Thoughts about The Pillowman (Part III)

some thoughts (continued).....

Act One Scene Two is a graphic and harrowing story about parent's setting up an evil experiment to see what type of literature a "loved" boy could produce while listening, for seven years, to the torture of another child in an adjacent room. Apparently, the result is that green pig stories get displaced by stories about razors in apples (if you read the play, you'll understand this last line).

And while in class, I do want to get into the story and hear your thoughts, I wish here to go back to my idea that I wrote previously about this play being a metaphor for a nation torturing its citizens (or enemy combatants) for the greater good of the nation as a whole. And I want to connect it to a question that you raised a few weeks ago--why so many stories about war and/or 9/11? Well, what type of stories are written by writers in the 21st century as smoke rises from the ashes of the world trade center or Larry King is talking about the U.S. military using water torture to extract information from suspected terrorists. What about us? When we overhear these conversations as we flip through the channels or watch SNL or John Stewart or read abstracts from newspaper articles--do these stories affect us as people? Does the fact that we know that people have been tortured or we see photos of American soldiers doing unspeakable acts in the name of our country affect the stories that we tell? Are we Katurain, living a nice life with luxuries (cell phones, new clothes, trips to the theater, dinner out) but we are still getting affected by it on another level?

Act Two Scene One The Pillowman Story

Okay, if truth be told, when reading this story I can't get the image of the the scene in ghostbusters where they fry the State Marshmallow Man. Anybody see ghostbuters? (on three, "who you goin' to call?"). But of course, in this play, the Pillowman is a lot more (deadly) serious. The Pillowman kills children before they begin leading horrible lives as adults. Again, it's this highly imaginative, in my opinion, fascinating story that gets me each time I read it. But as a metaphor, what does it mean? Is the Pillowman doing a tough but needed job--a person who can no longer live with the memories of molestation that happened to her when she was young, kills herself at 45 because her life has been awful and full of pain--well, here comes the Pilloman to save her before she becomes sad and abused. Objectively, is this a good thing (and this of course could lead to a three hour conversation). But if we table this discussion, could we maybe ask a question that I remember reading in a Stephen King book a long time ago that has stayed with me to this day--if you could go back in time and kill Hitler as a small child before he became the head of a state that killed millions of Jews, gypsies and homosexuals, would you do it? Would you be able to go back and kill a child? If we take this to a State level--what if we could find out who the eventual terrorists would be that would plant a dirty bomb in our streets? Would we be justified in arresting them now? Or, what if we believe that a state will attack us soon with nuclear or chemical weapons, would we be justified to order a pre-emptive strike? A country that has weapons that could eventually destroy us and blow us to smithereens is therefore always in the process of attacking us and therefore we are not actually attacking but defending ourselves when we invade another country?

These are of course really large questions here that I think the text, through the use of stories, is helping us think about and forcing us to question.

Good luck with the reading and I will write again........

Thoughts about The Pillowman (Part II)

Hey all:

So I have your midterms next to me and I will begin grading them shortly. Before I do, though, I do want to say that I have been impressed by the conversations that we have been having in class so far. I realize that the material that we have had so far has not been easy--and I make no apologies for this. As I stated on my syllabus, I expect us all to be intellectuals and to work through material that we may not like, may find tough, and that may find confusing. The goal of the first part of the semester was to read material that will make us think and see our post war(s) world a little bit differently. I know that I have a new understanding after listening to your comments about these texts, after seeing Blackwatch on stage, after reading your posts (so thank you). And I hope you do as well.

The second part of the semester, I hope, will be just as challenging as well as rewarding. Keep up the good work and keep fighting through these texts and bring your energy and intelligence to your posts as well as our discussions.

But now onto THE PILLOWMAN. Reading through the comments on various listserves about the play, a few words keep popping up--"brilliant" and "frightening." Well, after leaving the exam on Wednesday and hopping onto the G train to head home, I completely missed my stop because I was so wrapped up in this play. So, yeah, I agree--I think it is brilliant and frightening at the same time. But, it is also a play in which "the meaning" is just out of reach and no matter how much I stretch, it stays a fingertip away. You might find the same thing when you read. So what I will try to do a few times before our class meeting is to mention some large themes/ideas that I see and hopefully raise some interesting questions that could help you think with this material.

