Excitement's Crave - a line-by-line analysis.
Jul 28, 2016 1:49:23 GMT
wintergirl, trabuco, and 1 more like this
Post by cityofchill on Jul 28, 2016 1:49:23 GMT
Analysis of Stanza II, Part III — EAR, American Outlaw
OK, back to work! I am currently juggling a lot of analysis stuff, adding to my previous posts on Stanza II, working on a very tedious and time-consuming look at the poetics of EC, and now...this — taking a closer look at EAR's process of myth-making, and his self-perception as an exceptional individual in the model of the vaunted American outlaw.
So, let's bring that second stanza back to have a fresh look at it. I have a copy of the poem that I hand-wrote and have marked the hell out of. Maybe I'll scan it and upload the image when I feel it's complete. It's a real mess though...not sure if anyone could make sense of it.
Choosing values becomes a task;
Oneself must seek satisfaction
The selected route will unmask
Character when plans take action.
So in the first post I made about the second stanza, I talked a little about the EAR as someone who is probably on the cusp of adulthood, or who has just made the transition from youth to adulthood, and is now reflecting on his metamorphosis into a fully formed and self-conscious adult. Anyone who watches American crime cinema or who reads bios about famous American outlaws knows that a mythical outlaw needs an origin story. In order to create this story, the reader/viewer needs to know: what made little Jesse into the famous outlaw Jesse James? What was it that made him different? What is his STORY? The EAR knows all of this, because he is a product of American/Western culture. He knows that if he is seeking fame and adulation (which he tells us he is), he has to tell his story and explain what it is that made him different; what made him "special." However, because he does not ever intend to be caught or identified, he needs to tell the story himself, which is a real goldmine for those of us who want to better understand him.
The fact that he chooses to tell his "story" in a short poem is significant. This poem is a lot of things: it is a manifesto with a very simple premise — "I do what I do because it excites me"; it is a hubris-filled reflection on his superiority — for example, wanting to "add" a mafia don's wife to his "file" (note again the awareness he has of mythical American criminals — the mafia don, in this example); it is an origin story — "how I chose to become the person I am." The poem is also his way of telling his story to the public directly, without needing a biased intermediary like the police or news media. But it is also meant to be an example of EAR's intelligence so that the public realizes he is more than a rapist and terrorist — he is also a clever poet and man of action. There is A LOT to say about what this poem IS NOT, and that may be the most revealing and compelling part of the whole thing, but that comes later. For now, let's take a closer look at how American culture both demonizes and adulates criminals and outlaws, and how EC shows us that EAR is aware of what makes the difference between a reviled villain and a mythic outlaw, and how he wants to be perceived by the public.
EAR certainly seems to perceive himself as being "a cut above" some lusty knucklehead rapist. One obvious example of how he does this is by choosing to tell his story with a poem. By making a foray into what is generally considered to be the highest and most difficult form of written art — poetry — he is sending a message. He wants people to know he is smart, thoughtful, talented, and worthy of being regarded as more than a pervert who attacks women. I think he chooses poetry because he wants the public to see him as being special and worthy of their admiration AND fear. Any idiot can rape, but can they commit assaults the way he has? Can they run circles around LE, assault women in front of their male partners and family members? Can they write poetry? EAR thinks not. This poem is so filled with narcissism and hubris, one has to scratch their head. However, we have to take it at face value and try to discern what EAR wants us to know about himself, and EC gives us plenty to dissect. The EAR is clever, but not clever enough to realize is that we can also glean information from this poem that he may not want us to know. It is those details that are some of the most revealing and important.
I am going to really dig into the words and phrases EAR uses in this stanza, particularly the second two lines, with my next post, but the purpose of this mini-post is to place his writing within the contexts of criminal myth-making. EAR wrote this poem the way he did carefully and for a reason. This is his chance to tell the world who he is, and place himself in the pantheon of American criminal masterminds, where he thinks he belongs. He chooses poetry because he is a narcissist, so of course he is going to go for the most "sophisticated" and difficult form of creative writing to tell his story. A few prose paragraphs aren't good enough for him — he needs to show the world how smart he is; how he can employ symbolism, metaphor, imagery and other literary devices in a fairly rhythmic series of lines and stanzas. He wants everyone to know that he is talented, thoughtful, even artistic. What could possibly make him think anyone would care about a rapists's biographical poem? American culture, of course.
