Are the Arts and Humanities Relevant?

The Humanities are defined on vocabulary.com as: "studies about human culture, such as literature, philosophy, and history". Debates on whether the Humanities are important are as old as time, but always heat up in times of economic instability since they are often among the first to be cut from a curriculum.

However, it is worth noting that the phenomena of cultures and all manifestations of art and philosophy are what separate humans from any other inhabitants of this planet. There is no other known earthly species that is in any way concerned with such matters. This unique set of interests is intrinsic to what it means to be human. We, as a species, seem to have an instinctual need for the arts and humanities. So why bother to debate their relevance at all? Are they, indeed, important?

The answer is as easy as asking yourself "How do I define myself? Who am I?" Believe it or not, your answer, whatever it is, is an example of the Humanities and the Arts in practical application. Are you a soccer mom, a steel worker, a punk rock/goth/emo type? Do you identify with where you were born, where you live, who raised you? Are you a fan of your local sports team? Do you pride yourself based on the music you listen to? Are you brand-oriented or bargain-oriented? Do you like to hike or to write? Do you believe in God (if so, which one?) or are you more of an Agnostic or Atheist? What do you want most out of life? What constitutes "power" to you and who are you willing or not willing to give it to? Are you an early-riser or a night owl? Are you heart-broken or the heart-breaker, or both?

When we study art and the humanities, we are studying ourselves. And the truly wise among us also study each other.

Vocabulary.com finishes its definition of the humanities with a statement that undervalues them as "not practical". But what is knowing a skill without being able to answer, or at least ask and explore, these most fundamental questions about the human experience? That is what the Humanities and the Arts facilitate.

These are the very things that make us human. What could be more relevant than that?

Modern "Much Ado About Nothing"?

There is an internet-inspired trend in text analysis that involves computer tools, such as the above word cloud. The theory is that these various tools will help someone approach a text in a different way than one has before. This word cloud was produced by entering the text to Shakespeare's "Much Ado About Nothing", which I love, into a word cloud-making website. I must admit that for me such tools would be more helpful when composing collage poetry (because it helps to disorient the text and break it up) than in formulating text analysis.

For instance, one would naturally eliminate the character names, since of course they would be the most frequently used words in the text, and then concentrate on what is left. From there, the poetry combinations are endless and exciting and almost write themselves. But those poems would only be text analysis to the point that any collage poem is, and most poets who employ that form are thinking of anything except what is traditionally considered analysis.

So I tried a different tool: Storify. In the end, I didn't so much write a story as use it to search hashtags and internet search engines for new perspectives on "Much Ado". And I found one.

 "These Paper Bullets!" is a modern take on "Much Ado" with the music written by Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong. Green Day started out in the '90s as a modern punk rock/alternative band. Since then it has become a little more pop in its aesthetics, but with a decided punk edge. Recently, Armstrong redefined what the Broadway musical could mean with his wildly successful "American Idiot" musical. "These Paper Bullets!" was his next theatrical project. The storyline revolves around a band called The Quartos, modeled after the early Beatles, and its members' search for true love in the midst of fame. Unfortunately, a recording of the full production doesn't seem to exist, which left plenty to my imagination.

Other than the curious aspects of "what would a punkish/Beatleseque version of 'Much Ado' be like?", there are also larger questions that could be explored. Much of Shakespeare's original play hinges on witty, sarcastic humor with a decided gender bias. Benedick is against marriage and very much a spouter of male virtues, almost to the point of chauvinism, and Beatrice is very much a hard-bitten feminist. Funny, then, that they should eventually fall in love with each other based on hearsay. How uncharacteristically suggestible of both of them! How would that work in a modern setting?

For instance, in this post-feminist world, why would a woman feel a need to despairingly rant out the "O to be a man" speech? The whole dynamic of the plot may have to be reworked, but what is "Much Ado" without the friction and the obvious social critique of his time that Shakespeare meant it to be? Also, it is no longer a life and death matter whether Hero really "tarnished" her honour or not. That too would have to be rewritten. What, therefore, would be left of the original play?

These are things which I was forced to consider and which caused me to view "Much Ado" as a masterpiece of wit that can continue to survive due to that wit only. No longer can it also be a painful mirror held up to society which is barely made palatable by that wit. How I wish I could have seen "These Paper Bullets!" in order to have at least one set of answers to these questions.

Do you think "Much Ado" still works as a social critique? If so, in what ways?

