It seems to me that poetic language, like a lot of other things in Wackenroder's "A Wondrous Oriental Tale of a Naked Saint," stems from music. poetic language cannot exist without it. Look at the first half of the story. Sure, the narrative is fairly (B,B+) poetic as far as language. It is literary, although this passage probably will not make it into any Norton anthology that does not have "Kunstmärchen" in the title anytime soon. But the spoken words within the narrative are far from poetic. Our naked saint gives "wild, garbled speeches." After he kills people for being so foolish as to try and chop wood when the wheel of time needs turning, he speaks "in a garbled manner" until he lets off enough steam. The naked monk's "desperate yearning for unknown beautiful things" goes unfulfilled until that special night with the two lovers comes along.
But even here, where the connection between music and poetic language becomes much more apparent, music seems to precede poetic language. Wackenroder mentions that "The penetrating rays of the moon had illuminated and unraveled the dark depths of their souls for each other. Their most tender feelings flowed together and formed tidal streams that no bank could contain." Wackenroder is dabbling with a pretty powerful metaphor in these lines, but that is not the important part of the passage. These two lovers are communicating on an incredibly deep level, one that only tidal flows and not mere words can communicate. Ethereal music starts flowing (or rather bumping as it is almost assuredly techno) from this boat. Only from this techno finally rises a lyrical song. Embedded in these lyrics is the idea that "Love's sweet tone does now resound./ Every note lulls love's sweet beauty/ To the sleeping palms and flowers." Love is talking in music, not in sonnets. It is notes and sounds, not words and semicolons that make love's sweet beauty sleepy. This song solves the naked saint's problem of garbled "crazytalk" and is utterly freeing. Music seems to be the cause of poetic language; without music poetic language would have no source.
What I find more interesting is the extended metaphor I see for the effects music has on life in general. It is no stretch to see our naked friend's constant turning of the invisible wheel of time as a metaphor for living a monotonous life. His perpetual work is driven by a great fear. It sounds like " a waterfall with thousands and thousands of rushing streams" that blots out all other noise. This life, living the rat race if you will, grows more and more violent, and "he wanted to bring all the energy of his body to bear on the blistering wheel, so that time would never be in danger of standing still." He is completely devoted to turning this wheel. However, the narrative makes it clear that "the wheel of time did not allow him to rest and do anything on earth-to act, to effect things, to be productive." Wackenroder is quite clear about the fact that this constant turning of the wheel produces nothing of any actual value. But even with all this wasted effort, our saint still feels a "desperate yearning for unknown beautiful things."
Before music comes along and saves the day, Wackenroder makes one pointed comment about the state of human nature. He says "The people, no longer blinded by sunlight, lived with their eyes fixed on the firmament, and their souls were mirrored beautifully in the heavenly glow of the moonlit night." People are blinded by sunlight, which can be read as the trivial daily work of the world numbing their senses to the firmament that they should actually be mirroring. The naked saint too is obviously blinded to the beauty of the firmament by the turning wheel of time. The toil we as humans do in the sunlight blinds us to the finer things in life. But music saves us. "As soon as the naked saint heard the first notes of the music, the rushing wheel of time disappeared. This was the first time that music had ever been sounded in this remote place." Simply hearing the music for the first time breaks the spell over us, so we are freed to mingle with the greater beauty in the world.
So is this story a fairy tale? Well, Jack Zipes certainly thinks so. But it has several traits in common with more traditional fairy tales. The ones that stick out most clearly to me are the indeterminate time and place in the story and the obvious transformation that occurs. However, the spiritual elements in the story are less legible in a Christian moral framework than they are in a social critique. The point I made about music freeing us from the drudgery of life backs me up on this one. Also, the transformation is to a higher plane, a very "kunst" trait. The transformation is not a taboo transformation into an animal like we encountered in the "folks" tales. There is also a sense of longing between the lovers, which is another important trait in "kunst" style tales.
Song of the blog: "My life would suck without you" by Kelly Clarkson. The "you" in the title refers to music.
