Visit a monkey in the tree of his life
He doesn't eat the fruit before it is ripe
When the sugar turns to alcohol
He shares his crop with one and all

The alcoholic tangerines are free
The alcoholic tangerines for you
The alcoholic tangerines for me

Sunday, May 19, 2019

Grotesque

Grotesque is a man who embraces one overarching truth and makes it his guide stone. He becomes distorted in holding onto his truth. When it passes below the horizon his truth will be upside-down and so will he be. So will he be.

Note: This is my meditation after reading Sherwood Anderson's Winesburg Ohio, which I thought was interesting enough to reread after twenty years. The idea of the Grotesque as a person who is distorted ethically, or is perhaps demented, is missing psychic components, has mental mal-nutrition, are at once pathetic and creepy. It smacked me as reminiscent of Balzac's Comedy Humane; and certainly, that seems to be where the genesis of the Grotesque lies--in the French tradition.

Then it also struck me that the timing of Anderson's American work somewhat coincides to the modern period in Russia, where Anton Chekhov was producing works of short fiction that are similar in structure and content. Of course, there is an affinity in Russian culture for the French.  Russian was once a vulgar language in St. Petersburg, where French was spoken in the court, the church, and the university as well as in polite society.  This is often depicted in classical Russian literature (Tolstoy). So, I think that the impact of Balzac's short fiction can still be felt generations after he had completed his work, in two divergent literary traditions.

Or perhaps they are a single tradition: international modern lit.--which I think would be an interesting course. Does Balzak give us a prequel into modern lit? Yes.

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