Dear Ms Lorna Dee Cervantes,
I am writing to thank you for coming to speak at Pitzer College earlier this month. I am so glad that I was able to attend the event. Until recently, I had never identified myself as Chicana and, although I am an English major, I had never really been exposed to Chicano literature. So, I feel very fortunate to have had the opportunity to be exposed to your writing. Because I had never read your poetry prior to hearing you speak, I did not know what to expect. However, I was surprised to see how energetic and engaging you were and I really enjoyed listening to you recite some of your poems. Although it’s been a while since I went to see you speak, your poetry has left a great impression on me.
One of the things you talked about that I found really interesting was your new collection of poems your working on, 100 love Poems to Strangers. The project of writing love poems to people you have never met is very appealing to me because I think that writing poetry is one of the most difficult things to do. I can imagine it being especially difficult when you do not have anybody to write to or write about. It was difficult enough, for me, to try to figure out whom I would want you to write a poem to. However, what interested me the most about this project is the idea of selling the poems to people. I think that selling poems is fantastic because it adds another dimension to the project. Selling the poems does not only allow people to be involved in an exchange, I think that it also encourages them to take interest in and be involved with the project. I was a little disappointed that I could not buy a poem and that I could not figure out whom I wanted you to write the love poem to, but hopefully I can buy one next time. Nevertheless, even if I cannot have a poem included in the collection I am definitely going to check out your new collection when it comes out.
Although I really enjoyed hearing all of your poems, I was very excited to hear you recite “Poem for the Young White Man…” I will also be reading this poem for my American Literature Survey course later in the semester. So, I am glad that I got to hear your own thoughts on the poem before I read it for class, especially since racism is such a difficult topic to address and even harder to analyze and discuss in a classroom setting. You said that you were once told that the poem was not a political poem because it did not offer a solution and that your response was that the poem was not meant to be political because it was about the experience and emotions that accompany racism. That statement really impacted the way that I interpreted the poem because it made the words more personal to me and allowed me to interpret it by thinking back on what I have experienced.
There were several lines throughout the poem that really stuck out to me because I think that they were really good at showing how complex the topic and the experience of racism are. One line, in the poem, that I thought was very interesting was “they are not shooting at you” in response the people’s belief that stating that there is “a war between races” is an “exaggeration”. To me, that line addresses the fact that although racism is projected to a certain group of people, being a victim of racism is an individual experience. I think this idea is also emphasized because that line also implies the idea of being isolated; the person that experiences racism is literally singled out like a target. That line also really stuck out to me because it made me think about the response that I have had to other people’s response to racism. Racism is something that cannot be fully understood and sometimes ignored by a person who is not being specifically targeted. Although I can identify with the poem as a person who has had to deal with racism at some point in my life, your poem also calls for me to put myself in the position of the “young white man,” the poem addresses, and rethink the way I perceive discrimination when I am not the person being targeted. However, the one line that I think really resonated with your statement that the poem is not meant to be political is, “Racism is not intellectual.” That line emphasizes how complex racism is and how hard it is to explain. It is difficult to find a solution to racism because at times it is hard enough to determine the cause of racism and to explain it because it exists in so many different forms and affects people in so many different ways. I really loved this poem because it is a poem that I could relate to in a way and interpret it based on my own experience, but it also made me think about how I perceive the problem of racism.
Again, thank you so much for coming to speak at Pitzer. You were amazing. My friends and I were talking about your poetry reading for days. As I said before, you were very energetic and engaging and I really enjoyed hearing you speak. I look forward to hearing you speak again in the future and I am very excited to read some of your other poems.
Sincerely,
Helen Veyna
Scripps College 2011
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Response to "Book of Longing"
Dear Mr. Cohen and Mr. Glass,
I’m a student at Scripps Women’s College and I saw a performance of Book of Longing in Claremont last month. I was very impressed by this joint work. At first, I didn’t know what to expect. I had seen posters all over campus advertising the event so when my friend asked if I’d like to go, I said yes. Although I had heard both of your names before, I wasn’t familiar enough with your work to be able to picture what a fusion of your styles might entail. I thought maybe a performer would recite poetry accompanied by music and changing images. However, I could not have prepared myself for the seamless synthesis of music, poetry, and artwork that was presented during the performance.