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Wackenroder
After reading “A Wondrous Oriental Tale of a Naked Saint” I feel that the beautiful language that Wackenroder uses helps to illustrate the quality of music the saint is hearing. We can’t hear the music the Saint is listening to, yet we witness the profound impact it has on him. The music is his escape from the constantly grinding wheel of time. I think the language Wackenroder uses illuminates the effect music can have upon a person. It is a break from the doldrums of everyday life. Music is an art form that can allow the human mind to travel to a different space and experience a new form of expression through sound. Yet, in this story, we do not hear anything; we simply read the experience of the saint in relation to the music and the lyrics he hears. It is not the same thing as actually listening to music with your own ears. I think the power of music isn’t quite embodied in language but can only be experienced by listening to it. Language read on a page has a different impact on the human senses than the impact of music. Although this story can be read out loud and we can experience it through sound, it does not encompass the freeing sensation elicited by music. I think you can argue against this, but from my own experience, reading language and listening to a song have two different effects on me. I feel that music often offers a greater emotional pull.
I didn’t see many fairy tale aspects in this story. The one thing I noticed that appeared fairy tale like was the transformation of the Saint at the end of story. There is that element of magic that is in fairy tales, but I feel like the metamorphoses we observe in fairy tales are often of humans into animals or vice versa. In this story the saint turns into a spirit. I think this connects much more to the literary fairy tales of the Kuntsmarchen. The fact that he turns into a spirit suggests something much more supernatural and mystical and is in line with literary fairy tales’ emphasis on the psychology of the mind. He turns into a free spirit after he has heard the music which transports him into a higher state of being. This point in the story is philosophical and less childlike and pedagogical than the elements in the fairy tales we read from Grimm’s.
I didn’t see many fairy tale aspects in this story. The one thing I noticed that appeared fairy tale like was the transformation of the Saint at the end of story. There is that element of magic that is in fairy tales, but I feel like the metamorphoses we observe in fairy tales are often of humans into animals or vice versa. In this story the saint turns into a spirit. I think this connects much more to the literary fairy tales of the Kuntsmarchen. The fact that he turns into a spirit suggests something much more supernatural and mystical and is in line with literary fairy tales’ emphasis on the psychology of the mind. He turns into a free spirit after he has heard the music which transports him into a higher state of being. This point in the story is philosophical and less childlike and pedagogical than the elements in the fairy tales we read from Grimm’s.
Assignment: 31 March 2009
Please consider the Wackenroder text, “A Wondrous Oriental Tale of a Naked Saint.”
- What is the relationship between music and poetic language? Is the power evoked by music also accessible to language? Or does language merely point to music?
- Also, consider how Wackenroder’s story is a fairy tale. What elements are fairy-tale-like? And what makes it, more specifically, a Kunstmärchen?
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Question 2
Once again I am going to concentrate on the Grimm tales (I just found them more interesting than the other tales) However I will be making a slight detour and also looking at Thackeray's version of the Bluebeard story. Also as an aside, does anyone else find it interesting that the author of "Vanity Fair" wrote a fairy tale? I guess it makes sense though - they are both commentaries on culture and society.
Anyhow... back to the point at hand - the heroines of the Bluebeard tales. I believe in the Grimm's versions of the tale - the women are just that. Heroines. In "Fitcher's Bird" the third sister cannot be outwitted by the sorcerer. She has her suspicions about him - why on earth for instance would he want her to carry an egg as she explored her soon to be home? So she leaves the egg behind and then begins he exploration. As soon as she sees her sisters' mutilated bodies, she does not panic but begins to collect together their body parts and put them in order. She then carefully orchestrates an escape for both her and resurrected sisters. However the Grimms do make a note of differentiating between the third sister and her two older sisters. The third is described as "clever and crafty" whereas the other two were simply led astray by their curiosity... and as we all know 'curiosity killed the cat' (or in this case the sisters.)
Even in "The Robber Bridegroom," women are depicted as strong and crafty. Even though the old woman has been in the cellar for a long time, she plans to save both herself and our heroine, and carefully manipulates the robbers into doing her bidding. When the finger flies behind the hogshead she convinces them to not search there, where they would undoubtedly find the girl, saying: "Leave off looking til the morning, the finger won't run away from you." Using common sense, she saves the life of both her and the girl. The girl herself is also crafty and brave. She tells the story of the gory death of the other girl at the hands of her bridegroom, pretending all the time that she "only dreamt this." She then whips out the severed finger (which must have been disgusting to keep) to prove the truth of her tale. She saves herself from certain death.
