Renate's Response to Howe

And I thought Williams was weird. Looking back on it now, I find that Williams was easier to understand than Howe's "The Midnight."

Susan Howe's The Midnight is a book with three sections of poetry and two of prose. I would say that the poetry is relatively uniform, in that each page has just a small block of text, and it is difficult to tell where one poem ends and another begins. The prose sections are a bit easier to read because of their grammatical correctness (except for a few spots which remind me of the way Williams would stop mid-sentence and start up with a new idea). Upon first--and maybe even second--reading of this book, it is difficult to understand, though there are a few main themes running throughout.

I think the theme of insomnia, sleep, and dreams is a very prevalent theme and one that could explain (to some extent) how the book is written. For example, there are many connections that can be mad throughout this book, but the two similar circumstances or references may be on two different, far-apart pages. The poetry sections make hardly any sense at all, and some are even written in an older English, making them even more difficult just to read. When half-asleep, it often happens that people write something they think is amazing; then they wake up and read it the next morning and it makes no sense at all. Howe's poetry sections feel like that, though I'm sure she must have been somewhat conscious of what she was doing:

"For here we are here
B E D H A N G I N G S
daylight does not reach
Vast depth on the wall
Neophyte" (pg 3)

This is the very first page of her poetry. It looks very much as if she had cut out a block of text from another work and pasted it in her book. Actually, this page of poetry has the theme of sleep as well as fabrics/textiles. "Bedhangings" can refer to the curtains surrounding a bed as well as the bed, itself, being a place for sleep. "daylight does not reach" could point to darkness or maybe the bedhangings staying closed to allow the person inside to continue sleeping even though daylight is pouring through the window.

Truthfully, I don't really know what Howe was trying to accomplish in this book. There are references to many different literary works, as well as different dictionaries and theatrical plays. She talks about her family, most specifically her mother and her uncle, John, who owned one of the books she continually references (The Master of Ballantrae). Her Irish heritage comes into play. Even in our class discussions, we could not decide on one central theme; there were many. I guess insomnia is the one I can most understand, just because it give a possible reason as to the strange way in which this book was written.

So, I would say, if this book wasn't meant to be understood, then Howe accomplished her goal.