Yearly Archives: 2014

Escalator

This entry was posted in The Intuitionist and tagged non-human on by

 

The IntuitionistCharacter:  The Escalator

Source Text:  Whitehead, Colson. The Intuitionist. New York: Anchor, 1999.

Entry Author:  Alexandra Katechis

 

The escalator is an imagined “character” developed from Colson Whitehead’s The Intuitionist (1999). The escalator’s mixed race lineage is pulled from its nature as half stair and half elevator. In this poem, the escalator is personified in order to parse out the available material in the escalator’s status as mixed race. The poem explores the ability of the escalator to exist as stairs (black) but never achieve the status of elevator (white). The hardest task of the poem is to fulfill the standards of legitimacy as mixed race. Is it fair to say that the escalator is mixed race? Does the metaphor translate? If so, do we simply hear the confident and militant voice of Huey diagnosing the escalator with a case of “afro denial”?

 

Escalator

Ascension abbreviated: auto-manglia of up;

Brokering the blasphemously black (broken)

Crawl toward climax; we collapse like a dead star.

Drudgery of metal monotony, dour doldrum drip:

Exotica of oneness, twoness, sameness—

Flora of this frightfully frigid dream.

Go and do not come back to me. Take this

Hysteria of homogeneity,

Intoxication with inclination and precipice,

Just bad luck. Otherwise, let me

Know you are still there, your knuckles of

Laudanum, bitterest lullabies of a long wet tongue—

Melancholia, my eternal diagonal alias.

Naked as the word, the world, I rise, I rust.

Offal in the organism optimized by a

Plastic parasite for usefulness. If I

Quit this quixotic business of belonging—

Radically, selfishly—to two realities at once, in my

Stillness I am halved, not splendidly split but

Torturously torn, embers of a tremendous spark.

Usward is our only up.

Verticality—venom and verve—

Wanton, wistful mistress of whispers and hums—

Executioner and executor of the exquisite wish. Can

You bear what dreams may come?
Zenith promises only down.

Caliban

This entry was posted in William Shakespeare: Collected Works and tagged animal beast devil human male man on by

 

CalibanCharacter:  Caliban

Source Text:  Shakespeare, William. “The Tempest.” William Shakespeare: Collected Works. Ed. Jonathan Bate and Eric Rasmussen. London: Wordsworth Editions, 1996. 1135-1159.

Entry Author:  Alexandra Katechis

 

Caliban of William Shakespeare’s The Tempest (1610-1611) is the half human and half beast native to the island upon Prospero and his daughter have adopted. This poem strives to emphasize the ambiguity of Caliban’s parentage. The poem also explores the many forms he might appear as (man, beast, animal, devil). The point of view will be first person, so that the speaker can draw the reader into the pain of being reviled and enslaved as a result of physical difference and suspected inferiority. Additionally, this poem attempts to emphasize the struggle between Caliban’s inner humanity and outer bestiality. Caliban’s aggressive voice is evoked in order to fully flesh out this sense of injustice which is so central to his humanness.

 

Caliban

Acerbic article of Algiers, I am the son of Sycorax, antithesis of Ariel, and yet

Brother. What family has not forsaken me, banished and abandoned me in basest beastly

Condition, which does cull cruelty from civility. When did censure reach such consensus?

Duke of Milan, Prospero, doest thou attend me? Thy crippled devil did befriend thee. This

Eden I ennobled onto you, you, who conducts the eulogy of my only claim to the

Flesh of this Earth. Foiled by my own manhood, which did enflame thy eyes before fruition:

Godless, ghastly love for Miranda, o gracious nonpareil, who gave me voice to groan,

Howl, hatch into this hostile realm. What hellfire has my humanity bought? Master,

Imposter, sinuous ivy of incantation and vile thought, ignominy of my inheritance, my isle.

Jealousy betrays this jape of justice, which does lengthen my jailor’s sentence of solitude.

King and keeper of my soul, strengthen the knot of thy goddess who does tempt me. Thy

Leal servant licks at lust and knows no limit to its loathsome breath which you have lent me:

Mooncalf monster, cry out the wicked; only good men mark my root in our maker’s mind. A

Naked native truth to which I am nailed, bound nose to navel by a plague of nymphs. The

Orphan obeys, instrument of this diabolical orchestra of occult hymns. And so

Perdition is my immortality, part served on this pelagic stage, the rest in pandemonium’s pit.

