Fenton's reality or big brother's purchase?

There were three points made by Natalie Houston in her article, Reading the Victorian Souvenir: Sonnets and Photographs of the Crimean War, which piqued my interest. Those points are:

For the first time ever, war photographs were available to the public for purchase and private collecting. This new access to historic photos forever changed the role of public institutions, such as museums. Museums began sharing the responsibility for the memorializing, housing and the sharing of national history with the public who purchased the photos.





Second point: Fenton's photographic work of the Crimean War was underwritten by the British government, through his employer, Agnew. Because Fenton's charge was to reiterate what was already known and report nothing new, it did not answer questions which had been raised about the ill-preparedness of the troops to weather the war and its harsh conditions. The first and second photos show the types of clothing available to a few of the men and their sleeping quarters and a weapon or so, but these could not fairly be called true indicators of life in the war zone at Crimea.









Final point which I enjoyed: Houston discussed how realistic Fenton's body of photographs really was, if at all, because the subjects had to hold their poses for several or more seconds at a time, in order for the photo to take and process. I believe that the photos may have started out to be a candid, but when the subjects were required by the science of photography at the moment to hold their pose, the photos could fairly be said to be no longer candid.
The photo to the left is titled: Two French officers, seated, and Zouave, standing with arm resting on rifle

Bonus Blog: Whitman's "Word-'Words": Lexicographer and Cartouches

". . .This is the lexicographer or chemist . . . . this made a grammar of the old cartouches, . . ."

From Whitman's Leaves of Grass (1855), page 28:

“Hurrah for positive science! Long live exact demonstration!

Fetch stonecrop and mix it with cedar and branches of lilac;

This is the lexicographer or chemist. . .this made a grammar of the old

cartouches,

These mariners put the ship through dangerous unknown seas,

This is the geologist, and this work with the scalpel, and this is a mathematician.”

Lexicography is divided into two related disciplines:

• Practical lexicography is the art or craft of compiling, writing and editing dictionaries.

• Theoretical lexicography is the scholarly discipline of analyzing and describing the semantic, syntagmatic and paradigmatic relationships within the lexicon (vocabulary) of a language, developing theories of dictionary components and structures linking the data in dictionaries, the needs for information by users in specific types of situation, and how users may best access the data incorporated in printed and electronic dictionaries. This is sometimes referred to as 'metalexicography'.

A person devoted to lexicography is called a lexicographer - said Wiki.

In Egyptian hieroglyphs, a cartouche is an oblong enclosure with a horizontal line at one end, indicating that the text enclosed is a royal name, coming into use during the beginning of the Fourth Dynasty under Pharaoh Sneferu, replacing the earlier serekh. The Ancient Egyptian word for it was shenu, and it was essentially an expanded shen ring. In Demotic, the cartouche was reduced to a pair of parentheses and a vertical line - said Wiki.

Levi's American Product: Whitman's Words

Is the late Walt Whitman, left. wearing Levi's Silver Tab, Classic Cut or Relaxed jeans in this early photo? : )

* To what extent does the Levi’s campaign celebrate, confuse, or distort Whitman’s poetic project?
I truly believe taking the arts where non-traditional audiences exist and potentially new "fans" reside, can only be positive.

How can exposing the "younger generation" to Walt Whitman be a bad thing? Unless you had a zealous English teacher growing up who grounded you in American poetry or -- are an English major or -- have a bent for Walt Whitman poetry, chances are extremely good, you are not familiar with Whitman and his words. So this novel approach, though consumeristic, is a very good thing. Although the ads are completely built to sell more Levi jeans, the ads are eloquent, poetic, very well done. I don't even mind they are trying to sell me a product because of the beautiful words, "the voice" and the compelling imagery -- which, and who, far outshadow the sales pitch.

* What was your own reaction to the “Go Forth” ads?
I was thrilled to hear Whitman's poetry come forth. So much so, I didn't really look too closely at the jeans Levi wants me to buy. I saw nature, enthusiasm, youth, heard lyrical poetry being spoken, felt a pulse.

Under normal circumstances when I hear or see classics being used commercially, I am instantly irritated and go as far, as fast as I can, away from the commercial or pitch.

I watched both ads half a dozen times and each time, can't argue with the quality or eloquence. I am assuming all Whitman's property rights issues are addressed, so I don't have to worry about theft. Well done. I think Wieden+Kennedy, the advertiser group who designed the ads, raised the bar on this campaign. I can't recall anything in my recent experience that compares to the magnetic quality of the ads.

