Dialectic of Enlightenment and The Lego Movie

 

 

            Horkheimer and Adorno contend in Dialectic of Enlightenment that “there is the agreement—or at least the determination—of all executive authorities not to produce or sanction anything that in any way differs from their own rules, their own ideas about consumers, or above all themselves” (Horkheimer & Adorno 1112).  Warner Bros. Pictures 2014 film, The Lego Movie, is a poignant example of what happens to society when big business simultaneously rules the entertainment industry as well as the government.  The philosophy of Horkheimer and Adorno finds realization in the Lego Universe which must conquer the tyrannical Lord Business.  Business has brought the concept of making “the whole world made to pass through the filter of the cultural industry” (Horkheimer & Adorno 1113) to fruition.  The Lego Movie is a warning, fashioned in the guise of a children’s film, against the results that occur when the big business dictates what constitutes normalcy through the influences of television, music, and architectural creativity.

            The Lego Movie focuses on the character of Emmet Brickowski from Bricksburg who feels content in his regimented career as an ordinary construction worker within the Lego Universe.  He does not realize that he is ignored by his peers due to his agreeable character and willingness to follow along with the cultural norms of his society.  Emmet also fails to perceive that the government is controlling the movements of his fellow Legos by dictating entertainment such as music, television, and even the types of Lego architecture that can be built.  When Emmet meets a woman named Wyldstyle, a master builder who strives to create new Lego creations without an instruction manual, he becomes committed to the Resistance.  Unbeknownst to most Legos,  Lord Business seeks to freeze society in his own vision using Kragle, later revealed to be a tube of Krazy Glue.

            Lord Business’s embodies Horkheimer and Adorno’s idea that the cultural industry is “the notion of genuine style seen to be the aesthetic equivalent of domination” (Horkheimer & Adorno 1115).  Business controls the minds of his constituents by playing the same television show on every station.  By showing the same television show repeatedly, on stations controlled by Lord Business, the ruler essentially dumbs down his audience through repression, compelling them to abide by a successful deprivation,  This results in “laughter because there is nothing to laugh at” (Horkeimer & Adorno 1118).  The people of the Lego Universe discuss this television show repeatedly in the course of their conversations, essentially allowing Lord Business to control the topic of discussion by controlling the media to which his people are exposed.  While the Lego people are busy discussing the television show, they have no time to question the rule of Lord Business or express their dissatisfaction with their life or government.

            Controlling music is another way Lord Business keeps his follower under his control.  In the Lego Universe, the theme song set on repeat is “Everything is Awesome”.  From the moment they arise in the morning, throughout the work day, to the time they go to sleep at night, “Everything is Awesome” is playing through the speakers or being sung mindlessly as they pass their time.  Just like the television show which causes laughter without cause, this theme song causes a false contentment through repetition.  The song causes an insincere type of pleasure in which “no independent thinking must be expected from the audience” (Horkheimer&Adorno 1116).  It also acts as a “bloated pleasure apparatus” which brings no dignity or advancement of thought to their lives (1116).  Essentially, the Lego citizens are made helpless through repetition and repression.

            When Emmet the construction worker meets Lucy/Wyldstyle, he becomes part of the search to find the Piece of Resistance.  The Piece of Resistance turns out to be a tube of Krazy Glue, in the possession of Lord Business who would freeze all Legos in positions deemed acceptable by this tyrant.  It soon becomes obvious that the Master Builders, architects who build without instruction manuals, are the enemy and are the only ones who can save the Lego Universe by their ability to build anything at a moment’s notice.  In the Lego Universe, Lord Business has partially maintained his hold over society by the notion that “the public is catered for with a hierarchical range of mass produced products of varying quality, thus advancing the rule of complete quantification” (Horkheimer&Adorno 1112).   The Lego Movie’s premise is that it is these Master Builders who can communicate the need for innovation and individuality to Lord Business by saving his life with their creativity.  This revelation allows Lord Business to throw the Kragle over the edge of the universe, vowing to never enforce conformity again.

