HUCK, BE A MAN – discussion on the relationship between Huck, Tom and Jim. (coverage, depth, interaction)

POST-PARTUM DEPRESSION IN “YELLOW WALLPAPER” – an attempt to understand the psychology behind the story and why John acts as he does. (coverage, depth, xenoblogging, discussion)

NATIVE AMERICAN READINGS – seeking to understand historical events from a different cultural perspective. (coverage,xenoblogging, discussion)

THERE’S NOTHING LIKE A HUMAN BEING – my crotchety take on John Henry, technology and nostalgia for a slower, more personal interaction. (coverage, interaction)

ROBINSON’S PEOPLE – I love the people in Robinson’s poems – they remind me of people I’ve know and cared about. I want to gather them in my arms and say “Buck up guys!” (coverage, interaction).

THE LURE OF MELODRAMA – Light and fun, nice break after all the heavy stuff. (coverage)

SYNESTHESIA – Like… I see letters and numbers in color! (wild card)

ERIN MANKO’S BLOG – In “Huck’s Battle Between Himself and Society” I respond by commenting on the relationship between Jim, Huck and Tom. (xenoblogging)

If you follow the link I posted, you’ll find that there are many different manifestations of this weird “cross-wiring” in the brain. Mine is the most common among synesthetes but others see colors when they hear music or taste flavors or see shapes when they hear sounds or voices.

This kind of perception has given me an uncanny ability to remember number sequences as I memorize the color pattern along with the numbers themselves. I have a strong affinity for the number four because it’s my favorite color: green. I also see my forties as a “green” decade and so feel pretty cool about this time of my life. (Of course that’s not the only reason). Words take on the color of the first letter they begin with and zero is almost always white or cream for most synesthetes; though every synesthete will have a different color scheme for their own letters and numbers. For me, words take on the personality of their color along with their inherent meaning. (This makes good sense to me, but I’m sure sounds a bit weird). The word “Algebra” is red, a color I have always been a bit uncomfortable with. “Calculus” is gold-yellow and I’m not much on that either. It doesn’t mean I hate every word that starts with a or c, but …well…do you get the idea? It’s hard to explain. Also, some letters have a more pronounced color than others.

I haven’t yet met anyone in person that has this. I joined a group online, but lost interest after awhile, after all…how much is there to talk about – it’s just they way we see things. I did meet a woman in one of my classes two years ago that had a son that saw colors when he hears music. No one in my immediate family has it, although I’ve read that it is passed down father to daughter, mother to son. My dad is from Ireland and his family is scattered throughout England, Ireland and Scotland. I was there in my twenties but didn’t think to ask anyone about it. My son could have gotten it from me but he doesn’t seem to have it either.

Miniver Creevy longs for an exiting life that he fancies existed in the “days of old”. He seems to have spent a lot of energy ruminating over it for “He wept that he was ever born”. He fantasizes about bright swords and being “a warrior bold”. He would like to have “sinned incessantly” if only he had been a Medici. Like so many people stuck in a career rut, he “scorned the gold he sought, But sore annoyed was he without it”. He curses his mediocrity and regards his “khaki suit with loathing”. Lacking the vision or courage to change his circumstances, in the end he scratches his head, decides this is his lot in life and keeps on drinking. (Or as many a Leechburger has been heard to say while swilling down an Iron City, “Eh, whaddya gonna do?”)

Richard Corey is so skilled at projecting the image of success and satisfaction that he is admired and envied by all. Yet he has no authentic sense of happiness and inexplicably blows his brains out. How many people who seem to “have it all” are really functioning with “quiet desperation”?

Many of these characters remind me of people I’ve known and cared about; some of them long time customers whose life stories I’ve been privy to for years. In a sense I guess, like my faces, I collect people, or their stories. And there’s so many unhappy ones.

“It is fortunate Mary is so good with the baby. Such a dear baby! And yet I cannot be with him, it makes me so nervous.

And later in the rising action:

“I can stand it (the wall-paper) so much easier than a baby, you see.”

I shared the frustration that Mike expressed on his blog with the condescending treatment of the narrator by her physician husband. It is important to keep in mind however, that this type of “rest cure” was the prevailing wisdom of the age. Though she admits to embellishing some details for the sake of “carrying out the ideal”, Gilman based the story on her own experiences with depression and wrote the story to change physicians minds about the efficacy of this type of therapy.

