Simply Deceptive / Deceptively Simple

Robert Frost's strongest poetic technique may be his expert use of deceptive simplicity. His poetry is highly accessible in a first reading, coming across as straightforward and easy to understand.  But his poetry is hardly simple in content; past this initial accessibility is a product of vigorous thinking, skillful synthesizing, and a commitment to clarity.  The initial blindsight by simple images and themes later gives way to a complex pattern of provocative ideas and observations.  Frost's genius lies in his ability to interweave the simplistic with the complex.  Analysis of each line and stanza, with careful consideration of detail, often reveals metaphorical and connotative meaning. Frost's use of deceptive simplicity is evident in the poem "The Road Not Taken," through convincingly arguing two opposing views at once.  Many could read this poem, and understand the overall theme as "take the road less travelled."  That is, after all, how the poem concludes, with an authority contradicted by the preceding 15 lines.  The road less travelled is never determined; the opinion that the chosen road was the one not previously taken is doubted by even the speaker himself.  The undetermined status of the paths is evident in lines 10-12: 

Though as for that, the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.

Neither road is less traveled by, and the concluding lines are those of second guessing. The final stanza begins:    
                                                                                                                                                                                     I shall be telling with a sigh/ Somewhere ages and ages hence:  

and denies the remaining lines truth.  Rather, as the speaker doubts himself and his choices, he is emphasising the inevitability of no right path, just the chosen path, and the path not chosen.

On Writing GERTRUDE STEIN

Because writing Gertrude will always be easier than reading Gertrude:

lightbulb

I.
Ashy white, with metal capping. Next best, but
different, hangs above, lighted long lighted.
Gray function, like gray matter, lacking light and thought.
Unusable, and wasted. Put aside for better
coils, warm yellow or cool.

II.
Wasted function; long gone gray light. Not the
golden yellow warm yellow, yellow that
out of doors grows the grasses and grows the trees.
Ashy white, unstable rocking orb, weeble wobbles
in half /
unstable circles. 

Huck & Jim

The theme of existing conflict between societal expectations and individual moral decisions is seen throughout The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.  Huck, in particular, struggles with notions of "right vs. wrong," especially in regards to the handling of Jim. Time and time again, we see Huck struggle with the societal expectations that are often contradictory to his personal moral beliefs. Huck's existence itself is contradictory to standard societal values - having been raised in discordance with the accepted ways of "Southern Civilized Folk."  Lacking a stable parental figure, Huck has led himself through life, raising himself, relying on intrinsic instinct rather than societal guidelines.  These internalized guidelines are the ruling system for Huck's judgement of right and wrong.  The development of his (fairly strong) moral code was dependent upon a upbringing much removed from the imprinting of social standards. As Huck character develops throughout The AHF, we observe increasing awareness that his individual actions are not ones that would be acceptable normal social conditions. As Huck's awareness of this discord develops, he struggles with the justification of his decisions.  As he (inarticulately) struggles with moral decisions and his mortality, the corruption of southern society becomes increasing clear to the reader.  

As Hunk and Jim journey down the Mississippi River, he is again conflicted by his enjoyment of freedom and camaraderie with Jim, and his belief that he is committing a moral sin by defying social expectations by harboring an escaped slave.  Huck's actions and beliefs exist as a dichotomy; his acceptance of Jim is a blatant defiance of society, resulting in his belief that he is a sinner because of this acceptance.  Huck's guilt is continually expressed: guilt for not turning Jim over, and guilt for the consideration of this betrayal.  His defining moment occurs in Chapter 31, when he rips up a letter - addressed to Miss Watson, symbolically freeing Jim.  This decision is not without consequence, as Huck announces: "'All right, then, I'll go to hell' - and he tore it up."  This act of redemption casts Huck in a positive light, but the overreaching control of societal expectations is evident at the novels end. Even after his extensive journey with Jim, and the moral progress made, Huck acknowledges Jim's right for freedom, but denies him true equality.  Jim remains in the eyes of Huck and southern society at large as "subordinate" and "other." 

Hart Crane

Brooklyn Bridge, 1923

Hart Crane, the "prodigiously gifted and tragically short-lived" poet, produced a hybrid work of poetry with the completion of The Bridge. It is a long poem, comprised of 15 lyrical poems of varying length and scope - and perhaps the first work of a new genre, the "modernist epic." Crane's "modernist epic" was inspired by the imposing structure of the Brooklyn Bridge, that the poet could see from his boardinghouse's window in 1923. This tribute to this New York landmark, in verse, creates a metaphor for various aspects of American power and the American myth. Crane's work itself, works as a bridge: a bridge between nineteenth and twentieth-century poetics, connecting past with present, and creating an interesting dichotomy between Romantic spirit and emotional optimism to the complexities of intellectual and technical elements of modernist poetry. In this poem, I believe he sought to present the American experience in its entirety - with the Brooklyn Bridge as the work's sustaining symbol. At times obscure, Crane celebrates historic people and places (Christopher Columbus, Rip Van Wrinkle, Pocahontas), uniting mythology and modernity as a means of revealing the American Experience.  This experience is not clear, hidden in Crane's distinguished style of compound metaphors, and at times the obscure and indirect allusions make the poem a difficult text. 

Cutty Sark:

The narrative of "Cutty Sark" follows the meeting of a man at the docks of NYC.  Crane begins with an introduction of the scene "I met a man in South Street," and introduces his acquaintance "tall --/ a nervous shark tooth swung on his chain..." and describes the man's green eyes and gaze, "forgot to look at you/ or left you several blocks away--." The remainder of the poem is an obscure and fragmented retelling of the drunken impressions of the experience.  The retelling is saturated with brief and fleeting song lyrics and overheard snippets of conversation.  Crane offers the experience of public gay male sexuality during the 1920s; specifically a meditation on public sex.  While the montage of the experience leads to a orgasmic conclusion:

"I saw the frontiers gleaming of his mind;/ or are there frontiers--running sands sometimes/ running sands--somewhere-- sands running... / Or they may start some white machine that sings"

the emotion left at the poems closure is one of loneliness of these encounters as the sailors depart, and the speaker "started walking home across the Bridge." 

Defining Calamity Physics

The title, Special Topics in Calamity Physics, comes directly from one of my favorite novels of the same name. Written by Marisha Pessl, Calamity Physics reads like a “Nabokovian” thriller about an intellectual widower and his daughter (albeit without the Humbert Humbert and Lolita sexual component).  First to be addressed is the invented term “Calamity Physics.” Following are the two independent definitions:

 

ca·lam·i·ty/kəˈlamitē/ (Noun):

1         1.   An event causing great and often sudden damage or distress; a disaster.  

       2.   Disaster and distress.

physics plural of phys·ics (Noun):

      1.   The branch of science concerned with the nature and properties of matter and energy. The subject matter of physics.

2        2.  The physical properties and phenomena of something: “the physics of plasmas.”

 

One could assume Calamity Physics would be the physical properties and phenomena of (or an event causing) disaster and distress. However, I understand the term to be a figurative one, invented because the author did not want an association with any real areas of inquiry, such as Chaos Theory.  As a figurative term, it suggests a kind of seminar or directed study; a high level exploration of the subject at hand.  This is an appropriate label, as each chapter of the book is figuratively linked by its title to a well-known work of literature, from Othello to Things Fall Apart to The Big Sleep, and culminates with a final exam.  Likewise, I found Special Topics of Calamity Physics an appropriate title for this American Literature course (blog) – a semester long directed study of literary works, from The Sun Also Rises to Super Sad True Love Story, that too, will culminate with a final exam.