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| Nabokov via www.hrono.info |
Running up as we are on Halloween, it's creep week on the Sunday Service. This week's selection comes from The Police, is one of the more affected tunes on the Jukebox: "Don't Stand So Close to Me." A tip of the hat to Humbert Humbert:
It's no use, he sees her
He starts to shake and cough
Just like the old man in
That book by Nabakov
Don't stand, don't stand so
Don't stand so close to me
The Nabokov reference has the right feel considering the teacher's "dilemma:"
Temptation, frustration
So bad it makes him cry
Wet bus stop, she's waiting
His car is warm and dry
Though perhaps not as explicit as in the totally repulsive "Every Breath You Take," this song broke ground by talking about something that is in the headlines regularly. These songs, put to catchy pop melodies, run counter expectation, to the point that some have used the stalker tune "Every Breath" for their wedding. Mr. Sumner is perhaps to be congratulated for expanding the narrative boundaries of pop (as a former teacher, he draws from some sort of experience), yet still, to me, they have more than a bit of an exploitative feel (the accompanying background vocal to the chorus, with Sting accompanying himself, has got ambivalence all over of it).
Of course, I'm talking about rock being exploitative as if this was some sort of news.
Well, if you're going to sing about creeps, maybe this is the way to go:
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Next Tuesday, I will be talking to a group of lifelong learners about haiku. Sketching in the background, I'll be talking a bit about Japanese history, culture and concepts, such as wabi-sabi. Here's a great illustration of that very concept by the great upper New York state poet, W. T. Ranney, from Lilliput Review #110, April 2000:
Old menin stiff white shirtsmoving from room to room,placing a handon a worn spot.
in lightning's flash
faces in a row...
old men
Issa
translated by David G. Lanoue
best,
Don
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10 comments:
to go a bit beyond 'wabi sabi' and to add an additional depth-of-understanding to ....
(I am frequenting an essential book:
Ichiro Hori's lectures as done in 1968 edition of
FOLK RELIGION IN JAPAN
the wood-block prints are of/by Ths Knox out of his
1880 book (which I can't find): "Adventures of Two Youths in a Journey to Japan and China"
the chapters/lectures in Hori's book:
1. Main Features of Folk Religion in Japan
2. Japanese Social Structure and Folk Religion
3. Nembutsu as Folk Religion
4. Mountains and Their Importance for the Idea of The Other World
5. Japanese Shamanism
6. The New Religions and the Survival of Shamanic Tendencies
WOW!
here is Knox's book! check out the block prints!!!
http://books.google.com/books?id=lH2BAAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=Adventures+of+Two+Youths+in+a+Journey+to+Japan+and+China&source=bl&ots=MmXXKx7v9J&sig=Y9Pegjk8Jay21YmXB87TmcGyq6o&hl=en&ei=RPa6TKvEFYP7lwetn9CNDQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=7&ved=0CCUQ6AEwBg#v=onepage&q&f=false
now to look around for an
"I-can-hold-it-in-my-hands" version...
-K.
Thanks Ed for the recommendation. Will see if I can get hold of it at the library.
Wanted to fill in the background on Shinto and folk religion in Japan that I am unfamiliar with. Probably a little too in-depth for the haiku session for "life long learners" on Tuesday, but I do give at least a nod that way.
The Knox book with the woodcuts looks fantastic ...
I really like "Creep," but I can't listen to The police. Just can't make myself do it. :)
Charles, yeah, a lot of subtext there and not necessarily anything to do with the songs ...
I agree with Charles.
And I'll say as a high school teacher (in my 27th year) Sumner's song is an offense to teachers and the integrity of young people.
Good luck on your haiku seminars, Don: man, wish I could be there!
when at the library check-out three other books that I from time-to-tme
g r a z e
SHINGON Japanese Esoteric Buddism by Taiko Yamasaki
lots of 'food-for-sustenance
there-in
like as a random/chance selectrion top pf page 198:
" The moon with its cool white light occupies a special place in esoteric doctrine and practice. "The Treatise on Enlightened Mind" says, "When I look at my mind, its form is like a moon disk," indicating that every individual is endowed with Buddha-nature
which is pure and perfect, cool and radiant like the full moon."
and, on same page:
"The sun, the moon and the heavenly bodies have always been there in space, though they may be obscured by clouds and mists."
and, still on same page:
"The A-syllable is the seed syllable of the moon disk, and the moon disk is the radiance of the A-syllable. Moon disk and A-syllable are entirely one."
NEAT 'stuff" might now leap into CO.'s Projective Verse and Causal Mythology through
THIS gate rateher that through our Western Religions/Politics?
NEXT BOOK to 'check out':
Motohisha Yamakage's:
"The Essence of Shinto Japan's Spiritual Heart"
AND while I am "in my stacks" get, aussi
Taitetsu Unno's:
"Shin Buddhism
Bits of Rubble Turn into Gold"
et ceteras all-so
-Kokkie
Conrad,
Many thanks for reading and teaching ... I think it is the smugness that is so off-putting in general when it comes to Sting's overall approach. The specifics in this song you have nailed.
I don't often stand in front of a room and speak myself but it is exhilarating and humbling and wonderful. I've been practicing this one for a couple of weeks. It should be fun. I bring the framework. The participants bring the substance.
Hopefully, next week's selection will be a little more uplifting, music-wise.
Don
Ed,
Looks like I'll have to interloan most of these - only Essence of Shinto was in our 70 library system. There was a title on Shin Buddhism by D.T. Suzuki but not the one you recommended.
Thanks.
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