            Warner Bros. The Lego Movie is an excellent example of the results that occur when the culture industry is ruled by those powerful in both government and the entertainment industry.  The film brings the Dialectic of Enlightenment to life in the guise of a children’s movie with a message for society as a whole.  Human beings owe it to themselves to be cognizant that the values influenced by television, radio, and even architecture can be the government’s way of enforcing unity of its people.  Unity, while important emotionally and politically, is not a concept that should be up for definition by government and media.  This film allows both adults and children alike to consider the thoughts of Horkheimer and Adorno, proving the notion that citizens must decide the extent they will allow culture to influence them.

 

 

 

 

Works Cited

Adorno, T.W.. and Horkheimer, Max. "Dialectic of Enlightenment." Leitch, Vincent B. The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2010. 1110-1127. Print.

The Lego Movie. Dir. Phil Lord. Perf. Chris Pratt. 2014. Film.

 

 

 

Freud’s “Fetishism” and E.L. James’s Fifty Shades of Grey

 

            Freud based his theory on Fetishism by analyzing men who “suffered” from fetishism based of off childhood trauma which affected their sexuality.  This theorist contends that “an investigation of fetishism is strongly recommended to anyone who still doubts the existence of the castration complex or who can still believe that fright of the sight of the female genital for some other ground—for instance, that it is derived from a supposed recollection of the trauma of birth” (Freud 843-844).  E.L. James’s character of Christian Grey in her erotic novel Fifty Shades of Grey is the embodiment of Freud’s argument that men with fetishes are not unnaturally fearful of castration but simply satisfy curious sexual cravings which have become distorted due to vast types of childhood emotional damage .  While Freud was bound by censorship from presenting his case studies to the public, James suffers no such limits and presents Christian Grey as a fetishist who uses rough sex to cover for his own mother’s lack of a penis as he contracts participants in his kinkiness in order to smooth the way for the acceptance of his addiction.

            Through an obsession with sadomasochism, Grey works through childhood issues of abandonment by acting as a sexual dominant to ease his way into sexual relationships, achieving sexual satisfaction through pain as a replacement for a birth-mother who could not save him as a child.  E.L. James describes Christian Grey‘s childhood as a nightmare due to the neglect of a mother that he labels “the crack whore” and the abuse suffered at the hand of his mother’s pimp.  James writes: While Grey is a young billionaire, seemingly leading the perfect life, most of his peers do not realize that he is unable to maintain intimate relationships with women other than those he contracts through a BDSM contract.  He stipulates that he is not to be touched by his “lovers” as his body and mind still suffer the stress of his childhood upset.   Freud stresses that “the fetish is the substitute for the penis…the fetish is a substitute for the women’s (the mother’s) penis that the little boy once believed in and—for reasons familiar to us—does not want to give up” (Freud 843).  Christian Grey loved his mother deeply as a child, but she could not protect him from abuse as her drug addiction incapacitated her.  The metaphorical penis that Grey does not want to relinquish in this situation is the power that the bearer of the penis secures as armor against feeling pain both physical and mental.  His activities in BDSM relationships allow Christian to fulfill his longing for the rough contact he feels he deserves to shelter himself from hurt he endure when his mother did not have a “penis” to shield him.

            Freud reasons that those who are dominated by fetishes “are quite satisfied with it, or even praise the way in which it eases their erotic life” (Freud 841).  Christian Grey does not regret his forays into contractual, abusive relationships as his lack of emotional attachments and viewing his fetish as a business arrangement paves the way for his acts of unnatural kinkiness.  One of the rules for obedience when entering into Christian’s world is that “the submissive will obey any instructions given by the Dominant immediately without hesitation or reservation in an expeditious manner.  The submissive will agree to any sexual activity deemed fit and pleasurable by the Dominant excepting those limits outlined in hard limits” (James 2965).  The women in his sexual life leave the method of his sexual urge fulfillment due to the business- like nature that the pact between themselves and Grey affords their relations.  This character is guaranteed to always have a willing party to his ministrations and the women involved no that they will not be pushed beyond any “hard limits” stipulated in their agreement. 

