Category: 2016 Blog Post

Beginning in the first chapter, there is a line that separates the first sentence of Geryon’s autobiography from the rest of the verse. This separation continues until the final interview at the end of the novel. The purpose of the introductory sentence is not static. Some chapters use this technique to summarize information that follows, while others utilize it as a transition sequence from the title to the body of the text. I find this the implementation of this sentence fascinating because in a novel without predictable or traditional punctuation, each of these introductory phrases ends with a period.

These succinct introductory phrases may serve as a metaphor for the isolation that Geryon consistently experiences throughout the novel. The dividing line is a physical manifestation of the symbolic barrier that isolates a red winged monster from his elementary school peers, mother, and lover. Throughout the flux of the novel, these curt phrases are kept constant. Anne Carson’s implementation of these divisions represent that no matter how hard Geryon tries to blend into the expectations of society, he will always be hindered by a rigid, unsurpassable wall. The lack of punctuation throughout the prose that follows the introductory statement may represent the flux of life that Geryon is consistently trying to blend himself into. Geryon’s hindered journey through the chapters of his life mirrors the isolated style of each introductory sentence, “Eventually Geryon learned to write.” (37), “Somehow Geryon made it to adolescence.” (39), “Somehow a journey makes itself necessary.” (46). The harsh punctuation and bolded lines that fragment Geryon’s journey from a growing child to a traveling adult simultaneously define his lonely identity as a little red monster.

The Autobiography of Red lacks proper punctuation, sentence formation, and clarity in its structure. In addition, the ending of the book is ambiguous, while its entirety is questionably based on a myth. In doing all of this, the text allows the reader to place his or her own ideas within the text.

Similarly to Written on the Body, the Autobiography of Red leaves much to interpretation. Therefore, many moments can be applied to different life situations. The fact that the text is also loosely based on a myth further blurs the reliability of the text. Perhaps this creates a more engaging love triangle or more curious readers, among other things. If the text were to have a clear reading or understanding, I think it would belittle its importance because it would limit the possibilities that can be applied to the story. The confusion of writing style and structure in the text is actually what makes it more understandable to each individual.

In her novel-in-verse Autobiography of Red, Anne Carson reworks the myth of Hercules slaying the red-winged monster Geryon into a romance told from Geryon’s perspective. The premise of the novel itself is inventive, but the imaginative interview with Stesichoros that closes the novel is particularly inventive in its effort to remind the reader of the origins of Carson’s own work. By closing her novel with a fictional interview with Stesichoros, Anne Carson alludes directly to the process of invention by which she created Autobiography of Red and connects her own text to Stesichoros’s original inventive myth.

In the fictional interview, Stesichoros speaks about seeing, saying that he was “responsible for everyone’s visibility” (148). Here, Stesichoros is using the act of seeing as a metaphor for the act of writing. When Stesichoros says that by seeing, he was responsible for “everyone’s visibility,” he is describing the process of creating a certain vision of the world by means of a written text. Carson’s choice to portray Stesichoros as a bold artist making the world visible in new and innovative ways offers insight into how Carson perceives her own text in relation to Stesichoros’s. If Stesichoros’s original myth was responsible for creating its own vision, then Carson’s retelling renders that original myth visible in another way. By placing the interview with Stesichoros at the end of her own retelling of Stesichoros’s version of the myth, Carson draws attention to the balance between invention and influence that characterizes her text. While the interviewer’s conversation with Stesichoros reminds the reader that each piece of writing renders things visible in infinitely varied ways, Carson’s choice to place the interview at the end of her own vision of the myth serves as a reminder of the ancient influences at play in her text.

 

Realistically, it seems as if everything in Carson’s Autobiography of Red deviates from conventional works of fiction and narrative in some way. While everything from the form, story and language are unconventional, Carson’s inventive characters  allow her to reimagine a “Good vs Evil” narrative from the perspective of the “Evil”, those who are marginalized to the point that their experiences go unheard.

This interpretation of Carson’s use of inventive characters is based on an analysis of implicit meanings and metaphors throughout the novel. Carson doesn’t devote time to discuss Geryon’s homosexuality, sexual abuse, or feelings of heartbreak. To make this connection, one needs to look at Geryon from the perspective of contemporary society; he is not “evil”, but different. An outsider with red-wings that he hides from the world, rarely displaying them in an attempt to hide what makes him different from those who would demonize him for those differences.

Through Geryon, Carson takes a character historically known only as evil, different, and defeated, and reimagines them in the context of someone marginalized by society as different, wrong, or even evil. As such, Geryon hides the factors that marginalize him, the events that he feels others are unable to empathize with, and the differences that society would choose not to understand. Anne Carson uses Autobiography of Red to show that we demonize what we don’t understand, and gives a voice to the voiceless, showing that the stories that we don’t hear can change our conceptions of the people we misunderstand.

