Nostalgia in "Poor Joanna" and "The Hermitage"

History comes alive through the process of remembrance. In the chapters "Poor Joanna" and "The Hermitage" in Sarah Orne Jewett's The Country of the Pointed Firs, the recollection of Joanna's life illustrates how nostalgia is experienced through storytelling between the women of Dunnet Landing.

There are several characteristics about nostalgia that can be gathered from the conversations between Mrs. Todd, Mrs. Fosdick, and the narrator. The most obvious is perhaps the setting where these stories were told.

The telling of the tale in "Poor Joanna" began when the narrator invited Mrs. Todd and her old friend Mrs. Fosdick into her room to keep her company. Mrs. Todd took to her knitting "because Mrs. Fosdick was busy with hers." When Mrs. Fosdick alluded to the name of Joanna for the first time, she said, "I was talking o' poor Joanna the other day… Mis’ Brayton an’ I recalled her as we sat together sewing." It seems that nostalgia and memory were evoked when women gathered in a house or a room, engaged in the quiet activity of clothe-making. It gave them the chance to talk, listen, and reminisce about the past.

Looking back together, these women might begin a conversation with a general memory of town in the past, but their retrospection often narrowed to a single focal person. In "Poor Joanna," as Mrs. Todd and Mrs. Fosdick sat knitting, each in their rocking-chairs, they began to talk about Shell-heap Island, first about the rumors of the "Old Indian times," which evoked a recollection of the day and age when whaling voyages existed and there were many "queer folks" and "a good many curiosities of human natur'" in their neighborhood. After lamenting the rise of "copy-cats" through the years, Mrs. Fosdick alluded to the name for the first time.

Both Mrs. Fosdick and Mrs. Todd knew Joanna, which gave them a deep sense of connection as they reflected on the life of this hermit. As Mrs. Fosdick puts it, "It does seem so pleasant to talk with an old acquaintance that knows what you know... Conversation’s got to have some root in the past." Thus, from Mrs. Fosdick's point of view, nostalgia is more than a lonely, imaginative journey to the past; it is joint visit to a historical time and place. It is as much about deepening the present relationship with each other as it is about recalling the past. As the narrator observed later, "The two women had drawn closer together, and were talking on, quite unconscious of a listener."

Talking about the past can be an emotional experience, yet the women were seldom afraid to show their feelings. The narrator noted that, at the mention of Joanna's name, Mrs. Todd lost "her sad reserve in the growing sympathy of these reminiscences." In other places, the narrator described how Mrs. Todd either "sadly shook her head as if there were things one could not speak about," was "confused by sudden affectionate feeling," or spoke "sorrowfully," "soberly," or "mournfully" about her contact with Joanna. As for Mrs. Fosdick, she fidgeted "with eagerness to speak" and "leaned back in her rocking-chair and gave a heavy sigh." Once, she asked Mrs. Todd what Joanna said, and the narrator described Mrs. Fosdick as "much moved." The visitor told her old friend: "Hearin' you tell about Joanna brings the time right back as if 't was yesterday."

Indeed, the women's conversations brought back memories of a time so long ago, but in their old age, these women have taken on new perspectives on old stories. In an earlier conversation, the narrator speculated that "by the polite absent-minded smile on Mrs. Todd’s face [the story Mrs. Fosdick was telling] was no new story." This was probably true, too, with the story of Joanna, but Mrs. Fosdick admitted a change of attitude towards Joanna: "I called her a great fool, but I pitied her then, and I pity her far more now… Her troubles hurt her more than she could bear. I see it all now as I couldn’t when I was young." Even though there were more peculiar personalities in Dunnet Landing in the past, the women were not necessarily very understanding of Joanna's situation and choice. Nevertheless, Mrs. Fosdick remarked that she could "see it all now," with a new comprehension that did not exist when she was younger.

