Literary Analysis: Pondering Eliot

The poem, "The Hollow Men" speaks to me because of its intense analysis of all the emptyness in various pastures of reality.  The ending lines are truly some of the most powerful in literature altogether, in my opinion.  To claim that with all the noise of all these different walks of life, none of them make a loud enough noise to mean anything to eternity is truly powerful:
"This is the way the world ends:
Not with a bang but a whimper."
As if at the end of it all, there's naught but a whimper that speaks to the legacy of man.  Don't let me interpret for you, though.  Enjoy T.S. Eliot's, The Hollow Men, A penny for the Old Guy:



I
We are the hollow men
We are the stuffed men
Leaning together
Headpiece filled with straw. Alas!
Our dried voices, when
We whisper together
Are quiet and meaningless
As wind in dry grass
Or rats' feet over broken glass
In our dry cellar

Shape without form, shade without colour,
Paralysed force, gesture without motion;

Those who have crossed
With direct eyes, to death's other Kingdom
Remember us - if at all - not as lost
Violent souls, but only
As the hollow men
The stuffed men.

II

Eyes I dare not meet in dreams
In death's dream kingdom
These do not appear:
There, the eyes are
Sunlight on a broken column
There, is a tree swinging
And voices are
In the wind's singing
More distant and more solemn
Than a fading star.

Let me be no nearer
In death's dream kingdom
Let me also wear
Such deliberate disguises
Rat's coat, crowskin, crossed staves
In a field
Behaving as the wind behaves
No nearer -

Not that final meeting
In the twilight kingdom

III

This is the dead land
This is cactus land
Here the stone images
Are raised, here they receive
The supplication of a dead man's hand
Under the twinkle of a fading star.

Is it like this
In death's other kingdom
Waking alone
At the hour when we are
Trembling with tenderness
Lips that would kiss
Form prayers to broken stone.

IV

The eyes are not here
There are no eyes here
In this valley of dying stars
In this hollow valley
This broken jaw of our lost kingdoms
In this last of meeting places
We grope together
And avoid speech
Gathered on this beach of the tumid river

Sightless, unless
The eyes reappear
As the perpetual star
Multifoliate rose
Of death's twilight kingdom
The hope only
Of empty men.

V

Here we go round the prickly pear
Prickly pear prickly pear
Here we go round the prickly pear
At five o'clock in the morning.
Between the idea
And the reality
Between the motion
And the act
Falls the Shadow

For Thine is the Kingdom

Between the conception
And the creation
Between the emotion
And the response
Falls the Shadow

Life is very long

Between the desire
And the spasm
Between the potency
And the existence
Between the essence
And the descent
Falls the Shadow

For Thine is the Kingdom

For Thine is
Life is
For Thine is the

This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.

Literary Analysis: Roald Dhal Vs. William Allingham

In Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, Roald Dhal quotes "round the world and home again, that's the sailor's way!" in his poem/song: The Rowing Song.  I thought this sounded too classical for a Roald Dahl book so I looked into it and found this great little poem that gave me the heart of a pirate.  I thought I'd share.

HOMEWARD BOUND

Head the ship for England!
Shake out every sail!
Blithe leap the billows,
Merry sings the gale.
Captain, work the reckoning;
How many knots a day? -
Round the world and home again,
That's the sailor's way!

We've traded with the Yankees,
Brazilians and Chinese;
We've laughed with dusky beauties
In shade of tall palm-trees;
Across the line and Gulf-Stream -
Round by Table Bay -
Everywhere and home again,
That's the sailor's way!

Nightly stands the North Star
Higher on our bow;
Straight we run for England;
Our thoughts are in it now.
Jolly times with friends ashore,
When we've drawn our pay! -
All about and home again,
That's the sailor's way!

Tom will to his parents,
Jack will to his dear,
Joe to wife and children,
Bob to pipes and beer;
Dicky to the dancing-room,
To hear the fiddles play; -
Round the world and home again,
That's the sailor's way!

