Creating Interpretations with More than your Mind

Flipping through random blog posts on Blogger.com I came across a blog that's latest post was a poem about cigarettes by Keith Badowski There Goes the Top of My Head: Cigarettes, a spontaneous poem by Keith Badowski. What a strange poem, I particularly enjoyed his line of "skin of a pacifist", of course the way I interpret that line is probably not the same way Keith interprets it, or any other reader interprets it. Which got me thinking about interpretations, of course. I could easily say that interpretations are what got me interested in studying English to begin with but then I'd be lying. It was the second, the first was that it was the only subject I was half way decent in in high school and I needed a major in college. After choosing English as my major I started taking literature courses. Of course, I got my bachelors degree in technical writing though. My theory on that, you can't do anything with BA in literature other than teach primary or secondary education after donating a specified amount of money and time to the state of Texas for a certification that says you are fit to teach these young students. Oh! thought tangent!! -> what makes a person "fit" to teach young students? Just because a person is able and eligible to pass a certification course, does that mean that person is not rightfully able to influence the minds of our young students? I would disagree, clearly, some educators are not "fit" for this position, see link here or here, how about some male teachers here. Point is these people may have been certified educators, however, would you consider them "fit" to educate the minds of the next generation? I don't think so.

Back to my original motive for this post: interpretations.
I love literature, do you know why? Roland Barthes is the reason. Because for me, Roland Barthes gave me the ability to interpret. He killed the author, so now, besides the words on the paper, I'm the only thing that matters. Of course that's about as broad and as general of an overview of Roland Barthes Death of the Author essay as you can get, but nonetheless Barthes killed the author and opened up the text for me to interpret as I please. Find Roland Barthes essay here.

After having read Barthes' essay the first question that came to mind was "what if the author is already dead?" Of course that was before having thoroughly studied Barthes essay, but still I believe it's a valid question. Food for thought, let's take Samuel Taylor Coleridge's Rime of the Ancient Mariner. Coleridge died in 1834, more than 120 years before Barthes essay and more than 150 years before I was born. So how do you interpret his poem, correctly? Is there a correct interpretation? How do you know it's correct?

My first encounter with Coleridge's poem, I interpreted the poem on the basis of witchcraft. Second time I read it, I found Greek mythology hidden in the waves of Poseidon and Artemis. Then I went to class to discuss the poem and found my professors interpretation to be that of the Christian's wandering Jew. So, how do I know which is correct? Of course I was going to believe my professor and fall victim to his personal interpretation because, he was the professor after all. But soon I found out that he is certainly not the only one who believes Coleridge's poem is interpreted as the case of the wandering Jew. I see it now that it has been so obviously pointed out to me and many many scholars would agree this is the correct interpretation so I shut my mouth and write it in my notebook. Of course in the back of my mind questions burn and churn with anxiety of why this is the common interpretation for his poem. Sure, Coleridge was a religious man and the poem is said to have gotten some shape by a fellow clergyman, but religion was instilled normalcy in the 18th century. So it's easy for modern readers to believe Coleridge was influenced by the wandering Jew. But what about my own interpretation? Why is this interpretation so widely accepted by literary scholars? What would Roland Barthes say about this?

Although Coleridge is already physically dead, he survives through his poetry. But Barthes cuts the Coleridge's noose from around his poems and kills him. Completely washes away any and all evidence of Samuel Taylor Coleridge from Rime of the Ancient Mariner. Now what? Interpret how Barthes wants you to. Cleanse yourself of 18th century knowledge, of Coleridge, Lyrical Ballads, William Wordsworth, religion, war, even nature as Coleridge loved so much. And read the text with a blank slated mind.
Let the words move and take new shape on the page and in your mind, be aware of how the words form in your mouth, how each word, letter, syllable makes you feel, physically, emotionally, mentally and even psychologically (which is different than your mental presence, thank my lover Sigmund Freud for that one). Now once you've obtained the text in your mind, what do you see? When you read, feel, hear, chew, form the words in your mind and on your self, I ask you, what is it saying?

Here's Coleridge's poem:

Rime of the Ancient Mariner

Try it on for a size.

Now,
That's what I call interpretation. No right or wrong, just being. That's all interpretation is, your thoughts on being. Being the words on a page, being the words on your lips, in your heart, in your mind, in your stomach. Interpretation is not just created by our mind, but by our bodies as well.

Would you care for more food for thought?
Here's a few other poems:

Tyger, Tyger

All Day I Hear the Noise of Water

Time and Eternity XLVIII

Purchasing Time

As I was filing through my kitchen pantry, appropriately known as the anorexic pantry due to its 12in width and 16in depth, I started to write down all the necessary items for my survival.
1. Almond milk
2. eggs
3. cage free chicken breast
4. chocolate, etc.

After finishing the list, or so i thought i had, i was racking my brain for anything else i might have left off. Then it hit me. I need time. No not Thyme the spice, but time. Literal, intangible time, hours, minutes, days. Unfortunately time is not something you ca purchase, if it were i'd be anorexic due to an empty pantry and fridge because i'd spend all my money on time.

During this thought process I began to reorganize my daily life to fit in the scheduled time i do have. You know the phrase, 'so little time', it confuses me because time doesnt change. it's constant, constantly moving forward. you can't stop it, reverse it, change it, shape it, mold it or hold it. So how is it possible to have 'so little time', when you had the exact same amount of time you did the day before, two weeks before, 20 years before, even 120 years before. So why do people complain about having such little time to do anything.

if there was a "biggest complainer about not having enough time" award, I'd have 17 of them for every year I haven't had enough time since I was 5 years old. From birth until 5 years old, you don't HAVE to do anything, you don't have responsibilities, you don't have to worry, you have someone else provide life, time, health, care for you 24 hours a day 7 days a week. Which inadvertently takes up your caregivers times in your selfish ways. But that's a whole other subject for another time.

So due to the inadequate amount of time we are given daily, i vote the government redirect their spending. I wont complain about the salary of the government officials, everyone else does that enough for me, but they could redirect their spending away from building more roads, more pollutant-ridden semi trucks and buses, oh, and stop paying these famous people 12 million dollars (J.Lo) to appear on American Idol and tell people they're good or bad singers. Really $12mil? is that necessary? So if they cut the spending in non-essential areas and give back to those who need it. Obviously the government is happy with this whole 24 hours/day thing, so i dont think that will change, but they could at least pay for time in other ways. For me, they could up my hourly rate (even by $5-10) that would compensate for having 1-2 days off per work week, which would allow me to focus more on my studies, which i pay a hefty amount for- which goes to the govt- and making good grades allows me to graduate at a reasonable rate and move on to more important things; such as educating those future leaders of America.
That sounds like a win, win to me.

But for others, it's the same thing.. take just 2% of J. Lo's American Idol money and give it to the Military so that those serving can have 3 weeks of R&R instead of 2. Or have R&R more often. Because when your family is separated, the hardest thing is finding more time when your time is limited.

Sip on that.