Part 2: Use of Allusions in Reading and Writing Literature
Allusion. This is a funny word with many different definitions. I have already given the definition of allusion in the previous analysis of poetry, however the definition of poetry in reading and writing literature is a little different. Allusions, referring to reading and writing literature, is any piece or pieces of literary work or style that affects and creates effect in ones own work. Although broad in definition, the creation of such is necessary when discussing the following items: literature (difference between good and bad), an author’s own style, and political and environmental outlooks on the world around an author that influence either the author’s content or complete lack in content.
Poetry, being the earliest form of literature, is the most alluded too. Larger pieces, especially those in the political genre, are also one of the most alluded works in literature. The most alluded piece of literature is Shakespeare’s Hamlet, followed shortly there after by the Christian Bible and the Creco-Roman Mythos. (If you do not have a working understanding of these three things I suggest getting one.)
When reading academic literature (not escapism) one should ask themselves what do I get from this book. If the answer is nothing, then put the book down it is of no use to you. At the same time, if you absolutely hate a book, but you do get something out of it (even if it is not to write this way) finish it. If you do not like an author or an authors work, but while reading his book, you are enlightened in one way or another, then the author has done his job.
This goes for writing literature as well. Even if one does not put any allusions in their work, their style will be directly proportional to the amount that they have read and eternalized. Just having read it is only half way. If someone reads something and does not understand than they are not fulfilling their potential as writers.
With each idea, fact, and facial that a writer obtains; their work will be enhanced ten fold. A good writer will have a working understanding of Ancient and Modern History, one’s own linguistical history, canonized works, and the modern movements in all arts and their relationships with the political, social, and religious ramifications of each movement. There is a saying that a good writer writes what they know. I say know everything.
In the real world it is impossible for someone to know everything. Period. Each person has a different bias and angle on everything they interpret in the world around them. What is black to one person is white to another. It is the colors of different identities that enable art to form in the shapes that it has.
Tuesday, June 27, 2006
Saturday, June 10, 2006
Essay on Allusions in Poetics
Part 1:Use of Allusions in Poetry
Poetry has been around for thousands of years, as early as 400,000 years. With the lowering of the female sex organ in Homo erectusshifted and the devolpment of the Homo Sapain occured. With the shifting of the sex organ, humans had to at that point talk to the females of the group to encourage breeding. This progressed into oral tradition and around 23000 B.C.E. with the development of the Paleolithic Age the evolution progressed far enough for one to assume that poetry in its many different forms was occuring and had been occuring for many years before.
As a way to woo, or manipulate the masses, poetry is the first form of literature. Through the years, poetry has shifted in artistic designs like dust in the wind, however the core of poetics remains. Allusion. An allusion is a literary device that uses symbols, words, form, and style to encapsulate ideas or ideals into one specific thing. Many allusions are word allusions, or classical allusions that normally use other older literary works or archetypes to create depth and meaning. Allusions are essential to poetry and without them poetry does not exist. That does not mean that classical allusions are in everything, which would be a gross overstatement, but that allusions, whether literary, symbolic, political, or religious, are in every piece of Western Poetry.
Everyone can agree that in classical literature the allusion is necessary. However, some people would say that with the advent of modern art, allusions have taken a step back. This would be a falsity. Allusions are probably stronger now then they ever were before. Allusions, whether classical or otherwise, are in all poetry. It is necessary at this time to state that by allusions I am not describing the linguistical significance of the sign and the signifier , but to the literary and worldly symbolism. Their some allusions that I cannot understand, nor will never understand, but they are in fact allusions to something else.
In modern poetry, the allusions can be found in all aspects: from form and structure, to the more standard examples of words based symbols. Because these symbols allude to thing, one must accept them as true classical allusions. Some authors do not realize that they are alluding to something because of the stipulation that allusions are everywhere, from mainstream television like Buffy the Vampire Slayer to Flarf Poetry and other modern poetic movements such as Sound Poetry.
K. Silem Mohammad’s poetry is modern Flarf written and influenced poetry. In one of his newest poems entitled “Fido-Enhanced” alludes to Flipper (a television series of the seventies and a mid nineties movie title) in line 16 “if you find the idea of eating Flipper hard to swallow”. This line also has a cousin of allusions, clichéd colloquialisms. These colloquialisms are not allusions, however they do enhance, sometimes, the allusiosn.
