Walt Whitman - Blog Entry Part 2

Rich Hoggan
English 48B
03-10-2011
Walt Whitman Blog Entry - Part 2

Walt Whitman is a meticulous writer. I say this because he chooses words that have meaning to what we are reading; he chooses words that give the utmost detail. Taken from his "Song Of Myself," Whitman writes:
Agonies are one of my changes of garments,
I do not ask the wounded person how he feels, I myself become the
wounded person,
My hurts turn livid upon me as I lean on a cane and observe. (58)
As per our discussion today on Whitman being "egotistical," the argument can be made for Whitman not being egotistical. And the passage previously listed is a prime example as to how Whitman is not necessarily egotistical.

But aside from arguing for Whitman's lack of egotistical nature, this passage also gives credence to the fact that Whitman was artistic -- his having agonies. Continuing on with this argument, the passage describes the sheer fact that Whitman is but merely human. We see this in the fact that he faces agonies like everyone else. What's intriguing about this word though is that it's used in the context of being taken on and off. Much like how we analyze literary works with different analytic perspectives, Whitman writes from different "real world" perspectives. In doing so, Whitman is able to, in essence, bring himself down to our level. While this still sounds as egotistical, the evidence continues in Whitman's defense. Similarly, I think one of the more obvious lines is the one that reads "I do not ask the wounded person how he feels, I myself become the wounded person" (58). This line makes it clear that Whitman doesn't tell the "wounded person" how to feel but becomes or understands how such a person might feel.

But suddenly the dynamic of the passage changes as Whitman writes "My hurts turn livid upon me as I lean on a cane and observe" (58). Still considering the fact that Whitman is simply "inserting" himself into society, the keyword to consider is "observe." While it's hard to tell what Whitman meant exactly by this line, it would sound as though he is "observing" others not interjecting his own thoughts.

Taken from sparknotes.com, commentary is given on "Songs of Myself" which reads "While 'Song of Myself' is crammed with significant detail, there are three key episodes that must be examined. The first of these is found in the sixth section of the poem. A child asks the narrator 'What is the grass?' and the narrator is forced to explore his own use of symbolism and his inability to break things down to essential principles" (sparknotes.com - Whitman - Song of Myself). This passage discusses Whitman's interaction with a kid who wants to know what grass is. But this passage also demonstrates that Whitman doesn't try to put off on society what he doesn't know.

To sum up, Whitman makes himself seem as though he is an egotistical, in the prime of his career, artist but the opposite can be seen. It's simply in Whitman's choice of words that creates this idea that he tends to sound egotistical.

Walt Whitman - Blog Entry Part 1

Rich Hoggan
English 48B
Walt Whitman Blog Entry - Part 1

As I began reading the introduction for Walt Whitman it hit me. Most of these great literary authors came up in some form of journalistic position. For example Whitman began working at a newspaper when he was only 12 years old. Obviously, there is a huge age difference back then as opposed to now, but it was at this early age that Whitman was exposed to the wonderful world of writing. This can be seen when the editors state "By the age of twelve he was employed in the printing office of a newspaper, reading the novels of Sir Walter Scott and contributing short items…In his midteens he contributed pieces to one of the best Manhattan papers, the Mirror…" (17). This passage is just a small portion of Whitman's life in the typesetting and publishing world, for his youth is littered with instances of Whitman working for some newspaper.

What's interesting about this is the fact that, if you were interested in it, you could pursue it -- leaving out the obvious implications of prejudice at the time. It's hard to say if Whitman just needed to find work or if he really wanted to work as a typesetter. Either way you look at it, Whitman had the chance to experience the writing world from a perspective many of us can't. It's obvious that we don't all work for the local newspaper, but we have been given the same ability to enter into the publishing/journalistic world by way of the "blog." Blogging for my generation would have been like working for the newspaper in Whitman's -- the sheer ability to write and be exposed to writing set me in the direction of having articles published in a magazine.

Taken from his wikipedia page we read, "Whitman paid for the first publication of the first edition of Leaves of Grass himself and had it printed at a local print shop during their breaks from commercial jobs. (Wikipedia - Walt Whitman). This is another prime example at the differences between the time when Whitman was writing to the time when say any of us would attempt to publish something. We wouldn't necessarily have to pay any money out of our pockets to have something published. Even if we did have to pay for publishing, the cost of publishing has decreased so much that it's now possible to publish anything you write in book form.

But what can be taken away from both of these passages? For the most part, I think it's important for us to realize that there has been a major shift in writing as well as publishing. So much so that Whitman himself would write much like he did in "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry" about the new ways in which we reach the world through writing. The tough decision to be made here is whether or not the way we write and promote or prose to the world has diminished the value of writing or has blustered it? When we look at Twitter it's hard to find much in the way of "information to live by" as we mainly read about what toast people made. But if we were to take this idea of Twitter and place it in the context of rebellion, well then we have created a tool of speaking out against repression.

