Hugh Lane Gallery ??

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Today was one of my favorite days so far.  We started off the day by discussing “The rising of the moon”  by Lady Gregory. As I mentioned in class, I found it very interesting how she managed to convey a political message in such a smooth way, without necessarily attacking the English mandate. During this period of time many writers focus primarily in writing about  socioeconomic issues and cultural aspects of Ireland because it was more relatedable. This allowed them to target a larger audience. After class, we headed towards: Hugh Lane Gallary. From the moment we arrived, I was blown away. The building itself was absolutely beautiful, and very elegant. The illumination of the place created a very refreshing  environment. It definitely stimulated my brain. From the moment I walked into the main hall I knew that I wanted to be there. Another thing that I liked about the Gallery  was the fact that there was so much space to navigate through the place , and through the paintings that even when there were other people around , there were moments when you kind of have your own private space. This improved the quality of my experience. It allowed me to take my time to appreciate every piece, and their origins. The selection of pieces was magnificent. There were pieces from all over the world , with very different techniques and styles.One of the things that stood out to me were a couple statements given by  Francis Bacon. The first one was ” For some reason the moment the moment I saw this place I knew that I could work here. I am very influenced by places- by the atmosphere of a room”  ” I can only paint here in my studio. I’ve plenty of others ,but been for here nearly thirty years now and it suits me very well. I can’t work in place that are too tidy. It’s much easier for me to pain in a place like this which is a mess. I don’t know why but it helps me . ”  This immediately remind me of Cresswell’s work and concept of place. Cresswell mentioned the theory of environmental determinism which states that the physical environment of a place affects directly who we are, and how interact, and the path we follow. It also serves to prove Cresswell view on how places can help shape our character and understanding of life. His second statement was once a gain related with terms mentioned on cresswell’s text : Phenomenology,Ontology and memory. His studio , was special because he he created it when he decided to add his personal touch to it. It was a place where we felt empowered,which is a characteristic of ontology, and an addition it hold significance because of all the memories he had in his particular location.

Musical Pub Crawl

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Anytime I visit a new city, a new place, I try and immerse myself into the culture as best I can – read (or at least purchase) local authors’ books, eat the local food, and listen to local music. While I loved the Literary Pub Crawl, I think tonight’s Musical Pub Crawl won me over. As a singer/musician, music holds a special place in my heart, and hearing and seeing the passion these two gentlemen had tonight for their music was perfect. You could tell they love what they do and love getting their passion out to as many people as possible.

One of my favorite parts about Irish music is how quickly it can worm its way into your heart. It’s nearly impossible to passively listen to it – you either tap your foot, clap your hands, sing along, dance, or think about your own memories in relation to the lyrics. I think in that way, its incredible the power Irish music has in transporting you to different memories and places. I know when I listen to any of the songs they played this evening, I’ll remember how wonderful they were and how much fun this pub crawl was, but also what the music made me feel and what it made me think of. Irish music is so full of passion and drive that it’s impossible to forget.

Hugh Lane Gallery

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While at the Hugh Lane Gallery, I stumbled upon a piece of work that was very striking. It was composed of words that jutted out from a wall, casting a shadow on the wall behind them. The piece states that, “We suffocate under words, images, and sounds, which have no reason to exist, they come from the void and go towards the void. A truly worthy artist should be asked for nothing but this act of sincerity: to educate himself to silence.” This paragraph immediately reminded me of Beckett’s Text for Nothing, where it seems that voices do occur and exist within a void. The piece at Hugh Lane Gallery was also poignant through its use of the word suffocation, which is the overwhelming feeling I get when reading Beckett’s work. In fact, the dominant voice in Texts for Nothing yearned for the silence that would come once the other voices diminished. The art piece suggests that the other voices may be questions and wonders, which could be solved through learning and education. This would create a cyclical pattern, though, where all voices would continue to wonder and ask questions. After all, the more you learn, the more questions you have. The world does not become simple after study- it grows even more complex. So, perhaps like in Beckett’s work, you can never really escape the voices that barrage you, no matter how hard you may mentally try. The art piece offers an additional thought provoking aspect, by having the words reflect on the surface around them. I think this is symbolic of the effect that your thoughts and the voices within them can have on the world around you.

 

No’s Knife at The Abbey

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As I was sitting in the audience waiting for No’s Knife to begin and pondering the complexity of Beckett’s work, I wondered about the audience Beckett had in mind when he wrote Texts for Nothing. This is a similar question I had when reading Joyce’s Ulysses. On the Dubliner’s Tour, the guide asked who had read specific texts by Joyce and with regard to Ulysses and Finnegans Wake joked about the small number of readers of those texts. On the literary pub crawl, the actors made similar jokes about Joyce’s work. There’s an inaccessible quality about these texts that prohibits most readers from understanding the message conveyed through these texts by the authors. This also brings to mind questions about the function of literature. If most readers find a text inaccessible or potential readers are turned off by the near universal reputation of a text’s inaccessibility, does inaccessibility become problematic?