Quiet quivers of mine own heart do sometimes feign forgiveness, quintessence of thy fool’s wit.

Reason can no longer rebuke the rabid refrain of my repugnance, reborn the same in every

Strain of this savage’s story. Spirit, sprite, and simplest man: subject to the sorcerer of quill,

Trick and thrill, the madman’s slight of hand. Sing out my threnody, tale of a tyrannical torment.

Ugly underworld, ubiquitous cacophony, and my prison, molded from past paradise by the

Villain who knows naught else but to rule and part. I am the victim of the minister of fate

Whose rapture is my worldly woe, whose rejoice is bitterest curse and weakest foe.

Exculpate me, or else scorn this half-worn existence as do all others who drink his poison ink.

Yesterday’s heart can no more be broken. I have no other.

Zealotry has no parallel, no pardon.

Spock

This entry was posted in Star Trek and tagged human vulcan on by

startrek

Character: Spock

Source Text:  Gene Roddenberry, Star Trek (1966-1969)

  • Roddenberry, Gene. Star Trek. 1966-1969. Streaming media.
  • “Journey to Babel.” Star Trek CBS. 17 Nov. 1967. Television.
  • “Spectre of the Gun.” Star Trek. CBS. 25 Oct. 1968. Television.
  • “Amok Time.” Star Trek. CBS. 15 Sept. 1967. Television.

Entry Author:  Erin O’Kelly

Sometimes first officer, sometimes captain, but always Mister, the half-Vulcan, half-Human Spock is an iconic figure in science fiction television. For the majority of his televised life he holds the post of science officer and second-in-command of the USS Enterprise. His self-chosen role as largely Vulcan is relied on in the show: he’s the science officer, their logical person, the one who comes up with the plans and double-checks other peoples’ ideas. Sometimes he is directly involved in a given episode’s conflict, as when he and Kirk are forced to fight for the favor of a Vulcan woman (“Amok Time”, 1967). Sometimes he is part of an intergalactic object lesson, as in the episode where the crew grows suspicious and mistrustful of Spock because of his topical resemblance to a Romulan. More often than not, though, Spock is a fixed part of the crew, more notable for his Vulcanic displays of dependable, logical nature and his interactions with his crewmates than anything specifically involving his mixed heritage.

His heritage, however, dogs him throughout the series. In general he prefers to embrace his Vulcan appearance and heritage, with its logic and lack of emotion; a query exploring his feelings or probing the true motive of some decision – which may be based in emotion, eh Spock? – is most often met with a raised eyebrow and bland response. He’s sparing with details about his life before the Enterprise, but the series does draw out details of his heritage over time. It comes out in the 1967 episode “Journey to Babel” that Spock fits a traditional neither-here-nor-there mixed-race trope: as a child he was bullied and harassed because of his heritage, because the other children saw him as failing to measure up to the Vulcan ideal of emotionless logic. He was raised on the Vulcan homeworld in the Vulcan tradition and enrolled in Starfleet against his father’s wishes (“Journey to Babel”, 1967), causing a rift in the family even though his judgment and competence are highly respected in Starfleet. Brought up with constant reminders of what he is not on planet Vulcan, yet unable to pass for human (more emotionally than physically, since on more than one occasion he dons a hat to hide his ears and goes unremarked among humans), he’s found a home in Starfleet where he can be judged as he is, not as he should be.

One of the more interesting aspects of Spock’s mixed heritage in the relatively judgment-free environment that is the Enterprise is the flexibility with which he emphasizes each side of his heritage, and when, and for what reason. While he generally pretends that he is entirely Vulcan in body and mind, it is accepted that this is a pretense – nearly every episode, someone on the crew asks with a smile whether he’s absolutely positive that there’s no emotional reason for a piece of behavior. Captain Kirk in particular asks these questions with a twinkle in his eye, and often receives cryptic or quietly telling answers.

Yet Spock wields his emotional, human half with remarkable dexterity when necessary. In the episode “Spectre of the Gun”, when mysterious aliens create a powerful illusion that traps the away team and appears to kill Chekov, he reminds his grieving crewmates that he is, in fact, half human – a rare display of solidarity indeed, given that the majority of his emotional interaction with the crew is conducted via poker face and subtle allusion. Conversely, in the episode “The Immunity Syndrome” he has a bonding moment of concern for Kirk with Dr. McCoy by emphasizing that “even [he], a half-Vulcan”, can be deeply concerned about a friend. He emphasizes halves of his heritage depending on the situation, if he emphasizes any at all – by doing so, Mr. Spock has made himself a place where he can choose how to present his identity and have that decision respected by his colleagues.