* In what ways do themes of consumption, advertising, and promotion show up in Whitman’s work?
I am hard-pressed to have a good answer for this question. Because I have only recently read and enjoyed a couple of Whitman pieces in this class, I don't know enough to be able to search for themes or passages which speak to "consumption, advertising and promotion." The only consumption we read about was the consumption of living an every day good life in Whitman's "Song of Myself." He took no prisoners in that poem...consumed every experience in this human life and listed all the rest. Wish I had more to offer, but don't.


* Do you buy McCracken’s claim that advertisers now play the cultural roles that poets played in earlier eras?
I agree that advertising via the Internet, I Phones and all other forms of social-community-traditional media play a small part of the Poet, but these media forms do not by any measure, replace or encompass the role of Poet, as detailed by Emerson, Fuller and Whitman.

I don't see advertisers as common folk living among common people, having common experiences and writing about them. Advertisers instead belong to a numbers-driven, shark-infested cultural selling machine which relies extensively on complex research as opposed to living and using day-to-day experiences to express their ideas.

Advertisers are not one man or woman, such as a Poet Laureate, writing soley about the beauty of the day; instead they are a body of professionals whose sole job it is to sell things and if they can incorporate some aspect of today's beauty into their ad campaign, then bravo. Advertisers sole purpose is to creative seductive selling pieces and platforms.

The Poet's sole purpose is, ". . .He bestows on every object or quality its fit proportions neither more nor less. He is the arbiter of the diverse and he is the key. He is the equalizer of his age and land. . ." said Whitman from his Preface to Leaves of Grass, 1855.

In no way is an advertiser an equalizer or a proportionalist.
Quite the opposite, advertisers are convincers, opportunists and spin masters.
Poets are to be purists, reporters and scribes.
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Muir's natural interconnective world

"God’s glacial-mills grind slowly, but they have been kept in motion long enough in California to grind sufficient soil for a glorious abundance of life, though most of the grist has been carried to the lowlands, leaving these high regions comparatively lean and bare; while the post-glacial agents of erosion have not yet furnished sufficient available food over the general surface for more than a few tufts of the hardiest plants, chiefly carices and eriogonæ. And it is interesting to learn in this connection that the sparseness and repressed character of the vegetation at this height is caused more by want of soil than by harshness of climate; for, here and there, in sheltered hollows (countersunk beneath the general surface) into which a few rods of well-ground moraine chips have been dumped, we find groves of spruce and pine thirty to forty feet high, trimmed around the edges with willow and huckle-berry bushes, and oftentimes still further by an outer ring of tall grasses, bright with lupines, lark-spurs, and showy columbines, suggesting a climate by no means repressingly severe. All the streams, too, and the pools at this elevation are furnished with little gardens wherever soil can be made to lie, which, though making scarce any show at a distance, constitute charming surprises to the appreciative observer. In these bits of leafiness a few birds find grateful homes. Having no acquaintance with man, they fear no ill, and flock curiously about the stranger, almost allowing themselves to be taken in the hand. In so wild and so beautiful a region was spent my first day, every sight and sound inspiring, leading one far out of himself, yet feeding and building up his individuality."

In this descriptive passage from Muir's book,"The Mountains of California," (1894-Chapter 4, "A Near View of the High Sierra"), Muir takes the reader on a visual tour of an area of the high Sierra Mountains where he first fell in love with mountains; where he spent a good portion of his life and through an area he obviously loves. While giving a visual tour he is also concurrently explaining to us how essential and interconnected we and nature are, even following events which we would normally term,"catastophic." He implies the average person sees large scale events, such as the forming of mountains or the changing of their shapes through natural events as negative--that no good can possible be at the area where the event began or ended. We unengaged citizens would naturally assume destitution is the only possible outcome. He says if we really want to learn and know more, by spending time we will observe some naturally occurring order and purpose of nature.

In this passage Muir says God is responsible for this wonder and sight and from the enormity of glacial events, there is good and purpose:
"God's glacial-mills grind slowly" and "kept in motion long enough in California to grind sufficient soil for a glorious abundance of life. . ."

He continues to explain the functional outcomes of glacial events: "though most of the grist has been carried to the lowlands, leaving these high regions comparatively lean and bare; while the post-glacial agents of erosion have not yet furnished sufficient available food over the general surface for more than a few tufts of the hardiest plants, chiefly carices and eriogonæ."

He tells us even though there is ". . .sparse to no vegetation in the higher areas of glacial activity. . ." it is the way it is supposed to be. He tells us what nature did provide is nourishment enough for the the "hardiest plants, chiefly, carices and eriogonæ." (Side note, I looked up carices and eriogonæ and found no definition in any online dictionary, but every reference was given back to this single passage by Muir).

