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TABLE OF CONTENTS162 In the Merry Old Land of America: Immigrants’ Journies Home

Donna Marinkovich165 Death, the Inevitable Crisis (for the Living) Susannah Moore169 In a Vice Grip Ashley Smith172 Black Noise: Something for Those Who Don’t Understand It

Seth Magnuson175 Inspiration & the Gift of Writing from Audre Lorde Emily McCarron179 All Woman: The Timeless Struggle Between Motherhood and

Career Julie Richardson182 Cultural Landscapes of Haitian Life: Paradise Lost but Not

Forgotten Janet Thelen186 Break the Rules! Hao Huang189 The Dread of Analysis Imelda Jimenez191 Fastest Leg in the West (Of Ireland) Vance Buckreus194 I Found Myself Through Hairspray: And Other Interesting Ways to

Look At The World Sara Cunningham-Farish197 Hitch-Hiking in Hollywood Maia Yepa200 Is it Behaviour? or Behavior? Leah Quinn203 In Search of the Golden Frog: A Practically Untarnished Book

Sandy Hager206 Cryptic Philosophies Christina Mardirosian211 History of Film: From Awake to Unconscious Shannon Drake215 “Just See the Movie” Nigel Genthner217 Mad Woman Ramblings Elinore Eaton220 Madman’s Language Jay Weber223 Mirror of Myths Lori Bravo226 Movies Exposed Brenna Dunn228 Reshaping Reality: Finding Meaning in Abstract Art Gabe Houston231 Take a Read on the Wilde Side Rob Goldschmidt234 The Greek Myth Angel Luna238 Seeing Pittsburgh through one Author’s Eyes William Norteye241 Emerging from “The Poet’s Cave of Syllables” David Sullivan

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In the Merry Old Land of America:Immigrants’ Journies HomeDonna Marinkovich

“There’s no place like home…there’s no place like home…”—Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz

Upon finishing Geographies of Home by Loida Maritza Perez Icouldn’t help but to feel as if I had just traveled through a Latino version ofThe Wizard of Oz. Perez’ debut novel is filled with terror, hope, magic andself-discovery as is the film classic, yet Perez’ tale is even more twisted andsurreal.

Instead of settling on one protagonist, Perez weaves the experi-ences, memories, thoughts and yearnings of several members of a Domini-can Republic family which has immigrated to New York City into one “Dor-othy”, all of them questioning their place in their family and in their sur-rounding world. A passage from a chapter written in the perspective of themother, Aurelia, shows the struggle that each family member is faced with– the concept of “home”:

In the presence of strangers like those she had shelteredherself from since her arrival in the United States and in ahospital worlds removed from the New York depicted onpostcards her eldest daughter had mailed to the Domini-can Republic, Aurelia for the first time granted herself per-mission to sprout roots past concrete into soil. Through-out more than fifteen years of moving from apartment toapartment, she had dreamed, not of returning, but of go-ing home. Of going home to a place not located on anymap but nonetheless preventing her from settling in anyother. Only now did she understand that her soul yearnednot for a geographical site but for a frame of mind able toaccommodate any place as home. (137)

The title – Geographies of Home – suggests that “home” is a physical place.But the content of the novel raises questions about what “home” really is.Is it merely a residence? Is it a place of origin? Or is it an emotional ormental state, as Dorothy discovers when she learns the secret of her rubyslippers? I wish it was as simple as clicking our heels together and chant-ing a mantra to find out the answer.

Perez attempts to guide us toward answering the question for our-selves, urging us to explore possibilities through the minds and hearts of

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Iliana, Aurelia, Papito, Rebecca, and Marina--the strongest characters inthis family of fourteen. Undoubtedly, cultural heritage plays an importantrole in one’s perceptions of family and home as in the Dominican familymembers in this novel. However, by delving into issues which affect all ofus — religion, the roles of men and women in the family and in society,mental illness, stereotypes based on skin color and domestic abuse — Perezwidens the context beyond the experiences of one particular family withinone particular culture.

Perez discusses this wider context in the Penguin Press ReadersGuide interview which appears at the end of the novel:

…I nonetheless believe that – regardless of the possiblyunique circumstances presented in Geographies – Domini-cans and other Latinos will encounter familiar issues. Butare these issues specifically Latino? I don’t think so. Ulti-mately, these issues pertain to the human condition: ourneed to belong and be accepted; the contradictions inher-ent in all of us; our attempts to do the best we can even inthe worst of circumstances; our desire to guide our chil-dren and the risk of making mistakes along the way; ourwondrous ability to sometimes understand and forgive;and our faith in a force greater than ourselves.

Dorothy had to answer questions regarding similar issues for her-self before she was given the key to her way home. In Perez’ “Land of Oz”there are the familiar characters trying to utilize their strengths, or developtheir inadequacies to repair their own and their family’s situations: Ilianasupposes she can use her well-educated brain; Aurelia, her witch-like magi-cal powers; Rebecca, her false sense of courage; Marina, her heart filledwith a manic devotion to God.

Unfortunately, all of the Geographies characters — working inde-pendently — fail to reach their goals and get caught up in the insanity. Buthad they realized that if they worked together, embracing each other’sstrengths rather than placing blame and pointing out shortcomings, theymight have succeeded in finding the home they were all searching for. Dor-othy and her counterparts were finally free to return home after Glendaand the Wizard had enlightened them with a similar lesson.

I think of Santa Cruz, California as my home. I have lived here fortwelve years, and this is where I feel comfortable, accepted, and a part ofmy community. Although my family is hundreds of miles away and invarious geographical locations, I think of them as a much broader defini-tion of home. It wasn’t until I had done some intense soul searching, re-sulting from the long (and still continuing) process of drug addiction re-

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covery, did I feel comfortable with this second, personal definition of home.Once I stopped blaming my family for my problems, criticizing them fortheir actions and behaviors, and communicated honestly with them I real-ized I had finally “come home”.

That realization now defines my own personal concept of home–it is a never--ending journey, not a destination. Yes, I am a born-and-raisedCalifornian, yet before this epiphany I may as well have been from anothercountry. Whether one is an immigrant in a strange land, like the charactersin Geographies, or a little girl and her dog traveling through a bizarrefantasyland, this is one realization we all have to make for ourselves.

Works CitedPerez, Loida Maritza. Geographies of Home. New York: Penguin

Press, 1999Wizard of Oz, The. Dirs. Victor Fleming, Richard Thorpe. MGM, 1939

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Death, the Inevitable Crisis (for theLiving) Susannah Moore

“ She was living in order to disappear…”(Williams 108).When I was young, I was what you would call a wild child. I had

no regard for my health or personal safety; that is to say that I did muchmore then just experiment with drugs. After having one too many closecalls I realized that this was not the way that I wanted to live my life andinstead turned to sobriety and school. In the past few years many of myold friends have died due to their drug use. They, like me, had full knowl-edge of how the toxins introduced to their bodies could affect them, yetthey lived in a haze believing that it would never happen to them. No oneever believes that they too can become a statistic.

Eli was found on the bathroom floor three weeks ago. He had diedof a heroin overdose two days prior.

I would like to say that his death had the same profound effect onme as it did many others that I know— it did not. Through the last fewyears with many friends falling to the same fate as Eli, I have learned thatthis is the way things can end; there is nothing I can do to stop it. Some-times you just need to let them disappear.

*“What is the difference between being not yet born and having lived,

being now dead?” (Williams 3).In the book The Quick and the Dead (published by Alfred A.Knopf /

Random House), the author Joy Williams gives us momentary glimpsesinto the lives of many different characters all dealing with some form ofdeath. Whether it is the death of a parent, as in the case for the three mainfemale characters, the death of the soul, the death of the mind,as for ourhopeful stroke victim,or the refusal to die, the haunting of a man by hisdead wife. She spins her tale taking these many peoples’ lives and experi-ences and tells each of them with the detail of explaining color to the blind.Each tale is unique as the colors of the world yet she is able to take themand weave them into the rich tapestry that is the small southwestern townthat they all live or end up in. In this weaving, Williams makes the readerrealize that the all too common practice of looking at death as always some-thing that comes “later” is not only not effective but leaves the living un-prepared for the loss if and when it does occur.

*“Remaining to you is any comfort available from dreams. We do not sug-

gest attempting to dream of starting over”( 97).One of the most intriguing stories to me was that of Ray Webb. We

jump into Webb’s life at the age of nineteen in Houston, Texas. Webb is a

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traveling man, no specific destination in mind, just “drifting across thecountry, working and stealing now and then” (57). Webb, we learn in laterflashes of time, has had a hard childhood. After suffering many strokes asa youth, leaving his face and body partially paralyzed, he has left home soas not to trouble his mother any further with his condition. He is a dreamer,often too much so, losing himself in his mind at the most inopportune times.We travel with Webb across the southwest, joining him on his many ad-ventures learning more of his good nature and mental anguish. Webb’sjourney ends in the small town inhabited by the other characters of thebook. Webb’s story ends as he walks out of the desert in the dark of night,the path ahead of him illuminated by the headlights of a parked truck.Tired and broken from yet another adventure, this time in the New Mexi-can desert, the characters of another plot shoot Webb as they fire their shot-guns at the sugauro cacti. Ray had just come to the realization of his pathin life.

*“Was the last breath of a thing relevant? Emily wondered. She couldn’t

imagine why it would be” (304).My grandmother is eight-nine and lives in a nursing home. She

moved into the home five years ago after a severe heart attack left her un-able to care for herself. My grandmother is the oldest member of my largeItalian family. She was always a gentle woman; the negotiator between hereight brothers; patience and understanding were what she was known for.She is now close to death, the doctors say, as her health rapidly declines.Her quality of life has also declined, she is no longer able to walk and takeshandfuls of pills daily for her many ailments. She eats only enough to con-tinue living-- now weighing only sixty-nine pounds. I believe that my grand-mother has become tired of living. Her personality has become violent andangry. She is angry that life has left her in the condition that she is in, yetshe fears death more than she hates life, so she continues on. For my grand-mother death will be a relief. Her last breath will be my last physical memoryof her, but to her will that even matter?

*“Over everything, a dimness that does not quite touch them, but hovers

instead like those angels who are unable to tell if they are the living or the dead.”(Williams 198)

Williams reverses the roles of the dead and the living in anotherplot of the book. The dead Ginger, has taken on the role of the mourner;morning the loss of her own life while her late husband Carter seems to bethe one alleviated form suffering— almost. Ginger has become the mournerby assuming the role, traditionally held by the living, by haunting her wid-owed husband in an attempt to keep her own memory alive in his newhome. Carter, on the other hand, would like nothing more then to move onwith his life in this new town and be rid of this burden of a memory that is

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the ghost of his wife. Carter’s attitude with the ghost of his wife leaves thereader to muse whether he is friendly to her out of pure respect for thedead, or if he is frightened of what she could possibly do to him in herghostly state. Can an angel cause bodily harm?

*“This isn’t an intermission, unfortunately. It’s her final condition” ( 247).My mother was diagnosed with AIDS four years ago, it is termi-

nal. She was infected with HIV from a blood transfusion during a hyster-ectomy 15 years ago. The prognosis is a fifty- percent mortality rate withinfive years of diagnosis. I have watched her health decline over the pasteight months as I have lived with her. Because I am the only child livingwithin a close proximity to her, I am responsible for telling my siblings thetruth of her daily health. She was always so young when I compared her toher friends, the fun one. Now she is sick every other week and she hasbecome a shell of herself due the sudden reality of her physical condition.I love my mother—she was the first person I knew as I came into the world—she is my mom. She has always been there for me continues to do so inspite of her condition. I always knew that she would die. We all die in theend. I had hoped that the people in the world with sprits such as herswould not have to end their lives in pain. So I watch her die as we go aboutour lives. I never knew that death could be this bad. It is the only thing thatmakes me cry.

*They seem expectant still, though they have alreadywalked the Riddle, not this day but long before. They hadwalked within the instant that is Death’s Riddle, and manymoments later were reconstituted here, placed in the hol-low liturgical court of this black garden. They roam in nowilderness. There is no wilderness. It preceded them intothe hands of man (197).

All of the characters in The Quick and the Dead gave me a reflectioninto how I deal with the deaths and processes of dying around me. Eachstory has a different perspective, each person shows a different characterspecific pattern of response to the same underlying situation. From myown life, I see three different deaths and three profoundly different re-sponses from within myself. The fabric Williams weaves of these stories isthe fabric that makes up the psyche of a person, the town they all live insymbolizing the body of that person. Within that body resides the manydifferent responses—courses of action if you will— to the problems thatwe all face in life. Though everyone dies, we all die in a unique way. Thebook teaches us that there is no right or wrong way to deal with death:there is no right or wrong way to say goodbye. The important thing to

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remember is to not think of death as something that always comes later.Before you know it, later is the present and those you love, including your-self, are gone. Accept death as an end, but remember you never know justwhen that end is.

Works CitedWillams, Joy The Quick and the Dead Alfred A. Knopf: New York, 2000.

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In a Vice Grip Ashley Smith

Did you ever feel so captured by a book of poetry that you couldn’tlet out of your hands for more then a few minutes, and didn’t want to giveit back to the person who loaned it to you? Were you totally entranced bythe words as they drizzled across the page and puddled intense imageryright before your eyes? The poet Ai, pseudonym for Florence Anthony,and Japanese for “love”, more then fulfilled all my expectations as a reader.Within her book titled Vice she confronts issues of society and violence andbrings them to the attention of the public eye even more so then the eveningnews and is way more effective. This work is a collection of new and se-lected poems from previous publishings. Ai is nothing short of a chame-leon as she morphs her character voices from veterans with “battle fatigue”,to a stalker, to a priest with sexual desires, to a rape victim, to a motherwho brutally beats her daughter, to Jimmy Hoffa and a husband with “Pe-nis Envy”. These are not the only voices in this book but they are a perfectexample of her diverse skill level as a writer. Her newest book Vice is anabsolute gripping piece of literature that critiques our culture’s violencethrough the voice of criminals and victims. Her work forces the reader toconfront and acknowledge the many faces of a violent society.

The cultural background of Ai plays a strong role in her life as awoman as well as an author. Ai is her middle name. Her father is Japaneseand her mother is Choctaw Indian, Cheyenne, African American, Dutchand Irish.

Ai is the only name by which I wish, and indeed, should be known.Since I am the child of a scandalous affair my mother had with aJapanese man she met at a streetcar stop, and I was forced to live alie for so many years, while my mother concealed my father’s natural identity from me, I feel that I should not have to be identifiedwith a man, who was only my stepfather, for all eternity (English).

After being engulfed by her work, I feel that Ai is a person whohas developed a very distinct and impressive style. Her dramatic mono-logues through the first person voice are a clear example of her gift forwriting.

When you read each piece in this book you get a sense of uneasedue to the reality of its context. It’s as if you are in the character’s head andhearing their thoughts echo within their skull. After reading certain pieceslike “Stalking Memory” and “Child Beater” I felt uncomfortable due to thechills running down my spine.

From the work “Child Beater”:

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I lay the belt on the chairAnd get her dinner bowl.I hit the spoon against it, set it downAnd watch her crawl to it,Pausing after each forward thrust of her legsAnd when she takes her first bite,I grab the belt and beat her across the backUntil her tears, beads of salt filled glass, fallingShatter on the floor (Ai 16).

Within these few lines that I selected you can see that her use oflanguage is eloquent and clearly written. The little girl in this poem is de-humanized, with canine like images. “I hit the spoon against it, set it down/And watch her crawl to it”. The little girl knows what’s going to happenand is hesitant but is over whelmed by hunger and decides to eat eventhough she knows the consequences, “pausing after each forward thrust ofher legs”. These few lines don’t have any extremely complex vocabulary;it’s her way with the words that is so intriguing about her style. She moldsthe words like clay, letting them manipulate the reader and structuringeach piece of work.

Ai does not only invent character voices she becomes actual people.The work “Charisma” is about Waco, Texas and David Karesh,

They prayed with me,They lay facedown in Waco, Texas,to await death and resurrection,as it came from all directions, all in flames (Ai 199).

Ai is Police Officer Terry Yeakey, who committed suicide four daysbefore he was going to receive a metal of honor for rescuing people afterthe Oklahoma City Bombing in the piece “The Antihero”. She is RichardNixon in “Knock, Knock,” and she is an unidentified president (althoughwe know who she is implying) who has had a presidential affair with a“sweet, big-haired” girl in the piece “Blood In The Water”.

The majority of works in this book have violence as a main subject.When questioned on this in an interview she responded, “ I think violenceis an integral part of American culture, and I set out to deal with it” (PBS).I believe that due to its confrontational subject matter it is extremely pow-erful. Ai looks at violence and some of our greatest fears directly in the faceand doesn’t allow us to look away as a reader. She is allowing society to seethe reality of what it is made up of. For example, according to the web siteof the U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice statistics, in 1999 “white”people had a much higher rate of being the offender of a victim/offender

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relationship homicide then any other ethnicity. As a society we need toquestion our culture and its violent tendencies. We also need to questionour source of information to where we inquire. Perhaps people don’t wantto see the truth and would therefore not be able to read this book. Ai’swork is vital to literature and society. I’ve never been so mesmerized by abook of poetry then with Vice. I would whole heartedly recommend thisbook to anyone who can look reality in the face for what it truly is andlearn from it, not ignore it.

Works CitedAi. Vice. W.W. Norton and Company, New York and London. 1999http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/a_f/ai/about.htmhttp://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/poems/july-dec—/nba_11-18.html

Works Consultedhttp://www.ojp.usdoj.gove/bjs/homicide/race.htm#typesrace

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Black Noise: Something for ThoseWho Don’t Understand It Seth Magnuson

“Can violent images incite violent action, can music set the stagefor political mobilization, do sexually explicit lyrics contribute to the moral‘breakdown’ of society, and finally, is this really music anyway” (Rose 1)?In the late 1970’s rap music began to form a structure that consists of notonly all of the artistic aspects—including graffiti, break dancing, music vid-eos and the lyrics—but also the music—from both the voice of the MC andthe mix of the DJ—contribute to the creation of hip hop. Tricia Rose closelybreaks apart these elements in her book titled Black Noise: Rap Music andBlack Culture in Contemporary America. When most, generally older, whitepeople listen to rap music, they are turned off because of its loud bass andthe offensive language that can be degrading to women. Perhaps this couldalso be from the lack of understanding of the culture that is behind hiphop.