One of the things that surprised me the most was that there were multiple vocalists. To me, this was very effective because they were able to highlight different emotions in the text. Also, when they all sang in unison, the effect was extremely powerful. I was also grateful that they were singing because I expected them to simply speak the text but their singing definitely brought out a deeper level of meaning in the text. The performers illuminated the subtleties of Mr. Cohen’s poetry through their intonation and body language. The staging was effective as well. I liked the relaxed and almost nonchalant manner in which musicians and singers entered and exited the stage. No one made a grand entrance and sometimes I didn’t even notice a performer had come onstage until he or she started singing.
I also appreciated the vast range of moods in the poetry and the way that was expressed through the music and accompanying illustrations. My favorite pieces were “You Go Your Way” and “You came to me This Morning.” I loved the nostalgia and love struck stupor invoked by the reading of “You Go Your Way.” At the same time, “You came to me This Morning,” which contains many darker elements, seemed to fit into the performance too. The coherence of the performance seemed to stem from the idea of the poems reflecting a journey through a person’s emotions and the continuously winding path that journey can take.
I think you found the perfect balance between playfulness and somberness. The artwork, music, and vocals helped give the words more life. These theatrical elements enhanced and complicated the poetry while providing a stable backdrop for the ever-shifting mood of the words. Thank you for creating such an intricate and valuable example of the relationship between words, music, and art. This performance had a haunting quality to it and definitely had a lasting effect on me.
Thank you again.
Sincerely,
Natalie Gutzler
I’m a student at Scripps Women’s College and I saw a performance of Book of Longing in Claremont last month. I was very impressed by this joint work. At first, I didn’t know what to expect. I had seen posters all over campus advertising the event so when my friend asked if I’d like to go, I said yes. Although I had heard both of your names before, I wasn’t familiar enough with your work to be able to picture what a fusion of your styles might entail. I thought maybe a performer would recite poetry accompanied by music and changing images. However, I could not have prepared myself for the seamless synthesis of music, poetry, and artwork that was presented during the performance.
One of the things that surprised me the most was that there were multiple vocalists. To me, this was very effective because they were able to highlight different emotions in the text. Also, when they all sang in unison, the effect was extremely powerful. I was also grateful that they were singing because I expected them to simply speak the text but their singing definitely brought out a deeper level of meaning in the text. The performers illuminated the subtleties of Mr. Cohen’s poetry through their intonation and body language. The staging was effective as well. I liked the relaxed and almost nonchalant manner in which musicians and singers entered and exited the stage. No one made a grand entrance and sometimes I didn’t even notice a performer had come onstage until he or she started singing.
I also appreciated the vast range of moods in the poetry and the way that was expressed through the music and accompanying illustrations. My favorite pieces were “You Go Your Way” and “You came to me This Morning.” I loved the nostalgia and love struck stupor invoked by the reading of “You Go Your Way.” At the same time, “You came to me This Morning,” which contains many darker elements, seemed to fit into the performance too. The coherence of the performance seemed to stem from the idea of the poems reflecting a journey through a person’s emotions and the continuously winding path that journey can take.
I think you found the perfect balance between playfulness and somberness. The artwork, music, and vocals helped give the words more life. These theatrical elements enhanced and complicated the poetry while providing a stable backdrop for the ever-shifting mood of the words. Thank you for creating such an intricate and valuable example of the relationship between words, music, and art. This performance had a haunting quality to it and definitely had a lasting effect on me.
Thank you again.
Sincerely,
Natalie Gutzler
Monday, March 30, 2009
Response to Elaine Showalter's lecture on "Women Writers and American Literature"
Dear Ms. Elaine Showalter,
My name is Margot Buermann and I'm currently a student attending Scripps College. I was fortunate enough to hear you speak about your anthology of American female writers at the Pomona College campus on March 24.
As someone who is learning about American literature and female writers in two separate classes, I found your lecture to be fascinating in terms of looking at how women fit into the list of "great literary works" from American history. I especially admire that you took the time to research these female authors because they belong to a group that has been continuously stifled and/or misconstrued over time. As you said, female American writers are so interesting to study because of the journey they collectively endured to establish respectable positions within the literary world. Even if they enjoyed relative success with the publishing of their works, they were still unable to match the "genius" of struggling male artists. Despite the hardships they faced, I found it inspiring that, even when social restraints discouraged them from publishing their works, they still chose to express themselves--regardless of what their husbands or neighbors thought. I was actually surprised to learn that most women didn't use pseudonyms when they wrote. Probably the most studied female authors in American literature are the three Bronte sisters, who all wrote under false names. It made me realize that there is so much more to learn about other female authors and how they formed their own career paths.