Although this is not an allusion from a classical literary agent, it is an allusion. Other modern poets are even more vague with their allusions. Ian Hamilton Finlay wrote concrete poetry and both of his poems “Sea Poppy 1” and “Sea Poppy2” are one giant allusion. In “Sea Poppy 1” his allusion are based on the radio or microwave call letters or the like so I cannot respond on his literary works as such. However, his form is an allusions into the cyclical aspects of his thoughts. If you look at the poem as a window into the mind you can see a circle, a cone, a hole , a phalis, a code, symmetry, asymmetry, etc. The allusions that one can pull out of just the shape are endless. This poem represents the completeness of society, giving birth to both male dominance and feminine dominance. Or could just be a circle, but the point of it is that every shape, word, and grammar nuance is a possible allusion to something else.
Someone cannot tell the artist what something means. Sometimes a cow is just a cow, not an archetype of the feminine, just a moocow. In Finley’s “Sea Poppy 2” one can easily decipher the allusions. The shape is a circle; the words all refer to an ideal. A heavenly ideal: peace, riches, joy, divine. The allusions are that of an ideal, the ideal of peace and posperity. The shape, being a circle, refers to the intermingling of societies to achieve that ideal. These are all allusions. However, my manipulation of the meanings might differ from others, but those others would still accept the fact that they are allusions.
T.S. Elliot, believed to be one of the founding fathers of modern poetry used allusions in every piece of writing he published. He used so many allusions that the footnotes are normally longer then the poem itself. “The Wasteland” is filled to the brim with allusions, and “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” is an astounding champion of allusive use. Even before the poem starts there is an allusion to Dante’s Inferno in the Epigraph “S’io credaessi che mia risposta fosse…” In line 3 Elliot alludes to the surgical audiences that were popular in the medical community in the late 19th century “a patient etherized on a table;.” Line 14 Elliot brings up Michelangelo and line 29 he brings up the Greek Poet Hesiod “all the works and days of hands” referring to his didactic poem on agriculture.
Elliot walks a thin line between too much allusion and not enough allusion for sake of poetic depth. If Elliot had removed a substantial amount of the allusions his work would lack in depth. However, it is possible that to many allusions create a limited audience. If no one understands your allusions then maybe there are to many.
This is not to say that one must dummy down the use of allusions, but create an interested way to manipulate the allusions to suit your cause. As time continues to goose step on, the audience of poetry continues to shrink. As of now, with the use of ridiculous style and format, the audience is (a rough estimate) 40 percent of the population. With the continuation of excessive use of allusions, the audience will continue to shrink each decade. Art is dead, and artists killed it.
Poetry has been around for thousands of years, as early as 400,000 years. With the lowering of the female sex organ in Homo erectusshifted and the devolpment of the Homo Sapain occured. With the shifting of the sex organ, humans had to at that point talk to the females of the group to encourage breeding. This progressed into oral tradition and around 23000 B.C.E. with the development of the Paleolithic Age the evolution progressed far enough for one to assume that poetry in its many different forms was occuring and had been occuring for many years before.
As a way to woo, or manipulate the masses, poetry is the first form of literature. Through the years, poetry has shifted in artistic designs like dust in the wind, however the core of poetics remains. Allusion. An allusion is a literary device that uses symbols, words, form, and style to encapsulate ideas or ideals into one specific thing. Many allusions are word allusions, or classical allusions that normally use other older literary works or archetypes to create depth and meaning. Allusions are essential to poetry and without them poetry does not exist. That does not mean that classical allusions are in everything, which would be a gross overstatement, but that allusions, whether literary, symbolic, political, or religious, are in every piece of Western Poetry.
Everyone can agree that in classical literature the allusion is necessary. However, some people would say that with the advent of modern art, allusions have taken a step back. This would be a falsity. Allusions are probably stronger now then they ever were before. Allusions, whether classical or otherwise, are in all poetry. It is necessary at this time to state that by allusions I am not describing the linguistical significance of the sign and the signifier , but to the literary and worldly symbolism. Their some allusions that I cannot understand, nor will never understand, but they are in fact allusions to something else.