The author takes a birds eye perspective of the entire hip hop cul-ture and fills her book with all of the detailed information that she hasgathered over the past ten years of studies. She begins with the strugglesof rap when it was just beginning. In the 1970’s a very powerful city plan-ner by the name of Robert Moses came up with a plan to put in the CrossBronx Expressway. This project was named “Moses’s Title I Slum Clear-ance program [and] forced the relocation of 170,000 people” (31) whichmainly took place in the south Bronx, the original home of hip hop. Afterthe relocation roots of hip hop were scattered all over New York, which setback the progression of hip hop because of the chaos that came with it.Rose takes a systematic approach beginning with the importance of inde-pendent record labels and the introduction of music videos. During themid seventies six major companies controlled the music industry—whichwere not necessarily interested in rap music—and rap artists were alsoturned away from the mainstream radio, which forced them to find newways to promote their music. In the early 1980’s the success of MTV quicklygave not only national exposure, but it also “created an environment inwhich the reception and marketing of music is almost synonymous withthe production of music videos”(8). Although rap has only been around alittle over twenty years it has made huge advances within the style and isnow widely accepted worldwide by the younger generations that havegrown up with it.

The graffiti that litters the city walls, trucks and train cars, Rosepoints out, is just another form of advertising, which aided to the break-through of rap music. However, graffiti writing is not as respected, in fact

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it is much like the urine of a dog, used to mark and claim territory and isnot exactly a pleasant sight. There are gifted artists who create elaboratemultiple train car murals that are astonishing pieces of art, but still they aredespised by the masses. This kind of artwork is always personalized, oftenwith reference to their crew, which also serves as their visual icon. How-ever, to be a writer “requires detailed knowledge of the train schedules”(42)along with the will to risk a lot for a little respect among their peers. Trucksand trains are common targets instead of buildings because they are mo-bile. Rose goes on to say that a “freshly painted train would be followed allday and when it reached its designated storage yard (the ‘layup’) at night,writers were ready to ‘bomb’ it”(43). This shows the dedication to this artform. Graffiti is the visual representation of the individuals behind themusic while break dancing is the physical portrayal of the music.

Breaking is another important aspect of hip hop, which was “origi-nally [referred] only to a particular group of dance moves executed duringthe break beat in a Dj’s rap,” (47) the brief pause while the DJ is switchingmusic. Break dancing is a combination of a number of different dances toimitate the music in a physical form. The dancers respond to the DJ’s per-sonal mix of samples.

In the earliest stages, DJs were the central figures in hip hop; theysupplied the break beats for breakdancers and the soundtrack forgraffiti crew socializing. Early DJs would connect their turntablesand speakers to any available electrical source, including streetlights, turning public parks and streets into impromtu parties andcommunity centers (51).

The music is still the central base of hip hop. Rose uses a number ofquotes from DJ’s explaining their selections of music and the process oflayering and mixing the samples together. The music that is produced simu-lates the surrounding noise of the city. This also brings with it the chaosand turmoil, which the lyrics help to amplify.

“Rapping, the last element to emerge in hip hop, has become itsmost prominent facet”(51). Rose provides detailed analysis of the artists’lyrics to show the use of their personal experiences to draw connectionswith the surrounding environment of rap music. The harsh language isused to express the anger of the artists in response to the racism and op-pression that they deal with every day. A large portion of this book focuseson the lyrics and the differences of rap styles and flow between numerousartists of both genders. “Rap music brings together a tangle of some of themost complex social, cultural, and political issues in contemporary Ameri-can society”(2). The issues in hip hop directly reflect the street life and theconstant wars between both the police and drugs. East and west coast rap

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hold on to similar themes, but in the east rap has a longer history, whichbrings with it more culture and a style that is more refined. On the otherhand, the style of language used turns many people away from the soundsof hip hop, but the majority of the T.V. shows and movies are just as bad ifnot worse.

Hip hop, like many other forms of black music have surpassedmany hardships throughout its development due to issues of racism andlack of acceptance. Each step in this culture’s development has been thor-oughly examined, all of the information that is packed into this book is fullof historical significance in regards to each individual facet of the hip hopstyle and culture. The way that Rose arranges her arguments and descrip-tions is very realistic. This is enhanced by all of the personal input fromindividuals in the hip hop culture. After reading Black Noise you have muchmore insight into the hip hop culture, which allows you to make a muchstronger judgment toward the hip hop culture.

Graphics from Black Noise

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Inspiration & the Gift of Writing fromAudre Lorde Emily McCarron

My whole life I have tried to be a writer. Throughout my writingcareer, I feel I have had many shortcomings. After reading The CollectedPoems of Audre Lorde, I was inspired to continue my endeavors. Though Iwould never compare my talents in writing to her skill with the writtenword, she has inspired me to strive to write for the pure expression it al-lows me. The Collected Poems paints a vivid picture of over thirty years ofhistory. Unlike Audre, I don’t want other people to read my poems but Iam inspired to give the gift of history to myself according to her example.

My writing style is similar to Audre Lorde; we both write withextensive use of metaphors and straightforwardness. I think everyoneshould read this book because she has a strong voice that needs to be heard.It was a touching journey through her life; her personal life, her politicalopinions, her racial issues, her spiritual life, her feminist issues, and herbisexuality. Some of her poems seem to express the deepest parts of hersoul while others seem to be random thoughts reeling in her head. Thebook captures’ a plethora of emotions, and expressions which personifyher. So much of her essence is in it. She even writes about being a writer in“After a first book”

All the poems I have writtenare historical reviews of a now absorbed countrya small judgementhawking and coughing them upI have ejected them not unlike childrennow my throat is clearperhaps I shall speak again (36).

I felt like I could see her life unfold before my eyes. Hearing about herinsecurities, fears, angers, anxieties, lusts, pleasure, and so on, reminds meof how life is one big random wave so you might as well write down whatis going on with you along the way.

When I read Audre’s book it made me wish that there had beenmore information on her somewhere in the book, but there is something tobe said for the mystery and she did indeed share and expose a lot of herself in her poems. I got the impression from a number of different poemsthat she is spiritual.

One of my favorite poems was ”Call”:

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Adio Hwedo is callingCallingYour daughters are namedAnd conceivingMy mother loosen my tongueOr adorn meWith a lighter burdenAdio Hwedo is coming.

“Adio Hwedo: The Rainbow Serpent”; is a representation of all ancientdivinities who must be worshipped but whose names and faces have been lost intime (417).

This poem especially inspired me because it means something.Something that is bigger then all of us but also the core of us all.

This book gave me a somewhat foggy insight into her life, whichallows me to make isolated connections with her. Audre Lorde is so wiseand her poems are full of important wisdom. “Generation II” helped meto sympathize with my own mother’s struggles of raising a daughter.

A Black girlgoinginto the womenher motherdesiredand prayed forwalks aloneand afraidof boththeir angers ( 81).

This poem also makes me wish my mom had used writing to dealwith her fears while inspiring me to write out my fears.

I enjoyed all of her poems but the blatant political statement in“Now” struck me on an unparalleled level. It voices the tireless adage of“Question Authority”, which has been prevalent in my life.

Woman powerisBlack powerisHuman powerisalways feeling

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my heart beatsas my eyes openas my hands moveas my mouth speaksI amare youReady (121).

Her statement is so simple and, yet, so strong. I think the shortness of thelines added to the bluntness of how seemingly intrusive and importantthis message is.

There were many poems about race in the book and ‘BetweenOurselves’ gave me a point of few that I have not experienced, nor have alot of people. But I will let her words speak for themselves.

“Between Ourselves”Once when I walked into a roomMy eyes would seek out the one or two black facesFor contact or reassurance or a signI was not alone (223).

This poem made me want to smile at people more; it made me want towrite more of my thoughts on paper so I can be free to smile at people. Thepoem seems to crave a sense of diversity. It makes me hope for a solutionto all the separation.

One thing that kept me thirsty for more was her cry for justice.She lobbies for justice, and feels the most injured are women. Few want tohear or talk about the brutality of the way women are treated. A lot ofpolitical and social circles hesitate to include the feminist voice. A feministis exactly what she is and does not hide it in “Need: A Choral Of BlackWomen’s Voices”:

All: And how many of her deaths do we live through daily pretending we are alive?

BJG: Do you need me submitting to a terror at nightfall to chop into bits and stuff warm into plastic bags near the neck of the Harlem River and they found me there swollen with you need do you need me to rape in my 7th year till blood breaks the corners of my child’s mouth

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and you explain I was being seductive (349).

Bobbie Jean Graham, 34, beaten to death in Boston, 1979. One of 12black women murdered within a 3-month period in that city.

She wants to speak out for herself; she wants to speak out for ev-eryone. I just wish I were inspired enough to follow her lead and speakout.

Since we are on the topic of speaking out, I would like to say I amproud of her for publishing her poems about her bisexuality. This is anarea which has largely been undocumented, and even so unpublished.Therefore she can be largely considered a pioneer.

And I knew when I entered her I washigh wind in her forests hollow (127).

This poem was a passionate expression of experience that captures intenseemotions.

Descriptive and creative writing can be used not only in a fictionalsense, but can also be used to provide an insightful narrative into pressinghistorical, political, and social matters. On more then one occasion, AudreLorde’s poems provided historical insight. For esample, in “Viet-Nam Ad-denda” for/Clifford, she writes:

Genocide doesn’t only mean bombsat high noon and the cameraspanning in on the ruptured stomachof somebody else’s pubescent daughter (147).

She knows how to force you to imagine different realities. I loved her po-ems because they always spoke the truth no matter how vivid or depress-ing it might be.

To make it a full sample I have to include one of the mystical po-ems she wrote. One of my favorite poems I am not sure if I fully get hermeaning behind it. In spite of its mystery, “The Black Unicorn” gave me ameaning and a strong feeling.

I think that every one should read this book because it is historical,beautiful, and wisdom-filled in an eloquent yet necessary style. This bookhas convinced me to fill blank pages with my poems so maybe someday Iwill know who I am. She knows who she is, as shewaysin “Jessehelms”:

I am a Black womanWriting my way to the future

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Off garbage scow knit from moral fiber (447.)

Do you know who you are?

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All Woman: The Timeless Struggle Between Motherhood and Career

Julie Richardson

“Live as domestic a life as far as possible,” (quoted in The Fore-runner, 1913) was the suggestion of a specialist regarding the depres-sion of feminist writer Charlotte Perkins Gilman — the year was 1887.

Leading up to her depression, Gilman was contemplating thevery issue women of the 21st century are still struggling with – she wastorn between work and marriage. After years of debating whether tomarry or not to marry, she consented, and to the best of her abilitiesassumed the traditional roles of wife and mother.

Shortly after her first child was born though, Gilman suffered adebilitating nervous breakdown (De Simone). The “rest cure” was sug-gested to Gilman as a way of dealing with her nervous breakdown. As aresult, she plunged even deeper into the world of emotional instability.Gilman uses this moment in her life to later write the powerful shortfiction story titled The Yellow Wallpaper (The Feminist Press) as a reminderto everyone that women need to be treated as equals and given the sameopportunities in life as men.

In The Yellow Wallpaper, originally published in 1899, Gilmanpresents the internal dialogue of a woman diagnosed with hysteria andfor whom total rest has been prescribed. In the short fiction, the patientis slowly driven mad by her cure which cuts her off from any intellec-tual pursuits whatsoever. Although The Yellow Wallpaper is a work offiction, it is partially based on Gilman’s own experience.

At the time of her depression, the specialist told Gilman suchthings as, “have but two hours intellectual life a day” and for her to“never touch pen, brush, or pencil again” as long as she lived (The Fore-runner, 1913). Desperate for some relief from her melancholia, she obeyedthose directions for three months, and came so near the borderline ofutter mental ruin that she could see no end. Then with the help of a wisefriend, Gilman cast the noted specialist’s advice to the wind and wentto work again.

“Work, the normal life of every human being; work, in which isjoy and growth and service, without which one is a pauper and a para-site” (quoted by Gilman in The Forerunner, 1913). Ultimately Gilman re-covered some measure of power.

This experience led her to leave her husband and her newbornchild and relocate across the country. These bold actions were practi-cally unheard of during this time, particularly for women. She then be-gan to engage in and write about the social movements of the day. She

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became a prominent turn-of-the-century intellectual leader, writing suchworks as The Man-Made World, Herland, and Women and Economics(Schwartz).

Gilman was at the forefront of a movement to allow women tobe both mother and career-orientated intellectuals. She went to the ex-treme in her life to gain such independence by leaving her family be-hind and pursuing her career goals. We have progressed into a new erawhere it is acceptable for women to have both–yet the struggle still re-mains. Today’s woman is encouraged by some to be independent andcareer-oriented. While it is true that more women are developing ca-reers, it is also true that many have a long way to go to catch up withmen. Although women are no longer bound to a life of domestic tran-quility, the guilt of having a career while raising a family can be dis-couragement enough to make women avoid it altogether. Yet many stud-ies prove that women who work hard at a challenging job are doingsomething positive for their mental health (McChristie).

How do women find that precious balance between work andfamily? For many females, timing is a problem. The phase of life de-voted to forming relationships and establishing families is also the pe-riod of life when career-oriented individuals devote almost exclusiveattention to developing their careers. Since many women in the work-place also carry the primary responsibility for children, this responsibil-ity is often a time-and-energy restriction to career development(McChristie). Because often women are still expected to be homemak-ers, they find it difficult to take the time necessary to acquire job skills.

So goes the age-long debate between the sexes of equal-rightsand equal-responsibility. Gilman redefined womanhood, declaringwomen the equal of men in all spheres of life. This “new woman” wasto be an intelligent, well-informed, and well-educated free thinker, thecreator and expresser of her own ideas. She was to be economically self-sufficient, socially independent, and politically active. She would sharethe opportunities, duties, and responsibilities of the workplace with men,and together they would share the solitude of the hearth (Welter 151).

This image carries over to the modern woman, yet that delicatebalance remains elusive. Are we far enough away from the days of theyellow wallpaper, when women went mad from lack of intellectualstimulus in their lives? Deep-rooted oppression is hard to change.

The Yellow Wallpaper was written as a warning to women in thelate 19th century, and Gilman knew her shocking account of mental an-guish would open up dialogue on the subject matter. “I did not intendto drive people crazy by writing The Yellow Wallpaper, but to save peoplefrom being driven crazy, and it worked (quoted by Gilman, The Forerun-ner, 1913).

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Works CitedGilman, Charlotte Perkins. “Why I Wrote The Yellow Wallpaper?” The

Forerunner Oct. 1913.De Simone, Deborah M. “Charlotte Perkins Gilman and the Feminization

of Education.” WILLA, Volume 4, 13-17. (1995)Schwartz, Lynne Sharon. “The Yellow Wallpaper and Other Writings By

Charlotte Perkins Gilman.” New York: Bantam Books, 1989.McChristie, Pat. “Women Need to Work.” CyberWoman (April 2001). http://www.cyberparent.com/women/needwork.htm

A small country market on the Jacmel road, Pierre Verger

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Cultural Landscapes of Haitian Life:Paradise Lost but Not Forgotten

Janet Thelen

“You can take the [woman] out of the countrybut you can’t take the country out of a [woman].”

—Common Folklore, Author Unknown

Marilene Phipps uses poetry to paint a vivid picture of the strugglesand social issues of Haitian island living. Through her words she leads thereader on a journey; woven in and out of the lives of family, friends, andacquaintances which have which have influenced Phipps’ writing. She isan accomplished poet and painter from Haiti. Crossroads and Unholy Water(published jointly by Southern Illinois Press and Crab Orchard Review), herfirst book, includes acclaimed published poems such as: “Haitian Masks”—International Quarterly, “Marassa Spirits of Haiti”—Crab Orchard Review, and“Pink”—The Beacon Best of 1999: Creative Writing by Women and Men of AllColors. There is a contrast of life by the casual traveler to Haiti and thewriting of Marilene Phipps. She offers an inside view of Haitian survival.

The author’s outlook of life in Haiti seems to me very differentthan from our American perspective of abject poverty, medical, educational,and economic crisis. Phipps describes the people as full of life “queen ofthe coal kitchen/…beaming/ the yellow kernels of her smile” with a fondremembrance (3). Her poems reflect on the surroundings of her childhoodand remind the reader of conditions in Haiti today:

The clock outside the church of Sacred Heart,downtown Port-au Prince, has shown ten of six for years.No one cares. Time cannot be read. Here peopleknow what time it is by feeling each other’s faces. (30)

Her poetry gives the reader a vision—“she sighed as she sat/ on a lowstraw chair, the heat-lacquered/ columns of her black legs folded in a squat/her soiled apron caught between her knees”—taking us to a time and placein her mind with detailed descriptions (3).

I believe the current U.S.-Haitian relations have encouraged, sup-ported, and promoted talented artists and poets like Phipps to come toAmerica to study and earn a living. Dan Seiters of News from… SouthernIllinois University Press writes, “Marilene Phipps…was born and grew upin Haiti. The 1993 Grolier Poetry Prize winner, she has been both aGuggenheim and Harvard University Bunting Institute fellow. She has won

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fellowships for the year 1999-2000 at the W. E. B. Du Bois Institute and theCenter for the Study of World Religions, both at Harvard” <www.siu.edu>.The fact that Phipps is Haitian—living in the U. S. with a long list of cre-dentials—is not unusual. According to Radin of The Boston Globe, “Hai-tians occupy a special place in the United States, in two ways. They areblack, but they are not American blacks; they look at American blacks acrossdeep historical and cultural divides. And they are immigrants, sharing manycharacteristics with the Irish, Italians, and Jews who preceded them: thework ethic, fervent religious commitment, strong emphasis on family andeducation” <infoweb.newsbank.com>.