Although she acquiesces to John and is under his control and supervision, the narrator instinctively knows (as Gilman did) that more stimulation particularly through her writing would do her good. So she writes privately though she acknowledges:

“John would think it absurd. But I must say what I feel and think in someway – it is such a relief!”

Interesting how good her instincts are, “talk therapy” is still considered very therapeutic in conjunction with anti-depressants for post-partum (or any) depression, as is physical exercise which she is also deprived of by her well-intentioned husband.

Huck, in some ways, responds to Tom the way Jim responds to Huck. Though Jim clearly has more common sense and wisdom, he defers to Huck. As a slave to whites, he functions under a sense of learned helplessness, acquired as a result of having little control over the circumstances of his life. After Huck and Tom lay out their plans for his grandiose escape, Huck comments: “Jim he couldn’t see no sense in the most of it but he allowed we was white folks and knowed better than him…” (36:188). Under the extroverted, intelligent and domineering Tom’s influence, Huck’s moral compass, quivers but can’t seem to point definitively in the right direction. He actually has more wisdom and common sense (albeit less imagination) than Tom, but makes only a weak attempt to exert it, falling under the spell of Tom’s vision despite his conviction that Tom’s plan is “…one of the most jackass ideas I ever struck…” (31:187). And Jim suffers terribly because of it.

According to an online article in Psychology Today titled “Risk” by: Paul Roberts, “High-risk takers are easily bored.” Though Jim could be easily sprung, Tom won’t hear of it, even though it could potentially put Jim in jeopardy and causes great angst for the Phelps family. Quoting psychologist Salvadore Maddi, Roberts writes: “…high-risk takers may "have a hard time deriving meaning and purpose from everyday life."

As his scheme draws out Jim’s captivity to over 3 weeks, Tom gets completely carried away with the ludicrous details, forcing Jim, among other things, to write on a shirt with his own blood and live with snakes, rats and spiders that bite him. When Tom leaves notes with clues, he practically begs to get caught. Commenting on the nature of thrill-seeking behavior Roberts writes: …the inclination to take high risks may be hard-wired into the brain, intimately linked to arousal and pleasure mechanisms, and may offer such a thrill that it functions like an addiction.

Tom derives so much pleasure from acting out his plan, he fantasizes about prolonging it: “…if only we could keep it up all the rest of our lives and leave Jim to our children to get out…” (37:188). And Huck just sort of goes along. I find this so irritating because I want him to just let Jim out of there. Be a MAN dammit! Oh well, it’s just a book.

In “The Creation of the Whites” it’s the white skinned people who do what they’re supposed to and don’t eat the apple. The yellow-skinned replicate Adam and Eve’s sin, wake up naked, are punished and told by the creator” “…you shall call upon the people of white skins to give you assistance”. Does this somehow imply that everything that followed after the white men came was a punishment for eating the apple?

In “How the White Race Came to America….” A man from the east, in “queen’s country” meets with a lord who turns out to be the devil. The lord gives him five gifts to share with the “…people across the water of the salt lake…” that create “havoc and misery” so great that even the devil feels bad about it. Interesting, that in this story it is not the white man himself that is blamed but the evil one who the white man believed and listened to. Seems rather charitable.

I loved Katie's "primordial soup" comparison to the creation myth and I agree with it..."steams potent with growth were evolved...green and scums rose upon them..."

I researched Crazy Horse and found similar accounts of essentially the same story we read. He was an admired leader and great warrior. The biography of Crazy Horse mentions that he was caught trying to steal another man’s wife and was forced to give up his leadership role (what is it with charismatic leaders and illicit affairs?). In spite of this fall from grace, people still considered him a leader and this sparked jealousy among his rivals who eventually contributed to his death by U.S. soldiers. I found a bit more information regarding his capture. According to New Perspectives of the West, an online PBS article about Crazy Horse, he left the reservation without permission to bring his sick wife to his parents and General Crook had him arrested. He was then led to a guardhouse and subsequently bayoneted.

I flagged a few words that caught my interest and delved a little deeper. For instance, the word “body snatcher” and “grave” jumped out because they both made reference to medical students and young physicians. Here are the exact definitions:

BODY- SNATCHER: A robber of grave-worms, One who supplies the young physicians with that with which old physicians have supplied the undertaker. The hyena.

GRAVE: A place in which the dead are laid to await the coming of the medical student.

Since Bierce is making social commentary in keeping with the times, I wanted to find out what the deal was with body-snatching and people in the medical field.

