Monday, July 14, 2014

Death 7/21/14



            To say that someone survived the Holocaust is never exactly accurate. The nightmares, the guilt, the anguish and the nightmares that live on in the minds of those who were in Nazi concentration camps but were not physically killed can be harder to bear than death might have been. Like so many Holocaust “survivors,” Paul Celan ultimately took his own life rather than live with the concentration camp hangover. Before he did so, however, he penned an impressive body of work based on his experiences there, and in his poetry we find windows into the dark world he inhabited.

            Celan’s first published poem, “Deathfugue,” reveals just how fixated he was on the death that surrounded him during his incarceration. He describes morning as the “black milk of day break,” referring to the way the sky was darkened by the smoke from the ever-burning crematoriums (Celan 1470). He mentions the Jews having “a grave in the clouds where you won’t lie too cramped,” describing the bodies that have burned and turned into black smoke, sent to dissipate in the sky among the clouds (1470). Those images were burned into Celan’s memory, as surely as the bodies of murdered Jews were turned into that black, milky smoke.

            There is also an element of martyrdom in Celan’s poetry, such as “Tenebrae.” The word tenebrae is Latin for darkness, but it is traditionally associated with the crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth at the hands of the Romans. The sacrifice of Jesus is the last remaining comfort for those who are about to be killed by the Nazis. “Pray, Lord,” the poem begs. “Pray to us, / we are near” (1472). The condemned cling to each other as they approach death, asking Jesus to pray for them as they walk their final steps. When they come to a water trough they see blood instead of water, and the speaker sees it as the blood that Jesus shed, saying it “shined,” no doubt as the final hope for those with little hope (1472). The evocation of the sacrifice of Jesus is especially remarkable since the Jews who were being exterminated did not believe he was the Messiah. In their hour of darkness, however, they found him to be a powerful image to which to cling.




Works Cited


Celan, Paul. “Deathfugue.” The Norton Anthology of World Literature. Third ed. Vol. 1. New York: W. W. Norton, 2013. 1469-1470. Print.

Celan, Paul. “Tenebrae.” The Norton Anthology of World Literature. Third ed. Vol. 1. New York: W. W. Norton, 2013. 1472-1473. Print.

Borges 7/14/14



            The idea of there being alternative realities and alternative timelines is an intriguing one. It has fired the imaginations of fiction writers and movie directors for years, and is also the subject of scientific study. Quantum physics can even explain ways in which alternate realities exist and can be studied in theory. In the popular film series based on “The Matrix” there is a scene in which Neo (portrayed by Keanu Reeves) sees all of his alternate realities played out on little TV screens. In an episode of “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” Commander Worf somehow winds up switching places with one of his alternate realities and has to find a way back. Likewise, there seems to be an occurrence of alternate reality in Zhang Ailing’s “Sealed Off.”
            The entire story has an odd feel to it, not quite Orwellian, but it is abundantly clear that it is written about another culture. Poverty seems to be more prevalent among the people outside the limits of the tram car, and it is so pervasive that there is a kind of depressed silence in the outside world. Inside the car are a random selection of people who, if not for their Chinese names, could be the people one might meet in a subway car in New York or on a city bus in any city across America. Two people, in particular, however, become the focus of the story, and this is where the reality shift takes place.
            Cuiyuan is a brilliant young woman who is feeling pressure from her family to find a wealthy young man and get married. Zonghen is a decade older and married, yet for a brief moment their lives intersect and they have a glimpse of another life in which they are together as unmarried lovers. That moment passes somewhat awkwardly, however, and at the end of the story it isn’t clear whether the episode really happened, or if one or the other of the two merely dreamed it. Dream or not, that moment could very well be seen as a glimpse into a different reality akin to Neo’s moment in “The Matrix” or Worf’s dilemma in “Star Trek.”

           



Works Cited

The Matrix Reloaded. Dir. Larry Wachowski and Andy Wachowski. Perf. Keanu Reeves, Hugo Weaving and Carrie- Ann Moss. 2003. DVD.

Roddenberry, Gene, and Brannon Braga. "Star Trek: The Next Generation." Parallels. UPN. Los Angeles, California, 27 Nov. 1993. Television.

Zhang Ailing. “Sealed Off.” The Norton Anthology of World Literature. Third ed. Vol. 1. New York: W. W. Norton, 2013. 1346-1354. Print.