Transatlantic Literature

By H.K 

[transatlantic-literature]

The third poem in the collection is an erasure of Grace Nichols poem “The Fat Black Woman Goes Shopping”. Nichols’s poem uses imagery and diction to contrast the positive qualities of a black woman with the perceived unrefineedness of her English pronunciations. Her writing is calculated and delicate. It’s designed to come across as both beautiful and unrefined at the same time. Aside from the technical qualities, Nichols’s work also focuses on the important social issue of the discrimination against bilingual and multicultural citizens. Nichols wrote, “Look at the frozen thin mannequins / fixing her with grin / and de pretty sales gals / exchanging slimming glances / thinking she don't notice” (Nichols). These lines demonstrate that the speaker is perceptive and intelligent, even if her English is not perfect, by stating that the woman notices the rude behavior of the shop girls. The shop girls in the poem think that they’re being subtle, and they underestimate the intelligence of the speaker, but the speaker is perceptive enough to notice the looks and intelligent enough to interpret them. This shows the complexity and meaning behind Nichols’s writing. I chose to do an erasure poem that changes the meaning of Nichols’s poem completely, but still demonstrates the complexity of her writing. The erasure is meant to comment on the way that women are viewed in society today, and what is wrong with those views. This is to show that Nichols’s work can inspire a completely different, but still important discussion topic, as well as the original topic of her poem.

[transatlantic-literature]

A few laughing Indians fall over the hood slipping in the hot spilled butter. The eye sees a lot, John, but the heart is so blind. Death makes us owners of nothing. He smiles, a horizon of teeth the credits reel over, and then the white fields again blowing in the true-to-life dark. The dark films over everything. We get into the car scratching our mosquito bites, speechless and small as people are when the movie is done. We are back in our skins.

Louise Erdrich, “Dear John Wayne”

Going to the movie theatre is one of my favorite things to do. The thick, pressing darkness makes it feel like you’re actually living the movie. You can sit and disappear for a couple hours and become someone else. Even though this wasn’t the purpose of the poem, Erdrich’s “Dear John Wayne” perfectly captures the momentary feeling right after a movie ends in the theatre. These two stanzas made me think of how still the theatre felt as the end credits for “Avengers: Endgame” were rolling. I remember sitting shocked in my seat, unsure of what I was supposed to do now that the movie was over. The same thing happened when I went to see “The Courier”. The movie ended and all I could do was sit solemnly for a moment in my chair. The speechless, numb feeling that occurs after movies is amazing.   People on reddit and google have also described this feeling, but I don’t think there’s a name for it. I also don’t actually have a point to this. I just thought it was cool.

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Miranda found London, where Laxmi's cousin's husband was, with the woman he'd met on the plane. She wondered which of the cities in India Dev's wife was in. The farthest Miranda had ever been was to the Bahamas once when she was a child. She searched but couldn't find it on the glass panels. When the tourists left and she and Dev were alone again, he told her to stand at one end of the bridge. Even though they were thirty feet apart, Dev said, they'd be able to hear each other whisper. "I don't believe you," Miranda said. It was the first time she'd spoken since they'd entered. She felt as if speakers were embedded in her ears. "Go ahead," he urged, walking backward to his end of the bridge. His voice dropped to a whisper. "Say something." She watched his lips forming the words; at the same time she heard them so clearly that she felt them under her skin, under her winter coat, so near and full of warmth that she felt herself go hot. "Hi," she whispered, unsure of what else to say. "You're sexy," he whispered back.

Jhumpa Lahiri, “Sexy”

Jhumpa Lahiri’s short story Sexy focuses on a woman that’s having an affair with a married man. The main character, Miranda, feels valued and confident when her lover, Dev, calls her “Sexy”. She tries to play into that by buying sexy clothes, like a slinky silver dress. She eventually realizes that he doesn’t care for her, and his compliments are shallow (He doesn’t even remember them). 

The story is a depiction of how women sometimes draw their value from the way they’re seen by men, but the value that men place in women is often only surface level.

When I read “Sexy”, I thought that the main character was shallow and silly for putting so much stock into a compliment about her appearance. Shouldn’t people value compliments about their personality and achievements more than ones about their appearance? 

I tried to think back on the compliments that I remember the most from my life, and all that I could think of was the time that one of my guy friends in my high school orchestra said “You look stunning” before a concert. This compliment, while nothing like the one in Lahiri’s story, is just as surface level as the one that Miranda received. 

Why is it that women, and people in general, put so much stock into their appearance, and how the people around them see them? It could have something to do with the types of relationships that girls are exposed to in children’s and teen media. 

A lot of the popular movies from when I was a kid, like “Another Cinderella Story” and “Two Weeks Notice”, centered around a girl who was considered unpopular and dorky who likes this super cool guy. The guy only starts to notice the girl when he realizes how beautiful she is. For example, in “Another Cinderella Story”, Selena Gomez’s character is only noticed by the guy she likes when she shows up to the school dance in a fancy red dress. 

