April 2009 Archives

"Going out the window was a very interesting experience. I can remember passing the third floor on my way down and the glorious sensation of release." (Miller 1).

Although this quote appears in the second paragraph of the work, I immediate connected it to Foster's chapter on flying. I found it interesting that flight can be so freeing, even as a suicide attempt. In addition to feeling "a glorious sense of release", the character, Jeanine speaks of feeling transparent, seeing sharply, and even believing in God. Then the sidewalk broke her fall, or should I say flight. Although a suicide attempt, I think Jeanine's flight was undoubtedly liberating. I equated the "seeing sharply" to one's life flashing before her eyes. Perhaps Jeanine saw the void in her life before she took flight. Similarly, the "sensation of release" may mean that Jeanine is not the same person as she was before the flight. And Jeanine must like being this new person, freed from the confinements of her previous life, because she mentions being happy that her suicide attempt proved unsuccessful. Jeanine also states, " ...I feel rather cheerful about it all, in a remote way, now that I died, or almost, and have my life again" (Miller 1). Jeanine may have failed at death, or did she? She failed in life, at least her past life, but I would say her suicide attempt was successful in that it resulted in the death of the old Jeanine, and enabled her to begin anew. Perhaps she even has a new appreciation for life, which she previously took for granted.

 http://jerz.setonhill.edu/EL267/2009/04/miller_resurrection_blues/

"In general, flying is freedom, we might say, freedom from not only from specific circumstances but from those more general burdens that tie us down." (Foster 127).

I used this quote from Foster in the attempt to make sense of Henry in The Time Traveler's Wife, whose time traveling I would consider flying. Henry's "flying" or materializing can definitely be considered liberating. Henry usually takes flight when he is stressed, and he often goes to an earlier, less threatening point in his past. This made me think of a computer's system recovery function: when the system fails, you simply restore it to a point earlier in time when it was working properly. For instance, at one point in the story, Henry and Clare are having problems in the present, and it is January. Henry time travels to a point in the past at which he and Clare are getting along great, and it is summer. On the other hand, I can also see Henry's flying as debilitating. It obviously affects his ability to function; for example, he cannot drive or watch television. He has no control over his departure. Or is Henry's flying both freeing and crippling? Is it liberating for Henry, who gets to leave when he and Clare are having problems, avoiding their problems? And is it debilitating for Clare, who is the one that stays and is left not only with whatever problems she and Henry were having, but also the worry that comes with wondering where and how Henry is while he is gone? At one point in the story, Clare even says, "...I am his prisoner..."  Is Henry's flight freedom or confinement? What do you think?

http://jerz.setonhill.edu/EL267/2009/04/foster_ch_15-17/

"...I had this huge crush on Patty Hearst...She was a rich Californian college girl who got kidnapped by these awful left-wing political terrorists, and they made her rob banks...Why did I like her? Ah, I don't know. It's irrational, you know? I guess I kind of knew how she felt, being taken away and forced to do stuff she didn't want to do, and then it seemed like she was kind of enjoying it." (Niffenegger 65)

So Henry had a crush on Patty, a girl who was taken out of her element and forced to do stuff she did not want to do; namely, steal. But was it irrational? No; in fact, I think it made a lot of sense. I immediately thought of the Venus of Willendorf: the paleolithic figurine of a woman who is hefty and appears to be pregnant. This ideal women of the ancient times embodied what was important to society at that time: food, warmth, and fertility. As we emerged from the hunter/gatherer society and became domesticated, Barbie became the ideal woman. Ultimately, what one deems important, or in these cases, essential to survival, he or she will seek in a partner. In one sense, Henry identifies with Patty because she is uprooted against her will and forced to do things she does not want to do, just as Henry time travels and steals money and clothing. On the other hand, Henry admires and probably even envies her supposed enjoyment of robbing. Unfortunately, Henry sometimes has to rob to survive, so I would not think it irrational to like a girl like Patty Hearst; conversely, I would deem it natural and reasonable. I think this is the idea behind the "opposites attract" theory, which may be true for any of us. Perhaps we seek those things in a partner that we lack or hope to acquire from their company, I know I surround myself with people whom I would like to be more like in one way or another, just as Henry would probably like to enjoy what he is forced to do to survive.

http://jerz.setonhill.edu/EL267/2009/04/niffenegger_the_time-travelers/ 

"But more so than either of these, Emerson thinks of eloquent composition as a process of musical collaboration that draws upon, channels, provides a conduit for energies already in circuit among 'the people.'" - "Eloquence and Invisible Man" by Christopher Hanlon.

I chose to look at this quote because it reminded me of my own blog, and also of recurring themes in the story. Music is obviously a dominant theme throughout the novel. Descriptions are often made in terms of music, instruments are pointed out in scenes, and characters are usually uttering songs. Perhaps the invisible man has been chosen as an eloquent composer of the people. This may be the significance of the scene at the party, during which a man expected the invisible man to sing, almost as if this expectation was instinctive. In my blog, I spoke of the invisible man's speech, and how he did not know from where the wrods came. The invisible man may be a channel through which energy is elicited This energy is then transferred to the audience, constituting the members as a group, and unifying them in purpose. Brother Jack even goes on to say that the energy stirred up by the invisible man merely be channeled in the appropriate way to achieve the desired results. The article goes on to quote Emerson in sayin, "no one can survey the face of an excited assembly without being apprised of new opportunity for painting in fire human thought, and being agitated to agitate". Perhaps this was why the invisible man described the audience as being blurred and consisting of faces he could not clearly see, yet he felt a kind of affection for the members of the audience as if he belong to them. Maybe this blindness to the faces did not mean, as I preciously considered, that the invisible man was preaching ideas in which he did not himself believe, but rather that he needed to view the audience as one "social organism" in order to channel its energy.

http://jerz.setonhill.edu/EL267/2009/04/academic_article_1/

"What had come out was completely uncalculated, as though another self within me had taken over and held forth." -Invisible Man, Ellison; Chapter 16, page 353.

I chose to look at this quote because it reminded me of something. If I recall correctly, people, such as in the ancient times, did not respect poets; rather, they deemed poets as mere channels of talent. In other words, poets produced these masterpieces, but did not understand their craft. Indeed, any person standing by could interpret a poem better than its author! I cannot decide whether or not this is what is happening to the invisible man. In the above quote, he obviously admits not knowing from where the words came. Is the invisible man a channel? Does he speak the words, but not understand their meaning? However, the invisible man was also temporarily blinded at the culmination of his speech. Was he beginning to see things clearly? Was he beginning to take responsibility for himself and his race, the members of which he formerly deemed ignorant and disgraceful? Was the invisible man beginning to see Dr. Bledsoe as the enemy, the atiphesis of his aspirations, rather than his mentor and predecessor? I cannot decide. The invisible man also speaks of feeling as though he belonged to the audience that accepted his speech, yet he could not see the faces of its members, only a blur. Is the invisible man really beginning to identify with his race, and realize his purpose? Or is he merely going through the motions of some calling he does not understand? Is the invisible man blind in that he now sees things clearly, or is he blind because he does not know where he is going?

What do you think?

http://jerz.setonhill.edu/EL267/2009/04/ellison_the_invisible_man_1/