            Freud states about the men he studied that “for obvious reasons the details of these cases must be withheld from publication” (Freud 841), however, E.L. James’s is not bound by the same censorship with stymied Freud in his essay.  In her novel Fifty Shades of Grey, James writes the character of Christian Grey as if she is personifying the description of Freud’s fetish-bound case studies.  Though Grey suffers from emasculation due to his mother’s lack of power, or “penis” to prevent his abuse as a child, he uses his perversity to deal with said abuse while fulfilling his dark obsession with causing pain to a willing participant.  While Freud was bound by censorship and was unable to share the stories of the men featured in his essay “Fetishism”, James picks up where the psychologist leaves off and examines what happens when the sufferer of a fetish falls in love.

Works Cited

Freud, S. (2010). Fetishism. In V. B. Leitch, The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism (pp. 841-845). New York: W.W. Norton & Company.

James, E. (2011). Fifty Shades of Grey. Texas: The Writer's Coffee Shop.

 

 

 

De Saussure’s Course in General Linguistics and Stephen King’s The Stand

 

            I find it absolutely thrilling when literary theory and a piece of contemporary literature of my own choosing come together to prove a point.  Ferdinand De Saussure states in Course in General Linguistics: “Whereas speech is heterogeneous, language, as defined, is homogeneous.  It is a system of signs in which the only essential thing is the union of meaning and sound-images, and in which both parts of the sign are psychological” (De Saussure 850).  The character of Nick Andros in Stephen King’s The Stand is a deaf-mute who embodies the philosophy that language performs as a tool capable of bringing all human beings together through writing, signs that express ideas, and that the consideration mischaracterizing language as simply a “naming process” which belittles the power of communication to be found in both spoken and written word.

            King’s character of Nick Andros finds himself in the wrong place at the wrong time as he is beaten up by small town thugs who consider him weak because he can neither hear nor speak.  The fact that the United States of America is suffering from a plague which is the symptom of an apocalypse to come is second to the fact that Nick must find alternate means to communicate with those around him.  De Saussure states that “language is a storehouse of sound-images and writing is the tangible form of those images” (De Saussure 850).  When Nick was a child, he had very little communication with the outside world, and only understood through the general persistence of his mother that his name was “Nicholas Andros” after her repeated attempts to assist Nick in associating himself with her words written on paper.  Nick communicates in his written narrative that he finds solace in the term “incommunicado” as he had been unable to communicate through means determined normal for all of his life.   He “lived in a silent world.  Writing was code.  Speech was the moving of lips, the rise and fall of teeth, the dance of the tongue.  His mother taught him to read lips, and had taught him how to write his name in struggling, sprawling letters” (King 133).  While Nick can read lips, he relies on written word to connect with other human beings in a way that he cannot vocally.

            Considering language as simply a tool which names objects disparages the effects that language has on society.  While language is much more than simply a means of placing a name to an object, this is a notion that Nick mourned the lack of the most as a deaf/mute child.  In The Stand, King writes:

                        The worst part of being a deaf-mute as not living in the silent movie                                world; the worst part was not knowing the names of things.  He had not                                     really begun to understand the concept of naming until he was four.  He                                   had not known that you called the tall green things trees until he was six.                               He wanted to know, but no one had thought to tell him and he had no way                            to ask: he was INCOMMUNICADO (133).

Instead of characterizing the ordinary person who refuses to look no further at language then its naming properties, Nick lived in a silent world of no expression. The discovery that there were names for the objects he encountered in his life was the beginning of his ability to communicate.  De Saussure further contends that “the linguistic unit is a double entity, one formed by the associating of two terms” (De Saussure 852).  For Nick, the association previously mentioned of his name on a sheet of paper and hands on his chest unite the two terms, “Nicholas Andros” and “you”.

            De Saussure theorizes that “the linguistic sign unites, not a thing and a name, but a concept and a sound-image…the sound image is sensory” (De Saussure 852-853).  Nick Andros cannot hear, however he uses signs to communicate feelings and senses.  While much of the rhythm of language comes from pleasurable or frightening sounds, Nick’s hand gestures and facial expressions perform roughly the same action.  In the small town in Arkansas where Nick is attacked, he volunteers to help out the sheriff of the area who falls ill.  Although Nick has a tablet where he writes notes to the sheriff, writing alone sometimes cannot portray his angst.  When asked how the prisoners being kept overnight in the cell behaved, “Nick opened and closed his mouth several times in a mime jabbering.  Looking furious.  Made banging gestures on invisible bars.  The sheriff threw back his head and laughed” (King 137).  Much as the sound of language with its rhythm and musicality impart sensory perception, Nick has transformed his gestures to substitute for ordinary language while conveying feelings and ideas in a manner easily understood by others.  He does not sign simply tangible objects but concepts as well.

