Unusual Monsters

I must say, I was very apprehensive about having to blog for this class. I had never blogged before, and I will admit with honesty that I wasn’t really looking forward to writing a blog once a week. Read, discuss, write a paper (or rather, procrastinate writing a paper): that’s what I know and was used to. Blogging for class? What the hell kind of assignment was that?!

But, I am so glad Suzanne asked us to blog instead of write the oh-so-traditional papers (although I do love them in their own right. If I didn’t enjoy writing those analytical papers, do you think I’d still be an English major?) Blogging allowed a new, perhaps even more insightful, part of me come to voice in my blog posts. In the blogosphere, I didn’t have to worry about using formal, academic language. I could, well, let-loose, my ideas in the blog. I could free-write and then watch my ideas develop (as I did in the Poe post). Or, I could lay out a plan for the blog post and plan how it would develop (as I did for The Shining’s post). And you know what? I soon began to love blogging! I would push aside other homework (I’d still do it…eventually) to design my blog or work on my next post. Soon, I began posting earlier and earlier in the week, days before the post was even due. I really, really enjoyed blogging!

In fact, I enjoyed it so much that I am seriously considering creating a blog just for myself and for my own further, independent reflections on my readings. I love to read, think, and write, and when I’m home (back home again in Indiana…it’s our state song in case you didn’t know!) or away from my English major friends, I hate not having an outlet to develop my ideas. If I start an independent blog on BlogSpot, I will write a reflection on every new book I read whether that book be for pleasure or for class. I’m really being serious about this; I’d love to continue blogging. So, keep your eyes peeled for my new blog’s web address. I’ll post it to Facebook or to this blog :]

As I looked back through my individual blog posts to make corrections for the final blog submission, I began to realize that there was one prevailing theme that permeated almost every single one of my posts. Actually, it was odd to discover the underlying theme I did. It was quite unsettling in a way because the permeating theme is not one of the usual American optimism and so-called American Dream. In American literature, past and present—all the way from Cotton Mather’s On Witchcraft to Steven King’s The Shining—there is an intense, almost obsessive consciousness of the fear and possibility of  losing oneself, losing one’s own moral conscious to that of an unseen amoral, unusual, or anything other than commonplace creature lurking inside each one of us. This monster, this haunting ghost, is no longer able to recognize oneself—the person society expects us to be—and begins to feel disconnected from the world around it. It faces scrutiny for its actions and is ‘othered’ by the so-called normal, productive members of society. That very-conscious, very vibrant monster is who we see emerge first as a witch in On Witchcraft; an adulteress in The Scarlet Letter; a captive white woman in the hands of Native Americans from Mary Rowlandson’s narrative; a free-spirited lover in Eliza from The Coquette; a whale-obsessed ship captain from Moby Dick; an unusually and perhaps creepily (to some people) self-assured and self-reliant Ralph Waldo Emerson; men resorted to primal, animalistic behaviors of cannibalism in In the Heart of the Sea; men dependent on physical conflict as emotional and perhaps spiritual release in Fight Club; characters seemingly lacking all moral conviction and functioning solely off of free will in Poe’s short stories; a man who loses himself to the controlling, addictive ghosts of the Overlook Hotel in The Shining; a woman named Emily Dickinson who loses herself in herself—in her reclusivity; a woman so overcome by her childhood traumas that she forces herself to relive them by writing fairy tale poetry; and finally, we have Whitman taking a new, rather unconventional approach to selfhood (for his time) in recognizing the value in being you and that true happiness comes in realizing the cheapest, most accessible part of you is being you.

Anne Sexton said it best when she said “The unusual needs to be commented on” (60). As I have said in my previous blog post, there really is no set system of judgments to decide what constitutes unusual—or, rather, monstrous, alien, or different. Is it a person who could be classified as a mad-man (Poe’s unnamed narrators or Jack Torrence from The Shining)? Is it a person who defies social standards (Eliza from The Coquette or even Emily Dickinson herself)? Is it a person who is so unusual and forward-thinking in his/her thoughts that he/she attracts praise and/or attention from those who adhere to social norms (Emerson was lauded as one of the greatest American authors for his ‘self-help’ effect from Self-Reliance while Whitman, although now greatly praised, was viewed as someone who crossed that social line of sexuality a little too far)? What is normal anyway? It’s a socially-defined set of values and standards that vary from culture to culture, country to country, people to people. It’s never stagnant. It’s malleable. But, if you don’t adhere to the definition of normal for a time period, you are the unusual one and therefore find yourself judged, ridiculed, and perhaps even ostracized from a community with which you once identified. You don’t even recognize yourself when you are stripped of your socially-defined value systems and no longer have to adhere to social norms. You are akin to the monster within, the monster you’ve feared would rear its ugly head. And, it did.  Now are identified as that monster and will forever be stamped as the person who let the unusual monster out.

Essentially, there is, even today a great fear of anyone unusual or different than ourselves. We fear becoming that unusual person. We fear being judged solely on the basis of our otherness. And once othered, how do we get accepted back into a community who no longer sees as a morally-conscious, purposeful human beings? We don’t. We are forced to self-identify as other. But, for some of us, othering is a term of endearment, a quality of monstrosity we soon love to embrace. Since I have been such a fervent, frequent referencer to pop culture , it’s time to go out with a big bang. The reference for today? Lady Gaga’s Born This Way!

Lady Gaga has pushed socially-accepted, normal boundaries. She has become the poster child for a newly emerging wave of feminism, Gaga Feminism. She, unlike many of her fellow pop artists, has a political agenda in almost every big hit single she releases. Born This Way, her newest release, couples with this provocative music video:

"This is the manifesto of Mother Monster."

