Thursday, March 29, 2012

Tweet-A-Week: Peter Doyle

Peter Doyle was this one dude that Whitman loved. According to Doyle, as documented in the Whitman Archive online, their first meeting was like this:

While a passenger one evening on Doyle's horsecar, the 45-year old Whitman met the 21-year old conductor. Doyle described their first encounter:
You ask where I first met him? It is a curious story. We felt to each other at once. I was a conductor. The night was very stormy,—he had been over to see Burroughs before he came down to take the car—the storm was awful. Walt had his blanket—it was thrown round his shoulders—he seemed like an old sea-captain. He was the only passenger, it was a lonely night, so I thought I would go in and talk with him. Something in me made me do it and something in him drew me that way. He used to say there was something in me had the same effect on him. Anyway, I went into the car. We were familiar at once—I put my hand on his knee—we understood. He did not get out at the end of the trip—in fact went all the way back with me. I think the year of this was 1866. From that time on we were the biggest sort of friends (Bucke, 23).
I wanted to make sure to read the Calamus poems before writing this entry, as I figured to relate Peter Doyle to Walt Whitman was to know what the Calamus poems were all about. Whitman's job was that he was a writer. As a writer, he was drawn towards the life of "roughs" especially. Peter Doyle was one of these roughs. Peter worked as Blacksmith's helper in a Navy Yard at a time in his life, as well as a conductor when Walt met him, among other things. Whitman could romanticize these 'roughs,' and Peter could be seen as the 'rough' who became Whitman's close companion, friend, muse, and romantic partner.

"For a time, Whitman had even taken up the carpenter's craft that his father had taught to Walt and the other Whitman boys." -Peter the Great: Biography of Peter Doyle by Martin G. Murray.


Though Whitman was a writer, Peter connected Whitman to this life of a rough, which Whitman seemed to want to be more of a part of (as he previously was through connection from his family and his own foray in the world of carpentry). This may have led to some initial attraction and some good conversation between the two men, but at the end of the day, they ended up becoming great friends and lovers. Some poems in the Calamus cluster bring up the image of the Calamus, a plant that has a part that looks like a ding-a-ling. Other poems explore manly love, especially in the form of physical, sexual love, speaking of bodies intertwined with each other as if it was the only way a man could be happy. Other poems sound like love songs you might hear anywhere on the radio, only they mention that the love is between two men (which is something you wouldn't hear much on the radio, unless you listen to a very, very alternative station). Those poems which only focus on the love are very romantic and sweet, speaking of a longing for a "friend," a best friend, whose companionship brings true happiness. For Walt Whitman, Peter Doyle was that friend.

When I typed 'ding-a-ling' in this post to describe the calamus, I remembered this song, which got heavy play on hip-hop radio back in 1998. I was 10 years old then. I had no business listening to this song. It's almost as freaky as Whitman. That hook is kinda classic though, no?

*I recommend not clicking on the song. I got off home from work at 1am, have yet to sleep, and my mind is lacking its best judgement, I'm sure.*

Project Development

I kinda wanted to look at some more of Whitman's peers, but at the same time, I didn't. Then I also wanted to look at more examples of Whitman in Mass Media, but at the same time, I didn't. I was wondering if I could do a project that in a way combines elements from those two projects (but at the same time, is a bit different)? What I had in mind is looking for a few of Whitman's peers, not in terms of time/place/artform, but in terms of an artist who directly claims Whitman as a heavy influence and creates art as a 'peer' of Whitman in terms of his 'realm of style' (and I wouldn't dwell on any of the poets/artists who are involved in our teaching project). After finding a few artists who state they are directly influenced, I wanted to look at what exactly they took from Whitman's influence (free-form? romantic aspects? ideas of interconnectedness? language? democratic ideals?) I wanted to build on the other 'Whitman's Peers' post by showing Whitman influence that is direct and stated, and this idea comes from the fact that one of my 'Whitman In Mass Media' entries directly stated Whitman as an influence. What I really hope to find is a few artists I don't know much about, and examining their art to find what they borrow from Whitman, which might also show me what certain things people notice the most about Whitman.