He then describes what is thriving and why, and does so in eloquent and poetical terms: ". . .And it is interesting to learn in this connection that the sparseness and repressed character of the vegetation at this height is caused more by want of soil than by harshness of climate; for, here and there, in sheltered hollows (countersunk beneath the general surface) into which a few rods of well-ground moraine chips have been dumped, we find groves of spruce and pine thirty to forty feet high, trimmed around the edges with willow and huckle-berry bushes, and oftentimes still further by an outer ring of tall grasses, bright with lupines, lark-spurs, and showy columbines, suggesting a climate by no means repressingly severe." His purpose here is to say, you might think conditions are severe, but folks, look what is thriving, and. . .it is thriving because it is the order of nature.

He continues to regal the unexpected beauty of nature and what springs from its naturalness or in this case, the waters: "All the streams, too, and the pools at this elevation are furnished with little gardens wherever soil can be made to lie, which, though making scarce any show at a distance, constitute charming surprises to the appreciative observer. In these bits of leafiness a few birds find grateful homes. Having no acquaintance with man, they fear no ill, and flock curiously about the stranger, almost allowing themselves to be taken in the hand."

Muir alludes to the wild and the beauty which can be, both sublime and something that the interested observer would find, only if engaged in the seeking of beauty and the exploration of the wild. He tells us likes Thoreau did, that getting closer to nature, taking the time to embrace, engage and become a collaborator enriches our lives without end: ". . .In so wild and so beautiful a region was spent my first day, every sight and sound inspiring, leading one far out of himself, yet feeding and building up his individuality."
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Kindred Spirits or Convening Beauty

"Kindred Spirits" by Asher Brown Durand,1849

I really struggled with making a single choice from the immense amount of Ruskin material. The man could split a neutrino into micro-neutrinos and still not be done. He had the gift of verbosity and genius! I found it, at the very least, overwhelming to read him. I decided to wait on deciding on a passage until my mind was clearer (ill with meds, now better) I reread passages of his "Modern Painter" today, with greater appreciation and one passage that completely moved me: "A mass of mountain seen against the light, may at first appear all of one blue; and so it is, blue as a whole, by comparison with other parts of the landscape. But look how that blue is made up. There are black shadows in it under the crags, there are green shadows along the turf, there are grey half-lights upon the rocks, there are faint touches of stealthy warmth and cautious light along their edges; every bush, every stone, every tuft of moss has its voice in the matter, and joins with individual character in the universal. . .(Modern Painters, 3.294)

How does Ruskin's passage above, relate to the stunning painting, "Kindred Spirits," by Asher Brown Durand? Durand's painting depicts American artist Thomas Cole and American poet William Cullen Bryant surrounded by the Catskill Mountains of New York. Durand's painting considered a "defining work of the Hudson River School" (http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/durandinfo.shtm), and is filled with shade upon shade upon nuance upon shadow and light of nature's finest colors; add the magnificent view of the valley and river; the light pouring through the scenery and colors. . .This magnificent portrait by one of the Hudson River School's artists begs the question: How does one describe to another why or how they find beauty?

I like to think one strand of nature's color, alone, or one tree, or a single shade of one tree's green, would not alone, give pause or create a sense of wonder leading to the sense of beauty; rather it is the overwhelming number of nature's shades, nuances and combinations of color, together, which Durand so beautifully captured in "Kindred Spirits," which creates beauty.

I have always been humbled by the nature's palatte. We humans cannot come close to imitating or recreating these. Since I was a small person, I have stopped family member's conversations while we traveled to say: "Will you look at the shade of green? Have you seem seen such a delicate pink?" Ruskin said it so much better, (again:) "A mass of mountain seen against the light, may at first appear all of one blue; and so it is, blue as a whole, by comparison with other parts of the landscape. But look how that blue is made up. There are black shadows in it under the crags, there are green shadows along the turf, there are grey half-lights upon the rocks, there are faint touches of stealthy warmth and cautious light along their edges; every bush, every stone, every tuft of moss has its voice in the matter, and joins with individual character in the universal. . .(Modern Painters, 3.294) -- and Durand painted this thought, most magnificently.
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Team Dickens members

We are lagging!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Please blog and be blogged!

The Dark Veil Pre-Vails

Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The Minister's Black Veil" oozes Dark Romanticism.

Summary:
Parson Hooper (main character) is a minister (good and light) who comes to a regular church service wearing a black (evil, darkness) veil which covers his eyes. He does not acknowledge the veil at its first revealing, and discusses it only when forced to, but at all costs, never gives it up and wears it to his death bed. A simple veil, just a couple layers of dark crepe, was so off-putting that the man of the people became a complete outcast of the people.