In the article, Grave Offense by Emily Bazelon, for online publication Legal Affairs, in the 1800’s, there was a great need in the scientific community for cadavers to study, but there was such a stigma behind dissection they were difficult to come by. Cadavers of executed criminals were donated but the demand was great and even resulted in underground trafficking of dead bodies. This did not help the image of physicians. Bazelon writes:

The study of anatomy laid bare an uncomfortable tension in 19th-century medicine. In the eyes of local communities, grave robbing turned doctors into vultures. Burial and respect for the dead mattered deeply to most Americans—and still do, as we were reminded by the grief about the strewn corpses found at a Georgia crematory in February. Medical schools courted danger when they threatened the sanctity of burial and death. At the same time, they had an urgent, indisputable need for cadavers. Patients wanted to be treated by doctors who understood the body's inner workings, which could be learned only by studying a human corpse.

Interesting little piece of history I didn’t know!

1. “The Experience of Dying in ‘Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge’” examines Farquar’s dream sequence comparing the stages of dying acceptance to an out of body experience.
(DEPTH, INTERACTION)

2. “More Thoughts on Bartleby” discusses how common dysfunction is in the workplace.
I got started on this after reading Sarah's blog. DEPTH, INTERACTION)

3. In “Choice of Dialogue with Raven” I look at the nature of the discussion with the bird and the narrator’s choices.

4. Hester as model of Emerson’s principles in “Hester’s Self Reliance.” (DEPTH)

5. Slam 2 covers some of the highlights in the second poetry slam.

6. “The Asinine Expression and Selective Non-Conformity." My take on Emerson and some good discussion with Nabila.
(INTERACTION)

XENOBLOGGING

1. On Zach Harvey’s blog, we had a discussion about whether or not Hester should have told Pearl the story of the Scarlet Letter.

2. On Kelly’s blog, I share my feelings about the masks we all wear in response to a comment on the Scarlet Letter.

3. On Katie's blog, she and I explore the use of colors in Scarlet Letter.

WILD CARD

1. Practical applications of Thoreau’s “Civil Disobedience” in “Civil Disobedience at Work in the Home.”

Once, he issued a particularly heavy-handed and unfair punishment to my son and nothing his half-sister or I could do would soften his decision. We decided to appeal to his values and practice our own "civil disobedience." We made protest signs, sang songs and my stepdaughter wrote an impassioned speech in my son's behalf. After being picketed for awhile he finally relented...and the kids learned a powerful lesson that they still talk about. I just wish I'd taken pictures!

Hawthorne writes:

“But Hester Prynne, with a mind of native courage and activity, and for so long a period…outlawed from society, had habituated herself to such latitude of speculation as was altogether foreign to the clergyman. She had wandered, without rule or guidance… in a moral wilderness…where she roamed as freely as the wild Indian in his woods. For years past she had looked from this estranged point of view at human institutions, and whatever priests or legislators had established; criticising all…”

This illustrates Emmerson’s thinking as described in his essay Self-Reliance: “It is only as a man puts off from himself all external support and stands alone that I see him to be strong and to prevail. Is not a man better than a town?”

In this case it is a woman who is better than a town.

When you are young, it is much easier to embrace this way of living. It gets more challenging once you’ve been out in the world for awhile and life has kicked you in the ass a few times. Emerson asks: “Is it so bad to be misunderstood?” Well, yeah, it can be. People have been fired for being misunderstood. My dad stopped speaking to me for a year. When I spoke out about something at a parents meeting, my son was blacklisted from birthday parties for an entire year. I didn’t feel great I felt awful. As Emerson wrote: “For non-conformity the world whips you with its displeasure.” I guess I have learned to be a selective non-conformist and choose my battles wisely.

Most of us are or will be working drones out of necessity. There will always be some folks that shake things up and question the status quo. Ralph Nader and Michael Moore are examples. Not everyone is suited by nature for that role and I think that’s OK. Society needs the mediocre and the followers too. You have the freedom to choose how to respond to society, either passively or pro-actively, as part of a group or independently

.
Ambrose Bierce’s Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge is a story about dying. There is a blurry distinction between Peyton Farquar’s last moments and his actual death experience which can lead to different interpretations of the text.

As Farquar prepares to be executed, time and experience are distorted. He hears “…a sharp, distinct, metallic percussion like the stroke of a blacksmith's hammer upon the anvil; it had the same ringing quality. …like the trust of a knife; he feared he would shriek. What he heard was the ticking of his watch.”

