Throughout most of the reading of "the descent of Alette," all I could think of was a hellish underground world. It was a reality beyond comparison. For quite a bit of time I read in such a confused state that I often felt myself needing a break to come back to reality. Notley creates such an extreme world in which there seems to be no clarity or understanding for Alette thus for the reader as well.
Even though the transition from Merwin to Notley was extreme I found that despite the constant quotations I found myself really in tune with the words. I didn't find myself stopping at all. I almost found the quotation marks to be helpful because they almost focused my attention to the language even more than if they weren't there. I found that at least in the beginning I thought of the quotes more as thought and completed ideas rather than different speakers or perspectives and this really helped me follow and grasp what was going on. Looking back at the book as a whole and probably around the start of the second book I began looking at the possibility of different speakers and it almost fell right into place without confusion.
I found her choice of animal parallels to be somewhat odd. The choice of an owl seemed odd to me and I am still pondering her deeper meaning of this owl. Throughout history owls have come to hold so many different meanings and labels. In Indian culture, Greek mythology and throughout Aesop's fables, owls depict wisdom and support. This is the theme I concluded the owl was meant to symbolize but there is also, folklore which shows an owl to be a bird related to witches and evil. Overall, the owl was meant to help Alette both in her transformation and to complete her journey. Also, prior to the class discussion, I had never heard of a snake as a female representation. The only knowledge I had of a snake was related to the Biblical representation of the serpent in the Garden of Eden.
Overall, I found that unlike Merwin, Notley's "descent of Alette" spoke on something much deeper than the argument of language and it's meaning. Notley really hit home the support of feminism. In some ways I appreciated what Merwin had to say because it didn't seem so agenda filled. It was more about the importance of language and meaning.
Despite finding the beginning more shocking in comparison to Merwin, it was confusing and difficult to get through (at least for me). As I continued reading however, I found the world Notley created very relatable, its dream-like state was an element that pulled me in as a reader because the experiences and thought processes were similar to “normal” dreams. Where people change forms, are familiar but difficult to place, and the logic makes sense in particular moments but is hard to follow later on.
ReplyDeleteThe form of the book was also a shock for my mind, the quotations were something I had never encountered before, but they did seem to have a purpose that I am still not entirely sure I understand. The plot kept my attention throughout the story, and I found the epic had a very alluring quality that made me want to know what would happen next, while still challenging my typical way of reading.
I too found the animal references a bit odd, and sometimes hard to connect. As we discussed the many different ideas in class, I was able to get a better hold on what each could represent, however they were not what I automatically thought of. The snake only became the representation of a female/mother figure once I listened to how some others had taken the text, until that point the snake was undefined for me. However the owl I understood that she was playing with the cliché of a wise old owl, a figure to be respected and followed, which she seemed to connect to Alette’s father.
Overall I understand where Notley was coming from, at least in the feminist sense and while I found this piece enjoyable, I can understand where Megan is coming from in her last statement about it being “agenda filled”. I don’t totally disagree, but playing a slight bit of devil’s advocate here I think it’s important t point out that a lot of poetry if not all, is agenda filled merely because it is suppose to be making a statement, proving a point, giving another perspective etc.