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INSCRIPTIONS, EPIGRAPHY, EIDOLON, CATALOGUES

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Commitment and Pleasure: is it possible to join them?

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Today I was exchanging e-mails with a friend about work, and we realized how much we have been enjoying our work lately, especially our endeavors on the internet. And, as the Led Zeppelin song goes, “It makes me wonder”. And this wondering made me look back ten years before now, when I learned a great lesson from another great friend of mine, Austro Queiroz. Actually, he is more than a friend, he is a Master to us all who have the pleasure and honor to know him. If you are interested in finding out more about him, check his works on the web.

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REVISIONS, PERCEPTION, MOVEMENT, CHANGE

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There has been much controversy (see Roy Harvey Pearce, “Whitman Justified: The Poet in 1860″, in Modern Critical Views, 1985) about the changes made by Whitman in Leaves of Grass during his life. His revisions, which are similar to the method of recomposition in performance by Greek bards, as noted by Nagy in his Pindar’s Homer, could be seen as a new edition of a book in modern times (what is done on paper today represents a new performance for a bard in ancient times). The revisions then can be taken into account for just what they are, attempts to find a better way to convey a message. This is a common practice for any writer. Every time we re-read what we write, we tend to seek a better word, better sound, better rhythm, the same way a translator does, always trying to reach perfection of expression. In the case of Whitman, we must have in mind that he never yielded to his critics, and never changed anything due to public opinion or just to have his book published. It took decades until a publishing house took over his works to make an official edition.

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WHO CAN READ GOD DIRECTLY?

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SEARCHING FOR WHOLENESS, OR DIVINITY

The passage “Do I contradict myself? / Very well, then, I contradict myself. / I am large, I contain multitudes.”, from section 51 of “Song of Myself”, is a true picture of Whitman and the Leaves. For the author as well as the book contain multitudes. “Multitudes” means a great number of things or people, the masses, the populace, hosts, legions, armies, or even multiple points of view, as in the expression “a multitude of reasons”. A reader may be even puzzled by the Leaves for many years, feeling confused by not comprehending its messages, and considering himself unintelligent for not being able to capture the totality of the work or to grasp its open or hidden meanings.

However, when this reader finds words like: “Except for Dickinson (the only American poet comparable to him in magnitude), there is no other nineteenth-century poet as difficult and hermetic as Whitman [...]“, and “Only an elite can read Whitman, despite the poet’s insistence that he wrote for the people [...]“, written by Bloom (1985, p.3), he understands that he needs more than a superficial comprehension of the book to really walk down these leafy roads.

The poet was not easy to be understood; although he was acquainted with people of all ranks, he preferred to be with the common men, as he called himself “one of the roughs”(BLOOM, 1985, p.2), someone who enjoyed being with the common people on ferries and buses, as he truly confesses in this poem, “To the Prevailing Bards”, from “Uncollected Poems”:

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What exists beyond the material world can be seen through our physical vision?

Let Whitman give the answer!

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WHITMAN AND THE CLASSIC PAST

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A NOTE ON DEATH AND LIFE IN LEAVES OF GRASS

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Gregory Nagy, in chapter 4 of Pindar’s Homer, tells about death and rebirth in Greek myths and rituals. He says that death and life are always linked, one leads to the other, successfully. Death of the past and rebirth of the present. This is in tune with what Whitman does in his poetry, he parallels death and life. He is never afraid of death, as he sings in the “Death Carol”, section 16 of “When Lilacs…”. He repeats this over and over, as if to make his readers understand that one can only lead a true life, or live a life to its fullest if one overcomes his fear of dying, for the fear of death indicates a corresponding fear of life.

Then, symbolically speaking, death is a kind of initiation into life. Death motivates life. Every moment that has passed is a dead moment, and we need to live in the present, which is the only living time available to us, since the future has not arrived yet. In this manner, we are always dying to the past to be reborn into the present, like a phoenix.

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A NOTE ON CENSORSHIP AND RECEPTION OF LEAVES OF GRASS

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A FEW WORDS ON LEAVES OF GRASS, BY WALT WHITMAN

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