Phipps’ poetry makes me realize the harshness of everyday life inHaiti and how much we, as Americans, need to be more thankful for whatwe have. It seems that only when we have something taken away—wereveal a true appreciation—or regret. My thought, on some Americans liv-ing in the U.S., is how much is taken for granted in our daily lives. Phippsshares her life experiences with us the reader:

We are dirt/ poor in Nerèt.No running water in these slums,most people over there will killover water in the ravine: it’s a trickleand getting some is not like in America—you get a ticket and wait in line. (24)

Phipps offers an up close and personal view of Haitians living intheir island nation “the lushness of the black river women/…who traveldown from sun-scorched hills/…to wash soiled, worn clothes” with honorand respect (15). The island once described as “one of the richest coloniesin the 18th century French empire—pearl of the Antilles” is now a povertystricken country; “a legal minimum wage of 36 gourds a day (about U. S.$1.80) applies to most workers in the legal sector.” That is probably why“about one of every six Haitians live abroad” <ehostvgw17.epnet.com>.An article on May 7, 2001 by Tim Padgett/Port-Au-Prince for TIME Maga-zine informs us that “the country suffers 80% unemployment and Colom-bian drug traffickers have begun using the island as a transit lounge”<www.time.com>.

Like a puzzle, the pieces of Phipps’ past form an image “the housewas green and white/ coconut trees fanned themselves/ over the termite-hollowed balcony” (22). Each memory—like a piece of her life—fall intoplace “I am an object/ in her private graveyard of muscular men/ whosephotographs are like inscribed headstones” (24). With a thoughtful voiceshe recalls her mother’s relationships “each man has enlarged the empti-ness in her/ she has been mined like a great hill” (24). Phipps shows the

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reader that she misses her mother by recalling her mother’s words “yougrew in me/ now you have gone/ too far for me to imagine you” (25). Sheoffers a tribute to her parents’ memory in Crossroads and Unholy Water;“without them there is no life” (Special Acknowledgments). The average lifeexpectancy is 54 years according to a “Republic of Haiti” report<ehostvgw17.epnet.com>.

Just like Phipps’ painting on the cover of her book, her poetry addscolor and dimension to the Haitian cultural landscape. Her poems reflectthe people of Haiti with compassion and dignity; bringing their stories tolife. The reader discovers a little more about the world we live in—eventsand people that have shaped Phipps’ writing and her life. Crossroads andUnholy Water “make me see the world from [her] eyes” (25).

Works CitedMétraux, Alfred. Haiti:Black Peasants and Voodoo. “A small country

market on the Jacmel road”. New York: Universe Books, 1960.Phipps, Marilene. Crossroads and Unholy Water. Carbondale andEdwardsville: Southern Illinois Press and Crab Orchard Review, 2000.Padgett, Tim. TIME Magazine. “The Once and Current President”.

May 17, 2001 Vol., 157. 18. Online. 16 May 2001<www.time.com/>

Radin, Charles A. “From Haiti to Boston…” The Boston Globe. Sunday Magazine, p18. 15 Dec. 1996 Online. Newsbank.Cabrillo Coll. Lib., Aptos. 12 May 2001 <http:infoweb.newsbank.com/>

Seiters, Dan. News from… Southern Illinois University Press.12 May 2001 <http://www.siu.edu/>

“Republic of Haiti.” Background Notes on Countries of the World,Apr. 2001 Haiti, pl. Online. EBSCOhost. Cabrillo Coll. Lib., Aptos.8 May 2001 <http://ehostvgw17.epnet.com/>

Haitian Pastorale, frombookjacket of Crossroadsand Unholy Water, paintedby Marilene Phipps

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Break the Rules! Hao Huang

Are you sick of typical Hollywood films like Dude, Where is MyCar? or that film which contains thousands of bullets but zero plots called3000 Miles to Graceland? Yeah, me too. So you want to make your own filmthat touches the human heart, the kind, which we can barely find now.However, you have a zero budget and don’t know how? When people likeyou want to become filmmakers they should read: Feature Filmmaking atUsed-Car Prices. According to Eduardo Sanchez, co-writer and co-directorof The Blair Witch Project—it is “A must-have for no-budget filmmaking. Amost valuable resource, just in case you…aren’t one of Spielberg’s kids”.Can this book help you to make an original, independent film? It is truethat Rick Schmidt will teach you the ABC’s of preparing, filming and edit-ing in his book; moreover, it is based on his own experience. But there ismore to it than that; it is a book that teaches you how to break the rules offilmmaking.

The author tells you almost everything you need to know aboutfilmmaking, and while he is doing that, he also reminds people that thoserules can be broken. The most recent edition, 2000, covers even more digi-tal filmmaking which almost missing in the 1998 edition. The book is use-ful and most importantly, inspirational and critical of the Hollywood film-making industry.

In 1913 Jesse Lasky, Samuel Goldwyn, and Cecil B. DeMille madethe first full-length feature movie in Hollywood in that barn, “The SquawMan.” When they formed a studio and named it Paramount, they movedthat barn to another location. Ever since then, filmmaking has become syn-onymous with Hollywood. It became the heaven of filmmaking. Amongthe thousands of great movies produced in Hollywood, Citizen Kane (1941)and Dr. Strangelove (1964)…were only two examples. Hollywood had itstime. However while in the 80s commercial box office success completelydominated artistic success. It is true that Hollywood films are formulaic—from the earlier Cowboy movies to today’s Arnold Schwarzenegger actionmovies and it is getting worse. Hollywood has become a huge advertisemachine. While it is violence world we are living in today; Hollywoodpackages the violence and make it beautiful, and the only way to become asuccess in this society—Gladiator. While the love is complicated and it con-tains not only just beautiful romantic sharing of life but also selfishnessand jealousy. The loves in Hollywood’s romantic movies are thinner thanTitanic. In the foreword Schmidt summarizes his view of these formulafilms. “The shortcoming of Hollywood is that its confections are whippedup from recipes (you know: a dash of romance blended into a cup of sus-pense with a dollop of social relevance thrown on top to create the perfect

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post-dinner entertainment)” (Schmidt 6). Attacking Hollywood filmmak-ing is the very first thing he puts in his book and he let his readers knowwhy. His ten “anti-rule” rules are exactly what new filmmakers need toconsider. He is telling us to stop worrying too much about sets, props,locations, costumes and plot. Shoot something that is about life, aboutpeople. You will feel that the writer is encouraging you to do it. “But whenyou write for a feature that you will produce, the only one you have tosatisfy is yourself.” (Schmidt 41)

Any prospective investor should be reminded that filmmakingis…a gamble. There is no way to know ahead of time…a moreimportant point is that…you create a unique film that may helpexpand the understanding of people on this planet (Schmidt 67).

It may sound impossible at first but there are many filmmakersthat have tried this method and succeeded. Wim Wenders, director of Wingsof Desire and Paris, Texas is one of them. “He came away with the convic-tion that the original concept for the film should remain open so that dur-ing the filmmaking the director can discover and incorporate into the filmnew images and ways of seeing.” Roger F. Cook, wrote in his essay, “Angles,Fiction, and History in Berlin: Wings of desire”. Wim Wenders was named theBest Director of the 1987 Cannes Film Festival for Wings of Desire. Holly-wood filmmakers spend too much time on the look of the films and forgetthe essential thing of filmmaking—life and humanity. Those “anti-rule”rules are elements the Hollywood films are missing. He keeps remindingus of these rules through his teaching of how to make a no-budget film.

One of the reasons that it is easier and cheaper now to make amovie is because of the Internet. It is an oasis, where people can gain andgive away their own information. Today, people can simply list their filmon the Internet without going through the monstrous Hollywood promo-tion and distribution system. In the book, Schmidt really connects the readerto the Internet. All the tools, videos and organizations he introduces toreaders have their Internet addresses next to the their names. There in-cludes Websites such as Dogme 95, places that people can get informationand connections to the independent filmmakers and watch their films. Thereare also price lists and phone numbers you should call for more help forthe things you need to do while you decide to make a film. His book alsoincludes an array of checklists, sample budgets and contracts. He will showyou ways to make films out of nothing or almost out of nothing. He intro-duces the readers to a whole new world of filmmaking.

However, I was disappointed with the part on film editing. Schmidtonly shows us how to edit the film shot by 35mm. These days, Digital Video(DV) filmmaking is so much easier and cheaper with higher quality. Lastsummer, David Sullivan of Cabrillo College led an independent study group

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that made a fifteen-minute long film call Strange Flesh; I was at the open-ing. The film’s quality was so good that I couldn’t believe they had donethe whole thing on one DV camera and an Apple G4 computer. EvenSchmidt admits that “Video that looks like top-end film! That’s why theDV format deserves attention beyond the previous “video chapter”.” Headds chapter 11 for the digital video workstation, but I don’t think that it isenough. DV filmmaking is revolutionary because it gives us the power tomake films that have almost the same quality as Hollywood’s. Rick usedtoo little space to describe this most powerful tool for future filmmakers(The new 2000 Edition is greatly upgraded).

Feature Filmmaking at Used-Car Prices is like a gateway to an alter-nate universe of artistic creation. It is time for filmmakers to break the rulesof Hollywood and setup their own rules, and show them to the audiences.The digital revolution, that is, disinter mediation, make it possible for in-dependent filmmakers to publish their work without huge money supportfrom Hollywood or any other major cooperation. Low budget digital film-making changes not only the meaning of production but also the owner-ship. The aesthetic it espouses returns production to people and to a hu-man scale. It is time for us to be free from Hollywood at last.

Fear of female sexuality in Francis Ford Coppola’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula

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The Dread of Analysis Imelda Jimenez

“The monstrous figures from our dreams are our images of ourrepressed selves, and thus Transylvania, by extension, becomes the land ofthe unconscious, an interpretation which is thoroughly confirmed byStoker’s imagery” (Wood 369). I had never viewed the imagery in BramStoker’s Dracula in such a provocative way. This is a quote by Robin Woodin an essay called “Burying the Undead: The Use and Obsolescence of CountDracula”, which takes a closer look at who “Dracula” is and how he isportrayed in different films.

When I flipped through the book The Dread of Difference: Genderand the Horror Film (Texas Press; $24.95), edited by Barry Keith Grant, Ithought it might be interesting to read and to learn more about the genre ofhorror. The book had some playfully entitled essays such as “’Beyond theVeil of the Flesh’: Cronenberg and the Disembodiment of Horror”, and“King Kong: The Beast in the Boudoir—or, ‘You Can’t Marry That Girl, You’rea Gorilla!’” making the book seem appealing.

There are 21 essays in the book, each by a different author; themajority of them are college professors, with backgrounds ranging fromcinematography to literature to psychology. As I read the essays, I foundthem very analytical and too descriptive. At times I was guided so far intodescriptions, I would forget what was supposedly being discussed andneed to check the title of the essay.

For the most part, the in-depth look at films and portrayals of char-acters were well written, such as in an essay by Linda Williams called “Whenthe Woman Looks”. “The vampiric act of sucking blood, sapping the lifefluid of a victim so that the victim in turn becomes a vampire, is similar tothe female role of milking the sperm of the male during intercourse” (Wil-liams 23). Examples like this help the reader understand and look at thefilms from a different perspective.

I was personally interested in the essays about Dracula. In an es-say by Vera Dika, entitled “from Dracula—with Love”, she discusses hisportrayal in films throughout the years:

But in [Francis Ford Copolla’s 1992] Bram Stoker’s Dracula, themonster is also a handsome young man, played by Gary Oldman.Although Badham’s [1979] Dracula, starring Frank Langella, pre-sents a devastatingly attractive Count who seduces his willingvictims, he is never a lover in the real sense. In Bram Stoker’sDracula, the monster is now rendered as an ardent lover who ispassionately loved in return by the beautiful Mina. (Dika 390)

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Some of the more profound, symbolic meanings behind “blood”and the woman’s sexual role and influence in the movie were a little diffi-cult to understand. Dika attempts to give a profound explanation aboutblood and women in Bram Stoker’s Dracula.

First she begins discussing women and menstrual blood, arguingwomen can be seen as “evil” by society. “The female is associated with filthand defilement, that which must be cast away from the symbolic system.For this reason, woman can become synonymous with evil” (Dika 391).This is pretty clear. But, in the next sentence she states:

In literature, this fear of the wound—of female genitalia and fe-male genital function—has been incorporated, according to an-other theory, now by Sidmund Freud, in stories that inspire dread,fear, and loathing. In his essay “The Uncanny,” Freud argues thatthis emotion has its source in things once familiar to us, to whatwas ‘homey’ or heimlich, but is now suppressed. (Dika 392)

Then she talks about castration and a mother’s womb:

He [Freud] claims that within this familiarity, this comfort, lurksthe opposite emotion, the unheimlich, or “uncanny,” the dread ofour first home, of the womb, of our mother’s genitalia. And forthe male, it also includes the fear of the mother’s imagined cas-tration and, potentially, his own. (Dika 392)

And then in the next paragraph, she leaps into this idea of the bloodof life, “The blood that Dracula craves, and from which we recoil, the ‘bloodof life,’ derives its power from the ancient fear of menstrual blood”(Dika392). This line is clear.

In Stoker’s story, the female “wound” is displaced upward, fromthe genital area to the neck, and the act of sucking is at once aperversion of sexual intercourse and of lactation as well. Mother’smilk and menstrual blood, as corporeal excrement, are the ab-ject. (Dika 392)

Despite the so-called “philosophical” explanations of symbolismand metaphors in the book, which is often not easy to follow, the book getsyou to view what is really, according to the authors, being portrayed inhorror movies.

The authors point out that we are accountable for what is exposedin movies. Horror movies tend to always have a passive female runningaway from the terrible monster in search of her strong, masculine boy-

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friend to save her from being killed. Going back to Williams’ essay, shediscusses women having to “cover their eyes … [and] hide behind the shoul-ders of their dates”, when viewing scary movies. She tells us the reasonwhy women do this is because a woman is “asked to bear witness to herown powerlessness in the face of rape, mutilation, and murder” (Williams15).

Women are still seen in today’s culture as male dependent andweak and this is strongly reflected in every type of media. If issues of gen-der role, sexuality, violence, and adolescence and other topics are sup-pressed, then media will jump in and find some way to get us to see it upclose. That’s why issues like this cause such debates between the mediaand parents…how much sex and violence should a child see? It’s up to usto change what the media exposes to us. As Robin Wood said, “The truesubject of the horror genre is the struggle for recognition of all that ourcivilization represses or oppresses” (Intro 4).

Cover for A Star Called Henry

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Fastest Leg in the West (Of Ireland)Vance Buckreus

Henry Smart: easily played by Matt Damon on the big screen, is anIrish Revolutionary hero. The charismatic overly handsome main charac-ter loves his way into the midst of the Easter Rising, though it was a battlelost and took the lives of many important revolutionaries, “was critical inthe growth of Ireland into a free republic” (O’Brien 240). Henry Smart car-ries on the family trade: murder by wooden leg. His infamous father wasknown for being able to whip the leg off his stump, and whack his victimon the head, a lot like an old-west gunfight. The books hero is soon on hisown, with many exciting exploits to fill the pages. Doyle entertains us bygiving us a romanticized history of Ireland, while simultaneously goingpast mere entertainment to inform as well.

A STAR CALLED HENRY is a good example of Doyle’s street talkingpoetry, and a tale of love thrown in. The early novels of Roddy Doyle wererecognizable simply by the way they were laid out in type: long strings ofdescriptions running down the pages; one and two-word bursts of speechset off by dashes. His book Paddy Clarke received the Booker Prize in 1993,this established him as a legitimately literary contributor.

A Star Called Henry takes place during the founding of the IrishRepublic; this historical novel begins with a prehistory set in VictorianDublin. The fist view of Doyle’s history lesson details his image of the con-ditions for the average early 1900’s Irish person. Henry the hero is bornsuccessfully while other Henrys had died at birth in the slums of Dublinamidst the “pools of stagnant water, rats on the scent of baby milk…deathin every breath” (11).

Baby Henry Smart is destined to help save Ireland from the Britishtyranny. The young hero named Henry Smart is destined for greatness; hisfather, also Henry Smart, teaches his son the family business at an earlyage. Henry tells us he watches his father “balanced without needing tohop and brought the leg down on the cap of a man who was standing nextto me. I heard bones breaking and screams”(60). Doyle’s slant on the may-hem is comical, reading much like a mini-series movie.

Henry has few tender moments with his parents, fortunately he isable to recall all memories since birth. He remembers they would sit on thefront steps and look up at the sky. Those memories will have to last a life-time for soon his parents would be taken. Henry Sr. is caught in the middleof an underworld double-crossing and disappears “Who was he and wheredid he come from? I know nothing real about my father; I do not evenknow if his name was real” (61). Poor Henry and Victor are left with theironly possession, a mahogany prosthetic leg, to fend off the world. Now

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Henry must take care of his brother, Victor, as they are orphaned and alone.Henry and Victor are out traipsing around on their own, with their

desperate circumstances depicted as comic adventures. They find ways toentertain the crowd by grasping rats barehanded to earn spare change. Itwas a little too farcical when the writer has them sneaking into school onlyto be thrown out again for being too poor. They are characters on the mar-gins excessively entertaining as iconoclastic dissenters. “You will beat theEnglish because your drinks are better” (273). The story is a typical “his-torical” revolt story, it has everything needed to create an entertaining andinforming experience, true love in the midst of war, from rags to a positionof respect in wartime. Roddy Doyle has inserted his likable character intoone of the most important events of Irish history The Easter Rising.

The story is artfully told, line for line, the prose is vivid, sensual,and gripping, although the story line itself is not very original. One of thebest historically based scenes is “The Easter Rising”. This was an armedassault by Irish rebels on the Dublin General Post Office and other parts ofthe city on Easter Monday, the 24th of April, 1916. The Irish revolutionariesrun out into the street and briång back a bed with casters, they put thewounded commanding officer on “a brass bed on good true casters, soConnolly could continue to run the show…`I took one bed knob and, hisbody guard took the other, we shoved that bed all over the post office”’(146).

