I received a really wonderful email from a person I never met before. He's a lawyer from Ann Arbor that sent me some kind words regarding the fact that my book resonated with him. "Paul" grew up on the east side, on Chalmers where it hit the river. Among the many humbling things he pointed to within the stories of the book was his connecting the tone and content to a William Blake poem called, The Tiger. Paul referenced a scene in Mean Streets, one of the best Scorcese films that many folks who claim to love movies have never seen, where the owner of a bar shows DeNiro a tiger in a cage. The poem is beyond my intellect (hey, not hard to do, really) but the point Paul referenced a "fearful symmetry", i.e., the fact that beauty and terror live within close range to each other. Here's a sample:
THE TIGER
William Blake
Tiger! Tiger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?
In what distant deeps or skies
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand dare seize the fire?
There's quite a bit more, and you can probably find it on the internet pretty easily. But here's the part Paul referenced that gave me a chill, because it's so close to the tension I try to build within most of my stories. Don't get me wrong, I'm not giving myself this kind of credit; that I can consciously paint with these exquisite and layered themes to build toward one underlayment of plot. That said, here's the part of the poem that feels like the true root:
When the stars threw down their spears,
And watered heaven with their tears,
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the Lamb make thee?
That God (for those of us who believe in Him) can create such gentle creatures as the lamb and such terrifying creatures as the tiger, is the fearful symmetry of life in most big cities. Maybe the riot influenced much of my early perceptions of the situations that I experienced, and that my and my wife's families did. Either way, it's what excites me in literature and art.
2 comments:
Joe
Strangely enough I posted a reading of this poem this morning at Classic Poetry Aloud:
http://classicpoetryaloud.podomatic.com/entry/2007-09-18T21_39_29-07_00
And don't bother about the 'intellect' side of this. I think your understanding of the poem, and its relevance to your work, is pretty spot on.
Hello "Classic Poetry Aloud",
Thank you for taking the time to comment. There is a strange connectivity to the world, when two people from disparate parts of the globe can post a poem that isn't in the everyday lexicon of our fellow residents. Well, maybe I shouldn't speak for the UK, but at least in the Detroit area, it's not that common, as the only Tigers on anyone's mind reside in the zoo or play downtown at Comerica Park. Thanks again.
Sincerely,
Joe
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