            Deaf-mute character Nick Andros in Stephen King’s The Stand gives a human face to Ferdinand de Saussure’s theories expressed in Course in General Linguistics.  Andros uses written language as his tool to connect with other humans, utilizing language initially as naming process to bridge the gap created by his own non-existent ability to make sounds or hear them.  He later proves that written language can be as powerful as spoken dialogue when the power of speech and hearing are lacking.  King utilizes Nick as a man using language as much more than a simple naming process but rather a means of expressing sensation.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Works Cited

De Saussure, Ferdinand. "Course in General Linguistics." Leitch, Vincent B. Gen. Ed. The Norton Anthology of Literary Criticism. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2010. 850-866. Print.

King, Stephen. The Stand. New York: Penguin Books, 1990. Print.

 

           

           

“Base and Superstructure in Marxist Cultural Theory” and Ally Condie’s Matched

 

            British intellectual theorist Raymond Williams argues in his essay “Base and Superstructure in Marxist Cultural Theory” that contemporary critical theory is “concerned with understanding an object in such a way that is can be profitably or correctly consumed” (Williams 1434).  Ally Condie is an author of young adult novels which puts Williams’s theory to practice in her novel Matched.  This first novel in the trilogy focuses on the life of teenager Cassia Maria Reyes.  Cassia lives in dystopian America where “Society” determines every aspect of the life of their constituents.  Everything from literature to be read, art to be viewed, dietary concerns, even marriages are resolved by the ruling body  in order to preserve a peaceful, though regimented life.  Williams postulates in his commentary that “in any society, in any particular period, there is a central system of practices, meanings and values, which we can properly call dominant and effective” (Williams 1429).  Condie’s novel puts Marxist theories of Communism and Williams’s interpretations of them to the test, documenting in her fictitious novel what can happen when a collective determines taste and sensibility for its people.  Society’s dominant culture turns art into objects, artifacts, and commodities; promoting an extinction of individual determination of taste, annihilation of the personal expression of sentiment, and a black market that thrives on the intention of regaining the meaning that has been lost.

            Williams contends that most discussion of literary theory tends to be directed towards “the discovery of a method, perhaps even a methodology, through which particular works of art can be understood and described” (Williams 1434).  In Cassia’s world, theories of taste are irrelevant as Society regulates which literature, movies, music, and paintings its people will be exposed to while establishing which interpretations of each piece will be taught in the schools.  Each genre of art is broken down into groups of only one hundred, and any other pieces of art which is discovered in the ruins of the prior civilization becomes taboo.  A snowy day causes Cassia to recall a poem in her Literacy and Learning class entitle “Stopping by the Wood on a Snowy Evening”.  The recollection of this poem causes her to reflect on Society’s reasoning for gleaning on the best one hundred pieces of culture.  Condie writes: “They created commissions to choose the hundred best of everything: Hundred Songs, Hundred Paintings, Hundred Stories, Hundred Poems.  The rest were eliminated.  Gone forever.  For the best, the Society said, and everyone believed it because it made sense.  How can we appreciate anything fully when overwhelmed with too much?’ (Condie 24).   In Matched’s society, the ruling bodies have taken Williams’s allusion to I.A. Richards concerning “What effect does this work have on me?” (1435) to the next level where Society determines what effect art is going to have on its people.

