Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Democratizing the Room: Comparing Spacial Themes in Gubar and Woolf's "Room"
Just under a century later, Gubar imitates and reiterates Woolf's essay, "A Room of One's Own," with her opening chapter to Rooms of Our Own, entitled: "The Once and Future History of Sex and Gender." There are essential differences when looking at specific points of these two works, but I argue that both authors would agree to a similar project: a democratization of the Room.
Carrington Turns Culture Inside Out
Conley writes that Leonora Carrington "rebels against accepted social norms by turning them not only upside down... but literally inside out" (Conley 53). Having recently finished Carrington's Surrealist novel, The Hearing Trumpet, Conley's statement surely resonates as I sit back and reflect. Marian Leatherby's 92-year-old voice in the novel turns something inside out. Reading Carrington's novel feels more like an experience I may have had myself, or that I wanted to have, or that I dreamed up as a child. To endeavor Conley's approach to reading Carrington, I'd first take Conley's words very literally. She uses the turning of upside down and inside out to speak of social norms, as if the social normative is a thing with weight and that takes up space-- not just an abstract academic concept. Carrington, too, uses a thing--a whole planet-- to speak of a an abstract concept or a normative. And it does in fact get turned. The novel culminates when the earth turns on its axis. The north and south poles become the equator and vise versa, leading to a quasi apocalyptic ice-age or "cataclysm" (p. 182). After the earth gets turned, we really do see society turned inside out. Woman, having been the domestic figure or the inside people, are now going to thrive in this strange new place. "This is how the Goddess reclaimed her Holy Cup with an army of bees, wolves, seven old women, a postman, a Chinaman, a poet, an atom-driven Ark, and a warewoman. The Strangest army, perhaps, ever seen on this planet" (p. 198).
We also discover that the thriving capitalists and wealthy property owners (the Man being the early adopter of these particular perspectives) have actually maladapted up until the cataclysm due to having learn to be almost completely disconnected with the natural world. This seems to be the most obvious turning of inside out.
Another turning of inside out that Carrington achieves would be a new understanding of aging. Society's ergonomics tend to favor the young bodied. An older bodied person cannot conform to this discriminatory society, for and by the young-ish and strong (or will be once they get around to using their gym membership). Aged citizens are thus marginalized and considered inept. Society may then justify naming the aging-process as a deterioration of the body and conscience. The un-trustable, over-seven-and-under-seventy-people blame the elderly for being victims of the system, tucking them away in homes which only further marginalizes them. However, Carrington puts the insides of the elderly on the out side. Rather than hiding her diminished hearing with an ugly discrete hearing aid, Marian carries an enormous and beautiful "hearing trumpet" that serves the purpose of a modern hearing aid. Her hearing trumpet is a prized gift from her deep friendship with Carmella. "encrusted with silver and mother o'pearl motifs" (p. 3), the hearing trumpet is truly striking--not an aid by any means, because the narrator is not at all weak or vulnerable. Why should she take an aid if she was never hindered to begin with?
As for the conscience of the elderly, Carrington revisits and revises the relevance of an aged mind. Marian's personally is undeniably likable. By no means is her conscience deteriorating. She is imaginative and hilarious. She has deep friendships with Carmella and with animals. As a reader, Marian's description of life as an aged person sounds vaguely familiar to us, but her diction is totally shocking. She's not at all senile, as her family perceives and as we might expect of a 92-year old. Quite the contrary--she makes being old sound like a hell of a time. In addition to free-thinking and total quirkiness, Marian's life demands plenty of experience and wisdom. She must make the ultimate choice, to go up to meet the figure trapped in the tower or to venture into the unknown dark depths below. She choses the depths out of pure curiosity and without fear. She faces her destiny where she chooses to literally swallow her past. She achieves absolute liberation of self or ego after cooking and eating her former self in a pot of soup--an ironic inversion of a typical female activity. "If the old woman can't go to Lapland, then Lapland must come to the Old Woman" (p. 199). Marian obtains an ultimate state of mind where peace is innate, like a lotus flower turning inside out; once blooms, the light coming from its center--the light having always been there, hidden inside a little bud that eventually turns color and becomes petals of experience. The petals open, letting light through little by little until they wither, dry to their frail brown, and fall back into the earth, leaving only light. While happiness, with its transitory character, is something one must experiment with and beholds here and there throughout a lifetime; it's the feeling of peace which becomes the necessary goal of the heart when having to reconcile anxiety with joy. For Carrington, old age becomes the crucial requisite for the attainment of enlightenment and true, sustainable peace.