Even though they lost, the rebels succeeded in bringing greaterworld and national attention to the oppressive ways with which Englandruled over Ireland. It is believed that this was the real reason for the rebelsfollowing through with the assault. They knew that they were going into abattle which they probably would not win, but they also knew that theyhad to send a message to England saying that Ireland was no longer satis-fied with broken promises and political games.

Works CitedDoyle, Roddy. A Star Called Henry: volume one

of the last roundup.New York: Penguin Books, 1999.

O’Brien, William. 04/05/01 “History Of TheEaster Rising”. (www.irish revolt.com)Accessed 1 May 7, 2001

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I Found Myself Through Hairspray:And Other Interesting Ways to Look AtThe World Sara Cunningham-Farish

“I’ve been around and seen the Taj Mahal and the Grand Canyonand Marilyn Monroe’s footprints outside Grauman’s Chinese Theater, butI’ve never seen my mother wash her own hair” (39). And so begins MarciaAldrich’s essay entitled “Hair” (Best American Essays, Houghton Mifflin).With wit and imagination she tells us the story of the women in her familyand their hair, using it as a metaphor to expose the underlying expressionsof the self. Through her personal experience and thought, she does whatmost of the essays in this book do; they ask us to look at the world in a newway, with new eyes, and understand the many layers of meaning in ordi-nary things.

Aldrich seems to say, “Be afraid of a woman who dares to cut herhair”. When women change their hair, many times it reflects a deeper changein their lives; “sometimes they create a look that startles in its own origi-nality and suggests a future not yet realized” (44) that rests on the brink ofpossibility. What is that “future not yet realized”? A change: I’m leaving,I’m going back to school, I like myself. Perhaps the ancient myth of Sampsonand Delilah has changed form—since so few men have long hair anymore—and now rather than the long hair being the strength of Sampson, takingoff the weight of long locks is the power of Delilah.

There are of course women who ask the question that Aldrich’ssister does, “Don’t women have better things to think about than their hair?”Yes they do, but if they choose to think of their hair as the wings of theirimagination, I think it is as worthy of thought as a uterus. Hair seems toembody notions of power and femininity but it can also display the flex-ibility of the soul. The mystical and mysterious hairdresser Rhonda whoAldrich finds in the end of her piece, explains it this way:

I see hair…as an extension of the head and therefore I try to dohair with a lot of thought…Nothing is permanent, nothing is for-ever. Don’t feel hampered or hemmed in by the shape of yourface or the shape of your past. Hair is vital, sustains mistakes,can be born again. You don’t have to marry it. Now tip back andput you head in my hands (45).

When I read Annie Dillard’s essay “Stunt Pilot” I felt I had slippedinto the short pageboy haircut I had as a kid. I remember standing next to

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my father who towered high above me, and for the first time seeing a planedo magical, fantastic things in the sky. Dillard shares how she “stood amongdandelions between two asphalt runways in Bellingham, Washington, andbegan learning about beauty” (138). She transports us to the air show—toan event that I would not expect to show this—but does: the simple, fiercegrace that every artist wishes to reveal.

His was pure energy and naked spirit. I have thought aboutit for years. Rahm’s line unrolled in time. Like music, itsplit the bulging rim of the future along its seam. It priedout the present. We watchers waited for the split-secondcurve of beauty in the present to reveal itself. The humanpilot, Dave Rahm, worked in the cockpit right at the plane’snose; his very body tore into the future for us and reeled itdown upon us like a curling peel…Who could breathe, ina world where rhythm itself had no periods? (138)

She seems to dare us to define what is beautiful, what is art. Whoare we who have not noticed the daring arc of the human pilot as he riskshis life to carve art out of sky? Her description could be of painting, ofdancing, music; in fact her writing has this same graceful arc, allowing usto experience the air show as she did. She could also be describing thefinesse of making others laugh, as Ann Hodgman does in her essay “NoWonder They Call Me a Bitch”.

Hodgman uses humor as a sword to explore the world in relationto the self. With wit and the matter-of-fact explanation of a soap commer-cial, she shares her experience in answering the questions “Is a Gaines-Burger really like a hamburger? Does dog ‘cheese’ taste like real cheese?Does Gravy Train actually make gravy in a dog’s bowl, or is that brownliquid just dissolved crumbs? And what exactly are by-products?” So shegives herself over to the bizarre task of sampling both dry and wet variet-ies of “bitch” food.

Although we are led on the jocular journey of actually frying aGaines-Burger and sampling Purina O.N.E. (Optimal Nutritional Effective-ness), the deeper commentary is about herself as a woman, and the criti-cism she has received: “bitch”! The Oxford dictionary defines a bitch as a“female dog or other canine animal; a spiteful woman; a very unpleasantor difficult thing” (Oxford 72). She is very subversive in this essay, denyingtheir slang use of word—a spiteful woman, and addressing the literal use—female dog. She may eat the food, but she also uses humor and an almostmocking tone to laugh at the criticism, even going so far as to imply thatshe claims this word; “No Wonder” she says in the title. Her work showsus a new way to look at criticism: maybe there’s truth in it, and maybe

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that’s not so bad, just funny.I try to imagine I am all of these things: moved to transform myself

through my hair, the human pilot creating art out of thin air, courageousand curious enough to pursue something so fervently that I would eat dogfood. But I also try to absorb the way these different writers used theirwriting and thought to explore and push me to explore, the way I lookedat the world. The writing is both the vehicle for new thought, as well asbeing a savory destination. In all three pieces—and in the many more to befound in the Great American Essays—the sense of exploration, honesty, andcritical thought remind the reader that “nothing is more gladdening thanknowing we must roll up our sleeves and move back the boundaries of thehumanely possible once more”(xi).

Robert Rauschenberg’s All Abordello Doze 2 (Japanese Recreational Clayworks)

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Hitch-Hiking in Hollywood Maia Yepa

So, young Americans are the unfortunate ones, “weaned on MTV,”and unable to comprehend the beauty of a Hitchcock film, brought up inan era of artistic ignorance and cinematic sacrilege. David Freeman has nofaith in the appreciative abilities of the modern audience, as he makes clearin the introduction to his The Last Days of Alfred Hitchcock. The book, a mem-oir of Freeman’s collaboration with the director who birthed such films asDial M for Murder (1954), Vertigo (1958), Psycho (1960), and The Birds (1963),is more of an ego boost for a scriptwriter who hasn’t been recognized on acelebrity level. Freeman wants a piece of the pie. Unfortunately for him,Hitchcock ate it.

The introduction, a critical, opinionated evaluation of modern so-ciety in relation to Hitchcock films, is better left for last, or perhaps notread at all. As a reader who enjoys forming opinions on my own, I didn’tappreciate Freeman’s idea that a young, post-Hitchcock audience memberis incapable of true understanding of Hitchcock’s genius. Freeman also at-tacks modern filmmaking, and presupposes that Hitchcock, if he were alivetoday, would share his opinions. “I doubt that he would have much likedthe slam-bang style that has now all but overwhelmed American movies,but he would have seen it for the irritating fad that it is” (Freeman ix). Yes,movies have changed, entertainment has changed, but who is Freeman todecide for millions that cinema of today is worthless, that contemporaryaudiences have dry tastes?

Freeman has a point, that credit for deserving movies is often sto-len by flashy effects and “the din of the multiplex.” Reference this year’sAcademy Awards: the movie of the year was Gladiator, a film not to becompletely disregarded, but certainly to be questioned in its superiorityover other nominations. It is fairly clear that this business isn’t about qual-ity over quantity, but looking at modern films and audiences, it can be seenthat, beneath the Cheese-Glam surface of Hollywood filmmaking, there isstill talent and taste to be found. Although we are of a culture in whichinstant gratification sells, there are still those who look for a slightly morestimulating (intellectually, that is) form of cinema.

Freeman accuses today’s audience members of distortingHitchcock’s influence. He claims that we have forgotten to look for theunderlying psychological statements that are hidden in the gore and gutsof Hitchcock’s films. In other words, where there was deep meaning forviewers of Hitchcock’s era, “what remains for a modern audience is onlythe grisly murder” (Freeman x).

To contradict Freeman’s opinion I asked a twenty-year-old collegestudent if she had an opinion about Vertigo. In response, she said that she

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“was impressed with the cinematography and the suspense it created…was constantly noticing potential stills, and…was impressed by[Hitchcock’s] ability to keep me hanging on… keep me interested till itwas through” (personal interview). Perhaps not every youth of today isgoing to be in awe of Hitchcock’s direction; still, not everyone is in searchof mindless entertainment.

The memoir portion of Freeman’s book is full of interesting factsabout Hitchcock’s movies and personality. For an avid Hitchcock follower,this section might be the icing on the cake; Freeman mentions the littlethings that one might not spot on their own and answers questions aboutstrange occurrences in Hitchcock’s directing. For instance, why, in Vertigo,is there a strange cut from Madeleine (Kim Novak) running across the field,to Madeleine and Scottie (James Stewart) standing next to the bell tower?Who would have thought that it was Hitchcock’s wife, Alma, who sug-gested the scene be cut because of the appearance of Novak’s legs? Someof Hitchcock’s reasoning proves bizarre, but “the result is the finishedprint… Kim Novak’s heavy legs protected and all logic left on the cuttingroom floor” (Freeman 19).

For those who are not regular critics of Hitchcock movies, Free-man says too much. He seems eager to share his secret Hitchcock facts, butin the process, he is not cautious about sacrificing the plot of the screen-plays he refers to, and, in fact, does so liberally. I suppose if he does thefilm justice while giving it away, one might be inspired to hold a Hitchcockmarathon. Otherwise, Freeman may as well be talking through the movie.

The Short Night, which was never produced, is a bit of a changefrom the typical “film noir” style Hitchcock movies take on. The script,which still needs some polishing according to Freeman, is fairly lightheartedand easy to follow. Only a few moments provided suspense: most wereteetering on the edge of comedy.

Reading a Hitchcock script is not a terribly fulfilling accomplish-ment. The man is known for his suspenseful cinematography and his abil-ity to lure the viewers to the edge of their seats with the mere angle atwhich he pans. Since the script on paper, no matter how detailed, can neverparallel the final product film, reading a movie—well, it’s just not the same.

This particular screenplay reached nowhere near the range of com-plexity that other Hitchcock films have. Truthfully, it felt like I was scan-ning an old Hardy Boys novel with the addition of a few PG13 scenes. Whatsaved it was the build up that Freeman gives in his memoir of his collabo-ration on the project. If it weren’t for his explanations in the previous sec-tion of the book, the screenplay would have lost the appeal that being aHitchcock product gives it. (Freeman gives a preview of the cinemato-graphic choices Hitchcock was working on.) What spoiled it was the buildup that Freeman gives himself for being a part of the process. Yes, the mandeserves credit, but he often seems to turn the spotlight onto himself for no

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reason other than to remind his readers that he was Hitchcock’s last col-laborator.

The character development in The Short Night is shallow in com-parison to earlier Hitchcock pieces. In Vertigo, for example, Scottie and Judy/Madeleine are intensely fascinating people. Freeman does touch on this inhis summarization of the film. Vertigo “is a puzzle within a puzzle thatproceeds both by logic and by dreams” (Freeman 30). But try to apply thisstatement to The Short Night and Freeman would be paddling up river.There simply isn’t the same abundance of thought-provoking information,complexity of plot, or stimulation of curiosity that older Hitchcock filmsare known for.

What I can appreciate about Freeman is his background in writ-ing. I have become wary of memoirs written by authors who have no knowl-edge of language, who wish to convey an idea through non-captivatingwords. Freeman was a journalist and a scriptwriter, and it shows in thequality of his work. In describing Hitchcock’s storytelling, Freeman givesa perfect example of his own book: “It was an odd mixture of an obsessionwith detail and a slow, meandering style” (6). Freeman certainly exhibitsthese characteristics. He shows immense attention to the details, and hiswork entertains at a legible pace.

Clearly, Freeman has an immense amount of respect and admira-tion for Hitchcock, as he places him on a pedestal that no director since hasbeen able to reach. “If God couldn’t get it right the first time around, Hitchwas going to have a go at it and see what he could do” (Freeman 53). Thefact that Hitchcock is dead does not effect Freeman’s opinion. Hitchcock isa poster child for our obsession with celebrity, those unusual charactersthat never die in our heads. Hitchcock wasn’t assassinated. He didn’t dieof a drug overdose or car accident. But that doesn’t change the fact that heis a legend in his genre, a character that Freeman won’t let us forget, who isembedded in our culture through a medium that was, in Hithcock’s day, agenre fairly unexplored. Although Freeman says too much in relation tohis own career, in regards to Hitchcock’s, he says it all. “Today…many direc-tors are well known and admired though they usually seem more like busi-nessmen or politicians than artists whose ghosts can live in the collectiveunconscious of the nation” (Freeman xi).

Works CitedFreeman, David. The Last Days of Alfred Hitchcock. Woodstock, New York:

The Overlook Press, 1999. 281 pp. $16.95Anonymous. Personal Interview. May 5, 2001

Works ConsultedVertigo. Dir. Alfred Hitchcock. Perf. James Stewart, Kim Novak. Paramount,

1958.

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Is it Behaviour? or Behavior? Leah Quinn

Words, gotta love ‘em! They come in all kinds of shapes and sizes,textures and tones. Some words are full mouthed, big and round, othersscrunched and plugged. Or perhaps you fancy the liquid smooth ones thatslide from your lips, or the sharp ones that slice and bite? They can pop,click and bounce too and how about the words coughed up like phlegmand spit from your tongue like acid? Not me you say? Well then you can’tdeny that words are down right useful now can you. If you’re not smittenwith the sound and feel of words, don’t worry The Story of English by Rob-ert McCrum, William Cran, and Robert Macneil, has something for youtoo. Behind each word there’s a little story, and if English happens to beyour mother tongue then you’re in luck! The English language has over500, 000 words to choose from and chances are at least a few will appeal toyou (1). People use language to describe just about everything we possiblycan about the human experience. Whatever it is that is important and mean-ingful to you, can most definitely be described using words. The study oflanguage is essentially a study of people. Historic events and the processby which cultural identity is formed are contained within a language. Wordsare marked; they bear the past like a scar upon a smooth face the productof living, of chance and purpose. Upon inspection, words will reveal im-portant cultural truths and fascinating insight into the character of thepeople who create them.

I’ll tell you right off, this book is jam packed with information—important mind you, just not always, well let’s say...exciting. If you can siftthrough the desert of information, which admittedly is tedious at times,you will be rewarded. Buried in this desert are many tasty nuggets thatwill satisfy the curious mind and tickle even the most apathetic of verbalcommunicators.

The Story of English tells the history of the English language. It tapsits roots and explores its birth and its evolution over time and oceans. Thebook does this thoroughly and with attention to minute idiosyncratic subtle-ties that both surprise and delight the reader.

The book keys in on the forces that have shaped English and pro-vides us with logical explanations for its form today. The authors effec-tively win the readers interest by covering a broad spectrum of influenceson English. This includes areas such as, Politics, Historical events, Culture,Immigration and the Arts to mention a few. Through many of these differ-ent outlets we find a subject that is interesting to us and are provoked toread on. As we follow the evolution of English we are made aware of themotivations behind certain changes and more fully able to appreciate andunderstand why they came about.

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Because I am an American, naturally the section in the book about“American English” appealed to me. Why is it that we speak differentlythan the British? Much of the changes English has undergone in this coun-try can be traced to early nationalism. “ The American Revolution markedthe turning point in the making of this new, American kind of English. Therebels wanted to announce their separation from the old country in everydepartment of life” (226). The authors make their explanations completewith specific example of spelling changes the English in America under-went from the British traditions. To name a few of the most prominent wehave the famous lexicographer Noah Webster to thank for things like colourto “color,” theatre to “theater” and defence to “defense”(232).

The reader is also dipped into the melting pot of American cultureand is satisfied with explanations on the regional differences of AmericanEnglish that are characterized by accents and subtle differences is wordusage. We are taken to the South where the African slave population wasmost dense and see the influence it had on speech there. “The Southernaccent of the United States would almost certainly been quite differentwithout the influence of the Blacks. The influence of Black English was feltin the fields (where slave and overseer would mix), in the house (wheremaster and mistress used plantation Creole to communicate with theirslaves. But above all, it was found in the nursery...furthermore all nursing–as any reader of Southern literature knows was done by Blacks (204).

If you’re still not impressed, don’t fret, there’s tons of fun, less se-rious material for those of us who don’t have a ravishing appetite for thesubtleties of language itself. The authors dedicate ample pages to the ori-gins of odd words, slang and common expressions in the English language.Can you guess what these words from “low Dutch”—fokkinge, kunte, andkrappe—became? (77). Or how about the origins of the popular slang word“cool”? Turns out, “ Early Jazz was hot (frenetic), but when this word wasover exploited by the Whites, it was considered best to develop cool (whichmay ironically, have come from white West Coast Jazz bands of the1950s)”(209). Ever wondered how the American name for a mixed drink“Cocktail” got its name? Me either, but it was neat to find out. “...Likesome other Americanisms it may have an African pedigree. In the Krio ofSierra Leon, kaktel means “scorpion”—a creature with a sting in the tail”(241). How appropriate, don’t you think?

The richness of the English language is staggering and diverse as“English is used by at least 750 million people, and barely half of thosespeak it as a mother tongue” (1). I’d say that it is pretty obvious that it’sprobably the most useful language to know, and the leader in the modernworld. English reaches far and wide and it lives and breathes the peoplewho speak it. Following the laws of nature it evolves with us from day today, babbling into the future, carrying our history with it. The Story of En-

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glish is impressive and relevant reading material and if you’re into lan-guages in a big way, watch out! It just might leave you speechless...

Works CitedRobert McCrum, William Cran, and Robert MacNeil. The Story of English.

Penguin Books: 394 pp.

