One of the many theses presented by Rosemarie Waldrop in Alarms and Excursions is that “poetry has social relevance” and “can make the culture aware of itself, unveil hidden structures”. Waldrop argues in her second thesis that poetry, even of the most personal kind, is not simply for personal use; instead, poetry is useful for society as a whole, even if the subject or content of some of that poetry is extremely personal or subjective to a singular identity within that society.
In order for we readers to understand exactly what Waldrop means by this thesis, we must both distinguish the definitions she puts to or implies with her terminology as well as simultaneously delve into her excursions and alarms on the thesis. Waldrop clarifies what she means by poetry having “social relevance” in the second part of her thesis: poetry enlightens a society about itself, puts to words what seems otherwise inexpressible, and is indicative of social change. In her excursion on this thesis, she contemplates “the borderline between private and public”, and comes to the conclusion that it is indeed “very elusive”. She explains her dilemma, saying that one thought is that something must have a measurable effect upon a public society in order to have public or societal importance, but an opposing thought is that essentially anything that a person does has a social effect, given that said person is a member of a society.
She ultimately decides that poetry does indeed always have public, societal importance. She compares it to love: “what could be more private than making love – but if you are not careful, and the couple is heterosexual, it may produce a citizen”. She continues that even if poetry initial seems utterly personal, such as poetry written about personal emotions, that poetry still maintains societal importance because even personal emotions and feelings affect a society’s actions and functionality.
The second part of Waldrop’s second thesis, that poetry illuminates “hidden structures” and unknown facts about a society to itself, is also helped by this thought. If even the most personal of thoughts or ideas in poetry help society as a whole, then certainly those thoughts help members of a society to understand themselves and their part within the society as well. Simply “acknowledging the importance of the emotions” helps to make a society more cognizant of itself. The acknowledgement of emotions, in addition to other concepts, can often lead to a questioning of certain norms or ideas held by a society and/or a deeper understanding of the relationship between those emotions or concepts and the society to which they are tied.
Waldrop even goes so far as to quote a man, Edmond Jabes, so as to present the idea the poetry of this questioning nature is not merely questioning but actually very subversive. She backs up this idea of poetry being subversive by citing Jabes further in her first alarm of the thesis. His ideas present that nearly any, possibly every, single act we commit is a subversion of something else. Therefore, to write or read poetry becomes a challenge to “every sentence written”.
Monday, September 20, 2010
Responding to Waldrop - Mollie
The piece “Alarms and Excursions” by Rosemarie Waldrop has a defined audience of those interested in the purposes and effects of poetry on our society today. I think it is important to look at the second thesis, “it can make the culture aware of itself, and unveil hidden structures. It questions, resists”(Waldrop 215). Within this section the author’s purpose is reviled. The information the author presents within this section aids in supporting her thesis. She proceeds to examine the role poetry has played in our social and historical lives. One important source she uses is the work of Edmond Jabes to support her thesis and further it to a clear and concise understanding.
One excerpt of Edmond Jabes that Waldrop quotes is extremely useful in the defining of the terms. “Did I already know that opening and closing my eyes, lying down, moving, shrinking, dreaming, talking, being silent, writing and reading are all gestures and manifestations of subversion”(Waldrop 215)? This an important input on the behalf of Waldrop because it indicates a stream of consciousness between the author and the audience. One tactic the Waldrop uses is her ability for us to see poetry as something that is attainable. “Poetry has social relevance. It is not just an ornament or just private, an expression of personal emotions”(Waldrop 215). It is within this excerpt that we see poetry has a form of expression and not something that we should keep to ourselves.
Through this Waldrop is clearly defining terms of an audience of poetry. We are often conflicted with the fact that poetry must be something ornate that only few can reach it. Waldrop addresses these concerns in this piece by defining poetry as an outlet for emotions, a way of expression something that everyone is capable of. In many ways this information is useful to the audience in breaking down the barrier one often feels towards poetry and providing information for the audience to become poets themselves.