All these features mentioned above characterize the experience of nostalgia among the women of Dunnet Landing. There are of course other aspects of nostalgia that can be explored, including the attention to details and the significance of objects and locations in evoking these memories. But they are secondary when we want to focus on how the women reminisce, rather than what. As exemplified in the entire work by Sarah Orne Jewett, human connection is at the heart of all stories. It is both the reason and the means through which we bring back the past.

A Question

Is it okay
to start the day
by crying?
For the way life is
and was
and what it may become tomorrow.

The night's sad sight
has long gone by,
but it overruns
into the sunlight.
And so I allow myself
to start the day

by crying.

Meeting Philip Glass

Last night I had the pleasure to attend the Taiwan debut of Philip Glass's work Book of Longings: Song Cycle Based on the Poetry and Artwork of Leonard Cohen at the National Concert Hall. It was a very pleasant evening, one of the most enjoyable performances I can remember, and it cast a wondrous spell on me by almost making me believe that I was watching the performance in a theater in New York City on a cold winter night.

Book of Longings is a sophisticated piece of art, featuring 22 songs in 90 minutes, integrating elements of poetry, music, visual art, and vocal performances. On the mostly darkened stage, the eight instrumentalists and a quartet resemble what you might see in a high-end bar in Chicago, New York, or Paris. Or more probably, a private performance for a group of fifty VIPs. It felt intimate, even from the 32nd row.

The first song made an especially strong impression on me. The song was called I Can't Make the Hills. The song set the tone for the rest of the night, but mostly it was Leonard Cohen's deep baritone voice reciting his poem, set to an eerily affecting music, that sent chills down my spine and made me fall in love with the work. At that instant, I felt an overwhelming gratefulness to have come to the performance. I knew I was going to enjoy the evening.

I had been looking forward to that particular evening for several weeks already ever since I listened to an interview with Philip and Leonard at the Aurora Forum at Stanford University, and became fascinated with the two men. Being a movie lover, I knew the name of Philip Glass and have heard some of his movie scores, but Leonard Cohen was a complete stranger to me. It was only through the interview that I realized how famous and prolific this Canadian singer-songwriter-poet-novelist had been all this while. The way Philip and Leonard talked in the interview---as incredibly talented collaborators would, but collaborators who respected each other so deeply they credited the success of their work on the brilliance of the other---their conversation immediately inspired in me an awe for the two men and their love of art.
At the concert, I felt like I was an ardent fan of Mr. Glass meeting him for the first time. I was so thrilled when I heard that Philip Glass was signing autographs at the ground floor after the performance. When the performers were giving their final bow before a cheering audience, my father and I slipped away to the ground floor and found ourselves in a mostly empty room in front of the ticketing booth. A lady handed us a small plastic card that read National Concert Hall, No. 1.

About 20 minutes later and with 40 more people lined up behind us, Philip Glass came out through a side door and everyone clapped. The staff ushered him to the autograph table, and another lady motioned me to come forward. I went up with my big coat on my lap and several program sheets in my left hand, and fumbled a bit as I handed him the DVD cover of the documentary about him, Glass: A Portrait of Philip in Twelve Parts. At close range, I took in his whole wrinkled face with his big eyes and slightly crazy hair. He could very well have been a passer-by I met in Paris, or perhaps my favorite uncle in an alternate life. But he is Philip Glass, and I was star-struck.

I thanked him for signing his autograph, and told him that I love his work. He said thank you, very kindly. "This is a wonderful crowd tonight," he said.

Meeting Philip Glass was one of those moments that, for ten minutes afterwards, you couldn't stop smiling, and which you had to remind yourself to wipe the smile off your face every time you thought of it for the next 24 hours. But it was quite an odd feeling too, that the morning after an evening enjoying the collaboration between a 71-year-old composer and a 74-year-old poet, I found myself in the hospital with my grandmother, my parents, and several aunts and uncles, discussing whether my frail 83-year-old grandfather should have a bypass heart surgery.


The sum of a man's life can be expressed so beautifully in poetry and music, but it seems to require a certain number of years in a man's life to gather the wisdom to do so.

By the way

I'll just put this on my blog as a Christmas special. My favorite West Wing characters... Da-dah!

