Ron Padgett, Paterson, and Life Lessons

Paterson underscores the importance of stepping away from the world to observe it and emphasizes the merit in living life deliberately and slowly.

By Robin Dubree

I don’t know about you, but when I find an actor I really like, I always make it a goal of mine to watch every film they’ve been in. This has lead me down some very weird roads, but I’ve more or less always been pleasantly surprised by my findings. In my foray into the filmography of Adam Driver (who is a Mishawaka native, by the way), I stumbled across the 2016 film Paterson, directed by Jim Jarmusch. The film didn’t just pleasantly surprise me but made me think for days after, and each time I rewatch it I come away with the same refreshed and inspired feeling. It’s kind of lofty praise to lay on such a film, but it changed my life, and to this day affects my perspective not just on writing poetry but on the world around me as a whole.

Paterson follows the daily life of aptly named protagonist Paterson (Adam Driver), a bus driver living in Paterson, New Jersey. He goes through the same routine every day of the week: wakes up beside his partner Laura (Golshifteh Farahani), walks to work, listens to passengers’ conversations on the bus, writes poetry on his lunch break, takes the dog on a walk after work, and stops by the bar for a beer. This routine in and of itself provides the film with a rhythm; interspersed with shots of the sights of the city are poems written in Paterson’s “secret notebook.” The poetry, like Paterson himself, isn’t in-your-face or extravagant. The poems of the film praise the mundane, turn something as simple as a box of matches into a thing of beauty. Paterson underscores the importance of stepping away from the world to observe it and emphasizes the merit in living life deliberately and slowly. The patterns of poetry form all around us, we just have to look closely enough to notice. 

Ron Padgett, photographed by John Sarsgard

It wasn’t until recently that I took the time to research who wrote the poems for the film, and this led me down an equally rewarding rabbit hole. The poet behind all of Paterson’s work is Ron Padgett, born in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1942. He served as a prominent part of the second generation of the New York School, a movement which took began in the 1960s. Padgett and Paterson director Jim Jarmusch were both students of poet Kenneth Koch, a founding member of the New York School, although they didn’t properly meet until much later. The influence of the New York School is evident throughout the film– not just in Padgett’s ever-present voice (and Koch’s by extension) but in references to Frank O’Hara, whose Lunch Poems Paterson carries with him to work. The New York School is even name-dropped near the end of the film. The poems of this school are simplistic and observational, but witty and spontaneous, taking much of their influence from the earlier Modern and Surrealist movements. 

All of these qualities are present in the poem “Another One,” which Padgett wrote specifically for the film:

When you’re a child
you learn
there are three dimensions:
height, width, and depth.
Like a shoebox.
Then later you hear
there’s a fourth dimension:
time.
Hmm.
Then some say
there can be five, six, seven…
I knock off work,
have a beer
at the bar.
I look down at the glass
and feel glad.

“Another One” embodies the easygoing, urban feeling characteristic of all the poetry in Paterson. Paterson writes what he observes in his ordinary world, and takes pleasure in the simple, never neglecting to point out the absurdity of it all. Padgett’s writing feels almost comforting in the sense it feels like having a conversation with a friend. Yet it still has the power and wit to provoke thought, urging readers to adopt a different perspective. 

In a way, I think everyone can appreciate the necessity of a film like Paterson. In a world where movies capture our attention by being flashy or shocking, Paterson takes a different approach to its audience. It highlights the poetry in everyday life, and that is enough. It’s the reason I started carrying around a “secret notebook” of my own– to record these moments wherever they come to me. By having the audacity to exist quietly, Paterson only further emphasizes the beauty in the mundane. 

Lives of the Writers: Zora Neale Hurston

“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.”- Zora Neale Hurston, Dust Tracks on a Road

by Belle Becker

As a prolific Harlem Renaissance writer , Zora Neale Hurston (1891-1960) was an enigmatic and important voice for black people. She was born in an entirely black town, and both of her parents had been previously enslaved. After the death of her mother at 13, she floated between different family members and she was suddenly presented with many obstacles that stood between herself and continuing to go to school. Feeling backed into a corner, she began working for a traveling theater troupe. Eventually, she was able to get her high school diploma and went on to attend Howard University, which is where her writing really took off. After writing several short stories for her school’s newspaper, her piece titled “Drenched in Light” was picked up by an influential Harlem literary magazine called Opportunity. She became well-known in the black writing scene and was friends with several other well-known Harlem Renaissance writers, especially Langston Hughes.

Black Art Story

Due to her experiences growing up in an all black town, Zora became intrigued with studying the different cultures, languages, and mythologies of Africans and African Americans. She was given the opportunity to go to Africa, and she wrote about her newfound anthropological insights in the story, Of Mules and Men. She would take road trips around the United States and interview other African Americans because propelling black voices, especially those of women, was something that she cared very deeply about. This idea can be seen in her most famous novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, a very progressive story in which a young black woman learns how to be her own person and speak up for herself. She faced plenty of backlash from this story for presenting African Americans in a “negative light” by using the dialects that actual black southerners would have used, rather than standard English. However, her intention was to simply present and celebrate black culture as it was, with all of its intricacies.