The format of this essay by Waldrop is one that is very unique for the average reader, the authors collaboration of poetry intermixed with academic disciplines is extremely successful in portraying poetry has a living art and not one of the past. I believe that the thesis I have stated above is so powerful and important because it transcends the way we see poetry today, illustrating the power of poetry in our society. The author is able to do this by incorporating modern day examples or problems with in her essay. She deems poetry as a social function, just as does society, “writing becomes action through this unveiling”(Waldrop 215).
In sum the work of Waldrop in this essay puts poetry on par with what we are able to achieve. We can attain it, understand it, and enjoy it when we see it as a personal expression of emotion, feelings and echoes of society. Poetry can become a verb when it is unveiled. Waldrop’s use of speaking to the audience in the format of a conversation is extremely important in defining her purpose of writing the piece. We need to see poetry as a living being rather then an art of the past.
One excerpt of Edmond Jabes that Waldrop quotes is extremely useful in the defining of the terms. “Did I already know that opening and closing my eyes, lying down, moving, shrinking, dreaming, talking, being silent, writing and reading are all gestures and manifestations of subversion”(Waldrop 215)? This an important input on the behalf of Waldrop because it indicates a stream of consciousness between the author and the audience. One tactic the Waldrop uses is her ability for us to see poetry as something that is attainable. “Poetry has social relevance. It is not just an ornament or just private, an expression of personal emotions”(Waldrop 215). It is within this excerpt that we see poetry has a form of expression and not something that we should keep to ourselves.
Through this Waldrop is clearly defining terms of an audience of poetry. We are often conflicted with the fact that poetry must be something ornate that only few can reach it. Waldrop addresses these concerns in this piece by defining poetry as an outlet for emotions, a way of expression something that everyone is capable of. In many ways this information is useful to the audience in breaking down the barrier one often feels towards poetry and providing information for the audience to become poets themselves.
The format of this essay by Waldrop is one that is very unique for the average reader, the authors collaboration of poetry intermixed with academic disciplines is extremely successful in portraying poetry has a living art and not one of the past. I believe that the thesis I have stated above is so powerful and important because it transcends the way we see poetry today, illustrating the power of poetry in our society. The author is able to do this by incorporating modern day examples or problems with in her essay. She deems poetry as a social function, just as does society, “writing becomes action through this unveiling”(Waldrop 215).
In sum the work of Waldrop in this essay puts poetry on par with what we are able to achieve. We can attain it, understand it, and enjoy it when we see it as a personal expression of emotion, feelings and echoes of society. Poetry can become a verb when it is unveiled. Waldrop’s use of speaking to the audience in the format of a conversation is extremely important in defining her purpose of writing the piece. We need to see poetry as a living being rather then an art of the past.
Responding to Waldrop - Morgan
We live in an age where poetry is becoming less and less a part of most peoples lives. It is being taught in school less, and fewer people read poetry. It is no longer possible for even the most successful poets to live only off of his or her book sales. Despite the little material rewards for being a poet they continue to write. Just as Waldrop suggests in her writing, the function of poetry is to waste excess energy; it is this idea that explains the determination of poetry and poets in this time to continue to write.
Georges Bataille describes that a person receives more energy than they need to maintain life. Therefore, there is an abundance of energy that needs to be used gloriously, or wasted. There are several ways that energy can be used positively: all forms or art or other ways of expressing feelings and emotions, time spent bettering your own life or the life of another, or time spent simply doing something that you really love to do. So excess energy should be used for improvement or growth. Time spent idle or time simply spent wasting time is a waste of excess energy. This energy is wasted because it is not being spent gaining anything: such as a skill, profit, or happiness. This energy we are given as humans is either wasted and we can never get it back or spent gloriously; one way that it is used wonderfully is through the expression of emotion in poetry.
It is Bataille’s “notion of waste and excess (energy) that explains the persistence of poets and poetry in the face of meager rewards.” Writing a poem is very difficult to do; writing takes a lot of time, focus, thinking, and energy; therefore, the energy that is used in writing a poem outweighs any monetary gain or any other gain like reputation. It is the fact that poetry is one of the glorious ways to spend and use ones energy that makes poetry worthwhile to write. This is due to the fact that poetry is not very profitable especially in the United States. No poetry writers can make a profit by only writing; also there are very few full time novelists that can make a living by writing. Many writers and almost all poets have other jobs to supplement their writing career. This difficulty to make a living is not due to a decreasing skill of the poet it is due to a decreasing demand from consumers. “The small presses and their distributors have no hope of even breaking even and must rely on grants or patronage” to keep their businesses running. Also bookstores and booksellers do not make a huge profit of selling small books of poetry. The lack of profit for poetry runs all the way through the circular flow of the economy, from the firm to the distributor to the consumer.
