Poetry Part 2

The next section of poetry assignments...

The Awakening by R. Calvert

Scientists have long played with the idea of suspended animation.  This piece of poetry seems to speak to the idea of waking up from a suspended animation of sorts, but there is also the general feeling that these individuals were suspended at a very young age and continued to grow while traverse through space in a comatose state.

While I do not necessarily understand the direction that the author is going, could it be the idea of exploration, or perhaps new birth, I do absolutely love the vivid picturesque language that is used.  Calvert draws my mind to various movies, while also creating worlds that I have not seen before.  His poem reminds me of watching my daughter as she moves about in life seeing new things and making new experiences.

Against Entropy by J.M. Ford

If poetry is a road to travel by, the major thought would be the destination.  In this poem, I believe I understand the destination, but am confused and unsure of the road.  It is conceivable that Ford is writing with the concept of everything ends, be honest now.  All the destruction in the poem leaves me somewhat confused.  I just do not understand this piece.

The balance of pieces were all written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman.

An Obstacle

This piece would appear to be about how prejudice can be handled.  Ultimately, the traveler in the poem learns that she can move on through the prejudice without having to submit to the will of it.

This piece has beautiful imagery.  The wording leaves me feeling the sense of urgency to be on her way and the weight of the load.  The writing itself is very well executed and draws the reader on to the next line, the next verse.

Similar Cases

This is an odd poem.  I'm really not sure what to think of it.  It is interesting as the idea of the animals talking amongst themselves.  There is definitely a sense of evolutionary process as these animals are seeking to willfully become something more than themselves.  The rhythm of the poem is excellent, but in the end, I am lost as to the purpose and reason for this poem.

A Conservative

How many of us get the greatest things in life, yet refuse to recognize them for what they are?  The butterfly in this particular piece does not want to fly, but wishes to be the Caterpillar that it once was.  The wings, while beautiful to us, are the bane of the existence  of this little creature.

Of the exact theme, I am not sure, but there is a lesson contained inside of this poem to be thankful for what we have.

The Purpose

A story of womanhood.  This poem relates the natures of the relationship between a woman and her progeny.

Locked Inside

Often times we find ourselves in self made prisons.  These prisons have a single reality to them.  While they are made by us, they are also locked inside so that we could be locked in.  This poem speaks to the idea of freedom from our own larceny.  Freedom from ourselves.  We can be free of all the prisons we make for ourselves, if only we unlock the door.

More Females Of the Species

This poem lauds the "deadliness" of the female.  Other than to postulate that this is a feminist poem, I am not sure what to say about it.

Poem for my fellow classmates...

http://www.squidoo.com/scifipoems#module94893741


Before the Big Bang: News from the Hubble Large Telescope
by Jonathan Vos Post

I enjoyed this piece as it made me think of all the history and science that we know; with the reality that we haven't even begun to understand the first step in the process.  The Bible says we are fearfully and wonderfully made.  So very true.

Poetry section 1

Sci-Fi by Tracy K. Smith

I understand this poem but I don't.  I idea of moving on past prejudices toward a balanced society is portrayed by the lack of violence and the statement that the sexes will be equal.  What I don't understand, is how the society will continue on "adrift in the haze of space".  This picture casts one in my mind of Earth floating off into the darkness of space.  If this is the case, we would freeze and there would be no dancing for ourselves.  Unless the author is referencing the idea of the orbit of earth, which could be argued as being far from adrift.  Adrift leaves my mind thinking of pointless travel; an orbit on the other hand is highly guided, directed travel by the ballet of the universe.  My guess would be the theme of the poem would be equality, but I really don't follow the author very well.

The Cylon's Dream by R.G. Parent

The initial images as I read through this poem evoke the concepts of the Matrix, Star Wars, and Battle Star Galactica.  I find this poem interesting as it does reference some ideas from the perennial favorites of the Sci-Fi world as stated before, but it also reflects the idea of people watching over our shoulders and controlling our future.  This idea is not new to the course as it is reflected in many of the works we have watched and read.  What is unique is the idea that things will get better.  That while we are all under a level of control here and now, something or someone is rising up to balance the equation; in the words of the Matrix series, Neo is coming.