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

"B*tches in Bookstores"

1:23- "Watch me spit, classic lit, epic poems that don't rhyme."

She's obviously talking about Whitman, yo.
 
(She's actually talking about The Iliad, but you can tell she wanted to say Leaves of Grass.)

I'm J.K. Rowling

Thursday, March 15, 2012

Tweet-A-Week: Martin F. Tupper

        Martin Farquhar Tupper (1810-1889) was a dude. He wrote poetry, and notably wrote Proverbial Philosophy, A Book of Thoughts and Arguments, which was a book about thoughts and arguments. He dropped knowledge over the pages, while other authors just clumsily spilled knowledge (I stole that one from Immortal Technique). Why do I say he dropped knowledge instead of spilled? He wrote the book in prose, but not necessarily sticking to any traditional poetry form either. He wrote in what would today be called free-verse, which is what Whitman liked to do as we've seen in Leaves of Grass. He was a bit of a pioneer in that sense and no doubt influenced writers of the future.(Whitman called him "a rare man of our time.")

        In a contemporary review of Whitman's 1860/1861 version of Leaves of Grass, one reviewer notes:

Can it be possible that Mr. Tupper's "Proverbial Philosophy" has inspired Mr. Walt Whitman with the idea of his Leaves? We have most of us probably heard and read of persons who solved mathematical problems or composed poetry while asleep; and we think it just possible that the author of "Proverbial Philosophy" may unconsciously, while suffering from a fit of the nightmare, have had something to do with the composition of these American Leaves. At least we trace in them some wild fantastic resemblance to his style; such as to make us pretty sure that Mr. Whitman has occasionally "tasted the simple store and rested one soothing hour" with the English poetaster whose words we quote.

        The reviewer notes how similar the writing styles are, and finishes the review by saying that "Sense, grammar, and metre are but very minor parts in the composition of poetry; but nevertheless, pace Walt Whitman, poetry cannot exist without this humble triad."

He's basically saying poetry needs sense, grammar, and meter in order to exist.

Walt and Martin's response?:
You know which one Whitman be!

Monday, March 12, 2012

Specimen Days: Home-Made Music

        In this entry, Whitman speaks not of an event, but of an experience. The setting of his journal entry is one where he is spending the night among the wounded soldiers. He hears singing, and decides to leave the side of the soldier he was accompanying for a moment, as he was asleep anyway. He gets closer to the music, and takes a seat by another wounded soldier, a Brooklyn friend. As he sits there watching the singers, and making sure his wounded friend can also see the singers, he has a beautiful experience. He realizes that even though these singers don't sing as great as the pro singers in the New York opera house, and weren't performing complex musical compositions, he enjoyed himself as much as if he were in the opera house watching the most grand of performances. He notices the way the wounded soldiers watched in silence, and how their attitudes changed upon witnessing the performance, and that the whole thing "was a sight to look around upon again and again."
        Whitman knows what he's talking about. Life is about experience. It's not about how much money you spend for the experience or where the experience is. What matters is what you take from the experiences life gives you. Lots of times, the experiences we remember most are not remembered solely for an event, but everything that accompanied the event, like the smells, sights, emotions, and company. Not every single thing has to be perfect for everything to be perfect... if that makes sense.
        Whitman could hang with the high-culture cats and the low-culture cats. Here, he is down with the low-culture, enjoying some pure entertainment in good company. He could have paid little attention to the whole experience though. A lot of times, the experience you have can just depend on your attitude towards things. I could listen to a CD of my favorite music and get lost in the sounds, but in the same way, I can also listen to my favorite vinyl records and get lost in the music as well. Beyond the hiss, cracks, and static you hear on a vinyl record, a very beautiful experience is to be had. Once, I was making some music, sampling off an old record, and my old roommate told me that he liked what I was making, but that I should get rid of "all the static" because he didn't think it sounded good. I realized he had a completely different perception of that static than me. Whenever I hear static on a record, I never hear imperfections, I hear history. And to me, it is as important of a piece of the experience as any other.
        When Whitman writes about the people, places, and experiences in Leaves of Grass, he often lifts them up from their perceived normality into a state of beauty. He can write about a farmer and treat the subject as if he were majestic. Like I said. Whitman knows what he's talking about. Whitman could pierce into the souls of things and find the beauty underneath any rough surface. Even in my music tastes, my favorite singers all have the roughest voices. I still think Eric Burdon from The Animals is one of the best singers ever. He laid some beautiful soul on those tracks. Doesn't matter how rough the voice was, it was beautiful. I can't even listen to the radio. Everything sounds too clean. I'm stuck on singers from the 60s. There's realness in the rough. Whitman saw that. I love to look for it. It's finding lessons in mistakes. It's finding character in scars. It's knowing that the girl with some imperfections is actually way more attractive than the one that looks like a supermodel. It's knowing that the wrinkles in your clothes just means you actually did some shit while you were wearing them. It's knowing that an amateur musical performance in a room full of wounded soldiers can actually be the most breathtaking experience. You know.