There is little money or fame in poetry and the small press world these days. It is Bataille’s general economy that describes that poetry’s function is to waste excess energy, which explains the persistence of poets despite little economic gains. The function of poetry is not to become rich or famous, it is to waste time gloriously. Poets use their excess energy gloriously instead of wasting their energy away.
Georges Bataille describes that a person receives more energy than they need to maintain life. Therefore, there is an abundance of energy that needs to be used gloriously, or wasted. There are several ways that energy can be used positively: all forms or art or other ways of expressing feelings and emotions, time spent bettering your own life or the life of another, or time spent simply doing something that you really love to do. So excess energy should be used for improvement or growth. Time spent idle or time simply spent wasting time is a waste of excess energy. This energy is wasted because it is not being spent gaining anything: such as a skill, profit, or happiness. This energy we are given as humans is either wasted and we can never get it back or spent gloriously; one way that it is used wonderfully is through the expression of emotion in poetry.
It is Bataille’s “notion of waste and excess (energy) that explains the persistence of poets and poetry in the face of meager rewards.” Writing a poem is very difficult to do; writing takes a lot of time, focus, thinking, and energy; therefore, the energy that is used in writing a poem outweighs any monetary gain or any other gain like reputation. It is the fact that poetry is one of the glorious ways to spend and use ones energy that makes poetry worthwhile to write. This is due to the fact that poetry is not very profitable especially in the United States. No poetry writers can make a profit by only writing; also there are very few full time novelists that can make a living by writing. Many writers and almost all poets have other jobs to supplement their writing career. This difficulty to make a living is not due to a decreasing skill of the poet it is due to a decreasing demand from consumers. “The small presses and their distributors have no hope of even breaking even and must rely on grants or patronage” to keep their businesses running. Also bookstores and booksellers do not make a huge profit of selling small books of poetry. The lack of profit for poetry runs all the way through the circular flow of the economy, from the firm to the distributor to the consumer.
There is little money or fame in poetry and the small press world these days. It is Bataille’s general economy that describes that poetry’s function is to waste excess energy, which explains the persistence of poets despite little economic gains. The function of poetry is not to become rich or famous, it is to waste time gloriously. Poets use their excess energy gloriously instead of wasting their energy away.
Responding to Waldrop - Chelsea
Final drafts are overrated; or perhaps, our definition of what classifies a final draft is simply misconstrued. The way I see it, a final draft needs to say exactly what it means to say, in whichever way possible. A final draft is not necessarily an MLA format 2,000 word essay with headers, page numbers, and in text citations. In her work “Alarms and Excursions,” Rosmarie Waldrop gives us a prime example of a very different and, to most people, unusual “final draft.”
Besides being the name of Waldrop’s work, “alarms and excursions” is an “Elizabethan stage term for offstage noise and commotion which interrupts the main action” (Waldrop 214). Waldrop uses this technique to present specific ideas, somewhat like a deconstructed essay. For some, the format may be difficult to follow in that it lacks the flow of a conventional essay, while for others, like myself, the broken down passages are focused pieces of evidence strung together by the theses, which are distinguished from their supportive paragraphs.
Not only does the form of the writing attempt to make clear each claim that Waldrop comes to, it also mirrors an aspect of the content of the paper, which is poetry. The unusual structure of the paper functions as a representation of poetry, and how it deviates from the sentence and paragraph structure of prose. In writing “Alarms and Excursions,” Waldrop demands her audience think in a different way than they might expect to think upon hearing or reading a paper on literature.
In a class discussion, the idea that Waldrop’s paper resembles the scientific method was mentioned, because it seems to simply state the facts in black and white. There are no poetic embellishments or flourishes of writing style distinguish the paper; instead, the unique structure of the writing distinguished Waldrop’s paper.