Giant Monkey frog perched on shower faucet, from The Golden Frog

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In Search of the Golden Frog:A Practically Untarnished Book Sandy Hager

When invited on an expedition by the world’s expert on tropicaltree frogs to survey amphibians and reptiles at a remote field site in thetropical forest of Amazonian Ecuador, the twenty-one-year-old senior bi-ology student replied enthusiastically: “Yes! Take me with you!”(1). Andthus begins and sets the pace for Marty Crump’s book entitled In Search ofthe Golden Frog. This real life field journal includes thirty years of invalu-able research on habitat and wildlife while adapting to many different cul-tures. In addition, Marty raised two children while still continuing her workin the fields, making herself the first female biologist to ever do this. Al-though a lot of negative human impact has occurred in the past thirty years,she has worked hard to teach conservation and awareness. Overall, herdescriptions of animals, plants and fungi are incredibly helpful with greatcolor descriptions and size references. While her approach to biology isrefreshingly human, being full of humor and understanding, the onlycritism I have is that from a scientific standpoint, she periodically anthro-pomorphizes animals she is observing and therefore may be doing them agreat disservice.

I’ll never forget going on one of my first biology field trips andexperiencing first hand a bitter researcher and expert on dolphins do hisbest to completely destroy any ideas we may have about these wonderfulcreatures possessing any magical qualities. He said, “I want you all toerase any notions you have about them being telepathic or healing peoplebecause these creatures range from being dumber than dirt to no moresmart than your household dog.” This extreme view and arrogance aboutsomething that can probably never be proven is completely wrong in termsof accurately and objectively observing animals. As human beings, wemay also have the tendency to think as if all other forms of life think in thesame patterns and have the same limitations that we have. This viewpointis also limiting. Objective observation is one of the hardest tasks to master,but it can make all the difference in being the voice for the animals. Whileobserving the physical combat of poison dart frogs, Marty writes, “Theresident male, looking very self-important and pleased with himself, re-turns to his log and resumes his calling” (64). For a frog that sits poisedand normally defending his territory, although he would likely be show-ing facial characteristics if he had human musculature in his face, this isjust not an objective observation. While this kind of writing can work wellfor other kinds of literature, scientific research needs to remain open to all

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possibilities in order to best understand the animals.Young and far away in a field that is predominantly male, Marty

manages to hold her own and establish herself. Her honesty and opennessin communicating her feelings is refreshing and insightful. At the end ofher first expedition she explains:

After the first few weeks, I settled comfortably into how Iwanted to be treated by my male companions. Throughan unspoken series of compromises, the issue of “inde-pendence” versus “helpless female” became a non-issue.The guys gave me more credit, but offered a hand whenthey sensed it would be appreciated (27).

On another expedition she recalls a humorous incident in whichno attempts seem to be made to make her look more dignified. This isabout a mysterious scary animal they encounter in the dark that turns outto be a bull. She writes:

…tired and apprehensive about retracing our steps past the Asth-matic Monster. Sure enough, in the same place along the trail, wehear the heavy breathing. “Run!” I gasp. Three minutes later I’mtangled in a tree root and fall face down in the mud. John wheelsaround, thinking the creature is about to swallow me. He yanksme back onto my feet and off we gallop in an utter panic (78).

Marty always seemed to try whatever was offered to her to eat ordrink. From chicken feet soup to a ceremonial wedding saliva fermenteddrink, she is there for the complete experience. Here is a description of theprocess of making banana wine, of which she obligingly sampled:

Ilde began by hanging several bunches of black rottingbananas from the rafters. These bananas were so far goneyou wouldn’t even dream of using them for banana bread.He placed several wide buckets underneath. Over the nextfew days, juices from the rotting bananas dripped downinto the buckets, where they continued to ferment. Ildeeventually strained the juice to eliminate the dead flies andrat turds (89).

Teaching proper fieldwork to other cultures is so important to in-sure the future of tropical forests, but knowing how the other cultures dotheir fieldwork is so important to know how to begin. While collaboratingwith some biologists from Ecuador, she was not sure why they were look-

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ing at her strangely and not taking her seriously. She later found out thattheir fieldwork was predominantly accomplished not through field studyand observing of an animal in its environment, but hiring people with lesstraining to go into the field and bring back specimens. In addition to theirdifference in research styles, the fact that she was a female also confusedthem about her role on the expedition. She writes, “The crowning blowcame when I wandered into camp last night clasping onto a large viper.Holding onto the last vestige of machismo, they’d exclaimed to Dave, ‘Noes una mujer! Tiene Conjones!’ (‘She’s not a woman! She has balls!’)” (111).

Whether she is dealing with the corruption of the Maxus corpora-tion exploiting the land and its people, the Texaco company or the Army,she bravely carries out her duties collecting data and educating people toinsure future generations will have the opportunity to enjoy tadpoles. Asthe years progress, with increasing information about amphibians, morepositive attitudes have been adopted. The journal entries made by Marty’sdaughter, Karen, as she is just beginning to learn to write are a wonderfulaccompaniment to her writing. How much richer our culture would be ifall children were taught from such an early age the importance and joythat could be found doing fieldwork! For a broader audience to be able tounderstand and appreciate her observations, simplifying the interactionsof animals in their environments may seem necessary; however, stayingobjective is the way to best help our understanding. She ends the book bysaying, “Your search for the golden frog may lead you along many a differ-ent trail. No matter what the trail is, may your search be richly rewarding,and may you hold onto the golden frog once you’ve found it”.

From Predicaments

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Cryptic Philosophies Christina Mardirosian

Heather McHugh’s Father of the Predicaments (Wesleyan Univer-sity Press, University Press of New England, Hanover and London, 1999)is a short book of poetry in which she plays with words, their syntaxes,contexts and meanings. This book shows McHugh’s mastery in wit, neolo-gism and philosophy. She takes after Aristotle, who wrote, “the father ofpredicaments is being” (Jacket Cover), and she proves to us that being isvery closely bound to our use of language, because being is existing, andin existing, our communication shapes itself in various forms. McHughpractically plays with her words and her use of language in every line,forcing us to submit ourselves to her style of writing. McHugh’s claimsshow how our culture is repressed in the way that we choose to communi-cate. The language she chooses to use is so technical and often difficult tounderstand that when read, it contradicts the very thing that she wants usto understand-which is that the breakdown of communication happens inevery sentence and thought one expresses.

Often cryptic, one must examine this collection of poems closer inorder to understand their greater meaning. McHugh has successfully ex-ecuted the use of neologism. Certain words she has invented range fromhalf-consternatious, undertakerly, speech-quilt, namish, lackish and fastish.When you read into each poem, you can understand the concepts McHughis trying to express with these neological words. She integrates these newwords into several poems along with several words and phrases in French,Russian, German and Greek. She also responds to verses from the Bibleand quotes from writers and philosophers such as Aristotle, Freud, Cioranand Thomas Mann.

Her form, although at times baffling to the mind, often repeatswhole lines or phrases: it seems that McHugh wants to express her con-cepts to the readers by doing so. The book begins with a short narrativepoem entitled, “Not a Prayer.” This poem sets the stage on a personal note,speaking of a mother who is incoherent and slowly losing grips with real-ity as she comes closer to death. This poem is then followed by a series ofshorter poems that respond to occurrences and situations, which may beobserved in everyday life.

To delve further into McHugh’s style of writing, let us take a closerglimpse of several stanzas from her narrative poem, “Not a Prayer.” Thispoem demonstrates McHugh’s use of neologism, wit and repetitive phras-ing. In the sixth stanza, she writes:

Throughout the daylong night, the nightlong day, the livelong time that’s left, we mean to be her mates, go any

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where she drifts-we’d follow every surge of language, every scrap and flotsam-give up every tillerwork for her, ifshe required. But what does she require? Theplace has nocoordinates-or else it’s we who don’t-who fall asleep to jerk awake at her every “Are you there?” or “What are we?”or, now and then, her half-polite, half-consternatious Russian-French “Pardon?”

◊

“Malheureusement, pour être mort,il faut mourir...”

[Unfortunately, in order to be dead, one has to die] (3-4)

Here, McHugh plays with the words in the first line of this stanza. What“we mean to be her mates” refers to is not quite clear, but I would considerthat she is speaking of earth here, or nature, which usually is referred to inthe feminine. She also may be speaking of language itself, which wouldalso make sense. It may also be referring to her friends and family. As mates,it connotes that they are on board a ship, in this case, that ship is slowlysinking because the mother is dying.

In the beginning of this poem, McHugh quotes a verse from theBible: “...she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from theface of a serpent. / -Revelations 12:14” (3). Later on in this poem she writes,“And then she tried another. (Now the happy family / smiled.) A third,and I could breathe again. And then the snake of / speech was stirred”(10). As McHugh plays with her words as she writes them, she also lets us,the readers, see that she is definitely playing a game with the snake that isspeech.

In the thirteenth stanza, McHugh philosophizes. She is saying thateven though a person may be incoherent they may still be more intelligentthan those surrounding that person may.

To put some sense together, she takestime: ten minutes, twenty, half an hour.The others come and go.Each thinks her thinkingincoherent. But if anybodylistens long enough he hears(among the many dozings)something terribly intelligible. (5)

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Following this stanza is the incoherent speech that comes from the motherwho is slowly losing grips with reality. McHugh repeats lines and phrasesover and over again as if speech is indeed a snake that twists and turns inall directions.

“Yesterday yesterday I was [and here she falls asleep forseven minutes] yesterday I was full of new [she falls asleepfor three] new life new life but today but today new lifebut today [she falls asleep for eleven minutes] I am full offull of yesterday I was [she falls asleep] was full of newlife but today I am full of full of of [come back, come backI tell one of her sons, the sentence has a structure, whenshe falls asleep she’s not forgetting] but today [she fallsasleep, he can’t believe me] I am full of but today I’m fullof [somebody is calling him from somewhere else and thenhe’s gone] but today I am full of... [now she’ll tell me, nowI’ll know]...I’m full of finished...”

[Full of finished? is that the last word AFTER the ellipsis?should it be attached to how, instead of what, she meant?which parts were talking about talking, should I put somequotes in quotes? some kind of mind inside the mind, sometime inside, or out? or what? This bracket

is the writer’s. Whoare you? are you? are you?] (5)

This fragment, from “Not a Prayer,” is a good example of McHugh’s cryp-tic ideas. Here she is pondering on what to write next in the second part ofthis quote. She questions how language should be communicated and un-derstood. It is interesting to actually see her thoughts as she is writing them.This confusing style of writing is what makes Father of the Predicaments soalluring.

In “Mens in the West,” McHugh writes about observing an insaneman. She ponders about every detail of the situation.

“Mind! Mind!Mocking in mind!”the madman saidwho strode one then anotherway about the parking lot.He carried some infernal kindof metal cone (was this

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a weapon or a shield?was it a metaphor?) which cameto its point in a bright red bulb.From there a wireran to one ear (his right).What couldn’t suchan apparatus hear?He was so bright, the passersbyaverted all their gazes.

I hadn’t for weeks been able to tell, in these parts,two things apart-the homes from heliports,the churches from the luncheonettes-so subtle was the architecture ofa California distinction (humans having comewest, after all, to be blessedwith the absence of opposites).Here, however, was this one near-human

spending not a moment’s time on understatement.Glaring, indiscreet, he was a form of nature,sure as any hill-face blackened to the whiskers,sure as any wildfire hot for fame, sure as anyfar-off star’s reminding. Even, in the evening, sure as pure

Pacific: set upon, it’s blinding. (46)

She remarks that this man, although insane, is still a part of nature as awhole. He is merely a thread in the great tapestry that is the human race.

In “Streaming Audio,” McHugh responds to an age-old quote fromThomas Mann; “A writer is somebody for whom writing is more difficultthan it is for other people” (48). We can see this is true in many of thepoems. As you follow McHugh’s thought processes she allows us to seethat there is great difficulty that comes in writing. McHugh is at battle withherself to search the correct words that express exactly what she feels.

In “Ghazal of the Better-Unbegun,” she responds to Cioran’s quote,“A book is a suicide postponed. (39)” She battles here with the judgmentsher critics have passed over her, but she does not admit defeat. She writes,“Too volatile, am I? too voluble? too much a word-person? / I blame thesoup: I’m a primordially / stirred person...McHugh, you’ll be the death ofme-each self and second studied! / Addressing you like this, I’m halfwayto the / third person” (39).

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McHugh’s combination of wit, cryptic wording and philosophiesmake Father of the Predicaments a wonderfully interesting poetic expres-sion. She lets the readers see every battle with communication and the snakethat is speech and she questions how we should express ourselves.McHugh’s intense language, although hard to follow, (due to her confus-ing style of writing) is still interesting and alluring. She shows us how ourculture is repressed within the barriers of language. This book will keepyou interested, and allow you to look inside at how every thought is asimportant as the next when it comes to communication.

Heather McHugh

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History of Film: From Awake toUnconscious Shannon Drake

To be quite honest the only reason why I picked up this book in thefirst place was because of the glossy pictures it had to offer, and it turns outthat they were the only things keeping my interest for approximately 300pages of text. Perhaps I should have read the book’s sleeve to get a betterfeel for the History of Film written by David Parkinson, but those descrip-tions can’t be trusted, considering it’s written by one of the publishers, inthe attempt to sell a copy and make a profit.

In this lively, informative and up-to-date new analysis,David Parkinson traces the evolution of the moving im-age the earliest shadow shows to the movies of today.(Cover Jacket)

Did the publishers even read this book? In the end this guide to the historyof film was written like a textbook, a history book at that, only it tried tocover too much information at once. This is not a book I would sit downand relax with, I can’t see it being of much use to any one who isn’t a filmmajor cramming for a big test.

What I was expecting was probably based on the judgments I madefrom the pictures inside. I thought that it would be written so that a lay-man who is just an appreciator of film and movies would be able to under-stand and enjoy what the author, David Parkinson, had to say. I was wrong.Perhaps I was expecting more personal interests than brief technical lan-guage. The main claim that the author seems to be making is that his ver-sion of the history of the film industry doesn’t involve any particular styleor method that a director, producer, or inventor had of doing things, butjust that they did something. Another requirement to make it into this par-ticular book seemed to be that they had to have a memorable name, or atone time had a reputation of being visionary—not that the author everexplains how the people he chose were different from every one else. Thisbook never really captured my attention, at any time. As any writer knows,or should know, you have to hook your reader from the very beginning, orat least make the attempt to do this—this book however did just the oppo-site. The first chapter, From “Science to Cinema”, explains, in the most pain-fully boring fashion, how and why moving photography was made. How-ever this subject material seemed to be what really captured the author’spassion, he focused more on these inventors and inventions then he spent

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time explaining anything or writing about anything else. The author skipsfrom one major movie icon to the next within a single page with only askin deep analysis of how that particular person helped strengthen thefilm industry.

Sound certainly accounted for the decline of both HarryLangdon (1884-1944) and Harold Lloyd (1893-1971). Join-ing Sennett in 1924, Langdon, a baby faced innocenttrapped in a cruel world, enjoyed brief fame thanks to hiscollaborations with Frank Capra (1897-1992). (37)

Four names are thrown at the reader with barely a reference to know whothey are (Director? Producer? Actor? Etc.), except for the years they werealive—not even the years they were involved in the movie business. I sup-pose the writer just assumes that the reader would have a great knowledgeabout this subject matter before even glancing at his book. Over and overagain this same textbook writing tactic is used, which not only kept mefrom enjoying or learning, but it also kept me from staying awake. Eventhough this claims to be a “history of film” it seems to paint the picture thatduring the years that film and moving pictures were being discovered anddeveloped as an art form, nothing in the outside would happened, or inany way influenced the industry. History books should cover all angleswithout bias, but this book has only one interest which makes it difficult tofollow what the author is talking about and referring to.

Cinema going had been an American pastime for somethirty years. But, as the wartime emotional dependenceon it receded, and as urban populations began to drift intothe suburbs away from the downtown and neighborhoodtheaters, it became increasingly obvious that the habit wasnow just one of many leisure options competing for con-sumers’ dollars. (55)

This is one of the rare occasions that the author relates his history lesson tothe history of the real world. This example also shows how briefly he willtouch on important subject matter that not only has importance to cinema,but to the rest of us as well. Earlier he briefly wrote about the lack of fe-male involvement behind the camera, but breezed over it in only six linesof text. Personally I find this subject far more important, seeing how thereare still fewer women then men involved in directing and producing.

The title gives no indication that the main focus would be on onlythe inventing, directing, and producing. I thought this text would hit on

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every aspect of making a movie: acting, script, cinematography, publiciz-ing, sound track, special effects, etc. Even though the focus was mainly ondirecting, there is more then enough material to keep the reader involvedin. However, the manner in which this book is written there is so muchrepetitive technical language that the text becomes stale very quickly.

However, his films had a compositional depth and den-sity that exploited the artificiality of their interiors to in-tensify mystery and excitement. Managing to convey bothnaturalism and fantasy the atmospheric beauty of eachepisode derived form Feuillade’s poetic imagination andhis emphasis on the creative use of movement and spacewithin shots, rather that on their juxtaposition. (52)

By using this type of language the author avoids telling us exactly howdirector Louis Feullade makes this happen and also leaves me wonderingif he has actually seen any of his films. A great deal of the book is like this;I’m not sure if it’s the writer’s lack of knowledge in how to show us hisarguments through his writing, or if it’s the fact that he either has not seenthe movies he writes about, or does not appreciate their contribution to thefilm world.

David Parkinson may have written this book, but very rarely doeshe truly share his opinions or views on the different occurrences he reportsto us in his book.

Von Stroheim’s obsession with symbolic naturalism chill-ingly exposed the cruelty and ugliness of the worlds hesatirized, but the intricacy of his detailed realism was dis-missed as extravagance by the studio head. (44)

Here he really expresses himself, and shows that he has done more thanjust listened to what others said were the influential and brilliant artists,but that he really does know what he’s talking about and has assessed thefacts for himself.

This book is written in a way that suggest that if you have not seenthe movies the author writes about, or do not have a precise understand-ing of the technical language he uses that you will be lost, or taking a nap.I would not recommend this book to some one who just wants to get thefeeling of what it was like to be involved in the movie magic in it’s begin-ning, which is what I was looking for, because it doesn’t put you there. Itdoesn’t help you imagine what it was like to walk into a theater in the

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1930s and be amazed by what you saw there, be astonished at the sight ofthe first colored moving images, or be enthralled by the voices you heardfor the first time by your favorite actors on the big screen. This book is justa guide to names and dates, but definitely not to the heart and soul of thisstill very new and unpredictable art form.