            Condie’s fiction realm determines that when an object is kept from past incarnations of culture, the object is resolved to be an “artifact”.  The author defines an artifact as “a few treasures from the past which float around among us.  Though citizens of Society are allowed, one artifact each, they are hard to come by” (Condie 8).  Cassia’s artifact is a gold, engraved compact from the 1940’s that was owned by her grandmother, who was on the committee for choosing the One Hundred Poems.  Hidden within the compact,unbeknownst to Cassia until later in the novel, is a shred of paper which contains the poem of Dylan Thomas’s entitled “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night”.  Thomas’s poem was not chosen as one of “The Hundred” as it encourages rebellion.  This discovery is important for Cassie who realized that she is limited by living in a place where she cannot write and people “merely know how to use the words of another” (Condie 57).  Society treats works of art as objects and has honed the understanding of these objects in such a way “that is can profitably or correctly be consumed” (Williams 1434).  Society has left its members voiceless, having taken away their own individual interpretations of art and without the means of expressing their feelings and concerns unless they utilize the approved sentiments of another.

            Condie’s world also exhibits art as a black market commodity.  Because many pieces of art were previously determined to express emotions outside of Society’s practices and expectations, a rebellion is beginning to thrive.  This rebellion is finding its voice within the black market trade of art, literature, and artifacts.  In the sub-heading “The Complexity of Hegemony”, Williams explores the concept of selective traditions in which “the terms of an effective dominant culture is always passed off as ‘the tradition’, the significant past” (Williams 1429).  In Matched, Society has determined that it will only preserve art which fosters feeling of contentment and suppress art which stirs rebellion.  The intended result is a culture of docility but what rises is an underworld which prospers on the exposure of banned art and artifacts which spark genuine feeling.  Sentiments such as Dylan Thomas’s “Rage, rage, against the dying of the light” are such that causes mankind to questions why they have stopped fighting for their own desires, raising disillusionment against the oppressive culture which suppresses reality.

            Allie Condie’s young adult novel Matched seems to be a novel unlikely to be applied with Communist theory, however the book depicts what can happen when the laudable properties of such as theory go array due to control by a dominant culture.  When a dominant entity determines what it people will read, view, and consume, the original concept of social equality is overthrown for the leadership of a tyrannical force, driven to oppress creativity, turning art into objects only to be genuinely enjoyed underground away from “big brother”.  In this novel, William’s interpretive theories become warnings of what can happen if a body determines to squelch the individual interpretations of art, and promulgate a practice of restrictive Hegemony.

 

Works Cited

Conde, Ally. Matched. New York: Dutton Books, a member of Penguin Group, 2010. Print.

Williams, Raymond. "Base and Superstructure in Marxist Cultural Theory." Leitch, Vincent B. gen. ed. The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism, Second Edition. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2010. 1423-1437. Print.

 

 

           

           

           

Tennyson’s Poetic Journey and Eliot’s “Tradition and the Individual Talent”

 

            In poet T.S. Eliot’s literary theory entitled “Tradition and Individual Talent”, the modernist writer contends that history and tradition “compels a man to write not merely with his own generation in his bones but with a feeling that the whole of the literature in Europe from Homer and within it the whole of the literature of his own country, has a simultaneous existence and composes a simultaneous order” (Eliot, 956).   Eliot further argues that an excellent writer is always cognizant of the past while looking towards the future.  Poet and playwright Alfred, Lord Tennyson embodies the characteristics that Eliot finds important in a poet, commencing as a young award winner who experiences personal and professional strife while propel him into becoming seasoned poet laureate.  Tennyson perfected his craft; edifying Eliot’s ideals that the poetry of a younger poet versus and older poet is different because the elder has had more time and experience to hone their ability.  Tennyson fulfills Eliot’s ideal of the perfect poet, as expressed in “Tradition and the Individual Talent”.  The poet’s journey from early success, through the deaths of his father and later best friend, as well as experiencing milestones of maturation such first love allow “Timbuctoo”, “In Memoriam”, and “The Lady of Shallot” to bestow the title of Poet onto Alfred, Lord Tennyson.

