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Dec. 26th, 2013 12:27 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gwydion* "Did 17 Illegal Voters in Ohio Steal the 2012 Election?" http://www.slate.com/blogs/weigel/2013/12/19/did_17_illegal_voters_in_ohio_steal_the_2012_election.html
* "Researchers Find Factors Tied To Voting Restriction Bills Are 'Basically All Racial':" http://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/study-finds-voting-restrictions-linked-to-minority-turnout
* "$22.62/Hr: The Minimum Wage if it had Risen Like the Incomes of the 1%:" http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2013/12/19/22-62hr-the-minimum-wage-if-it-had-risen-like-the-incomes-of-the-1/
* "Military retirees: You betrayed us, Congress:" http://money.cnn.com/2013/12/12/news/economy/military-pensions-budget/index.html
* ""You're Days Are Numbered:" On Death Threats And Guns:" http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/responses-to-post-on-guns-bateman-122013
* "Racism and Xenophobia in “War on Christmas” Rhetoric :" http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2013/12/21/is-the-war-on-christmas-about-christmas/
* Torchwood thoughts: I wonder if the "Adam" is really about fan fiction. It just dawned on me that Jack's treatment of Owen after his accident echoes the Doctor's treatment of Jack after Bad Wolf. It's pretty much for the same reason, I suspect.
* If anything, "Dallas Buyer's Club" was even harder to watch than I was expecting.
* "Memorial: A Version of Homer's Iliad" by Alice Oswald is exquisite. It's not a translation of the Iliad, exactly. She has taken the deaths and the similes and made a poem based on them. Those of you who know me, know how I am about the Iliad, that I've read it more times than I can count, that I favor the Latimore translation for it's accuracy. Some of you poor bastards who know me in meat space have heard my long and vitriolic rant against the movie Troy. You might guess that I'd hate this, but you'd be wrong. I am not actually a purist. The Iliad is one version of an oral formulaic poem that got written down. Oral formulaic poems are different each time even with the same poet, as they re composed in the moment, grown like muscle and skin on the bones of the story. The poets could and did tailor them for the local audience, emphasizing home town heroes or themes that suited the audience and occation. The details we have are the ones that got frozen in place, a single snap shot of a river that ran for centuries through storm and drought. It is the spirit that things like Troy violate. They take one of the great romances of the ancient world and turn the characters into cousins, which is to me a fundamental violation of the spirit of the poem. It would be like making Agamemnon a sweet and reasonable man or Hector a coward or taking the themes of honor and pride out of Agamemnon and Achilles dispute. The details aren't nearly as important as the fundamental themes and characterizations.
This new poem counters a fundamental weakness of the Iliad, for me as a modern reader. In Homer, the deaths become wallpaper. Oh, everyone remembers the big deaths. Most people who know the poem will likely remember the deaths of certain other lesser characters, like Sarpedon, for example, but really, so many men are run through the nipple or killed with a blow to the head, that after a while, it's all a big blur.
This new poem takes each death and treats it as important, the way it might have been for those who knew them. It takes the faceless soldiers that died in this war or any war and moves them into the foreground to be mourned individually, because each life is precious to it's possessor. There are no little deaths here, just as there are no little lives.
"Echepolus a perfect fighter
Always ahead of his men
Known for his cold seed like concentration
Moving out and out among the spears
Died at the hands of Antilochus
You can see the hole in the helmet just under the ridge
Where the point of the blade passed through
And stuck in his forehead
Letting the darkness leak down over his eyes."
The rhythm of the thing when read out loud has the power of a dam breaking, the words and images carrying one along like flotsam. It grabs one by the heart and carries one along. The similes are beautiful in themselves, but also comment on the deaths. The repetition lends them power and emphasis. This poem is beautiful and fierce and sharp as loss.
"As if it was June
A poppy being hammered by the rain
Sinks its head down
It's exactly like that
When a man's neck gives in
And the bronze calyx of his helmet
Sinks his head down."
Somehow stripped of plot and context, the poetry of death is more powerful and universal.
I love this poem. This poem pierces me in a thousand places. How can I not love it.