American society is unique in some ways, particularly in the way it regards criminals. Currently the US has the largest per capita number of prisoners anywhere in the world — it has 5% of the world's population, but 25% of its prisoners. Americans love criminals at least as much as they loathe them, and they love to learn about them and mythologize them. Think about American television — how many programs on network TV alone are crime/police dramas? Now add in all the cable crime dramas. This was true in the 60's and 70's as well. Think about movies that EAR must have watched, especially The Godfather, and even more importantly, The Godfather, Part II, with its captivating origin story of the Corleone don (notice the significance of this word with regards to the poem), Vito, and the overall origin story of Michael and how he chose to become the next don (Michael also makes a conscious choice to become a criminal, and the audience admires him for it). These are two high-profile films that came out in the early and mid-70's. I am almost certain that EAR watched them, and they seem to have influenced him, just as they did many Americans. While Americans love to see criminals caught and brought to justice, they also love to root for the outlaw. When we watch The Godfather, do we want the Corleones to be brought to justice? Hell no! Jesse James and John Dillinger are two real-life examples of American outlaws who have attained a positive regard among the American public despite their crimes (Jesse James being especially relevant here, because the EAR names him and even likens himself to him. In America there are Jesse James museums, festivals, and 27 films about him according to Wikipedia. Perhaps most interesting for our purposes is the TV series The Legend of Jesse James, which aired in the US between 1965 and 1966, during EAR's formative years. In November of 1977, an episode of Little House on the Prairie had Jesse James and his brother hiding out on the family homestead after a bank robbery). However, despite the American fascination with the outlaw, it's safe to say that pretty much no one glorifies or roots for a rapist. The rapist is at the bottom of the criminal food chain. Even in prison, sex offenders are preyed upon by the other inmates and often have to be housed in protective custody, where they are STILL at the bottom, even below snitches. How does EAR get around that conundrum?
EAR is well-aware of how much people loathe rapists, and he deals with that problem in an interesting way — he never actually mentions the horrible crimes he commits directly in EC. It's really quite astonishing when you think about it, and this omission is, IMO, so significant that I am working on a separate essay dealing with it and what it suggests about him and his self-perception/perception of his crimes. The EAR doesn't want to be seen as a rapist because he knows that rapists can never achieve the status of an outlaw like Jesse James. He wants us to admire him, but also knows that no one admires a rapist. So he never makes specific reference to his crimes, and one might never know this was a poem written by a rapist, except for at the very end where the author nonchalantly refers to himself as "Your East Area Rapist / And deserving Pest," as if a pest is all he is — and a deserving one at that. Deserving of what? For him, fame. But if he wants to be seen as a criminal mastermind, why doesn't he revel in his crimes, strike fear and loathing into the hearts of readers by describing the things he has done? The answer is that he does revel in his crimes, but in a very oblique manner (I'm getting to that, I promise 😅). Meanwhile, he puts the real emphasis, not on the rapes, because he knows how reviled rape is in society, but rather on how he is a self-made man who has made brave choices and come out on top. He sees himself as an outlaw in the Jesse James model — someone who is worthy of having a movie made about their life. Notice that incongruity: he doesn't want a movie made about his crimes, but rather about his life, as if the crimes were just a footnote. He seems to realizes that rape is universally abhorred by the American public.
This tells us two important things about EAR: 1) he knows that the crimes he commits are despicable and reviled; 2) he wants to be admired by the public, and does everything he can to minimize those crimes and focus instead on separating himself from American society in a way that makes him seem more like Jesse James than Ted Bundy — someone rebelling against a dehumanizing system of commerce (Accepting some work to perform / At fixed pay) in order to pursue "excitement seeking." Hell, he is just pursuing the American dream, freeing himself from a miserable job in order to pursue happiness. My hero! In the first two stanza, he takes time to frame himself as an exceptional individual who is not a mere rapist, but rather someone who is self-aware, a step up from "those mortals;" someone who has done a personal inventory, so to speak, chosen his values, and decided to reject societal norms in order to pursue excitement. All of these traits are things that many Americans admire...there's just that little problem about being a rapist.