Although it tends to drive me crazy, I find the way Anne Carson uses punctuation very inventive. Indeed, on several occasions, the author does not use any punctuation marks. Any reader, from his/her younger age, is used to reading sentences structured by punctuation marks, which are sometimes essential to understand meaning. Carson’s choice not to use punctuation for some passages of Autobiography of Red may have different significations.

For example, on chapter XVIII, when the grandmother starts talking “without interrupting her sentence” (p. 57), it seems that the reader perceives her speech the way Geryon perceives it. Maybe he doesn’t get what she is talking about and the absence of punctuation marks confuses the reader, just as her speech confuses Geryon. Moreover, one can consider punctuation marks as a way to set boundaries. With no punctuation, one can set their own rhythm, can decide to read the text as they want. It may be a way to refuse conventions, just as Carson “resists the temptation to represent Geryon’s subjectivity through the limits of nameable social identities” (Georgis 165). Additionally, since the whole novel is a reference to a Greek myth, one can see the non-use of punctuation as a reminder that tales were originally told orally.

Throughout Autobiography of Red, italics is used to signify dialogue, instead of traditional quotation marks. As such, it is not always clear when one character has finished speaking and another has begun, or if a line was spoken by the same character as a line directly before it, as there is nothing to indicate the end of one person’s thought with another’s (and sometimes they are even on the same line without a paragraph break!). Most of the time in the novel, a reader can infer the speaker by the surrounding text, either by blatancy (“Geryon said” etc.) or from context and content, but other times, lines are juxtaposed in a way that indicate a change in speaker without providing a clear moment of shifting characters, or without indicating who is speaking which part. This can especially be seen in chapter XXI, “MEMORY BURNS,” which is predominantly written in italicized dialogue, with very few clear indications of a speaker.

The chapter starts with Geryon and Herakles bickering about permanence, in regard to photography (Geryon’s passion) and then stars (interesting to note that Herakles/Hercules has a constellation named after him), and it becomes unclear about who is speaking, as there are 9 lines written only in italics, followed by another 7 with just one line of setting in between. Here, it does not matter so much who is saying what, but the message is still clear: Geryon and Herakles have different understandings of lasting and endurance, foreshadowing their inevitable and eventual split. By doing this, Carson allows for a reader to understand the fundamental differences between the two boys that do not allow for their relationship to last, without putting a name to either argument so the reader cannot “choose a side,” but instead focus on the innate lack of understanding and trust between them.

As we’ve discussed in class, Autobiography of Red is an extremely inventive and poetic novel in a vast multitude of ways. However, I want to focus on the use of adjectives , specifically ‘red’, in conversation with Dina Georgis’s literary essay. From the very beginning of the novel the use of the word ‘red’ becomes symbolic in terms of Geryon’s queer identity. Carson writes, “Total facts known about Geryon. Geryon was a monster everything about him was red,” (Carson, 37). Now, how can a person represent a color? ‘Red’ in this sense doesn’t so much describe the actual color of something, but more so describes the ostracization and queerness of Geryon’s character. This can prove troubling to the literal reader and confuses the meaning of adjectives in general. Throughout the entirety of the novel, Carson continues to use ‘red’ to describe things that don’t actually have color in order to fully engrain this redness or queerness into the audience’s brain. For example she says, “…Bolts of wind like slaps of wood and the bitter red drumming of wing muscle on air…” (Carson, 145). Because drumming cannot really have a color, this proves troubling to the reader, and makes one question the idea of adjectives in general. And if this “redness” directly means “queerness”, then Autobiography of Red also troubles queer identities. In her essay, Georgis says, “Red is not itself identity…it is the substance of confusing affects and physic conflicts from which signification is possible…” (Georgis, 158). Therefore leading one to believe that there is so much more to an identity than simply the label ‘queer’. This inventiveness of the troubling nature of adjectives serves to prove the troubling nature of the word queer in itself. By troubling something that is already seen as troubling, Carson’s novel continually proves to be innovative.

Autobiography of Red is inventive by using synesthesia. It is inventive because it is a different form of language that makes the novel different from others and “…offers us not understanding but an affective reality that sets the conditions for interpretation” (155, Georgis). In other words synthesis allows one to depict or think about situations in one’s own way and to not be held down by legitimate or correct way of thought. The use of synesthesia in this novel serves to give clarity to the reader. It makes a more vivid image in the reader’s mind to make fantasy seem more as a reality since senses are intertwining. For example, in the quote “Outside the house a black January wind came flattening down from the top of the sky…”(35) the words “black” and “wind” vivifies the feelings and images the novel creates in the reader’s head. This is because seeing “black” joined together with the feeling of “wind” on one’s skin creates a cold and darkened sensation. Since this sensation or feeling is relatable to the reader synesthesia makes the reader feel that this fantasy book is no longer an imagination but a reality because enhancing senses to make true emotions allows the reader to relate to the novel. The novel is trying to collide a queer world as fantasy with a hetero normative world as reality through synesthesia. Since synthesis is used though, it keeps the novel fantasy and myth because one can’t have “black wind”. It keeps the novel queer.