William Allingham [1824-1889]

The Rowing Song

Round the world and home again
That's the sailor's way
Faster faster, faster faster

There's no earthly way of knowing
Which direction we are going
There's no knowing where we're rowing
Or which way the river's flowing

Is it raining, is it snowing
Is a hurricane a–blowing

Not a speck of light is showing
So the danger must be growing
Are the fires of Hell a–glowing
Is the grisly reaper mowing

Yes, the danger must be growing
For the rowers keep on rowing
And they're certainly not showing
Any signs that they are slowing

Roald Dhal
Charley and The Chocolate Factory

Motivational Speech

The beauty of a sunrise  on forever is a romantic notion to many people.  The sunrise over planet earth makes for the introduction to such legends as superman and the anthroplomorphosism of space its self.  It serves as a reminder that we are part of a bigger plan and that everybody takes part in that plan, no matter how small.
We are the voyagers, traversing personal thought, emotion, scholastic achievement, power, honor, a future and even the extent of our own capabilities.  The thing we so soon forget and are reminded of by, when it comes to this imagry, is that we are doing this not alone but as one of an ocean of others trying to do the same thing or at least earn the right to call their life water rather than a single molecule of H2O.
Sitting on our beaches or our starships or even out in the middle of the ocean, we look out on forever and can be humbled that we are one so small in the existence of life on earth.  When we come back to reality, however, we stand outside the water; we stand outside of space.  As people, we have the ability to percieve these feelings and experience them all in a different way.
That is why we are the ocean.  Not a single molecule of H2O or water but that great body made up of many of different parts despite the vast quantity of things that surround it.  Pain and death are inevitable but so is forever.  Our strength to know that anything that leaves here will indeed make an impact that will never be forgotten; most notably ourselves.
This is the reason why we should not look out onto the dawn or the dusk, but to the achievement of a new day and new structures to observe and feel.
Just like the ocean, the eternity of space, we are explorers and we are given ourselves.

Blacksburg: At a glance

People move around me in sped up motion like a cliched time lapse. In all honesty, I expect Blacksburg to have a lot more life in it on a Saturday night but it turns out to be just as dead as any other dreary collegiate metropolis. The women drag their feet in uncomfortable looking heels and pumps, traveling from one money hungry purveyor of booze to the next.

The packs of hungry male dogs look just as voracious for the properly dolled up princesses as they all meander the nether looking for casual conversation and the occasional banging together mindlessly, like a boy scout's flint attempting to start a fire on a pile of ashes.

When you're a casual observer (outside the circuit), you can observe how stupid it all looks but when you're in it, you feel as though it were all one big carnival. I, however, find myself neither in or out but rather like a child lost in that carnival: surrounded by people and utterly alone; searching for some semblance of recognition: a parent, a friend a relative...

It's different for an adult male of 25, because instead of looking for mom and dad like the child, you become the average 5'8" person: lost amongst the giants and trolls laughing hysterically and maniacally; under the influence of sex and "happy", ironically-depressant, mystery serum.

At a glance, this seems to be my individual feeling about the outside genesis of the youthful class of Blacksburg. Inside, I have to more research which lead me to:

Tuesday night: TOTS: Karaoke night: Walking through the crowd, the vibes are louder than the music. The radiant rebellion flows through a crowd fueled by alcohol and jubilation; no doubt, a temporary reprieve from their otherwise, "tainted by the 'harsh' realities of their day," lives.

Sex, love, marijuana, and simply the ability to wake up and live the mundane and circuitous existence that we all lead; what does it all amount to? The most interesting people who evade routine will eventually fall into the routine of evading routine. Chaos is always fueled by order or we'd cease to exist.

The hikikomori of Japan are some of the few people in the world that can claim to truly live an order-free existence because they refuse to interact with the outside world or even, in some cases, the people in their immediate existences respectively. Even hikikomori, however, subscribe to other people's order for survival or they would cease to exist.

So what is freedom? I would be an idiot to claim to know the answer but I can say that it seems to have something to do with how we have the individual right to choose who we are.

Halloween Thought

You know the psychological aspect of Halloween is fear. Originally a Druid festival, Halloween is a festival designed to scare away evil spirits by dressing up to look like the scariest things human beings could imagine but I say every evil spirit is in actuality trapped in fear and therefore lost because it once was human. Assuming all spirits once were human, we can also assume that the things that might scare them are not goblins, witches, ghouls and vampires but rather much simpler things like the whisper in their ear that the reason they're an evil spirit is because they killed themselves and an infant child in a car crash; they left behind loved ones when they shot themselves in the head with a gun; but most importantly, to Ward off an evil spirit one needs to remember this thought to transmit to them: you are dead. It's over and time to move on. Nothing matters anymore to you. Rest in peace.

