Catharsis

Khaled Hosseini you have left me unraveled.  You have broken me yet again but this time you held that ax, struck the soil of my mind and "rich black oil" comes "bubbling up to the surface."  I  am broken.

What is this catharsis that Aristotle speaks of?  All the times I've cried during movies and book reading I thought I knew so well what it was; the type of substance it is made of; the essence of it.  Today I am unexpectedly slapped in the face, in the mind, in the heart with an emotional outpouring that can only be the one true catharsis.  Aristotle's Poetics speaks of a purging of emotions particularly pity and fear through art.  Pity because you can sympathize with the protagonist.  Fear that a similar experience can happen to you.

After reading 237 pages, I am left undone.  The details of plot are so far removed from my life but yet I have an intricate, an intimate sort of identification with it which produces a pity that I am only experiencing as of now.  The following quotes are dearer to me because of my childhood, because of my lost, because of the absence. 

Do you understand, Abdullah, how this was an act of mercy?  The potion that erased these memories? (pg 13)

Baba Ayub didn't understand.  Just as he didn't understand why a wave of something, something like the tail of a dream, always swept through him whenever he heard the jingling, surprising him each time like an unexpected gust of wind.  But then it passed, as all things do.  It passed. (pg 15)

In the end, it came down to a simple thing: They weren't her children, he and Pari.  Most people loved their own.  It couldn't be helped that he and his sister didn't belong to her.  They were another woman's leftovers. (pg 22)

"Adollah?...When I grow up, will I live with you?" (pg 25)

There has been in her life, all her life, a great absence.  Somehow, she has always known. (pg 237)

"Brother," she says, unaware she is speaking. Unaware she is weeping. (pg 238) 

 My mother's own leftover from a broken relationship, dreams of a communal life with siblings who  may never know the extent of my love, a brother I miss, the sporadic knowledge of my father's absence at inopportune moments in my life, the feeling that something's missing and there's much more to an untold story and a world of secrets, has been buried deeply within me.

God_in His mercy_ has taken a story so far removed from my own _ and like a mirror _ He caused me to looked through it and see my own life.  CATHARSIS.

Idris and Timur Syndrome

I was talking to a coworker about And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini and the subject of the Bashiri cousins Idris and Timur came up.  The cousins' personalities were starkly different.  Idris seemed to be a soberly minded and controlled person.  Amra the nurse fittingly calls him "introvert" while Timur was extremely chatty, friendly and evidently loved attention.  Idris studied and sacrificed to secure his position as a doctor while Timur used his 'connections' to get along in life.  Timur proved to be very generous and rose to the occasion when any assistance was required and while Idris appreciated his kindness, he "had misgivings about the fanfare, the flaunting, the unabashed showmanship, the bravado." (p 140) 

 

The event which for me was most outstanding was their treatment of the girl Roshi.  At the start of chapter 5 the cousins both visit the girl in the hospital who suffers from a "crack in the crown of her shaved head" which was the result of a violent family dispute.  Timur, true to his nature shows an overt display of emotion which dies once he exits the room but Idris on the other hand frequently visits the girl and befriends her.  Eventually the cousins must leave the country and Idris makes promises to make arrangements for Roshi to fly over to California for surgery.  In this move of kindness and compassion he also exposes his intention to pay out of his pocket if funding was unavailable. 

 

The twist in this story, which always makes Hosseini's writing brilliant, is that in the end Idris does not do what he promised.  His compassion wanes until he stops responding to emails from Amra and Roshi and eventually deletes them without bothering to read.  Roshi however, was able to get the surgery needed and her story becomes publicized in a book.  Idris goes to the book signing and reads on the dedication page: To the two angels in my life: my mother Amra, and my Kaka Timur.  You are my saviours.  I owe you everything. Roshi scribbled this note in Idris' copy of her book: Don't worry.  You're not in it.

So today my coworker asked me what do I think Hosseini is trying to say through these cousins.  I immediately responded with a blunt: Idris was a coward; he was a weak man.  She agreed.  The thing is even though Timur was obnoxious and pretty annoying, he was able to get things done.  He was able to help others in need despite the fanfare.  I admitted to my coworker that I am like this Idris.  I too suffer a bit from an Idris syndrome.  Like Idris I am melancholic by temperament and like him and so many others, I am selfish.  I feel a momentary pang of compassion and I want to move the world over to help but then in time my own needs override this fleeting desire.  The line "anger pauses till they pass away" written by Dennis Scott in his poem Epitaph describes the brief pause or comma we ascribe to the unfortunate lives of others until it passes away because we have better, more pressing things to do.  We are momentarily angry and hurt, we make empty, rash promises and we are afraid to commit.  We are selfish - those of us who belong to the Idris tribe.

And what about the Timurs?  Well, they are flashy and must make a show of their kindness.  They lack humility and are boastful.  Giving in secret for them does not suffice.  The act of giving is treated as a public affair with all focus on the magnitude of the issue and the nobleness of the benefactor. But in the end,  wasn't assistance granted?  Aren't they saviours as Roshi stated?  Isnt is better to save than to make empty promises of salvation? But where is Timur's heart you may ask.  Is it on the suffering Roshis or on Timur himself?  When the rubber hits the road so to speak,  Roshi is in a better position.  So what is Hosseini saying to us?  Have the compassion of Idris and the ability to act like Timur?  I say be compassionate, make a difference and remember to be humble least you may fall.