            Tennyson’s first award winning poem was entitled “Timbuctoo” and won him the Chancellor’s Award at Cambridge University at the age of nineteen.  It was based off of an earlier poem of the youth entitled “Armageddon” which he wrote at fifteen years of age.  This particular poem is proof positive of Eliot’s theory that “the difference between the present and the past is that the conscious present is an awareness of the past in a way and to an extent which the past’s awareness of itself cannot show” (Eliot 957).  The young Tennyson’s poet focuses on the exploration possible in the future for the British stemming from exploration into Africa.  Unlike the poems that Tennyson writes in his later years, this particular poem takes on more fanciful tones, exploring man’s mystical journey from a member of ancient civilization such as the builders of the ancient pyramids to the citizens of “Atalantis” while keeping in mind all that still lays waiting for discovery in the future.  The narrator of the poem, Fred, realizes that the discoveries of the past must remain behind, stating “Unto all eyes, the time is well-nigh come/ When I must render up this glorious home/ To keen Discovery” (lines 239-240).  The young poet has an air of looking forward, while the elder Tennyson makes his fame on the ability to look back, making his literary world timeless.

            Lord Tennyson’s father personally held himself responsible for his son’s education from his early years to his acceptance at Trinity College.  While Tennyson experienced primary success with “Timbuctoo”, his first effort immediately prior to death of his father in 1831 fell flat.  The volume entitled Poems Chiefly Lyrical was ill-received by the public as it lacked the fancy found in his earlier poetry.  At this point, Tennyson has not experienced the life events that would make his later poetry such as “The Lady of Shallot” great.  The poetry of this early period in Tennyson’s career represents Eliot’s claim that “the mind of the mature poet differs from that of the immature one not precisely in any valuation of ‘personality’, not being necessarily more interesting, or having ‘more to say’, but rather being a more perfected medium in which special, or very varied, feelings are at liberty to experience more combinations” (Eliot 958).  The deaths of Tennyson’s father as well as his best friend Hallam begin to give his poetry depth.  Subsequent events after these important deaths such as love gained, love lost, as well as recovered fame added gravity to Tennyson’s poetry not seen in his work previously.  His poem “In Memoriam”, written in 1850, brings attention to the question of what happens to loved ones after their deaths.  While “Timbuctoo” looks backwards and forwards, “In Memoriam” focuses on the present and the struggle to make sense of religion and divinity.  The poem expresses the realizations of a man no longer young, recognizing his own immortality.  The lines “Our little systems have their day; / They have their day and cease to be; / They are but broken lights of thee, / And thou, Oh Lord, art more than they” (lines 17-20).   The evolution of Tennyson as a poet looking towards a mystical future and the poetry of an older Tennyson who has realized his own mortality through love and loss symbolizes Eliot’s poet of achievement who thrives on personal experience.

            “The Lady of Shallot” written later in Tennyson’s career answers Eliot’s case that a diversion of thought from the emotions of the poet himself to the expression of significant emotion in a seemingly impersonal matter is a feat “technical excellence” (Eliot 961).  Tennyson’s poem reflects on the plight of the isolated and cursed “Lady of Shallot” who is willing to meet her death instead of being kept away from the citizens of Camelot.  This poem is vastly different from “Timbuctoo” and “In Memoriam” because the main character is the Lady, who is living a life in a persona and time strictly foreign to the author himself.  While Tennyson is certainly far away in every aspect from the Lady, he brings to life her emotions of isolation and desperation as if he himself were present in her life.  In the poem, the Lady “weaves by night and day/ A magic web with colours gay./ She has heard a whisper say,/ A curse is on her if she stay/ To look down to Camelot” (lines 37-41).  Tennyson’s own life is nothing like that of the Lady yet his credible expression of her loneliness and despair draw attention away from his own nineteenth century life to that of a woman despairing of her own existence in the fifth and sixth centuries.

            Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s literary career progressed from that of fanciful and mystical young poet to an introspective one with the ability to contemplate mortality while transcending the boundaries of personal expression and temporality.  He fulfills Eliot’s theories that poets develop into better poets over time due to experience, not just simply because they have more to say but due to a depth that only comes from life experience and practice.  Tennyson also satisfies the role of traditional poet who writes not only of his time but rather with a timeless quality encompassing the past, present, and future.  Through poems such as “Timbuctoo”, “In Memoriam”, and “The Lady of Shallot”, a reader of Tennyson’s work can realize how Eliot’s theory of “Tradition and the Individual Talent” applies to progression this poets work made throughout his lifetime.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Works Cited

Eliot, T.S. “Tradition and the Individual Talent”. The Norton Anthology of Theory and            Criticism. Ed. Leitch, Vincent B. 2nd ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Company.       955-     961. Print.