The same can be said of blogging. Has it changed out understanding of the news or how we get our news? I think blogging has added a new element to how we receive information in our daily lives, but blogging has done more, it's made us all into "Walt Whitmans." I say this because there is no longer a need to hand write everything, even though hand writing poetry seems to slow down the writing process that we can better think of the words we are using. To sum up, I think we can look to Whitman's early career as a publisher and journalist and be able to transplant it to our own writing in a way that allows us the same ability to reach the world. Whether we are hand writing everything or typing it out in a blog, writing is the vehicle with which our emotions and feelings can be expressed.

Kate Chopin Journal Posting - Part 1

Rich Hoggan
English 48B
Kate Chopin Journal - Part 1

Kate Chopin might have written about romance and "adultery" but she wrote with the undertones of creativity, namely musical creativity. It wouldn't seem that far off that Chopin would add such undertones seeing as how they are very similar to her undertones of romance. The ability to create, to perform with an instrument, to write music is enough to incite the same feelings as entering into a romance. In fact it could even be considered a romance that we musicians enter into with music.

The following passage demonstrates the prescribed undertones, "Edna was what she herself called very fond of music. Musical strains, well rendered, had a way of evoking pictures in her mind…The very first chords which Mademoiselle Reisz struck upon the piano sent a keen tremor down Mrs. Pontellier's spinal column. It was not the first time she had heard an artist at the piano. Perhaps it was the first time she was ready, perhaps the first time her being was tempered to take an impress of the abiding truth" (554). Breaking this quote down, we first read that music evoked pictures in Edna's mind. When music becomes emotional, it's not uncommon for music to take listeners on a journey.

More importantly, the key word in this passage is "truth." I consider this the keyword of the passage because there is an inherent truth in music. But music can be considered permanently truthful -- innocent. This is especially true in the addition of lyrics to music. We can hear such examples in urban rap music where the lyrics tell the story of life on the streets. And it's in such lyrics that there is an undeniable truth that can not be taken away. Similarly, while Mr. Ponteller has ended up "marrying" his job if you will, it would appear that Mrs. Pontellier lost the truth in her marriage forcing her to obtain truth from another source.

Taken from the Kate Chopin website, one production company mentions "…and incorporates music and movement to do justice to a story that begins in a workman's heart, then radiates with seismic repercussions into the world around her" (katechopin.org). This quote encompasses the story quite well in that Mrs. Pontellier seems to keep her feelings to herself for the most part. At the beginning of the story she did happen to cry but it is obvious that she is not very outward about her feelings. This is another obviousness that Mrs. Pontellier is a musician because our emotions seem to be displayed far better in music than by other sources.

To conclude, Chopin's touching on music brings a whole new level of understanding to her writing -- it allows us to understand how she tied romance, emotion, and truth together. Because the truth wasn't immediately present at the beginning of the story, Chopin's tie-in of music allows us to understand that truth must always be present as it is with music. The truth that Mrs. Pontellier might have been in love with her husband but secretly -- passionately -- experiences romance with Robert is a prime example. Love, romance, truth, passion, emotion, each has taken up the verses and choruses of music, but each has also been the undertone of Chopin's work.

Mark Twain Blog Posting

Rich Hoggan
English 48B
Mark Twain Blog Posting

It was a novel that I read in high school, a novel that I didn't really understand. It was a book that had bad words and a white kid running around with a run away slave. It was a story that took place in the south; the novel in question is Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain -- a story widely considered to be Twain's seminal piece. Yet while this might be the case, it's also the novel that garners the most attention from schools around the country for being controversial and fanning the flames of hatred as it were. The line is already drawn in the sand between those who literally place the novel on a pedestal and those who would rather it's pages make kindling for a book burning. The argument being made as to the "educational quality" of the novel has just as much argumentative capacity as debating the planetary status of Pluto by those who call themselves scientists. In other words, it's completely subjective.

In the introduction to Twain's work we read, "In recent years the racial (and racist) implications of every aspect of the novel have been the subject of critical debate, as have questions about the racial beliefs of the author (102). It's the idea that Twain was insinuating something other than simply keeping to the English style of the time that has created such a harsh debate as to the "usefulness" of such novel. Now that I am learning about literature from a college perspective, I can understand what it means to an author in keeping with the literary and even vernacular styles of the times. I know that these details make or break the story and this is precisely the reason why Twain included such details in his own work. But at the same time, I also can't agree with the fact that just because some people become literary scholars, hip hop artists, or the like feel as though that "changes" or makes any different the use of such derogatory and destructive words. Having endured four years of high school, such words flow just as freely as water into the ocean. We also tarnish what it means to be American, to fight for equality, to fight for civil rights when we consider any acceptable form of such words other than in keeping with the historical and literary significance of our past. To avoid the ugly face of hypocrisy, we don't have to like the word and most people don't' but we do have to accept that it seeped its way into our history and language as a country and is a part of many literary works of the times.