We also discover that the thriving capitalists and wealthy property owners (the Man being the early adopter of these particular perspectives) have actually maladapted up until the cataclysm due to having learn to be almost completely disconnected with the natural world. This seems to be the most obvious turning of inside out.
Another turning of inside out that Carrington achieves would be a new understanding of aging. Society's ergonomics tend to favor the young bodied. An older bodied person cannot conform to this discriminatory society, for and by the young-ish and strong (or will be once they get around to using their gym membership). Aged citizens are thus marginalized and considered inept. Society may then justify naming the aging-process as a deterioration of the body and conscience. The un-trustable, over-seven-and-under-seventy-people blame the elderly for being victims of the system, tucking them away in homes which only further marginalizes them. However, Carrington puts the insides of the elderly on the out side. Rather than hiding her diminished hearing with an ugly discrete hearing aid, Marian carries an enormous and beautiful "hearing trumpet" that serves the purpose of a modern hearing aid. Her hearing trumpet is a prized gift from her deep friendship with Carmella. "encrusted with silver and mother o'pearl motifs" (p. 3), the hearing trumpet is truly striking--not an aid by any means, because the narrator is not at all weak or vulnerable. Why should she take an aid if she was never hindered to begin with?
As for the conscience of the elderly, Carrington revisits and revises the relevance of an aged mind. Marian's personally is undeniably likable. By no means is her conscience deteriorating. She is imaginative and hilarious. She has deep friendships with Carmella and with animals. As a reader, Marian's description of life as an aged person sounds vaguely familiar to us, but her diction is totally shocking. She's not at all senile, as her family perceives and as we might expect of a 92-year old. Quite the contrary--she makes being old sound like a hell of a time. In addition to free-thinking and total quirkiness, Marian's life demands plenty of experience and wisdom. She must make the ultimate choice, to go up to meet the figure trapped in the tower or to venture into the unknown dark depths below. She choses the depths out of pure curiosity and without fear. She faces her destiny where she chooses to literally swallow her past. She achieves absolute liberation of self or ego after cooking and eating her former self in a pot of soup--an ironic inversion of a typical female activity. "If the old woman can't go to Lapland, then Lapland must come to the Old Woman" (p. 199). Marian obtains an ultimate state of mind where peace is innate, like a lotus flower turning inside out; once blooms, the light coming from its center--the light having always been there, hidden inside a little bud that eventually turns color and becomes petals of experience. The petals open, letting light through little by little until they wither, dry to their frail brown, and fall back into the earth, leaving only light. While happiness, with its transitory character, is something one must experiment with and beholds here and there throughout a lifetime; it's the feeling of peace which becomes the necessary goal of the heart when having to reconcile anxiety with joy. For Carrington, old age becomes the crucial requisite for the attainment of enlightenment and true, sustainable peace.
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
My Email to Michael Moore (It's worth a try)
Mr. Moore,
Greetings, my fellow Michigander. I am a student at Wayne State. I'd like to thank you for visiting my school to speak out against Mr. Bush and the illegal occupation in Iraq right before the '04 election. Your visit was a huge gesture and many students, including myself, perked up and felt more personally involved in our political environment as direct result of your visit. I'd like to also say that it is indeed refreshing to hear your words from your last email about Mrs. Clinton with respect to the current presidential race. I, too, feel that she would be extremely dangerous for America with her "carrots and sticks" approach to foreign policy. Perhaps it's my age, I'm 22, but I have never in my life heard of or read about any sustainable and meaningful gain coming from treating a people like donkeys. I truly hope that despite the high confidence many show for her confirmed by some of the early online polls, Americans will realize that she is not going to change anything in our favor before they cast their votes.
