Talking....... about reading, ....a novel concept

I thought the title pretty clever; and will up until the point I find that it has already been used somewhere before. “Well read”, that is what someone once called me. I would disagree, I think I am greatly read, but much of what I have read is more pulp than fine literature. I love to read it, just have not spent much time talking about it. This will be an experience for both of us, not guaranteeing a smooth flight nor well executed landing, but I promise to be at least entertaining.

Did anyone else find that the text, by setting the time and stage for the writing, helped immensely with the messages in the readings? "War, what is it good for right?" As the song goes, "absolutely nuttin!" (Norman Whitfield 1969) , (no relation to Walt Whitman)

Speaking of Walt Whitman, this week’s reading included his Song of Myself. I read this in high school, 30 years ago, went right over my head. This time, I seemed to pick up some of his references. Some concerned the recently ended American Civil War which was followed by increased diversity married to adversity. The blood was still hot, on both sides of the campaign, with some writers still attempting to stir the pot. Walt Whitman makes an attempt to turn the heat down; presenting odes meant for harmony and acceptance from numerous perspectives challenging the reader to build their own feelings rather than simply those presented by the Blue side or the Grey side. "You shall no longer take things at second or third hand, nor look through the eyes of the dead...... you shall listen to all sides, and filter them for yourself."  

Some of Mr. Whitman's references speak to the ride of industrialization; the value of a return to nature.  He relates very real personal experiences with his own rediscover of a rural lifestyle. "I will go to the bank by the wood, and become undisguised and naked; I am made for it to be in contact with me.  Then there are references to other’s enjoying this naturalistic lifestyle. Line 177 finds a trapper about to be married to a local Indian. Wondering just how much of a stigma existed for those mixed marrieges during that period.

Whitman surprised me towards the end, giving a sneak peek into his naughty side. “I believe in the flesh and the appetites:” (line 518) Dirty old man indeed, however, now we are relating.  Ok, I am a man, we have needs as well right? Opps, I forgot that this is literature, not a chick flick. He proceeds to get downright vulgar mentioning the smell of his armpits, which has me wondering where this is all going. Then the takes a direct shot at mainstreet religion by coming out of the closet as a humanist. “If I worship one thing more than the othjer, it shall be the spread of my own body, or any part of it.” (line 523)

This guy tells it like he feels. THAT, I can connect with.

“art engages.” – D. Weston

Decker