Thackeray's version of the tale though is rather different. Fatima Bluebeard is rather foolish in my opinion, completely blinded by her love of her husband. She cannot see that he has done anything wrong - she believes that he wouldn't hurt a fly, even when her sister Anna pulls out the Bible to show her all the deaths of his previous wives.
So from these tales, it is clear that women should be crafty and clever - willing to be brave - and should not always rely on others for help. For in the Bluebeard stories, it is these women that live to tell the tale and become our heroines.
Anyhow... back to the point at hand - the heroines of the Bluebeard tales. I believe in the Grimm's versions of the tale - the women are just that. Heroines. In "Fitcher's Bird" the third sister cannot be outwitted by the sorcerer. She has her suspicions about him - why on earth for instance would he want her to carry an egg as she explored her soon to be home? So she leaves the egg behind and then begins he exploration. As soon as she sees her sisters' mutilated bodies, she does not panic but begins to collect together their body parts and put them in order. She then carefully orchestrates an escape for both her and resurrected sisters. However the Grimms do make a note of differentiating between the third sister and her two older sisters. The third is described as "clever and crafty" whereas the other two were simply led astray by their curiosity... and as we all know 'curiosity killed the cat' (or in this case the sisters.)
Even in "The Robber Bridegroom," women are depicted as strong and crafty. Even though the old woman has been in the cellar for a long time, she plans to save both herself and our heroine, and carefully manipulates the robbers into doing her bidding. When the finger flies behind the hogshead she convinces them to not search there, where they would undoubtedly find the girl, saying: "Leave off looking til the morning, the finger won't run away from you." Using common sense, she saves the life of both her and the girl. The girl herself is also crafty and brave. She tells the story of the gory death of the other girl at the hands of her bridegroom, pretending all the time that she "only dreamt this." She then whips out the severed finger (which must have been disgusting to keep) to prove the truth of her tale. She saves herself from certain death.
Thackeray's version of the tale though is rather different. Fatima Bluebeard is rather foolish in my opinion, completely blinded by her love of her husband. She cannot see that he has done anything wrong - she believes that he wouldn't hurt a fly, even when her sister Anna pulls out the Bible to show her all the deaths of his previous wives.
So from these tales, it is clear that women should be crafty and clever - willing to be brave - and should not always rely on others for help. For in the Bluebeard stories, it is these women that live to tell the tale and become our heroines.
Horror in Fairy tales
This set of fairy tales is much more gruesome and bloody and much more likely to be made into a horror movie instead of a cutesy Disney movie than any of the others we have read in previous weeks. (Apart from perhaps 'The Juniper Tree' - which had a similar gruesome death scene - a little boy's head being chopped off by the lid of a box...) Each Bluebeard tale depicts the horror in slightly different ways and some tales are more graphic in their depictions then others. However it is the tales of the Brothers Grimm that are the most graphic - in fact they are so graphic that as I was reading their tales, I felt a little ill. In "The Robber Bridegroom," the suspense is built throughout the story - from the girl being betrothed to an unknown man, to the ashes - a symbol of destruction - leading her to the house, to the bird singing the song:
Turn back, turn back, young maiden dear,
'Tis a murderer's house you enter here."
The robbers are particularly brutal in their killing of the girl and as we see it through our heroine's eyes (as she watches from behind a giant hogshead) it seems all the more real. We hear the girl's "screams and lamentations" as she is cut open and her wounds salted as she is prepared to be eaten.
In the 'Fitcher's Bird" the secret room is also quite gorily described - a basin of blood sitting in the middle of the room, filled with cut up mangled human body parts. This story is also perhaps more scary as the third sister discovers her older sisters among the remains. She knows the Bluebeard figure's victims personally, and decides to pull them out of the bloody basin to unite them. Yuck...
The other Bluebeard tales are also gruesome - just not as graphic as the Grimm tales. Even though the deaths of the seven wives are described in "The Seven Wives of Bluebeard" the descriptions are much more clinical "She drowned etc." and do not fill me with the same amount of disgust.