In modern poetry, the allusions can be found in all aspects: from form and structure, to the more standard examples of words based symbols. Because these symbols allude to thing, one must accept them as true classical allusions. Some authors do not realize that they are alluding to something because of the stipulation that allusions are everywhere, from mainstream television like Buffy the Vampire Slayer to Flarf Poetry and other modern poetic movements such as Sound Poetry.
K. Silem Mohammad’s poetry is modern Flarf written and influenced poetry. In one of his newest poems entitled “Fido-Enhanced” alludes to Flipper (a television series of the seventies and a mid nineties movie title) in line 16 “if you find the idea of eating Flipper hard to swallow”. This line also has a cousin of allusions, clichéd colloquialisms. These colloquialisms are not allusions, however they do enhance, sometimes, the allusiosn.
Although this is not an allusion from a classical literary agent, it is an allusion. Other modern poets are even more vague with their allusions. Ian Hamilton Finlay wrote concrete poetry and both of his poems “Sea Poppy 1” and “Sea Poppy2” are one giant allusion. In “Sea Poppy 1” his allusion are based on the radio or microwave call letters or the like so I cannot respond on his literary works as such. However, his form is an allusions into the cyclical aspects of his thoughts. If you look at the poem as a window into the mind you can see a circle, a cone, a hole , a phalis, a code, symmetry, asymmetry, etc. The allusions that one can pull out of just the shape are endless. This poem represents the completeness of society, giving birth to both male dominance and feminine dominance. Or could just be a circle, but the point of it is that every shape, word, and grammar nuance is a possible allusion to something else.
Someone cannot tell the artist what something means. Sometimes a cow is just a cow, not an archetype of the feminine, just a moocow. In Finley’s “Sea Poppy 2” one can easily decipher the allusions. The shape is a circle; the words all refer to an ideal. A heavenly ideal: peace, riches, joy, divine. The allusions are that of an ideal, the ideal of peace and posperity. The shape, being a circle, refers to the intermingling of societies to achieve that ideal. These are all allusions. However, my manipulation of the meanings might differ from others, but those others would still accept the fact that they are allusions.
T.S. Elliot, believed to be one of the founding fathers of modern poetry used allusions in every piece of writing he published. He used so many allusions that the footnotes are normally longer then the poem itself. “The Wasteland” is filled to the brim with allusions, and “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” is an astounding champion of allusive use. Even before the poem starts there is an allusion to Dante’s Inferno in the Epigraph “S’io credaessi che mia risposta fosse…” In line 3 Elliot alludes to the surgical audiences that were popular in the medical community in the late 19th century “a patient etherized on a table;.” Line 14 Elliot brings up Michelangelo and line 29 he brings up the Greek Poet Hesiod “all the works and days of hands” referring to his didactic poem on agriculture.
Elliot walks a thin line between too much allusion and not enough allusion for sake of poetic depth. If Elliot had removed a substantial amount of the allusions his work would lack in depth. However, it is possible that to many allusions create a limited audience. If no one understands your allusions then maybe there are to many.
This is not to say that one must dummy down the use of allusions, but create an interested way to manipulate the allusions to suit your cause. As time continues to goose step on, the audience of poetry continues to shrink. As of now, with the use of ridiculous style and format, the audience is (a rough estimate) 40 percent of the population. With the continuation of excessive use of allusions, the audience will continue to shrink each decade. Art is dead, and artists killed it.
Saturday, June 03, 2006
ILLUMINATE
I L L U M I N A T E
G O O N I D O L O N
N O N D E I S I L L
O M E I N O T N E I
R E D G E M R E R G
A[L I F E I] A[S I]H
N[L L U S I] L[O N]T
C[S E S C A]O[P E]E
E D U M A C E T E D
okay, so it works better on word. If you want, cut and paste this to word then line up the letters except the ones in brackets. then see what it spells.
G O O N I D O L O N
N O N D E I S I L L
O M E I N O T N E I
R E D G E M R E R G
A[L I F E I] A[S I]H
N[L L U S I] L[O N]T
C[S E S C A]O[P E]E
E D U M A C E T E D
okay, so it works better on word. If you want, cut and paste this to word then line up the letters except the ones in brackets. then see what it spells.
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