Regardless, the opportunity to see Beckett’s work performed by the capable Lisa Dwan at The Abbey was an incredible experience. Her interpretation of Texts for Nothing was different from the way in which I read this text. As the writer and performer, her interpretation was more emotionally wrought, perhaps angrier, than the voice in which I read these stories. The dystopic set design enhanced Dwan’s intense interpretation. However, the sound effects, primarily accomplished by shifting the output of the microphone to different speakers and with different filters, created a schizophrenic rendering of the text that more closely aligns with my interpretation.  The auditory rendering of the play reminds me of a Youtube video I listened to many months ago wherein the auditory aspects of schizophrenia are replicated for the listener.

Dubliners & their funny relationship with the truth…

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Dubliners has consistently stood out to me as one of my favorite modernist works. And while I was excited that we were going on a Joyce-themed tour, I became even more excited when our guide let on that the tour would revolve around Dubliners. 

I couldn’t believe the knowledge she had about the stories–how she knew which protagonists walked where and what Joyce thought of particular locations. Even though she mocked the folks who installed a plaque for Leopold Bloom (the fictional character), her connectedness with the texts and her ability to convey such memorializes the fictional characters in an equally significant way–which I do not find silly in the least!

I found what she said about unreliable bystanders particularly interesting.  To me, it conveyed the desperate nature of the Irish people and their desire to be connected to success, even if that success portrayed them negatively.

My favorite part of the tour was the readings in front of the locations depicted in the stories. Specifically, standing in front of “The Dead”–a story that maintains its emotional appeals for me–helped me connect actual Dublin to the Dublin I imagined while reading the stories. I hadn’t realized that those connections weren’t made for me until I was on this tour; perhaps it is because I have not been inundated in Dublin history or exposed to images of Dublin, but I was able to depict my own understanding of the city from the literature sans outside influence. Being here, and being in the places Joyce was influenced by, though, allows my understanding of Dublin to develop.

 

(Also, the pregnant lady lingering in the background, beating her husband added a nice touch to the meanness of Dublin that Joyce was trying to portray. I image she would have had a story in Dubliners if Joyce had been on the tour with us today.)

There is Always something new to see & Learn

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 Today was a day full of activities. We had the opportunity to explore a different side of the city, and walk through James Joyce’s neighborhood. One of the things I enjoyed the most about the tour is the fact that we got to the chance to learned a little more about the personal life of the author, and actually see the landmarks that marked his life and career. These places served as an inspiration to established the settings in his book “Dubliners ” and “Ulysses” . After the tour we headed towards Dublin Port, where we got to contemplate an incredible view of the city. It was very refreshing, and I must say a much more peaceful and calm side of Dublin. Later on, we headed to another extraordinary  place: the Abby Theather. This place was founded by Lady Greogory and  W.B Yates with the sole propose of raising awareness in the community of the importance of developing a national identity .. or at least something  unique about who they were  as community. It of course served as platform to address political, and social issues in a more entrataining and peaceful way. We had the opportunity to watch the performance  of No’s Knife , which was incredible. Lisa Dawn managed  to interpret Samuel Beckett’s ideas in such peculiar way. It was just admirable. The whole act was well-put together. The sound effects definitely added so much context to the words of Beckett in “Texts For Nothing”.  Of course my favorite part was the final act, when the actress actually perform one of the texts assigned , and discccusted in our classs.  Being able to see her interpretation brought me  so much more clarity , and understanding of the texts. It was definitely an anmazing experience.  

“Who says this, saying it’s me?”

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I knew before walking into No’s Knife that I would either love it or hate it. I’m glad to say I absolutely adored it, but I wanted to find some quotations from reviewers that hated it:

“The speech was so fast and woven tightly together, I think it was definitely aimed at literary audiences as opposed to a general audience.”

“Here’s the thing about No’s Knife. It’s extremely intense and completely baffling. I consider myself a fairly intelligent person and studied English but this was basically indecipherable. I spent the entire performance mystified, quite frustrated and wondering what I would eat for dinner. I don’t think I’d be alone in saying that it went on a bit.”

“To the one gentleman who gave a standing ovation at the end, if you understood it so well, perhaps you could explain it to the rest of us?”