More poems to be reviewed later...

Stumbled a stitch...

Big brother.  This is a phrase that has become synonymous with the ideal of the government looking over our shoulders.  As this book is winding down, the picture that is provided of the hound keeps popping into my head.  It's constantly there, in the shadows just watching.  It seeks to protect the society that created it, only functioning as it's programming requires.  It is autonomous, to a degree, but constantly is doing the bidding of it's creators in order to maintain the society that is desired.  The Hound could be very much a part of our society.  We watch over our shoulders when stories of cameras on street corners, or various other government acts impact on us.  We become dissonant when we believe our freedom is going away, but embrace concepts like the hound that are solely meant for control.  

I'm not really to sure what else to say.  I'm trying to get my head around the ideal of a society seeking to remain independent and free, while accepting various contrivances that are meant to control under the auspice of the idea protecting the innocent.  I sincerely hope this makes sense...

Working in the medical profession, I find some of the medical practices interesting; especially with regard to the attitude that accompanies the acts.  In F451, the protagonist's wife overdoses herself.  The "EMS" show up and pump her stomach, but this is done with such a lez a fere attitude, that it is obvious these men are saving people from overdose regularly.  This leaves me asking, why is it that people are this way in the books?  Reflecting back on my own experience as and EMT on an ALS service, I've run no small amount of calls on overdoses.  Frequently is appears the individuals have lost a sense of themselves, as well as are caught in despair.  Granted this does not cover all people, but it is my observation based on runs and dealing with the individuals.  EMS also develops a sense of ho hum when dealing with overdoses as it is a relatively regular call.

The other reality of the book in the same vein is that an effective protocol had been developed for this situation.  These men came in, did their job, left some advice, and moved on.  How sad is it that we would rather continue to medicate ourselves, than fix the problems.  The medication itself then begins to create a new problem due to individuals abusing the medication seeking to get further away from unhappiness or problems.

How does the cycle get broken and changed?

(Tone drop)  "ATTENTION YOUR TOWN EMS!! YOU'RE RESPONDING TO..."

Symbols and Farenheit 451

Adolph Gottlieb once wrote, “My favorite symbols were those which I didn’t understand.”  Ray Bradbury in writing Fahrenheit 451 definitely uses some rather obscure symbols, but he also uses some very rich descriptions, that of themselves become symbolic of the “nature” of what he is describing.  Hoses become massive writhing serpents, dogs or hounds are no longer man’s best friend, and the list could go on.  This paper will deal with a few of the uses of animals as symbols and their implication that were found interesting by the author of this paper.  Not all of the animal symbols used in the text are looked at in order to maintain the brevity of this paper.

            We will be looking at four basic animals.  We will maintain a wide focus as to the animal and not delve into the greater minutia of subspecies.  Having said this we will look at the following ideas.  A look will be taken at the salamander, as it is the symbol of the fireman.  The hound will be looked at as in the story of Fahrenheit 451 it takes an atypical role of the general description of dogs.  Birds will be looked at as well as Bradbury refers to burning books repeatedly as falling birds at one point in the story when they are burning a house.  Last but not least we will turn our focus to the use of serpents to describe the gastrointestinal hose and the kerosene hose.  The criteria that will be used to look at these animals are the ideas of their importance of their iconic role as they are handed down to us through society, religion, etc…  We will also look at them in light of their sociological impact as they stand in the story. 

