Not so Close Analysis of that BUDDHIST NOVEL. Or Buddha of Surburbia

This will be an exercise in close analysis and (hopefully) interpretation, maybe even resulting in some poetic flares and explosive prose.

Where can we begin from such a hectic book? I guess the sexual revolution would be a base point, whereby the world thus discovered the intrinsic pleasure in the opposite sex, and/or their own genitals. I guess the Queen and her conservative pomp-naught had previously locked down all freedom and expression, effectually banning all of the not-so-conventional type, when suddenly someone ventured underground and noticed that breasts were to be admired, not hidden (and thus he spread the ‘infectious diseases’ outward, probably from the tip of his own very cock). As a result, the Buddha, or God, can claim “Eva’s apparent closeness” as a sufficient reason to herald the imminent breakup of the family.

Then perhaps this leads to the discussion regarding the rotting perversion of the institute of the family. When morals dip low, so does the bench of the family standard – for not too soon, it was sunk. Page 69, the young Karim is deeply wanting to subvert the family, rock the boat further to unstabilize the convention (“I wanted to encourage Dad and Eva to get together.”) I wonder if Karim’s every wish will come true in this book (Suprisingly I’m writing this blog post-reading the entire novel, and I still am lost as to where I can conduct a three paragraph blog).

And then there is Karim’s eventual and painful transition from a “young hippie” to something else. At the beginning, all he would do after-school would be “going home to [their] mothers, to our rissoles and chips and tomato sauce, to learn French words and to pack our football gear for tomorrow” (70); this triviality of his schooling life resembles the nonchalance and innocence of ours: there was a shield protecting us from the outside world.

But is Charlie the outside world, outside the nest of innocent Karim? Is he a byproduct of the outside and intoxicated London-esque world? Where does Jamila fit in this?

As seen, this blog is surely not a close analysis, but a broad outlook and summation of the novel, so continue with me, and we’ll see where it chooses to end.

One event that is particularly flagrant and you, as my reader, should take great particular heed is the whole choice by Jamila to flamingly resign herself to a life with arranged marriage with that fat-piece-of-wad Changez (which by the way, remains one of the novel’s most loveable and insightful dopes). At the time when she makes the decision, on page 77, Jamila chooses to sacrifice her life and succuumb to her father’s beckon. That doesn’t remain the situation, for on page 82, Karim interprets the event as a “rebellion against rebellion,” which is later modeled by Jamila’s multiple sexual exchanges with Karim, baby with Simon, and love for her woman, Joanna.

I have viewed Jamila as the most correct person in the novel. She was an observant actor of whom Karim always turned to for advice. Her maintenance and constant outspoken input molded Karim in ways unbeknownst to other characters: Page 108, she exclaims the profusion of “people needing sympathy and care, oppressed people, like our people in racist [Britian], who face violence every day” which would later foreshadow Karim’s involvement with the Pyke movement and race theater.

Empassioned, her character spoke the word of the poor.

And Charlie! O how Charlie ran ahead of Karim (he breaks ground, staying one step ahead of Karim) until Karim’s final departure towards the end of the book.

Probably the most depressing move was Karim’s ignorance towards his mother and his little brother Allie. I counted and Allie was mentioned probably only four times throughout the novel. But Allie was the symbol for dropped Indian heritage, and English or Western acceptance (he was involved in style, and not of religion, of Italian and France, and not of Anwar’s flat), whereas Karim was battling over the dual identity.

I only choose to describe characters because that is how the novel was presented. As an adventure of X amount of Characters dropped into a shifty, shady time period.. .and their results are the novel of Hanif Kureshi.

Digging

As Heaney depicts his hardworking grandfather and father through out his poem Digging, one is able to see the values that are viewed as significant in his life. One is able to see that work ethic is moral issue that the Heaney family holds to a great value. This is a very important part of Heaney's life because he uses the symbol of a spade, which is able to produce all that is needed for the family from wealth to the ability to substain life with food. As this spade is used in a symbolic way, one is able to see that a pen is the spade in Heaney's life as he wants to be able to support his family and produce children with the same ethicsaas his father has engrained with him as well as supported him in things he has done. One Ideology that many people dont think about is the fact that Heaney views his father and grandfather to a mythical stance or as heros. I would argue that Heaney in fact represents a lot of these characteristics as he presents many values that he finds creditible in his father and Grandfather.