Also, thank you for introducing me to the wonderful poet Julia Ward Howe. The selection you chose "The Heart's Astronomy" from Passion-Flowers is so undeniably beautiful, that it makes me wonder how anyone wouldn't want to look at it from an artistic viewpoint--as opposed to the more political analysis that most female writers received in the public sphere. You placed a picture of Howe next to one of Walt Whitman. The differences between how male and female writers were viewed in their time jump right out at you: Whitman, standing casually but with an upfront appearance with his shirt unbuttoned, and then Howe, sunken in her chair with black, modest clothing. It was sad to hear the story of Howe and how her husband didn't support her writing at all--instead, he made her choose between motherhood and having a career, a choice that isn't unfamiliar to women during the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. But, I'm glad that at least she was able to share some of her work with us.
You mentioned that Toni Morrison commented on a new generation of women who are no longer restricted by family or society to publish their works. I believe that it is the strength of these women you discussed in your lecture that lead modern women to have more freedom in their artistic expression. I thank you so much for introducing me to these women, like Howe, and I look forward to learning even more about them.
Sincerely,
Margot Buermann
Saturday, March 28, 2009
A Response to "Islam Beyond Patriarchy"
Dear Dr. Amina Wadud,
On Wednesday night (the 25th), I had the opportunity to attend your lecture, “Islam Beyond Patriarchy,” and today I’d like to share with you the ways in which your lecture impacted me. Your lecture, to me, illustrated powerfully the potential uses and importance of language. While language can limit or distort the understanding of the metaphysical, it also, through metaphor, creates the possibility of transcending those limitations and materially re-forming the realities in which we live. I think recognizing this dual nature (that language both creates the tension and has the ability to solve, or dissolve, that tension) within the discourse on Islam was important for me.
In my own faith as a Christian woman, I have encountered many of the difficulties you mentioned in your lecture. How can one conceive of Allah beyond gender in a language that insists on gendering everything? God must be referred to and, to those people eager to view God through the lens of patriarchy, “He” is naturally the privileged pronoun, despite the theological belief that Allah is neither he nor she and despite the possibility of the occasionally employed “We” who, you mentioned, appears in the Qur'an. Patriarchy also uses this binary to maintain the originary status of (an assumed to be) Adam which in turn creates and maintains the supplementarity of (an assumed to be) Eve. In these ways language, through its binary nature, allows for patriarchy to impose itself in Islam. It also allows patriarchy to instate the male between the female and Allah in the vertical, hierarchical model you counter with your Tawhidic Paradigm.
Your Tawhidic Paradigm helped to impress upon me the power of metaphor in confronting the limitations of the binary. You stated that the goal of your lecture was to examine root metaphors and sacred postulates of Islam in order to discover their manifest potentialities. By looking directly at the text, it seems to me, you found a point of access to a truth and to Allah not clouded by the doctrine of adversarial secularists or of neo-conservative Islamists and, most of all, not clouded by the lens of patriarchy. Rather than imaging a static Islam, to be viewed either as an ideal to return to, or as an obsolete belief system to reject, the text of the Koran allows for the recognition of a dynamic Islam that can manifest justice and our foundational ontological equality in our lived realities.
I find this inspiring, this opportunity you see for Islam to contribute its voice to the debate on international human rights. On a more personal level, I find inspiring the possibility of reclaiming agency within religion as well as our God-given equality. This ability and responsibility to materialize religion within the world, I think, requires walking the Wasatiyyah you mentioned; approaching the relationship between the metaphysical and the empirical with both faith and critical analysis.
Again, thank you for your lecture.
Sincerely,
Alayna Fisher
Scripps College ’11
On Wednesday night (the 25th), I had the opportunity to attend your lecture, “Islam Beyond Patriarchy,” and today I’d like to share with you the ways in which your lecture impacted me. Your lecture, to me, illustrated powerfully the potential uses and importance of language. While language can limit or distort the understanding of the metaphysical, it also, through metaphor, creates the possibility of transcending those limitations and materially re-forming the realities in which we live. I think recognizing this dual nature (that language both creates the tension and has the ability to solve, or dissolve, that tension) within the discourse on Islam was important for me.