In fact, I strongly feel that no single top tier candidate, Republican or Democrat, stands a chance for making any major change, whatsoever. I use the Republican party here because I'd like to address the dangerous binary we seem to have gotten ourselves trapped in again when it comes to governance. (I have always identified with the Democratic Party, don't get me wrong. I come from an immigrant family. We are middle class through and through and want nothing else but sustainable and fair working conditions as well as distribution of wealth on the macro level). Back to the binary... Good vs. evil. Democrat vs. Republican. I myself have actually nearly given up on distinguishing between Rep. and Dem party in this particular presidential election because to me they are the same. Mr. Moore, I hope you hear me out because I think you might be interested in the possibility that we as Americans have been caught in the worn groves of association created and perpetuated by the media and corporate censorship, and we may be able to dig ourselves out. I view this
coming election as a huge opportunity.
The reason for this is that I think America will discover that there truly is no difference between Dems and Rep. with respect to bringing home results. I don't doubt that Edwards or Obama have in their hearts unique visions of a better world, but they have demonstrated that they lack the courage and knowledge it takes to make change.
I have little faith in the Democratic party since Democratic candidates have already received more contributions from the military industrial complex than the Republicans (http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/101907O.shtml). Our beloved country, due to bad leadership, now thrives on the production and consumption of weapons. We now have a culture of militarism. It is the Military Industrial Complex who inspires our lawmakers more than anything else. We are number one in defense but (you know far better than I do) we can't even provide basic medical attention to all our own citizens.
Before we will ever see change, the system itself requires a major paradigm shift. Before we will ever see anything like universal coverage for health care, total withdrawal of troops from Iraq, the shut down of all US sanctions abroad (history shows us that sanctions do nothing but hurt the people, not the government and thus not at all effective for promoting peace and democracy), putting a halt to the drumbeat of war towards Iran, putting a halt to dependence on foreign oil, the construction of mass transportation systems and alternative "greener" modes of transportation (esp. here in Mich!), reforming our pitiful immigration policy, constructing alternative energy systems such as windmills which would electrify our country in as little as 10 years creating a wave of jobs and cutting down on pollution enormously, relieving the middle class from carrying all of the tax burden since income tax is not at all progressive; those over a certain income bracket escape the income tax, turning around our massive national debt by changing the structure of revenue, reforming education so that quality of education does not depend on real estate, brining home our factories and services; we need a bigger change than just a switch of faces in congress. We cannot keep allowing ourselves to fall into the trap of binary thinking: option 1 or option 2/ Dems or Reps; because neither option can provide sustainable results given our system of governance. They indeed will continue on this path of politics as usual unless we are open to the 3rd option! And it exist right now: a new invention that will make up for the downfalls option 1 or 2 never anticipated upon their conception.
The person who came up with option 3 is currently running for president. In fact, he spend the last 10 years defining, writing, presenting, re-writing, etc. a resolution to the problem of our
representative government. The result is called the "Nation Initiative for Democracy" (www.ni4d.us), a federal ballet calling for citizen sovereignty in the lawmaking process. He is Mike Gravel, former senator of Alaska and currently a Democratic candidate for president. You have probably heard of him: he stopped the draft in the early 70s, he read the Pentagon Papers into public record at the risk of landing in jail (he didn't...oh! the personal account is totally documentary worthy, it's incredible; check out Gravel's 10 min version of the story here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5ks8hz5Ulg), he stopped nuclear testing off the shores of Alaska, he is responsible in part for the construction of Alaskan pipeline. He never wavered on or regretted any of his votes. He voted with full conscience, confidence, and heart every single time during office.
