lines of 7-6-6-5 beats, and the second is 5-5-6-5. This inconsistency adds to the restless feel of the poem. It makes the reader jump along, and the syntax staggers this effect. This clever use of meter in combination with phrasing is the mark of a good poem.
First of all, "Long Gone" is a poem that tears down conventional standards of poetry. 'Proper English' was the poetic language of the time, as was being used by people like T.S. Eliot and Langston Hughes. Indeed, Sterling Brown even shows his competency with standard verse in other anthologized poems. However, "Long Gone" casts off the yolk of expectation in favor of a more realistic kind of dialogue. The improper grammar, terrible spelling, and twisted syntax is completely forgettable because of its catchy rhyme scheme, and effective story-telling ability. When you read it, you can just imagine some down-home southern guy telling this poem to his girlfriend right before he hops on the next train out of town.
Second, the subject matter of long gone is able to transcend race and class. I am not black, and I do not speak anything like the narrator of the poem. However, I feel for him! His impulse - the restless drive that keeps him moving - is found universally. I have the itch for traveling too, especially when I've stayed somewhere for a little bit too long.
Finally, I like the inconsistent metrical pattern. The first stanza of the poem is divided into lines of 7-6-6-5 beats, and the second is 5-5-6-5. This inconsistency adds to the restless feel of the poem. It makes the reader jump along, and the syntax staggers this effect. This clever use of meter in combination with phrasing is the mark of a good poem.
The Closing Border
The story that I was assigned from the Harlem Renaissance Reader was Grimke's "The Closing Door". I think that this story has a relevant place in the borders literature class. This is because the central theme concerns the borders that engulf oppressed people, and the consequences that can come from crossing them.
The basic details of the plot go as follows: A black, pregnant woman named Agnes eagerly waits for new from brother Bob. However, all she receives is a note saying that he died suddenly. Agnes's brother Joe comes up instead, and tells them the story of how Bob died. Apparently, he refused to move for a white man, and a fight ensued which Bob won. He was then lynched. Agnes learns of this, and goes into a severe depression. She has her baby, but is unable to care for it since it will grow up in a world that tolerates lynching. So she kills the baby.
This story shows how dangerous crossing borders can be. Bob was living in the South, under a system with a very definite border which separated acceptable and unacceptable actions on the part of black people. When Bob decided to cross the border, he was gruesomely murdered for his transgression. His sister Agnes sees this as evidence of the insurmountable odds faced by blacks in America. The 'closing door' is indeed just another border which she feels that her son will not be able to cross.
This is important in the context of the class because we often talk about how crossing borders is such a good thing. I think we may tend to disregard the fact that, right or wrong, crossing borders can have very dire consequences.
The basic details of the plot go as follows: A black, pregnant woman named Agnes eagerly waits for new from brother Bob. However, all she receives is a note saying that he died suddenly. Agnes's brother Joe comes up instead, and tells them the story of how Bob died. Apparently, he refused to move for a white man, and a fight ensued which Bob won. He was then lynched. Agnes learns of this, and goes into a severe depression. She has her baby, but is unable to care for it since it will grow up in a world that tolerates lynching. So she kills the baby.
This story shows how dangerous crossing borders can be. Bob was living in the South, under a system with a very definite border which separated acceptable and unacceptable actions on the part of black people. When Bob decided to cross the border, he was gruesomely murdered for his transgression. His sister Agnes sees this as evidence of the insurmountable odds faced by blacks in America. The 'closing door' is indeed just another border which she feels that her son will not be able to cross.
This is important in the context of the class because we often talk about how crossing borders is such a good thing. I think we may tend to disregard the fact that, right or wrong, crossing borders can have very dire consequences.
So... Blood Meridian...
So... Blood Meridian.
I guess that I could just leave it at that, and I would still be saying a lot, but that would be too easy. Instead, for this blog entry I'm going to randomly flip to a page in the book, read it, and then write about how Cormac McCarthy crosses borders on that particular page.
Alright.
(Mitchell places the book on the table and shuts his eyes. His left hand is positioned to flip through pages from bottom to top, and his right index finger is ready to thrust in at some random interval... The sound of rapid page-turning ensues.)
Ah. Page 177.
(Mitchell reads it.)
Okay, Cormac McCarthy crosses an interesting border on page 177. Basically, the Glanton gang arrives at the village of Nacori and goes into a bar. Tobin stays outside to watch the horses, and a funeral procession goes by while he's there. He isn't bothered by any of the townsfolk because they're accustomed to American's coming around to commandeer meals and rape the local women. That's where a border gets crossed. Essentially, Cormac McCarthy subverts the depravity of the acts of theft and rape by painting them as everyday circumstances. In the context of the novel, they certainly are, and this adds to the overarching demystification of the West that the author sought to accomplish. However, this passage also indicates that there where countless other Glanton gangs wandering the west, doing he exact same thing. The crossing of the border between civilized behavior and rape is more easy to cross, then, than many would assert.