I can't really imagine Walt Disney making a Bluebeard movie - if he did, either the essence of the tale would be lost, or it would be an R rated Disney film - an oxymoron if ever I heard one.
Turn back, turn back, young maiden dear,
'Tis a murderer's house you enter here."
The robbers are particularly brutal in their killing of the girl and as we see it through our heroine's eyes (as she watches from behind a giant hogshead) it seems all the more real. We hear the girl's "screams and lamentations" as she is cut open and her wounds salted as she is prepared to be eaten.
In the 'Fitcher's Bird" the secret room is also quite gorily described - a basin of blood sitting in the middle of the room, filled with cut up mangled human body parts. This story is also perhaps more scary as the third sister discovers her older sisters among the remains. She knows the Bluebeard figure's victims personally, and decides to pull them out of the bloody basin to unite them. Yuck...
The other Bluebeard tales are also gruesome - just not as graphic as the Grimm tales. Even though the deaths of the seven wives are described in "The Seven Wives of Bluebeard" the descriptions are much more clinical "She drowned etc." and do not fill me with the same amount of disgust.
I can't really imagine Walt Disney making a Bluebeard movie - if he did, either the essence of the tale would be lost, or it would be an R rated Disney film - an oxymoron if ever I heard one.
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
On The importance of the item "Bluebeard" gives "Sally" in building the sense of horror (Q1)
Just kidding! This blog is going to psychoanalyze the sense out of the specific "terrible places" that appear in different versions of the story. Lets begin with a thorough examination of Perrault's Bluebeard. When Sally walks into the forbidden room, "At first she saw nothing, for the windows were closed. After a few moments, she began to realize that the floor was covered with clotted blood and that the blood reflected the bodies of several dead women hung up on the walls (these were all the women Bluebeard had married and then murdered one after another)." Call me twisted, but I didn't exactly cringe as I read this the first time. I blame rap music and Hulu (its an evil plot, to take over the world). I am going to overlook the fact that clotted blood (think scabs) is very non-reflective. I know the first phrase mentions how the windows were closed. But if the blood is reflective, it is obviously as light as day in Bluebeard's rumpus room. This room serves a very important function in the story as entering this room is apparently punishable by death. It is an important part of moving the plot along. But I think I see a boom mike hanging in the background. Final verdict? This room is messy, and a little surprising as we didn't expect to run into his ex-wives, but not really scary. Its shocking at best. From a psychoanalytical perspective, Bluebeard obviously has a tattoo of Blake's Red Dragon on his back.
Compare that to Margaret Atwood's "Bluebeard's Egg." Bluebeard's forbidden chamber in this story is much more Utopian, and I mean that in the true "no place" sense of the word. Tartar will beck me up on this one. Atwood deliberately changed "the forbidden chamber of Bluebeard's castle into everything from Ed's enigmatic mind and his "new facility" to the anatomical cavities of the human heart and the keyhole desk before which Ed betrays his sexual infidelity." I think Atwood is trying to do too much with too little in this story. One thing she doesn't even attempt is horror. What I thought might have been suspense at the beginning turned out to just be bad writing from the 1980s. Where is the horror? Where is the blood? Ed isn't turning these women into hats, he is only using them as sexual objects. Foxnews is guilty of that! I think one could argue that portraying the "terrible place" like this, even if it is horror free, is an important function in the story. But I don't see it. And if Ed's sexual infidelity is the scary part of the story, then Desperate Housewives probably didn't belong in prime time. From a psychoanalytic prospective, I worry Ed hates his father and wants to eat his mother because he thinks she is his sister.
But forgive Ed his faults, and examine the "terrible place" in the Grimms' "The Robber Bridegroom." In this story, the castle is empty. In the basement, the setting of the "terrible place," we have one old woman (the staple of robber's dens), a large barrel, a pot of hot water, a table, some wine, a little salt, and at least one chopping instrument. Did I mention we are in a cellar? SCARY! Perfect horror props. We also get to witness a gruesome murder complete with flying body parts. The best part about this story is the level of gruesomeness is not the most important part. Sure, Sally needs the evidence of a finger and a eyewitness account for her story to hold up in court. But to me this tale seems to be more about how Sally saves the day for herself by getting out of a sticky situation. So while the actions that take place help move the plot along, the level of description (and horror) it looks like they are just elements to elaborate and entertain the audience. And it is obvious from a psychoanalytic perspective that Sally is afraid of water. I am proud of her for being able to overcome that.