beautiful.

Friday, March 9, 2012

Shout Outs to Whitman (In Mass Culture)

I'm a terrible procrastinator, and yet I'm doing this assignment on the first day it was officially assigned. Something must be wrong.

-ONE
        This first example comes from a blog called "Poetry & Popular Culture" by a guy named Mike Chasar. In his blog, Mike posted a clip from a show called Breaking Bad in which one of the characters recites my favorite Whitman poem, "When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer":
         According to a good friend of mine, Breaking Bad and The Wire are pretty much the greatest TV shows ever, so one of these days, as I promised him, I will illegally download them, and watch. I didn't want to write about that example in this post though, since I didn't want to jack TWO posts from Mike, and I preferred to write about a different example he brought up of Whitman.
        He shows a strip from a newspaper comic called "Pearls Before Swine" by Stephan Pastis in which the characters reference Walt Whitman and Twitter:
      Click on the image! It will make it bigger! I swear!
        Mike's blog post is called "On the Twittification of Walt Whitman," which contains the image of the strip, as well as a few lines from Song of Myself that Mike "twittified":

I cLebr8 myself,
& wot I assume U shaL assume,
4 evry atom belonging 2 me az gud belongs 2 U. 

        Leaves of Grass actually is tweeted on the daily on the Twitter account @TweetsOfGrass (Shoutouts to Hanley, since I found that Twitter account after peeping who he follows on the Twitta earlier in the semester).
        From the times I've read this comic strip, a lot of them include arguments between the characters regarding what's right or wrong, with the Rat character usually playing the cool calm douchebag who supports what most people would probably find 'wrong'. Rat says Whitman should have been limited to 140 characters, as people are on Twitter, which comments on society's love of short quotes, summaries, and highlights as opposed to diving straight into the source and bathing in the full context.

        When read "twittified," Whitman's poetry, as well as the poetry and texts of many other people, could be misinterpreted and simplified to those not familiar with the source text. When Whitman lists occupations or other things in his poetry, the connection between the things on his list might be lost. Also Whitman might ride a theme, from something like a runaway slave to politicians to natural descriptions, and those lines in which he rides his themes take up much more than 140 characters... Much would be lost on the reader.
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-TWO
        Saul Williams is a poet, who sometimes raps, and sometimes sings. Half of his music annoys me and half of his music I love. No, actually I'm pretty sure I love MUCH less than half of his music... And now I sound like one of those people who reviewed Whitman :( 
        Anyway, for every song of his that I dislike, I just go back and play some of his really good stuff like "List of Demands (Reparations)" or "Wine." Good shit!
        For this example, I went to his nice collaboration with DJ Krust in the song version of his poem "Coded Language":

        At around the 2:55 mark, Williams goes into list form, not unlike Whitman, and names poets, singers, songwriters, entertainers, and activists who he feels made and impact in cultural consciousness (at around 3:09, you will hear him give the shoutout to the big homie Walt Whitman, as well as Allen Ginsberg just a few seconds after).
        I also found this interview with Saul in which the "list writing" is noticed by both Saul and the interviewer:

