Similarity of Modernist and Postmodernist Writers as Societal Critics

No matter whether one believes that the boundaries between modernism and postmodernism are clear or muddy, or whether postmodernism is a break from, or continuation of, modernism (Matteo par. 4, Mambrol par. 2), its apparent that writers from both periods may serve the same roles. Two works that exemplify how modernist and postmodernist writers serve as societal critics are T.S Eliot’s poem “The Waste Land” and Donald Glover’s song (as alter-ego Childish Gambino) “This Is America”. 

Eliot’s poem is probably the most famous poem of the twentieth century (“A Brief Guide to Modernism” par. 4, Tearle “…The Waste Land” par. 1), and Glover’s song “amassed ten million views in only twenty-four hours” (Beaumont-Thomas par. 1) and is currently at over 435 million views seven months after its release, demonstrating its popularity.  In “The Waste Land”, Eliot critiques the declining sexual morality, the futility of institutions like marriage, and the toll on mental health, of individuals in a society in the aftermath of WW1. The infertile wasteland is as much in the minds of the people, as in the war-torn lands of post-war Britain. With “This Is America”, Glover critiques a society that portrays violence and guns as part of its entertainment while the same violence and guns (and racism) are the major issues facing that segment of society. Partying is favoured over acknowledging the problem, in a modern version of cognitive dissonance. The added irony is that he uses the same entertainment media to convey his message. The methods that both pieces use to convey their critiques are strikingly similar and most differences exist in the areas of postmodernism’s embracing of minority voices and the use of irony rather than tragedy in postmodern versus modern.

The first similarity observed is that both artists use references in their works that cross artistic boundaries. Both periods are noted for rejecting “the rigid boundaries between high and low art [… and] mixing different, incongruous elements” (Mambrol par. 3). Eliot’s “The Waste Land” contains references to the jazz tune “Shakespeherian Rag” (126-130), Wagner’s opera Tristan and Isolde (31-42), and classic literature with Shakespeare’s Anthony and Cleopatra (77) and Ovid’s Metamorphoses (98-100). Glover’s “This Is America” contains references to rap songs such as “Gimme the Loot” by The Notorious B.I.G. (Glover 2:42), Jim Crow caricatures (Khal par. 3, Beaumont-Thomas ‘He’s playing Jim Crow’, Glover 0:53) and cake-walking (St. Félix par. 2, Glover 0:34-0:53), the Bible (Khal, paragraph 6, Glover 2:35-:2:40), choir gospel songs (Glover 0-0:17, 1:41-1:46), and recent news events such as the church shooting in Charleston (Gajanan ‘The gunned down choir’, Khal par. 4, Glover 1:55-1:57). Mixing allusions and snippets from differing levels of art help the audience to connect to the works and develop their own understanding of them.

The previous examples also demonstrate the use of pastiche and intertextuality. The references are ones likely known by the intended audiences of the works and serve to add meaning to the works beyond just the words contained in them. In referencing Tristan and Isolde, Eliot reminds the readers of the doomed love of the protagonists (Tearle “... ‘The Burial of the Dead’” par. 4). He makes the reader think of the rape of Philomena in the allusion to Metamorphoses (Tearle “… ‘A Game of Chess’” par. 2). An additional allusion to Edmund Spencer’s Prothalamion, “Sweet Thames, run softly, till I end my song.” (Eliot 176,183,184), contrasts the marriages of that poem with the cheap sex prevalent of the Thames of “The Waste Land” (Tearle “… ‘The Fire Sermon’” pars. 2-3), alluded to in the poem with “The nymphs are departed. / and their friends, the loitering heirs of city directors; / Departed, have left no addresses” (Eliot 179-181). These references drive home the critique of declining morality and the erosion of value in marriage. When Glover uses “like blocka” (2:42), it is reminiscent of the onomatopoeia for gunshots in Notorious B.I.G.’s “Gimme the Loot” (3:07). The hooded figure on the white horse (Glover 2:35-2:40) calls to mind the first horseman of the Apocalypse (American Standard Bible Revelations 6:2).  When Glover sings “America, I just checked my following list and / You go tell somebody / You mothafuckas owe me” (3:03-3:06), those familiar with rap artists might think of Young Thug’s issue of having lots of followers but poor album sales (Zisook par. 12). These allusions show a society that both glorifies violence as entertainment while also suffering the effects of that violence, a dichotomy that cannot be sustained. Both pieces contain many more intertextual allusions, but these should show that, for the audiences of each work, there is meaning to be gleaned beyond the lines of the works.

