E.E. Cummings dressed in his First World War military
uniform. WWI was far more psychologically damaging
than the Second World War or, arguably, any other war since
because it was fought in packed trenches with little to no territorial
gains or losses as a result of the introduction of machine guns
and the blatant, constant use of chemical weapons, specifically
mustard gas. Near the end of the war, roaring, mammoth-like
tanks appeared on the battlefields, steamrolling barbwire
and plowing over trenches. Even though the weaponry
mounted on the original tanks wasn't very effective,
the psychological effect upon morale was significant
in virtue of the loud rumble of their engines, their
seeming disregard for infantry fire, not to mention their
sheer size and the fact that most had never seen one before.
With enemy infantry charging behind the tanks, shielded,
the ensuing disarray was often enough to lead to an onslaught.
The nickname The War to End All Wars owes its existence
to the inhumane gruesomeness of the conflict. In the end,
however, WWI wasn't won via territorial gains, but rather
by a flanking strategy that successfully cut-off the supply lines
pivotal to the survival of frontline troops of Germany and
the Austria-Hungary Empire. Edward Estlin Cummings'
palpable zest and love of life is the result of having experienced
one of the most terrifying chapters in human history. For more
information on the Era and its impact on Cumming's poetry,
read "since feeling is first" and the accompanying essay.
as freedom is a breakfastfood
or truth can live with right and wrong
or molehills are from mountains made
—long enough and just so long
will being pay the rent of seem
and genius please the talentgang
and water most encourage flame
as hatracks into peachtrees grow
or hopes dance best on bald men’s hair
and every finger is a toe
and any courage is a fear
—long enough and just so long
will the impure think all things pure
and hornets wail by children stung
or as the seeing are the blind
and robins never welcome spring
nor flatfolk prove their world is round
nor dingsters die at break of dong
and common’s rare and millstones float
—long enough and just so long
tomorrow will not be too late
worms are the words but joy’s the voice
down shall go which and up come who
breasts will be breasts thighs will be thighs
deeds cannot dream what dreams can do
—time is a tree(this life one leaf)
but love is the sky and i am for you
just so long and long enough
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For a review of the background to the life, poetic style, and historical context that shaped E. E. Cummings' exceptional body of work, please read the brief essay immediately after the following poem—
Creatures of habit that we are, we seldom revamp things that have been around since before we were born. An example is the 8-hour workday. Since when has it been around? The eight-hour movement,or 40-hour movement, has its origins in the workers' struggles of the Industrial Revolution. Karl Marx saw its vital
importance to the workers' health, saying in Das Kapital: "By extending the working day, therefore, capitalist production [...] not only produces a deterioration of human labour power by robbing it of its normal moral and physical conditions of development and activity, but also produces the premature exhaustion and death of this labour power itself”. Studies have showed that working 8 hours is not ultimately productive. Evan Robinson recently wrote - "working over 21 hours continuously is equivalent to being legally drunk. Longer periods of continuous work drastically reduce cognitive function and increase the chance of catastrophic error."
Conventionality has been the killer of many great ideas. The great unknown has been
terrifying traditional types for eons. As I write this, I am standing up. I’ve never considered being able to
stand up and write. Not because I didn’t think it wasn’t possible, it just didn’t
cross my mind. The fact that I have access to that option makes me want to try it. If you are expecting me to say that is better than sitting down, I am sorry to disappoint. It is not; it is simply different. But different is what you need sometimes, and sometimes you just need your good ol’ chair.
The point I am trying to make is that there are so many ways to go through our day. There are exponential alternatives on how
to structure our day, our time, and our life. So many people are looking for adventure or, when asked what they seek
in their significant other, they say someone adventurous. If that were really true, why wouldn’t they take a different way home? That’s adventurous, even if on a smaller scale than what they may have envisioned. Instead of going home after work, take a scenic route or improvise a road trip to the next state over. We don’t do any of these. Well, I try not to
do it. It upsets my family, and I don’t want them to seriously consider placing a tracking chip on me, even though this would avoid driving and texting to notify them of my whereabouts, thereby making the road a much safer place
because I am not swerving and trying to be grammatically correct at the same time. Now I am going on a
tangent...
I am just tired of discussing and having studies show us how we can improve on our day yet nothing
revolutionary happen. The graph below shows the relationship between productivity and annual hours worked.
