Kay's power & her way out in The Godfather

The Godfather is an American classic, originally written by Mario Puzo and later directed by Francis Coppola  starring Marlon Brando, Robert Duval, Al Pacino, Diane Keaton (Kay), James Caan, and Talia Shire (Adrian from Rocky) to name a few.
In my class Three Novels and a Film, Professor Rosenberg's last class, we took a look at Moby-Dick, Song of Solomon, The Godfather, The Godfather Pt.II, and The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay - all coming of age stories. But it is Kay's power, or lack of power, in the hegemonic Italian-mob family that particularly interests me.
near the end of the Pt.II, Michael is naive and not informed about his family as he is more focused on the business of the mob. There is a scene where Kay and Michael (who has been the Don of the Corleone's for a while now, since the end of Pt.I) are talking and Michael is trying to converse with go who it seems is long past their relationship. In one of the most intense scenes in the film, with spectacular acting, Michael says something alongs the lines of "i know you blame me for you miscarriage" and Kay responds "it wasn't a miscarriage, it was an abortion. an abortion michael. just like our marriage is an abortion. something that is unholy and evil. i didn't want your son micahel. i wouldn't bring another one of your sons in this world... i had it killed because this had to end" (referring to the Italian-Mob).
I was one of the few in class who sort of sided with Kay because she was trapped in this family and relationship, and before she did not know what she was getting herself into. But after reading Zami at the beginning of the year, I noticed that Kay was doing the only thing she could within her power, so she did it. This also spoke to American society of the time because Pt. II came out in '74 and Roe v. Wade happened in '73, which was a very interesting point Professor Rosenberg noted. I do not think I would have noticed Kay's reasoning behind doing this and why she did it, not only because she felt responsible for continuing on the Corleone family, but because this was the only power she had in the relationship, over her own body and to abort the baby, without reading and discussing Audre Lorde and her novel Zami in class this semester. I am always intrigued and happy when I can see the relationship between things from one class to another and did so in this case.

More Original Work

Sup guys. As the end of the semester approaches, I feel that the mood of the blog has relaxed considerably as we all become slowly more accustomed to each other's written voices and styles. I'm going to publish another piece of original work, open for criticism and revision. Again, please let me know if you feel that this inappropriate for what is technically an academic space.

DISCLAIMER: I did not actually cheat on my girlfriend. As I talked about in another post, this poem was inspired by this scenario I had in my mind wherein a man woke up in a cold sweat after dreaming he had cheated on his girlfriend.

It happened again
I dreamt I cheated on my girlfriend last night
Even worse
With her best friend.
It wasn't quite as blunt or blatant this time,
instead of full-blown pants off dirty deed,
it was simply inviting her to sleep in my bed
because she's afraid of the dark

I woke up scared, and excited, and ashamed.
The same thoughts that crossed my mind whenever I had these dreams of infidelity.
Do I really love her?
Or is it just physical?
Am I that much of a dick?
Am I going to one day realize that I'd rather live in dreams of doing sinful things with other girls -
one from France,
one from across town,
one I don't even think exists -
than in the real world?

Just An Observation I Have

One thing I have noticed in the past week is how beloved Prince was by so many people. Even after his funeral/cremation has taken place, people are still talking about him. No doubt this is because he was an artist and a character, and not just merely because he was successful in his business.

But to that point, I find it interesting from a social perspective that African American entertainers like Prince, and other black figures as well, maintain such great reverence and respect from people on both sides of the color line, and from different socio-economic backgrounds. This is in contrast to racism that is still deeply prevalent in some niches in society, especially with those who awkwardly still believe that African Americans are still not somehow equal.

My question(s) that I would pose would be: Why does this dichotomy exist? How has this gap been created and still maintained? I think that it could have something to do with economics,and where people are in terms of wealth and stability. I also think that it could be explained simply by "tradition" and an engrained sense that one race is dominant, especially that which perhaps is still prevalent in some areas of the Deep South.

If anyone has any comments or ideas on this, I would be very interested in what you'd have to say. This is just something that I've never really thought about until now.

The Benefit of a Diary

So recently, as a means to facilitate growth in my own creative abilities, I picked up journaling. This is something I do every day, writing down anything that comes to mind. A verse, a snatch of poetry, things that pissed me off that day, etc. Having a creative outlet right at my fingertips is still so fascinating to me. The fact that anything I write can become a masterpiece is the type of poetic inspiration that I feel many of the authors we've read possess. So I sought out a female poet who was a known diarist in order to tie this in to our course.