In my own faith as a Christian woman, I have encountered many of the difficulties you mentioned in your lecture. How can one conceive of Allah beyond gender in a language that insists on gendering everything? God must be referred to and, to those people eager to view God through the lens of patriarchy, “He” is naturally the privileged pronoun, despite the theological belief that Allah is neither he nor she and despite the possibility of the occasionally employed “We” who, you mentioned, appears in the Qur'an. Patriarchy also uses this binary to maintain the originary status of (an assumed to be) Adam which in turn creates and maintains the supplementarity of (an assumed to be) Eve. In these ways language, through its binary nature, allows for patriarchy to impose itself in Islam. It also allows patriarchy to instate the male between the female and Allah in the vertical, hierarchical model you counter with your Tawhidic Paradigm.
Your Tawhidic Paradigm helped to impress upon me the power of metaphor in confronting the limitations of the binary. You stated that the goal of your lecture was to examine root metaphors and sacred postulates of Islam in order to discover their manifest potentialities. By looking directly at the text, it seems to me, you found a point of access to a truth and to Allah not clouded by the doctrine of adversarial secularists or of neo-conservative Islamists and, most of all, not clouded by the lens of patriarchy. Rather than imaging a static Islam, to be viewed either as an ideal to return to, or as an obsolete belief system to reject, the text of the Koran allows for the recognition of a dynamic Islam that can manifest justice and our foundational ontological equality in our lived realities.
I find this inspiring, this opportunity you see for Islam to contribute its voice to the debate on international human rights. On a more personal level, I find inspiring the possibility of reclaiming agency within religion as well as our God-given equality. This ability and responsibility to materialize religion within the world, I think, requires walking the Wasatiyyah you mentioned; approaching the relationship between the metaphysical and the empirical with both faith and critical analysis.
Again, thank you for your lecture.
Sincerely,
Alayna Fisher
Scripps College ’11
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Book of Longing
Dear Mr. Cohen and Mr. Glass,
I attended your collaborative work Book of Longing in February at Scripps College. I intended to write much earlier, but better late than never. I am glad I wrote down my thoughts after seeing the program.
Book of Longing left me in an odd, sympathetic, somewhat depressing somberness. It was the sort of mood that lends itself to brilliant thoughts such as “the state of my dusty post-it notes leaves me in despair.” I considered my identity and myself during and after the program (I recalled that I’m a creative writer/choreographer often at odds with the population). Hearing such individualistic work drew me closer to Mr. Cohen and to myself.
I must confess that I was ignorant going into the theater. Leonard Cohen…how do I know that name? Didn’t he write that song from Shrek? Wasn’t he from the 1960’s? Always open-minded to new things, I thought “I’m probably too young for this. It’ll probably be depressing. I won’t even get it. I’ve only had twenty years on earth to experience angst, what would I know about this?” I didn’t even know what the program was, exactly. I felt pretty awkward picking up my ticket wondering “what am I going to see?” (By the way, I did figure it out once I sat down with the program.)
I read the libretto ten minutes before the program started. Nothing really struck me (of course, a few minutes isn’t adequate time for literary digestion). The words washed over me as stylistic musings from before my time.
Then I watched Book of Longing and found (shockingly) that art cuts across time.
The collaboration with Mr. Glass radically changed my interaction with Mr. Cohen’s poetry. Listening to the text forced me to take in each word and gain a better understanding of the poems. I can skim words with my eyes, but ears don’t work that way. Furthermore, each singer’s performance and expressions gave the text a life that I could not find on my own. The lighting, the musical score, and the singers gave me clues that kept me from getting lost in words. I think seeing a face with the poems kept alienation at bay.
The music also reassured me that my limited understanding of the poetry wasn’t completely off. For example, whenever the music shifted in tone, I thought, “I wasn’t crazy then—that poem did completely change direction.” There were also several lines that weren’t humorous on paper but funny when sung. The program left me with a longing (pun intended) to reread the libretto. This time, I didn’t feel too young to read it. I realized that Mr. Cohen’s poetic tone is far more grounded than I originally thought—he does not take himself so seriously, after all. His work contains more than longing and sorrow, but also humor and triumph.
I’m glad I had the chance to see Book of Longing. I also appreciate the lesson I learned (or relearned)—assumptions get in the way of experience.
