Since I love metaphors and drawing parallels in everything, one of the first things I did while watching Streetcar was look for the metaphors that the people represented. The most striking in my opinion being Stanley. Stanley to me represented Truth in its purest sense, that harsh looking glass that shows all of the flaws of the person looking into it. The image in the movie that reflected this was the naked light bulb in the apartment. The conflict was created by the naked light bulb lighting up the room, the room incidentally being Blanche. Stanley just wishes to impose truth on everything that he encounters so that he can control it and not be deceived. The problem then comes when he tries to expose Blanche for what she really was, as opposed to just accepting or even exposing the truth with a degree of grace. The grace that the truth should have been delivered with was the lamp shade that Blanche obsessed about.

This whole image in the movie made me think about the nature of Truth and how it should be treated. At first I want to believe that Truth should not be violated in any way and that it should be allowed to follow its due course. The problem then becomes that the Soul becomes uninhabitable and when a weaker person is exposed to that kind of harshness, they break. So this leads me to believe that Truth should be veiled to a certain extent and delivered with a kind of grace in order to soften it. But then again I tend to think that anything less than the whole is a violation of the whole. I'm still not really sure, I do think it should be delivered with love, but to what degree?

I don't know. It's somewhat ironic that Truth in this sense feels a lot more grey than I would like to think.

Seesaw Equilibrium

What is exciting is not for one person to be stronger than the other... but for two people to have met their match and yet they are equally as stubborn, as obstinate, as passionate, as crazy as the other.
--Barbra Streisand--

Yes, I realize the irony in having a New Yorker's quote start off a blog post about Southern Lit. It isn't a specifically Northern or Southern quote, though, and I have a newfound obsession with Barbra Streisand, so I have allowed myself the liberty of quoting her. Vivien Leigh is further from being Southern since her flag is different, anyway. Okay, no more of that disclaimer, it's becoming tiresome, right?
I agree with Barbra, of course. These two people meeting their match, we'll call...Blanche and Stanley. He, with his shoving reality and she with her obscure fantasy. He shoves, but she is not palpable enough to be shoved. One who does not fight directly or cannot be fought is often the most frustrating for someone like Stanley. They both destroy--she in the form of a vacuum and he in the form of a fire. There is tension throughout the movie between them. Both, as I said in class, want to conquer or overcome something. Both insist on a world that the other cannot or will not understand. Which one is overcome or conquered in the end of the movie? The reality, Stanley, still exists in the end. However, in Blanche's way, she wins. We still want to imagine her finding her way or her romance somewhere after the drama ends. We do not wonder at Stanley's continuing lifestyle, but we do wonder for Blanche. The lamp remains for Blanche, but the harsh glare of Stanley stays as well. So, they have met their match. Reality and mystery. They both linger.
When these opposites come in close proximity, they repel each other with great excitement. So, Blanche had to leave, but she is not destroyed completely. Losing her mind just drives her further into illusion. Raping Blanche makes Stanley even more brutal.
Yes, Ms. Streisand, it is exciting.

Masquer

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Originally uploaded by 1DeadMule

Only the historical depth of Mobile's Mardi Gras makes it what it is. Go to Pensacola or, heck, even Tuscon, and you'll find other Mardi Gras parades (sponsored by Linksys, et al.). It has to be something that is born out of the culture.

Quentin Compson was obsessed with his past and with the actions of Thomas Sutpen and his posterity. His past consumes him and eventually leads to his demise, and I cant help but think that the South and Southerners to some extent do the same thing. There are many people who are consumed with the South and with the pride and history that come with it, but where I think many Southerners mess up is they avoid the darker side of their past and they also try to defend the South to non-Southerners. The South does not need defending, mainly because I feel like it is something that a non-Southerner would understand. But people get caught up in the past and it can destroy them and the south from the inside out. It can hold us back and keep us from moving but then again it also allows us to retain that part of the soul that much of the country has lost due to "progress." So I guess we have to strive for a middle ground, or do like those that started the Southern Renassance and glance back to where we came from while continuing to walk forward.

Sugary South

Yup, we don't like to drink the bitter. If you've got something to say, make it sweet. Women, be sweet--at least in public. Southern hospitality! Music, sweet music!!! Blues, bluegrass, grassroots, soul, country, gospel, jazz, rap, etc. We've just got a lot of sugar down here, I suppose. It covers lot of things...like a coat. If our Ms. O'Hara didn't talk so sweet, would we love her so much? Oh that Southern drawl is sweet like our tea. :) A friend of mine uses his accent to get girls and whatever else he wants, really. He's drunk with the sweetness of the South. Sometimes I am, sometimes I'm not. Well, very appropriate that sweet tea be the beverage of the South... There's more to be said here.

Random Quotes on the South...

"All I can say is that there's a sweetness here, a Southern sweetness, that makes sweet music. . . . If I had to tell somebody who had never been to the South, who had never heard of soul music, what it was, I'd just have to tell him that it's music from the heart, from the pulse, from the innermost feeling. That's my soul; that's how I sing. And that's the South." -- Al Green

"Southerners have a genius for psychological alchemy...If something intolerable simply cannot be changed, driven away or shot they will not only tolerate it but take pride in it as well."-- Florence King

"What can be more Southern than to obsess about being Southern?"

-Elizabeth Fortson Arroyo

"Whenever I'm asked why Southern writers particularly have a penchant for writing about freaks, I say it is because we are still able to recognize one."

--Flannery O'Connor

"The biggest myth about Southern women is that we are frail types--fainting on our sofas...nobody where I grew up every acted like that. We were about as fragile as coal trucks."

--Lee Smith

"There is as much dignity in plowing a field as in writing a poem."

----Booker T. Washington

" If things get any better, I may have to hire someone to help me enjoy it."

--Southern Saying

LET THEM EAT CAKE!

The History of Mardi Gras King Cake

To go along with my first post, I decided to explore the history of another favorite Southern food especially favored in the Mobile Area. Since Mardi Gras is right around the corner I chose the famous king cake that is made only during the weeks of Mardi Gras.

The roots of the king cake date back to the early days of Christianity in Europe. King cakes traditionally go on sale to coincide with the Epiphany or Twelfth Night. It became traditional to bake a special cake -- a king's cake -- to mark the occasion.

Back in the olden days, a king cake was a simple sweet bread baked in an oval, much like it is today.It became customary for the party giver to include a small bean, coin or other trinket in the mix. According to legend, the recipient of the treasure was afforded special rights and privileges.Nowadays the finder of the prize is charged with hosting the next party, at which time another king cake with a bean would be served, and so on and so on. The bean has now been replaced with a tiny plastic baby. Custom no longer dictates that the victim who finds the baby host the next party; they are now only required to bring the next king cake.

The prize is also no longer baked into the cake, rather the baker places it inside the box so that the host or hostess can hide it in the cake, or not. If you do choose to hide it in the cake, it's a good idea to let your guests know it so nobody swallows it. By most accounts, the king cake didn't appear as a part of Mobile's Mardi Gras celebration until 1959 when Fred Pollman, owner of Pollman's Bakery, brought back a recipe from New Orleans where the practice had been going on for years. And, just as soon as you start to enjoy them, they're gone. Tradition holds that none are sold after the celebration of Carnival ends on Mardi Gras.