Billy Collins poetry

Dear Reader

Baudelaire considers you his brother, and Fielding calls out to you every few paragraphs as if to make sure you have not closed the book, and now I am summoning you up again, attentive ghost, dark silent figure standing in the doorway of these words. 

Billy Collins

In theatre, the fourth wall refers to the audience. In this poem, Billy Collins breaks this barrier between the voice of the speaker and who he/she is addressing by directly referencing the audience, the reader as the title suggests. Collins seems to be commenting or maybe even mocking the conventions of how authors try to engage readers and how readers actually read books. This is ironic in and of itself because as the author of the poem, Billy Collins is mocking himself in a sense. In the first line, the speaker references Baudelaire. from a little research I found that Baudelaire contributed to the idea of modernity. Modernity states that to capture and epitomize the fast paced, fleeting life of urban and technological lifestyle, it is necessary for the artist (or the writer in this case) to portray and capture that experience. Thus, by saying that the reader is in some way connected to Baudelaire, the speaker suggests that the reader may have some connection to Baudelaire's philosophies. Possibly, the speaker suggests that the reader must be engaged or find some relation to the text in order for the text or piece of art to be successful. Next, the speaker mentions Fielding and  how he addresses the reader. Henry Fielding, a satirist would use wit to draw attention to or mock an underlying truth about society. Such type of literature requires that the author constantly engage the reader so that they understand the hidden message in their humor. Furthermore, the speaker then continues to say that he is "summoning you up again" referring to the reader, establishing the author as one that calls upon the reader for their voice or message to be heard. The speaker calls the reader an "attentive ghost". A ghost denotes a soul of a dead person, a disembodies spirit, vagueness, a shadow or semblance, or an evanescent form. thus, the speaker establishes the reader as an idea. this makes sense to me because as a author writes a work, he is not directly speaking to a person or audience but rather writing with the idea of the audience in mind. Thus, the reader becomes a disembodied spirit as they are not physically present for the author to address. The author can only form an idea of what the audience is and how they are characterized. Referring to the reader as dark and silent connote eeriness and an evil entity. Furthermore, the speaker describes the reader to be "standing in the doorway of these words".A person who stands in the doorway brings up an image of someone who is not in a room or out of a room. In the context of the poem, the room is the author's words. Thus, the speaker suggests that the reader is not entirely engulfed in he text nor removed from the text. It is kind of brilliant actually what billy Collins does in the poem. He basically calls out the reader which is ironic because the poem kind of suggests that the reader has to be able to relate to the poem or work according to Baudelaire. thus, Collins does this exactly by examining how the reader reads a poem as they literally read a poem. Like, woah...

What's going on with Invisible Man?

For the past week, out class has been holding seminars for various sections of the novel the Invisible Man. However, unlike most times where these seminars are enlightening and often help me reach some aha! moment in the text, I am left by the end of them wanting more.... whether discussing Lucius Brockway's encounter with the narrator or the riots that close the novel, discussions seem to be trapped in a cyclical bout of racism or just smiply black and white. This an be frustrating because eliminating the black versus white lens opens up the book to so much more meaning that I believe Ellison intended. Maybe I am just too critical. I myself could offer even more to the conversations but i do feel like our class discussion emphasize too much surface level commentary and not enough genuine analysis that comes with really reading a book. I understadn second semester senior syndrome which I myself have become infected with but i really want our class to become more interested (and maybe live up to second period haha). On a side note, out seminar today bothere dme in particular because I feel certain people were being ganged up on  during seminar which takes more away from our class discussion as a whole rather than make themselves seem more intelligent. The atmosphere created by the students in out classroom kind of makes it difficult for me to contribute all of the time for fear of being "judged". Not implicating all students in class but I do feel like a few do not always contribute to the open and nonjudemntal atmosphere that an ap lit open discussion is supposed to yield. I digress, but I think my point has been made. I know that each and eveyr person in the class in intelligent and interested in literature (hopefully at this point) so I just wish that people's intelligence reflected in their efforts in the class. Today I wanted so badly to talk about how Clifton's exit from the brotherhood was not just white people casting off blacks again but how he figuratively falls from a idea of "grace" so that he can be free. And also when the narrator is dreaming at the end and he hears Barbee and brother jack ask him how does it feel to be free and the narrator responds that it is PAINFUL and EMPTY.