Toby
C.J.
Josh
Leo
Donna
Sam

Toby is actually the first person I liked when I started watching the West Wing, followed by C.J., who is the coolest Press Secretary ever. Josh is wonderfully clever; Leo is practical and wise; Donna is sweet but capable; and Sam is handsomely naive and funny. Yup, that's my team. Probably the best ensemble cast ever.

For Your Consideration:

Do you think there is something fundamentally wrong with the society you live in?

Do you think there is something fundamentally wrong with your life right now?

Comment and share.

The Great Plagiarism Scandal!

Should I be outraged that my professor from the English Department repeatedly gave students essay topics taken directly from websites without telling us about it? I discovered this today while I was brainstorming for my argumentative essay and I typed in the words "argumentative essay" on Google. Imagine my surprise when I immediately recognized the third hit on the results page as something I've read before--in class. Turns out, this is a website from a Turkish university, and most of the second half of the webpage was included in a handout we were given two weeks ago, word for word, including the badly written sample at the end about Reiki and health. I thought, Why is my professor taking samples from Google's search results page?

I went back through my "Junior Composition" file and took out all the handouts we were given in class. Referring to those papers, I typed in their key words on Google and clicked on any suspicious results. When I typed in "sample literature review," the first hit was the sample we were given on Tuesday. Our handout included the sample and discussion questions at the top.

Next, I thought I'd try finding the four argumentative essay topics we were given this week, and guess what? They're all taken from the Internet! Well, first I was taken to Yahoo! Answers, where someone included three of our essay topics in his answer list(posted 4 weeks ago). The person gave a link at the bottom of his answer, and when I clicked on it, sure enough I found all four essay questions--on a website named Good Essay Topics.

For your reference, these are the four argumentative essay topics we were given, copied and pasted word for word (from my handout or from Good Essay Topics, take your pick):

1. We are becoming overwhelmingly dependent on computers. Is this dependence on computers a good thing or should we be more suspicious of their benefits?

2. Technology makes communication easier in today's world. Many people choose to work at home in front of a computer screen. What danger does the society face depending on computer screens rather than face-to-face contact as the main means of communication? Are we the prisoners of the progress?

3. Advertising: Information or Manipulation?

4. Should restrictions be placed on the use of mobile phones in public areas like restaurants and theaters?

By the way, when the professor handed out the essay topics on Tuesday, a classmate pointed out that in Taiwan, there are already restrictions placed on the use of mobile phones in public areas. The professor said he didn't know. Could it be that if he had in fact created his own topics for his students in Taipei, Taiwan, he would have come up with something more relevant and debatable?

I am seriously concerned about this because, first of all, the fact that our English professors are taking essay questions from these websites reveal something about us. Is 'Good Essay Topics' such a prestigious and credible website that our Department endorses using their data word-for-word in teaching and giving class assignments? Or perhaps it reveals something about the educational standard in our university where samples and questions are copied directly from the Internet?

We've all been told over and over again how plagiarism is illegal and how you should always cite your sources. Why is it then that my professor never told us our essay topics were taken from the Internet? I include the page 'Works Cited' at the end of all my essays and papers because we're supposed to give credits where it's due. Why then, does the professor not need to cite his sources as he hands out guidelines and samples week after week? Also, if all the material is online, what's the need to go to class? Just give me the damn topics and I can go figure myself!

This class, by the way, is the composition class required of all juniors in the English Department. No one graduates without taking this class. In other words, the Department thinks good composition skills are so necessary that it's making everyone take this class without exception! Which adds a lot to my bewilderment.

Maybe this explains why most of the samples we've read are really, quite frankly, in bad taste, and also why most students still don't know how to write a proper essay. I don't know if it is an ethical, acceptable practice among university professors, or just a long hidden secret that professors hope no one will ever discover. I wonder what the Department Chair thinks about this. Or perhaps the Ministry of Education. Is this proof that the quality of our university education has hit a new low? I wonder, I wonder, I wonder...