Song of the blog: "Paper Planes" by M.I.A. Mostly for the gunshot noises.
Compare that to Margaret Atwood's "Bluebeard's Egg." Bluebeard's forbidden chamber in this story is much more Utopian, and I mean that in the true "no place" sense of the word. Tartar will beck me up on this one. Atwood deliberately changed "the forbidden chamber of Bluebeard's castle into everything from Ed's enigmatic mind and his "new facility" to the anatomical cavities of the human heart and the keyhole desk before which Ed betrays his sexual infidelity." I think Atwood is trying to do too much with too little in this story. One thing she doesn't even attempt is horror. What I thought might have been suspense at the beginning turned out to just be bad writing from the 1980s. Where is the horror? Where is the blood? Ed isn't turning these women into hats, he is only using them as sexual objects. Foxnews is guilty of that! I think one could argue that portraying the "terrible place" like this, even if it is horror free, is an important function in the story. But I don't see it. And if Ed's sexual infidelity is the scary part of the story, then Desperate Housewives probably didn't belong in prime time. From a psychoanalytic prospective, I worry Ed hates his father and wants to eat his mother because he thinks she is his sister.
But forgive Ed his faults, and examine the "terrible place" in the Grimms' "The Robber Bridegroom." In this story, the castle is empty. In the basement, the setting of the "terrible place," we have one old woman (the staple of robber's dens), a large barrel, a pot of hot water, a table, some wine, a little salt, and at least one chopping instrument. Did I mention we are in a cellar? SCARY! Perfect horror props. We also get to witness a gruesome murder complete with flying body parts. The best part about this story is the level of gruesomeness is not the most important part. Sure, Sally needs the evidence of a finger and a eyewitness account for her story to hold up in court. But to me this tale seems to be more about how Sally saves the day for herself by getting out of a sticky situation. So while the actions that take place help move the plot along, the level of description (and horror) it looks like they are just elements to elaborate and entertain the audience. And it is obvious from a psychoanalytic perspective that Sally is afraid of water. I am proud of her for being able to overcome that.
Song of the blog: "Paper Planes" by M.I.A. Mostly for the gunshot noises.
Sometimes sassy, always clever (Q2)
Depending on what I was thinking about beforehand (Tartar's interpretation, what my snack will be tonight, etc...) I am able to see the female role in "Bluebeard" stories as either as a celebration of self-preservation and cleverness or as a disobedient female. But, specifically in The Grimm Brothers' "The Robber Bridegroom," I see the girl, whom I will henceforth call Sally (as an homage to the name sassy Sally, a title which any girl who can stomach having a severed finger fall in her lap and then carry it home to convict her fiance obviously deserves) as a celebration of self preservation and cleverness.
Sally is framed as a girl who, if she is not actually smart, at least has good instincts. Even though the suitor passed the "parent test", Sally still "didn't care for him as a girl should care for her betrothed, and she didn't trust him." Sally is clever enough to know something just isn't quite right with Buffalo Bluebeard (Silence of the Lambs reference; lets see if this theme resurfaces in post number 2 (Q1)). Sally also "made excuses and claimed she couldn't find the way" to Bluebeard's house, trying everything she had at her disposal to try and get out of this. When all of her efforts don't work and she is forced to go visit anyway, Sally again makes a great move towards self-preservation by being inspired to take peas and lentils with her to mark her way. She is luckier than Hansel and Gretel, because instead of birds eating these tasty morsels they sprout in the interim to lead her home. While Sally cannot exactly be credited with being clever here, because she did this "without knowing why," she still gets points for self-preservation.