There you have it. Even flipping to a random page of Blood Meridian will reveal the crossing of a border between civilization and savagery. Go Cormac.
I guess that I could just leave it at that, and I would still be saying a lot, but that would be too easy. Instead, for this blog entry I'm going to randomly flip to a page in the book, read it, and then write about how Cormac McCarthy crosses borders on that particular page.
Alright.
(Mitchell places the book on the table and shuts his eyes. His left hand is positioned to flip through pages from bottom to top, and his right index finger is ready to thrust in at some random interval... The sound of rapid page-turning ensues.)
Ah. Page 177.
(Mitchell reads it.)
Okay, Cormac McCarthy crosses an interesting border on page 177. Basically, the Glanton gang arrives at the village of Nacori and goes into a bar. Tobin stays outside to watch the horses, and a funeral procession goes by while he's there. He isn't bothered by any of the townsfolk because they're accustomed to American's coming around to commandeer meals and rape the local women. That's where a border gets crossed. Essentially, Cormac McCarthy subverts the depravity of the acts of theft and rape by painting them as everyday circumstances. In the context of the novel, they certainly are, and this adds to the overarching demystification of the West that the author sought to accomplish. However, this passage also indicates that there where countless other Glanton gangs wandering the west, doing he exact same thing. The crossing of the border between civilized behavior and rape is more easy to cross, then, than many would assert.
There you have it. Even flipping to a random page of Blood Meridian will reveal the crossing of a border between civilization and savagery. Go Cormac.
Homosexual Heartsong
In Heartsong of Charging Elk, the protagonist, Charging Elk, gets man-raped.
I want to talk about this. In class, we really didn't want to address this topic, and I understand why. Homosexuality is weird to straight people like us, and even though a lot of us like to think that we're tolerant, forward thinking people, we definitely get uncomfortable at the thought of a dude going-down on another dude. The fact that it's rape makes the whole situation even worse. It's something that we try to ignore and condemn, and reading about it is as hard to do as talking about it.
But I want to talk about it. I want to talk about gay man-rape.
I think that the gay man-rape serves an important purpose in the story. Yes, it's the catalyst which ultimately results in Charging Elk's imprisonment, but I think that it also is his singular introduction to the Western World. Why? Consider the following. You never hear about homosexuality in Native Cultures. This is due, perhaps, to the male-female centric nature of their beliefs. All of creation comes about because of man and woman, so why would there be any other way? Homosexuality is a condition of the modern world. I'm not saying that people choose to be that way or anything, I'm just saying that the modern world allows for the topic to come up. In Paris, around the turn of the century, it undoubtedly would. This reality of homosexuality is a reality of the French Society that Charging Elk lives in. It is, in fact, forced upon him, but even though he rejects it by killing the homosexual, he nonetheless faces the consequences. Really, after the gay man-rape, things start to look up for Charging Elk. It doesn't seem like jail was really all that hard on him, and shortly after his release, he finds love. He is able to acclimate himself to French Society, thanks to the Gay Man-Rape.
I want to talk about this. In class, we really didn't want to address this topic, and I understand why. Homosexuality is weird to straight people like us, and even though a lot of us like to think that we're tolerant, forward thinking people, we definitely get uncomfortable at the thought of a dude going-down on another dude. The fact that it's rape makes the whole situation even worse. It's something that we try to ignore and condemn, and reading about it is as hard to do as talking about it.
But I want to talk about it. I want to talk about gay man-rape.
I think that the gay man-rape serves an important purpose in the story. Yes, it's the catalyst which ultimately results in Charging Elk's imprisonment, but I think that it also is his singular introduction to the Western World. Why? Consider the following. You never hear about homosexuality in Native Cultures. This is due, perhaps, to the male-female centric nature of their beliefs. All of creation comes about because of man and woman, so why would there be any other way? Homosexuality is a condition of the modern world. I'm not saying that people choose to be that way or anything, I'm just saying that the modern world allows for the topic to come up. In Paris, around the turn of the century, it undoubtedly would. This reality of homosexuality is a reality of the French Society that Charging Elk lives in. It is, in fact, forced upon him, but even though he rejects it by killing the homosexual, he nonetheless faces the consequences. Really, after the gay man-rape, things start to look up for Charging Elk. It doesn't seem like jail was really all that hard on him, and shortly after his release, he finds love. He is able to acclimate himself to French Society, thanks to the Gay Man-Rape.
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