 

 

http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=466050747&m=466437192

I’d like to believe that there is something bigger than us in the universe than just us humans running around aimlessly on earth having no sense of purpose, direction, or meaning. Therefore I would like to believe that I had heard this story when I needed to hear it the most, with one of the people who I feel most comfortable with in my life I’d like to believe it was for a reason. One of the biggest recognized stories of sexual shame appearing in not only American culture, but politics as well has been the Bill Clinton scandal in 1998 where twenty four Monica Lewinsky went from having a privatized life to a public figure of shame, literally overnight. On NPR, during Ted Radio Hour, she spoke publicly addressing her own story and her courage must be acknowledged. This story had hit me on so many levels that it was as if I had drove into a brick wall rather than to brunch on Valentine’s Day. I had three reactions. First, I had empathized for Monica Lewinsky because society does not recognize the object that we have defined her as. Secondly, I had expressed my almost hidden form of anger for her misconstrued judgments about shame appearing in politics. And lastly, I had started crying due to the own shame that I have been trying to face on my own recently. While I was listening I expressed my feelings to my boyfriend (sorry if I talk about him a lot but he’s like my other half so he’s become part of the story) Nick, and I said “everything that she (Lewinsky) is saying can be identified and represent the queer community as well.” This was my reaction to the following:

“What that meant for me personally was that overnight, I went from being a completely private figure, to a publicly humiliated one worldwide … the attention and judgement that I had received, not the story but that I personally received was unprecedented … I was seen by many, but known by few.” (3:50-5:00)

Here I have labeled repetitions in blue, clusters, in orange, and red. Then the word that had infuriated me in purple. Once I heard this spoken I had recognized the shame the Monica had received publicly and the depths that she had experienced personally, however unprecedented shares a great deal of ignorance. I immediately thought of Michael Warner’s article “The Trouble With Normal” and within the prefix expressed the entirety of my anger. He says “For this reason the world has much to learn from the disreputable queers who have the most experience in the politics of shame, but who for that very reason have been least likely to gain a hearing..” (VII). Here I found clusters that related directly back to Monica Lewinsky’s quote. And while I applaud her for coming to terms with her own pass and embracing the shame that I can’t imagine enduring, I also would like to critique her for not recognizing an entire community who faces the same level of shame every day within their own lives: queer culture. She also says “It’s very hard to be in your own skin while suffering from shame.” I think Lewinsky can do a great deal more by bringing awareness to the lack of representation in the political realm, rather than just promoting anti bullying awareness, which is important, but I just believe she can do much more. Like she said, it was time to come to term with her own past, but it’s also time for a new recognition of individuals in the public world, without shame.

 

 

 

The Wizard of Oz, a movie classic and a personal favorite, especially when I was younger I watched this movie all the time, along with listening to the audio on a cassette tape. Although I loved this movie, I would always become frightened and confused when Dorothy crossed over to Oz. As I became older, the movie became creepier, as I’m still trying to decipher why this is. However, looking through the lens of Halberstam, The Wizard of Oz is a queer classic movie. Halberstam defines “queer time and queer space” as being “of strange temporalities, imaginative life schedules, and eccentric economic practices” (Halberstam, 1).

If we take a moment to deconstruct Dorothy’s predicaments before the tornado, we lay the base understanding of queer time and space. Dorothy’s companion is a dog-named Toto, and she lives within the bindings of a heternormative lifestyle in rural Kansas. Unable to conform to a possibly foreseeable barren life around her she runs away only to return right when a storm is tearing through the desolate Kansas land. Queer time and space becomes apparent as soon as the screen turns into color. Dorothy has left the “temporal frames of…family” (Halberstam, 6) and now has entered a world of Witches, dwarfs, talking words of endearment and flying monkeys. Although Dorothy is physically present within the modern world, she has also managed to be physically here in queer time (Oz). Oz creates a world in which queerness has become the framework of their existence. To define further what I mean by queerness in terms of Oz is that in the film, the rainbow is seen as symbolic of the LGBTQ+ flag, Dorothy has escaped a heternormative lifestyle and now is exploring a state that is not non-normative, a place in which Dorothy’s desires, whether that be through the understanding of her sexuality or friendships (with the scarecrow, lion and tinman). This represents the unwinding of time, and the embodiment of postmodernity, it is as though the place of Oz is queer centrality, and Dorothy exists within the subcultures, navigating an unimagined future.