Month: October 2018

51

The past and present wilt—I have fill’d them, emptied them,

And proceed to fill my next fold of the future.

 

Listener up there! what have you to confide to me?

Look in my face while I snuff the sidle of evening,

(Talk honestly, no one else hears you, and I stay only a minute longer.)

 

Do I contradict myself?

Very well then I contradict myself,

(I am large, I contain multitudes.)

 

I concentrate toward them that are nigh, I wait on the door-slab.

Who has done his day’s work? who will soonest be through with his supper?

Who wishes to walk with me?

Will you speak before I am gone? will you prove already too late?

This section of the Walt Whitman’s Song of Myself expresses the idea that we must learn to cultivate the self-awareness and openness to contradict the self that existed in the past and present and accept or welcome the unheard future.

In the first two lines, he symbolized the “past and present” as wilt plant and book pages that are emptied and fold over. The once vital and fulfilling elements of life have emptied and proceed to fill the future. Whitman then images the future as “sidle of evening” and “door-slab”, which present the tranquility in the merge of presence and future, the ease of the unknown encounters.

Then he brings up the famous lines “Do I contradict myself? Very well then I contradict myself, (I  am large, I contain multitudes.) Although Whitman uses “I” in the poem Song of Myself, he is speaking in the presence of the majority. We experience the constant changes, new people, new technology, new ideas, new objects regularly brought us to new experiences, in those, we might found conflicts and discrepancy within ourselves. However, opposing to the consistency that society has taught us to be, Whitman says it’s okay to contradict the past and the present to welcome the future.

Whitman presents us the transcendentalism aesthetics through his poem, fetches the individualism within a person through peaceful and elegant dialogue between himself and the readers. “Who wishes to walk with me? Will you speak before I am gone?” Whitman’s simple and effective invitation encourage the readers to speak to him while we are still able to.

The reason I choose this video, not merely because it helps me to understand this stanza of the poem better, but also due to the audio reading of the verse (0:28 – 1:24) I enjoy to listen over and over again. So for each time I listened to the audio, it helps to bring a deeper understanding of the words and the transmissional consciousness of Whitman.

 

1:07 – 2:22, 2:40-3:18

“For me alone Don Quixote was born and I for him. His was the power of action, mine of writing,” said by Cide Hamete Benengeli, a fictional Muslim historian in the book, he emphasizes his role as a simple writer of Don Quixote’s life and actions. This quote is one of the clues hints that Cervantes is not entirely responsible for creating this character, Don Quixote. However, through Cervantes’ great writing, the character Don Quixote comes alive.

In the hands of the famous ballet choreographer, Marius Petipa, and ballet music composer, Ludwig Minkus, this great work of Don Quixote is presented through delightful, classical ballet dances and music. The transformation from literature into visual and auditory art is fascinating and took around two hundred fifty years to form a famous ballet stage play of Don Quixote.

The Chinese ballet dancer, Gong Sir, explained in the video the attraction of Don Quixote ballet from a professional perspective. The ballet form of DQ created by Petipa and Minkus put more focus on the storyline between Kitri and Basilio. However, it preserves the idealistic characteristic of DQ through the scene of windmill and dreams. With the perfect combination of the Spanish dance, stage costume, music, and ballet techniques, the 1869’s DQ presented in the Imperial Bolshoi Theatre of Moscow comes to great success.

The aesthetic linkage between literature and ballet play bring the transmissional consciousness of character Don Quixote to the audience. Although Cervantes is not entirely the creator of DQ, neither Petipa and Minkus are the creators of DQ play, but the aesthetic experiences they bought to us is the consciousness of honest, dignified, proud, and idealistic characteristics, and there form a vivid entity through the great work of literature. I appreciate the professional ballet dancer’s perspective of this play, and he provides the individual elements that form the holistic, aesthetic watching experiences of 1869’s play.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What I find to be so appealing about King Lear is his fragile vanity that only takes on idealized love and absolute obedience. King Lear seeks and demands the “pure attention” from his daughters but fail to assess the reverence behind the toxic and ostentatious expression of love, his process of bringing subconscious aesthetic appreciation to the consciousness is through verbal confirmation, which brings to the questions, how does King Lear express his paternal love toward his daughters and why?

In the video clip from the movie, “The Huntsman: Winter’s War,” Ravenna’s strange love toward her sister, Freya, is for her to be as powerful, ruthless and loveless as she is so that they can together conquer all kingdoms. This type of love may not bring the aesthetic appreciation to his sister, and it is twisted, selfish and inappropriate because the unconscious monster of fear, sense of betrayal, resides on the back of true aesthetic experience of love, like a switch, something might accidentally and easily trigger the off mode. King Lear’s expression of love toward his daughter is similar to Ravenna’s assertion of love toward her sister, share of power and authority, which are not being appreciated by their loved ones. In a sense, they are both narcissists; they maintain a false pride from the power they hold when such power is being taken or exploited, the “unexpressed emotions” will come in the uglier way, or maybe, the most authentic way. In the movie, Ravenna’s unconscious fear is virtualized into a magic mirror, brings the deepest, unexpressed thoughts and emotions to the surface, causing her to destroy her sister’s romance, and lead herself to destruction. On another side, when King Lear lost his power and authority, language becomes his only weapon to protect his dignity and deny the reality.

Beside Ravenna’s similarity to King Lear, Freya’s aesthetic experience with a nobleman, Andrew, also resembles King Lear’s desire to confirm Cordelia’s love toward him, which they both receive “betrayal.”  Both characters know their loved ones love them, and they desire actions. “For love blinds even the clearest eyes,” when misinterpretation and misunderstanding crush into the conscious mind, the switch is off, and the strong sense of betrayal takes the ownership.

I suppose the reason I choose this video is that there are some commons between King Lear and characters from the movie. Both express unique and food for thought idea of love and aesthetic experience.