jennyandwalt

In the critical review, Whitman the Political Poet, Betsy Erkkila writes how Whitman had suffered from a severe paralytic stroke that also led him to be hospitalized during the war time. There is also a claim that “his stroke was at least partly a result of the psychic demons that came to haunt him during and after the war years” (Betsy 279). He had also appeared to have suffered from some sort of “shell shock” as well (Betsy 279). Reading this, it comes to my attention that maybe something may have happened to Whitman during the war time. I am curious as to what might have occured to Whitman: why would he have shown shell-shock symptoms? Could this maybe have had a more powerful affect on his writings than we imagined? Sometimes I wonder if Whitman is really a reliable writer… But then again, I wonder, is any writer a reliable writer…

Erkkila, Betsy.  Whitman the Political Poet.  New York: Oxford University Press, 1989.

I thought this was pretty interesting; it’s a poem for kids I randomly discovered on the net:

But what’s more interesting is what I also randomly found (the beauties of google :p )…

Walt Whitman (supposedly) ate four raw eggs for breakfast every day for the last 20 years of his life!

http://www.factropolis.com/2009/08/walt-whitman-ate-four-raw-eggs-for.html

And if you read some of his poems, he wrote quite a lot about eggs..
maybe he had some sort of obsession over eggs??

By the way, now I’m curious as to how Whitman would’ve liked his eggs.. hm..

“The camera and plate are prepared, the lady must sit for her daguerreotype, …” (41)

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

daguerreotype, n

1. One of the earliest photographic processes, first published by Daguerre of Paris in 1839, in which the impression was taken upon a silver plate sensitized by iodine, and then developed by exposure to the vapour of mercury.

b. The apparatus used for this process (obs.). c. A portrait produced by this process.

2. fig. An exact representation or description. Obs. (since the daguerreotype itself has yielded to improved photographic processes).

“daguerreotype, n.” The Oxford English Dictionary. 2nd ed. 1989. OED Online. Oxford University Press. 4 Apr. 2000 <http://ezproxy.tcnj.edu:2147/cgi/entry/50057115?query_type=word&queryword=daguerreotype&first=1&max_to_show=10&sort_type=alpha&result_place=1&search_id=mkHB-zED4RI-3607&hilite=50057115>.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

In Whitman’s Song of Myself, daguerreotype immediately caught my eye. I knew it had to be some sort of mechanism related to the camera or photography, but what interested me was how Whitman illustrated the lady with connection to the word. He says how “the lady must sit for her daguerreotype” (41). It sounded almost.. exotic, mysterious, medical, even. It sounds like she’s ready for some sort of exquisite operation ready to be performed on her. Then I remember reading in Reynold’s A Cultural Biography, how during the 1800s of Whitman’s time, there was a revolution in everything–this included forms of art and music. Though in the time of “deteriorating social conditions,” where he saw “ugly materialism and corruption” these new forms of art offered a “rationale for an organic ar based on natural rhythms and free forms” (280).

So what exactly is a daguerreotype?
First introduced by a Frenchman, Louis Jacques-Mande Daguerre 1839, this newly invented representation of reality and everyday human beings became the popular form of photography. By 1839 in New York, this type of photography was on fire.

With the birth of the daguerreotype..
“artists could no longer flatter their subjects by making them appear beautiful or intelligent ” (Reynolds 281).

(now divert your eye to the nude woman below: her natural form of beauty shines right through)

"The Well-Taken Photograph" (Reynolds 280)

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Daguerreotype in the 21st century???

While surfing Youtube, I found this really interesting! It’s only 1:25 seconds. Take a look!

Please enable Javascript and Flash to view this Flash video.

David Aguirre Hoffmann uses 21st century media to recreate the feeling of a daguerreotype! : )

[a http://www.pixelsketchbook.com/?page_id=156 /a]

note: can’t get the link to work..and the woman and video refuse to be centered..
so not friendly with computers : ( darn..

I am of old and young, of the foolish as much as the wise,

Regardless of others, ever regardful of others,

Maternal as well as paternal, a child as well as a [wo]man,

Stuff’d with the stuff that is coarse and stuff’d with the stuff

that is fine,

One of the nation of many nations, the smallest the same

and the largest the same,

– Whitman “Song of Myself” [16]

The moment I read the first lines, I am of old and young, I felt something shoot up into me. Though turning twenty-two is just around the corner, I often feel disconnected from my age. Often times, I feel like I’m twelve. Other times, I feel thirty. Or perhaps even forty. The day I turned five, I have been my mother’s living diary. My mother, a small Korean woman who merely made the mistake of obliviously following a man into a country she never even dreamed of, had lived her earlier marriage days drawing white clouds on white walls. She had once told me that if she didn’t have me to talk to, she would’ve been painting white clouds in her mind before she had even hit her thirties. I have never regretted her making me into her living diary. However as everything in life as its pros and cons, my situation showed its two facets. Though I was able to taste the realities of life earlier than the rest of my peers, I had also lost a good portion of my childhood. However, that didn’t mean that I was completely a mature adult either: I am of old and young, of the foolish as much as the wise. This is because I was still my age. As I grew older, while my father wasn’t around as he should’ve been, I became her daughter, friend, mother, father and husband. At an early age, I realized that I had to be the father of my younger sister, and the husband of my mother. Apparently, I became Maternal as well as paternal, a child as well as a [wo]man.

Today, I try to balance myself according to what’s appropriate for my age. But I still feel like I’m stuck in between two of everything– even nationalities. Though I was born in America, due to my very-Korean parents, I can be very Korean as well. Sometimes it’s hard to decipher whether I belong in America or Korea. I am of old and young…One of the nation of many nations, the smallest the same / and the largest the same…

This was the Song of Me. The Song of Jenny. The Song of Jennica. The Song of a Girl-In-Search-Of-Herself.