[lit-ideas] Re: Dead White Man's Guide to the Classics
- From: Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 6 Nov 2007 10:59:23 EST
What say ye, O Dead White Men.
Geary, Dead White Man: A Eulogy
I'm using google to find classical quotations for 'dead white man'. One hit
was this:
_THE MISSISSIPPI RACE WAR.; Eleven Negroes and One White Man Dead ..._
(http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F20817F83F5C11738DDDAC0A94D8415B8885
F0D3)
Eleven dead negroes, one dead white man, and one negro and three white men
seriously wounded is the result at this writing of the bloody war being
waged ...
query.nytimes.com/gst/query.nytimes.com/gst/<WBR>abstract.html?res=F20817F83F5
C11738DDDAC
-- which I think is _not_ what I'm looking for.
Love,
J. L.
----
Geary:
"DEAD WHITE MAN -- A EULOGY
"I see in my skin the beginnings of a dead white man.
How it wrinkles up on the back of my hands --
looseness, the first sign of letting go.
How it gathers at both sides of my throat
like old men on park benches with nothing to do.
Soon the dewlapping of my triceps,
the breasting of my chest.
My hands and arms are mottled with spots
like lichens on ancient rocks."
My mirror mocks my desire to become
one of the ancient ones.
But I don't know why I'm here,
I need another thirty years.
"Life is a fatal accident,
that's all you need to know."
No, no, there's those Great Books!
I need to read them. One and all.
Find the meaning before I fall.
"Even could you have, you wouldn't have,
that's not the one you are.
Your stubby fingers are perfect
for picking potatoes.
Those books have nothing to say to you."
You're wrong. You're wrong. I'm sure they do.
"Then let's call them forth:
What say ye, O Dead White Men,
what has our friend here to live for?"
Silence. Just the sight of me in the mirror.
Come forward, I cry, come forth and testify,
having lived your life and come back
with the knowledge of death intact,
would you still pursue the metaphysic
over the physical?
Chase down epiphanies aesthetical
or ring down the days in drug induced haze?
Silence. Just the sight of me in the mirror.
"See? Western Civilization
has nothing to say to you,"
my mirror laughed.
----
J. L. Speranza, Esq.
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jls@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
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