The use of these snippets, or fragments, is another similarity between the modernist “The Waste Land” and the postmodernist “This Is America”. The “mixing of different, incongruous elements” (Mambrol par.3) can be quite effective at pointing the audience to what the author wants them to see. Eliot scatters snippets hinting at WW1 throughout his poem. With “And when we were children, staying at the arch-duke’s” (13), he alludes to the assassination of Arch-Duke Ferdinand.  “A crowd flowed over London Bridge, so many, / I had not thought death had undone so many.” (62-63), may refer to either the ghosts of the war dead or of those undone by their deaths (Tearle “… ‘The Burial of the Dead’” par. 8).  “I think we are in rats ‘alley / Where the dead men lost their bones.” (115-116) is likely a reference to the trenches of the war (Tearle “… ‘A Game of Chess’” par. 3). There are also references to mental health issues. “I read, much of the night, and go south in the winter.” (Eliot 18) is “one of the most powerful and subtle lines ever written about insomnia” (McAloon par.4).  The conversation between the couple, that starts with “’My nerves are bad tonight...’” through “’Are you alive, or not? Is there nothing in your head?’” (Eliot 111-126) conveys the frayed nerves of the woman along with the “strong suggestion that the man is scarred by some sort of trauma and has blocked out much of his life and refused to talk about it.” (Tearle “… ‘A Game of Chess’” par. 3). This is also a commentary on the effect that the war has had on relationships and the breakup of marriages. Yet another reference comes through “’On Margate Sands. / I can connect / Nothing with nothing. / The broken fingernails of dirty hands.’” (Eliot 300-303), as Eliot himself spent time in Margate while on leave to deal with his depression (McAloon pars. 2-3). The fragmentation becomes so pronounced in the last part of the poem that it almost seems as if “the speaker has finally gone completely mad: ‘Hieronymo’s mad againe’ [(Eliot 432)]” (Tearle “… ‘What the Thunder Said’” par.7). Combined, he paints a picture of the mental wasteland that has been left in the war’s wake.

The fragmented and incongruous elements in “This Is America” appear not just in the lyrics, but in all the video’s elements (dance, music, background visuals). Glover is in almost constant motion, and “When his character is not dancing, he is killing.” (St. Félix par. 3). Often, the movements, music, words, and background visuals are all doing different things at the same time. The video must be watched multiple times to follow each individual element without distraction, to catch the subtle messages. This itself is part of the message- that the music and the dance are meant to distract the audience from the violence that is occurring in the background (riots (Glover 2:00-2:19) and fires (2:30-2:36)), just as the entertainment culture distracts from the real-life violence. “It’s hard to tell if this is ignorance to what really matters or a coping mechanism and escapism from the fuckery of everyday life” (Khal par.5). This reference to escapism or mental coping is echoed in the lyrics “I’m so cold like yeah / I’m so dope like yeah / We gon’ blow like yeah” (Glover 1:33-1:37), suggesting that it is easier to deal with all the violence if you act like you do not care and party. The few times that the disparate elements synchronize are full of impact, being so rare in the chaos. Right before the music changes to aggressive, Glover stops dancing, background clears, and then guns are fired to the lyrics of “This is America” (0:50-0:54, 1:55-1:58). Not only is this vivid statement the meat of Glover’s critique—prevalent gun violence—it also mirrors how everyone remains distracted by their entertainment until the next incident of gunfire striking a member of their society down. As in “The Waste Land”, the various elements in “This Is America” each convey part of the message. In Glover’s body movements, cheerful grins morph into manic grimaces (0:39-0:49, 1:03-1:15, 1:49-1:55). At times he looks “sexy, at other times crazed” (St. Félix par. 2). One wonders if the character is fully sane.  The dances move from grotesque cake-walks (Glover 0:37-0:49, 0:58-1:32) into popular fad dances (1:33-1:40) such as the “gwara gwara, and then into a slew of viral dances” (St. Félix par. 3), a parody of black dance as entertainment over the years. After shooting the hooded guitarist (Glover 0:51) the body is finally dragged off, yet the gun is carefully placed and wrapped in a red cloth, “as if the black body isn’t worth … as much as the instrument used to end its life” (Khal par. 3), all while Glover continues to smile and dance like nothing has happened. Just with these few elements’ messages, Glover’s critique is hard to miss, and the video is full of many more.

As a final similarity in how the two works convey their critiques, both “The Waste Land” and “This Is America” employ a variety of ambiguous phrases. These can be interpreted different ways by the audience, and further add to the author’s message, no matter which interpretation is embraced.  In Eliot’s poem, we have the example of “The Chair she sat in, like a burnished throne” (77), an allusion to Shakespeare’s Anthony and Cleopatra (77 Note), which could be taken at face value as a literal throne, or as the slang of throne for a toilet, each giving a different perspective from which to view the subject woman in the following lines. Likewise, the opening stanza of “The Fire Sermon” section of the poem (173-181) describes a dying brown river bank, as summer ends and “The nymphs are departed”. Eliot could be referring to nymphs as spirits of nature and green and implying “the modern world…has lost its magic and spiritualism” (Tearle “… “The Fire Sermon’” par. 2), or he could be using nymphs as a euphemism for prostitutes and showing its moral decay.  With Glover’s “This Is America”, there are a couple of phrases that could be taken as allusions to slavery, or to modern black culture. With “Look what I’m whippin’ up” (0:59), there is the whipping of slaves meaning, or the modern ones of making money, making crack, or a car. With “I got the strap” (1:21) there is the same reference to slave punishment, but also the modern one, when taken with the preceding line of “Guns in my area” (1:19), of a gun holster. Another phrase with double meaning follows these two, “I gotta carry’ em” (1:23), which could mean carry either the guns, or those shot by them. Probably the best example of double meaning is in the lyrics “This is a celly / That’s a tool” (2:25-2:28). “It’s either highlighting just how powerful the cellphone has become in documenting these horrific acts of violence…or a reference to the Stephon Clark case, where police thought Clark was holding a gun or a tool and then shot him…only to find out he was holding his cellphone” (Khal par. 7). In both works, these ambiguities and the multiple interpretations that arise from them (along with the other similarities mentioned above) help “give voice to the insecurities, disorientation and fragmentation of the 20^th century western world.” (Mambrol paragraph 3 and 4).

