So last week I ordered my free set of fancy feast fridge magnets (from off the side of my cat food box) – the kind where they give you a bunch of magnetic words to put on your fridge and you rearrange them to say wacky things. They were delivered today. "My attitude is looking good in a succulent liver coat." Hahaha. They're too fun. My friend and I were entertaining ourselves when we stumbled across the sentence, "I sliced and roasted his exquisite eyes and can taste the tender juices." Hah! We thought it was a great sentence. My cousin, however, said I was "REALLLLY MORBID" for thinking of it, and kept "a safe distance" from us for the remaining time. It was at this point I realized the great power of words and their ability to unite people through alienation. 

No one I think is in my tree, I mean it must be high or low.
That is you can't you know tune in but it's all right, that is I think it's not too bad.
Let me take you down, 'cause I'm going to Strawberry Fields. (Strawberry Fields Forever, 1967 )

Different combinations of words presented in different forms can all come at the same end product: alienation. Different forms of this can be presented through poetry and poetics, comic books, cinema, and music, and each form has the possibility to create unity with the artist or aside from the artist. I argue that no matter the method or the form, the one unavoidable side effect of alienation is unity. Unity is only felt through alienation and alienation is felt in poetry, felt and shown in literature, and felt, shown, and experienced in film.

Poetry has two categories to it: Poems and Poetics. Poetics is the category under which I would classify the below excerpt of Steinbergs' Isla. (2000)  

47. Jews don't call dinner supper

48. If you laugh then laugh quiet.

49. New Yorkers are slobs. Look tugging on his meat. Crass. A zoo animal.
50. Cut three squares of meat. Then eat them one two three. Then cut three more. Then eat one two three.

This is definitely a 'poetics' poem over a 'poetry' poem. Poetry's the norm with its stanzas and meter and rhyme, and "traditional" button-up "corporation tee-shirt, (on a) stupid bloody Tuesday. They are the eggmen."(I Am The Walrus, 1967)

Poetics is the blue-haired guy with his pyramid spiked belt, cigarette, and tee-shirt that says "EFF YOU." Poetics is the walrus.  May be poetics is not always that rebellious or in-your-face, but because of its untraditional and somewhat iconoclastic aspect it has a higher potential to create alienation, and therefore unity. "Man, you should have seen them kicking Edgar Allan Poe." (I Am The Walrus,1967 )

The below poem is Shakespeare's My Mistress' Eyes Are Nothing Like The Sun (Sonnet 130) (1609). It is poetry in the poem category.

I grant I never saw a goddess go,

My mistress when she walks treads on the ground.

And yet by heaven I think my love as rare,

As any she belied with false compare.

Typical. It's got rhyme and meter, and all the other normal blah blah blah unwritten Poem Requirements Handbook stuff. It also has a pretty straightforward meaning as opposed to the 17 possible different meanings a 'poetics' poem could have. Because of its traditional aspects, the capacity for feeling unity through alienation is smaller in poems than poetics.               

The higher level of ambiguity in poetics allows the reader to add to or make his or her own meaning. The poet and the reader work together to create a meaning and establish a bond over it. In the highest form of unity through alienation, this collaborative meaning is something that the reader has felt for so long and is considered pretty atypical to feel (I love how the –a changes the whole meaning of that word). In this way the reader and the writer are alienated from society with each other (…they're alienated with each other. Hahaha).

The other side of the coin: People do not like that which they do not know, understand, or aren't familiar with. The reader could feel uncomfortable reading a poem that doesn't go by the unwritten rulebook - in the same way some people feel uncomfortable around skateboarding guys wearing black nail polish. What do you do when you are uncomfortable? You leave. "See how they run like pigs from a gun, see how they fly. I'm crying."(I Am The Walrus,1967 ) In this way the reader is alienated from the author and rather than feel united with the author, the reader feels united with the mainstream eye-rolling, eyebrow-raising society.   But take note that either way unity is created through alienation in words.

