Tom & Joe, This is How You Read a Poem

Tom and Joe decided to challenge Ann Althouse to a reading competition, to which I can only say: "Unwise, my friends, unwise."  Ann Althouse is a lawyer.  You guys are graduate students.  Moreover, you two are playing on her turf.  Abraham Lincoln was a lawyer, not a graduate student.  Not that you could take her on yours, mind you.  See, for example, her magisterial display of intertextual prowess, in which she pairs an episode of The Sopranos with the most literal poem in human history, W.B. Yeats' "The Second Coming":

You need to study the poem as you rewatch the episode. It's not enought to say "Things fall apart ... Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world," so there's going to be an all-out war between Tony and Phil. Or "somewhere in sands of the desert ... what rough beast ... Slouches towards Bethlehem," so all that talk about the Mideast and terrorism is going to have to be part of the series dénouement. There must be endless depths there. You're just getting started.

Perhaps Tony will find his humanity (or is he the "rough beast"?). He gives an expensive watch to Carmela, which is typical for him, but what was that inscription? He tries to connect with the guys talking about his peyote visions, but he fails. He tells Phil he wants to talk to him "on a human level." Which also fails. He saves his son from drowning. ("blood-dimmed tide... innocence is drowned.") The water imagery from last week. He cradles the son he saves. Mother imagery from last week. He starts saying "poor you," the way his own mother Livia did. More mother references. Before saving his son from drowning, he eats the "Lincoln log" food Carmela made to try cheer up A.J. Imagery carried over from last week: mother, phallus, assassinated President.

Consider yourself pre-schooled.  Let me walk you dolts through this brilliance one brilliant sentence at a brilliant time:

You need to study the poem as you rewatch the episode ...

... with a law degree in one hand, a glass of wine in the other. 

It's not enough to say "Things fall apart ... Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world," so there's going to be an all-out war between Tony and Phil.

Because Tony and Phil are "the world," like in the poem you studiously studied, in which "things fall apart" and on which "anarchy is loosed."  (Ann's absolutely right to ignore the "mere."  It's a useless poetry word poets throw in when they need an extra beat.)

Or "somewhere in sands of the desert ... what rough beast ... Slouches towards Bethlehem," so all that talk about the Mideast and terrorism is going to have to be part of the series dénouement.

Deserts and Bethlehem are both in the Middle East.  (So is the Spiritus Mundi, for that matter.)

There must be endless depths there.

Word.

You're just getting started.

No, Ann, you are.  I but bask in your reflected glory. 

Perhaps Tony will find his humanity (or is he the "rough beast"?).

See how perfectly this aligns with Yeats' intent?  Tony Soprano, small-time mobster, is exactly like the "rough beast" whose coming Yeats celebrated in the dark aftermath of the First World War.  Who better to render judgment upon the citizens of New Jersey than Tony Soprano, a man who has been both rough and beastly?

He saves his son from drowning. ("blood-dimmed tide... innocence is drowned.") The water imagery from last week.

What, you thought imagery the exclusive provenance of literary critics?  As.  If.  Not only does she recognize it, she remembers where she recognizes it from.  She let this imagery live in her head for a whole week.  What it did in there is not for the likes of you or I to surmise.

He cradles the son he saves. Mother imagery from last week.

Do you see how much room she has in there?  Water and mother imagery stayed with her.  If you had that much imagery in your head at one time, you wouldn't be able to brush your teeth, much less write about American Idol, herself, dating, her theme song, law, herself and American Idol.  And yet: 

Imagery carried over from last week: mother, phallus, assassinated President.

How does she do it?  I don't know.  I just thank God for putting her here to do it for me.

Comments

[A White Bear]

Wow, she uses the word "imagery" to mean the same thing my students think it means, which is whatever you "imagine" while you engage with a text; QED, poems are about everything.

[Joseph Kugelmass]

Scott, thanks for the link. I was laughing out loud by the time we got here:

Because Tony and Phil are "the world," like in the poem you studiously studied, in which "things fall apart" and on which "anarchy is loosed." (Ann's absolutely right to ignore the "mere." It's a useless poetry word poets throw in when they need an extra beat.)

How a useless "reading" of Yeats and the death knell of fiction can sit together on one blog, in the same month, is one of those imponderables that science may never be able to answer.

[Belle Lettre]

Genius, Scott. Genius. I'm too amused to be offended at the slight jab at lawyers. :-)

I also have a law degree (or two), but I will never be able to match Althouse's reading skills. Then again, I am a graduate student.

Word.

[Rich Puchalsky]

Ann Althouse also has the ability to make Whitman cry.

[Ann Althouse]

LOL. You realize where you are is what is known as "The Althouse Vortex." Look it up. And enjoy your stay!

[Ann Althouse]

Question for you: Am I purporting to analyze the poem or to discern what the writers of "The Sopranos" mean to convey by quoting it?

[Rich Puchalsky]

Ann, since you like LOLs and other hip "Inter-tubes" (that's so funny!) phrases, there's this guy named Alex who you might like to meet. I think that you must be of similar ages, by some criterion, and you might like watching American Idol together or something. What price a vortex that causes the meeting of two sympathetic souls?

[Alex]

LOLZ! Anne is so l33t! She iz teh hotnezz. But Jeez Rich, I am 23, and she is like, what, like real old.

Besides I don't date right wingers and I certainly don't watch American Idol with them.

[Scott Eric Kaufman]

Ann,

If "the Althouse Vortex" is a place where a pleasurable half-hour can be spent mocking those in possession of an undeserved sense of superioty, not only am I there, I'm thinking about buying some land and settling down.

As for your question for me: it's possible you're claiming that the writers of a show you love are insanely over-literal readers of poetry, but I have my doubts. There's no reason to praise a show you love by calling its writers idiots. (At least, I wouldn't do so.)

Alex,

Nice save ... although I see that you don't actually deny watching American Idol. (That said, there are many people I wouldn't watch American Idol with either.)

AWB,

You know, I thought about linking to that post of yours, but didn't want to suggest Ann had taken LSD, as that could lead to a lawsuit.

[Alex]

I hold up my hand. Saturday, 11 AM ITV (I think). Compulsive viewing.

[JAKE]

Hahahaha.

FUNNY.

[belledame222]

Oh but she wouldn't -sue- just because of something you said about her on the Internets! That would be Wrong! And overreacting!