In the end, Eliot and Glover employ many of the same techniques to convey their criticisms of the societies they are part of. Their role as writers is the same: to share their critiques with a broader audience in ways that the audience will understand, relate to, and enjoy consuming, so that the message is received and spread, hopefully sparking change. In this, there lies a final difference between the modernist Eliot, and the postmodernist Glover: Eliot at least attempts to suggest avenues for correcting things, at least the wasteland of the mind, with the teachings of Eastern cultures. Glover simply presents the broken state of things and offers no escape from it, apart from his song. (Mambrol pars 5-6).

Works Cited

“A Brief Guide to Modernism.” Poets.org, Academy of American Poets, www.poets.org/print/70293.

American Standard Bible. Bible Study Tools, Salem Web Network, www.biblestudytools.com/asv.

Beaumont-Thomas, Ben. “This Is America: Theories behind Childish Gambino's Satirical Masterpiece.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 9 May 2018, www.theguardian.com/music/2018/may/07/this-is-america-theories-donald-glover-satirical-video-childish-gambino.

Eliot, T S. “The Waste Land.” Representative Poetry Online, rpo.library.utoronto.ca/poems/waste-land.

Gajanan, Mahita. “Childish Gambino's 'This Is America': Breaking Down Symbols.” Time, Time, 7 May 2018, time.com/5267890/childish-gambino-this-is-america-meaning/.

Glover, Donald. “Childish Gambino - This Is America (Official Video).” YouTube, YouTube, 5 May 2018, www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYOjWnS4cMY.

Khal. “The Real Meaning Behind Childish Gambino's ‘This Is America.’” Complex, Complex, 1 June 2018, www.complex.com/pop-culture/2018/05/the-real-meaning-behind-childish-gambino-this-is-america-video/.

Mambrol, Nasrullah. “Postmodernism.” Literary Theory and Criticism Notes, Literary Theory and Criticism, 15 May 2018, literariness.org/2016/03/31/postmodernism/.

Matteo, Virginia. “What's the Difference Between Modernism and Postmodernism in Literature?” Owlcation, Owlcation, 29 May 2018, owlcation.com/humanities/Whats-The-Difference-Between-Modernism-and-Postmodernism.

McAloon, Jonathan. “TS Eliot's The Waste Land Remains One of the Finest Reflections on Mental Illness Ever Written.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 13 Feb. 2018, www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2018/feb/13/ts-eliot-the-waste-land-mental-illness.

St. Félix, Doreen. “The Carnage and Chaos of Childish Gambino's ‘This Is America.’” The New Yorker, The New Yorker, 17 July 2018, www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-carnage-and-chaos-of-childish-gambinos-this-is-america.

Tearle, Oliver. “A Short Analysis of T. S. Eliot's 'The Burial of the Dead'.” Interesting Literature, Interesting Literature, 4 Mar. 2017, interestingliterature.com/2016/10/13/a-short-analysis-of-t-s-eliots-the-burial-of-the-dead/.

Tearle, Oliver. “A Short Analysis of T. S. Eliot's 'A Game of Chess'.” Interesting Literature, Interesting Literature, 4 Mar. 2017, interestingliterature.com/2016/10/20/a-short-analysis-of-t-s-eliots-a-game-of-chess/.

Tearle, Oliver. “A Short Analysis of T. S. Eliot's 'The Fire Sermon'.” Interesting Literature, Interesting Literature, 4 Mar. 2017, interestingliterature.com/2016/10/27/a-short-analysis-of-t-s-eliots-the-fire-sermon/.

Tearle, Oliver. “A Short Analysis of T. S. Eliot's 'What the Thunder Said'.” Interesting Literature, Interesting Literature, 11 Feb. 2018, interestingliterature.com/2016/11/10/a-short-analysis-of-t-s-eliots-what-the-thunder-said/.

Tearle, Oliver. “A Very Short Analysis of T. S. Eliot's The Waste Land.” Interesting Literature, Interesting Literature, 28 June 2018, interestingliterature.com/2016/10/06/a-very-short-analysis-of-t-s-eliots-the-waste-land/.

The Notorious B.I.G. “Gimme the Loot.” Genius, Genius Media Group Inc., 13 Sept. 1994, genius.com/The-notorious-big-gimme-the-loot-lyrics.

Zisook, Brian. “Is Young Thug's Popularity Flatlining? Here's What the Numbers Say.” DJBooth, DJBooth, 26 June 2017, djbooth.net/features/2017-06-26-young-thug-music-numbers.

Why Long Gun Registries Won’t Solve Canada’s Murder and Suicide Problems

If guns kill people, why don’t they account for most murder and suicide deaths in Canada? The answer is because people kill people, and they don’t need guns to do it. 

