Author: peithmas1

Mad Libs Experience

~ peithmas1 ~ Leave a comment

Our group dealt with “This is Just to Say,” where six of the original words of the poem were replaced at random by the madlib engine. The language of this poem is fairly straightforward, and the content of the poem is essentially three statements: declaration, apology, and description. So, in reading the poems generated, the reader attempts to draw some logical connection between unrelated sentiments.

It is difficult to draw meaning from the randomly generated poems, as there is no unifying theme between the new words generated. Even some of the individual statements in the poem, out of context from the rest of the content, lack grammatical correctness. This is because of the variable nature found within the nuances of verbs, adjectives, and nouns. Nouns can refer to tangible things, as well as sentiments; likewise, adjectives can describe qualities which make no sense, and verbs can become muddled when the object and subject of them is not clearly defined.

In experimenting with the madlibs engine, the meaning behind the words of the poem, and words in general, slowly start to break down. Similarly to how repeating a word will turn it into meaningless sound, repeating the same structure of the poem, albeit with various words switched around, slowly makes the structure and content of the poem lose all meaning. This random rewording of the poem makes me appreciate just carefully chosen the words in the poem are, despite their simplistic nature. In fact, despite the generated poems generally having zero meaning, those which contained simpler vocabulary came closer to having some coherent form.

Holy Droning: Footnote to Howl

~ peithmas1 ~ Leave a comment

Allen Ginsberg’s Footnote to Howl, judging by its title, a smaller section of supplementary information clarifying some of themes in Ginsberg’s original Howl. Undoubtedly the most often used and stressed word in the work is ‘holy.’ This word is repeated fifteen times in the opening line as if an invocation. ‘Holy’ is then used to begin, with few exceptions, every sentence in the poem. It will be in these few places where something besides ‘holy’ is stressed, or where the thematic content of what category of things is being described as holy shifts, that more subtle emphasis in the poem can be found. Otherwise, the takeaway from the poem is reduced to the blatant idea that “everything is equally holy.”

The first deviation from the constant stress on ‘holy’ occurs in line five, when Ginsberg begins to list a series of ‘every-‘ things that are holy; “Everything is holy! everybody’s holy! everywhere is holy! everyday is in eternity! Everyman’s an angel!” Here, Ginsberg’s stress splits to emphasize both the ‘every’ and ‘holy’ beat of every sentence. He does this early on in the poem, before offering comparisons and lists of objects that he equivocates as holy, so that his base premise of “everything is holy” serves almost as a thesis for the rest of lines.

Ten lines into the poem, Ginsberg shifts the balance of the sentences to closer resemble the introductory line, moving holy back to the start of sentences. He does this as he pronounces another invocation, this time of a series of religious figures and artists: “Holy Peter holy Allen holy Solomon holy Lucien holy Kerouac holy Huncke holy Burroughs holy Cassady…” The order of names invoked here is important. Ginsberg begins with saints and prophets, but works his way down the hierarchy of civil standards as he lists additional characters. By the end of this portion, Ginsberg is describing “holy the unknown buggered and suffering beggars holy the hideous human angels!” Ginsberg lists a broad spectrum of figures in ranking of conventionally assumed virtue all as holy, to assert that despite whatever heraldry or disgrace a person connotes, their personal values and experiences are both holy.

Hurt vs Hurt: Johnny Cash’s Cover of Trent Reznor

~ peithmas1 ~ 1 Comment

‘Hurt’ is a song by Trent Reznor, of the Nine Inch Nails, released in 1994 and nominated for a grammy that year. Almost a decade later in 2002, legendary country singer and guitarist Johnny Cash released his final album, American IV. When Cash originally petitioned Reznor to perform a cover of the song, Reznor replied that the idea seemed a bit gimmicky. He swallowed his words, however, when he heard Cash’s rendition of his song, even saying that listening his cover felt like he “had stolen his girlfriend from him.” By this, Reznor meant that Cash had managed to something so intensely personal and yet perform it with an originality, sincerity, and purity which the original author could not have imagined. Since then, Cash’s rendition has held the fascination and attention of popular culture; not only because of its intrinsic qualities, but also because of the tumultuous personal happenings in Cash’s life that surrounded the production of this cover and its accompanying music video.

The lyrics of ‘Hurt’ deal with themes of intense isolation, loss of familiarity with loved ones, a sense of alienation from one’s sense of self. The song was written while Reznor was dealing with intense issues of self-harm and heroin addiction, referenced early in the song as the ‘needle tearing a hole, the old familiar sting.’ Reznor wrote this song for himself, as a means of self-preservation, while also contemplating and lamenting the self-destructive state he allowed himself to slip into through addiction and despair.

While Johnny Cash has had a decent amount of substance abuse throughout his life, by the time he was recording American IV, he was already in his 70’s. His later albums dealt more with contemplation, reflecting off of religious themes Cash held personally dear as a Christian. The music video for Cash’s Hurt was shot in the ‘House of Cash’ museum, which prior to filming, was in a decrepit state. Instead of renovating the set, the House of Cash was left derelict, to reflect the decayed tone with which Cash performed Hurt.

In addition to the quality of Cash’s performance, personal events in his life surrounding the production of this song and its video led to its near-legendary status. June Carter Cash, Johnny’s wife, died a couple months after the recording of the video, which led to its release around the same time as that news breaking. Innumerable awards and superlatives were offered to the video and its originating album; however, these would be largely posthumous, as Johnny Cash passed over not soon after his wife. The iconic status this cover holds is largely in part because the lyrical content reflected the circumstances surrounding its recording perfectly.

Trent Reznor’s original rendition of Hurt (1994):

 

Johnny Cash’s cover (2002):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vt1Pwfnh5pc