DJ MATT WERNER: In exploring these different esoteric religious and spiritual traditions, I found there seems to be some parallels between your poetry and that of William Butler Yeats like with his poem The Second Coming and also Walt Whitman as well, in the listing in some of your tracks like Release and Coded Language, those seem to very much have that Whitmanian quality to them.
**Note from Miguel: If you want to hear the other song mentiond, "Release," it's actually from a Blackalicious song which Saul is featured on, off of the album Blazing Arrow, which is one of the best albums ever ;]

SAUL WILLIAMS: Well Whitman is definitely very influential, and I’ve definitely read some Yeats as well. And these older poets have definitely opened a door for me to, [Saul gives a long exhale] I guess, to step beyond. And they have like me I think there is this thing that’s being so deeply entrenched in this Christian society and seeing something deep within it and something well beyond it as well, and wanting to explore and using words to do that and realizing that the writing itself and the reading of the writing in my case often is a form of ritual.

Cool. But to focus on what I feel is the main point of the song "Coded Language," near the end of the song, Saul says:

We enlist every instrument: Acoustic, electronic.
Every so-called gender, race, sexual preference,
Every per-son as beings of sound to acknowledge their responsibility to
Uplift the consciousness of the entire fucking World,
Any utterance un-aimed will be disclaimed - two rappers slain.

        In these lines, I feel we find the reason why Williams named the people he named in his list. He asks that those involved in music and sound to "acknowledge their responsibility to uplift the consciousness of the entire fucking world"... I love that. And Saul gives props to artists and entertainers who he feels did this in their lifetime when he's going down his list.

        This reminds me of a thought from Iona's post "Reviewing Reviews of Whitman." Following a related branch of thought, she imagines that one day our society might ask certain qualities of our poets:

Perhaps one day our 'cultural assumptions' will simply amount to a plea that our poets be honest, democratic people who write honest, democratic poems. Is that wishful thinking? Have I become infected with Whitman-esque happiness? Is that necessarily a bad thing? ;)

        Just like Iona might have become infected with "Whitman-esque happiness," it seems Saul has too found himself affected by the poetry of the great artists he names... His plea is that poets speak and uplift democratically on behalf of "the entire fucking world." 

Bonus clip of Saul Williams performing the poem, without that DJ Krust music behind it.
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-THREE
        This is my favorite. Because it is funny. And if I've learned anything in life, it is that a sense of humor is the most valuable thing in this world. So I love the people who made this video.
        I know for this project we were supposed to find things in popular culture, but obviously this clip isn't very popular, only grabbing 461 views in nearly 4 years. It was intended for mass culture though, so yea- A sketch comedy clip based on a visit to Walt Whitman's tomb:
Watch the clip before reading on :D
  
        From this video, I learned a lot about Whitman. I learned he was a prize-fighter who fought a mule, which explains the nickname Walt "the mule fighter" Whitman. I learned that he wrote hilarious movie reviews for Playboy Magazine. I also learned that he was also a mediocre poet.
        This video makes fun of the classic biographies of famous people in history who did extraordinary things and it paints Walt Whitman as a Teddy Roosevelt-type figure, when really, Whitman just wrote poetry. He did travel around the nation and do his share of exploring, but Whitman will definitely just be remembered for his poetry and the direction of his artistic spirit. Though the tour-guide livens up Whitman's biography, the tourists don't want to hear that. They just want to know about Whitman the poet, and maybe hear a few poems.

Thursday, March 8, 2012

That (Real) Mass Appeal

        This man read Leaves of Grass, gained an understanding of what it took to appeal to the common American, and then made a commercial with the tools he acquired from reading Whitman.
        In general, I hate advertising, but I do love this commercial.

Creating that Whitman appeal:       
-The collar is loose and the sleeves are rolled-up, giving off the image that even though he may be white-collar, he's still connected to those who work for and around him, and might even do some of the dirty work with everyone else from time to time. 
-Use of 'rowdy' language ("Our blades are fucking great").
-Not hiding the company owner (to be transparent to the everyday person). 
-Not hiding the worker when presenting the company (giving credit to the laborer).
-A statement of job creation (to appeal to the loads of common people who are unemployed).
-Presenting a low price for the product he's selling to appeal to the majority of the nation, who aren't crazy wealthy (like Roger Federer).
-American flag to show some props for the country we live in.
-A Bear (Nature?). 
I know karate, I know jujitsu, and drive like a gangsta when I'm coming to see you.