It may surprise you to find out that the data shows that less than 30% of homicides are committed using guns, most of those being handguns, not long guns that were part of Canada’s now-defunct registry. The simple reason for this is that Canada has robust gun control laws that require background and mental health checks for owner licenses and wait periods, and mandatory registration of all but the most basic single-action shotguns and rifles.  As a result, knives vie consistently with firearms for the honour of top spot in homicide weapon of choice. Yet we see no calls for bans on knives or registries for knives. Knives are far easier to obtain and access, which is why they also account for over 30% of domestic violence assaults, compared to only 18% for guns.

Homicides do not even account for most of the firearms-related deaths in Canada; a whopping 75% are suicides, as compared to 20% homicides. Even with suicides, only 16% of all suicide deaths are by firearms. No one wants to see loved ones in pain end their lives, but gun-related suicides only dropped by 2% during the last long gun registry. Other forms rose by the same amount (such as hanging), which meant that the availability of (or access to) guns was not a factor in whether someone intending to commit suicide can or will. There must be other ways to help our loved ones in mental distress.

No one can deny that in the last five years, gun homicides have been climbing. Statistics Canada has attributed this to a rise in gang activity. Such gangs often rely on illegal guns from the United States, which never appear in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police’s registration database. In fact, very few guns used in homicides are registered. Again, most guns used in gang-related criminal activity are handguns, which would never be part of a long gun registry. Yet our last long gun registry, initially budgeted at just $2 million, ballooned to an astounding $1-2 billion.

That’s a lot of Canadian taxpayer money that basically went to waste. The long-gun registry failed to curb violent gun crimes, stem gun suicides, or be of any real benefit to Canadians. Canada’s strict gun controls are doing their job: Canada ranks quite low on the list of gun homicides per country, at around 5.1 per million people. Rather than another registry, wouldn’t it be better to see that money go to things that might actually have an impact on the causes for crime, homicides, and suicides? 

The money should be applied to programs and initiatives that help curb the rise of gangs, stem the flow of illegal firearms into Canada and, probably most importantly based on the number of deaths involved, support mental health programs (and access to such services) that would help those that feel that suicide or violence towards others is their only option. If Canada put the same money used for the registry to wiser use, perhaps the real reasons behind gun violence and deaths could be solved. Guns don’t kill people; people do. That’s where we should be focusing our efforts; on solutions that help the people behind gun deaths.

References

Berthiaume, Lee. “Statistics Canada blames guns, gangs, as homicide rate hits 10-year high.” CBC News. CBC. November 21, 2018. Online.  https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/stats-can-homicide-rate-1.4914646

Fisher, Daniel. “Canada Tried Registering Long Guns – And Gave Up.” Forbes. January 22, 2013. Online. https://www.forbes.com/sites/danielfisher/2013/01/22/canada-tried-registering-long-guns-and-gave-up/#2c6fbe935a1b

Fletcher, Robson. “Canada gun facts: Here are the latest stats on firearm deaths, injuries and crime.” CBC News. August 30, 2018, updated August 31, 2018. Online. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/canada-gun-facts-crime-accidental-shootings-suicides-1.4803378

Goffin, Peter. “A look at Canada’s gun ownership laws.” The Canadian Press, published by CTV News, July 24, 2018. Online. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/groves-point-homeowners-say-no-to-wind-turbines-1.1234691

Hung, Kwing, Ph.D.  Firearm Statistics Updated Tables. Research and Statistics Division, Department of Justice Canada. January 2006. Online.  https://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/rp-pr/csj-sjc/crime/rr06_2/rr06_2.pdf

LEGISinfo. “House Government Bill, C-71.” Parliament of Canada. Online.  https://www.parl.ca/LegisInfo/BillDetails.aspx?Language=E&billId=9710291

Lopez, German. “America is one of 6 countries that make up more than half of gun deaths worldwide.” Vox. August 29, 2018. Online. https://www.vox.com/2018/8/29/17792776/us-gun-deaths-global

Maloney, Ryan.  “Bill C-71: Long-Gun Registry Dead For Years, Still Focus In Canada’s Firearms Debate.” HuffPost Canada Edition. HuffPost. April 13, 2018. Online.  https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2018/04/13/bill-c-71-liberals-gun-registry_a_23410743/

Paperny, Anna Mehler.  “Gun violence by the numbers: How America, Canada and the world compare.” Global News. December 3, 2015. Updated December 5, 2018. Online.  https://globalnews.ca/news/2378037/gun-violence-by-the-numbers-how-america-canada-and-the-world-compare/

Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP).  “Canadian Firearms Program, Frequently Asked Questions – Bill C-10A.”. Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Online.  http://www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/cfp-pcaf/faq/c10a-eng.htm

Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP).  “Canadian Firearms Program, Frequently Asked Questions - General.”. Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Online.  http://www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/cfp-pcaf/faq/index-eng.htm

Rocha, Roberto.  “A Look at Gun Crime In Canada.” The Montreal Gazette. Online.  http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/gun-crimes/index.html

Statistics Canada.  “Juristat Bulletin-Quick Fact: Firearm-related violent crime in Canada.”. Statistics Canada. June 28, 2018. Corrected July 24, 2018. Online.  https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/en/pub/85-005-x/2018001/article/54962-eng.htm

21 Years Later, The Fifth Element is Still One Hell of a Sci-Fi Spectacle

21 Years Later, The Fifth Element is Still One Hell of a Sci-Fi Spectacle

When director Luc Besson set The Fifth Element upon the world in 1997, it was the most expensive European film ever made, at $90 million. Bruce Willis (who plays one of the leads in the movie, Korben Dallas) took a pay cut to appear in the film, but this paid off for him, as he opted for a percentage of the movie’s profits. Twenty-one years and a global box office haul of over $263 million later, and Mr. Willis probably has no regrets about taking the role. Nor should he. The Fifth Element is a movie that has stood the test of time and has entered the annals of sci-fi movie history.