Even in movies that don’t follow this pattern, there’s usually a moment when you can tell that the characters have fallen in love, and the girl is usually made up to look her best. Like the ball scene in “Enchanted” where Giselle is in that maroon dress (Which is completely different from everything she’s worn for the rest of the film).

These types of films, books, and other forms of media help spread the idea that if you want to be happy, have friends, and fall in love, then you have to show everyone how beautiful you are. This could be why a lot of women, like the character in “Sexy”, value compliments about their appearance so much.

[transatlantic-literature]

We sat under the mango tree and I was holding his hand when he began to cry. Drops fell on my hand like the water from the dripstone in the filter in our yard. Then I began to cry too and when I felt my own tears on my hand I thought, 'now perhaps we're married'.

Jean Rhys, The Day They Burned the Books

Jean Rhys’s “The Day They Burned the Books” is a serious short story that focuses on issues such as colonialism, self-identities, racism, and family dynamics, but there are still short moments that are full of beautiful imagery and positive emotions. 

It reminded me of a film I had just seen, The Courier, which is set during the Cold War. The movie follows the story of a British businessman that was asked to carry information back and forth during the war. The movie is beautifully made, but the majority of the scenes are melancholy. Despite this, there are still moments of happiness and fun, like when the two men who end up working together get to share some of their favorite places from home with each other. 

Although, when looking back on the film and short story, the parts that seem the saddest aren’t the serious ones, they’re the happy moments. According to Psychology Today, this could be because we feel safer during the happier moments in the movie/film. During the tense events in works of literature, it’s too stressful to feel vulnerable enough to do things like cry, so our emotions come out during the happier moments. 

The happier scenes could also be nostalgic or sad because the serious events in the movie/film have changed them in some way. For example, in The Courier there’s a moment where all of the happy scenes from earlier are replayed, but it’s horribly sad because one of the characters has passed away. 

[transatlantic-literature]

We always find something, eh Didi, to let us think we exist?

Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot

Samuel Beckett’s play, Waiting for Godot, is a relatable piece of literature, but it might not be relatable in the ways that people would think. The work takes place in an area that acts as a resting-point/in-between place for the characters to contemplate their situation and the world around them. 

The setting, dialog, and events in the play all strongly give off altered reality vibes. It’s similar to the way that someone feels when they go to a gas station in the middle of nowhere, waiting rooms, hospitals, airports, school buildings or museums when they’re empty, Denny’s restaurants, and so on. 

These places all feel like they’re slightly otherworldly/off because they’re liminal spaces. Liminal spaces are areas that are transitional areas between two locations or states of being. These places are created for moving people along to other locations, and their purpose isn’t really to act as a long-term location. So, when people spend too much time in one of these areas, they start to feel a bit weird. 

Waiting for Godot is similar to a long, drawn-out liminal space because the whole work represents an ‘in-between” space. The characters are stuck in a location where they’re waiting for someone to help them move on with their lives. The setting isn’t meant to be a long-term location, and thus it makes readers feel similar to the way they would in a liminal space. 

Other examples of liminal spaces in works of literature and media would be the zoo truck scene from Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief, the bench scenes from Forrest Gump, the hotel from Schitt’s Creek, and the therapist’s office in The falcon and the Winter Soldier. 

Liminal spaces are especially important in works of literature because they’re great settings for characters to confront their beliefs and views about themselves, like the characters in Waiting for Godot did. All of the examples listed above are scenes/sections in fiction where the characters were developing their personalities, changing their beliefs, or reflecting back on some of their past decisions. 

So yeah, it’s cool.

[transatlantic-literature]

Some people, known as sensation-seekers, are adrenaline junkies. Psychologist Marvin Zuckerman defines sensation-seeking behavior as the pursuit of novel and intense experiences without regard for physical, social, legal, or financial risk. Sensation-seeking is a general personality trait. And like any personality trait, it is more than 50 percent determined by heredity.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/science-choice/201508/can-you-be-addicted-adrenaline

When Steamboat Bill, Jr. (1928) was produced, most of the movie’s stunts had to be preformed by the actors with little to no special effects. The stunts in this movie are still considered to be some of the most dangerous stunts executed in films, but there are a surprising number of dangerous stunts in modern movies as well.

In the movie The Man with the Golden Gun (1974), there’s a corkscrew car jump stunt that was so dangerous that the director decided to do part of it with computer editing, and in the movie Mission Impossible- Ghost Protocol (2011), Tom Cruise had to scale one of the tallest man-made structures in the world, which was dangerous even with support wires.

Stunts have come a long way over the years, and directors are always finding ways to execute even crazier stunts in safer ways. Stunt doubles were first used in 1903, but there are still actors and actresses today that choose to do their own stunts.