Marina Ivanovna Tsvetaeva was a Russian Soviet poet from the early 1900s to her death in 1941. She survived the Russian Revolutions of 1917, witnessed the steady decline of Europe and growth of Nazi power, saw her husband arrested for espionage, and committed suicide shortly thereafter. The entire time, she was journaling, collecting her thoughts for poetic work. One of her poems from 1915 struck me as the sort that would come about from some physical observations she made and recorded.

I Know the Truth

I know the truth - forget all other truths!
No need for anyone on earth to struggle.
Look - it is evening, look, it is nearly night:
what will you say, poets, lovers, generals?

The wind is level now, the earth is wet with dew,
the storm of stars in the sky will turn to quiet.
And soon all of us will sleep beneath the earth, we
who never let each other sleep above it.

 In short, this poem discusses the inevitability of death and the passing of time, perhaps describing the decline of the economy and social stability of the Russian Empire. As well, the line "we/ who never let each other sleep above it" could also be referring to the combative and aggressive nature of mankind, and the inevitability of war.

Blues Music, Y'all

To say the least, we don't have much time left in this semester. That means that there may be very little original material that we can put on this blog. All of his have tackled the material from many different perspectives that relate to discrimination, gender identity, and generally surviving in this world as women coming from multi-cultural backgrounds. But to me, there are more "fun" ways to talk about these individuals as they can relate to relationships and power.

I was very pleasantly surprised that we were able to tie blues music to the work in Lucy Negro, Redux, because I think that there was a connection with the poetry and with the Blues tradition (and if Foghat's music was what Prof. Marshall was firstly drawn to, he has a solid taste in music) I find the connection between what was being said in Caroline's work as it related to women who have a concious autonomy, and also to men who would care about nothing more than pleasure. "I Just Want to Make Love to You" is a song that encapsulates that arch very well, because it demonstrates that kind of struggle.

The Blues is a tradition that is grounded in stark reality, in sadness, and expressing a longing for better. Go back and listen closely to B.B. King, Robert Johnson, and even Stevie Ray Vaughn, and you will see that tradition, and its influence on rock music as well.

That being said, please enjoy one of my favorite Foghat covers, and I would be interested in your thoughts on what Robert Johnson is saying, and how we can further relate that to the struggles of both men and women of all races.

Analyzing an intriguing poem

A poem called by Caroline Randall Williams called "FIELD NIGGER OR, SUBLIMATING LUCY. TIRED OF HEARING CERTAIN QUESTIONS." caught my attention because of its odd structure. I have not seen this kind of style in any poem. As you see on page 39 of Lucy Negro Redux, no single line in the poem is alike another's. But that is just something I noticed later on. The most bizarre part of this poems structure is that there is a tree diagram in the piece! I do not have an answer to why nearly every line is different from the others, but with careful analysis, I do see a reason for the tree diagram, and it is a simple one, really.

The poem begins by asking Williams/the character questions about her appearance and why she dresses the way she does. The reply is that she is trying to be wifey material. In an abrupt turn (any ideas where this change comes from?) a line that says "I am not half black; I haven't been half black" directs the poem into a tree diagram. The first line in the diagram says "since the one drop rule." The "One Drop Rule" is the idea that even one person of a certain ethnicity opposite of the primary ethnicity in a line of ancestry, makes you a part of that type of person. In response with the tree diagram, Williams argues that she is not half black, but fully black because some of her ancestors have been raped by whites, which is the reason she has that bloodline. However, it is not embraced because it was not naturally given to her.

In another sudden change, the poem ends with Williams saying that her ancestors days of being slaves is not done because she is worked like a servant to make works of literature.

Some Original Work

So I approached Professor Marshall about possibly submitting some original work to the blog, and whether or not it would be appropriate, as the author of this work is not a multicultural woman. He stated that if we could tie the work to some aspect of the class, it would be appropriate.

When Jamila Woods came in and did that brief writer's workshop, you recall that she loved my idea behind poetry that stems from a single thought or emotion. We earlier discussed this kind of "poetic thesis", and that good poetry can be reduced to a sort of one line summary. In the future, I'll apply this one-line analysis to some of the work we've seen.

For this poem, my sort of thesis is in respect to belonging to a group that is not only typically conformist, but also one that is usually not exclusionist in nature. The sensation that sort of described this was a brief image I had while driving of a bunch of starlings in a sunset sky.

I see Starlings- thousands of them
A black cloud, swaying and shifting through the sky
The cloud moves like water, with each little bird following those around him
There is no true beginning or end, just a mass of life
Suddenly, it splits
Some go here, others go there,
These birds flock in the truest sense of the word
Clinging to each other for companionship and security
As the clouds reform, I see one little bird, moving as fast as it can to rejoin his brothers
They make no effort to slow, he begins to lag behind more and more
I look and reflect
And realize,
This is me.

Again, if those of you don't feel that this is appropriate for our class' blog, let me know and I'll remove this.