Love at First Chapter

Dear Page,

I haven't written in a while.  Did you miss me? Well, I'm currently reading And The Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini.  It was love at first chapter for me!  I've read Kiterunner and A Thousand Splendid Suns but this book seems to bring a promise of something greater. I can tell by the presentation of human relationships from the offset of the story.

Chapter One draws the curtain on a very endearing story.  It's a fictional tale of hidden meaning and a magical, mystical sense of beauty.  Baba Ayub's courage is touching and the div's initial terror and subsequent display of cruel mercy is sagacious.  "When you have lived as long as I have, the div replied, you find that cruelty and benevolence are but shades of the same color." (pg. 12) What does it all mean?  What is Hosseini trying to communicate to us?  In order to be noble we must have a measure of cruelty?  In order to be human we must exact a degree of inhumanity?

And then I consider if in trying to do good we are cruel not just to the subject of our goodness, but also cruel to ourselves.  Baba has to choose to surrender one of his five children because if he does not make such a painstakingly difficult decision he loses them all.  In the end however, it is his favourite son that he loses and in losing this child for the greater good, he seems to suffer the most.

The div's final act of kindness reminds me in a weird way of the Saw series and also of the ending of A Hundred Years of Solitude.  He takes away Baba's memory of the incident.  Yet while many will see this as the ultimate deed of goodness, Baba continues to feel a void that he cant explain.  Somewhere deep in his subconscious he recalls the sound of a bell associated with this lost son.  So is this his reward or was it better to lose, hurt and grow?  While the div has helped to ease the pain of this lost,  there is a part of Baba that no potion can touch, a place where only the hands of love can touch that leaves us forever unraveled.

Topsy!

Topsy was a mischievous and clever black slave girl in the anti-slavery novel "Uncle Tom's Cabin" by Harriet Beecher Stowe. One of the characters treats her like an animal and whistles to her the way "a man would to call the attention of a dog".

She was trained to believe by her masters that as a "nigger", she was naturally bad. She tells another character: "I’s wicked, – I is. I’s mighty wicked, any how. I can’t help it"

Why do you think Miss Aggy refers to Lois as "Topsy"?

"A never see pigs friendly so. Them is mi company."

Do you think it is fitting for Mama to have pigs as company? Why?

Hold dog!

Mama: All right. [She is going, stops, turns.] The dog tie? --Old Story Time Act one pg 32

In what ways does Mama treat Lois like a dog?

Len's Letter

Len finally writes to Miss Aggy. Why do you think his letter is so brief and formal?

Storytelling Tradition

Don't you just love a good story? I'm sure you could still remember a good story that someone told you a while ago!

Pa Ben in Old Story Time is a good storyteller. What does he do or say that reflects the storytelling tradition?

Trevor Rhone

March 24, 1940 - September 15, 2009
Leading and awarding-winning Jamaican writer, actor, director and playwright. He with seven others, started the Barn Theatre.

In Old Story Time (1979), Rhone's most popular play, ‘Pa Ben’, the old story-teller, recounts forty years of Jamaican life.

This is the dark time, my love

All the words in the title are important. Stop and think! Why do you think Carter chose to give the poem this title? Is it appropriate?

Thank You Thinkers

A Poem of Thanks to 4.1/4.4 VSS Lit Students

My goal at the end of the term
Was not only that you'll learn,
But see the beauty that literature can be,
Appreciate every line in poetry,
Read lines dramatically,
And see beyond mere words
As you capably analyzed prose.

Now as I look back
I see much more than that!
You were like literary devices,
Bringing the book to life in our classes!
Ever so willing to read
Shooting eager hands in the air
Hoping loudly that I take heed

And so it was 4.1/4.4 became a little Bonasse
When Bolo didn’t fight for Eulalie
And Ivan Morton come jus so jus so
And he fountain pen win she
What about the day the Spirit come?
Bee preach with power, the Spirit take over
Everybody was responding:
Who jumping, who singing, who clapping
Bell ringing!
Then we had Bonasse election
With stupidy Rufus,
White man Richardson and smart boy Morton

So thank you thinkers for your contribution
Narrators, actors, readers, listeners,
Bloggers, facebookers,
Sharers of articles, jokes and props
To all students who made our class memorable:
Thank you ever so much!

So nobody ain't fighting?

When Bolo ask jumbie-bird to crow
No stickfighter will go
So he stop dancing
Music stop playing
Then Bolo asking:
'So nobody ain't fighting?'
So Bolo gone mad
And mash up all them drum
With the stick in he hand!



Bolo had to get on so??
Share your views, I want to know

I hear the calf moo

The calf in The Wine of Astonishment is an image of HOPE. Can you think of anything within the novel that reflects hope?

Forgive My Guilt

"Two birds on golden legs slim as dream things

Ran like quicksilver on the golden sand"

Share your story: "I am sure of one sin I have done" What childhood sin have you commited against nature without thinking about the consequences?

Bee, a man alone in front all this hard, red earth

Bee's physical struggle with the earth seems to reflect his spiritual conflict and frustration. He is in the hot sun with "his back wet down with perspiration". He exerts much physical effort "lifting up the iron fork in the air and bringing it down and burying it in the earth and lifting up the fork again, sinking it into the earth with his strength as if it was the earth that hurt him and he wanted to stab it, stab it, stab it until he kill it".

Eva is looking at Bee. She wonders "if all this digging and uprooting and sweating and grunting going to bring forth anything, or if all a man could do is dig and uproot and bury seeds in the earth and pray and hope things grow...".

This image of struggle, frustration and even the violence of wanting to stab and kill the land is reflected in other events throughout the novel. Can you think of any?