Stars such as Tom Cruise, Angelina Jolie, Harrison Ford, Kristin Stewart, Scarlett Johansson, Chris Evans, Tom Holland, and Robert Downey Jr. have all done some of their own stunts in movies. The question is: Why would actors and actresses choose to do their own stunts when it would be safer to hire a stunt double?

There could be several reasons, such as higher pay, credibility, and bragging rights, but another reason that stars do their own stunts could be that they just like the adrenaline rush. There are several psychologists who have claimed that people can get addicted to the feeling of excitement caused by high-stress situations or the feeling of relief that floods the body after the stressor has been removed.

So, yeah. Idk, it’s cool.

[transatlantic-literature]

A gush of tears at her mother’s farewell kiss, a touch in her throat when the cars clacked by the flour mill where her father worked by the day, a pathetic sigh as the familiar green environs of the village passed in review, and the threads which bound her so lightly to girlhood and home were irretrievably broken.

Sister Carrie, Theodore Dreiser 

Theodore Dreiser starts out his story, Sister Carrie, with very strong, nostalgic imagery and description for the main character, Carrie. These details reveal that Carrie loves her home and her family, although, because he’s using it as a tool to show how young and inexperienced Carrie is, the nostalgia comes across as slightly negative or condescending. 

In other works of media, like the Percy Jackson and The Olympians series by Rick Riordan, nostalgia is also used to develop/reveal character traits. A large part of Percy’s personality is the fact that he loves his mom, and he misses the nostalgic things about his home, like her homemade chocolate chip cookies and blue food. 

These nostalgic details show how much Percy cares about those around him, and this character trait becomes a large part of the overall storyline. Percy’s fatal flaw/heroic tragic flaw is that he would put his friends and family above the fate of the world. 

His fatal flaw makes the previous nostalgic images and details come across as slightly negative as well. Despite the fact that both Carrie’s and Percy’s nostalgic moments give insight to some of their more admirable qualities, the details end up reading as negative, childish, and unwise. 

Could the same idea be reflected in other works of media?

[transatlantic-literature]

The women who adapt themselves to a theoretical valuation of their sex as a relative impersonality, are not yet Feminine Leave off looking to men to find out what you are not —seek within yourselves to find out what you are As conditions are at present constituted—you have the choice between Parasitism, & Prostitution—or Negation

Feminist Manifesto, Mina Loy

Mina Loy’s “Feminist Manifesto” used a unique, non-traditional format to express her radical ideas about what feminism is, and who feminists should support, while Marvel’s “WandaVision” creates a strong female role model for all women.  

Loy’s manifesto was full of jabs and phrases that targeted both men and other women. Loy seemed to believe that the only women who deserved to be supported were those that matched her idea of what a woman should be. 

Loy insulted housewives and other women who fell into accepted societal roles for her time period by calling them leeches, without considering the amount of work that they did. 

Housewives cooked for their families, cleaned their houses, did all of the laundry, raised and taught their children, and still managed to find time for other activities. While this isn’t a life that every woman would like, it can be very rewarding and satisfying for others. 

Feminism is about supporting other women in whatever they choose to do. Loy didn’t seem to understand this sentiment. 

Although, in the media, strong female characters are often portrayed as tomboys. This isn’t a bad thing, but it reinforces the idea that women who like to be stay-at-home moms and do stereotypical girly activities aren’t being strong, feminist women. 

WandaVision, Marvel’s new miniseries, takes a different route, and it’s refreshing. The main character, Wanda Maximoff, is one of the most powerful heroes in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. She could have single handedly taken down Thanos, and she’s demonstrated her excessive power on many occasions. 

In the new series, she still has all of her amazing powers, and she’s using them to manipulate an entire town into playing out her perfect idea of a normal family life. Wanda is seen cooking, cleaning, going to neighborhood meetings with other women, and doing her best to raise her children. 

Her ideal life is to live with her husband and children as a family, and that’s amazing. She could do anything. Wanda is undeniably a boss, and she’s choosing to be a housewife because that’s what makes her happy. 

This show turns Loy’s manifesto upside down, and it creates a good representation of what a powerful woman can look like.

[transatlantic-literature]

This is the hymn of mud-the obscene, the filthy, the putrid, The vast liquid grave of our armies. It has drowned our men. Its monstrous distended belly reeks with the undigested dead. Our men have gone into it, sinking slowly, and struggling and slowly disappearing. Our fine men, our brave, strong, young men; Our glowing red, shouting, brawny men. Slowly, inch by inch, they have gone down into it, Into its darkness, its thickness, its silence.

At the Somme: The Song of the Mud, Mary Borden

Mary Borden’s poem, The Song of Mud, focuses on the presence of mud in the trenches during WWI. Borden personifies the mud, and then uses it as a representation of the trauma and tragedy experienced on the battlefield. 