Angels versus Demons

If one missed the abundance of light versus dark or black versus white or snow versus soot or sunny versus cloudy or etc., etc. I would have to assume that they had not read Invisible man. Other than an obvious interpretation of these images and symbols as being related to race (i.e. white society versus black society, I think these images offer a unique look into religious entities. The abundance of light v dark and black v white connotate evil versus goodness, a motif that pervades the conflict between angles and demons. I did like how in some of the seminars we introduced the idea of demonic or evil forces in the book. For, instance Brother Jack, Bledsoe, and even Ras the Destroyer. for me, all of these characters made me question what actually constitutes being demonic or simply evil for that matter. Each character construes some image of evil in a unique way. Jack is pointed out to have stolen the identity or soul of the narrator, catapulting him on what one can claim to be a journey to enlightenment or to willful ignorance. Bledsoe betrays the narrator for threat of the narrator exposing his obedience to whites and falseness as a true black man. Finally, Ras the Destroyer is portrayed as a violent figure, clashing against black "brothers" int the brotherhood. I think that these evil figures contrast with characters like Mary, Clifton, and the narrator's grandfather who are almost like holy or Christ like figures, angels. The contrast between angelic and demonic figures throughout the text offers a reading of the book through a religious or worshiping lens. In any religion, the conflict we see between different characters could be a disparity in the ideologies that they believe in and worship. When the narrator becomes wrapped up in the brotherhood, he becomes a worshiper of another religion in which the deity becomes the members of the brotherhood. He pays tribute to the brotherhood through his spread of the brotherhood doctrine, science to the people of Harlem.A sharp contrast to the "religion" that the narrator begins to follow int eh north. In the south, there exists a parallel ideology to that of the northern "religion" of the brotherhood. The southern doctrine is one that idolizes the "white man" as a higher, superior being. This "religion" is so controversial because it is divisive playing blacks against whites. The role of blacks to obey and be polite towards the white people is their form of worship but it is belittling. The fulfillment that the narrator gets from "worshiping" the brotherhood comes from the idea that it embraces the equality of black and white. Whereas the southern doctrine is so absolute in its divisions, the northern doctrine hides behind images of totality and oneness. Looking at the text in this way, the narrator's development could be interpreted as a test of faith. He must decide whether he should stay true to the backwards ideologies of the south or come to learn if the northern religion is even more perverted than the southern doctrine.

Invisible Man...WTF

I can see why Invisible Man is the perfect to use on any AP lit free response ...it is absolutely ambiguous! As I was reading the book I picked up on so many allusions, symbols, etc. From researching Gestalt theory, the three blind mice story, and black nationalism I am still not completely sure of the central "so what?" of the book.. First of all,I cannot choose if the narrator should be considered an antagonist or protagonist. Is this a story about an unfortunate life or redemption. Is the narrator a vicinity of society or just himself. What makes answering these questions so hard is because amid them is the band rip of the polarizing social amps ogre that pervades the entire text. I often wondered while reading it if I could negate the issue of race relations in the understanding of the text but honestly I am not sure. I believe that the narrator's concept of him being an invisible man is due to being a black man. We see at the beginning of the text that he starts off in an underground space where he lives the. E tells the story. At the epilogue we find out that he is back on this hole of a home. Obviously this is symbolic because EVERYTHING in this book has some meaning we just have to find it. But at the same time I feel like the text is referencing race just as much as it is referencing knowledge, power, consciousness, and gender issues. Either way, it is not as surface as just race I know that. The book would have been so much easier to read if that had been the case. Instead I have a chaotic image of fire, riots, and a man retreating back into a weird under ground quarter leaving me questioning, "like ...what?". I know looking at the title is kind of basic surface level stuff but I think Ellison really did title the book emphasizing the invisible man to make the reader take race color out of the picture when reading it. This in and of itself seems like an ironic commentary on race. Maybe as I read the book, the inability of me to look past the narrator's conflicts through a color lens signify me being racist or at least narrow minded in a way. Possibly, if the reader is able to exclude race form their interpretations of the text, the true meaning (whatever that may be) of Ellison's work will come out. I found that I saw significant allusions to songs and African folktale that I am definitely going to look more into. the book offers so much on allusions from Brer Rabbit to Gestalt theory to Louis Armstrong blues songs that I just tried to catalog as much as I could for future reference. Going forward with this book, I do not think that it would be a bad idea to try and read it for a second time and see how my understanding shifts. Maybe , I could find that I know much more about the narrator than what his invisibility suggests.