Tennyson, Alfred Lord. “In Memoriam.” Fifty Greatest Poems of Alfred Lord Tennyson.      Kean    Guides.  2010. Nook Book.

---. “The Lady of Shalott.” The Victorian Age. Eds. Henderson, Heather and William                          Sharpe. 4th ed. New York: Longman, 2010. 1181. Print. Vol. 2B of  The Longman           Anthology of British Literature. David Damrosch and Kevin J.H. Dettmar. gen. eds. 2   vols.

---. “Timbuctoo”. www.poetryfoundation.org. Web.

Horace’s Ars Poetica: Formula for the Success of Anne Rice’s The Wolf Gift

 

In Horace’s Ars Poetica, the philosopher stresses the importance of considering poetry as an art form conforming to certain parameters to communicate the author’s intent.  Horace claims that literature and poetry are crafts which have “rules and conventions that require both instructions and practice” (Leitch 120).  Bestselling novelist Anne Rice has taken the supernatural genre and mastered it by bringing characters such as werewolves, vampires, witches, and even Jesus Christ to life.  When comparing Rice’s latest novel, The Wolf Gift, to the rules of Horace’s Ars Poetica, it becomes obvious that modern day writers must still conform to the ancient edicts of writing as an art form which allow their novels to flourish.  Anne Rice’s careful attention to developing the emotion and character of her protagonist in order to engage her audience, her consistent handling of myth, and her disallowance of divine intervention fashion a believable tale of the supernatural intrigue which fit the strictures of Ars Poetica.

Rice centers her tale on Reuben, a sensitive and beautiful twenty-three year old man beginning his career in the news business.  He was raised in an affluent household and enjoys a closely knitted relationship with his family members. His parents, siblings, and even his lover condescendingly refer to Reuben as “Sunshine Boy”, “Little Boy”, and “Baby Boy” due to his easy going demeanor and utter lack of regard for his wealth and good looks (Rice 6).  Rice follows Horace’s tenant that “it will make a lot of difference whether your speaker is a god or a hero, an old man of ripe years or a hot youth, and influential matron or a hardworking nurse, a travelling merchant or the tiller of a green farm” (Horace 124).  The protagonist’s character and the allegiance ensure the reader is strongly influenced by their physical and emotional characteristics.  In Reuben’s case, his Master’s in English Literature, wealth, good personality, and unconscious sensuality recommend him to the reader as a person they should trust and care for.  The fact that he will soon be known as a “Man-Wolf” is easier to swallow once the reader has endeared him to their heart.

Rice’s supernatural tales such as “An Interview with a Vampire” and “Angel Time” have afforded her authority in the realm of the paranormal.  She bases her tales on myth, following Horace’s recommendation that a writer should “either follow tradition or invent a consistent story” (Horace 124).  Stephenie Meyers, who cut her teeth on the young adult vampire tale Twilight with little to no experience in mystic fiction allows vampires to sparkle in the sunlight, while Anne Rice stays the course of popular myth through predictable stereotypes of preternatural creatures she makes humanoid through her use of character development.  The Wolf Gift’s werewolves follow the dogma that these creatures are formed from the bite of a were, releasing the Chrism into the blood of its victim.  Reuben must kowtow to the edict that the supernatural will not reveal themselves to humans nor spread the Chrism without contemplation of onto whom he is bestowing his “wolf gift”.  Rice also follows the sanction that a character act his age.  Although the protagonist undergoes an unconventional change of species, he still acts like a twenty three year old man, with the needs and desires associated with his youth.

An element that Rice excludes is the possibility of divine intervention in stopping or hastening change into the Man-Wolf.  Her protagonist does not look to God for assistance.  The lack of pleading to a divine being for intercession follows Horace’s decree that “there should be no god to intervene, unless the problem merits such a champion” (Horace 126).  It is unclear whether Reuben believes in God but interesting that Rice depicts the character of his beloved brother Jim as a Catholic priest.  Reuben confesses his deeds to Jim in the confessional, not desiring absolution of his sins but as a means of seeing whether or not Jim can accept his transformation as he snuffs out evil through violence to benefit the greater good.  Reuben is resigned to his fate yet still hungers for the righteousness of his brother over the intervention of God in determining his fate.  In following Horace’s formula, Rice takes the focus away from determining whether God is merciful or vengeful in this case by making such divinity irrelevant to the outcome of Reuben’s tale.

