Monthly Archives: March 2015

Thoughts on Galatea

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I had read a while ago about interactive fiction, but I had never tried it. Galatea is my first experience with this kind of fiction. My first attempts to interact with Galatea were not successful as I kept typing words and asking questions which resulted in answers such as “that’s not a verb I recognize” and “You can’t form your question into words”. This was rather devastating. Then, I typed the word “help” and got some hints about verbs and shortcuts that could be used. Although this information was helpful, it was also limiting. In order to get more information and keep Galatea talking, I needed to guess other words based on her answers to some of my questions.

Overall, I admit that the whole experience was limiting. I was eager to know more about Galatea, but every time I asked a question Galatea brought the artist into the conversation. Almost everything Galatea talks about is related to the artist including her memories and her perceptions of life, death, and God. Although Galatea is the main character and narrator, through this activity she is decreased to be merely a voice who speaks about the artist. There are some important details she shares about the artist like the place where they met, the studio where they live, and about the artist’s family and childhood, but she did not share not very much (at least in my experience) about herself. Despite feeling limited, I found this project very stimulating and I can’t wait to know more about Galatea and the artist from the different experiences of other students in our upcoming class.

A close reading of “Failure of Hospitality”

close reading

Failure of hospitality

I had normal dreams like wires dangling everywhere
The ludicrous thing about order won’t hear lies only peace
Her body full with splinters can’t pick the olives alone
Luxurious character of the negative raised a lion in your house
No Hebrew word for integrity will be a blazing light
Future collapsed in present execution and mourning
Duty of guest and host a torn native
Narratives compete for a sacred hair lying where it shouldn’t
Stoked button the key to distilled water living a quiet way
This unbearable intimacy a purity of arms suturing
Chocolate cake with coconut flecks none of us taught to see
Besieged body a piece of metal we will offer all our children
This permanent remembrance slaughtered and we promise a pleasant life

This poem attempts to present the contradictions brought by the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through manipulating language. Several words in this poem reflect and therefore emphasize these contradictions. For example, negative words are paired with positive words such as besieged, slaughtered, unbearable, execution, mourning narratives, lies, peace, sacred, pleasant, integrity, light, purity. Yet Zolf uses the words “host” and “guest” in “Duty of guest and host a torn native” to embody the dual identity that native people must live. While they should be the hosts of Israelis, the Israeli occupation has turned them into guests in their homeland; they have become “torn native[s]”. The first line contains a simile in which Zolf compares dreams to wires in their arbitrary directions. The dreams referred to here could be nightmares or daydreams of a changing world.

The next line contains a sense of irony in its tone: “The ludicrous thing about order won’t hear lies only peace”. Zolf tells the reader that lies and peace are two separate concepts and that order is related to peace not lies; however, there are always lies about peace when it comes to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. As we read how “Her body” is disabled; although she is anonymous to us, Zolf succeeds in evoking our sympathies with her. Her body is full of splinters and she can no longer pick the olives without help. Zolf is probably personifying the Palestinian land which has been disabled because of the continuous violence.

A metaphor is presented in: “Luxurious character of the negative raised a lion in your house”. The poet compares the Israeli people to a lion who is being raised in the Palestinian homeland. Zolf, then, with a sorrowful tone, confirms that Hebrew does not have a word that could resolve for their deeds towards the Palestinians. Zolf warns that there will be no future if the present is full of killings and mourning. To confirm this foretelling, she ends her poem with the following two lines: “Besieged body a piece of metal we will offer all our children\ This permanent remembrance slaughtered and we promise a pleasant life”. Zolf emphasizes that within this adopted violence, a weapon or “a piece of metal” is what they will leave to their children. The permanent memory of the nation is slaughtered because of current conflict that consumes their lives, and thus, there will be no real life without memory –  history.