Sincerely,
J. Lindsay Brown
I attended your collaborative work Book of Longing in February at Scripps College. I intended to write much earlier, but better late than never. I am glad I wrote down my thoughts after seeing the program.
Book of Longing left me in an odd, sympathetic, somewhat depressing somberness. It was the sort of mood that lends itself to brilliant thoughts such as “the state of my dusty post-it notes leaves me in despair.” I considered my identity and myself during and after the program (I recalled that I’m a creative writer/choreographer often at odds with the population). Hearing such individualistic work drew me closer to Mr. Cohen and to myself.
I must confess that I was ignorant going into the theater. Leonard Cohen…how do I know that name? Didn’t he write that song from Shrek? Wasn’t he from the 1960’s? Always open-minded to new things, I thought “I’m probably too young for this. It’ll probably be depressing. I won’t even get it. I’ve only had twenty years on earth to experience angst, what would I know about this?” I didn’t even know what the program was, exactly. I felt pretty awkward picking up my ticket wondering “what am I going to see?” (By the way, I did figure it out once I sat down with the program.)
I read the libretto ten minutes before the program started. Nothing really struck me (of course, a few minutes isn’t adequate time for literary digestion). The words washed over me as stylistic musings from before my time.
Then I watched Book of Longing and found (shockingly) that art cuts across time.
The collaboration with Mr. Glass radically changed my interaction with Mr. Cohen’s poetry. Listening to the text forced me to take in each word and gain a better understanding of the poems. I can skim words with my eyes, but ears don’t work that way. Furthermore, each singer’s performance and expressions gave the text a life that I could not find on my own. The lighting, the musical score, and the singers gave me clues that kept me from getting lost in words. I think seeing a face with the poems kept alienation at bay.
The music also reassured me that my limited understanding of the poetry wasn’t completely off. For example, whenever the music shifted in tone, I thought, “I wasn’t crazy then—that poem did completely change direction.” There were also several lines that weren’t humorous on paper but funny when sung. The program left me with a longing (pun intended) to reread the libretto. This time, I didn’t feel too young to read it. I realized that Mr. Cohen’s poetic tone is far more grounded than I originally thought—he does not take himself so seriously, after all. His work contains more than longing and sorrow, but also humor and triumph.
I’m glad I had the chance to see Book of Longing. I also appreciate the lesson I learned (or relearned)—assumptions get in the way of experience.
Sincerely,
J. Lindsay Brown
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Coming of Age in a Small Place
Dear Jamaica Kincaid,
I was able to go to your "Coming of Age in a Small Place" talk at the CMC Ath and loved it. To be honest, I wasn’t very familiar with your work and wasn't sure what to expect. But the things you said really captured me completely.
In particular, I loved the way you described your childhood. As a young adult, I have recently been preoccupied with capturing a period of my life that is in many ways intangible. I liked how you were able to talk about your childhood as a very distinct but also a very universal experience. When you transitioned into talking about Manhattan, I loved the description of mornings, and very early mornings at that. To me, these things seemed very simple but the more and more you went into detail I came to realize how complex and very beautiful they were. Thank you for allowing me to see this.
I also especially loved Your Talk Town Story, which I thought was thoughtful and innovative. It was comical how to tallied the Friedman’s up, adding them to your evaluations.
When you spoke of your Father you said that he “talked about himself as if he was a person he used to know well.” I liked how you said that and this line has stuck with me since. I also liked how you were able to also capture the child’s sense that no, parents did not and could not have possibly existed before our own existence.
Lastly, your story about your brother meant a lot to me. I think it is hard to be truthful, especially when you are writing something that many others will read. You described him as someone “I had not wanted to love.” This also really resonated with me.
Thank you for your talk. This was a first time I was able to hear an author read from their work live and I felt that this made what you were saying both very intimate and universal. Thank you again.
Sincerely,
Laura Nolan
Scripps College 2011
I was able to go to your "Coming of Age in a Small Place" talk at the CMC Ath and loved it. To be honest, I wasn’t very familiar with your work and wasn't sure what to expect. But the things you said really captured me completely.
In particular, I loved the way you described your childhood. As a young adult, I have recently been preoccupied with capturing a period of my life that is in many ways intangible. I liked how you were able to talk about your childhood as a very distinct but also a very universal experience. When you transitioned into talking about Manhattan, I loved the description of mornings, and very early mornings at that. To me, these things seemed very simple but the more and more you went into detail I came to realize how complex and very beautiful they were. Thank you for allowing me to see this.