Today, he is the only candidate courageous enough to confront Mrs. Clinton and the Democratic party for allowing further progress towards a full blown war against Iran
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3gQfz8GC0o and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_H2ap9do6E. In fact, as a result of mentioning Iran at the New Hampshire Democratic debate, he's introduced the possibility of war with Iran as a topic in each of the following Democratic debates, which of course has sparked more open conversation among Americans at large. Also as a result of having been outspoken against possible future invasions, CNN has actually since banned Mr. Gravel (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sen-mike-gravel/why-nbc-and-the-dnc-want-_b_69397.html) from participating in each debate because CNN is owned by G.E.; a nasty warmongering corporation that controls most of America's major news media and who is seemingly aware and afraid of what may happen if Americans at large heard some truth and saw courage before their eyes coming from a hard working middle class citizen like themselves on their tubes at home. This is why they've banned Gravel; he is a threat and they must save their own greedy asses.
The cornerstone of Mr. Gravel's campaign is the National Initiate for Democracy ( www.ni4d.us ). It is a Federal Ballet that would basically give us, Americans at large, the power to make law. It would give us the Democracy our founding fathers intended when they wrote the words, "We the people do ordain this government." When voting in each election, we effectively give our power away to representatives who are no better at doing the job of decision making than we are. Since we the people ordain this government, we sure as hell can and should denounce this government if it doesn't do what we need it to do; work for us. Congress works for us. And so we rule them, they do not rule us. This is clear right from the very first sentence of our most fundamental text. Switzerland, after hundreds of years of violence, basically cut and pasted our constitution when rebuilding their nation, with the addition of citizen sovereignty and lawmaking power to the general public; and today, Switzerland has the most wealth per capita in the world.
Mr. Moore, I, like many politically jaded Americans, initially had little faith in someone as unknown known as Mr. Gravel to have a chance at presidency. But thanks to mostly my research/ experience and in part to Hollywood, I truly believe criminals always loose and the hero must win in the end. I've concluded that it's up to my own personal and genuine integrity to act in ways that makes the most political sense to me. I can only hope that demonstrating my enthusiasm and faith in Mr. Gravel's campaign will generate even more ripples. The internet has already proved Mr. Gravel's popularity in many ways. Youtube clips
featuring Gravel generate hundreds of thousands of viewers within hours of having been posted. He is rated most popular match when connecting personal views with the candidate:
http://www.vajoe.com/candidate_calculator.html. I will not give in to the lame options that our binary two-party structure offers. I am like the 57% of Americans that have no faith in either party. We in this country are clearly already open to new options since the ones we have
are no longer popular.
I hope that you take a moment to read about the National Initiative (www.ni4d.us) and more about Mr. Gravel and his campaign. I can assure you it will be worth your time. It was worth mine. As result I recently became very active for Mr. Gravel's campaign. I personally watched many people, those who identify with the Democratic party and those who do not, come to all kinds of political epiphanies and become extremely exited at the possibility of becoming lawmakers and seeing the change they hope for in thier hearts, bank accounts, etc.
As a member of Mr. Gravel's campaign steering committee for Michigan, I would like to inform you that we are in the process of preparing for an event for Democracy where Mr. Gravel, as well as other major figures, political and otherwise ( possibly Dennis Kucinich who is yet unconfirmed ) will be speaking/performing. We hope to invite as many speakers from as many different backgrounds to all join together in a Rally for Democracy. I imagine you are extremely busy but I thought it would definitely be worth a try since having you as a speaker would be such a huge gesture for Detroit, as it was for Wayne State back in '04 when you visited us. We are hoping that this Rally for Democracy will generate more awareness and hope from Michiganders, and the US, after Michigan having recently been disenfranchised from the primaries. I know this is such short notice but if you will be around the Detroit area this month, it would be an enormous honor to have you there as a speaker. We hope to have the event take place this Sunday the 13th at Campus Martius Park.