Unity through alienation in literature is often felt with the author -"Look in my direction, I'll be round, I'll be round" (And Your Bird Can Sing, 1966) – and often felt from the author – "And your bird can swing But you can't hear me, you can't hear me" (And Your Bird Can Sing, 1966) but in literature it can also be felt with the characters of a story or just simply shown to us.

That tricky Spiegelman fellow! Something about his writing seemed a bit off the whole time and I've finally put my finger on it. He does something a tad odd. He presents alienation in the plot in two main ways, allows the reader to feel a bit of alienation and unity with the characters in the book, but, (and here's the tricky part) makes it virtually impossible to feel any sense of alienation at all FROM the author. He takes a story all about alienation of the Jews in the Holocaust, and uses forms of alienation to make his point.

First he presents us with Vladek. The most alienation is felt by Vladek. Vladek used to be alienated from society with his wife, Maja. They had an irreplaceable bond and unity since they went through the same horrible experiences in the Holocaust together. Now that Maja is gone, nobody can really 'get' Vladek and Vladek feels alienated by from society by himself

You tell me that you've got everything you want
And your bird can sing
But you don't get me, you don't get me

(And Your Bird Can Sing, 1966)

A good amount of alienation (but probably not as much) is felt by Art, who has had a rocky relationship with his father and probably feels it is hard to relate to him since his father has been through so much. Because of all of their differences in life experience, Vladek and Art find it hard to understand each other.

You say you've seen seven wonders and your bird is green
But you can't see me, you can't see me

(And Your Bird Can Sing, 1966)

The least amount of alienation is felt by the reader with the characters. Spiegelman makes the characters pretty likable and easy to identify with (in one way or another). Perhaps the reader has survived something really traumatic, or has a Christmas-card relationship with a parent, or perhaps they throw out other people's coats that they deem "shabby" or "shameful."  Identifying with these characters may alienate the reader with them, and therefore create a sense of unity with the characters, but this amount of unity is incomparable to the amount felt between Vladek and his wife, or those whom Art identifies with in his alienation.  No alienation is felt from the book. Art lets the reader see it in the characters, feel it with the characters– but then he ensures none is felt from the characters.  He presents this story in a way that makes the reader feel like a part of the 'inside story,' and trusts his emotions to the reader.  He knows that this is an emotional book and when all of the reader's emotions are awoken in this book, they don't need to feel alienated from the book. This obvious absence of alienation is the fourth way alienation is presented.

When your bird is broken will it bring you down
You may be awoken, I'll be round, I'll be round

(And Your Bird Can Sing, 1966)

But what does it all mean? UNITY! In the first and second instance of alienation in Maus, the readers cannot help but be empathetic in viewing alienation and bond with the poor misunderstood mice.  In the third instance, readers feel directly bonded to the characters since they see part of themselves in them. In the last instance, there is no unity (apart from the author) since there is no alienation – but perhaps there is a sense of agreeableness or harmony or something close to it (with the author).

JUST ADMIT IT! YOU LIKED TITANIC! YOU KNOW YOU DID!!! Of course not! It's so dumb and girly and long and why didn't she just move a friggin' inch over and let poor frozen Jack on the raft with her? What? I didn't cry! I just had something in my eye – and it wasn't exactly humid in there – okay? SHUT UP!

In daily life you automatically feel a sense of alienation whenever you think about something that you don't necessarily talk about. Linda Williams uses the term "perversions" and notes that they aren't that perverse after all. These 'perversions' could be about sex, horror, "deep deep emotions and feelings that no one in the world has EVER felt EVER." So when you're wondering about something that has to do with one of these topics what do you do? See a movie of course!

Nowhere Man, don't worry,
Take your time, don't hurry,
Leave it all till somebody else
lend you a hand.

(Nowhere Man, 1965)

Film is alienation in a whole new physical way! Since you actually experience alienation in movies (in a higher degree than in literature) you get to experience a feeling of unity also. You feel alienation, identification, and unification in a stronger way. 

Nowhere Man, please listen,
You don't know what you're missing,

(Nowhere Man, 1965)

Films allow us to connect and find harmony with the characters through identification. As stated in Linda Williams's article Film Bodies: Gender, Genre, and Excess, people go out and see pornographic films, horror films, or melodramas because it enables them to confront personal issues of their own. They have mirror reactions to what they see in the film because, in a sense, they are figuring out or confronting something for themselves. In this way they are united with the characters through identification via alienation.