Let me know if I missed any Whitman characteristics. 
We're still not seeing how the blades are made, where the stainless steel comes from, etc., but it's a start.
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Monday, March 5, 2012

Checking Out Reviews That Checked You Out

On three reviews of Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass...
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[Anonymous]. "[Review of Leaves of Grass (1855)]." Christian Spiritualist (1856): [unknown]

        I clicked on this review because I saw it was from a publication called the Christian Spiritualist. I expected the reviewer to say something like what the writer from The Saturday Review suggested, and tell us to throw Leaves of Grass "behind the fire"... But that didn't happen. With the Christian label, I expected the writer, in 1856, to write from the perspective of a conservative church leader as a representative of whatever Christian values the publication stood for. Instead, the reviewer was very open to the poetry, and pretty much in love with Walt Whitman. He starts off quoting someone who is dissing the modern state of poetry, then disses modern poetry a bit himself, before saying that Whitman is possibly ushering in renaissance in poetry. He catches how Whitman aims to capture a sense of unity and brotherly love between all peoples in his words. He mentions that for Whitman, "his sympathy is with man." The reviewer keeps mentioning that Whitman is a bit foul-mouthed, censoring quoted passages and warning readers that along with his strong recommendation also comes a strong warning that Whitman paints some "graphic pictures."
        My favorite description of his towards Whitman is that he is a "drunken Hercules" among "dainty dancers," both giving Whitman props for his powerful words, while also saying he has a reckless tongue. It gives me the sense that the reviewer really didn't give a damn about Whitman using his 'foul' language. He thought the art Whitman made was great. It kinda made me feel like the way the media will hype something up in the news, even though no one gives a shit about it. It's like he was warning the public about Whitman's 'foul' just because he had to, not because he felt the majority of readers would really care or be offended. Maybe that's how the open-minded the American public was at that time, or maybe the Christian Spiritualist just had a very open-minded readership.
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[Anonymous]. "[Review of Leaves of Grass (1855)]." The Critic 15 (1 April 1856): 170-1.

         Dayyym. Haters gonna hate. This dude straight up hates Walt Whitman. Like, HATES him.
        
"We do not, then, fear this Walt Whitman, who gives us slang in the place of melody, and rowdyism in the place of regularity. The depth of his indecencies will be the grave of his fame, or ought to be if all proper feeling is not extinct."

        What I get from the above quote is that this reviewer feels Whitman's slang and rowdiness are attempts at Whitman trying to make a name for himself.
        I'll be the first one to tell you that I hate when "artists" use pure sensationalism just to get the attention and devotion of some stupid would-be fans (and you can ask anyone who knows me, I don't mind dishing out hate to things I consider fake, or people I consider to be straight-up suckas, for I stay sucka-free). But when an artist has sensational aspects in the art with a message that still runs deep, I don't mind (not that I found LoG sensational, just in thinking about artists from today who might be considered controversial). This reviewer however doesn't seem to find sincerity in Whitman's poetry and message. The idea of Whitman using 'vulgar' language, including a 'vulgar' photo of himself, and Whitman's overall hippy-ness seem to have made an impression on the reviewer that no amount of meaning, sincerity, or poetic virtue could override. The reviewer seems to want to hate Whitman's work for those things, and won't let it go. He even says Whitman writes so poorly, that he must have been just learning how to write. That's hate.
        This guy is the dude who represents the prudishness of the nation. This guy is the one who is a xenophobe. A neophobe. He reminds me of some dudes on Fox News that talk shit about things they already wanted to hate. The criticism of Leaves of Grass is so one-dimensional, talking about how "unoriginal" Whitman is for writing about unity in humanity (simply because he wasn't the first one ever to write about it), or just talking about his vulgarity. It seems to be a simple-minded review from a simple individual. I usually don't like it when people disregard negative criticism, because a lot of critics can have something good to say... but this reviewer is just a hater for hate's sake.