Don’t get me wrong. I think it is great that IKEA sells standing-up desks. That’s something. But I am still holding
out on the 4 hour work days. Or, perhaps, we may see a Basic Living Wage implemented in our lifetimes, with recent pieces such as this one by Scott Santers making the point forcefully based on new research by the IMF and OECD. Perhaps the time has come for some real change that redefines the position of labor in our societies in a way that strikes a better work-life balance. I can hope. Can't I?
e.e. cummings enjoys a cigarette
with the characteristic stare of someone
who loves life and, therefore, living.
Hades will have a hard time ever
finding this man, :)
love is more thicker than forget more thinner than recall more seldom than a wave is wet more frequent than to fail it is most mad and moonly and less it shall unbe than all the sea which only is deeper than the sea love is less always than to win less never than alive less bigger than the least begin less littler than forgive it is most sane and sunly and more it cannot die than all the sky which only is higher than the sky
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For a review of the background to the life, poetic style, and historical context that shaped E. E. Cummings' exceptional body of work, please read the brief essay immediately after the following poem—
The writers of this song explained that they were trying to describe the Soul of a typical California, that is, a slave under the spell of the American Dream, striving to live (or actually living) the high life in the background of the 1970s. It is, in essence, a song about life and death, which is why Hotel California is consistently ranked among the Top 50 songs of all time if not among the Top 10.
The reason that it ranks so high is because it is one of the better approaches to the theme of the living and the dead (also known as the awake and the asleep). That dichotomy is also the most prevalent theme among the greater works of poetry of all time.
There are many interpretations of the meaning of this song online, but they are largely biased because of religious viewpoints. In fact, many interpretations rely on the dubious presupposition that the members of The Eagles were devil worshipers. There is no grounds to this claim. Sadly, I haven't found a single interpretation out there that analyzes the flurry of metaphors that the song contains in detail and in sequence. Being that the case, I am providing such an analysis below.
On a dark desert highway, cool wind in my hair Warm smell of colitas, rising up through the air Up ahead in the distance, I saw a shimmering light My head grew heavy and my sight grew dim I had to stop for the night There she stood in the doorway; I heard the mission bell And I was thinking to myself, "This could be Heaven or this could be Hell" Then she lit up a candle and she showed me the way There were voices down the corridor, I thought I heard them say...
Term Meaning: Colitas = Little tails, or what is left over from a marihuana joint.
Interpretation of stanza
The first verse represents life's journey, specifically in the Southern California backdrop. In our natural state, we are fully alive and in touch with nature. The second verse represents temptation to dissociate, in this case embodied by the use of drugs. The third and fourth verse depict the disconnection to nature. The fourth and fifth verse provide the added meaning that, by adapting to society, we lose our natural state and begin the journey into dying in life or being among the living dead. This meaning is further entrenched by what follows in the stanza, especially "This could be Heaven or this could be Hell". The impact of religion and spirituality on the process of dying or disconnecting from nature is highlighted by the expressions "I heard the mission bell" and "she lit up a candle", both of which have a connection to the practice of Christianity.
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Welcome to the Hotel California Such a lovely place (Such a lovely place) Such a lovely face Plenty of room at the Hotel California Any time of year (Any time of year) You can find it here
Interpretation of stanza
The chorus changes both times it appears in the song. In both occasions, it highlights the attraction to beauty. In this case, however, it also emphasizes that anyone and everyone can live at the Hotel California. The final two verses represent the possibility of living the high life.
In common dream interpretations, a house represents oneself, such that dreaming of things happening in a house is the same as dreaming of things one is struggling with in one's self. In sharp contrast, a hotel implies an impermanent abode, a transitional place that is not your own and does not represent you. However, as will be seen in the end of the song, this is a hotel from which you can never escape. The message implied is that those souls living in that hotel will never be alive (or in contact with their nature) again.
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Her mind is Tiffany-twisted, she got the Mercedes bends She got a lot of pretty, pretty boys she calls friends How they dance in the courtyard, sweet summer sweat. Some dance to remember, some dance to forget. So I called up the Captain, "Please bring me my wine" He said, "We haven't had that spirit here since nineteen sixty nine" And still those voices are calling from far away, Wake you up in the middle of the night Just to hear them say...
Term meaning: Tiffany-twisted = Tiffany's is a luxury store. The term implies that her mind has been warped by the pursuit of luxury.
Interpretation of stanza
The first verse implies the warping of the mind by the pursuit of luxury. The second verse points to the dissolution of the relation of friendship, friendship being replaced by proximity because of sexual attraction. The third and fourth verses point out the psychological state of the people living at the Hotel California. "Some dance to remember, some dance to forget" but none dance to dance or to live; they are all living in the past in their minds, when they were closer to their natural state.