I don't fault Sally for not taking the caged bird's warning at face value and running away. If I ever get a parrot, that phrase will be one of the first things I teach it to say. What impresses me most about the whole story is her ability to play it cool when the robbers come in. Again, it does not display her cleverness, but it does showcase her obvious black belt in self-preservation. The old woman tells her to hide and she does what she is told, ducking behind a big barrel. Would I have found her? Yes. But she isn't working with much (remember how empty the castle is) and I am excellent at hide-and-seek. Once behind the barrel, Sally is told "Don't stir and don't move or it'll be the end of you," and for once in fairy tales, Sally is able to do as she is told. So much so that even after she has sat in silent horror as she watched the robbers drug, strip, dismember, and salt one of her less-clever classmates she is still undetected. Even when a dismembered finger complete with the best cracker-jack prize ring ever falls into her lap, she can keep quiet.
Sally escapes, mostly from the fact that she is lucky enough to be Irish as far as I can tell. When her ax-murderer fiance arrives to celebrate the wedding, she entertains him by talking about her "dream." But clever Sally really just retells her experience at the bachelor pad. Sally is apparently as clever as Hamlet, and Hamlet is regarded as a pretty clever guy. She catches him by monitoring his reaction, the robber "turned white as a ghost while she was telling the story." Bingo-bango, clever Sally has all the evidence she needs to get Bluebeard locked up and passed off to the proper authorities.
Is Sally touted as clever from the beginning because of how well she does in spelling bees? Not exactly. But when you look at how she handles herself throughout the tale, it is pretty obvious that Sally is presented as clever and concerned with her self-preservation. And like all good stories, it ends in a public execution.
Song of the Blog "Heartless," by Kayne West. I'll bet Bluebeard feels this way about Sally.
Sally is framed as a girl who, if she is not actually smart, at least has good instincts. Even though the suitor passed the "parent test", Sally still "didn't care for him as a girl should care for her betrothed, and she didn't trust him." Sally is clever enough to know something just isn't quite right with Buffalo Bluebeard (Silence of the Lambs reference; lets see if this theme resurfaces in post number 2 (Q1)). Sally also "made excuses and claimed she couldn't find the way" to Bluebeard's house, trying everything she had at her disposal to try and get out of this. When all of her efforts don't work and she is forced to go visit anyway, Sally again makes a great move towards self-preservation by being inspired to take peas and lentils with her to mark her way. She is luckier than Hansel and Gretel, because instead of birds eating these tasty morsels they sprout in the interim to lead her home. While Sally cannot exactly be credited with being clever here, because she did this "without knowing why," she still gets points for self-preservation.
I don't fault Sally for not taking the caged bird's warning at face value and running away. If I ever get a parrot, that phrase will be one of the first things I teach it to say. What impresses me most about the whole story is her ability to play it cool when the robbers come in. Again, it does not display her cleverness, but it does showcase her obvious black belt in self-preservation. The old woman tells her to hide and she does what she is told, ducking behind a big barrel. Would I have found her? Yes. But she isn't working with much (remember how empty the castle is) and I am excellent at hide-and-seek. Once behind the barrel, Sally is told "Don't stir and don't move or it'll be the end of you," and for once in fairy tales, Sally is able to do as she is told. So much so that even after she has sat in silent horror as she watched the robbers drug, strip, dismember, and salt one of her less-clever classmates she is still undetected. Even when a dismembered finger complete with the best cracker-jack prize ring ever falls into her lap, she can keep quiet.
Sally escapes, mostly from the fact that she is lucky enough to be Irish as far as I can tell. When her ax-murderer fiance arrives to celebrate the wedding, she entertains him by talking about her "dream." But clever Sally really just retells her experience at the bachelor pad. Sally is apparently as clever as Hamlet, and Hamlet is regarded as a pretty clever guy. She catches him by monitoring his reaction, the robber "turned white as a ghost while she was telling the story." Bingo-bango, clever Sally has all the evidence she needs to get Bluebeard locked up and passed off to the proper authorities.
Is Sally touted as clever from the beginning because of how well she does in spelling bees? Not exactly. But when you look at how she handles herself throughout the tale, it is pretty obvious that Sally is presented as clever and concerned with her self-preservation. And like all good stories, it ends in a public execution.
Song of the Blog "Heartless," by Kayne West. I'll bet Bluebeard feels this way about Sally.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