(I would also like to take a moment and credit the idea to use this video to Jacqlyn. We are currently slaving away in the library frantically writing out our final blog posts. "Friends don't let friends blog alone" - Jacqlyn Schott)

And the lyrics (however, the unsung introduction to this song is just as provocative and potent as the actual song lyrics):

INTRO:
It doesn't matter if you love him, or capital H-I-M
Just put your paws up
'cause you were Born This Way, Baby

VERSE:
MY MAMA TOLD ME WHEN I WAS YOUNG
WE ARE ALL BORN SUPERSTARS
SHE ROLLED MY HAIR AND PUT MY LIPSTICK ON
IN THE GLASS OF HER BOUDOIR
"THERE'S NOTHIN WRONG WITH LOVIN WHO YOU ARE"
SHE SAID, "'CAUSE HE MADE YOU PERFECT, BABE"
"SO HOLD YOUR HEAD UP GIRL AND YOU'LL GO FAR,
LISTEN TO ME WHEN I SAY"

CHORUS:
I'M BEAUTIFUL IN MY WAY
'CAUSE GOD MAKES NO MISTAKES
I'M ON THE RIGHT TRACK BABY
I WAS BORN THIS WAY
DON'T HIDE YOURSELF IN REGRET
JUST LOVE YOURSELF AND YOU'RE SET
I'M ON THE RIGHT TRACK BABY
I WAS BORN THIS WAY

POST-CHORUS:
OOO THERE AIN'T NO OTHER WAY
BABY I WAS BORN THIS WAY
BABY I WAS BORN THIS WAY
OOO THERE AIN'T NO OTHER WAY
BABY I WAS BORN-
I'M ON THE RIGHT TRACK BABY
I WAS BORN THIS WAY

DON'T BE A DRAG -JUST BE A QUEEN
DON'T BE A DRAG -JUST BE A QUEEN
DON'T BE A DRAG -JUST BE A QUEEN
DON'T BE!

VERSE:
GIVE YOURSELF PRUDENCE
AND LOVE YOUR FRIENDS
SUBWAY KID, REJOICE YOUR TRUTH
IN THE RELIGION OF THE INSECURE
I MUST BE MYSELF, RESPECT MY YOUTH
A DIFFERENT LOVER IS NOT A SIN
BELIEVE CAPITAL H-I-M (HEY HEY HEY)
I LOVE MY LIFE I LOVE THIS RECORD AND
MI AMORE VOLE FE YAH (LOVE NEEDS FAITH)

REPEAT CHORUS + POST-CHORUS

BRIDGE:

DON'T BE A DRAG, JUST BE A QUEEN
WHETHER YOU'RE BROKE OR EVERGREEN
YOU'RE BLACK, WHITE, BEIGE, CHOLA DESCENT
YOU'RE LEBANESE, YOU'RE ORIENT
WHETHER LIFE'S DISABILITIES
LEFT YOU OUTCAST, BULLIED, OR TEASED
REJOICE AND LOVE YOURSELF TODAY
'CAUSE BABY YOU WERE BORN THIS WAY

NO MATTER GAY, STRAIGHT, OR BI,
LESBIAN, TRANSGENDERED LIFE
I'M ON THE RIGHT TRACK BABY
I WAS BORN TO SURVIVE
NO MATTER BLACK, WHITE OR BEIGE
CHOLA OR ORIENT MADE
I'M ON THE RIGHT TRACK BABY
I WAS BORN TO BE BRAVE

REPEAT CHORUS

OUTRO/REFRAIN:

I WAS BORN THIS WAY HEY!
I WAS BORN THIS WAY HEY!
I'M ON THE RIGHT TRACK BABY
I WAS BORN THIS WAY HEY!

I WAS BORN THIS WAY HEY!
I WAS BORN THIS WAY HEY!
I'M ON THE RIGHT TRACK BABY
I WAS BORN THIS WAY HEY!

          Lady Gaga takes pride in her monstrosity. She has learned to embrace it. She even says in the introduction to the song, "And as she herself split into two, rotating in agony between two ultimate forces, the pendulum of choice began its dance. It seems easy, you'd imagine, to gravitate instantly and unwaveringly towards good. But, she wondered, how can I protect something so perfect without evil?" Wow...you said it Lady Gaga. You can't have good without the evil. And the scary part of that is...well, each one of us has that evil within us. Yes, we let morality govern our judgements and actions in the world, but if we let the monster out, if we let our Tonys (The Shining) have reign, then what are we but a representation of the other and thus the model or a the dangers of wayward ways. But, honestly, come on now, folks? It's naive of us to think each of on us is all good. We're not. We're two halves, and we too are "rotating in agony between two ultimate forces" attempting to pull us one way or the other. If you think you're all good, haha...well, then you don't recognize the complexity of yourself. Now, am I going to say that I have evil desires or wishes...of course not. I like to think I'm a generally nice person. But, I recognize that the monster does exist inside of us, whether that monster is evil or just a force that makes us feel othered by the so-called normal people around us.

          American literature offers unusual insight into the monster, the othering seed each of us possesses. Whether that monster is a root of our unusual nature in terms of social behaviors or actually tempts us towards primal, evil ways—regardless, the monster still exists. American literature, especially when you look at the progression of American literature through time, is a time capsule that contains the societal-defined other, unusual, or monster and the normal. But, that concept is ever changing, ever evolving. So, how do we stay up to date with the so-called normal behaviors? We don’t, and that is why we have such interesting varieties and catalysts for that otherness in American literature.