I also especially loved Your Talk Town Story, which I thought was thoughtful and innovative. It was comical how to tallied the Friedman’s up, adding them to your evaluations.
When you spoke of your Father you said that he “talked about himself as if he was a person he used to know well.” I liked how you said that and this line has stuck with me since. I also liked how you were able to also capture the child’s sense that no, parents did not and could not have possibly existed before our own existence.
Lastly, your story about your brother meant a lot to me. I think it is hard to be truthful, especially when you are writing something that many others will read. You described him as someone “I had not wanted to love.” This also really resonated with me.
Thank you for your talk. This was a first time I was able to hear an author read from their work live and I felt that this made what you were saying both very intimate and universal. Thank you again.
Sincerely,
Laura Nolan
Scripps College 2011
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Blue Lias - or the Fish Lizard's Whore: Another look at history
Dear Dr. Stevens,
Reading the title of your recent piece “Blue Lias - or the Fish Lizard’s Whore,” I had little idea of what to expect. Of course, I had read the description of the event, which described it as “an interactive piece...[with] enchanting visual representations...[and an] imaginative score,” but I still entered Garrison Theater this past Thursday night with few concrete ideas as to what to anticipate. The performance sounded like an intriguing and unconventional event - a true “one of a kind” that tends to leave a memorable impression on its audience members. Thus, I was drawn in - eager to experience a break in the monotony of a predictable week.
Much to my delight, that is exactly what “Blue Lias - or the Fish Lizard’s Whore” was. It was at once a visual, musical, and literary performance in which all of the distinctive performance devices were inseparable from each other. Different types of verbal, tonal, and visual repetition cued each other and tied together the many personas, settings, and types of audiences to which each character presented itself.
First, the audience was introduced to Claudia Stevens - a contemporary paleontologist delivering a presentation about the deceased and revered (though historically unrecognized and under-appreciated) paleontologist Mary Anning. To me, Dr. Stevens, this role was a dual representation of not only you as the author and performer of this piece (making it more “interactive”), but also as a representation of a modern female in the field of science. The latter was particularly important as a contrast to the character of Mary Anning - a female scientist in the early and middle 19th century.
Claudia Stevens came forth as a learned and respected woman who did not have waste time appeasing or sweet talking her audience feigning delicacy and docility. First off - I want to remark that I loved the sense of improvisation that was present in this initial scene. I do not now how much of the introduction had been written and rehearsed, but I admired your humor in commenting that many of us “paleontologists” had obviously “left the convention early.” It seems the majority of people on campus were content with their more predictable Thursday nights.
The fact that our “presenter” was dressed in pants, a floral top, and a slim necktie showed the disintegration of the divisive lines that exist between gender and professionalism. Your outfit was a visual blurring of the stereotypes and rules regarding gender that are often enforced in clothing attire.
Mary Anning on the other hand, was clothed in a long cloak and hat, showing that a progressive and unorthodox woman was still restricted to the social norms of her time. As opposed to Dr. Steven’s energetic, humorous, and assertive presentation, Miss Mary Anning was careful to speak politely and gracefully as she practiced her acceptance of the small award bestowed to her by the “gentlemen” of the scientific society after all this time.
I really enjoyed how you integrated both language and music to signal scene and time shifts as well as stress important themes throughout the play. The initial three or four notes struck on the autoharp as well as the striking of the hammer were reiterated again and again - both literally by the instruments themselves, but also in your vocal impressions of them. Little Mary Anning was described as being “struck” by lightening, the youthful Mary Anning was constantly “striking” the dirt and sand in hopes of uncovering something unknown, and the older Mary Anning was often attempting to “strike” down the preconceptions and prejudices that she faced being an academic woman. The repetition of the phrase “look up” was used to snap Mary Anning out of her dreamy recollections and to force her back into a more “appropriate” state of delivery. I loved the play on these phrases because they were so contrary to the immediate connotations of “up” and “down.” In this production, “up” was restrictive; it was the direction that society demands be followed in the majority of circumstances. “Down,” on the other hand, often allowed for extra space to and reconstruction of the “norms.”