Taken from a news article on the matter, Gregory Roberts reports on the matter by interviewing Beatrice Clark who says "'It's not just a word,' said Clark, the guardian for her granddaughter. Both are African American. 'It carries with it the blood of our ancestors. They were called this word while they were lynched; they were called this word while they were hung from the big magnolia tree. That word, in the history of America, has always been a degrading word toward African Americans. When they were brought to America, they were never thought of as man beings in the first place, and this word was something to call a thing that wasn't human. So that's what they bring into the classroom to talk about. I just think it's utterly unconscionable that a school would think it's acceptable" (Seattle PI Local - 'Huck Finn' a masterpiece -- or an insult). I personally feel that it's worse for kids to be calling each other such a name like it's "hello" than to be shooting at each other. While the prospect of violence leaves little to be desired as acceptable either, the point to be made is that using such a word in such a meaningless way is like loading bullets in a gun and pulling the trigger.

To draw this posting to a close, the argument will still continue long after we leave English 48B, long after we enter into our perspective majors, long after we forget about the fact that we ever read the novel in the first place, but the argument still rages. Because the argument still rages, and because it has become a part of our country historically, it has become a part of us -- society as a whole. And as we attempt to find a resolution, we must do our due diligence in remembering that the words that we exchange as a society always have a meaning to someone.

Edith Wharton Post

Rich Hoggan
English 48B
Edith Wharton Blog Posting



Edith Wharton was an author who experienced life in a similar manner to Henry James in that she lived and went to school in Europe. The idea that she had similar experiences to James growing up lends license to the fact that she wrote similarly to James as well. In the introduction to Edith Wharton's work we read, "It is small wonder, then, that her work, like Henry James's, deals with what she described as the tragic psychic and moral effects on its members of a frivolous society under pressure" (829). While this quote covers the work of James', it also relates to the Wharton's characters.

Just having read "The Other Two," it's obvious that Mr. Waythorn suffers adverse effects from dealing with his wife's previous husbands. These "effects" become the social consequence of not dealing with one's past as they should. It even seems as though Mrs. Waythorn pushes away and ignores the fact that her ex-husband wishes to see his daughter. At the end of the story, these social consequences -- effects -- become extremely apparent in the fact that Mrs. Waythorn barely notices her daughter's father siting in the same room as everyone else. It could even be argued that she has a "what are you doing here" kind of attitude with him.

Found on her profile page on online-literature.com, we read "While in Paris, Wharton met journalist Morton Fullerton, who would become a close friend and was instrumental in getting some of her works published in France. They also had an affair that lasted three years. Teddy had a mistress and had been embezzling funds from Edith to support her. They were divorced in 1913" (online-literature.com - Wharton). This piece of information also demonstrates that Wharton experienced her own "social consequences" in that she was cheated on while married to Morton Fullerton, a French journalist. Knowing this, we can also assume that Wharton would have included pieces of her own life in her writing -- a throwback to Mrs. Waythorn potentially.

Understanding Wharton's writing as well as her own life gives us the ability to understand where her writing comes from and the social consequences that are evident within it. But this can be put into better perspective when Wharton writes "Her best friends would have preferred to see her remain in the role of the injured wife, which was as becoming to her as crepe to a rosy complexion" (831). Mrs. Waythorn's friends would rather she have not attempted to remarry and maintain the attitude that she doesn't need to marry but Mrs. Waythorn obviously didn't think the same way. The social consequences at this point could take the form of Mrs. Waythorn pursuing what she wishes while her friends take the sidelines expecting different results.

To sum up, it would appear that Wharton is simply writing for entertainment value or for exposing the scandal that existed and still exists in "high class" society but is writing to expose the effects of not handling one's personal life properly, especially when attempting to do so integrated with another person.

Rich Hoggan
English 48B
02-10-11
Muir Journal Posting

John Muir -- the man who single-handedly pushed for numerous state and federal parks through out California -- is a man who cares for nature like his own family as such Muir didn't appreciate seeing the woodlands around Lake Tahoe turned into pastures for cattle. Worse yet, Muir witnessed a horrific scene as he was making his way back to Lake Tahoe. In his book, Tahoe Beneath The Surface, Scott Lankford writes, "Such, then, was the scene which an aging and heartsick Muir now confronted from the window of his rolling railroad carriage as it approached Truckee: save for the hydraulic mining and mercury based ore refining practiced on the Western slope of the Sierra -- which Muir also witness -- no landscape in all of America had been as systematically raped, abandoned, and destroyed as the Lake Tahoe basin in the late 1800's: hardly a welcome sight for a famous naturalist on his first summer vacation in almost a decade" (149).