* "Amazing Shadow Sculptures by Tim Noble and Sue Webster:" http://www.thisismarvelous.com/i/4-Amazing-Shadow-Sculptures-by-Tim-Noble-and-Sue-Webster
* "Researchers Find Factors Tied To Voting Restriction Bills Are 'Basically All Racial':" http://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/study-finds-voting-restrictions-linked-to-minority-turnout
* "$22.62/Hr: The Minimum Wage if it had Risen Like the Incomes of the 1%:" http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2013/12/19/22-62hr-the-minimum-wage-if-it-had-risen-like-the-incomes-of-the-1/
* "Military retirees: You betrayed us, Congress:" http://money.cnn.com/2013/12/12/news/economy/military-pensions-budget/index.html
* ""You're Days Are Numbered:" On Death Threats And Guns:" http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/responses-to-post-on-guns-bateman-122013
* "Racism and Xenophobia in “War on Christmas” Rhetoric :" http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2013/12/21/is-the-war-on-christmas-about-christmas/
* Torchwood thoughts: I wonder if the "Adam" is really about fan fiction. It just dawned on me that Jack's treatment of Owen after his accident echoes the Doctor's treatment of Jack after Bad Wolf. It's pretty much for the same reason, I suspect.
* If anything, "Dallas Buyer's Club" was even harder to watch than I was expecting.
* "Memorial: A Version of Homer's Iliad" by Alice Oswald is exquisite. It's not a translation of the Iliad, exactly. She has taken the deaths and the similes and made a poem based on them. Those of you who know me, know how I am about the Iliad, that I've read it more times than I can count, that I favor the Latimore translation for it's accuracy. Some of you poor bastards who know me in meat space have heard my long and vitriolic rant against the movie Troy. You might guess that I'd hate this, but you'd be wrong. I am not actually a purist. The Iliad is one version of an oral formulaic poem that got written down. Oral formulaic poems are different each time even with the same poet, as they re composed in the moment, grown like muscle and skin on the bones of the story. The poets could and did tailor them for the local audience, emphasizing home town heroes or themes that suited the audience and occation. The details we have are the ones that got frozen in place, a single snap shot of a river that ran for centuries through storm and drought. It is the spirit that things like Troy violate. They take one of the great romances of the ancient world and turn the characters into cousins, which is to me a fundamental violation of the spirit of the poem. It would be like making Agamemnon a sweet and reasonable man or Hector a coward or taking the themes of honor and pride out of Agamemnon and Achilles dispute. The details aren't nearly as important as the fundamental themes and characterizations.
This new poem counters a fundamental weakness of the Iliad, for me as a modern reader. In Homer, the deaths become wallpaper. Oh, everyone remembers the big deaths. Most people who know the poem will likely remember the deaths of certain other lesser characters, like Sarpedon, for example, but really, so many men are run through the nipple or killed with a blow to the head, that after a while, it's all a big blur.
This new poem takes each death and treats it as important, the way it might have been for those who knew them. It takes the faceless soldiers that died in this war or any war and moves them into the foreground to be mourned individually, because each life is precious to it's possessor. There are no little deaths here, just as there are no little lives.
"Echepolus a perfect fighter
Always ahead of his men
Known for his cold seed like concentration
Moving out and out among the spears
Died at the hands of Antilochus
You can see the hole in the helmet just under the ridge
Where the point of the blade passed through
And stuck in his forehead
Letting the darkness leak down over his eyes."
The rhythm of the thing when read out loud has the power of a dam breaking, the words and images carrying one along like flotsam. It grabs one by the heart and carries one along. The similes are beautiful in themselves, but also comment on the deaths. The repetition lends them power and emphasis. This poem is beautiful and fierce and sharp as loss.
"As if it was June
A poppy being hammered by the rain
Sinks its head down
It's exactly like that
When a man's neck gives in
And the bronze calyx of his helmet
Sinks his head down."
Somehow stripped of plot and context, the poetry of death is more powerful and universal.
I love this poem. This poem pierces me in a thousand places. How can I not love it.
* "Amazing Shadow Sculptures by Tim Noble and Sue Webster:" http://www.thisismarvelous.com/i/4-Amazing-Shadow-Sculptures-by-Tim-Noble-and-Sue-Webster