My Second Creative Response

creative response, Uncategorized

In my creative response for this week, I used two websites. First I went to textexture.com where any text can be turned into a visual network text. I first chose a poem entitled “Alone” written by Maya Angelou. As soon as I entered the text, it turned into a visual colorful network of words in which each word is emphasized based on its significance to the poem’s theme. Some unimportant words are omitted such as ‘like’, ‘and’, etc., and associated words are placed close to each other. If you pass the curser over any of the nodes, the word will appear. Feel free to try that. The same website shows the most influential keywords in the text that I used in my second step. Here is the first version of the visual text:

http://textexture.com/index.php?text_id=44623

Here are some of the most influential words in the text “Alone” as they appeared in textexture.com:

make stone thing believe
suffering blow race
banshee child home
night thirsty soul

In the next step, I used Twitter to search for the most influential words, where I found really interesting lines of poems. I have drawn these lines together with some changes to create one single poem entitled “You Are a Poem”. I hope that everyone likes it.

“You Are a Poem”

You are a poem
trapped
inside the soul of a child

The day
will be what
you make it,
so rise,
like the sun,
and burn.

The tragedy that you feel,
The darkness that chases you,
is why you are here
to challenge your suffering
to learn.

You are a poem
trapped
inside the soul of a child

Don’t fear
that the poem
might not
reach the
third line
keep trying
until every stone
is
aligned
perfectly
in every mountain,
in every hill,
in every garden.

Yesterday, your troubles
looked as though
they were here to stay.
Today, your troubles
seem so far away.
That’s why
you must believe
in Today.

Every little thing
has
a meaning
across the passing days,
add a delicious twist .
And never have a bad feeling.

It’s strange
how a word,
a phrase,
a sentence,
a poem
can feel like a blow to the head,
can organize the mess
can recreate the world.

It’s strange
how the human race,
Had captured
The last
Banshee wind
In their search
For perfect silence
For perfect words.

You are a poem
trapped
inside the soul of a child.

You are created
to be a poem
to wound the night
of the tomb
with light
as brightly as the sun
unveils
the day of the sea.

Don’t forget
To write yourself like a poem
To inscribe your history
To ascribe your destiny
In this life
There is abundance of water,
And you should not leave thirsty!

The world is your big home,
And poetry
Fixes the ruined home
So hush the moans
write your happy poem,
Rebuild your home.

You are a poem
trapped
inside the soul of a child
Release your words
Release your self.

Close Reading of Brathwaite’s “Duke Playing Piano at 70”

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The old man’s hands are alligator

skins

and swimming easily like these

along the harp stringed keyboard

where he will make

of

Solitude

a silver thing

as if great age like his

could play that tune along

these cracks that flow

between their swing

without a scratch of thistle

sound

& whistle down the rhythm all night long

In this response, I attempt a close reading of the poem section above.

The form:

The lines in this part of the poem are uneven and staggered, with lengths ranging between a single word and eight words, which is the maximum length. In some lines, it is the visual isolation of a word which reflects and stresses its meaning, such as “Solitude”, which (besides from the poem’s opening word “The”) is the only capitalized word on the page. The Brathwaite’s capitalization of the word “Solitude” aims, I think, at highlighting the solitude that African Americans have encountered during decades of struggle.

The audience:

I think the poet is addressing current and upcoming generations. A connection is drawn between past, present, and future through documenting African American history and recording the names of creative and talented individuals. In this section of the poem, we know Brathwaite is talking about an African American pianist, Duke Ellington, who has a long history as a jazz musician. I believe that one of his most significant reasons for writing this book and specifically this poem is to celebrate African American creativity as well as endurability. Thus, this part of the poem, from its association with the rest, significantly contributes to the orientation of the whole book.

The content:

This poem is one of the most interesting works in Brathwaite’s book. The title of the poem refers to Duke Ellington, an African American composer, pianist, and jazz band leader. Brathwaite opens his poem by drawing upon metaphoric language: he compares the old jazz musician’s wrinkled hands to “alligator skins”. Here, like “alligator skins”, the old man’s hands represent strength as well as value. This comparison goes beyond the resemblance between images of alligator and human skin to associate the smooth movements – which reflect a distinct talent – of the old man’s hands between the keys of the piano to the natural ability of the alligator to swim smoothly and lonely underwater.

The poet applies the alligator swimming to the easy movement of the musician’s hands over his instrument. Thus, the swimming movement of his hands in the musical world gives the state of “Solitude” a higher meaning.