Things That Describe Things You Don't Want to Out Right Say.

As an English major I love using metaphors when ever I don't want to outright say something. Be it in poetry or in describing situations my friends or I find ourselves in metaphors can come in handy.

Let's stop and take a look at the two major uses of Metaphors though, poetry and music (There is a lot of overlap here I know!) Anyway, I'm not sure why, but there is a great schism between those who love metaphors, and those who think they are pointless, English and non-English majors alike. I found myself on the side of those who love and hate them.

When it comes to reading poetry is where I am on the fence about my feelings of metaphors. This is mostly because when it comes to metaphors I prefer them to be easy to catch and clever, not deep winded and leaving you searching for what they were trying to say. I know that can be asking a lot but at times I don't think it's that hard. An example of this is Sylvia Plath's poem, oddly enough called, Metaphors. Now this poem is a 9 line poem with 9 metaphors in 9 syllables each one describing what it is like to be pregnant. Now I found this poem very interesting because of how she was able to use metaphors (A nine letter word, probably not related to the other 9's but interesting none the less) to describe so many different ways at looking at pregnancy. Had she not used metaphors the poem would have just been "I am fat, I am fat, Oh dear God I am fat" 9 times in a row, and let's face it this poem most likely would have been awful.

Now on the flip side, there are times in poetry when people put too much meaning in a metaphor, this causes me not to have any clue what the poet is talking about. This happened when I read T.S. Eliot's, The Waste Land. Now I know this is considered to be one of the better poems of the Modern Era (after World War I) but when I first read the poem, sometime while in High School, I didn't have the slightest idea what the poem was talking about, and thought to myself "Do I really want to be a writer if it means dealing with people that think this is what a great work is" Now that I am taking Modern Literature, with Sister Mara Faulkner, and have read about the time period and how the Waste Land refers to the state of being in America, post-war, and how everyone is "wasted" spiritually, and left empty. This put a whole new spin on everything I knew about the poem. Now this does bring back the whole Barthes and Foucault theory about what does it matter what the author says the metaphor is about but seriously, had I not known what Eliot lived through I would have been left in the dark for a long time.

Now on to music. Music is the one place where I absolutely love Metaphors. It's the place where you can bring a very creative side to important messages by not out right screaming at the microphone. Now, the message doesn't always need to be political like Green Day's American Idiot. One of my favorite songs is one huge metaphor, American Pie, by Don McLean.

Now the main line of this song that resonates the most is "The Day the Music Died" this line is a methaphor refers to February 3rd 1959, when Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and the Big Bopper died in a plane crash. Now the song goes on from one metaphor to the next using a play on words to describe the state the U.S. is in after the death of these three young musicians and where music progressed to. Don Mclean could have easily just stated all these events but then it would have been a news bulletin in Rolling Stone magazine, not a truly amazing song.

I believe metaphor are an essential part to music and poetry. It keeps things lively and interesting. If you strip music and poetry the world becomes extremely ordinary and similar, and that is a world I would hate to live in.

Fishes and Valentines

Hello Internet it’s me again.  And today I am addressing an interesting topic. Meaning. As an English major with an emphasis in Creative Writing trying to find meaning in a work of poetry is something I battle with a regular basis, both as a writer and a reader.

            With Valentine’s Day being a big day and all I decided to attempt my year’s challenge of writing a love poem in honor of the Saint who was martyred for marrying couples when it was made illegal by Emperor Claudius the II.  After completing the poem I realized how I could incorporate it to Stanley Fish.

            Looking at the poem and talking to some friends I found three different ways groups of people would see my poem. There is the way I look at it, as the author. It’s meaning up to my interpretation, as simply a funny Valentine’s Day poem. My friends on the other hand, who know me fairly well and know my historical tendencies, saw it only as me trying to a girl that I like her.  I then began to wonder what would happen if I were to put the poem on a social networking sight such as Likealittle.com. Like a little is a website where you can go and post “flirts” about people you see and whatnot. The reason I thought about this scenario was when a friend of mine asked me if the poem was about her. This reminded me of how she would spend hours on LikeALittle, trying to convince herself that every post was about her. She would go as far as to convince herself she was in places when a post said she was when she was at the wrong campus or what not. 

Now, bringing Stanley Fish back into everything. Stanley Fish, states in his essay, “How to Recognize a Poem When You See One” that groups of people interpret poems based on the social situation they find themselves in.  Here we have three different interpretation based on three different “Interpretive communities,” one of the author, one of the not so critical critique, and of the dreamer. Each of us making meaning based on our own experiences, mine as a joke, my friends looking for gossip, and the social networker hoping to find a reason for spending hours on sites like Likealittle.com.

Now I am not a very pick writer. I have my own intentions and meaning but I am not one to deny others from looking for meaning themselves. After all that is what got me into writing in the first place.  Everyone is entitled to his or her own opinion and interpretations of poetry. You CAN if you so choose to look at it with authorial intent, or knowing the author look at it with the historical mind, or as a New Critic and taking the poetry at face value without any care for what the author intended. It’s all up to you I guess. 

Oh and if you want to read the poem that inspired this post here ya go
 

http://www.scribd.com/doc/81603838/Tongue-Tied-Valentines 

Labels

             A major aspect of the college life is growing up on your own and discovering whom you are. Last week I was challenged to come up with the best way to say I was unique in a short essay for study abroad. The point of this essay was to show the people that would interview me that I was a unique individual, just like everybody else. It was at this time that I became acutely aware of how much one word can tell about you.

            We read in our Theory Toolbox about how labels affect a subject. In this case, I was the subject and I needed to find as many labels that set me apart. I started by I was nice, easy to talk to, and out going. I found, however, that this seemed like the go to answer whenever it comes to describing yourself to someone you haven’t met yet.  I then decided to take another course. Describing myself as adventurous, easy going, and funny. Well this just opened up a whole new can of worms.

             These words all have preconceived notions with them.  “Adventurous”, is a word that makes me think of deep-sea spear fishing, base-jumping off the Washington Monument, or spelunking on asteroids. While I do love to travel does that count as being adventurous? Furthermore, if it turns out I’m really not that adventurous I am not left with a diminishing character for lying on an application. Now, looking at the words “easy going” there are many ways this can be perceived. When I hear the phrase easy going I assume that the person is light hearted, easy to talk to, and probably doesn’t get that emotional over trivial things. I can see, however, how easy going can come off as being lazy, dethatched.  Finally let’s look at funny.  You feel like you can’t go wrong by saying that you are funny but it puts a lot of pressure on you if you tell people you are funny and then cannot deliver. Plus there are many types of funny. Which funny am I? Am I the guy that just cracks red neck jokes whenever I see a guy wearing cowboy boots? Am I the silent type who is just very good with one-liners?

            It is because of the way that words can label us, group us together, or set us apart that I spent a good deal of time deciding what words to use when describing myself. I am the subject of my own inability to describe myself. I am a product of what I have done and what I plan to do. Finally I decided to just go with it, I would use what ever words to describe myself as I damn well pleased, and let them make their own labels to stick on me.