One thing was universally true: Lisa Dwan absolutely fantastic. No matter how anyone felt about the play itself, the performance was unreal. While her interpretation of Beckett was much more intense and schizophrenic than mine, her ability to switch between different characteristics and play with the scenery and sound was impeccable. Her interpretation made Beckett what he should be – the play isn’t meant to be followed, it’s meant to be experienced. You may relate to some parts and not to others, and your neighbors in the theatre may be the exact opposite, and that sparks a conversation that will last long after the play is over. The part most interesting to me, past the dialogue, was Dwan’s legs – were those leggings? Body paint? Did I see them correctly as gangrenous legs with bloody gashes? What exactly is that supposed to mean – something different for everyone, like the dialogue itself?

While I don’t have answers to these questions, I think that Beckett’s Texts for Nothing and, thus, No’s Knife, absolutely stand to represent each person’s reflection on his or her own life and their experiences. The gravely breathing sound track that ran during the entire time before the play started and at every scene change was certainly meant to worm into the audience members’ brains and create tension that lasted throughout the play – similar to the feeling I got while reading Texts for Nothing.

A New Side of the City

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Today we explored a completely new side of Dublin. As we arrived at the James Joyce Centre, I was amazed to see how much of the city I had yet to see. Our amazing tour guide showed us around what used to be a not-so-nice area during Joyce’s time in Dublin. Being new to Joyce’s work, I was worried that I wouldn’t get as much out of the tour as some of the other students, like the grads who seemed to have a wealth of knowledge. However, I was so surprised by everything I learned about James Joyce and his life as well as the “lives” of his characters. The scene was almost too perfect as an example of the “not-so-niceness” showed up when an altercation occurred across the street. The tour guide reminded us that this area was still not by any means the nicest place in Dublin. As I mentioned before, the physical connection to the literary material continues to strengthen my understanding and appreciation of the literature we have been studying as well as strengthening my appreciation for the authors who wrote about Dublin.

Later on in the evening, we had the amazing opportunity to see No’s Knife at the Abbey Theatre. As someone who spent countless hours in high school doing musicals and plays, this was an incredible excursion for me. Our discussion of Beckett’s “Texts for Nothing” this morning did little to aid my understanding of the literature, but I don’t really think understanding it is the point. I was amazed by Dwan’s talent in No’s Knife and felt as though she truly brought the piece to life. If she didn’t clarify it, she at least made it so much more interesting to watch and contemplate. The play tonight reminded me that even though cultures may be drastically different across the world, we can all share an appreciation for the same talents and performative arts such as the display we saw tonight.

Beautiful Day In Dublin

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Today was absolutely gorgeous! Not a single drop of rain. Our schedule today was pretty busy. After our James Joyce tour, we walked along the river and of course I snapped some cute pictures. Upon walking, we came across this monument. It was in remembrance of the Great Famine. This statues really struck a cord in me; seeing their hollow, sunken in faces, skinny limbs and bare feet made me realize just how bad Ireland had gotten during that particular year. It never fully clicked with me, I had always know it had happened, and that it was a terrible, terrible thing but I didn’t really acknowledge  just how severe it actually was. Families were starving and hearing today Frederick Douglass’s letters about this awful situation made it extremely clear to me that this was just as bad, if not worse to an extent, to the enslavement of the Africans during the same time period.

I never understood the lack of human compassion especially during the 1800’s, because at the same time that African’s were being shipped away in chains, not to far afterwards the Irish were starving to death. It really upsets me, but I was very glad to be able to see this monument and read the plagues about the Great Famine. My heart aches for the past, but now I have a new found appreciation about this depressing bump in Irish history. I am forever grateful that I now know the severity of the famine, and am able to pass the information I’ve learned today to other people who have little knowledge about this particular event in Irish History.

 

Abbey Theatre

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Today was one of the busier days of out trip. We visited the Abbey Theatre for No’s Knife, saw a statue of people who suffered thought Irish famine, saw a ship, that took Irish emigrants to America, and participated in a James Joyce walking tour.

This morning in class we discussed major themes in modern and post modern literature. Themes such as death, class consciousness, existentialism, illusion versus reality, etc.  I spoke about The Garden Party by Katherine Mansfield published in 1922 and how it is about Laura does not seem to empathize with the Dead man or his family but rather romanticize his death and collect this new experience for herself.  We spoke about that to lead into the topic of liminality present in Eveline. How there are many moments where Eveline herself seems to be caught between two places, neither fully in one nor the other.

We also discussed Beckett’s Text’s for Nothing and it’s obscurity. It being a sort of stream of consciousness with out plot

I thought of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and how fulfilling one’s basic need allows for one to ponder existence and consciousness. Maybe that is something that separated Joyce and Beckett from Ireland. Because of the paralysis and because the people were not elevating into those higher levels of thinking due to their socio economic status preventing them from doing so.

We finished off at the Abbey Theatre and it was quite interesting to see and hear Beckett’s words being acted out. The performance made me understand the texts more because The actress Lisa Dwan uses so many different inflections in her voice and body language.