Borden’s strong, gritty imagery makes the mud seem powerful, controlling, and important, even if it’s only an aspect of nature. This trend of using pieces of nature and scenery to symbolize trauma and other tragic events is reflected in many other works of literature and media. 

One of these works is the Croods movie series. Guy, one of the main characters in the films, lost his family to a pit of tar. In both the first movie, and the second, whenever tar is brought up it also reminds everyone of Guy’s traumatic origin story. 

The screenwriters used tar to develop Guy’s character, and they also used it as a reminder of what he had to go through in the past. The idea of tar is correlated with his parent’s death. This trauma is almost mirrored when Guy himself gets stuck in a pit of tar with one of his new family members. 

Although, despite the gruesome imagery and tragic implications, both Borden’s poem and the Croods films manage to conclude with a small amount of closure. Borden ends her poem with a haunting image of golden mud on a hillside, and the First Croods movie ends with Guy escaping the pit of tar with his new family by using the skills he has developed over the years. 

[transatlantic-literature]

Oh dear, we’re goin’ to be late. Gaffer is stood at the gate. We’re out o’ pocket, our wages they’re docket We’ll ‘a’ to buy grub on the slate.

Povert Knock, Anonymous British Folk Song

This British folk song reflects the poor conditions for the lower/working class in the nineteenth century, but it also connects to popular media today, such as the Star Wars trilogy.

British imperialism was on the rise in the nineteenth century, but a lot of the country’s population was not doing well. The lower class workers put in a lot of effort, but they had a hard time providing basic necessities for their families. 

This dynamic is mirrored in Star Wars: The Force Awakens. When the main character, Rey, is introduced, she’s seen scavenging for old spaceship parts to sell for food. When she attempts to sell her numerous finds, she’s only offered a small portion of food. 

This can all be related to the fact that the main power in control of the solar system is an imperialistic power (The First Order). Rey lives in a broken down, abandoned ship, she has to scavenge for food, and she has no outside support. Her conditions are almost identical to the members of the lower class in nineteenth century Britain.

[transatlantic-literature]

Tom got all the petting, Chambers got none. Tom got all the delicacies, Chambers got mush and milk, and clabber without sugar. In consequence Tom was a sickly child and Chambers wasn't. Tom was "fractious," as Roxy called it, and overbearing; Chambers was meek and docile.

“Pudd’nhead Wilson”, Mark Twain

In Pudd’nhead Wilson, the way that Tom and Chambers grow up largely affects their personalities later in life. Because Tom was spoiled and undisciplined, he became a cruel, greedy adult. Chambers, on the other hand, became humble and hardworking. 

This dynamic between siblings and friends is a popular thing to include in literature and media. In Avatar: The Last Airbender, Zuko and Azula have a similar relationship to Chambers and Tom. 

Ozai favors Azula, but he claims that Zuko was lucky to be born. Azula becomes cold and cruel as she grows up impressing her father, and Zuko is left to be raised by his Uncle instead. Zuko becomes a compassionate adult because he was raised in a more caring environment. 

Azula is constantly seen antagonizing her brother to impress her father, and to entertain herself. Zuko often fights Azula, but he’s also made several attempts to get along with her. 

Zuko has more experience with discipline and hard work, and he’s similar to Chambers as a result. Azula and Tom are similar because she grew up being praised by her father, bullying her brother, and always getting her way.

Avatar: The Last Airbender has one of the best comparisons for the relationship between Chambers and Tom, though, there are several other works of literature that reflect this type of relationship (Ex. Cinderella).

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O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done, The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won, The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting, While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring;                         But O heart! heart! heart!                            O the bleeding drops of red,                               Where on the deck my Captain lies,                                  Fallen cold and dead

“O Captain! My Captain!”, by Walt Whitman 

While Whitman’s “O Captain! My Captain!” and Disney’s “Treasure Planet” are very different works, both of them have the same mood at the end of the poem/film. 

In “Treasure Planet”, the relationship between the main characters, Jim Hawkins and John Silver, develops as they both attempt to find the treasure that the crew is searching for. 

In the end, they manage to find the treasure and escape safely, but Silver has to flee the ship. Seeing as the two now share a close bond, this creates a somber feeling, similar to the feelings expressed in “O Captain! My Captain!”.

Jim’s joy and relief at escaping alive are dimmed when he realizes that Silver has to leave. The first four lines of Whitman’s poem also talk about the feeling of joy after returning home successfully, but then it’s also taken away by the death of the captain.  

Both works manage to inspire grief for the losses that the speaker/main character is experiencing. Even though neither of the characters in the film died, like the captain in the poem, there is still a sense of loss that makes the works similar. 

Also, both works take place on ships. So, there’s that.

~fin~