Works CitedParkinson, David. History of Film. New York, New York: Thames and

Hudson, 1995.

Robert Rauschenberg’s Overdraw, 1963

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“Just See the Movie” Nigel Genthner

I have never uttered those words to a single person. After all, thebook is always better than the movie . . . Right? Wrong! Mary Shelley’sFrankenstein is a piece of classical literature, which was amazing for its timeand for its author, however, is this book applicable and enjoyable readingfor those of us in the twenty-first century? The answer is both yes and no.I believe these are very different questions with very different answers.Frankenstein is very applicable to today’s society and deals with some veryreal issues we face today. However, I believe Frankenstein is not a veryenjoyable book to read for today’s generation. I found myself dreading thevery thought of reading one more chapter, even one more word. The mov-ies have been entertaining, but the book leaves much to be desired.

Let us first deal with the question of whether or not this book isapplicable to today’s society. This book amazingly deals with some of thesame questions we deal with today. Dr. Frankenstein creates a being bytaking an inanimate object and giving it the spark of life. At first this ideaconsumes him, but when faced with his hideous creation he is mortifiedby what he has done.

How can I describe my emotions at this catastrophe, orhow delineate the wretch whom with such infinite painsand care I had endeavored to form. (39)

Oh! No mortal could support the horror of that continence.A mummy again endued with animation could not be sohideous as that wretch. (40)

In this chapter Dr. Frankenstein begins to realize he has tampered withsome of the fundamentals of nature – life and death. And now he mustfind a way to deal with that realization. This is a now common theme inour news and so it is very amazing that a book written 200 years ago couldshed light on a subject in today’s scientific world. This is the strength of thebook and what I find appealing about it. There has been a lot of news re-cently about the role of science in nature. Cloning is one of the most contro-versial of these new boundaries being crossed. However the ability to ge-netically manipulate a fetus is also a controversial boundary which is be-ing explored. This is known as the “genome project” which identifies genesin the fetus and identifies what those genes will affect. For example a genethat causes cancer could be identified, and in the future scientists may beable to replace that gene with a healthy one. It seems as though science isin such a rush to do what it can do, that it is not stopping to think what itshould do. This very issue is discussed in Frankenstein. Dr. Frankenstein is

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so caught up in trying to find out what causes life to begin and what causesit to end, that when he discovers the secret to life he rushes to create abeing of his own. He is so consumed by this desire to cross a boundarynever before crossed by mankind that he doesn’t realize the horror of whathe has created until it is too late. This is when the book finally becomesengaging for me. Finally 1/4 of the way through the book I find relevance.Unfortunately I find this relevance comes much too late to save the bookfor me.

This brings us to the issue of whether or not this book is enjoyableto read for today’s generation. I believe it is not. This book takes an im-mense amount of time to get going. Shelley takes too long a time in gettingat the heart of the story and by the time she does, I am exhausted and tiredof reading this book. I will however concede that the way the story is toldis interesting. It is told from the narrative of a person relaying the story asit is being told to him by Dr. Frankenstein after the events have alreadytaken place. It is a very intriguing way to tell the story and leaves me won-dering why Shelley would have chosen to tell the story this way and notsimply in the present tense.

The weakness I believe is in the writing itself. This book is fraughtwith verbigeration, which I believe causes the book to drag a little. MaryShelley uses to many words and takes far to much time in setting the stagefor the story to be told. This makes it hard for the reader to really get intothe book. It may have been the style of writing for the times, but it does notwork for me now. I also found that Shelley had a difficult time writingfrom a male perspective. She tends to engender the males in the book withfeminine qualities. This again, as a male reader, makes the book very hardfor me to relate to.

This book has at its heart an incredible idea for a story. Especiallywhen you consider the time it was written and the fact that it was writtenby a woman during a time when men dominated the arts. However, that itis where it ends. The story is not particularly well written, and were it notsuch a unique idea for the time, I doubt this book would be held in suchhigh regard today. Although the book does address some issues we arefacing today I do not believe that is enough for me to recommend this bookto anyone.

I say, “just see the movie,” although the movies are not very true tothe book you will probably enjoy them more. I was told this book was bornout of a ghost story made up by Shelley. It’s a great idea, but the bookwould have been better without the endless amount of words used to tellit. I probably would have really enjoyed the ghost story, but it is a shame Ididn’t enjoy the book.

Works Cited:Shelley, Mary, Frankenstein. New York: Oxford Press, 1993.

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Mad Woman Ramblings Elinore Eaton

Suddenly I too see why everybody hates it— the manifestos of metaphor, the mad voice that mumbles all night in the dark: this is like that, that is this, the phosphorescent flares of vision, the busyness of words sweeping up after all that sputter... (77)

Poetry comes from the fingers of a woman who would tear thehair from the life of its scalp if it wasn’t for the pen that occupied her hand.She whispers and screams all the hurt and joy and beauty and uglinessthat fills the eyes and head of a woman, so that she may speak plainly whatneeds to be spoken of being a woman. Pages and pages of words navigatethrough the long, dark, stare into the soul of women through the eyes ofSandra Gilbert, in Kissing the Bread.

Sometimes our lovers are not perfect. They do not always have acaring ear to lend to our mad ramblings and explosions of manic meta-phors. Paper, on the other hand, lies blank with anticipation. The com-puter screen glows empty of its own expressions. These are objects de-voted to the words of others, the infinite listener. These listeners give po-ets, such as Sandra Gilbert, a chance to write the most heavenly accountsof, say... turnips (from Turnips pg. 270), Connecticut (from Going to Con-necticut—for J.R. pg. 28), or even the ending of a book (from Ending the Bookpg. 61). Expressions are then accounted for, that would very likely be lostin Sandra’s memory if it were not for her the infinite listeners.

What is a woman without her mad ramblings? And who has nottired of listening to the mad ramblings of a woman? This very questionmay have prompted women to go against such ways of thinking and tohave fought to earn the vote, to have fought for a voice in equality, andperhaps for Sandra Gilbert to express her experiences and thoughts inwords.

There has been many ways that this society has been which hasbelittled a woman’s voice. The presence of the many feminist movementsis enough to back such a claim up. The offerings of a major in “women’sstudies” in colleges across America also says something about the warsthat women have fought to gain strength in their voices (“U.S. History”appears to me a history of wars, and it is required at just about every Ameri-can college). So, it is with such a book as Kissing the Bread that we havereason to rejoice for the use of a full range of expression given to us from

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the voice of a woman.With tenderness and sometimes anger, Kissing the Bread shows us

the world through a woman’s eyes—Sandra Gilbert’s eyes. As she writesof many of the experiences she has had through out her life we cry, laughand love with her. She writes of past travels and her observations of “feel-ing like voyeurs, like trespassers”(30) in “Going to Connecticut”. Gilbertspeaks of the female stereotypes in “The One He Loves”:

She’s the figure skater you’ve always hated, the princess of the spelling bee, the ice queen in velvet and fur with muscles tough as tusks and hair the color of charm bracelet. (211)

She jokes coyly of a blind date where “Nobody drank too much, nobodytold any interesting stories” (21) in “About the Beginning”. These, alongwith every other infinite experience of life that means either everything,nothing, or what was once nothing but is now everything, is tip-toed ortrampled over in Sandra Gilbert’s Kissing the Bread.

In the aforementioned piece, “The One He Loves” Gilbert teachesus the real woman’s perspective of society’s vision of feminine beauty. Per-haps brought on by jealousy, we watch with second-hand eyes the authorobserving a perfect “she”. Sandra observes the way she captures the atten-tion of a man (could he be all the men?) and sits with her disappointmentsof her own body and sensuality:

Next to her you’re flabby and noisy, something made of jelly instead of sinew, something that shivers and whimpers and passes out in the dark, a princess of pain with weak ankles and a head full of misspelled sentences. (211)

We take a look through a woman’s eyes, the sorrows that sometimes comewith imperfection as a female. I, as well as many of my female friends,have suffered the wrath of super models, and of the girl that captures theattention of all the boys at a party, of the obsession of perfection and thin-ness. I have two girlfriends that have suffered from anorexia and continueto be obsessed with thinness: never achieving that perfect skinny, little,body. Women spend billions of dollars a year on make-up, boob jobs, mani-cures, personal trainers, diet plans, dermatologists, hair stylists, plasticsurgery, lingerie, tanning booths, and organic-nonfat-sugar-free-sodium-free-protein-pumped-meals-in-a-can. Gilbert shares such struggles to therest of the world in a poetic language that everyone can understand from

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some emotional stance. All can connect with suffering, as it is a part ofhuman nature, through the glorious words of poetry.

Through her medium of luscious poetry, Gilbert takes us throughthe dark and sometimes enchanting world of the mad ramblings of awoman. This collection of poetry is so helpful in relating anyone to theworld of a woman through the eyes of a woman. The writings containedwithin Kissing the Bread are an honest, opening up of how a woman’s worldis from Sandra Gilbert’s perspective. Anyone who takes the time to sit withthis collection of poetry is opening the doors to a better understanding of awoman or even themselves as a woman. Beautifully composed, she placesthe language within anyone’s reach, so that the overeducated do not getbored, the under educated do not lose its meaning, and all acquire a pinchof a woman’s mind.

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Madman’s Language Jay Weber

Individuals have beliefs instilled upon them through early socialinteraction, which in turn, defines them within the society. These set ide-ologies hold back societies from making a greater movement forward; theyprevent social change. Individuals who are defined as unequal are not al-lowed to give a full contribution to society so they are put at a great socialdisadvantage. The Professor and the Madman, by Simon Winchester, (NewYork, Harper Colling, 1998) takes a look at this and the way society treatsindividuals who are considered unequal. The novel has a textbook styleand does a nice job of shedding light on an individual who is plagued bydemons, but is able to still contribute to society. The way that society de-fines individuals is like writing in stone, which makes it impossible forthem to change; however, this needs to change or else society will never beable to face its social problems.

The book tells the wonderful story of an individual, Dr. WilliamMinnor, who is writing definitions for the Oxford English Dictionary (OED),and is slowly going mad. In a way he is defining society’s standards byworking on the OED, yet he is also being rejected by society because he isbecoming more and more unequal as his madness grows. Through the de-velopment of Dr. William Minnor’s character, The Professor and the Mad-man, reveals the great points and secrets of the OED but also shows theweakness that are present within the novel.

From the beginning, Dr. William Minnor is shown to be normal bythe facts, and facts that are presented early on in the novel. The normal Dr.Minnor was a well-respected individual in society until he went mad, caus-ing him to be rejected and looked down upon as an unequal. Once he reachesthis state, he contributes the most to society by helping with the lexicogra-phy work on the OED. A man, who is mad, is the one individual that therest of the English world listens and respects without any idea. If the mainpopulation of his time had known they would have rejected any thoughtof listening to a madman, which certainly still holds for today. Dr. Minnor’sinsaneness is revealed through his dreams and actions, take for example,this horrendous act:

He tied a thin cord tightly around the base of his member to act asa ligature and to pressure – cauterize the blood vessels, he waitedfor ten minutes or so until the vein and artery walls had becomeproperly compressed – and then, in one swift movement that mostwould prefer not to imagine, he sliced off his organ about one inchfrom its base. (193)

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Truly this is the peak of Dr. Minnor’s madness, but yet, Dr. Minnor was theone of the few individual that was able to control the definitions in theOED; he had the power to change the stereotypes, however he choose in-stead to reinforced them. The insanity that possesses him and the fact thathe even gives more reason for society to imbed these stereotypes is cer-tainly sad for such individual with a chance to let the world know thatthese stereotypes do not let individuals prove themselves.

Dr. Minnor’s dementia was unique in the way he went mad, al-lowing society to believe that he was a special individual, he was then ableto reach a state were he was a great asset to the English world. The fact thatMinnor was a madman before he became a recognized influence on theOED allowed him to contribute to society instead of taking away from it.Dr. Minnor’s illness was caused by dementia praecox which caused greatparanoia in his life this: “… early-flowering failure of the mental powers,and was used to distinguish a condition in which a person begins to losetouch with reality, as Minnor had done, early on in his life – – in his teens,his twenties, or his thirties” (209). The onset of this disease occurred laterin his lifetime. Dementia praecox is now known as schizophrenia in which“a person is likely to have positive symptoms (hallucination, delusions),periods of negative symptoms (lack of motivation, social isolation), andperiods of both. A person may be socially adjusted but unable to work orvice versa” (Allen). Dr. Minnor’s version of this illness allowed him to workwhile, on the other hand, he was socially plagued. If it had been the otherway around neither the OED nor Dr. William Minnor would have been assuccessful in the world. Minnor’s illness was a gift for him – without thisillness he would never have been the individual he was.

Individuals in society who are plagued by illnesses that makes themmad should not be look down upon and rejected from society. People cometo this world in all different forms, which enriches humankind. Who hasthe right to consider someone mad and push him or her away from the restof society? There are obviously some social standards that call for the lock-ing away of individuals such as those who commit murder or rape, but toput someone away because they are mentally unstable is unjust. This is aform of prejudice. Just because they scare the rest of society. Society pun-ishes them and locks them up, or treats them as unequal. It is an illness likeany other – society does not lock someone up if they have cancer or if theybecome infected with AIDS, which seems to cause more harm than men-tally unstable people. Society needs to lose this fear and allow these indi-viduals to grow to their full potential – doing this would benefit both sub-cultures. Today we are locking away one subculture, mental ill individu-als, and are treating them with very little respect, because, they have beenborn with an illness that makes them socially unacceptable. All individu-

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als have the right to live a free life until they forfeit that right; until thensociety should not lock them up.

The story of Dr. Minnor’s life is a good one, however, the textbookstyle does a great disadvantage to the novel. First of all, Dr. Minnor’s char-acter is developed by facts that seem to keep on repeating themselves. Withthe first seventy-three pages we get the whole life story of Dr. WilliamMinnor and it could end there, but then the piece goes on with facts thatseem useless in telling a story about a man who contributed so much to theOED. The novel goes on telling, “ If the language that so inspiredShakespeare had limits, if its words had definable, origins, spellings, pro-nunciations, meaning – then no single book existed that established them,defined them, and set them down” (83). This fact was given by the authorto prove that the OED was setting out to do something that never had beendone before – which seems to only be a mistake because it sets a feelingearly on that this piece is going to be stiff and boring. The OED would beexactly like this novel if it were written into a story. While the OED mightbe a great accomplishment for the English language, the telling of the storydoes not need to follow the same style as the OED, boring the reader withfacts.

The reason the OED is such a great piece of work is because itgives the facts of the word; the reason the novel is so bland is because it togives the facts in the same style, which is only fitting for a dictionary. Justimagine reading two hundred and forty two pages on the definition of art.Now imagine reading two hundred and forty two pages on the definitionof Dr. William Minnor’s life – same quality same boredom. Novels anddictionaries have different styles for a reason and should not be mixed.Dictionaries need facts. Novels need style.

However, the book is able to raise some significant social issues onhow society should treat mentally ill individuals and the bias that mostpeople have against them. As long as society classifies people there willalways be a problem of how to treat minorities in society from race, socialclass, to mental illness. Mentally ill people have the right to be treated withrespect within our society. Social change only comes when individuals stopdefining each other – until then society is missing out on a great resourcethat it has within it. The Professor and the Madman reminds us of way thestereotypes must be changed.

Works CitedAllen, PhD, Jon G. “Schizophrenia” April, 24, 2001. http://

www.menninger.edu.Winchester, Simon. The Professor and the Madman. New York: Harper

Collings, 1998.

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Mirror of Myths Lori Bravo

At the age of three I caught a glimpse of unseen beauty. A brokenabalone shell. The image in the rainbow looking glass reflected awarenessof connection as I held it as I would a mirror. In mythology, high gods andhuman beings alike emerged from rocks, an indication that early peopleregarded them as a source of life. This myth stirred excitement and interestin me immediately. I was drawn to this particular myth because of my ownconnection with rocks and stones. This gift of direct spiritual connectionwith stones inhabits my spirit just as they do in certain myths. For example,the North American tribe’s beliefs were solid with my experiences withstones. (163). They claimed that they descended from stones. It appearedthat in their way of thinking, if human beings could become stones, thenstones, in turn, could become human beings. A number of rock gods andgoddesses were given, but lacked sufficient information that one may needfor research.

This sparked my curiosity and I was inclined to uncover referencesthat interest me in order to gather a deeper understanding of what was notavailable in full definition. There was however, information offered by thecross-references at the end of each entry, which was helpful, but only inprovision of the book’s definitions. Categories of cross-cultural entries, aswell as related gods and goddesses were also provided for outside sources.Although I am familiar with some cultures and their spiritual preferences,I have undoubtedly found explanations for questions I’ve asked in won-derment of the universe, and have learned the differences between whateach ancient culture believed to be true the purpose of their gods and god-desses.

Envision the sky as it darkens. For one to know nothing of astro-nomical phenomena would easily believe the light to be stolen. For theancients, and people across the globe from the most ancient times, the real-ization of the power of the sun made survival possible. In return, theirmyths reflected their reverence. The power of the sun was recognizedthroughout the myths of solar movement, and reaffirmed the sun god’srole as creator. Crowned king of the sky and sustainer of life, the sun, like agod, died and returned, proving resurrection which made survival pos-sible.

Tamra Andrews, author of Nature Myths links to my beliefs of na-ture and the significance of myths, through her book. Let’s put it this way;the book had me hooked. I was eager to explore more of the book andimpressed with the numerous myths given in reference to each culture andtheir differences.

With experience and imagination as tools, people created myths to

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solve mysteries. The book allows one who may not identify with, or maywant to learn why the ancients stood firm in their belief that “all forms ofnatural phenomena acted by will.” (12). “The myths of ancient thinkers areso full of metaphors that it’s easy to interpret them as we would the mod-ern poem or abstract painting.” (13). But while artists use the abstract toexplain the concrete, is it not true ancient mythmakers used the concrete toexplain the abstract?