Steve Jobs, May he rest finally

All great creators of media, Michael Dell, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, George Lucas, Walt Disney, and the list goes on and on, know how to brand themselves as iconic and they come out to play games with people who either lack the inteligence or simply can't help themselves as addicts of technology. These men branded themselves and their names and their surnames... I mean brand names. Dell, Apple, Pixar, I-tunes, Garage band... I-pad, Microsoft, PC, IBM. It's a game to people who become iconic and worshiped like a god in front of the big apple with a bite out of it brand beaming at you like the cross.

Bill gates has his little flag too but no one was as much of a performer as Jobs.Not saying that it's a bad thing but the man was powerful and he knew it and he intentionally made himself a profit and it worked. He branded himself. I give you that but he also made out very well and died a happy man. A man being given a wake because death is a celebration of how well he made out in the world and that guy not only made millions but he became a dictator who may have new brands rise to meet him. I appreciate that he lived through cancer. That's a major accomplishment and I laud him but I think the ferocity that he went at grinding apple into people's heads, like apple sauce, has driven some crazy. Yes, I find apple to be sort of a disease on the world. Not that Jobs wasn't amazing to accomplish it but people have spent way too much money on the various apple things. I phones, I tunes, deals with google, Verizon, Sprint, I programs, I mail, I can't stand it any more.

Interesting that I bet few have heard the names, Sergey Brin and Larry Page. They created a major competitor of Jobs and yet they were not as vocal doing it. They keep their names off of brands. Yet you've heard of the android. Many people use them. They're continuing to invent but people don't worship them.

Ok I get it, you like your computer and all the stuff that you use with it but you don't NEED any of it. The prophet lies. They will not change your life or have changed your life, YOU with the power of your determination and will have. They're just tools to help you with your life.

Does anyone applaud the creator of the mouse? The the LD screen? These weren't Steve Jobs inventions yet he uses them for his creations. He is a false prophet and you are relieved your tension and, at least for a while, fear that you won't get the latest product from apple that eats your patience away. You didn't know this man, you knew his products. Remember that.

What is love?

For the majority of my life, I have had the brain power, physical prowess and charisma to do great things but I have also found myself in most cases being the outsider looking in.

I've had many friends come and go and many good friends stick by me but never have I felt a kinship to the goals and aspirations everybody so adamantly chases.

Some chase sex and that's fine for them. I've probably done a bit of that in my day as well but it gets boring. The point is that this drive alone without the eccentricities of loving the person you're "doing it" with is easy. To get sex, you must have something else going on in your life and you also have to have almost an apathy towards love because love isn't necessarily sexy. Confidence is sexy and because of the apathy towards needing the attention of another human being in a real committed way, confidence comes easy to those who seek sex and nothing else. They may find themselves enamored at some point but for a long time, they can get away with a disconnectedness and self interest.

Some desire success and that's fine for them. They chase the goal of what they believe to be success in familiar things: A car, a house, maybe kids and a wife (although these are not necessarily their goals). These are the people who if they have their big screen TV and a modicum of interaction with the outside world, they are happy. They drown themselves in work related purposes and become enormously successful and some of them are very happy with this but me, I find it empty.

Some people are those who are just trying to get by and that's fine for them. These are the type of people that you ask them a question like, "What have you been up to lately?" and they say, "Work and home, man. Just living." There's nothing wrong with this. These people function perfectly in a society and I have often desired to be one with one major addendum, the presence of all encompassing, committed, and evolving love.

Being an outsider, I have watched people and partied with them and seen their interactions with each other and for a long time, I was ok with just being alone and by myself but I came to realize that as much as I was ok by myself and ok with allowing my partner space and time, I wanted to feel a sense of growth in a relationship really badly. I also wanted the attention and closeness at least once a night. As if even though the whole world was screwed up and pissed us both off equally, we'd at least have each other to come home to and say, wow was today f***** up.

Some people do a fine job of dealing with this process on their own but then the question comes up, what do they need other people for at all? I think the answer is simple: sex and love. They may not need it as much but they still need it.

What is love then? Those moments when he remembers to lock the door; when she needs a hug and he's physically there to give it to her; when he does all the household chores because he had nothing better to do; when she's had a hard day and wants to be left alone and he watches TV in the other room.

Love is an understanding between two people that they will feel that way no matter what. That distance, time, situations cannot diminish the feelings that two people have for each other. Love is an understanding that when somebody says they need something the other person complies without question.

Come to think of it, I have been a bad lover because I have been so messed up over my own loneliness that I have forgotten what it means to truly love another person. At this point, I hope it's not too late to turn that around but I can be a good lover and a good person, if I try.