While after 21 years, The Fifth Element is a cult classic, the film met mixed reviews on release and to this day seems to be a film you either love or hate. It opened at number one at the box office but still had people leaving in the middle of it. Even now, it’s considered one of the best and one of the worst sci-fi movies ever made, depending on who you ask. Besson had to work hard for it to see the light of day. To secure financial backing, since he only had five features to his name at the time, Besson had to put The Fifth Element aside and prove himself a reasonable risk, which he did with the release of Leon: The Professional. Even after making the movie, Besson lamented that if he had waited a bit longer, he could have taken advantage of the newer special effects.  The movie is old school blue screens and non-CGI effects (the flying city cars scenes are CG, though). At one point in the film, there is an explosion onboard a cruise liner, and this one scene, at the time, was the most massive indoor explosion ever filmed. The stunt could have gone terribly wrong, but instead, it adds to the visual extravaganza that is The Fifth Element. Laud it or lambaste it, it's hard to deny that the film has serious production and cinematographic prowess (thanks to Dan Weil and Thierry Arbogast), having been nominated for numerous awards in these areas.

The plot of The Fifth Element is straight forward: its classic good versus evil, set in the 23^rd-century. However, it takes this simple concept and weaves it into a ripping good yarn, complete with some loose threads and gaping holes that simply don’t matter once you are engaged in the lavish visual feast that is the movie. Based on an idea that a teenaged, comic-fan Luc Besson came up with, the film is everything that you might expect of a hormone-laden teenaged boy’s fantasy.  It has aliens good and evil, space ships, more guns than you can keep count of, chases, and fight scenes as choreographed as any Asian martial arts flick. The film is full of stereotype ladies: the near-identical curvy ladies at the fast food place and serving aboard the cruise liner, and the constant nagging mother of Korben. Apart from the female lead, Leeloo (played perfectly by Milla Jovovich), there are no strong females in the entire movie. By today’s standards, the film would even be termed sexist and possibly offensive. However, it's not fair to judge the movie by current expectations on gender representation, and in one character, the film was ahead of its time for acceptance. Radio personality Ruby Rhod (played to delightful excess by Chris Tucker, after Prince turned down the role as “too effeminate”) dresses outlandishly and struts about like a peacock in clothing that would be almost too much on most women, but on a man, its up there with the best of the glam rockers of the 70’s. Despite, or because, of his appearance and innuendo, Ruby is a sex symbol to the ladies. The interplay between Willis’ Korben and Tucker’s Ruby provide some of the best comic moments in the movie.

On the subject of costumes, one of the eras foremost fashion designers designed not just the gender-bending garb of Ruby Rhod, but over 1000 futuristic costumes for the movie. Jean Paul Gaultier, a fan of Besson’s earlier films, reportedly personally inspected, and adjusted as needed, every costume worn by the five hundred extras in one scene. His avant-garde design helps make the 23^rd-century of the film vibrant and distinct. From the minimalist outfits worn by Leeloo (at one point she is outfitted in what is meant to be a series of bandage strips, strategically placed to please the censors, and nothing else), to the functional yet still minimal garb of taxi-driver Korben, the armor of the alien Mangalore warriors, the more ornately elaborate couture of the patrons attending the operatic concert of the Diva Plavalaguna, and even the robe worn by the Diva herself (played by Besson’s wife at the time, Maïwenn Le Besco, after the actress cast dropped out at the last minute), Gautier stamps his mark on the scenes, while still allowing the film’s exuberant nature to shine through. The sets, designed by French comic book artists Jean Girard and Jean-Claude Mézières who had so inspired the young Besson, range from utilitarian (Korben’s tiny apartment), archeological (the ancient temple central to the titular Fifth Element), a trash-filled spaceport, and the lavishness of the cruise liner Fhloston Paradise. The way that Gautier’s costumes work so well with the various sets is pure artistry.

Speaking of artistry, the Diva Plavalaguna’s aria was written to contain parts unsingable by human voice, to foster an alien sound. Composer Eric Serra “purposely wrote unsingable things, some too low, some too high, sentences that were too fast,” into his composition. The actual voice of the Diva is Albanian opera singer Inva Mula. While Serra expected only about 60% of the song to be singable, Mula managed to perform 85% of it. The remaining, technically impossible, bits were made possible via sampling. The result is nothing short of amazing, and well worth watching the movie for all by itself. Besides this aria, the rest of Serra’s score perfectly complements the movie’s nature, encompassing orchestral elements, along with reggae, and even hula music.