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[Norton, Charles Eliot]. "[Review of Leaves of Grass (1855)]." Putnam's Monthly: A Magazine of Literature, Science, and Art 6 (September 1855): 321-3.

        Norton doesn't say a WHOLE lot about the poem... He includes a lot of quotes from the poem. What he does say about the poem though, I found interesting. He finds that some of the language is laughable or comical, probably as it must have been abnormal to see such language in poetry at that time, but he recognizes the power in Whitman's writing nonetheless. This pretty much sums up how the reviewer feels about LoG:

It's "not to be read aloud to a mixed audience, but the introduction of terms, never before heard or seen, and of slang expressions, often renders an otherwise striking passage altogether laughable."

        Again, language is a factor here, and though the writer finds Whitman is talented at using words, he finds his word choices to be somewhat poor.
        The reviewer tries to be fair in including an excerpt from Whitman's own intro, highlighting that Whitman strives for simplicity, and wants to give a direct reflection of his poetry as it appears in his mind when first conceived. The reviewer ends the article with a kind of jab at Whitman's reference to himself as a "Kosmos," basically saying "yo... I don't know what this fool talking about saying he's a Kosmos, but I'm pretty sure this foo crazy."
This pretty much sums up how Norton feels about Whitman:


Thursday, March 1, 2012

Tweet-A-Week: Frances Wright

        Frances (Fanny) Wright (1795-1852) was an author, feminist, and social reformer. Born in Scotland, but spending much of her time in the US, she was one of those “ahead of their time” type people. She advocated for free education for children, sexual empowerment for women, equal rights and fairness between men and women in marriages, and the emancipation of slaves. Her tombstone says “I have wedded the cause of human improvement, staked on it my fortune, my reputation and my life.” If that ain’t gangsta, I really don’t know what is…
        Fanny was about equal playing ground for all peoples. This was shown through her fight for equal rights for women, her desire to free slaves from their forced servitude, and her idea that ALL children should be able to receive education. Whitman’s poetry contains the ideas of all humanity being one. Wright took steps to create one equal humanity in the physical and tangible world. She even created a community, the Nashoba Commune, to try to educate and liberate slaves in a process where they could work towards their emancipation from their slave owners. Ahead of her time. She did her best to make life better for people who had less power than the white male, and put up her own money and time to try and make change. Ahead of her time, and maybe still ahead of our time. A selfless nature seemed to exist in this woman. Song of Myself really is about eliminating the concept of “self” and Wright was one of those people acted without the idea of “self” coming into play much. She was part of a minority that has probably seen the most inequality since the beginning of time (and still sees inequality today) simply being female, yet she fought against the inequalities that other groups faced as well.
        Fanny was someone who was down for the revolution. Legitimate revolutions are brought about by underrepresented people coming together to receive justice. Whitman loved to speak on the underrepresented. They would both take in a runaway slave. Look at the words we are seeing in the current revolution… I came across this photo a few weeks ago clicking around Facebook. So many of these signs are Whitman-esque in their inclusiveness. And they embody a spirit like the one found in Frances Wright.

The signs are all songs of myself.

Specimen Days: Sunday With The Insane

        What a title. I'll name a song I make "Sunday With The Insane" one of these days.
        Whitman writes about his visit to an Insane Asylum, and specifically the religious services that were held on the premises. He says about 300 people were in attendance for the services, and that most of them were patients. He was mostly surprised by the audience, comprised of many “insane” persons, and how calm and focused they seemed to be.
        Whitman doesn’t say it, but he expected the patients to be acting a little more… insane. He looks at them in a sort of amazement. He feels that it may be the “peace of god” that transcends different levels of understanding different people may have of the world (I.e. transcending whatever abnormalities these people had in their minds). He reminds himself that humanity is common among all, with the quote “The same old blood -- the same red, running blood;”… Though Walt wrote of the common humanity in many of his poems, here he shows how his own preconceived notions about the differences in humans superseded his openness to seeing that common humanity in everyone. He shows his amazement that he may, in fact, be right about our common humanity.