Upon first reading the paper, Waldrop’s audience may not detect any artistic styling in her writing, though the paper is far from a dry, informational article. Waldrop includes a wide variety of ideas which provide interest and dynamism to her main focus of poetry and its role in society. Waldrop’s theses explore ideas such as the social relevance and function of poetry, what poetry is and is not, who interacts with poetry and how the relationship between people and poetry affects the world in which we live. Waldrop includes sources such as Jabes, Valery, Marx, and Engels, quoting poems, literature critiquing poetry, economic and scientific ideas that comment on poetry. The ideas she introduces are dynamic and thought provoking, which adds a deeper layer of interest enveloped by the method with which she delivers each idea.
Waldrop states in her tenth thesis, “The poem will not work through its content... but through its form” (219). I think perhaps she is most successful in emphasizing this claim, not only in the information she shares to support, challenge, and overall define this point, but by the fact that she is proving the point with the structure of her paper (even more so than the content). All in all, I think that Waldrop is efficient and productive in accomplishing her goal of presenting ideas in an interesting way that will make an impact. She also illustrates a completely different perspective on what a final draft is; she has paragraphs broken down and labeled and theses distinguished throughout the paper. Though the entire essay (if it can be called an essay) seems to illuminate the background, “offstage” information, as we read, we realized that this indeed is perhaps the most important information that Waldrop could share. However, even without typical flow and transitions, Waldrop’s article “Alarms and Excursions” says what it means to say and accomplishes her goal of exploring the characteristics of poetry.
Besides being the name of Waldrop’s work, “alarms and excursions” is an “Elizabethan stage term for offstage noise and commotion which interrupts the main action” (Waldrop 214). Waldrop uses this technique to present specific ideas, somewhat like a deconstructed essay. For some, the format may be difficult to follow in that it lacks the flow of a conventional essay, while for others, like myself, the broken down passages are focused pieces of evidence strung together by the theses, which are distinguished from their supportive paragraphs.
Not only does the form of the writing attempt to make clear each claim that Waldrop comes to, it also mirrors an aspect of the content of the paper, which is poetry. The unusual structure of the paper functions as a representation of poetry, and how it deviates from the sentence and paragraph structure of prose. In writing “Alarms and Excursions,” Waldrop demands her audience think in a different way than they might expect to think upon hearing or reading a paper on literature.
In a class discussion, the idea that Waldrop’s paper resembles the scientific method was mentioned, because it seems to simply state the facts in black and white. There are no poetic embellishments or flourishes of writing style distinguish the paper; instead, the unique structure of the writing distinguished Waldrop’s paper.
Upon first reading the paper, Waldrop’s audience may not detect any artistic styling in her writing, though the paper is far from a dry, informational article. Waldrop includes a wide variety of ideas which provide interest and dynamism to her main focus of poetry and its role in society. Waldrop’s theses explore ideas such as the social relevance and function of poetry, what poetry is and is not, who interacts with poetry and how the relationship between people and poetry affects the world in which we live. Waldrop includes sources such as Jabes, Valery, Marx, and Engels, quoting poems, literature critiquing poetry, economic and scientific ideas that comment on poetry. The ideas she introduces are dynamic and thought provoking, which adds a deeper layer of interest enveloped by the method with which she delivers each idea.
Waldrop states in her tenth thesis, “The poem will not work through its content... but through its form” (219). I think perhaps she is most successful in emphasizing this claim, not only in the information she shares to support, challenge, and overall define this point, but by the fact that she is proving the point with the structure of her paper (even more so than the content). All in all, I think that Waldrop is efficient and productive in accomplishing her goal of presenting ideas in an interesting way that will make an impact. She also illustrates a completely different perspective on what a final draft is; she has paragraphs broken down and labeled and theses distinguished throughout the paper. Though the entire essay (if it can be called an essay) seems to illuminate the background, “offstage” information, as we read, we realized that this indeed is perhaps the most important information that Waldrop could share. However, even without typical flow and transitions, Waldrop’s article “Alarms and Excursions” says what it means to say and accomplishes her goal of exploring the characteristics of poetry.
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