In our modern day life we refer to clouds as protection from thesun’s rays, or indicators of potential upcoming weather changes. In myth,as described by Andrews, the clouds take on a supernatural quality. Likecelestial gods, they can create patterns and shapes, and help predict nature’smoods. As mentioned in Polynesian myth, the clouds formed when Hina,the moon goddess, stretched her white tapa cloth across the heavens. TheChinese believed that dragons brought rain, so coincidentally they alsobelieved dragons materialized as clouds that assumed odd shapes or floatedthrough the sky with serpentine tails. The book of Nature Myths presents awide spectrum of natural phenomena that are explained today by science,but in the ancient world, they were simply mysteries.

This way of thinking supports my belief in nature as my form offaith. I believe we are the fabricators of the depth of our grave. We weaveour undivided fibers (consciously or unconsciously) into the roots that bindour substance. How much do we appreciate the gift of life? In other words,How far are we willing to illuminate the cosmic process back to our de-sign? In reference to the example of the sun gods I interpreted previously,I discovered that one who may choose to explore this book of myths mightfeel they are scanning the surface of myths. Andrews provides significantdetails of ancient myths that are easily approachable by the reader due tosimple and effective definitions. Andrews chose a wide history of context,which caused me to question certain definitions of myth gods and god-desses.

I feel that Andrews provides a source of information needed inNature Myths for quick references. The context is helpful in giving informa-tion in a style assembled to summarize rather than to deeply analyze eachdefinition. This book is a starting point for people who are interested inspiritual explanations of natural occurrences.

Works Cited

Barthes, Roland. Mythologies. Hill and Wang, New York 1987.

Young, Jonathan, Campbell, Joseph Saga—Best New Writings OnMythology White Cloud Press Ashland, Oregon 1996.

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Walsh, P.G. Apuleius The Golden Ass. New York: Oxford University PressInc. 1994

Eliade’s, Mircea. Encyclopedia of Religion

http://www.cybercom.com/~grandpa/classical_links.htmlhttp://navisite.collegeclub.com/servlet/search.HandlePostServlethttp://home.netscape.com/

Robert Rauschenberg’s The Ancient Incident (Kabal American Zephyr) 1981

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Movies Exposed Brenna Dunn

Popcorn, soda, and a candy bar. When you hear of these thingswhat do you think of? I think of taking a trip to the movie theater. Theseare the necessities of watching a movie. Whenever I go to the movies Ithink about how much money these movie people are making and howeasy it must be to make a movie. But is it really easy to make a movie? Theanswer would definitely be no. Have you ever wondered what goes intomaking a movie? I know I have and I’m pretty sure you probably have aswell. There is so much more than just writing a story and having someactors act it out while filming. An intriguing book to read would be The Artof Movie Making, Script to Screen by Richard Beck Peacock (Prentice Hall).From the screenplay to the casting to the editing to the final marketing offilms, this book has it all. From the little guys to the big head honchos, youwill learn what important role every crewmember has.

One of the “little guys” who is extremely important to making amovie, but is often overlooked is the person it all begins with. This personis the writer.

It starts with the writer-it’s a familiar dictum, but somehow it keepsgetting forgotten along the way. No filmmaker, irrespective of hiselectronic bag of tricks, can ever afford to forget his commitmentto the written word. (61)

This quote by Steven Spielberg says it all. Every movie starts with writtenwords, the base of it all, and is then developed into something more. Whenyou go see movies or hear about a movie, it is always “who’s in it?” andthe response is usually Julia Roberts or another famous actor/actress. Thequestion is never “who wrote the screenplay?”

There are many more quotes like the one above. Peacock did awonderful job of tying in many interesting quotes by directors, writers,actors, etc. Like the quote by Steven Spielberg, other quotes help us to bet-ter understand exactly what is being explained and how it applies to themovie business. It also shows that he is very much in-tune with the movieworld and he really does know what he is talking about. This is importantbecause it shows that the author of the book has experience with the sub-ject he is writing about.

I have been talking a lot about movies but what exactly is a movie?Most people would probably say a two-hour long film. When in fact a filmcan be anything from thirty seconds to ten hours. As long as it is on film itis considered a movie. A good example of a short movie would be Spike andMike’s Sick and Twisted Festival of Animation. This is a collection of a series ofshort movies, each one is only about thirty seconds to a few minutes long

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but each can be considered a movie within itself because it is on film. Pea-cock goes into the in-depth details of this aspect of movies, a very interest-ing insight on what a movie is.

“Movies are mirrors of the culture.” I always thought movies rep-resented fairy tale lives that we never can have. It is an interesting point tosee that many movies do reflect on the culture we live in. This is true whenperhaps seeing a French film and comparing it to an American film, theculture in the movie will be drastically different. Movies reflect how ourculture has changed over the years. If you look at Mary Poppins it repre-sents a fairy tale life, having a nanny staring in it any kid would love tohave as a caretaker. Compared to a more recent film like Traffic, which showsus the reality of the drug world and just how bad it is today, it is amazinghow different our culture has become and it is very alive and portrayed inthe movies we see.

In the same way that movies have changed with the changing ofour culture, special effects have also gotten much more elaborate over theyears. How in the world do these movie people make some of these elabo-rate sets and special effects? From an ordinary hospital room to a castle-these people can do it all. Would you believe that it is easier to make acastle than an ordinary hospital room? This is because it is difficult to makea realistic hospital room that we haven’t seen a hundred times before. Spe-cial effects can range from being very simple to very elaborate, like theones done in many movies today. If you look at the movie Matrix, you seesome amazing special effects that could not have been done when moviesfirst came out. It takes a lot of careful planning and talent to pull of some ofthese magnificent effects we see in the movies today.

Did you know that a hairstyle could mean so many different things?This is especially true for actors and actresses. The hairdresser can changethe mood and the personality of the character by changing even a simplething like the length of the hair. A hairstyle can be a very important thingin a movie. Like in the movie Used People one character plays a womenwith three different hairstyles, constantly changing them throughout themovie. This shows the three different personalities the character has. Chang-ing the hairstyle is a very effective way of understanding exactly whichpersonality the character is currently following.

Overall this is a very effective book and it is most definitely worthreading. If you love movies and would like to learn the details of moviemaking this is the book for you. On almost every page there is a blurbabout a movie, Peacock quotes movies from the early 1900’s to currentmovies. Maybe after you read this book you will have a little more com-passion for the movies you see, knowing what hard work it requires tocreate such a work of art.

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Reshaping Reality: Finding Meaningin Abstract Art Gabe Houston

Is it the scene of a bloody murder,or is it a safe resting-place? The lo-cation of an unspeakable crime, or asoft, warm place to find comfort?While these questions seem to havenothing in common, these are inter-pretations, coming from differentpeople, of the same painting. Howcould opinions about the same pieceof art be so completely different?Particularly with modern and ab-stract art, the viewer can interpret apiece in a number of different ways.One definition of art is: “Human ef-fort to imitate, supplement, alter, orcounteract the work of nature”(dictionary.com). Abstract art pre-sents an altered reality or unreality.As a springboard for imagination,art can change one’s perception ofthe everyday objects of our lives –familiar objects that are habituallyoverlooked. Seeing mundane ob-jects in art and as art elevates theseobjects out of the realm of the ordi-nary, thus altering one’s view ofwhat is ordinary.

Encounters with Rauschenberg, by Leo Steinberg, is a lecture pub-lished as a book. The book includes anecdotes, the author’s opinion of piecesof art, and numerous quotes of other critic’s opinions regarding the workof Robert Rauschenberg. What makes the book unique is the author’s point-of-view, that of a “rare art historian who has known the pressures implicitin reviewing the work of living [emphasis mine] artists” (Steinberg backcover). Steinberg gives insightful analysis of various pieces of art, most ofwhich are the works of Rauschenberg.

Robert Rauschenberg is an American painter who played an im-portant role in the transition from abstract expressionism to pop art. Hewas born in 1925 in Port Arthur, Texas. Rauschenberg studied art in Parisand at several schools in the United States.

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During the early 1950s, he produced collage paintings in whichfreely brushed expressionist canvases were overlaid with bits andpieces of actual textiles, photographs, and torn newspaper clippings. In 1955, he made his first ‘combines’, three-dimensionalassemblages in which paintings were combined with found images, such as photographs, and objects of popular culture — traffic signs, light bulbs, Coca-Cola bottles, radios — to create ironicor ridiculous effects (Encarta)Steinberg begins the book with a disclaimer: “I have left this lec-

ture largely as delivered and have not purged it of quips and by-blowswhich listeners to a live speaker are more likely to tolerate than readers ofcold print” (Steinberg iv). The book starts off slowly, and I often lost inter-est in the early parts of Steinberg’s lecture. However, I found the author’swittiness and subtle humor enjoyable; I think they made the book easier toread. The author’s personal acquaintance with Rauschenberg adds anotherdimension to the book by including several conversations between theauthor and the artist.

Perhaps the best aspect of the book is the abundance of full-colorimages. The pictures greatly enhance the reader’s understanding of theauthor’s opinion on various paintings. In many cases, the book wouldstruggle to survive without the images. Without the accompanying photo,the reader, unless an art historian, would not know what Steinberg is talk-ing about when he writes: “My first piece was a rave review of [Willem] deKooning’s Woman paintings – and Hilton [Kramer] was dismayed to seeme take that stuff seriously” (Steinberg 2). I had never heard of Willem deKooning, let alone known what his Woman paintings looked like; but as Ilook to the page opposite the statement, I see a picture of an abstract paint-ing of two women, and immediately understand the author.

I don’t particularly care for or understand abstract art, and I’vealways wondered what’s so great about it, thinking to myself “Hey, I coulddo that.” In Rauschenberg’s work, he used ordinary objects — chairs, achicken, a stuffed goat, a T-shirt, a clock – strangely juxtaposed in star-tlingly unexpected ways. While the meaning of his work is subject to inter-pretation, I found most of his work intriguing. In his work, the ordinarybecomes extraordinary.

One of Rauschenberg’s most famous pieces, Bed, is a perfect ex-ample of how a piece of art that seems simple can create many differentopinions and controversy. Bed is a combine painting made up of a real quilt,sheet, and pillow, heavily splattered with paint (75_ x 31_ x 8 in). When Ifirst saw the combine, I thought to myself, “OK, a bed — with paint splat-tered on it?”

When Rauschenberg entered the combine at the Venice Biennale,and ended up winning the grand prize, it started a firestorm of contro-versy in Europe. “The award brought forth European headlines of TREA-

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SON AT VENICE and blasts at the American’s ‘grotesque pieces of junkand trash cans…’ The Patriarch of Venice ordered Catholics to stay awayfrom the show because works like Rauschenberg’s ‘offended human dig-nity.’ The artist himself calmly accepted the $3,200 prize. He had alreadyexplained his Bed: ‘I think of it as one of the friendliest pictures I’ve everpainted. My fear has always been that someone would want to crawl intoit’ ” (Steinberg 47).

One common interpretation is that Bed implies a scene of a rape ora grisly murder. Rauschenberg’s dealer, Leo Castelli, described it in a 1984interview: “A real pillow and quilt heavily splattered with paint, in whichsome horrible act – a rape or murder – seemed to have occurred” (Steinberg48). Other critics/commentators also see a deep, dark meaning; a com-mentary on the violence and nihilism of modern culture. Steinberg has adifferent opinion of Bed: “…the smears and drips work here pretty muchas they do elsewhere in Rauschenberg. They are what you see – drips andsmears. Red paint reeks no more of blood-shed than white invites cryingover spilled milk” (Steinberg 49). I find it interesting that Steinberg, withhis personal knowledge of Rauschenberg, doesn’t interpret this combinein lurid terms. Steinberg implies that Rauschenberg is manipulating me-dia, form, shape, color, and texture in his work. One could say Rauschenbergis just having fun transforming ordinary objects into anomalies.

I would like to thank Leo Steinberg for introducing me to the workof Robert Rauschenberg in an entertaining and comprehensible manner.The combine paintings are interesting and unconventional, sometimes gro-tesque; not necessarily my taste in art. Yet, I appreciated Steinberg’s per-spective on contemporary analysis of Rauschenberg’s work. “Steinbergwarns against the modish interpretations that now load Rauschenberg’swork with murderous symbolism or same-sex iconography. He argues thatmeaning in the artist’s work is almost unspeakable…” (Steinberg backcover). What is the message of modern, abstract, and pop art? The objectsthat have been so familiar are no longer ordinary.

Works Cited“Rauschenberg, Robert”, Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopedia 2001.

<http://encarta.msn.com>Steinberg, Leo. Encounters with Rauschenberg. Chicago: The University

of Chicago Press, 2000.Dictionary.com. 5-03-01. <http://www.dictionary.com>

Works Consulted“Rauschenberg Links”. Robert Rauschenberg Links. 12-20-01 <http:/

home.talkcity.com/InfiniteLoop/razamataz rauschenberg.html>

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Take a Read on the Wilde Side Rob Goldschmidt

Even after a hundred and fifty years, Oscar Wilde tickles the funnybone, cultivates the imagination, and challenges the integrity and inten-tions of our dysfunctional society. True, this was a guy writing from a Vic-torian Age perspective, but Oscar was a very different kind of guy. A Play-wright, novelist, poet, critic, professed hedonist, practicing aesthetic, andconvicted homosexual, Oscar had a unique interpretation of human inter-action. In a broad sense, his writings elaborate on the darker side of intol-erance in society and the struggles of personal morality. Wilde’s book, Com-plete Shorter Fiction (published by Oxford University Press, $8.95), is a veri-table smorgasbord of his imaginative and critical perspective on humanityand his disdain for aristocratic society and ruling classes. Though less ob-vious, we live in a world dominated by new economic elites just as exploit-ative as yesterday’s aristocracy.

Born Oscar Fingan O’Flaherte Wills Wilde on October 16th, 1854 inDublin, Ireland, he enjoyed the benefits of a prosperous family. His mother,Jane Francisca Elgee, was a poet under the pen name Speranza, and hisfather Sir William Wilde was a successful eye and ear surgeon. Young Os-car was able to obtain an excellent education, including a scholarship toMagdalen College at Oxford University. It was during his studies at Ox-ford the John Ruskin influenced Oscar about the ideas of hedonism andaestheticism (biochan). Hedonism—the doctrine that pleasure or happi-ness is the sole or chief good in life—and aestheticism—the cultivation ofart for art’s sake and the refusal to take oneself too seriously—became fun-damental characters of his writings, no matter the issue he was address-ing.

While he was touring Italy in 1875, Oscar began writing his firstpoetry, and in 1878, he was awarded a Newgate Prize for his poem“Ravenna”. Then, in 1881, he spent a year touring the United States andlecturing. The American women adored him, but the press berated andridiculed him fervently; it is little wonder that American society was on hisshort list of targets. Oscar married Constance Lloyd in 1884 and fatheredtwo sons, Cyril and Vyvyan. It was his 1891 novel The Picture of Dorian Grey(a look at narcissism), and his 1895 play “The Importance of Being Earnest “(a parody about role playing and mistaken identity) that finally broughtfame and fortune (biochan). In 1895, after an affair with Lord Alfred Dou-glas (and an ensuing legal battle with Douglas’ father The Marques ofQueensbury), Oscar was sentenced to two years of hard labor at ReadingGaol Prison. The experience would profoundly impact the remainder ofhis life. Upon his release from incarceration, Oscar’s marriage was dis-

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solved and he ended up dying in poverty three years later, in 1900. Duringthis later period, he wrote De Profundis (love letters from prison) and TheBallad of Reading Gaol Prison (his personal reflections on imprisonment),considered to be his most morose and intense works (bibliomania).

Understanding a little bit about Oscar enables us to better under-stand his context and intention in the fantastic scenarios he sometimesportrays. Complete Shorter Fiction is a compilation of stories and poetry fromhis happier days-1887 to 1891. “Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime” takes a farcicallook at predestination, and the lengths to which people will go in theirpursuit of that destiny. A young man of good standing, after having hispalm read, is convinced that he must murder someone—anyone really—before he can fulfill his marriage vows to his beloved Sybil. Lord Arthur’smost serious crime—aside from attempted and accomplished murder—was his complete detachment and lack of humanity. Through his charac-ter, Wilde portrays a society “lacking in all harmony…amazed at the dis-cord between the shallow optimism of the day, and the real facts of exist-ence”(29). In it, Arthur regards friends, family, acquaintances, and strang-ers more as experimental subjects than human beings. The murder plansare conceived with laboratory-like efficiency and minimal fuss. At one point,the main character decides upon the use of a poison for his next victim as,“it was safe, sure, and quiet, and did away with any necessity for painfulscenes, to which, like most Englishmen, he had a rooted objection”(35)—ajab at aristocratic pretentiousness and callous indifference in the face ofmisery and suffering.

Another story, “The Remarkable Rocket” uses pyrotechnic devicesand animals as subjects in a study of social stratification and the evils ofarrogance. Wilde gives the powerful elite another poke when the rocketreplies as to its tangible usefulness, “A person of my position is never use-ful. Indeed, I have always been of the opinion that hard work is simply therefuge of people who have nothing whatever to do”(135). Wilde exploresthe issues of socio-economic disparity as well as personal morality. In “TheFisherman and His Soul,” the implications of a soul and the lengths to whichwe will go to for love is the subject at hand. In order to be with his love—amermaid—the fisherman must cast out his soul (which proceeds on a bloodyrampage) and sacrifice going to Heaven. Feeling that “love is better thanwisdom, and more precious than riches, and fairer than the feet of thedaughters of men”(234), our hero forsakes God and unleashes his remorse-less shadow. In the end, the fisherman finally becomes aware of the natureto his darker side, and the tragic consequences of denying proper morality.He looses the girl—mermaid—and burdens himself with controlling hisdemonic shadow-displaying self-sacrifice-a theme that resonates in manyof Oscar’s other stories as well.

No subject, including William Shakespeare, is off limits to Wilde.