Breaking Things (Or How to Write Collage Poetry)

What is collage poetry? The idea is to take an existing text or texts and make it into something new.  The process is also called Unoriginality in studies of poetic movements and began in the 1990s almost as a direct consequence of the advent of the Internet and the growing uneasiness with Modern and Post-modern poetry tactics among the avant garde set. Most practicers of Unoriginality stumbled upon the concept independently, although some developed it within groups of writers. It seems like a simple enough concept to execute, leading many to disregard it as valid poetic practice - until such ones attempt it themselves. It is actually a complicated process that requires intense focus and a lot of trial and error to develop the skills of discernment needed to honour the original texts while reshaping the texts into something completely unfamiliar. It's also a wonderful way to explore the contested concept of authorship, because the words one is using belong to some one else and the final text of the collage poem cannot be guessed at by the poet assembling it until the reorganisation is complete. A collage poem is fun in the sense of wordplay and delving into the unknowable that the poet has only the most minimal control over, but it is hard work and slow-going.

To illustrate, I am going to use a simplified example of collage poetry work that I did as an assignment that the instructors called "Breaking Things" for a class I'm taking on Shakespeare. I started out with the text of the Bard's play "A Midsummer Night's Dream" and two blog posts I had previously written related to the course which can be found farther down this page ("On First Lines" and "Comparison: 'Romeo and Juliet' and 'Layla and Majnun'"). First I selected a specific passage from the play to use, which is the conversation with Hermia about her father's selection of a husband for her. Instead of copying out the entire dialog, I left out her responses and chose specific lines that appealed to me due to their expression of a father's absolute authority over a daughter, possibly one of the most overtly serious moments in the comedy. Thus I copied this out on a sheet of paper:

"Be advised, fair maid.
To you, your father should be as a god,
One that composed your beauties, yea, and one
For whom you are but as a form in wax
By him imprinted, and within his power
To leave the figure or disfigure it.
In this kind, wanting your father's voice,
The other must be held worthier.
Your eyes must with his judgement look.
Look you arm yourself
To fit your fancies to your father's will."

Lots of assonance in these lines to play with and it would be fun to dismantle this outdated notion of male dictatorship.

Then I proceeded to comb through the two blog posts for phrases which could be repurposed. Hence, on the same sheet of paper I copied this:

"virgin love
versus
consummation (or lack thereof)
love cannot exist without sex, but sex can exist without love
attain to the status of a lesser god
roams the wilderness
spouting poetry for
repetition
first lines are the spine on which all hangs
security cameras and spying eyes
choking like flame without air
somewhat mantic
poetry cannot survive
meandering masterpiece
the most primal of human needs
worn out subject - elementary thing -
much glorification of the giving and the taking of the maidenhead
amourous rites
hood my unmanned blood
love grow bold
no love at all"

Now that I had broken things, I was ready to reassemble them. This is where trial and error comes in. You must expect that the first attempt will not result in a finished poem. Usually these things take many drafts and can sometimes take years to work out. A person who writes collage poetry must be one who thrives on challenge. The work involved is the point as much as the finished product. In this example, however, it took me about three hours. You will notice that in reorganising, sometimes I broke the phrases down further and rearranged them into new phrases as well as rearranging the actual lines. I began, crossing off phrases as I reused them. This is first draft:

"much glorification of
elementary thing - most
primal thing cannot survive
as a god somewhat mantic
arm yourself your fancies
the spine on which all hangs
choking flame without air
virgin love grow bold
wilderness spouting repetition
by him imprinted
meandering masterpiece
be advised to leave the figure
or disfigure it in this kind
consummation (or lack thereof)
first lines are security cameras
spying eyes, love without
sex without love amourous rites
that composed whom you are
a form in wax within his
power: the other must beheld poetry
look you to fit unmanned blood roams
no love at all
with his judgement look
the giving and the taking
status of a lesser god
poetry for maidenhood"

I largely avoided punctuation or consideration for line breaks, etc. because at this point it didn't matter. At this stage, the goal is just to see what surprising new combinations can be made of the phrases. Look for juxtaposition and delightfully new, unlooked for ideas. Phrases I liked here are: "First lines are security cameras" and "your fancies/ the spine on which all hangs". There is no clear formation of meaning in this new text yet, but the suggestion is that the meaning will be highly sexual. That is not a route I wanted to go. Although Shakespeare is very candid and even rude in such matters, I wanted to focus on poetry itself as a way to better honour the common perception of Shakespeare's work. On to the second draft:

"As a god somewhat mantic
Much glorification of elementary thing
Arm yourself your fancies cannot survive
Wilderness spouting repetition by
Him imprinted meandering
Masterpiece, be advised to
Leave the figure or disfigure it
In this kind consummation (or lack thereof)
Virgin love grow bold with his
Judgement look the giving and the taking
No love at all the spine on which all hangs
That composed whom you are - a form
In wax within his power, look you to fit
Unmanned blood roams: the other
Must be held poetry, security cameras
First lines are spying eyes
Love without sex without love
Poetry a lesser god for maidenhood
Amourous rites choking without air
No consummation at all"