The veil could be said to signify darkness, secrets and/or sin which is direct contradiction to Parson Moody's life purpose: to bring purity of heart to the people he was ordained to serve. As a veiled minister he was eventually shunned by all and seen as someone who forced all who viewed him to think about the "why" of veil. It made people uncomfortable and angry that he was forcing them to acknowledge not only his darknesses, sins, but theirs. He might have also been saying why are you rejecting someone who believes different than you....

In Paragraph 10: ". . .till Mr. Hooper had ascended the stairs, and showed himself in the pulpit, face to face with his congregation, except for the black veil. That mysterious emblem was never once withdrawn. It shook with his measured breath, as he gave out the psalm; it threw its obscurity between him and the holy page, as he read the Scriptures; and while he prayed, the veil lay heavily on his uplifted countenance. Did he seek to hide it from the dread Being whom he was addressing?"

Paragraph 10 is brilliant. It demonstrates both good and evil in the same line: ". . .it threw its obscurity between (walking the line between good and evil) him (darkness now) and the holy page (the ultimate light or the Puritanical beliefs that Hawthorne was raised on, which he is said to distain), as he read the Scriptures (good); and while he prayed (good), the veil lay heavily on his uplifted (the darkness is laying on the good) countenance. Did he seek to hide it from the dread Being (devil, evil, Hades, whatever your hell is).

Paragraph 13
"At the close of the services, the people hurried out with indecorous confusion, eager to communicate their pent-up amazement, and conscious of lighter spirits the moment they lost sight of the black veil. Some gathered in little circles, huddled closely together, with their mouths all whispering in the centre; some went homeward alone, wrapt in silent meditation; some talked loudly, and profaned the Sabbath day with ostentatious laughter. A few shook their sagacious heads, intimating that they could penetrate the mystery; while one or two affirmed that there was no mystery at all, but only that Mr. Hooper's eyes were so weakened by the midnight lamp, as to require a shade. . ."
I love the use of lighter spirits. . .black veil. . ." in the same line. Goodness and light co-existing; living life with our human angst and conflicts.
Then use of circles: "Some gathered in little circles, huddled closely together, with their mouths all whispering, in the centre;

Paragraph 22:
This should be a time of great human joy, marriage; and not just any marriage, but the marriage of the "handsomest couple..." "That night, the handsomest couple in Milford village were to be joined in wedlock."

Hawthorne again uses darkness and light, in the same sentence: "Though reckoned a melancholy (sad) man, Mr. Hooper had a placid cheerfulness (happy) for such occasions, which often excited a sympathetic (melancholy or dark) smile where livelier merriment (happiness/light) would have been thrown away."

The townspeople at the wedding were waiting for the good character of the minister to return when he came to officiate the wedding: "There was no quality of his disposition which made him more beloved than this. The company at the wedding awaited his arrival with impatience, trusting that the strange awe, which had gathered over him throughout the day, would now be dispelled."
The paragraph goes on to feature darkness, light, the supernatural; then added nature and the beautiful maiden dying and some Gothic symbols. He performs his duty, while shaking the bridal party to their core and then while toasting the couple catches a glimpse of himself wearing the veil, then rushes back into his own psychological darkness:
". . .But such was not the result. When Mr. Hooper came, the first thing that their eyes rested on was the same horrible black veil, which had added deeper gloom to the funeral, and could portend nothing but evil to the wedding. Such was its immediate effect on the guests that a cloud seemed to have rolled duskily from beneath the black crepe, and dimmed the light of the candles. The bridal pair stood up before the minister. But the bride's cold fingers quivered in the tremulous hand of the bridegroom, and her deathlike paleness caused a whisper that the maiden who had been buried a few hours before was come from her grave to be married. If ever another wedding were so dismal, it was that famous one where they tolled the wedding knell. After performing the ceremony, Mr. Hooper raised a glass of wine to his lips, wishing happiness to the new-married couple (romance, earthly happiness) in a strain of mild pleasantry that ought to have brightened the features of the guests, like a cheerful gleam from the hearth. At that instant, catching a glimpse of his figure in the looking-glass, the black veil involved his own spirit in the horror with which it overwhelmed all others. His frame shuddered, his lips grew white, he spilt the untasted wine (spilt blood?)upon the carpet, and rushed forth into the darkness. For the Earth, too, had on her Black Veil."
Paragraph
Great jab at his religion: If I can show my private transgressions and sorrows, shouldn't you?: "If I hide my face for sorrow, there is cause enough,'' he merely replied; ``and if I cover it for secret sin, what mortal might not do the same?''

Also a excellent poke at Romanticism where his girlfriend or bethrothed Elizabeth, abandons him for showing his human weakness to her:
"Lift the veil but once, and look me in the face," said she.
"Never! It cannot be!" replied Mr. Hooper.
"Then farewell!" said Elizabeth."