Half of Life meets Meta (2)

After having written my last blog post I found this far more clear explanation of META MODERNISM in a discussion lead by four poets, one of whom is Meghan O'Rourke.

The basic thought that is dictating "emerging" artists is that sincerity and irony (irony being that which strongly represents postmodern expression) are no longer in clash with one another.

Of course there is a lot of convulsion and disagreement in this discussion. The general divide being those promoting irony and those promoting sincerity; but digging deeper one can clearly notice (especially in the above video) that the trend today is to exploit both for the aim of maximizing what Jericho Brown describes as PURPOSE. Even if the purpose is to state that there is no truth, poetry no longer is about the expression of nothing, but about being sincere and ironic about your sincerity at once.

Take this section of Plath's Poem "Daddy" as an example:

So I never could tell where you
Put your foot, your root,
I never could talk to you.
The tongue stuck in my jaw.

Layer 1. "So I never could tell where you/Put your foot" insinuates the idea/image of putting one's foot in his mouth. This is clearly ironical when in fact the person who cannot speak is the persona of the poem, as is clear in "I never could talk to you".

Layer 2. "where you/Put your foot, your root" totally representing a layer of sincerity. The author is talking about her fathers position, place in the world as a German and as a Nazi.

Layer 3. "The tongue stuck in my jaw", representing the need to vocalize the atrocities of fascism. Sincerity again.

Layer 4. "Put your foot, your root" is finally warped at the end of the poem into an image of people dancing on her father's grave. This transforms the irony of what was said to a sincere act of freedom. The foots motion representing walking and freedom, a freedom her dead father does not have, for he is rooted.

The layering goes on and on, but this is an example of how irony and sincerity play.

You can watch the whole discussion panel on Youtube here. There is a really clear definition of irony in the beginning of the discussion panel but just a brief definition is provided below.

Irony: situation in which there is a sharp incongruity or discordance that goes beyond the simple and evident intention of words or actions.  

Ironic statements (verbal irony) are statements that imply a meaning in opposition to their literal meaning. A situation is often said to be ironic (situational irony) if the actions taken have an effect exactly opposite from what was intended. The discordance of verbal irony may be deliberately created as a means of communication (as in art or rhetoric). Descriptions or depictions of situational irony, whether in fiction or in non-fiction, serves the communicative function of sharpening or highlighting certain discordant features of reality. 

More on this in coming posts! 

Half of Life meets META

Half-Life is the point in which a substances has decayed half way.

Meghan O'Rourke's book of poetry Halflife is a tribute to this definition. She explores the concept of decay as much as she plays on the idea of living.

Her first poem in this collection begins with "My poor eye. It has done/so much looking." The line break portrays the significance of sight. The emphasis on poor and excess is contrasted with the conclusion of the poem "Look again, and up you may rise/to something quite surprising in the distance."

To rise from poverty, to rise from struggle, and to find something not beautiful in the distance, but surprising is both inspirational and insightful (pun intended). There is hope, but the need to be hopeful insinuates loss.

This convoluted layering is in every poem of the book. Because though contradictions may be difficult to reconcile, they are fundamental. This is both a modern and post-modern thought. Though the modernist rejected contradictions, there underlining need to emphasis on wholes represented there need to make sense of these contradictions. The post-modernists in their extreme reaction took contradictions to a level of absoluteness, almost as if they too were creating meta narratives that simply contrasted with the modernist view.

I believe time always dictates change. It is on this note that I would argue that Meghan O'Rourke's layering is both a prime example of Meta modernism and yet another indication of the changes in today's evolving social fabric.

More on O'Rourke and poetry in coming posts!