Clearly, I am in the camp that believes The Fifth Element is pure fun. Jovovich and Willis deliver strong performances, even if you think that the roles themselves don’t require a lot of depth; they are believable as the characters they portray. Gary Oldman, as the evil corporate head Jean-Baptiste Emmanuel Zorg, just oozes sociopath amped to comical excess. Tucker, as the most outrageous character, serves to tie everything together with a wacky bow. Even after 21 years, it's hard to come up with another movie, since its 1997 release, that is as much unashamed, quixotic, sci-fi, action fun as The Fifth Element. It’s is a film that doesn’t take itself seriously and doesn’t expect the audience to either. What it's here for is to entertain and delight your eyes and ears with an over-the-top spectacle.

The Collector

 The Collector

By Samantha Rhodes Mason

Oliver Lomwright was a collector of junk antiques. Sometimes, in the various antique shops around Coventry, he would find treasures that he could refurbish and resell for profit in his own tiny store. It wasn’t much, but he was able to pay his bills and live in a modest flat. His odd occupation, and thin frame, didn’t attract the ladies, and so Oliver lived alone. Oliver was okay with this as it allowed him to freely visit the neighbouring areas’ antique shops, as he was currently doing.

            While passing one shop, Oliver’s gaze fixated on a single frosted vial in the front window. The swirled iridescent colours of the opaque glass transfixed him: he had to have it. The small treasure was not even five pounds—a real steal—and he couldn’t help but try and polish up the surface of it as soon as he got it home. To his utter amazement, a glorious jinni emerged. Her voluptuous body, long hair of flame, golden peach skin, and robes barely covering her curves, rendered him incapable of almost any thought but possessing her.  Yet, one other thought also excited him, for even Oliver knew that jinn—for surely that’s what this wondrous creature was—granted wishes when freed from captivity.

The jinni spoke, in an accented voice that promised exotic pleasures, “Thank you for releasing me.” She stretched, fluid and sinuous as a cat. “I, Zara, am permitted to grant you three wishes, but,” she hesitated, her lips curving in a rueful smile, “they have limits. Firstly, the wishes granted to you are not those you wish for yourself, but those that others wish for you.” Oliver grew warm as her words flowed over him. “Secondly, since these types of wishes tend to be vague in nature, if they do not have defined limits, such as a quantity or duration, they will last for a year and a day, or until the next wish, whichever comes first. None of the wishes will overlap.” She paused and glanced coyly at Oliver, who hadn’t been able to pull his eyes from her. “The last wish granted will not be limited thusly. Finally, no wish can be granted to you more than once.” She paused again and looked directly at Oliver, “Is this an acceptable gift for freeing me?”  Oliver, still flushed with desire, thought the conditions peculiar, and a vague warning niggled in the back of his mind. However, when he tried to pull it forth, he could only think of greeting card and special occasion wishes, which seemed to him to be quite good ones to be on the receiving end of, and so the bargain was struck. The jinni promptly disappeared.

Oliver waited, not-so-patiently after several weeks went by, for the first wish to be granted. He had no idea how he would know that one had been given, only that his life was sure to change. The morning after his thirty-sixth birthday (almost two months after the jinni’s release), on looking in the bathroom mirror, he noticed that his dark hair seemed fuller and glossier, his grey hairs having vanished. His eyes and teeth shone with alabaster brilliance. As he walked the market streets that day, he felt lighter on his feet and didn’t even get winded going up the hill from his flat to old Coventry. In the first shop he entered, propped against the far wall, surrounded by musty books and aged-varnish side tables, was the most fantastic painting he had ever seen. It seemed familiar, and following his hunch, he snatched the find from the floor and paid the proprietor the twenty-pound price. It was only when he was staring at his old computer screen, his eyes shifting from the painting beside him on his antique desk to an identical photo in faded shades of brown and beige, that he knew which wish had been granted. Happy Birthday Oliver. I wish you good health and much wealth.

Oliver’s life changed after that first wish. The painting sold at auction for a small fortune, the appraisers declaring it a genuine masterpiece long lost sometime before the wars. With his renewed vigour, and new fame and wealth, Oliver collected—and enjoyed—the attention of many women, but it was the intelligent, successful, and stunning Jennifer Morey that managed to capture his heart. Their romance was intense, the courtship brief, and the wedding inevitable. Oliver could scarcely believe his good fortune, and his wedding day was the most splendid day of his life. They spent their idyllic honeymoon amid tranquil turquoise waters and expansive white sand beaches, in complete seclusion from the world. They were in no hurry to return and luxuriated in each other for three blissful months.

Jennifer was pregnant by the time they returned to their recently purchased townhouse. It was then that Oliver discovered that perhaps there was more to the wishes than the jinni had intimated.  The locks to the townhouse had been changed, and an eviction notice taped to the ornate wooden door. A panicking Oliver called his bank, and then his lawyer. The painting had proven to be a cunning forgery, its sale invalidated. The entirety of his assets had been seized when no one could locate him during his three-month absence. It dawned on Oliver that the second wish must have been granted since a year and a day hadn’t yet passed. He wondered, with some apprehension, what it was. Jennifer’s ultrasound first gave an inkling, when it showed she was pregnant with quadruplets. The wish was confirmed eleven months after that, when she got pregnant again, despite Oliver getting a vasectomy after the birth of their four daughters. Congratulations! I wish you both a fruitful marriage!