THE WORLD OF STORIES
Martin McDonagh is a playwright who, first and foremost, is a storyteller. He's the type of guy that you would picture in a small outoftheway pub in Ireland, sitting before a half drunk glass of Guiness and a warm peat fire, who suddenly clears his throat and two hours later after telling a fantastical story that seemed to just dance off his tongue, clears his throat again and stares at his beer never to say another word. A guy who contains many histories inside him and, given the right moment, will tell you things that you don't want to know but can't ever imagine getting up and just walking away. STORIES. The Pillowman, first and foremost, is a play that contemplates the art and nature of stories.

What does a good story do? A story contains a self-contained world that envelopes the reader/listener in a way that while s/he may feel the chair underneath her/him, there is a disconnect with the ordinary world and s/he enters completely and wholeheartedly into the world that is being created. It happens occasionally. The theater is a good place--the lights go down and the actors are mimicking opening letters (ala Blackwatch) and you know they are just actors but suddenly that doesn't matter and you are brought into the world of the fighters in Iraq. Or, for me for example, when I watched Children of Men and I forgot completely that there was anyone in the theater. Or...you get my meaning.

But a good story is not just about what it does to you in the moment of the telling. This is entertainment. Nothing wrong with that, of course, but a story must reach beyond the world it created and enter into our world. And that is what I think McDonagh does so well. I agree with Tupolski that all the stories within The Pillowman are "pointers" (17) and that they are trying to tell us something. But what are they pointing to?

Let's take the first story, "The Three Gibbet Crossroads" (17-18) where a man wakes up in a gibbet, knows he did something wrong, but doesn't know what. His crime is on a placard above the cage and so he cannot see what he did wrong. People pass by and everyone who sees him is disgusted by him (two other prisoners--a rapist and a murderer are forgiven by the passerbys) and eventually one even kills the man. Before he dies, the man wants to know if he will go to hell but he is just laughed at as his life drains from him.

Katurain says that this story is a great story because it is a puzzle without a solution.

Okay, so what do we do with this? Well, one, we look at the story aesthetically and, yeah, it's a good story. It gave me a few chills and will probably keep me up tonight. But on another level, I do think it's pointing to something as well. But what? Well, why is this guy in prison in the first place---because he did something horrible and is punished for it. But do we know this for sure? We, the audience, don't know his crime--or if he did anything at all. And the people--the nuns, the highway man--are disgusted by what the sign says. But did they see him do the crime (whatever crime it is)? No. All we know is that there is some power that was able to arrest, try and convict the man without any say on his part. He had no power of attorney, he had no defense, hell, he doesn't even know what he did. But as his life is spilling from him, he is convinced that he did something wrong and wonders about his eternal soul.........this sounds to me as a metaphor for a prison system in a State where people have no rights. A prison system where people are arrested without formal charges and are not given a chance to defend themselves. They are outside the law and therefore are not even able to get sympathy from passerbys. They are convicted and therefore seen as ultimate danger to the State and its subjects and therefore they have to be locked up and sent away (in this case forever).

Does this sound like anything we know? Is this story, a puzzle with no solution, actually pointing to our current post 9/11 world where governments have places outside of the law where, for the safety of the State's subjects, they are outside of all normal laws and legal processes? A place like Guantanamo Bay perhaps?

Is this play really a frank and brutal story about a world where governments are sanctioned to torture in order to protect? A play about what happens when laws are pushed aside for "national security?"

Maybe, maybe not, but as you read this play, think about what all of these stories point to? Who are the defenseless children in these stories? What do the two brothers represent? How is torture used in this story?

Anyway, that's probably too much for one sitting. I'll stop here. But I'll try to get some more ideas out here on my blog tomorrow.......

Some initial thoughts about The Pillowman

Hey all:

Okay, so we are moving away from memoirs and plays and graphic novels about war and instead we are moving to . . . a play about child murderers?!?!

