A poem

[xiphias]

This morning, listening to Garrison Keillor's "The Writer's Almanac", Lis and I heard a poem which was vaguely disturbing, slightly sick, and funny.

It's called "Earl", by Louis Jenkins:

Earl

In Sitka, because they are fond of them,
People have named the seals. Every seal
is named Earl because they are killed one
after another by the orca, the killer
whale; seal bodies tossed left and right
into the air. "At least he didn't get
Earl," someone says. And sure enough,
after a time, that same friendly,
bewhiskered face bobs to the surface.
It's Earl again. Well, how else are you
to live except by denial, by some
palatable fiction, some little song to
sing while the inevitable, the black and
white blindsiding fact, comes hurtling
toward you out of the deep?

Comments

[kalmn.livejournal.com]

wow.

i think it's disturbing and really really good. i'm not sure i think it's funny-- it seems too true to be funny, like the really really good onion headlines.

[hangedwoman.livejournal.com]

I want to appreciate that, I really do, but it's hard not to react with, "Yes, of course, because the nine thousand people in Sitka are all such provincial simpletons. Everybody in the state, really." And wonder with suspicion about why someone would think it seems too true to be funny (with no intention of picking on any particular person that might have said that).

Not that I have lingering Northern Exposure bitterness or anything.

[happybat.livejournal.com]

I love it. Because we live on small deceptions - love, hope, faith. The belief that it can't happen to us, to someone we love. I don't think it matters that it's seals and Sitka. I think most of us live here.

[copperpoint.livejournal.com]

For no tangible reason other than that it compares the human condition to a sea creature - not the condition of a sea creature but just the thing itself - this reminds me of The Lobster by Howard Nemerov.

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

I read the poem as being about the human capacity for self-deception, not specifically the self-deception of the Sitkese. However, I'm not from Alaska, so I definetely might not be seeing condescention that actually is there.

[hangedwoman.livejournal.com]

And I like what the poem is trying to say about the human capacity for self-deception, I really do. I have a slight problem with the ease of picking an Alaskan town to represent that metaphor. Any specific location that he named would be saying the same thing, but it wouldn't have necessarily been so easy for other people to buy. And that's the main thing that get to me, not what people use Alaska to say but that they can get away with saying it because of what other people will so easily believe.

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

For what it's worth -- I didn't see it as saying anything remotely negative about the Sitkans -- just that, here is a fairly traumatic thing that happens regularly, and here's how you deal with it with a little bit of humor and deliberate self-deception.

The humor isn't in laughing AT the Sitkans -- it's in recognizing that what they are doing is exactly the right thing. That they are showing wisdom in calling all the seals "Earl".

[hangedwoman.livejournal.com]

As per usual, I'm probably not explaining myself very well ... and as per usual I'm probably going to get myself into trouble by trying to explain myself better, but here goes.

To me this is another example of Alaska or Alaskans as metaphor, and generally speaking most of the time that happens it's inaccurate and condescending. Again, see Northern Exposure (and yes, I am probably going to be ranting about Into the Wild soon since the movie is coming out - just a warning). For instance, to me the poem describes something that would scan better if it were talking about a place that had a population much smaller than I know Sitka to have, but to most people just about any town in Alaska is conceivably small enough to fit as far as they know.

In the grand scheme of things it's a minor irritant and it was meant to be a minor complaint. There are metaphors that people have much more of a right to have issues with and I love metaphor. I use metaphor constantly and in some cases I think people's complaints about certain metaphors are an example of political correctness going too far. But that doesn't mean that it isn't still frustrating sometimes to be a metaphor.

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

I think I get your point: it seems like you object to "Sitkans" being used as simply a stand-in for whatever characteristic the poet is using them to stand in for, rather than as, y'know, people. Because "Alaska", as a whole, is used as a metaphor for, y'know, whatever it is people are using Alaska as a metaphor for.

It sounds like it's less a problem with what in particular Alaskans are being used to represent, and more just, generally, "Alaskans" being used purely as symbols of something.

Is that more-or-less close?

[hangedwoman.livejournal.com]

Yes, that's about right. :)

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

I suppose I could make an argument about how that's what poetry does, turn people and events into symbols, but the fact is that I'm a New Englander, and, while New England IS sometimes, even often, used as a symbol, it's also used as an actual place. Maybe about fifty-fifty, or less. And Alaska, now that I think of it, is used much more often as a symbol than as a place -- maybe 90%-10%. So while my emotional response to New England, or Massachusetts, or Boston, being used as a symbol is interest, wondering how my home is being used, I can see why your response would be completely different.