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In “The Portrait of Mr. W.H.” a storyline is devised around the hypothesisthat Shakespeare’s Sonnets were dedicated not to Lord Pembroke (as mostscholars agree), but to a male actor in his theatrical company. A young,delicately handsome, male actor of female roles named Willie Hughes, tobe precise. The theory alleges that the innate beauty, eloquence and femi-nine acting ability of Willie inspired the play “Romeo and Juliet”, as well asthe author’s famous sonnets. Evidence is even fabricated to add credenceto the claim, a portrait of young Willie, yet by the end I wanted to believein the theory as well. I suppose that is what Oscar had in mind when hewrote it, though. To show that naiveté, compulsion and irrationality can betroublesome combination.

Ready to express his views with his pen, Oscar enjoyed ridiculing,or at least parodying, contemporary society, moral frailty, and intolerancealike. We may not have the rigid aristocratic classes of Victorian Englandand its social problems, but we do have economic disparity and social strati-fication. Our society has numerous problems of intolerance and injustice,discrimination and persecution, to name a few, that were in some respectssimilar to those over a century and a half ago. Somehow though, by con-veying his message in often-humorous form, Oscar humanizes our prob-lems and makes them more fathomable, as well as fun. He once said that“Imagination is a quality given a man to compensate him for what he isnot, and a sense of humor was provided to console him for what heis”(biographychannel), and his stories have plenty of both. The relevanceof his message remains intact, but it is his wry, rebellious humor and imagi-native style that mark Oscar Wilde as one of the preeminent authors of the19th century, and well worth reading today.

Works Cited

Wilde, Oscar. 4/21/01. <Gaol/Complete.htmp” http://bibliomania. com/Fiction/wilde/Reading Gaol/Complete.htmp>

Wilde, Oscar. 4/20/01. <http://biographychannel.com/cgi-bin/biomain.cgi>

Wilde, Oscar. Complete Shorter Fiction.New York: Oxford UniversityPress, 1998.

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The Greek Myth Angel Luna

In order to uhave a better idea of what Greek drama is we needto have a basic background and knowledge about Greek mythology.

Greek drama and plays have been examining the fundamentalsand principals of the elements that create life in all moving things in theuniverse. Most of Greek drama and its characters have been surroundedby mythological thought; the universe they body forth and the gods theyshow represent all human creatures.

Myths, and especially the Greek Myths, refer to manifestations ofthe cosmos since its formation; they concern the principal components ofcreation. The myth emerges out from the creation; Eros originally symbol-izes that. If it were not for the research that I conducted, it would be diffi-cult to understand Aristophanes’ play. Even then the play turned out to bedifficult to read; some of its terms were unknown to me. If it were not forother books and web sites I would not be able to have a clue about Greekdrama and its myth.

Greek drama and its myth in modern times seem to be the conti-nuity of ancient facets of drama. Perhaps in modern times, as well inGreek times, we are trying to make the world comprehensible throughmyths. Throughout the years, the myths have been introduced to theaction comedy drama; that is to say, Aristophanes’ Plays play on con-temporarily times by following the rules of action comedy drama of an-cient times.

In contemporarily plays it is worth noting the sarcasm and iro-nies which almost always accompany serious issues; the method thathas been used in Greek drama as well. But there is something differentin the way they implement those variations between ancient and mod-ern times. In modern times the play writers use the sarcasm in order toexamine tragedy in two different ways.

On the other hand, in ancient times there were more referencestoward the myths, implementing names of creatures such as bird. Speak-ing about the Aristophanes’ play, most of his plays are surrounded bythese mythical metamorphosed characters are represented as a form ofbird that characterized the daily issues of that time.

That is to say, both ancient and modern times use daily issuessuch as socially life politically, morals, and economics. The bird, there-fore represent in a sarcastic way the daily problems that affect the labor-ers people in society.

Of the origin of tragedy it is not the purpose of this work tospeak. Its beginnings are fairly elear. Of comedy the same cannot be saidEven the great Aristophes was somewhat in doubt (See page 4 lines 8-12

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Our Debt to Greece and Rome).Once again, what he is revealing here is not only the purpose of

speaking about tragedy throughout the comedy; therefore he is in doubtof what can be relevant. It is to be hoped that drama as well as tragedieshave been played in a way that it is worth seeing as a protest; against theway of life people in authority would give on during those times to theslaves and in modern times to the laborers.

Considering man in its own individual sphere, limited by a cycletime and the corporal Material; representing to a determinant characterin this Grand Drama or cosmic action. That needs every sense in onedeeply conscious of the actor, remembering at the Moment when hi isacting his role of a character; memorizing how the souls did beforeIncarnating, and then enter into the scene. (See the Myths of Er of Panfilia:Plato in Republic).

Once you are up on stage interpreting a character, the actor needsto concentrate on projecting his line vividly. Time is short on a theatricalstage, so whatever needs to be done needs to be squarely done; otherwiseit means that no one was prepared for his role on the set of stage. What Imean is that time during live plays goes more quickly then in rehearsal.And the more the actor is prepared the better his acting will be. Also, theconcentration helps the actor to express his character as if he or she werethe one in the story literally.

The bird characters in the play are unique. Aristophanes used themetamorphosis of birds, to interpret daily human issues sarcastically thatreveal social problems. Like in ancient times as well in modern times, laugh-ing, crying, and the sarcasm of tragic comedy make us feel fine. Perhaps isjust the irony that reflects back to us, as the essence of our self-steam.

In Birds, there is a dialogue between Peisetairos and Hoopoe thatgrabs my attention by emphasizing the duality between what is right andwhat is wrong.

Peisetairos: You use to be a man—just like us two. And owedthe the city money—just like us two. And liked not paying yourDebts —just like us two. But then you changed your nature forBird’s, and flew across the land and over the sea. Your mindContains the thoughts of man and bird. That’s why we’ve comeAs suppliants to your door, to ask if you know a city that’sWarm and woolly—a place to curl up in, like a big soft blanket.Hoopoe. Your want a greater city than rugged Athens?Peisetairos: Not greater—just more comfortable for us.Hoopoe: You obviously want to live as an aristocrat.Peisetairos: What, me? Not at all. I hate Aristokrates.Hoopoe: Then what’s the sort of city you’d like to live in?Peisetairos. One where life’s greatest problems would be like

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This.The posture of Peisetairos is to propose the duality in the dialogue

keeps going and going, and therefore Hoopoe stops questioning about whatthe sort of city you’d like to live in. Before the last two lines in their dia-logue, Peisetarios sarcastically denies his purposes of what he really wantsto obtain from Hoopoe.

In other words, put into modern times, what Peisetairos means isthat he and Hoopoe are running a way because of his debt with their credi-tors. Therefore, at the beginning of the dialogue, Peisetairos mentions themetamorphoses that Hoopoe suffers in order to fly away crossing seas andlands to get where he is now.

It is a way to represent two worlds by using duality. The Greek inthis case, Aristophanes used this method to project properly and on ironicway toward things. Rightly so [the myth speak to the man that understandand they are receptors of an actualized ritual throughout themselves.] There-fore the manifestation of myths and the duality toward all moving thingsin the universe, that makes life possible for these characters in birds.

What we see in Aristophanes play, it is just the ancient drama thatimplies the myth by using the duality of being and its metamorphoses ofcharacters; therefore understanding Aristophanes play is like comprehend-ing Greek mythology at the same time.

The understanding and interpretation of duality as well the char-acterization of metamorphoses characters make Aristophanes play morecomprehendible.

In other words, no matter what the subject is, without having ba-sic background one way or the other will be difficult to understand thesubject we might read.

Works Citedhttp://www.geocites.com/symbolos/nota03.ht

Aristophanes, His Plays and His InfluenceLord, Louise. E. Our Debt to Grecee and Rome. Cooper Square Publishers,

New York, 1963

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I sit here in twilight zone scheming through leaves bagged in a hard cover.I am wondering what this author is talking about. What exactly is he say-ing? To what audience is he speaking to? I am overwhelmed to discover,after several rounds of research, that there is no information pertaining tothis winner of the 1997 poetry series—Robert Gibb. However, some of hispoems have previously appeared in the Cincinnati poetry review the Illi-nois review, the Kenyon review, the laurels review and a whole host ofother books and reviews. So, with very little knowledge of this author andhis works, I am going to embark on a journey to dissect a few of his meta-phorical lines. I hope that when I finish dissecting, I will know what TheOrigin of Evening—the title of Gibb’s book—is all about. However, before Ido that I will like to clearly state that after reading it once, I noticed thatGibb’s book is not one that you can read and understand in a sitting. It fallsshort of having the reader experience the reality of his words easily.

Having read a few of Gibb’s poems, I am of the view that he isreintroducing his childhood life to the reader. So it is some sort of a truestory, a dive into a certain time period in an attempt to bring to life againwhat used to exist. Gibb courageously begins his trip into the past with ahistorical landmark (Carnegie). He provokes the readers’ thoughts withbefitting imagery and commendable metaphors. However, his attempt toopen the eyes of the readers mind to see at first hand the horrible anddepressing events that occurred at a time when he was growing up some-how opens a door to a big flaw. In a way, I feel Gibb tries too much toinvolve the reader using enriched metaphors and broken lines that his at-tempt to recapture his childhood days is more or less lost. He seizes tofully express and proceeds to impress the reader with amassed metaphorsand quite too many broken lines. If his ultimate aim of this book was tointroduce the general reader to new metaphors and the use of broken lines,then I will say, he did an excellent job. Otherwise, he succeeds only fiftypercent of the time in allowing the reader to see his life sometime ago.

Whilst some of his metaphor filled lines is easy to digest, othersare hard nuts to crack. “In the Carnegie museum” for instance, Gibb takesa journey back to his childhood days with his stepmother, he gives theimpression that their destination was not a place to dwell. The image hebestows on the reader makes you feel his urgency to leave the museum. Atthat is what it seems like to me when I read this line…“Through the leavesin their vein…/ there must be some way to enter the world/ and keep onmoving into leaving the old life, / rug by rattles, lying there in the dark”,Gibb uses thoughtful broken lines to describe situations and events he sim-ply detest and those he like to welcome. But the excessive use of such bro-

Seeing Pittsburgh Through One Author’sEyes William Norteye

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ken lines can prompt readers to translate the metaphors in several ways.Then again, the general reader may find it difficult digest such a compli-cated piece.

In the “Moths”, he speaks of change, of transformation to anotherlife.

I like the leaf ones best, For whom the ends of transformationAre resemblance

He dives into two worlds and makes a comparison of what was and whatis. Moreover, he makes this very apparent in the concluding part of the“Moth”.

Change was a rending.Even the saints, we learned,Had first to shed the chrysalisWhich blocked the sight,Feeling themselves bleed outwardInto their wingsBefore lifting from the bark

Once again, I used my intuition to make sense out of yet another compli-cated piece. Certainly, any reader in the right frame of mind can easilymake a general assumption as to what the above quoted piece means. How-ever, not all the assumptions made will be right. In a case where a readermisinterprets a piece in the poem, the whole sense of portraying a truestory will be lost.

As if on purpose, Gibb deliberately transports the reader back towhen he was a kid, this time he re-lives a moment with his father and howthe harshness of that time laid his toll on him. In “father and sons”, wewitness the fall of tree in a stormy weather.

Those days my father would collapse.Go down, stricken on all fours.We’d find him, massive shadows.On the floor, face down.

In a cold atmosphere, we see a father crumble; we see desperation writtenon the face of a son. The above-mentioned quote is one that is easy to trans-late. In a way, the piece is self explanatory on its own. If Gibb could writemore straightforward like that, I am sure the general reader without muchsweat will see the harshness of his past and maybe experience at first handthe cruelties of that time period instead of simply being overwhelmed withnew metaphors.

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In “Seeing Pittsburgh”, the reader gets a chance to see through theauthor’s eyes. It is at this point that I begin to hear what Robert Gibb wassaying. Seeing Pittsburgh through Gibbs eyes, I feel the fear that grabbedhim when his father was down. I can see the horrors he encountered dailyin his life. I see the sweat and exhaustion pile up on his face as he traveledup the carban and back. I smell the air and I hate the scent—it is stale. I canclearly see the darkness “of 1938”. However, think of Einstein traveling atthe speed of light, that is a remarkable sight and a long ways from thedark. Nevertheless, this is the light Gibb saw; this is what he was talkingabout—that nothing is impossible. He is motivated by the ironies of thedark to keep on moving, reaching for that light. Now I feel his need totransform, to change, to leave that old life behind, to live life after the dark.

Having seen and felt Gibb’s world, back when he was a kid, I re-main adamant on my view that “The Origins of Evening”—Robert Gibb’sbook requires previous knowledge, maybe a brief history of Pittsburghbefore the general reader can understand and see the meanings of his meta-phors.

I saw and I felt the darkness of Pittsburgh sometime ago, but notonce throughout the whole book did I find myself in the author’s shoes.The vision was clear, the touch was rough, but I did not experience either.So, how come Robert Gibb was able to make me see and feel his life butfailed to give that experience a reader yearns for? Well except for the poem—“Seeing Pittsburgh”—which gives a picture perfect image of a time periodand a clue that he was talking about Pittsburgh, all the other poems talksabout his childhood and the need for change and transformation. His ex-travagant use of metaphors is difficult to crack. Furthermore, his excessiveuse of broken lines makes it a pain for the general reader to follow andunderstand his writing. In a nutshell and as it is well put by Ernest Beckerin his confrontation of Otto Rank’s works, Gibb “is very diffuse, very hardto read, so rich that he is almost inaccessible to the general reader”.

From Graham McGrew’s let’s switch

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Emerging from “The Poet’s Cave ofSyllables” David Sullivan

You may have heard the analogy about our condition on earth be-ing like chained men trapped in a cave who can only see the shadows ofimages being paraded behind them in front of a fire. This analogy can befound in Plato’s Republic. Plato’s parable of the cave describes a man, aclear stand in for the philosopher, who seeks to enlighten his companionsby wrenching them free of their fetters, then marching past the illusion-creating fire and up through the tunnel to the sunlit surface. They promptlycurse him, rubbing their sun-blinded eyes, until they slowly adjust to thenew sights, which are all the more compelling because of their long tenurein the half-lit darkness of their uncomfortable “home”. Soon, however, theybegin to praise their rescuer who has expanded their world view by intro-ducing them to a world beyond anything they had known (Republic).

It would be over-ambitious to claim that Graham McGrew per-forms a similar feat in his books of poetry b/w and let’s switch (both pub-lished by Emerick, Bell, Brown, which, with the falacious and funny backcover quotations suggests this is a desktop publication), yet there is some-thing analogous to the magical transformation of our seeing that occurs asone reads these poems. If one willingly succumbs to their odd changes ofdirection, their mix of neologisms and slang, and the way their medita-tions on someone’s eyelashes can suddenly become specuations on nucleardestruction, then these poems’ undercurrent will pull you into deep oce-anic valleys where unusual flora and fauna gambol in the wave.

In the first poem of Graham McGrew’s quirky, thin black book,Let’s Switch, we encounter a speaker who is meditating on the fluids thatflow-out of his own body. “Yes, it’s awful, sealed in the meat husk, curdled / Reeking of yesterday’s come” (1). The voice is at once lyric, with its “meathusk,” casual in its address, and discusses what most of us would shun tomention in public. Yet McGrew’s strange poem has a haunting resonance,because the writing touches on what few of us would say, and, like a manat a bar who has grown loquacious after his second highball, he speakseloquently of what the mind usually meditates on only in private. Afterchronicling the excesses of the body that one exudes, the speaker switchestactics, and starts to imagine a body devoid of such unpleasant functions.

How bouyantreleased from this carcass: bones extracted, organsdispersed,fat boiled away, into the stratosphere: mind, drifting,

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casts a rushing shadow, pale, faint, less than a cloud’s. (1)

Suddenly all the dead weight of the opening lines, and their inten-tionally repellant language, falls away, and the poem, like the body, is liftedup. It rises on the thermal of the words; up past what we are stuck in, thesentinent world of weights. It is “up there silently pasing / through Plato’sjustice, horse, and chair” (1).

It is as if the speaker has become so euphoric that Plato’s idea ofForms is now made manifest, and he rises past that imagined realm wherethe ideal copies of things are made. But he reverses directions again at thispoint, because he imagines never smelling: “Never the lustral aroma of oldpages” (1). It is the page itself, its tactile qualities, that, even as he writes,pull him back down. “Never / your eyes to drink the black ink. Not totremble as the needle / traverses ‘Volver’s vast grooves” (1). At first thereader might think the name is some strange Italian songsmith, but thenthe nickname clicks: Revolver, the Beatles breakthrough album which ex-ploded pop music and created a new art form. By reducing the title to‘Volver we’re left to puzzle over the nature of myriad re-volutions.

McGrew then makes the images even more material with the lines:

The glow among the trees as the light leaves the Earthand never againto touch jennifer’s skin. (1)

Such moments of clarity are not found often in McGrew’s torturous, lan-guage-rich poems, and the inattentive reader is apt to exclaim: “finally aclear thought and a real image!” but these dense packages do unravel witha little worrying. Like John Ashbery’s work they sometimes feel over-filagreed and impossible, but when then do fall into place the effect can bemagical.

Watch these images play off each other in a poem from the volumeb/w:

seal the shores betweenyour fingersover the flashlight’s eyesglow the living orange of rust,the pink of veiled blood. (11)

The simple image of childish delight at the way the hand is revealed, itsveins accentuated, even as it veils the flashlight’s “eye” is marvelous tobehold.

Again and again these poems encounter, and attempt to render,the simplest of moments. And language itself is often a subject around which

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they pívot. Let me end with a small miracle of a poem, which resembles aJohn Donne meditation in the flow of images, and ends with a paeon to thepower of poetry to appear to lift us into Plato’s realm of ideals.

What holds up the vault of the sky?Is it the arches of the swallows’ flight?Is it the steam with rises from afterlimbs of lovers?Is it the once living, in their columns of ask?Is it the burnt chocolatebacon odor of outshorted amps, climbing in spiralsfrom woodpanelled recrooms and cool cinderblock

basementsof veloursleeved teenage rockers, bouncing in Vanson shag, on cement?Or is the empty blue dome merely the reflectionof the poet’s cave of syllables? (17)

Works CitedPlato’s Republic. Translated by G. M. A Grube. Indiana: Hackett Pub. 1974.

From Graham McGrew’s let’s switch