The next three verses have perplexed most people since the song came out. The main male character asks for wine but the Captain, the person in charge, replies that they don't have that "spirit". Anyone that knows their alcohol knows that wine is not in the spirit class of alcoholic beverages. So what is this referring to? The answer is that it refers to Dionysus, the god of wine, who is also, by the way, the god of living in and getting drunk off of nature (he is, thus, also the god of epiphany). Dionysus plays a large role in Friedrich Nietzsche's vitalist philosophy and in his concept of the superman. In the vitalist Nietzschean philosophy, the values of Dionysus have been in a constant metaphoric struggle with those of Apollo, the god of the sun, who also represents appearances or what you can see.
What about the voices at the end of the stanza? They are the ghosts, the living dead, currently residing at the Hotel California.
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Welcome to the Hotel California Such a lovely place (Such a lovely place) Such a lovely face They livin' it up at the Hotel California What a nice surprise (what a nice surprise) Bring your alibis
Interpretation of stanza
This version of the chorus starts off the same as the last one, by emphasizing the attraction to beauty and beautiful things. The fourth verse once again poses the idea that they are living the high life. However, the last two verses add a different meaning altogether, brought home by the final verse "Bring your alibis". What are alibis? They are excuses or defenses. Why is such a word placed in this context? The answer lies mostly in the next two stanzas. The occupants of the Hotel California must bring their excuses and psychological defenses so as to not return to a state of being alive, of being in touch with their own nature.
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Mirrors on the ceiling, The pink champagne on ice And she said "We are all just prisoners here, of our own device" And in the master's chambers, They gathered for the feast They stab it with their steely knives, But they just can't kill the beast.
Interpretation of stanza
This is the stanza that has provided fodder for Christians to paint The Eagles as a bunch of devil worshipers. It is also the best and strongest stanza in the entire song. It is divided into two scenes, the first described in the first 3 verses and the second described in the final 4.
The first scene describes the likes of a motel room ready for sex to happen in it. The woman tells him the truth of the situation they are in, that they are just prisoners there because of the way they've lived their lives. They have detached themselves from nature, out of their own doing based on the life decisions they have made and the values that have guided their actions.
The second scene returns to the Nietzschean themes that permeate this song and indeed make it one of the great ones. The reference to a "master" is a reference to the distinction between Master Morality and Slave Morality, best explained in Nietzsche's The Genealogy of Morals (see, in particular, Part 2). The masters, in this case, are ready to feast by bringing down the Slave mindset; however, no matter how much they attack that beast, they fail to kill it, and so the Hotel and its prisoners keep going on with their shiny but ultimately vacuous lives. This meaning is further emphasized in the last stanza.
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Last thing I remember, I was
Running for the door
I had to find the passage back
To the place I was before
"Relax, " said the night man,
"We are programmed to receive.
You can check-out any time you like,
But you can never leave! "
Interpretation of stanza
The main character becomes frightened realizing that he has made erroneous life choices that now appear to have him trapped. "I had to find the passage back to the place I was before" is a reference to childhood, when he was more in touch with nature, before being conditioned to like and follow the things that ultimately led him to be among the sleeping in life or the living dead. The night man catches him and tells him to relax. Who is the night man? He is death itself, a figure not unlike Hades, the god of the underworld. The night man goes ahead and explains why they are all stuck there: "We are programmed to receive". That's how the brain works! And what have these people filled it with? Glitter... yet all that glitters is not gold. Now our main character is stuck in a situation in which he can check out from the Hotel California all he wants, but he is simply bound to repeat the same psychosocial pattern he has been repeating. It is too late to awake and become alive. The voices will continue to lure him from far away.
Edward Estlin Cummings displayed
an innocence in his eyes that he would
never recover following his experience
as an ambulance driver during the
First World War, even if this hopefulness
was replaced mostly with an intense will to—
and a joy for—life in later photographs.
now does our world descend the path to nothingness (cruel now cancels kind: friends turn to enemies) therefore lament,my dream and don a doer's doom
create now is contrive; imagined,merely know (freedom:what makes a slave) therefore,my life,lie down and more by most endure all that you never were
hide,poor dishonoured mind who thought yourself so wise; and much could understand concerning no and yes: if they've become the same it's time you unbecame
where climbing was and bright is darkness and to fall (now wrong's the only right since brave are cowards all) therefore despair,my heart and die into the dirt
but from this endless end of briefer each our bliss - where seeing eyes go blind (where lips forget to kiss) where everything's nothing - arise,my soul;and sing
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For an informative background of the life, style, and historical context encasing e.e. cummings' exceptional body of work, please read the article immediately after the following poem—