As you can see, on the second draft, I paid a little more attention to poetic devises, such as line breaks and further fractured and rearranged some phrases. I also inserted some personal stylistic preferences, such as extending line length and capitalising the first letters of lines. Here, I began to sense clearer meaning and that it was closer to my intention of a metapoetic reading. Encouraged, I forged ahead to what would be the final draft:

"Poetry"

As a god somewhat mantic,
Much glorification of elementary thing.
Arm yourself! Your fancies cannot survive
Wilderness spouting repetition, by him
Imprinted meandering masterpiece.
Be advised leave the figure or disfigure it
In this kind consummation
(Or lack thereof).
Virgin love grow bold with his judgement.
Look! The giving and the taking -
No love at all, the spine on which all hangs
That composed whom you are - a form
In wax within his power. Look you to fit.
Unmanned blood roams: the other must be held poetry.
Security cameras: first lines are spying eyes -
Love without sex without love.
Poetry a lesser god for maidenhood,
Amourous rites choking flame:
No consummation at all.

The title used here is a working title. It was good enough for the assignment for which it was written. This final result is both metapoetic and I believe a fitting tribute to Shakespeare while creating something entirely fresh from his (and my) words with a 21st century feel.

On First Lines

The "Shakespeare In Community" class on Coursera.org opens by discussing briefly the first lines of Hamlet. But what of first lines?

 

It feels like a worn-out subject - an elementary thing - to consider first lines. Are they powerful? Yes. It is the ending any writer is aiming to have remembered, but usually it is the first line that everyone can quote verbatim.

 

Some of my favorites are:

 

"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife." —Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice (1813)

 

"Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." —Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina (1877; trans. Constance Garnett) Never read this book, but that is profoundly true.

 

"riverrun, past Eve and Adam's, from swerve of shore to bend of bay, brings us by a commodius vicus of recirculation back to Howth Castle and Environs." —James Joyce, Finnegans Wake (1939) Finnegans Wake is a pure delight, beginning to end, is it not?

 

"Someone must have slandered Josef K., for one morning, without having done anything truly wrong, he was arrested." —Franz Kafka, The Trial (1925; trans. Breon Mitchell) This book haunts me every day.

 

"It was like so, but wasn't." —Richard Powers, Galatea 2.2 (1995) Never read this book either, but that has to be the most intriguing opening line ever conceived. That could also be the most concise definition of poetry available.

 

But the one first line that is always mentioned first:

 

"Call me Ishmael." —Herman Melville, Moby-Dick (1851)

 

That shouldn't be a first line success story. It tells you nothing. Sets you up for nothing. Is only mildly intriguing and not at all interesting. It's like opening a book with small talk. Even cashiers at check out registers have name tags but most people don't care to read them unless they intend to file a complaint. "Call me Ishmael."

 

So why does it succeed? Because names are at the most primal of human instincts and needs. In the Bible, the first assignment God gave to Adam (before creating Eve and therefore predating the commandment to "fill the earth") was that of naming the various creatures that co-inhabited Earth with him. Names are so deeply integral to our psyche that often we name our phones and other devices, even our cars. I know an extreme case where a man named each of his fingers. Herman Melville revealed his genius when he appealed to that by beginning his meandering masterpiece with "Call me Ishmael."

 

First lines are the spine on which all other hangs in literature. Shakespeare was keenly aware of that. So he opened Hamlet with "Who's there?" A call to attention that requires an instant answer. An action phrase to begin a play of action and deeply pregnant with all the paranoia and uncertainty that drives Hamlet all the way to its bloody conclusion. By the time he has a character utter "Something's rotten in the state of Denmark", the repetition of that paranoia is already stifling and choking like flame without air.

 

First lines are even more important in today's post post-modern poetry. It has been said that a poem must be composed entirely of first lines to keep a reader engaged all the way to the end. Hamlet's constant refrain of paranoia (beautifully illustrated in The Royal Shakespeare Company's production starring Patrick Stewart and David Tennant with the ever-present motif of security cameras and hidden spying eyes - "A rat! A rat!") seems to foreshadow this development. Some are put off by Shakespeare's dogged repetition; to me is seems somewhat mantic. He seems to be pointing to this time when the power of first lines has become so strong as to be everything, as to be poetry itself, when poetry cannot survive unless it be composed entirely of first lines.