The Battlefield Where the Girls Say I Love You



That's just the thing: we will never tell you we love you. In fact, we're here only to hold hands across state lines and yell at the world. We're here to try to touch you across this chasm of flown things. Not even that. At most, I will teach you how to make a gin smoothie when there's nothing left in the house. Hannah can teach you several languages and what to do when your car breaks up with you. Thanks for coming out.

Monday, July 14, 2008

anne carson is making me crazy.

on the way to my parents' house yesterday, i stopped by the book store to see what was happening between A-Rod and madonna. keep in mind, i'd been reading carson's the beauty of the husband all morning. sentences like:

"his immortal horses swathed in pandemonium" or "her lady shadow mounted the stairs ahead of her experimentally." don't get me started.

and by that i mean, i already have. for years, my friends have hounded me to read the genre-bending tango writer. my brother-from-another-mother, john (a poet out of portland), has been onto her for years. unless that was annie prioux. or dillard...

that she uses keats as some sort of thematic thread is terrifying. all of her binaries (woman as victim vs. utterly deplorable man) to his negative capability...i just don't see how it works.

don't get me wrong, she very nearly seduces me with lines like, "ray grinned his beautiful wicked grin like a skirt flying up." and hannah says if i haven't read plainwater, "there's no point in having this conversation."

so, anyway, mid hi brow/low brow shift yesterday, i run into one of my strongest students from two years ago. in his hand: calvino and a chinese dictionary.

it very nearly made me run head long toward proust.

what trumps even madonna's affairs in the world of meaningless gossip is the relationship between jessie and deanna. i.e. the bachelorette.

i love it. as far as the low brow goes: my second year in wilmington, morgan (j. not niece) and i developed a "drinking" game. i put it in quotes because many mondays we chugged sprite. anyway, any time a girl said, "the right reasons" we drank. you can see...

so, my main questions are:

1. why am i supposed to love carson?
2. what does deanna pappas do for a living? seriously. it doesn't say anywhere.

16 comments:

Morgan said...

here's the thing. everyone knows she was more in love with Grahm than anyone else, even jesse. (dont get me started....)

i think at some point it said she did something in real-estate...but, don't they all.

Mamie said...

here's the thing: i just don't think she has a job. which is FINE, except for the fact that they would never put a man on that show unless he owned every tire ever made, came from another country, or participated in rodeos.

god, i miss you. and the scarves you wear when needed. and your performances of "bathwater."

love,
meems

Anonymous said...

she's a realtor in Atlanta....duh. i was pulling for graham, even though he reminds me of that cheesy maroon 5 guy. apparently, she prefers the robin williams type.

Mamie said...

i like jesse.
and, ahem: adam levine.
whatever. graham is about four years old.

and i thought her hometown date was in texas?

Anonymous said...

you would:) i'm kind of partial to immature peeps w/ horrible communication skills. lov'em.

Anonymous said...

She is definitely from Georgia. And she USED to be a bartender, but I have no idea if she is a realtor now or what.

And I LOVE Jesse. Though I am sure this comes as a shock to no one.

Mamie said...

bartender? huh. this changes everything...

hannah said...

totally heart jesse. i'm pulling for them.

Anonymous said...

ANNE CARSON IS A BRILLIANT AND BENEVOLENT SPIRIT OF AMAZINGNESS WHO CONSTANTLY TERRIFIES AND AMAZES ME. AMAZING.

I love Anne Carson because ... Hm. I love Anne Carson because ... Hm.

I agree with Hannah. Read Plainwater. Here is my Plainwater experience: I read Plainwater on an airplane. Or, rather, I read as much of Plainwater as was possible on the airplane, as I underlined every other line in Plainwater, abused Plainwater with sticky notes, was sent to helpless, pitiful weeping by Plainwater, and kept saying to my copy of Plainwater in a pitiful, weeping voice, "Oh my God, it's so true. It's so TRUE. OH MY GOD IT'S SO TRUE."

hannah said...

EMMA!!! THANK YOU!!! YES YES YES. IT AS ALL TRUE AND OH GOD, SO TRUE.

Unknown said...

Let's just settle this once and for all.

http://abc.go.com/primetime/bachelorette/index?pn=bios#t=bachelorette&d=104644


Oh, yes I did!

sallylynn said...

oh my god. emma -- you and i were on the same plane. or we were on different planes together reading the exact same essay and weeping and trying to write about it and trying to see clearly as i stumbled to the bathroom, clutching my mascara-stained copy, to clean up my face so that i could read more. it is, it is, SO TRUE.

i love love love anne carson. and i love love you, emma b. :)

Anonymous said...

I stumbled upon this lovely blog.

and I must respond to the question...I love her, I do - let me count the ways. I want to track down Anne Carson have tea, vodka, a bubble bath anything. It was Autobiography of Red that knocked me down and started the affair.

Erin O'Brien said...

people. she's not a realtor. she's a professor in michigan. i had her for two classes and my boyfriend found all the poems i wrote about her and threatened to dump me. when we finally broke up i moved to the west coast and in a moment of liberation nearly tossed all her books out the window in montana---but couldn't. when i went home last week i stopped by her office door and didn't knock. my point is, she makes me crazy too. she also makes cranberry jello out of agar. she also doesn't cut her lawn.

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