            Girardin, p. 2           

As the firemen played such a central role of the story, let us turn our eyes first to the noble symbol of their profession, the salamander, “… and then when she seemed hypnotized by the salamander on his arm…” (Bradbury 451).  This turns out to be an interesting choice of symbol for the firefighter profession of the future based on the life cycle of many salamanders.  They change!  Salamanders often start out as a creature of the water, being born there.  Later they grow older and larger and move to the waters edge.  These animals occasionally wander rather large distances into the above water environment (Ford, Salamanders).  They can also be rather colorful as Bradbury’s description often suggests.  Where this plays an interesting role is with our hero and villain.  Capt. Bailey has some experience with books as he shows toward the end of the text, as he is perpetually quoting Shakespeare and other notables.  An example of this is the discourse when Beatty and Montag are at the climax of the story, “There is no terror, Cassius, in your threats…” (Bradbury 451).  He is a flamboyant character in personality as well as in his profession’s symbol.  Where the salamander suits him is the idea that he left the “pool of knowledge” came back and left again, rejecting it as a false ideal that only muddles the world.  Montag on the other hand does not have this travel.  He goes from ignorance of the beauty of the ideas of the books around him and their lack of homogenized ideals to a full awakening and awareness of the glory of the ideas held in each of the books time honored pages.  Just as Bailey goes back and forth from the pond, like a

Girardin, p. 3

salamander, eventually rejecting where he came from wholesale; Montag goes in the other direction fully.  He returns to the pond of human experience as recorded in the dreaded books and becomes more colorful as well as we are left with the idea of a type of ideological reproduction at the end of the book, as the men turn to return to the city after it has been bombed.  The Salamander returns to his brook or pool in order to continue on.  His progeny assured.  Montag does the same.  He enters back into the life of free thought, which would be our pond, and continues to grow in those ideas.

            Our next idea is that of books.  Bradbury describes the books burning as birds falling, “While the flapping pigeon-winged books died… They fell like slaughtered birds…” (Bradbury, 451).  This is a very interesting way of describing them.  Not only does it bring about the idea of the color of pigeons, and the thought of them falling with a certain graceful air with their covers open and pages flayed, much like wings, but it also gives us an idea of the perceived meaning of the continuation of the wisdom that is held in them.  In Celtic mythology birds take on a meaning of wisdom, bloodshed, and prophetic knowledge (Nood’en, Celtic Mythology).  On a personal level, as this writer was reading the text there was a certain feeling of des ja vu that gave the feeling of the idea of prophesying a possible path that mankind could take.  The concept of

books holding wisdom goes without saying.  We pass on all of our greatest and darkest thoughts through writing.  Faber actually puts it this way, “So now do

Girardin, p. 4

you understand why books are hated and feared?  They show the pores in the face of life.” (Bradbury, 451).  Hitler’s Mien Kempf is as alive today as ever, how many decades after his death.  Just as the optimistic belief in the ability of man to overcome all obstacles is still with us today in Homer’s Odyssey.  Each of these great works shows us paths that can be walked by mankind.  Books grant us with the wisdom of the ages, just as in Celtic mythology birds took on the form of being providers of wisdom.

            Birds also take on an interesting concept from the perspective of life as shown through religion.  On many first century Christian tombstones birds are shown as symbols of eternal life and resurrection (byui.edu).  Surely in a culture where the knowledge to be gained from the experience of various writers through history have been cast aside, it is a type of intellectual and creative death.  The ideals of intellect and free thought have, in the text, been murdered on the altar of homogeny.  Describing the books as birds gives us the picture that intellect is not dead.  Just as the dark ages descended over Europe, knowledge thrived elsewhere under the constant care of loving hands.  So in this scene we see loving caretakers handling these books with devotion in recognition of the life giving and freedom providing ideals that are held therein.  The concepts of philosophy, science, the freedom of fiction, the past trod trail of history all

remain to come back to life just as the Phoenix of Native American lore

Girardin, p. 5

Bradbury uses many illustrations based on snakes, “with the brass nozzle in his fists, with this great python spitting…” (Bradbury, 451) and the related animal known as the dragon, “Below the orange dragon coughed to life” (Bradbury, 451).  This particular animal proved to be interesting as it was the opposite of itself.  Many cultures reviled this animal as pure evil, while others developed an ideal that considered it to be the keeper of wisdom and a sacred animal as well.  The most curious were the Greeks who began considering the snake/dragon as a sacred animal and then time and the culture castigated it to the evil hydra(Rings, Hydra).  For the most part though, the more negative and menacing attributes seem to apply to the descriptions of Fahrenheit 451. 