Through character development, abidance with myth and literary tradition, as well as a disregard for divine intervention, Anne Rice utilizes the edicts of Horace’s Ars Poetica to create a novel above reproach.  Her appreciation of her characters as individuals and the knowledge that her readers must be able to connect on an emotional level with the protagonist of The Wolf Gift follow a strong philosophical recommendation for leading “the hearers mind wherever it will” (Horace 124).  Rice’s werewolf, or Wolf-Man, follows the rule that consistency is best when gaining a loyal audience while her unwillingness to heed the deific, strengthens man’s perspective that he is in charge of his own providence.  Whether or not the author realizes that she followed Horace’s pronouncements, her epic success is proof that Ars Poetica is pertinent to the triumph of the modern novel.

 

Works Cited

Horace. "Ars Poetica." Leitch, Vincent M. gen. ed. The Norton Anthology of Literature and Criticism. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2010. 119-133. Print.

Rice, Anne. The Wolf Gift. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House Inc., 2012. Print.

 

         

 

 

 

 

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T'ien-Hsin, Impersonal, Sudden Death is Best

 

Chu T’ien Hsin is a Taiwanese author  whose main topic of writing is what it means to be Taiwanese, “gradually moving from an emphasis on Chinese identity, expressing a nostalgic longing for a lost homeland”(Puchner, 1742).  In her story, “Man of La Mancha” however, she focuses on the idea that a sudden death is best if it happens in an impersonal and indescript manner.  This is the best way to avoid the shame that can come upon a person if they do not have their affairs in order when death come knocking at their door.  To further our understanding of her theme, T’ien Hsin writes on first person narrative from the perspective of a gay man, who shares with us his recent near death experience that causes him to revise his appearance.

The story begins where our narrator is working in a chain coffee shop on an essay he must compose for his work.  After he finishes, he realizes that he has way too many cups of coffee and the caffeine is doing a number on his heart.  He begins to feel the frightening and paralyzing “chill from my internal organs spreading out to my flesh and skin”(T’ien Hsin, 1744).  After our narrator manages to get himself to a doctor’s office for some IV fluids, he realizes how close he came to collapsing and public.  He begins to obsess over what would have happened if passer-bys  had to search his pockets, or see his underwear in the commotion that would follow an unplanned demise.  The results of his newfound obsession may seem ridiculous but they bring to light the fear of dying suddenly and embarrassing yourself by leaving behind secrets, whether they are dirty underwear or an untidy and boring wallet.

Although the story’s author is a woman, the narrator of the story drops hints that he is a gay man with a significant other through the subtle description of a fight they had over his new undergarments he purchased in case he were to drop dead in the middle of the street and someone had to see his underwear, “my significant other was all but convinced I had a new love interest, and we had a big fight over that”(T’ien-Hsin, 1749).  Is our narrator’s sexuality a secret in the sometimes stringent culture of the East?  Or is his lover the person he is trying to protect if he should die in a way that is embarrassing?

The author’s use of first person narrative serves her purpose of having us contemplate the narrator’s fear by putting us in his shoes.  How do we, as the reader, feel about the prospect of leaving behind our lives exposed to be judged by our survivors whether they be loved ones or family?  Is it better to leave behind an impersonal legacy instead of embarrassing ourselves?  The narrator purports at the conclusion of the story “death only visits us once in our lifetime, so we should make preparations for its arrival”(T’ien-Hsin, 1750).   However, the obsession with that preparation could rob us of a life worth living if we constantly worry about the legacy we are leaving behind.

Works Cited:

Ed. Pucher, Martin. "Chu T'ien-Hsin, born 1958." The Norton Anthology of World Literature, 1650 to Present. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2013. 1742-1744. Print.

T'ien-Hsin, Chu. "Man of La Mancha." Ed. Pucher, Martin. The Norton Anthology of World Literature, 1650 to Present. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2013. 1744-1750. Print.