Golden Gray

This entry was posted in Jazz and tagged black part black white on by

jazz_coverCharacter: Golden GraySource Text:  Morrison, Toni. Jazz. New York: Vintage International, 2004.

Entry Author:  Shalyn Hopley

Golden Gray is the son of white Vera Louise Gray and black Henry LesTroy. Jazz is not really a story featuring Golden Gray, yet his presence in the story is potent. Golden Gray is the product of an illicit relationship between the daughter of a wealthy Colonel from Vesper County, Vera Louise, and “a Negro boy out from Vienna” (140). Golden Gray is conceived during one her rides with the boy out to the woods, and when Vera Louise tells her parents she is pregnant, wordlessly her family gives her money to “die, or live if you like, elsewhere”, disowning her and her child. Vera and one of the novel’s main character’s (Violet’s) grandmother, True Belle, a slave woman belonging to her family, go to Baltimore and raise the child.Golden Gray is an enigmatic presence in the novel, his real personality and significance hard to determine as he is described over and over by different characters, at times the narrator even restarting her tale of Golden Gray to rewrite what she has already written of him. Golden Gray is named Gray for his mother and the color of his eyes, and golden for his skin tone (139). He is raised as an adopted white child, rather than the son of a black slave and Vera, by Vera and True Belle and is said to be the “light of both their lives” (139). When Golden Gray is told the story of his mixed race heritage, he leaves home to meet and confront his father, Henry LesTroy. Yet on his way there, he happens upon a dark-skinned pregnant woman in the woods who he startles, her attempt to flee ending in her injury. He brings the unconscious woman to the house of his father, where she births the child she is carrying. When his father returns home, he helps Golden with the woman and quickly disarms Golden’s potentially murderous intentions, asking Golden Gray what he expected when he came to find his father (172). Instead, Golden Gray runs away with “Wild”, the woman. Wild is implied to be the mother of Joe Trace, Violet’s husband. Henry LesTroy becomes a father figure for Joe.

While the general content of Golden’s story remains the same, the narrator begins her tale of his venture to Virginia three times, only being satisfied the final time after berating herself for not seeing his motivations:

What was I thinking of? How could I have imagined him so poorly? Not noticed the hurt that was not linked to the color of his skin, or the blood that beat beneath it. But to some other thing that longed for authenticity, for a right to be in this place, effortlessly without needing to acquire a false face, a laughless grin, a talking posture. I have been careless and stupid and it infuriates me to discover (again) how unreliable I am. (160)

The narrator’s claims to know Golden Gray’s story are erased by this passage. She is unreliable, unable to know the true complexity of even this minor character.

Why is Golden Gray present in Jazz? He is connected to all these characters from the main plot, but his own story can at best be considered a supplement, and at worst a tangent. Yet his story is there, highlighting the complicated interwoven histories of the main characters and highlighting the unknowable nature of humanity and human love.

Coleman Silk

This entry was posted in The Human Stain and tagged black Jewish light-skinned passing white on by
humanstain_coverCharacter:  Coleman Silk

Source Text:  Roth, Philip. The Human Stain. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2000. Print.

Entry Author:  Claire McDonald

Coleman Silk is a Jewish professor who teaches classics at Athena College. After spending his academic career as a professor and dean of the college, Silk is accused of making a racist remark about two of his students. Although this accusation is false, Silk is heavily criticized by his fellow professors, which leads him to resign in protest. Following his resignation, Silk begins a friendship with Nathan Zuckerman, an author who acts as the narrator of The Human Stain. At their first meeting, Silk commands that Zuckerman write the story of Silk’s perceived racism and actual innocence. He tells Zuckerman to write his story, but Zuckerman does not know the entirety of Silk’s story until Silk’s death in a car accident.After Silk’s death, Zuckerman learns from Silk’s sister that Silk is not Jewish, as he had known him to be. Instead, Silk is revealed to be a light-skinned black man passing for white. Silk first began to pass as white at a young age, when his boxing instructor, who was known to teach boxing to Jewish teenagers, told him not to mention his race at a match. Silk is told to allow other people to construct their own ideas of him, and this means that he is assumed to be Jewish because of his appearance and his affiliation with this particular instructor. This realization eventually led to Silk’s decision to pass for white and Jewish in all aspects of his life; he is hired by Athena College under the assumption that he is Jewish, and his wife and children all know him as a white Jewish man. It must be noted that Silk grew up before the Civil Rights Movement, and during his childhood and adolescence he was forced to see his highly intelligent father be belittled and mistreated at his menial jobs because of his blackness. This is not a fate that Silk wanted for himself, so he makes the choice to reject his blackness because he thinks that this will enable him to have the life that he wants to live.