So he toys with the crimes by using clever vocabulary (next post, I swear!), but really focuses instead on his journey from birth to maturity to manhood — a classic origin story with him as the protagonist, eschewing traditional American values and the soul-crushing monotony of an hourly wage in favour of a life where he is his own master. Isn't this exactly the kind of rugged individualism Americans admire, and isn't his rejection of traditional American values a major part of the youth counter-culture of the period? Aware as he is of the rapist's place in society, he knows he cannot have a proper myth by highlighting that part of himself, even though that is actually the only part anyone cares about. But he is a narcissist with tremendous hubris. For him, the rapes aren't the key thing about him — his heroism and worthiness lies in his status as a self-made man; one who is above mere mortals who just survive their births so they can become cogs in a machine. He needs us to know that isn't him. In his origin story, the rapes are just a means to an end, and something he doesn't even talk about directly. He wants to be known as a criminal, but he needs to deflect from those despicable crimes and focus on how he is like Jesse James or Michael Corleone. He isn't just a clever pervert! He is a god among men, looking down on us in our dreary lives, living what he probably believes other men only dream of, and believing he is worthy of fame and adulation.
I started this post as a single paragraph, but expanded it as I realized how important fame and myth-making is to him. Saturated in a culture that both adores and reviles criminals, EAR decides to focus less on the rapes and more on the bravery of his choices and how his actions demonstrate his superiority. The poem itself is part of that. He is creating his own lore, telling his story his way, ensuring that people don't see him as a perverted maniac rapist, but rather as a Jesse James-type. It is important to keep this in mind as one reads and studies the poem. Because he keeps returning to the theme of fame and notoriety, the entire poem should be seen through this lens — the EAR telling his story to the world, musing about a movie based on his life. He is very much a product of American celebrity culture, and he wants fame for himself. And yet...he is so elusive, so cagey and shadowy. It is an amazing contradiction, and something that deserves more thought and scrutiny. I will definitely be returning to this post to edit and add more material, but I wanted to put something up today, and hopefully tomorrow I can really get to those juicy two verses and the suggestive imagery he employs in them.
Next Up...this is the EAR speaking. Those two lines that tell us so much
OK, back to work! I am currently juggling a lot of analysis stuff, adding to my previous posts on Stanza II, working on a very tedious and time-consuming look at the poetics of EC, and now...this — taking a closer look at EAR's process of myth-making, and his self-perception as an exceptional individual in the model of the vaunted American outlaw.
So, let's bring that second stanza back to have a fresh look at it. I have a copy of the poem that I hand-wrote and have marked the hell out of. Maybe I'll scan it and upload the image when I feel it's complete. It's a real mess though...not sure if anyone could make sense of it.
Choosing values becomes a task;
Oneself must seek satisfaction
The selected route will unmask
Character when plans take action.
So in the first post I made about the second stanza, I talked a little about the EAR as someone who is probably on the cusp of adulthood, or who has just made the transition from youth to adulthood, and is now reflecting on his metamorphosis into a fully formed and self-conscious adult. Anyone who watches American crime cinema or who reads bios about famous American outlaws knows that a mythical outlaw needs an origin story. In order to create this story, the reader/viewer needs to know: what made little Jesse into the famous outlaw Jesse James? What was it that made him different? What is his STORY? The EAR knows all of this, because he is a product of American/Western culture. He knows that if he is seeking fame and adulation (which he tells us he is), he has to tell his story and explain what it is that made him different; what made him "special." However, because he does not ever intend to be caught or identified, he needs to tell the story himself, which is a real goldmine for those of us who want to better understand him.
The fact that he chooses to tell his "story" in a short poem is significant. This poem is a lot of things: it is a manifesto with a very simple premise — "I do what I do because it excites me"; it is a hubris-filled reflection on his superiority — for example, wanting to "add" a mafia don's wife to his "file" (note again the awareness he has of mythical American criminals — the mafia don, in this example); it is an origin story — "how I chose to become the person I am." The poem is also his way of telling his story to the public directly, without needing a biased intermediary like the police or news media. But it is also meant to be an example of EAR's intelligence so that the public realizes he is more than a rapist and terrorist — he is also a clever poet and man of action. There is A LOT to say about what this poem IS NOT, and that may be the most revealing and compelling part of the whole thing, but that comes later. For now, let's take a closer look at how American culture both demonizes and adulates criminals and outlaws, and how EC shows us that EAR is aware of what makes the difference between a reviled villain and a mythic outlaw, and how he wants to be perceived by the public.
