SUPER FUN BLOG

"The invisible skull on the desolate hills of every California town opens its jaws of arranged imprisonments and decapitations. But, who listens?"(83)

Taking an abstract concept and abstracting it even further, perhaps this could relate to the 1950's concept of self-deception, where here the people purposefully don't listen to whatever the skull has to say, choosing to believe what makes them feel comfortable and disconnected from the real world in their own little reality. Or perhaps the author is just stringing silly words together again like he tends to.

"What is Mexico? Another fast stop for quasi-Beat U.S. middle-class poets to photograph themselves on a literary burro on their way to a Managuan book fair and a backyard hut experience for $800 so they can come back to their sanded-down desks somewhere overlooking the Bay Area and write a feeble twenty-page stroke of masturbation and distortions?"(89)

The author probably has the tendency to look down on people whom he views as 'wannabe' poets and 'unenlightened' people, as evidenced in prior readings and in this quote. It seems the bad habit of getting on a high horse plagues the narrator, since he is sometimes reminded that he is no better than anyone else for any reason.

"The concept is provocative, Vic, archaic, the whole thing about rising from the ashes, dressed in campesino shorts, working off a molcajete, the good ol' Indio Chicano stone mortar and pestle, mixing diverse elements, mashing them into pulp and juice, into a new blood force." (32)

I picked this quote because I thought it was simply very well written and made good use of literary techniques. I think that it also makes references to the 'rags to riches' American dream and the mataphor of a melting plot that was commonly associated with American diversity for a while, especially around cities such as New Orleans.

"I was at the bus depot ready to take bus to Tabasco. But, I decided to catch a flick, miss my ride, see a bit of Cantinflas, and think about my real next move."

Reminds me of that poem we read once in class, I think it was by Ginsberg, where the final line included something about going back to the real work. I think that sounds pretty similar to this line.

"Back on schedule. Eatin' beans and recievin' e-mail. Makin' love and teachin' class. Binary option and terciary paths." (65)

Sounds like another example of that duality that was oh-so-common in Dharma Bums. However, the Dharma Bums was almost constantly displaying duality from beginning to end, whereas this is the first example of duality I've found in this book. However, that could be because half of the documents in this book are barely coherent and the only recurring theme witnesses so far is racism and stereotypes.

"A tabloid mogul uttering the term compassion
A Republican with a forced Iroquois accent
Zen toilet without a hole or a seat" (72)

Until I got to these lines, I wasn't quite sure what the point of this writing was. Now I understand it's simply satire, given the title of this piece is 'Subtleties' and a tabloid mogul uttering the word 'compassion' is easily one of the less subtle things I can think of. Too bad I still can't understand the rest of the lines, since some of them are written in such an abstract way that only the author knows what he's talking about.

""I see you looking at yourself put letters on paper," you said. All my illusions of being a poet shrank, the wings of an eagle writer that sees all twittered into the shadow of a sparrow, a wavy blot of cold ink on a yellow legal pad."

Her words put the author back down to Earth, since apparently he had been spending all of his time acting the poet and writing poetry, and she was worried for him and his welfare. When the author heard her words, he was reminded that there is more to a man than labels, and that he isn't some godly creature looking down upon other denizens of the Earth and gracing them with his wisdom in writing. In other words, she put him in his place.

"The sun lanes coming down on the Castro are distributed equally over the Mission District, as the clouds permit."

Possibly a crack at Communism? Equal distribution and Castro are terms often associated with Communism and Communistic ideas. It would be interesting to speak to the author about this particular quote.

"For the time being, Mama says. Temporary, says Papa. But I know how those things go."(748)

Fairly obvious foreshadowing. They're probably going to spend a large chunk of life in that crummy house, deceiving themselves by saying that it's temporary over and over again. But deep down inside of all of them they know that it isn't just a temporary quick-fix, but something that will stay with them for a very long time. This kind of harkens back to the other short stories written during the 50's that we read, in that the characters all deceive themselves to some extent.

"The water pipes broke and the landlord wouldn't fix them because the house was too old."(747)

What a crummy landlord. I wish the author told us if they got their money back or not, because now I'll be wondering about it for a very long time. Doesn't seem like the entire world is against you sometimes? I'm sure that that's the feeling these people are experiencing as they move from crappy house to crappier house, always telling themselves that things will get better, they always get better, and they will become better through sheer will of mind and body.

"One patient called lemonade "square" because it pricked on his tongue like as a square shape pricked on the touch of his hands."

This reveals a lot about how the human mind is conditioned to edit our senses so put them together into a single coherent picture. When we are first born, our senses are all jumbled together and we don't really know what to make of it. But eventually through trial and error we learn to form a coherent picture as second-nature.

"This is philosophically interesting in a rather mournful way, since it means that only the simplest animals perceive the universe as it is."

The phrasing is key here. The simplest animals PERCEIVE the universe as it is, they don't SEE it as it is. So maybe our sight prevents us from accurately perceiving the universe and the blind also perceive the world as it is. However, I also think that not seeing the universe as it is would be is a good thing, because it allows us to make sense of jumbled senses easier.

". . . during these naked revels, I just kept my eyes closed and listened to the music: I was really sincerely keeping lust out of my mind by main force and gritting of my teeth." (178)

I find it interesting that everyone thinks of Ray as the person who is open to learning new things as opposed to Japhy, which would fit in with the theme of duality in the book, comparing Japhy and Ray, calm and craziness, city and nature, good and bad. However, for years now, Ray has been more or less adamantly opposed to sex and lust, despite everyone else's urgings and reasonings. Ray refuses to believe that anything good can come out of sex. sometimes his instincts make him question himself, but he'll always renew his determination. Either way, the theme of duality in the book becomes inconsistant here. Either Ray suddenly becomes as stubborn as Japhy as opposed to the flexibility people associate with him, or he becomes as open with sex with Japhy, as opposed to the way he used to be.

"But then I'd find something like a dead crow in the deer park and think "That's a pretty sight for sensitive human eyes, and all of it comes out of sex." (186)

Once again, Ray brings up his strict disapproval and condemnation of sex, with illogical reasoning to boot. He claims that death is the result of sex, and this is true. But like I said in an earlier post, life is also a result of sex. And you can't have life without death, but what a miserable exist the world would be without life. If there was no life in this world, would Ray be happy? Of course he wouldn't be happy, he's dead. So the more he talks about sex and how it's evil, the less I can sympathize and relate with him.