“Blue Lias - or the Fish Lizard’s Whore” is the type of the production that could be viewed multiple times and still hold more jewels to interpret. But then again, as Mary Anning relates, “happiness exists in being misunderstood.” As long as a few questions remain, there will always be something to dig up from under the surface, thus allowing for the congealed standards to be undone and refitted.
Thank you for sharing this production with us Dr. Stevens. Your production was, just as Scripps College requested, provocative, insightful, and artistic. I hope I will be lucky enough to see another one of your pieces in the coming years. I can’t imagine what’s coming next!
Sincerely,
Julie McAleer
Pitzer College ‘12
Reading the title of your recent piece “Blue Lias - or the Fish Lizard’s Whore,” I had little idea of what to expect. Of course, I had read the description of the event, which described it as “an interactive piece...[with] enchanting visual representations...[and an] imaginative score,” but I still entered Garrison Theater this past Thursday night with few concrete ideas as to what to anticipate. The performance sounded like an intriguing and unconventional event - a true “one of a kind” that tends to leave a memorable impression on its audience members. Thus, I was drawn in - eager to experience a break in the monotony of a predictable week.
Much to my delight, that is exactly what “Blue Lias - or the Fish Lizard’s Whore” was. It was at once a visual, musical, and literary performance in which all of the distinctive performance devices were inseparable from each other. Different types of verbal, tonal, and visual repetition cued each other and tied together the many personas, settings, and types of audiences to which each character presented itself.
First, the audience was introduced to Claudia Stevens - a contemporary paleontologist delivering a presentation about the deceased and revered (though historically unrecognized and under-appreciated) paleontologist Mary Anning. To me, Dr. Stevens, this role was a dual representation of not only you as the author and performer of this piece (making it more “interactive”), but also as a representation of a modern female in the field of science. The latter was particularly important as a contrast to the character of Mary Anning - a female scientist in the early and middle 19th century.
Claudia Stevens came forth as a learned and respected woman who did not have waste time appeasing or sweet talking her audience feigning delicacy and docility. First off - I want to remark that I loved the sense of improvisation that was present in this initial scene. I do not now how much of the introduction had been written and rehearsed, but I admired your humor in commenting that many of us “paleontologists” had obviously “left the convention early.” It seems the majority of people on campus were content with their more predictable Thursday nights.
The fact that our “presenter” was dressed in pants, a floral top, and a slim necktie showed the disintegration of the divisive lines that exist between gender and professionalism. Your outfit was a visual blurring of the stereotypes and rules regarding gender that are often enforced in clothing attire.
Mary Anning on the other hand, was clothed in a long cloak and hat, showing that a progressive and unorthodox woman was still restricted to the social norms of her time. As opposed to Dr. Steven’s energetic, humorous, and assertive presentation, Miss Mary Anning was careful to speak politely and gracefully as she practiced her acceptance of the small award bestowed to her by the “gentlemen” of the scientific society after all this time.
I really enjoyed how you integrated both language and music to signal scene and time shifts as well as stress important themes throughout the play. The initial three or four notes struck on the autoharp as well as the striking of the hammer were reiterated again and again - both literally by the instruments themselves, but also in your vocal impressions of them. Little Mary Anning was described as being “struck” by lightening, the youthful Mary Anning was constantly “striking” the dirt and sand in hopes of uncovering something unknown, and the older Mary Anning was often attempting to “strike” down the preconceptions and prejudices that she faced being an academic woman. The repetition of the phrase “look up” was used to snap Mary Anning out of her dreamy recollections and to force her back into a more “appropriate” state of delivery. I loved the play on these phrases because they were so contrary to the immediate connotations of “up” and “down.” In this production, “up” was restrictive; it was the direction that society demands be followed in the majority of circumstances. “Down,” on the other hand, often allowed for extra space to and reconstruction of the “norms.”
“Blue Lias - or the Fish Lizard’s Whore” is the type of the production that could be viewed multiple times and still hold more jewels to interpret. But then again, as Mary Anning relates, “happiness exists in being misunderstood.” As long as a few questions remain, there will always be something to dig up from under the surface, thus allowing for the congealed standards to be undone and refitted.
Thank you for sharing this production with us Dr. Stevens. Your production was, just as Scripps College requested, provocative, insightful, and artistic. I hope I will be lucky enough to see another one of your pieces in the coming years. I can’t imagine what’s coming next!
Sincerely,
Julie McAleer
Pitzer College ‘12
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