Take Care and all the best to you Mr. Moore, I hope to hear from you,
Irina Laura Cotfas
Greetings, my fellow Michigander. I am a student at Wayne State. I'd like to thank you for visiting my school to speak out against Mr. Bush and the illegal occupation in Iraq right before the '04 election. Your visit was a huge gesture and many students, including myself, perked up and felt more personally involved in our political environment as direct result of your visit. I'd like to also say that it is indeed refreshing to hear your words from your last email about Mrs. Clinton with respect to the current presidential race. I, too, feel that she would be extremely dangerous for America with her "carrots and sticks" approach to foreign policy. Perhaps it's my age, I'm 22, but I have never in my life heard of or read about any sustainable and meaningful gain coming from treating a people like donkeys. I truly hope that despite the high confidence many show for her confirmed by some of the early online polls, Americans will realize that she is not going to change anything in our favor before they cast their votes.
In fact, I strongly feel that no single top tier candidate, Republican or Democrat, stands a chance for making any major change, whatsoever. I use the Republican party here because I'd like to address the dangerous binary we seem to have gotten ourselves trapped in again when it comes to governance. (I have always identified with the Democratic Party, don't get me wrong. I come from an immigrant family. We are middle class through and through and want nothing else but sustainable and fair working conditions as well as distribution of wealth on the macro level). Back to the binary... Good vs. evil. Democrat vs. Republican. I myself have actually nearly given up on distinguishing between Rep. and Dem party in this particular presidential election because to me they are the same. Mr. Moore, I hope you hear me out because I think you might be interested in the possibility that we as Americans have been caught in the worn groves of association created and perpetuated by the media and corporate censorship, and we may be able to dig ourselves out. I view this
coming election as a huge opportunity.
The reason for this is that I think America will discover that there truly is no difference between Dems and Rep. with respect to bringing home results. I don't doubt that Edwards or Obama have in their hearts unique visions of a better world, but they have demonstrated that they lack the courage and knowledge it takes to make change.
I have little faith in the Democratic party since Democratic candidates have already received more contributions from the military industrial complex than the Republicans (http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/101907O.shtml). Our beloved country, due to bad leadership, now thrives on the production and consumption of weapons. We now have a culture of militarism. It is the Military Industrial Complex who inspires our lawmakers more than anything else. We are number one in defense but (you know far better than I do) we can't even provide basic medical attention to all our own citizens.
Before we will ever see change, the system itself requires a major paradigm shift. Before we will ever see anything like universal coverage for health care, total withdrawal of troops from Iraq, the shut down of all US sanctions abroad (history shows us that sanctions do nothing but hurt the people, not the government and thus not at all effective for promoting peace and democracy), putting a halt to the drumbeat of war towards Iran, putting a halt to dependence on foreign oil, the construction of mass transportation systems and alternative "greener" modes of transportation (esp. here in Mich!), reforming our pitiful immigration policy, constructing alternative energy systems such as windmills which would electrify our country in as little as 10 years creating a wave of jobs and cutting down on pollution enormously, relieving the middle class from carrying all of the tax burden since income tax is not at all progressive; those over a certain income bracket escape the income tax, turning around our massive national debt by changing the structure of revenue, reforming education so that quality of education does not depend on real estate, brining home our factories and services; we need a bigger change than just a switch of faces in congress. We cannot keep allowing ourselves to fall into the trap of binary thinking: option 1 or option 2/ Dems or Reps; because neither option can provide sustainable results given our system of governance. They indeed will continue on this path of politics as usual unless we are open to the 3rd option! And it exist right now: a new invention that will make up for the downfalls option 1 or 2 never anticipated upon their conception.
The person who came up with option 3 is currently running for president. In fact, he spend the last 10 years defining, writing, presenting, re-writing, etc. a resolution to the problem of our
representative government. The result is called the "Nation Initiative for Democracy" (www.ni4d.us), a federal ballet calling for citizen sovereignty in the lawmaking process. He is Mike Gravel, former senator of Alaska and currently a Democratic candidate for president. You have probably heard of him: he stopped the draft in the early 70s, he read the Pentagon Papers into public record at the risk of landing in jail (he didn't...oh! the personal account is totally documentary worthy, it's incredible; check out Gravel's 10 min version of the story here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5ks8hz5Ulg), he stopped nuclear testing off the shores of Alaska, he is responsible in part for the construction of Alaskan pipeline. He never wavered on or regretted any of his votes. He voted with full conscience, confidence, and heart every single time during office.
