Response to the Solitary Reaper

WE were discussing in class whether the woman in the narrative of this poem was being objectified. There was a mixed response, but as our conversation went towards understanding the sub-altern there was this acknowledgment of the hierarchical role between the observer and the subject or rather the object of his story.What is the power of the gaze? What happens when there is an ambivalence between the reader of the poem and "the eye"? The woman reaping is subjugated t a certain narrative; she is eternally to be breed in the image and perception of the observer.

Bhabha in Location if Culture cites a poem:

One day I learnt
a secret art,
Invisible-Ness, it was called.
I think it worked
as even now you look
but never see me...
Only my eyes will remain to watch and to haunt,
and to turn your dreams
to chaos.


The power of the eye from subject to object is interesting but this takes in to the next level...returning the gaze, a vacillation that exists even in Adolphe's perception of Self.

The Consciousness of Language

Baby Cries

http://www.oprah.com/tows/slide/200611/20061113/slide_20061113_350_102.jhtml

For millions of sleep-deprived mothers around the world, this woman's findings could be a miracle! Priscilla Dunstan, a mom from Australia with a special gift, says she's unlocked the secret language of babies.

When Priscilla was a toddler, her parents discovered she had a photographic memory for sound. At age 4, she could hear a Mozart concert on the piano and play it back note for note.

Priscilla says her gift has helped her hear a special "second language" beyond English, allowing her to detect moods and even diagnose illnesses! "Other people might hear a note but I sort of get the whole symphony," Priscilla says. "So when someone's speaking, I get all this information that other people might not pick up."

That mysterious second language took on an astounding new meaning when Priscilla became a mother to her baby, Tom. "Because of my gift for sound, I was able to pick out certain patterns in his cries and then remember what those patterns were later on when he cried again," Priscilla says. "I realized that other babies were saying the same words."

After testing her baby language theory on more than 1,000 infants around the world, Priscilla says there are five words that all babies 0–3 months old say—regardless of race and culture.

Those "words" are actually sound reflexes, Priscilla says. "Babies all around the world have the same reflexes, and they therefore make the same sounds," she says. If parents don't respond to those reflexes, Priscilla says the baby will eventually stop using them.

Priscilla recommends that parents listen for those words in a baby's pre-cry before they start crying hysterically. She says there is no one sound that's harder to hear than others because it varies by individual. She also says some babies use some words more than others.

The Dunstan Baby Language DVD is currently available. Visit www.dunstanbaby.com to order your copy.

Death Drive

What is it in this bubble of obsession that pushes these characters to death? Their Love isolates them society, so is it in death that complete alienation is achieved--that one is closest to the state of nature?

Take a look at this essay about Freud's concept of Death Drive:

http://www.ul.ie/~philos/vol9/Freud.html