            In Christian thought the snake is always remembered as the animal that tempted Eve to eat of the forbidden fruit and ruined the rest of our lives interminably.  The temptation of Eve by the serpent ruined the utopian society that was initially created according to Genesis 1-3.  In Celtic mythology, serpents and dragons symbolize trouble, strife, infertility, and are a counter symbol to kings (Nood’en, Celtic Mythology).  In later Greece the serpent became the Hydra of mythology, a multi headed destructive beast (Rings, Hydra).  In the end, the majority of cultures end up viewing the serpent the same way that Bradbury makes use of them, conniving, deceitful, and destructive animals.  The

Girardin, p. 6

hoses that destroy the books eat and consume the culture that is found in those hallowed tomes.  Interestingly though, we also see serpents used in a dark sense,

but reflecting their more positive attributes.  We see this when Montag’s wife has her stomach suctioned out after overdosing herself, “One of them slid down into your stomach like a black cobra down an echoing well looking for all the old water and old time gathered there” (Bradbury, 451).  Thus the serpent is evenly portrayed but the overall “feeling” is that of the darker side of this animal.

            The final animal that figured prominently and repeatedly as the antithesis of itself is the dog.  The character of the dog in 451 is a conniving, underhanded animal that serves the purpose to kill book owners (Bradbury, 451).  Through the majority of cultures, the dog is an animal that is a respected part of the culture.  For the Druids, they were the guardians of mysteries, in India they are symbols of the caste system in that they show the lesser becoming the greater, they are also a symbol of motherhood as they are generally caring and nurturing (Smith, Animals).  It is worth noting though that dogs have been used for less caring purposes, although they continue in their role to protect.  They have been used in war, and to search out the evil that surrounds us in drug sniffing dogs, and things of that nature.  Curiously the dog of 451 resides in the ideology of the enforcer and shows none of the redeeming characteristics of “man’s best friend”.  The fire hound is a dark threatening specter that resides over everywhere it resides

            Girardin, p. 7

Each of these animals proves to be an interesting study on the use of animals as symbols.  We can see that many of the chosen descriptions add a

depth and vitality of character that is not had without them.  Bradbury grasps both the ancient and more contemporary meanings of these symbols providing for a complex and varied story that requires the reader to look into themselves to find what they are providing to the culture around them, as well as to look at the society we are building based on our values.

Please forgive just the repost of a paper, but why reinvent the wheel? 


P.S. Works cited list available upon request

Things to Come

Prophecy.  The ability to look into the future by whatever means that the prophet uses.  It's a concept and behavior that has been around for time immortal; sometimes accurate, often times not so much so.  The Prophets of the Old Testament were able to tell the Children of Israel their fate if they did not turn their hearts back to God, with rather intense and accurate precision.  Moving forward a few thousand years and men like Nostradomus that refuse to die, even though many of his perceived prophecies are so relatively vague that it is likely they could be applied to many different events in time.

H.G. Wells presents the reader with an extraordinary person of Mr. Raven who believes that he can see into the future in the twilight between consciousness and sleep.  His recollection of the events he "reads about" are highly entertaining and an interesting vehicle for Wells to forward the ideas of what the apparently dark future will hold.

While this book is still relatively young in it's reading, it promises to be interesting.  Wells is an excellent writer, and while his skills are without question; the way this book is written promises to be creative indeed.  It is with anticipated joy that I prepare to turn the next page.