If you were to read the entire chapter on Muir you would understand just how deeply he cared about nature. This site to him must have been shocking if not appalling to watch as he was helplessly stuck on the train only able to witness the destruction taking place before his eyes. It's almost like watching your favorite city transform into something you no longer recognize. In this case you could argue that Muir's city was Lake Tahoe, it's massive trees its sky scrapers. For the most part, Lake Tahoe has been the center of many attempts to transform it. The first settlers did the hard work of removing it's native people's from the land, and then came the big four who wanted to transform Lake Tahoe into a system of railroads in order to facilitate cross-country travel. Now while I don't consider it barbaric to bring cross-country travel to the West coast by means of a mountain route, the barbaric part of this transformation came at the expense of the Chinese. And finally the transformation is coming in the form of those who wish to turn Lake Tahoe into a tourist destination for the rich which is coming at the expense of vast redwood forests.

Taken from a profile page on ecotopia.org, we read "…perhaps the greatest tribute ever given to Muir took place in a private conversion between two great contemporary mountaineers. Galen Rowell once asked Rheinhold Messner why the greatest mountains and valleys of the Alps are so highly developed, why they have hotels, funicular railways, and veritable cities washing up against sites that, in America, are maintained relatively unencumbered by development. Messner explained the difference in three words. He said, You had Muir." (ecotopia.org - John Muir). If you think about it, John Muir treated Lake Tahoe as a family and as a result protected Lake Tahoe. And once the only caregiver died and was no longer able to protect and care for Lake Tahoe, not much could be done to stop its destruction or at least transformation.

Looking at the environment of Lake Tahoe, it's a terrific place to be. I remember always enjoying the drive up to Lake Tahoe just to see the water fall as we made our way up the mountain. This is probably why I enjoy doing long exposure photography of water as well. But being able to enjoy such sites means having to thank those who systematically fought to protect something younger and subsequently future generations could enjoy especially Muir. For without Muir, Lake Tahoe would almost indefinitely be a different place today.

Rich Hoggan
Engish 48B
02-01-11
Mary Hunter Austin Journal Posting

Just by looking at her Wikipedia picture you can tell Mary Hunter Austin had an analytical set of eyes on the world -- a set of eyes seemingly lacking of trust. In her short story, "The Walking Woman," Austin writes of the woman in question by saying "On the mere evidence of her way of life she was cracked; not quite broken, but unserviceable" (889). This quote doesn't seem to be about Mrs. Walker as the Walking Woman was most fondly called in the story but about Austin herself. Austin had a rough childhood and lost her father at a young age and before that had lost her sister as well. If we are to consider this quote as being about Austin herself, it would appear that she considered herself to be broken but at the same time still capable of communication which I believe came in the form of her writing. It also seems as though her best form of communication occurred in her writings as seems to be the case with creative types for we communicate better knowing only the paper knows our inmost thoughts.

What could also be gleaned from her stories is that Austin was what could be considered an "eco-feminist" in that she believed women were more closely related to the Earth than men. I think this ideal of hers comes from living through a period where women were not given many rights nor the license to creativity as we might remember from Gilman's writings. Taken from her profile page on answers.com, "In 1912, she published what many believed was her best novel, A Woman of Genius. This work, which featured some autobiographical elements, was about women having to choose between marriage and career. As in many of her books about women, Austin also explored how and why women were subjugated by men. This early feminist novel led to Austin later being embraced by the women's movement of the 1970's" (answer.com - Mary Hunter Austin).

Austin's outlook on society seems to be mirrored in her story "The Walking Woman" because there are some similarities between Mrs. Walker and Austin, but at the same time, Austin's other literary works played a more pivotal role in society. One such novel, as was as just mentioned, A woman of Genius, played a pivotal role in her understanding of society around her specifically man's treatment of women. This novel took a feminist stance on society thus giving cause to the women's movement that would later engulf society much like the civil rights movement only a decade earlier. Similarly, Austin had an approach much like Gilman in that both used autobiographical elements in their works, yet Gilman spoke more so about personal experience while Austin wrote on the idea of women having to choose between two lives, marriage and career.

A point to be made here is that it's in the choices we make that we end up living our lives. Austin wrote on women having to choose between work and home but at the same time that was their choice. It's almost as though Austin wished all women chose career over marriage almost like that would put a stop to the social abuses they faced. When in reality the majority of the social issues women faced were faced in the work place not in the home. I think we are dealing with a perceived notion in terms of women's role in society or lack there of depending on your own views more so than the need to make choices. That said, we can't give license to the actions of society at the time as the prejudice that took place was and still is an issue.