He is about to die and as he processes this reality during the little time he has left, he seems to pass through some of the five stages of dying as identified by Elizabeth Kubler-Ross while moving through his pre-death vision.

DENIAL: "If I could free my hands," he thought, "I might throw off the noose and spring into the stream. By diving I could evade the bullets and, swimming vigorously, reach the bank, take to the woods and get away home. My home, thank God, is as yet outside their lines; my wife and little ones are still beyond the invader's farthest advance." At this point, Farquar entertains of the possibility of escape even though it is highly unlikely.

ANGER: “To die of hanging at the bottom of a river!--the idea seemed to him ludicrous.” As the almost dream-like sequence begins, with Farquar falling into the water, he experiences anger that his life is still in jeopardy from being shot after surviving the attempted execution and fall. "To be hanged and drowned," he thought, "that is not so bad; but I do not wish to be shot. No; I will not be shot; that is not fair."

DEPRESSION: “By nightfall he was fatigued, footsore, famished. His neck was in pain and lifting his hand to it found it horribly swollen.” He is exhausted and disoriented. Even the stars look different and “He was sure they were arranged in some order which had a secret and malign significance.”

ACCEPTANCE: This darker experience quickly gives way to a brighter, more serene vision. He feels as if he had “…recovered from a delirium…” and he sees his home,”…all bright and beautiful” His wife is standing to greet him and he thinks:” Ah, how beautiful she is! He springs forwards with extended arms.”

Taking a different view of Farquar’s experiences, it could be argued that Farquar had an “out of body” or “near death” experience beginning the moment the “…sergeant stepped aside.”

In an article posted on ABCnews.com, ABCNEWS' Medical Editor Dr. Tim Johnson discusses findings in the British medical journal Lancet based on a study of patients that had experienced clinical death and survived to talk about it. Lead researcher Pim van Lommel told the Washington Post: “… people can be conscious of events around them even when they are physically unconscious.” He goes on to describe some common experiences: “Many people describe seeing their own bodies from a distance, as though watching a movie. Others say they felt their bodies rushing toward a brilliant light.” Consider the experience of Farquar: “He gave the struggle his attention, as an idler might observe the feat of a juggler, without interest in the outcome. growing light. He watched them with a new interest as first one and then the other pounced upon the noose at his neck.”

Another common theme in near death experiences is a tunnel and light. Two patients mentioned in the article recount their experiences: “Another woman described how she felt she was being pulled toward a giant tunnel, a common theme in the near-death experiences. "I couldn't stop it. I didn't know why I was moving. I was just pulled right through this enormous, infinite tunnel," said Diane Morrissey. After Farquar falls, “He opened his eyes in the darkness and saw above him a gleam of light, but how distant, how inaccessible! He was still sinking, for the light became fainter and fainter until it was a mere glimmer. Then it began to grow and brighten…”

Susan Blackmore, a psychology professor at the University of the West of England offers a more clinical explanation of the near death experience: Johnson writes, “She believes the experiences are like a movie that our brains run at times of extreme traumatic stress. The brain creates endorphins which can reduce pain, and under extreme stress, these large amounts of endorphins produce a dreamlike state of euphoria.” This could explain why Farquar’s senses were “…preternaturally keen and alert. Something in the awful disturbance of his organic system had so exalted and refined them that they made record of things never before perceived. He felt the ripples upon his face and heard their separate sounds as they struck.”

Was Ambrose Bierce writing from imagination, first hand or anecdotal experience? In any case it makes for a compelling read!

A word about nepenthe…I noticed this word in Scarlett Letter as well: "I know not Lethe nor Nepenthe," remarked he; (Chillingworth to Hester in the prison)
At first I thought it was a reference by Poe to his own reputed drug habit: “Respite-respite and nepenthe from thy memories of Lenore; Quaff oh, quaff this kind nepenthe and forget this lost Lenore!”
Not according to the Edgar Allen Poe Society, they state: “Poe's use of drugs is, for the most part, purely a literary device. For some of Poe's more fantastic storylines, his narrators admit the use of opium, but one should carefully note that it is Poe's narrators who use drugs, not Poe himself.”
Anyway, nepenthe is an alteration of Latin “nepenthes” meaning “not grief”. It is a potion used to induce forgetfulness of pain or sorrow and cause oblivion of grief. It’s been used in literature since before the 16th century, also mentioned in Homer’s “Odyssey”.
Thought it was kind of interesting.