Brave New World.  The title itself intrigued me.  The concept of a new world and the ideas of science fiction was exciting.  As the writing is begun to be perused, I find the author to be very creative, eloquent and entertaining.  It is almost possible to see the glint of the sun on the microscopes.

In the first couple chapters a society is laid out that removes all the freedom from the individuals from the beginning of life.  Parents are a thing of the past in favor of test tubes and multitudes of clones, with the reality of complete acceptance being obvious as even the students initially followed are recognized as alphas.  People are broken into a five level caste that applies the work that individuals do so far as they are programmed at the genetic level for details so minute as where they will live.

It is interesting to note that while the changes in society as resulted procreation being a result of algorithms and science, the actual accepted behaviors have also morphed.  Licentious behavior in now accepted as a regular behavior that children are encouraged to partake in, with mockery being made of us in the past that hold a more puritanical view.  The double standard is also rather obvious here, and somewhat entertaining.  Sex is no longer used for procreation, but erotic games are encouraged for children.

Probably the last thing that I found interesting in these initial chapters is the question, did the makers of the Matrix series have this in mind when the people energy factory was developed?  The people factory in Brave New World and the pictures from the Matrix leave me believing one had an influence on the other.

I am a huge fan of Star Trek.  The creativity of the show and all of it's spin offs I find beyond entertaining.  While reading the text, I reflected back numerous times to two cultures that are reflected in the Trek world, namely the Borg and the Vulcans.  The Vulcans came to mind as the main characters seem to be dealing regularly with these apparently unflappable characters.  The Vulcan culture is based upon the ideal of logic overcoming all.  The natives of Herland appear to have some kind of relfection to this ideal.  The female inhabitants seem to be far superior in eduation and culture than we would be, very much like the Vulcans that are seen regularly in Star Trek Enterprise. 

The othe culture that I find myself reflecting back onto is that of the Borg.  This is also an advanced species in the Trek universe, expanding by conquest through assimilation.  This group of people does not grow through normal growth of babies born from the mating of individuals, but through the assimilation of cultures; rendering gender roles insignificant.  The question this brings to mind is the simple reality that these women haven't had men in their culture for nearly two thousand years!!  Yet our intrepid explorers see no males in Herland.

Recognizing the time the book was written,and the nature of the title; this book has a massively over riding feminist tone.  While there is a humanistic tenor to the text, feminism is definately one of the major themes.  While the feminist movement does not necessarily anger me, some of the parallels drawn in the book do wrankle.  The women as a whole appear to have a grandmotherly value, on the whole, that seems unflappable.  The other women appear more like tinkerbell and less like actual women.  The construct that these women are seen in is almost completely positive in nature.  The character development is good, but there appears to almost be a bias.  The men on the opposite hand appear rebellious and foppish at times, more akin to boys of school age than men on a campaign of exploration; similarly also allowing for the lack of civility that has been seen regularly in the campaigns of men.  The masculine figures of the text are often portrayed in a more negative construct, giving a decidedly negative view of mankind.

This book causes great thought to be given to the roles of men, women, and the areas that they intersect; while also making the mind wonder into fanciful thoughts of other universes and worlds.

Good day all.  My sincerest apologies regarding the tardiness of this blog coming up.  I came into the class late, and my course materials arrived even later.

Our first text is Herland.  Upon first viewing the assignment I was curious as to what the nature of this text would be.  The greatest issue prior to reading was attempting to understand the title itself.  Was it a word that was relative to the text?  Naturally the title was related to the text, but how?  Such an odd title.  Having begun readint it is rather obvious.  It is a story about a nation that the text refers to as Herland, but to see it more correctly; it is Her Land.  A nation that consists of women, this is only based on the observations of the first chapter.

Upon initially reading, it was noted that the author is detail oriented.  The characters are given a quick outline, but it is a telling one.  There is immediate depth provided to them.  The writing itself is very good.  The writing is easy to read, but not so mundane as to feel that the reader is being spoken down to.  Ultimately I am looking forward continuing to read this text.