I have never particularly disliked skunks (I actually rather like their smell, from a great distance), but I can't honestly say that I have ever thought of them as being spiritually transcendent.
Louise Erdrich writes universally, "The obstacles we overcome define us." In her own experience, she wants to preserve beyond her death the self she has created by laboring through obstacles. However, her desire itself forms another obstacle, similar to the fencing around the preserved wilderness of the game park. She encounters the impermeable barrier even in her dreams, which mirror her waking life rather than a disembodied afterlife without limits.
The author imagines that the skunk also has dreams similar to its waking life (although she admits she can't be sure). The skunk, on the other hand, sees no obstacles in either realm. It passes through the fences, does as it pleases, and does not fear death.
Erdrich carefully details her changing definition of out, which is similar to the skunk's ellusive state of serenity. It represents her maturing thirst for something greater and freer than her limited human experience. At first the only place she identifies as out is her childhood home, the familiar and obviously expansive West. Later, she learns to accept the new and complex environment of the Northeast even though it lacks the drama she required as a teenager. When she finally discovers and enters the game park from her dream, she defines out as in. Rather than looking outside herself for an afterlife, she finds preservance by overcoming her inner obstacles. She has gained the Confidence of the Skunk.
Sunday, July 5, 2009
Friday, July 3, 2009
"Talk of the Town" Response
Please bear with me, as I have recently suffered a mild, jazz-related head injury.
I think that this article made a very pointed statement about how our society deals with violence. After a horrific shooting, people always look around for something to blame. They argue that it was the shooter's parents or classmates that pushed him over the edge, or vehemently condemn violence in media. While some of these claims may have bearing on a particular case, they lose sight of the larger issue. I agree, in fact I strongly believe, that the mechanics and values of a society can manifest themselves as domestic concerns. The problem I see with our society concerning guns is that we are so uncomfortable discussing certain aspects of the issue that we have failed to initiate an effective solution.
I find Tim Kaine's statement to be naive and destructive. The family members do need to be comforted for their terrible losses, the community does need to heal, and to do that they need to be allowed to ask questions and to look for the answers. The imposed squeamishness of outsiders is selfish. It is wrong and hurtful to require silence, to stunt our own growth, just so we can spare our own, far-removed feelings. Discouraging productive political discussion about guns is setting up the community--or the one next door, or across the country--to be hurt again.
OH. There's another article. I'd better read that.
My reaction to the second article is similar. It is another example of Americans dangerously mishandling a destructive event, but on a much larger scale. Once again people were more concerned with comfort than with practical safety measures, and the government's official attitude was coddling rather than constructive. I remember well my own thoughts and experiences in the aftermath of the catastrophe: my mother picked me up from school to take me to a violin lesson and was shocked and angry to find that I had been told nothing at school. In the following weeks I looked and listened and asked for what was being done to help the thousands dead and injured and hurt by loss, and I found sad paper flags and impersonal kind words.
We need more than flags and words. Our first reaction as a country should not be to step away from our problems and hide in our self-image. The farther we bury our heads in "self-righteous drivel" and the blinder parts of "deeply American belief," the less likely we are to rationally examine the success of European gun laws or understand Middle-Eastern suicide bombings.
I think that this article made a very pointed statement about how our society deals with violence. After a horrific shooting, people always look around for something to blame. They argue that it was the shooter's parents or classmates that pushed him over the edge, or vehemently condemn violence in media. While some of these claims may have bearing on a particular case, they lose sight of the larger issue. I agree, in fact I strongly believe, that the mechanics and values of a society can manifest themselves as domestic concerns. The problem I see with our society concerning guns is that we are so uncomfortable discussing certain aspects of the issue that we have failed to initiate an effective solution.
I find Tim Kaine's statement to be naive and destructive. The family members do need to be comforted for their terrible losses, the community does need to heal, and to do that they need to be allowed to ask questions and to look for the answers. The imposed squeamishness of outsiders is selfish. It is wrong and hurtful to require silence, to stunt our own growth, just so we can spare our own, far-removed feelings. Discouraging productive political discussion about guns is setting up the community--or the one next door, or across the country--to be hurt again.
OH. There's another article. I'd better read that.
My reaction to the second article is similar. It is another example of Americans dangerously mishandling a destructive event, but on a much larger scale. Once again people were more concerned with comfort than with practical safety measures, and the government's official attitude was coddling rather than constructive. I remember well my own thoughts and experiences in the aftermath of the catastrophe: my mother picked me up from school to take me to a violin lesson and was shocked and angry to find that I had been told nothing at school. In the following weeks I looked and listened and asked for what was being done to help the thousands dead and injured and hurt by loss, and I found sad paper flags and impersonal kind words.
We need more than flags and words. Our first reaction as a country should not be to step away from our problems and hide in our self-image. The farther we bury our heads in "self-righteous drivel" and the blinder parts of "deeply American belief," the less likely we are to rationally examine the success of European gun laws or understand Middle-Eastern suicide bombings.
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