{"id":2478,"date":"2023-10-30T21:02:57","date_gmt":"2023-10-31T01:02:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/?p=2478"},"modified":"2023-10-30T21:03:35","modified_gmt":"2023-10-31T01:03:35","slug":"2478","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/2023\/10\/30\/2478\/","title":{"rendered":"oooo let the light in"},"content":{"rendered":"

I couldn’t help but notice that Geryon\u2019s relationship with his mother is almost always signified by some sort of mention or source of light throughout the first part of the novel. To me, the presence of light is representative of the love and trust Geryon feels for his mother.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This connection is first made through frequent mentions of light, lamps, and luminosity in the section titled <\/span>Tuesday<\/span><\/i>. Here Geryon clearly states his love for the weekly occasion, and this security and genuine happiness are accompanied by images and descriptions of light that fills the house and memories of Tuesdays with his mother(34). Lamps flare when Geryon is given genuine praise from his mom, and thus allows Geryon to describe his own skull (brain, creativity, mind?) as luminous (35).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Space and Time:<\/span><\/i> \u201cHe and his mother eyed each other from opposite shores of the light\u201d (42). Geryon is growing up, something quite unfamiliar to both himself and his mother. In adolescent turmoil and confusion, they have become separated from the relationship they once had with each other. They stand opposite one another, Geryon reflects briefly on his departure from childhood with the line Stale peace of old bedtimes filled the room. Love does not-\u201d (42), I would like to note that this thought on love is broken up into two lines, where the thought is continued on with slightly different context than it would if the line ended with \u201clove does not\u201d suggesting a double meaning here, but more so the emotional conflict within Geryon. This is a conflict that his mother is clearly unaware of shown by their opposite stances. But she herself is also slightly detached from this light when she refuses Geryon’s offer to light her cigarette (43).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

She:<\/span><\/i> This section starts with the line: \u201cBack at the house all was dark except a light from the porch\u201d (57). After this distinction, Geryon gets an unusual urge to call his mother. I had a hard time making sense of this section in the following moments; however, darkness and light are used here in relation to his mother, but also allow Geryon to express feelings of fear or relief in this scene of distress \u201cHe had been here before in the dark\u2026He banged the light off \u201d(57). This light then extends itself to <\/span>The Grandmother<\/span><\/i> who, perhaps being a maternal figure herself, is viewed as slightly more approachable for Geryon in his adolescence and attachment to Herakles.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Fruit bowl:<\/span><\/i> In this section, Geryon takes a break from volcanoes to focus on a conversation with his mother. There is only one mention of light here \u201cThey spoke of a number of things, laundiy, Geryon\u2019s brother doing drugs, the light in the bathroom\u201d(69). There is a certain shortness and fragmentation emphasized in this section through the use of clipped, almost unfinished sentences, \u201cWanted to go straight to his room\u201d, \u201cHands in his jacket\u201d, \u201cEyes on his chest\u201d (68), this is then followed by a number of short, punctuated thoughts. Both of these express the distance and unfamiliarity that has clearly grown between Geryon and his mother. Where once they sat together under the lamplight in Geryon\u2019s childhood, they now only share the light in infrequent moments of small talk that are shortlived, but perhaps still valued by Geryon despite his discomfort.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

There are more examples that I don’t have space to touch on (not to mention electricity and a deeper exploration of Geryon’s relationship with the grandma). The \u201celements\u201d as depicted in various forms are a vital mode of symbolism throughout the novel I\u2019m excited to see how they play a part in the second half.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n



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I couldn’t help but notice that Geryon\u2019s relationship with his mother is almost always signified by some sort of mention or source of light throughout the first part of the novel. To me, the presence of light is representative of the love and trust Geryon feels for his mother.\u00a0 This connection is first made through … Continue reading oooo let the light in<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5130,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[346798],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2478","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2023-blog-post"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2478","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5130"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2478"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2478\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}