EAR certainly seems to perceive himself as being "a cut above" some lusty knucklehead rapist. One obvious example of how he does this is by choosing to tell his story with a poem. By making a foray into what is generally considered to be the highest and most difficult form of written art — poetry — he is sending a message. He wants people to know he is smart, thoughtful, talented, and worthy of being regarded as more than a pervert who attacks women. I think he chooses poetry because he wants the public to see him as being special and worthy of their admiration AND fear. Any idiot can rape, but can they commit assaults the way he has? Can they run circles around LE, assault women in front of their male partners and family members? Can they write poetry? EAR thinks not. This poem is so filled with narcissism and hubris, one has to scratch their head. However, we have to take it at face value and try to discern what EAR wants us to know about himself, and EC gives us plenty to dissect. The EAR is clever, but not clever enough to realize is that we can also glean information from this poem that he may not want us to know. It is those details that are some of the most revealing and important.
I am going to really dig into the words and phrases EAR uses in this stanza, particularly the second two lines, with my next post, but the purpose of this mini-post is to place his writing within the contexts of criminal myth-making. EAR wrote this poem the way he did carefully and for a reason. This is his chance to tell the world who he is, and place himself in the pantheon of American criminal masterminds, where he thinks he belongs. He chooses poetry because he is a narcissist, so of course he is going to go for the most "sophisticated" and difficult form of creative writing to tell his story. A few prose paragraphs aren't good enough for him — he needs to show the world how smart he is; how he can employ symbolism, metaphor, imagery and other literary devices in a fairly rhythmic series of lines and stanzas. He wants everyone to know that he is talented, thoughtful, even artistic. What could possibly make him think anyone would care about a rapists's biographical poem? American culture, of course.
American society is unique in some ways, particularly in the way it regards criminals. Currently the US has the largest per capita number of prisoners anywhere in the world — it has 5% of the world's population, but 25% of its prisoners. Americans love criminals at least as much as they loathe them, and they love to learn about them and mythologize them. Think about American television — how many programs on network TV alone are crime/police dramas? Now add in all the cable crime dramas. This was true in the 60's and 70's as well. Think about movies that EAR must have watched, especially The Godfather, and even more importantly, The Godfather, Part II, with its captivating origin story of the Corleone don (notice the significance of this word with regards to the poem), Vito, and the overall origin story of Michael and how he chose to become the next don (Michael also makes a conscious choice to become a criminal, and the audience admires him for it). These are two high-profile films that came out in the early and mid-70's. I am almost certain that EAR watched them, and they seem to have influenced him, just as they did many Americans. While Americans love to see criminals caught and brought to justice, they also love to root for the outlaw. When we watch The Godfather, do we want the Corleones to be brought to justice? Hell no! Jesse James and John Dillinger are two real-life examples of American outlaws who have attained a positive regard among the American public despite their crimes (Jesse James being especially relevant here, because the EAR names him and even likens himself to him. In America there are Jesse James museums, festivals, and 27 films about him according to Wikipedia. Perhaps most interesting for our purposes is the TV series The Legend of Jesse James, which aired in the US between 1965 and 1966, during EAR's formative years. In November of 1977, an episode of Little House on the Prairie had Jesse James and his brother hiding out on the family homestead after a bank robbery). However, despite the American fascination with the outlaw, it's safe to say that pretty much no one glorifies or roots for a rapist. The rapist is at the bottom of the criminal food chain. Even in prison, sex offenders are preyed upon by the other inmates and often have to be housed in protective custody, where they are STILL at the bottom, even below snitches. How does EAR get around that conundrum?