Life changed again with Oliver’s new family. Instead of collecting his antiques, it seemed he was now acquiring children and copious grey hairs. Jennifer grew increasingly depressed at having to deal with yowling infants, constant diaper changes, no sleep, and the prospect of more babies on the way. Oliver tried to help, but Jennifer longed to be out with her friends and working at her lucrative sales career. They fought all the time. Oliver began to seriously wonder if he shouldn’t have refused the jinni’s gift. It had seemed like a great blessing at the time, especially after the first wish, but no longer. As the gulf between Jennifer and himself widened, Oliver began to fear the final wish. Perhaps, he reflected, I should have asked more questions of that damned jinni instead of lusting after her. Oliver wracked his brain, desperate to find a way out of the contract. As each avenue he explored washed-out, his agitation mounted, and his preoccupation increased. Oliver’s state did nothing to help matters with Jennifer, who again tore into him one night after having to deal with the babies’ bath without his help for the umpteenth time. Her tired face, no longer so beautiful, wrinkled in anger and disgust, and her normally coiffed hair whipped in synchrony as she shrieked criticisms of his abilities as a husband and father. Oliver, who had heard it all before, simply turned his back, retreating towards the small bedroom in the tiny flat they now called home. She continued yelling even as he made his escape. “I wish you’d just go to hell, Oliver, for all the good you do me! JUST GO TO HELL!”

~~~~~~

Zara smiled in satisfaction as the count after her name on the tally board in the large office where she sat increased yet again. For the six-thousandth month in a row, her name topped the list. In all the centuries she had been using the jinn hook, no one had ever refused her gift; sex sells, after all. The magic of the hook was, of course, that the granted wishes always played out the same. In all the underworld, there was no collector better than she, and Oliver was a fine

addition.         

Reflections on the Role of the Writer: Writing and Mental Health

       One of the things I have observed in several of the works studied this term is how many of them touch on mental health, or rather the lack of it. Some of the references are subtle, and some blatant, but there are enough that it makes me think that writers suffer from issues in this area to a high degree. That might be true of creative types as a whole, though. This is also an area that is of personal meaning to me, so perhaps I am more sensitive to the references and see them more readily.

       A couple of works really made me think about it though, and how the writers approach it. Sylvia Plath’s “Lady Lazarus” contains obvious references to suicide. How else can one interpret “And like the cat I have nine times to die. / This is Number Three.” Or “The second time I meant / To last it out and not come back at all.” Knowing that she actually did end her life in this way just makes the references in her poems more tragic and poignant, and I can’t help but wonder how much of a cry for help they might have been. As authentic a voice as she brings to her poems, I hope that others might see her struggle with mental health when they read works by others with similar references and try and approach such writers with gestures of understanding and support.

       Another example is in T.S. Eliot’s “The Waste Land.” I looked at this when I did my formal essay and his references are much subtler than Plath’s, yet no less compelling. I can really relate to “I read, much of the night, and go south in the winter.” Insomnia has plagued me from time to time, and I have also relieved some of the depressing nature of our cold snowy winters by heading to a more tropical region to rest and relax. His poem also references anxiety disorders (“My nerves are bad tonight.”), PTSD (“Speak to me. Why do you never speak. Speak.”), and mental strain to the point of seeing things that are not there (“Who is the third that walks always beside you? / When I count, there are only you and I together / But when I look ahead up the white road / There is always another one walking beside you”). Like Plath, Eliot’s own struggles with depression are well documented, as is the fact that his wife, Vivienne, also suffered from poor mental health. However, unlike Plath, Eliot was able to find some solace in the practices of mindfulness and cognitive behavioural therapy. His was a happier ending.

       Another recent piece I looked at for my studies was the TEDx talk by Rupi Kaur entitled “I’m Taking My Body Back”. In the talk, she performs spoken word about suffering a rape and how it made her feel afterwards (this is my transcription of the words, so any mistakes in the words, and any suggestion of form, is mine):

this home is empty now

no gas no electricity no running water

the food is rotten

from head to foot I am layered in dust fruit flies webs bugs

Someone call the plumber the stomach is backed up I’ve been vomiting since

call the electrician these eyes won't light up

call the cleaners to wash me up and hang me to dry

when you broke into my home it never felt like mine again

She vividly describes the emotional state of someone dealing with a trauma, yet the purpose of her talk is to say how she came to terms with it and has not let it become a defining point of who she is. Hers is a positive and motivational poem.

       These may be difficult topics to bring up. They may be unpleasant to read about. Yet one of the roles of a writer is to raise awareness and inform and attempt to give a point of view that others may be unaware of. In all these works, the writer is doing that for mental health issues. I, for one, appreciate having writers bring mental health to a wider audience, even if they have no solutions to offer, as it’s still something that bears a stigma for its sufferers, even more than a century after Eliot was writing about it.

             

Reflections on the Role of the Writer: A Piece that Confuses Me

I was going to do my creative essay for my "Role of the Writer in North America" class on the differences between Canadian and American literature, as seen in poetry. I wanted to look at pieces from different time periods to base my comparisons on, but one poem in particular, although considered one of the ‘must-read’ pieces of American poetry, just wouldn’t come clear in my mind, no matter how many times I read it. This poem is “Howl” by Allen Ginsberg. It was to be my American postmodernist poem to discuss, but oh well. I went on to do that essay on global culture, multiculturalism, and Canadian writing instead.

