The hookah is an amazing social device. This week, I give props to the person who invented it.
I just want to take a few brie minutes to go back to our dwellings on the sun, that big yellow center of our pointed discussion last week. I think that one of the most interesting aspects of writing poems in which the speaker/poet/persona addresses an inanimate object is the way in which you can characterize the inanimate object. Look at Mayakovsky’s poem “An Extraordinary Adventure Which Befell Vladimir Mayakovsky in a Summer Cottage”—here the sun takes on a personality that parallels some of the attributes commonly ascribed to the sun. The animation of the inanimate.
‘“You called me? / Give me tea, poet, / spread out, spread out the jam!”’—Sun
‘“Well, sit down then, / luminary!”’—Mayakovsky
Even though the sun has so many other magnificent characteristics , why should it seem magnificent? Why not shy or silly? Or have a really dark, macabre personality? Just something to think about!
On the topic of animating inanimate objects, check out Wislawa Szymborska and the “Conversation with a Stone” it you haven’t already…it’s really impressive. And if you like, that look at her “Abominable Snowman”. It is not so much an animation story, but it is very similar to “Conversation with a Stone”—it’s one of those poems you could spend an entire class period talking about.
“Go away,” says the stone.
“I am shut tight.
Even if you break me into pieces,
We’ll all still be closed.
You can grind us to sand,
We still won’t let you in.”
–W. Szymborska, “Conversation with a Stone”
Music–This week I wish to share the brilliant musical harmonies of PET SOUNDS, by The Beach Boys (aka Brain Wilson). This album is HUGE—and highly underrated. Just as an impetus, in 1995 MOJO magazine of Great Britain created an independent committee of commercial music critics and asked “what is the greatest album ever made?” When all the ballots came back, PET SOUNDS was the clear winner. Seriously, check it out.
I would have to disagree that Pet Sounds is, in any way, underrated. In addition to that random survey you cite, it’s #2 on Rolling Stone’s list of the greatest albums of all-time, preceded only by Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club. And if you meant that it’s underrated by our generation, I also believe that these amazing bands–the Beatles, the Beach Boys–continue to be listened to and worshipped by people of all ages. Rightly so.