EAR is well-aware of how much people loathe rapists, and he deals with that problem in an interesting way — he never actually mentions the horrible crimes he commits directly in EC. It's really quite astonishing when you think about it, and this omission is, IMO, so significant that I am working on a separate essay dealing with it and what it suggests about him and his self-perception/perception of his crimes. The EAR doesn't want to be seen as a rapist because he knows that rapists can never achieve the status of an outlaw like Jesse James. He wants us to admire him, but also knows that no one admires a rapist. So he never makes specific reference to his crimes, and one might never know this was a poem written by a rapist, except for at the very end where the author nonchalantly refers to himself as "Your East Area Rapist / And deserving Pest," as if a pest is all he is — and a deserving one at that. Deserving of what? For him, fame. But if he wants to be seen as a criminal mastermind, why doesn't he revel in his crimes, strike fear and loathing into the hearts of readers by describing the things he has done? The answer is that he does revel in his crimes, but in a very oblique manner (I'm getting to that, I promise 😅). Meanwhile, he puts the real emphasis, not on the rapes, because he knows how reviled rape is in society, but rather on how he is a self-made man who has made brave choices and come out on top. He sees himself as an outlaw in the Jesse James model — someone who is worthy of having a movie made about their life. Notice that incongruity: he doesn't want a movie made about his crimes, but rather about his life, as if the crimes were just a footnote. He seems to realizes that rape is universally abhorred by the American public.
This tells us two important things about EAR: 1) he knows that the crimes he commits are despicable and reviled; 2) he wants to be admired by the public, and does everything he can to minimize those crimes and focus instead on separating himself from American society in a way that makes him seem more like Jesse James than Ted Bundy — someone rebelling against a dehumanizing system of commerce (Accepting some work to perform / At fixed pay) in order to pursue "excitement seeking." Hell, he is just pursuing the American dream, freeing himself from a miserable job in order to pursue happiness. My hero! In the first two stanza, he takes time to frame himself as an exceptional individual who is not a mere rapist, but rather someone who is self-aware, a step up from "those mortals;" someone who has done a personal inventory, so to speak, chosen his values, and decided to reject societal norms in order to pursue excitement. All of these traits are things that many Americans admire...there's just that little problem about being a rapist.
So he toys with the crimes by using clever vocabulary (next post, I swear!), but really focuses instead on his journey from birth to maturity to manhood — a classic origin story with him as the protagonist, eschewing traditional American values and the soul-crushing monotony of an hourly wage in favour of a life where he is his own master. Isn't this exactly the kind of rugged individualism Americans admire, and isn't his rejection of traditional American values a major part of the youth counter-culture of the period? Aware as he is of the rapist's place in society, he knows he cannot have a proper myth by highlighting that part of himself, even though that is actually the only part anyone cares about. But he is a narcissist with tremendous hubris. For him, the rapes aren't the key thing about him — his heroism and worthiness lies in his status as a self-made man; one who is above mere mortals who just survive their births so they can become cogs in a machine. He needs us to know that isn't him. In his origin story, the rapes are just a means to an end, and something he doesn't even talk about directly. He wants to be known as a criminal, but he needs to deflect from those despicable crimes and focus on how he is like Jesse James or Michael Corleone. He isn't just a clever pervert! He is a god among men, looking down on us in our dreary lives, living what he probably believes other men only dream of, and believing he is worthy of fame and adulation.
I started this post as a single paragraph, but expanded it as I realized how important fame and myth-making is to him. Saturated in a culture that both adores and reviles criminals, EAR decides to focus less on the rapes and more on the bravery of his choices and how his actions demonstrate his superiority. The poem itself is part of that. He is creating his own lore, telling his story his way, ensuring that people don't see him as a perverted maniac rapist, but rather as a Jesse James-type. It is important to keep this in mind as one reads and studies the poem. Because he keeps returning to the theme of fame and notoriety, the entire poem should be seen through this lens — the EAR telling his story to the world, musing about a movie based on his life. He is very much a product of American celebrity culture, and he wants fame for himself. And yet...he is so elusive, so cagey and shadowy. It is an amazing contradiction, and something that deserves more thought and scrutiny. I will definitely be returning to this post to edit and add more material, but I wanted to put something up today, and hopefully tomorrow I can really get to those juicy two verses and the suggestive imagery he employs in them.
Next Up...this is the EAR speaking. Those two lines that tell us so much