Yes, The Pillowman is about two brothers who are being accused and interrogated by two policemen for the gruesome murders of two children and the disappearence of the third. It seems as if one brother is a writer and many of his stories deal with kids who get killed...in many of the same ways that actual kids get killed.

So part of the pleasure (and yes, I say pleasure) of reading this play is to try to figure out if the brothers did it or not. And the play (in my opinion) is so well written that there are moments where I just want to put the book down in horror but many others where I actually laugh at a really funny line or forget about the play entirely and just get lost in the actual story that one of the characters recite. Again, not an easy read at all but a very interesting one.

But, and maybe more than any other work that we have read before, this is NOT a play that you can just read for plot or the surface meaning. Katurain (one of the brothers) says, "the first duty of a storyteller is to tell a story" (7), and Martin McDonagh certainly has told a whopper of one. But Tupolski (a detective) wants to know what these stories represent.

And that is our job as readers. What are these stories about--yes, they are about child murders but what do they represent? How are the issues in the stories related to issues in our current political climate?

In the next few days, I'll keep posting some of my ideas that may or may not help you work through this text. BUT YOU NEED TO PUSH YOURSELF. Don't be content to just listen (horrified) by the stories that are told but rather, always take a step back and wonder what large issues are being brought up.

Good luck and I look forward to hearing your thoughts next class.

Take care.

Reading for next week; what to do if you didn't go to BLACK WATCH

Hey all:

After much consideration, I feel it is important to read Martin McDonagh's brilliantly haunting play THE PILLOWMAN. I was going to wait a few weeks but after much consideration, I think it will work next week for a variety of reasons. First, we haven't met as a class for awhile. Tonight is the midterm, last week was the play and the week before that was a class on Black Watch which many of you skipped. That's the major problem for a night class--cohesiveness. So, I would like to spend next week with a meaty text that we will be able to sit down and dissect togteher as a class. (In our next classes, you will be finding many of your own texts and dissecting them in groups). The Pillowman is a harsh, weighty and suspenseful look at the art and consequences of creating stories in a world that has gone a little bit haywire. It's not a long play but please give yourself the time to read and think about it. It is not an easy play to digest so please get your thoughts about it on your blogs.

After this, we will then get into different types of texts (graffiti, new media, film etc) so let's all roll up our sleeves and get to work!

For those of you who did not attend the performance of Black Watch, I would like you to write a three page essay answering the following question:

Find a specific difference between the print version of Shooting War and the on-line version of the book found here. Your essay should identify this difference and then give a detailed analysis of why you think that the two versions are different in this area. You may bring in outside information or our other texts in this class to help back up your point.

!!!Midterm tonight!!!

Ah, only a few hours away from your celebration of knowledge, also known as our midterm. Good luck and I hope you all do well.

You will have two hours to do the exam. Please bring in many sheets of paper because you will be doing a lot of writing.

Take care!

BLOGS FOR THE NEXT WEEK

Hey All:

While you are more than welcome to write them, you are not required to write blogs for this week. There are no readings and therefore there is not anything that I specifically want you to discuss.

However, I do suggest that you use this space as a way to study for your exam next week. Post questions and ideas and I and your classmates will respond to them. If you write an essay, for example, I would be happy to give you advice on your essay and maybe point you in directions that could help you when it comes to actually write in in class. Classmates could suggest passages for you to read over. SO MAKE THIS YOU SPACE and use it to help yourselves.

Also, I would love to hear from those of you who go see BLACKWATCH. Please put up your ideas--especially compared to your reading of the play.

So again, writing this week is purely voluntary but I will be checking in periodically and would be happy to read your thoughts.

Take care.

Preparing for our midterm exam

Hey all:

Okay, so you are all getting ready for our midterm exam. In this post let me give you some hints to prepare for the exam--the type of questions you will get and how you should answer them.

First of all, I want you to think of the midterm as (a-hem) a "celebration of knowledge." Okay, are you still with me? I'm serious--if you have done the reading, if you have been putting yourself in our class discussions, if you are taking the time to think through the readings in your posts then this exam is a way for you to stand tall and say, "Look what I know!"