       When I was doing my formal essay, which was modern versus postmodern and the role of the writer, I again looked at “Howl”. This time, I had help from others who had looked at the poem and analysed it for meaning. It would have fit great in my essay, as the postmodern society critique to compare to T.S. Eliot’s modernist poem “The Waste Land”, except that, despite reading what others said about it, I still had difficulty seeing those meanings for myself. Perhaps if it were a music video, like the piece I ended up using (“This Is America” by Childish Gambino, aka Donald Glover), I might have found it easier to see the allusions and meaning.

I keep thinking about it, and so here I am looking at the poem again and trying to figure out why it confuses me. Part of the confusion stems from the analyses I found not having many concrete references from the poem to support the derived meanings being claimed. Another reason, I think, is that the poem is written in such I way that I simply cannot relate to it. I don’t find it pleasant to read. The images he paints are not ones I can see in my mind. When he uses the word “Moloch”, the references (at least those that others tell me are up to three possible ones) mean nothing to me. Frankly, I grow bored when reading it. Perhaps I am simply not the intended audience for the work. I guess I can, at a high-level, understand the poem is a societal critique, but I don’t feel it. Unless Ginsberg’s whole point is that the society that he is criticizing drives one mad, and the poem is the raving of such a madman. If that’s the case, maybe I understand the poem just fine.

             

Reflections on the Role of the Writer: Pieces that Stick with Me

I should have written more of these reflections as the course was progressing, but life sometimes gets busy, and I find I am left with a few to do at the end of the term. However, this gives me an opportunity that writing earlier entries wouldn’t have—I get to reflect on all the pieces we have read this term. The great thing about this is that I can gauge the impact of the various writings over time. It’s immediately apparent that some works have stayed with me more than others. This leads to the natural question to ponder of “why?”.

       The works that have really stuck with me are “This Is America” (the music video by Childish Gambino aka Donald Glover), “The Song my Paddle Sings” (Emily Pauline Johnson), and “Battle Royal” (Ralph Ellison). These are quite different works and, at first glance, bear little in common. Johnson’s poem is quite a traditional poetic form, with rhyming and meter. Ellison’s work is a short narrative. Glover’s piece is very colloquial song lyrics with a variety of dance forms and musical elements. Yet under this there are three common threads that I believe draw me to these works.

       The first is the use of quite ordinary and common language. “Battle Royal” may be the most ‘educated’ sounding, with the use of words such as “emphatically” (“I was warned emphatically to forget what he had said…”), “oration” (“On my graduation day I delivered an oration…”), and “anarchy” (“Everyone fought hysterically. It was complete anarchy.”), but even these words are not so uncommon. “The Song my Paddle Sings” fits in the middle, with quite plain and straightforward language (such as “The river rolls in its rocky bed; / My paddle is plying its way ahead; /Dip, Dip, / While the waters flip / In foam as over the breast we slip.”), even if it’s used to great affect. “This Is America” contains the most common (“Yeah, yeah, I’m so cold like yeah / I’m so dope like yeah / We gon’ blow like yeah”), in that it’s very much a reflection of the current popular music scene, particularly genre’s like rap. For me, this makes these works easily accessible, and I don’t have to spend lots of time looking up words to find out what they mean.

       The second thing in common is that each of these pieces are works by minority voices. Each of them, in their own way, speaks to things pertinent to their culture and place. As part of the dominant Caucasian population in North America, these works connect me to different viewpoints. Johnson’s was one I could identify with, as I have canoed, yet I haven’t done so through rapids, and I found her description very exhilarating (“And forward far the rapids roar, / Fretting their margin for evermore. / Dash, dash, / With a mighty crash, / They seethe, and boil, and bound, and splash.”). When Ellison writes

I stumbled about like a baby or drunken man. The smoke had become thicker and with each new blow it seemed to sear and further restrict my lungs. My saliva became like hot bitter glue. … Streaks of blue light filled the black world behind the blindfold.

I could feel his exertion, and pain. I felt the panic of someone, educated like myself, being forced to fight. The lines “You just a big dawg, yeah / I kenneled him in the backyard / No proper life to a dog / For a big dog” in “This Is America” really hit home for me that for a person of colour in the States, no matter how successful they become, they are still kept trapped by racism and violence.

       Lastly, I think these three pieces stick with me because of how they use language. They paint very vivid pictures for me, and make me feel, in a more diluted way, the emotions of the subjects in the works. The examples above show this quite well, but Ellison's piece, as the longest, contains other great examples such as “She seemed like a fair bird-girl girdled in veils calling to me from the angry surface of some gray and threatening sea.” Other great uses of language in Johnson’s poem are exemplified with “The river slips through its silent bed. / Sway, sway, / As the bubbles spray / and fall in tinkling tunes away.”  Not only can I feel the canoe, but I can hear the water fall from the paddle and the small bubbles that break in the paddles wake. When Glover sings “Guns in my area / I got the strap / I gotta carry ‘em / Yeah, yeah, I’ma go into this / Yeah, yeah, this is guerilla” I can picture the young black man with his rap gangster style (whether it’s just for show or with actual violent intent).

       I guess what draws me and sticks with me are depictions of life outside the confines of my own, especially if they use language I can readily consume, and do so in a way that makes me see and feel, even if only partially, what the subjects in the works do.