Going Out On a Whim On This One...

While we are all still in the spirit after we all (hopefully) went to the IndyCar panel last night, and perhaps took a ride in the two-seater race car, I am crazy enough to bring this subject onto this blog. As I was once a racecar driver myself in a past life racing mini-sprints (World of Outlaws-type stuff, if it means anything), and still pay a good amount of attention to the racing world, I find it fascinating regarding who is actually driving the cars. If anyone can't see where I could be going with this, read on.

How I am connecting racing to multicultural poets is through the discussion of discrimination and multi-cultural perspectives. I am also trying to think about how not just non-white men, but also women, figure into the modern schematics of who has the talent to drive the car.

Take a look at NASCAR, for example. It was an offshoot of the racing world that was born out of bootlegging in the South. It was all about taking stock engine motors and making them faster, so that the moonshine would not fall into the hands of the law. Besides this goal setting the course for NASCAR to be a major sport, one has to wonder whether or not African American drivers in general have ever really played a big part in the development of not just NASCAR, but in racing in general.

In the Jim Crow South, an African American in stock car racing would've been an odd thing, and maybe even alarming to the status quo as time went on. Car racing has grown into a major sport where the status is based on who can best drive the car, and which team can better manage itself and the driver. While NASCAR has expanded as far as not being a totally "American" or male-dominated sport (take Danica Patrick and Helio Castroneves, who both came from the "big leagues" of racing), it could be argued even slightly that there is an inherent discrimination behind the mostly-white, mostly male profession of auto racing.

And as far as multi-cultural pespectives go, we 'Muricans may become more accepting of the fact that it is not only us who appreciates NASCAR or racing in general. NASCAR and European sports car racing, which is perhaps much mor embracing as far as opportunities go, has millions of fans straddling multi-cultural lines, from Argentina to Japan. Think about that as far we stand here an hour away from one of the iconic racetracks in the world.

Does "The Mothers" have an involuntary double meaning?

In todays discussion we talked about similarities of specific poems between Lewis's and other poems we have read throughout the semester. I analyzed the poem "The Mothers." Professor Marshall explained that the poem was about two females that engaged in some kind of sexual activity while they were at work. This is a reading that I think was the authors intent, however, I do believe this poem serves as a double meaning whether it was intentional by the author or not. The poem reads:

We meet—sometimes—between the dry hours,

Between clefts in the involuntary plan,

Refusing to think of rent or food—how

Civic the slick to satisfied from man.

And Democratic. A Lucky Strike each, we

Sponge each other off, while what's greyed

In and grey slinks ashamed down the drain.

No need to articulate great restraint,

No need to see each other's mouth lip

The obvious. Giddy. Fingers garnished

With fumes of onions and garlic, I slip

Back into my shift, then watch her hands—wordless—

Reattach her stockings to the martyred

Rubber moons wavering at her garter.

I think the first few phrases that say "dry hours" and "involuntary plan" are references to an unplanned pregnancy. The line "Civic the slick to satisfied from man" refers to the relationship and duty that men and woman are supposed to have sex. The next part of the poem seems to be some kind of abortion, as the "ashamed" (fetus) goes down the drain. In the next stanza, it seems as if the patient is happy after the unplanned pregnancy had been aborted, and the doctors hands are full of a substance from her vagina. The last two lines represent the woman putting back on her cloths after the abortion.

The reading of two females doing some sort of sexual activity at work is probably the most accurate reading of this piece. However, I do see a tie between an involuntary pregnancy and the realization of a woman who prefers another woman over a man. 

Quick Reactions to "Sable Venus"

I have found Voyage of the Sable Venus to be an interesting read so far. I think that it is one of the most unique set of poems because they take inspiration from tangible things, such as statues and photographs. I think that this also contributes Robin Lewis' work as very dependent on imagery, leaving the reader to picture the scenario that the thing could be depicting.

While I found the first section to be linear in that its poems were linear and "prosy", I had much difficulty with the second section, even though I understand the work was image-centered. I get the idea that Lewis is trying something totally off-beaten, and puts much of the work on the reader to picture the things in our heads. My first inclination is to say that much of it was distracting, because many of the pieces in the "catalogs" were not linear, written in an abstract way. Perhaps there is a reason for that, but I felt that this took away from my getting what the poem, or the whole package, was about. To be honest, I found myself struggling through this part, and only got the gist in the last few pieces.

I would be intrigued if you guys also found the second section difficult to grasp, or if you see a rhyme or reason behind such experimental poetry. It is definitely unique, but it begs the question whether or not the reader should be able to get the main message, or if it was meant to be left up to interpretation. If anything, this latter conclusion would encourage more discussion on what it actually means.