Of course, no one really believes me when I say this (and I probably wouldn't either). But I do want you to think of this as a way to show me (and yourself) what you know...we have read challenging, tough (and depressing) texts--you have been making smart links in your posts and in classes--now do so in your exam!

OKAY, let's get to the exam itself:
IF YOU WANT TO DO WELL, YOU NEED TO KEEP ONE WORD IN MIND AT ALL TIMES--SPECIFICITY. You need to be specific at all times and all essay answers to questions, to receive credit, needs to be specific in their answers. No, "War is hell" or "It's tough to fight in war" or "these books are about how devastating war can be." These are cliches or general responses--always respond with a specific scene or specific issue that you can back up with textual analysis. Get it? Anyone can read the back of these books and get the gist of what they are about--your job is to actually have thought through these books and their issues and have some solid understanding of them.

Here's the exam format:
1st section--Short answers
I will have a bunch of words and phrases and you need to explain where this word or phrase comes from AND its meaning in the book. Here are a couple of ideas:

American Apparel
Sniper
Sand
Any GI letter

Your job is to identify the word from one of the novels/plays and then give a specific meaning of it. So if you chose "sand" for example you would want to write, "Sand is a common object in Anthony Swofford's Jarhead. Sand surrounds the soldiers and disturbs them; as Swofford says again and again it fills every crack and hole in his body. Sand represents the sameness and danger of the war--it is monotonous and the scenery never changes but it also has the possibility of containing death at any moment." You see how I answered that--1st sentence gives where the word comes from. Second sentence relates it to the book. Third sentence gives an analysis of the word.

2nd section: I like small essay questions about specific moments in the books or plays that we read. You will need a two solid paragraphs to answer these questions. So for example, I might ask:

While the Wall of Shame in Jarhead deals specifically with the sexual infidelity of loved ones back home, what else does this wall of shame represent?
I like this type of question because it allows you to answer the question in many different ways but you need to answer these questions with direct references to the text. If you want to say that the wall of shame represents the fear that soldiers feel about being forgotten in a place where they are changing very drastically, then I would connect it to Swofford writing letters to his Japanese girlfriend and explaining that he wishes he could pour himself in the letter and send himself, sand grain by sand grain, to a person who knew him before he was in the war--when he wasn't the trained killer that he became. See what I did? I answered the question with a statement and then mentioned a direct reference from the text.

Here's the thing: I want to give you the chance to develop your own thoughts and bring your ideas into these questions (yes, the celebration part again). But these questions also allow people who have not read or read carefully to take a stab in the dark and just write generally in hopes that they get close to the answer. The way I guard against this type of essay is to have you write directly about the text. If you don't know the text, you will not be able to answer these questions well. Taking a stab in the dark will not help--you either know these books or you don't.

3rd Part-Large essay
Finally, I will ask you one large essay question in which you will have to write about a specific idea that we discussed in class and connect it to the texts we have read so far. The topic will be large "Media" "Gender issues" "Fear of Obsolescence" etc; your job is to be able to answer these questions specifically and with textual analysis (I know I am repeating myself--I hope you are getting the point.

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So be prepared to be here for a good two hours taking this exam--you will be writing a lot of essays where you will be able to show how much you know. You will NOT be able to take the texts into class but you may take ONE 8 X11 sheet of paper (one side) where you can put any notes that you wish. I would suggest placing names down and many short descriptions of scenes that could help you with some of these essays.

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Finally, for your posts for this week, this is what I suggest--you write possible exam questions and answer them. As I read through your posts, I might offer some suggestions in answering those questions and I might also pick up some ideas in the exam questions themselves (in other words, if it's a good word or question, I might use them). You will also be helping each other--offer suggestions about answers or comment on what a fellow student wrote--this discussion might help you come up with some good answers for these questions.

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Oh, one more study idea--read through the posts that I and your fellow classmates have left--I have been reading them and I will use their ideas in the exam questions as well.

GOOD LUCK!!!!!