That 'Literating Spade

"Under my window, a clean rasping sound
When the spade sinks into gravelly ground:
My father, digging. I look down"

The image of Seamus inside, at his window, looking down upon his father digging into the "gravelly ground," reinforces the main contrast of the poem: Seamus works inside with a pen, while his father works outside with a spade. The alliteration in the stanza, "spade sinks" and "gravelly ground," is connected with the description of his father working below in the field, not with him at the window writing. This might seem odd: alliterations are the tools of authors, not diggers. Why then use them to describe his father?
Looking at his other clear use of alliteration in the poem in stanza 7, we see again that not to describe his writing but to describe his father's digging is alliteration used. "Squelch and slap of soggy peat" and "curt cuts" describe the world outside, not inside, and by using a literary tool to describe his father's work Seamus connects the pen more intimately with the spade. As the spade is reaching into the context of his writing, so his writing form is reaching into the digging of a spade. By applying his literary skills to the description of his father's trade, Seamus further defines the link between pen and spade, so that as the pen can dig, so can the spade alliterate.

Having fun Digging with Seamus Heaney

If one wants to go for basics on the topic of sound influencing content, then one of the simplest approaches to take with “Digging” would be the overall tone of the poem itself. Hinted at slightly in the beginning, yet taking full form from line 15 onward, the poem’s tone is definitely that of a ode or a fond memory of two very important idols in the authors life, especially his Grandfather, whose awesome digging skills are the main subject of lines 17-24. And, as we pointed out in class when we discussed this poem, while the author cannot continue in the digging traditions of his father and grandfather as they dug to keep the past alive, Heaney states that he can still continue their proud digging in his own way, by writing. This poem gives both of them plenty of well deserved respect from Seamus Heaney’s memories and judging from the sound of the lines and fluidity of the poem, he had a lot of fun in writing these fond memories down on paper to share with the rest of the world.

Pound Lecture.

I'm a little late on this, but here goes.

I didn't really enjoy the talk as much as I would have like to. I found slightly--empty. I was hoping for an in-depth discussion about Pound's teaching carreer and how he was accepted in this small town around the turn of the century. But, unfortunately, little was really discussed on this matter. The professor didn't seem to know too awful much about the details of his school career other than that he was quite bohemian in nature and not as conservative as many of the fellow professors would have liked him to be. Most of lecture was on how his months in Crawfordsville affected his writings later in his life. I found some of his findings interesting, but to tell the truth, they weren't groundbreaking, and frankly, some of them were a slight stretch. All in all, I think his first five to ten minutes were the most interesting, the rest was just... filler. he may have been more interesting if we would have had him in a more personal setting, but as we discussed in class, that didn't seem to help really at all.

O, Ezra .. Where has the art gone?

O, Ezra .. Where has the art gone?

I will not rant on for another second,
Or wasted description, for pictures are not pure,
Muddled only .. when fighting with nonsense.

O Ezra, memories of your trip to us could
Not be Analyzed
Not be Discussed
Talked on about, talked around about, the sounds of how,
You were misplaced on
Our campus walls -- we walled you in.

But that is home to you?
And that is important to you?
For Paris was not the cultural center, and neither was Crawfordsville, how true!

Even today.
Enough already,
with draining your dead corpse of its thoughts,
I am sick of hearing mongrels discuss (with smirks!!) your talented limitations.

And who can compare to you, manifested in your red scarlet robe of Images and
Language, Rhythm and Rhyme,
For even you said,
"Pay no attention to the criticism of men who have never themselves written a notable work."


-- This poem was in response to the gentleman's speech about Pound. I know that he was not critical of Pound or his work, but nevertheless I was deeply disturbed by his blather, critics in general, and their misplacement of the artistic valor of others.

Pound At Home

The title "Pound at Home" for Dr. James Longenbach's lecture is perfect. The lecture focused on how Ezra Pound found solace and his sense of home, when he was alone and as far away as possible from his native Idaho. Longenbach argues that "home," for Pound, meant being someplace where he was with others of his own kind--Artists interested in putting their life's work to creating another renaissance, a renaissance of the renaissance as Longenbach puts it. Indeed, it seems Pound's lifelong ambition was to rejuvenate western culture, to remember the past but also feel its layers, to embed the past into the texture of the present. All the while, "Pound was stuck in a world that refused to acknowledge the poets power to make the world a better place." Thus, he was at home spreading his renaissance, when he was the most alone. He was never in exile, Pound was at home in Paris, London, Rapallo, even Crawfordsville. He was at home when he was spreading his dream, and if you look at it that way and consider he did that all his life , Pound was the luckiest man alive.