Silk’s hidden identity is important to The Human Stain because it reveals an important aspect of the confines of freedom at this point in time. Silk can only obtain the freedom to live his life as he chooses if he is willing to give up his identity as a black man; this shows the institutionalized racism present in academia during the mid-20th century. His choice to pass as white also presents an interesting look at the definition of freedom. After being told that Silk lived his life as a white Jewish man, Zuckerman wonders if Silk’s choice to pass is the ultimate example of American individualism. By this, he means that Silk has completely prioritized his own success over the well-being of anyone else, including his mother, siblings, wife, and children. Roth essentially uses race to convey conflicting definitions of freedom and personal choice as they relate to the general sense of morality present in the U.S. at this moment in history.

Charles Bon

This entry was posted in Absalom Absalom and tagged black father/son Haiti male part black South on by
Absalom, Absalom! cover

Absalom, Absalom! cover

Character:  Charles Bon

Source Text:  Faulkner, William. Absalom, Absalom! 1936. New York: Random House, 1951.

Entry Author:  Claire McDonald

Charles Bon is the son of protagonist Thomas Sutpen and Sutpen’s first wife, Eulalia Bon Sutpen. During Sutpen’s time spent as a plantation overseer in Haiti, he was offered Eulalia’s hand in marriage after ending a slave rebellion on the plantation. Sutpen assumes that she is of Spanish descent, but she is actually part black, meaning that their son is also part black. Sutpen cannot bear the knowledge that his wife and son are partially black, and so he abandons them and attempts to begin a new life. Eventually, Eulalia and Bon leave Haiti and move to New Orleans.As a student at the University of Mississippi, Bon is admired and practically idolized by many of his classmates, including Sutpen’s recognized son, Henry Sutpen. Henry and Bon become friends at school, and Henry brings Bon to Sutpen’s Hundred for Christmas; at the time, Henry is unaware that Bon is his half-brother. Bon’s reunion with Sutpen poses a significant threat to Sutpen, as Bon is evidence of Sutpen’s past actions. However, he refuses to acknowledge him as his son until Bon and Judith, Sutpen’s daughter, express their desire to marry each other. Sutpen is furious about this, but his anger is more directed at Bon’s perceived blackness than at the fact that Judith and Bon are half-siblings.Just as Sutpen disowned Bon because of his blackness, Henry eventually does the same. Henry and Bon are close friends while they are attending University of Mississippi together, and Henry initially repudiates his father when he learns that Bon is his half-brother and that Sutpen had abandoned him and his mother. He continues to support Bon’s wish to marry Judith until Sutpen reveals that Bon is partially black. Henry, much like his father, is also disgusted and infuriated by the thought of Bon tainting their family’s pure bloodline. Bon’s death comes at the hands of Henry, who shoots him at the gate of Sutpen’s Hundred.

Bon’s race is important to Absalom, Absalom! because of his father and brother’s response to it. Despite the fact that both Bon and Henry are Sutpen’s biological sons, Sutpen rejects Bon because he cannot accept the fact that Bon is partially black. Bon’s status as black also means that Sutpen’s dream of becoming a Southern aristocrat cannot be achieved; Bon cannot inherit his father’s plantation because of it, meaning that Sutpen’s goal of creating a legacy cannot be achieved. Bon also signifies the desecration of the Sutpen bloodline’s purity, which Sutpen also cannot abide by. Faulkner is able to use Bon as a way to comment on Southern perceptions of race. Because Bon is considered to be black, he brings shame upon his own father because he is seen as subordinate; the bond between father and son is severed because Sutpen refuses to accept a son who is, by the one-drop rule, black.