Doesn't have a point of view,
Knows not where he's going to,
Isn't he a bit like you and me?                                   

(Nowhere Man, 1965)

I saw a film today, oh boy. And that film was Sling Blade (Some folks call it a sling blade, I call it a kaiser blade). Sling Blade raises a lot of controversies and  embodies many complex concepts - one of these being the idea of unity through alienation. It takes the outcasts of society and bonds them together via alienation in society. The main character is Karl, a man who appears to be mentally retarded and ends up killing three people.

Day after day alone on the hill,
The man with the foolish grin is keeping perfectly still,
But nobody wants to know him,
They can see that he's just a fool,

And he never gives an answer,

(The Fool On The Hill, 1967)

Karl bonds with Linda, a single mother with an abusive boyfriend, and he bonds with her little boy, Frank, who's father killed himself. Throughout the film, Vaughan, a highly isolated guy who's "not funny 'ha-ha', funny queer" emerges. Despite obvious differences in the characters, they all end up with this sense of bonding and unity – not necessarily because they would under 'normal' conditions – but simply because of their similarities in alienated circumstances.  This is showing us the true concept of unity through alienation – that being alike doesn't make you united, only being alike in the sense you are alienated makes you united. 

But the fool on the hill
Sees the sun going down,
And the eyes in his head,
See the world spinning around.

(The Fool On The Hill, 1967)

The viewer experiences this unity through alienation in a big way – this movie is intense! After seeing Sling Blade for the first time, I can only remember feeling lost and reflective. These feelings are brought about by enduring a mini-experience with the characters in the movie…and all of these feelings of alienation produce unity (of course there are many other things besides alienation that contributes to feelings after viewing a film). 

Well on his way his head in a cloud,
The man of a thousand voices talking perfectly loud
But nobody ever hears him,
Or the sound he appears to make,
And he never seems to notice,

(The Fool On The Hill, 1967)

The other day in my biology lab, I found myself listing the variety of creative ways that I could kill myself using my pencil (okay, so may be my cousin was right). The incredibly fake and highly irritating I'm-smarter-than-you girl that always sits in the front was annoying me, as well as that girl who was 'totally trashed' yet another weekend, and feels the need to tell everyone about it again– for the fourth time – as if anyone freaking cares. Alright, so I was bitter.

At this point I realized was how much alienation is felt by normal people on a daily basis. Like me in most of my biology labs, everyone at some point (probably on a daily basis) feels like they're on the outside looking in. Also, despite its negative tone, alienation is not necessarily all negative because good things come out of it – like unity.  Yet when someone is called 'alienated,' besides seeming negative, it also seems so unusual and weird (despite the fact that it's so ubiquitous).

Can you really get unity with out alienation? It all goes back to the 'Is there love if there's no hate or good if there's no bad?' argument. Is there unity if there's no alienation? Perhaps there is harmony or understanding – but is this the same as unity? I would argue that it is not. I feel like I'm in harmony with people often – even in my bio lab sometimes. But do I feel united with any of them? No. But thanks to them I do feel united with John Lennon.

Living is easy with eyes closed, misunderstanding all you see.
It's getting hard to be someone but it all works out, it doesn't matter much to me.
Let me take you down, 'cause I'm going to Strawberry Fields.
Nothing is real and nothing to get hung about.
Strawberry Fields forever.
(Strawberry Fields Forever, 1967) 

 

 

Works Cited

 

McCartney, Paul and John Lennon. And Your Bird Can Sing,1966.

____________________________. Fool On The Hill,1967.

____________________________. I am The Walrus,1967.

____________________________. Nowhere Man,1965.

____________________________. Strawberry Fields Forever,1967.

Silverman, Jonathon and Dean Rader. The World is a Text. New Jersey: Pearson Education, 2003.

Spiegelman, Art. Maus. New York: Pantheon Books, 1986.