Today, he is the only candidate courageous enough to confront Mrs. Clinton and the Democratic party for allowing further progress towards a full blown war against Iran
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3gQfz8GC0o and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_H2ap9do6E. In fact, as a result of mentioning Iran at the New Hampshire Democratic debate, he's introduced the possibility of war with Iran as a topic in each of the following Democratic debates, which of course has sparked more open conversation among Americans at large. Also as a result of having been outspoken against possible future invasions, CNN has actually since banned Mr. Gravel (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sen-mike-gravel/why-nbc-and-the-dnc-want-_b_69397.html) from participating in each debate because CNN is owned by G.E.; a nasty warmongering corporation that controls most of America's major news media and who is seemingly aware and afraid of what may happen if Americans at large heard some truth and saw courage before their eyes coming from a hard working middle class citizen like themselves on their tubes at home. This is why they've banned Gravel; he is a threat and they must save their own greedy asses.
The cornerstone of Mr. Gravel's campaign is the National Initiate for Democracy ( www.ni4d.us ). It is a Federal Ballet that would basically give us, Americans at large, the power to make law. It would give us the Democracy our founding fathers intended when they wrote the words, "We the people do ordain this government." When voting in each election, we effectively give our power away to representatives who are no better at doing the job of decision making than we are. Since we the people ordain this government, we sure as hell can and should denounce this government if it doesn't do what we need it to do; work for us. Congress works for us. And so we rule them, they do not rule us. This is clear right from the very first sentence of our most fundamental text. Switzerland, after hundreds of years of violence, basically cut and pasted our constitution when rebuilding their nation, with the addition of citizen sovereignty and lawmaking power to the general public; and today, Switzerland has the most wealth per capita in the world.
Mr. Moore, I, like many politically jaded Americans, initially had little faith in someone as unknown known as Mr. Gravel to have a chance at presidency. But thanks to mostly my research/ experience and in part to Hollywood, I truly believe criminals always loose and the hero must win in the end. I've concluded that it's up to my own personal and genuine integrity to act in ways that makes the most political sense to me. I can only hope that demonstrating my enthusiasm and faith in Mr. Gravel's campaign will generate even more ripples. The internet has already proved Mr. Gravel's popularity in many ways. Youtube clips
featuring Gravel generate hundreds of thousands of viewers within hours of having been posted. He is rated most popular match when connecting personal views with the candidate:
http://www.vajoe.com/candidate_calculator.html. I will not give in to the lame options that our binary two-party structure offers. I am like the 57% of Americans that have no faith in either party. We in this country are clearly already open to new options since the ones we have
are no longer popular.
I hope that you take a moment to read about the National Initiative (www.ni4d.us) and more about Mr. Gravel and his campaign. I can assure you it will be worth your time. It was worth mine. As result I recently became very active for Mr. Gravel's campaign. I personally watched many people, those who identify with the Democratic party and those who do not, come to all kinds of political epiphanies and become extremely exited at the possibility of becoming lawmakers and seeing the change they hope for in thier hearts, bank accounts, etc.
As a member of Mr. Gravel's campaign steering committee for Michigan, I would like to inform you that we are in the process of preparing for an event for Democracy where Mr. Gravel, as well as other major figures, political and otherwise ( possibly Dennis Kucinich who is yet unconfirmed ) will be speaking/performing. We hope to invite as many speakers from as many different backgrounds to all join together in a Rally for Democracy. I imagine you are extremely busy but I thought it would definitely be worth a try since having you as a speaker would be such a huge gesture for Detroit, as it was for Wayne State back in '04 when you visited us. We are hoping that this Rally for Democracy will generate more awareness and hope from Michiganders, and the US, after Michigan having recently been disenfranchised from the primaries. I know this is such short notice but if you will be around the Detroit area this month, it would be an enormous honor to have you there as a speaker. We hope to have the event take place this Sunday the 13th at Campus Martius Park.
Take Care and all the best to you Mr. Moore, I hope to hear from you,
Irina Laura Cotfas
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