After being essentially blacklisted by many of her peers for writing in a seemingly offensive manner, she struggled to find work and had to take whatever jobs she could to survive. She wrote her last literary work in 1948, which was called Seraph on the Suwanee. Interestingly, the characters in this piece were all white. Her health steadily declined until she died alone with nothing to her name in 1960. Seemingly forgotten, she was sadly buried in an unmarked grave. Luckily, fellow writer Alice Walker took the time to determine where she had been laid to rest and gave her name back, with the inscription, “Zora Neale Hurston: A Genius of the South.”

Lives of the Writers: Mary Shelley

“Solitude was my only consolation – deep, dark, deathlike solitude.” – Mary Shelley, Frankenstein

by Natasha O’Hara

Darksidebooks.com

During a brainstorming session for the blog earlier this month, the topic of Frankenstein kept resurfacing. We did not intend on having a “Frankenstein February”, it happened organically. My personal interest was sparked by watching the 2017 romantic period-drama Mary Shelley, featuring Elle Fanning as the mother of sci-fi horror (the film is currently available on the Roku Channel). 

Mary Shelley, an author ahead of her time, penned seven novels, a slew of short stories and articles, and even edited the works of her husband, romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. However, she is best remembered for her 1818 masterpiece “Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus”. The enduring popularity of her work, even after two centuries, is a testament to Shelley’s extraordinary talent. Perhaps her ability to capture profound themes of loss and ambition at such a young age stemmed from her own experiences with sorrow and heartbreak throughout her life.

Born on August 30th, 1797, in London, Mary Shelley’s lineage was steeped in literary and philosophical brilliance. Her mother was the renowned feminist and author Mary Wollstonecraft, while her father was the philosopher and political journalist William Godwin. Tragically, Mary Wollstonecraft passed away just ten days after giving birth to Mary. William Godwin later remarried another Mary, Mary Jane Clairmont in 1801, who (in true evil-stepmother fashion) already had two children of her own. The strained relationship between Mary and her stepmother is vividly depicted in the film.

Seeking solace from her tumultuous home life, Mary often found herself reading and daydreaming at her mother’s grave. Her education was unconventional, as she did not attend school but rather grew up amidst her father’s intellectual circle and educated herself. At the age of 14, she published her first poem, “Mounseer Nongtongpaw”. In 1812, she was sent to live in Scotland, where she experienced a sense of familial stability with William Baxter and his daughters, Christina and Isabel, offering a contrast to her home life.

Upon her return to London at the age of 16, Mary met Percy Bysshe Shelley, a young poet and political disciple of her father. Despite Shelley being married with a child, a romantic relationship blossomed between the two. Their elopement across Europe caused a rift with Mary’s father, who disowned her until she legalized her union with Shelley.

During this period, Mary faced profound personal challenges. In 1815, she gave birth prematurely to a baby girl who tragically passed away after only a few weeks. Later, Mary experienced a life-threatening miscarriage. Out of Mary’s four children, only one survived beyond infancy.

In the summer of 1816, Mary and Percy spent time near Geneva, Switzerland, with Lord Byron, John William Polidori, and Jane Clairmont. This gathering became the birthplace of “Frankenstein.” Sequestered indoors by rainy weather, the group entertained themselves by telling ghost stories. Lord Byron then proposed a competition to see who could write the most frightening ghost story, leading Mary to pen the iconic novel.

In 1816, Mary’s half-sister, Fanny Imlay, tragically overdosed on opium, and Percy’s wife also died by suicide around the same time. Mary and Percy were married in December 1816, and Mary published a travelogue of their European journey, “History of a Six Weeks’ Tour” (1817). “Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus” was anonymously published in 1818, leading to speculation that Percy had written the book due to his introduction, an assumption that continues to undermine Mary Shelley’s authorship.

wikipedia.org

Four years after “Frankenstein’s” publication, Percy Shelley drowned at 29 years old while sailing his boat, the Don Juan, during a storm near Italy, leaving Mary a widow at 24. Despite this loss, Mary continued writing, producing more novels. In 1824, Lord Byron passed away from a fever, further impacting Mary’s emotional landscape, as seen in her 1826 science fiction novel “The Last Man,” where she wrote of being “the last relic of a beloved race, my companions extinct before me.” 

Towards the end of her life, Mary faced financial and physical struggles. She first reported symptoms of pressure on the brain around 1843 and passed away in 1851 at the age of 53 from an undiagnosed brain tumor.

Mary Shelley’s life was marked by tragedy, resilience, and a fierce intellect that transcended the societal norms of her time. Her legacy as a radical author endures, inspiring generations of readers and writers to ponder the depths of human ambition and the consequences of our creations.

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Lives of the Writer: Phillis Wheatley Peters, 18th Century Poet

“Before the end of this century the full aesthetic, political, and religious implications of her [Phillis Wheatley Peters] art and even more salient facts about her life and works will surely be known and celebrated by all who study the 18th century and by all who revere this woman, a most important poet in the American literary canon.” — Sondra A. O’Neale, Emory University

By Natasha O’Hara

The Poetry Foundation considers Phillis Wheatley Peters as “one of the best-known poets in pre-19th century America.” In 1773, Wheatley Peters published, Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral, thereby becoming the first African American, first enslaved person, and third woman to publish a book of poems in America. The themes in her poems often reflected her views on religion and race, most notably in her poem, “On Being Brought from Africa to America”. In U.S history, she is regarded as a prominent figure for her open support of the American Revolution, while being openly opposed to slavery.

Wheatley Peters was born in West Africa in 1753. At around the age of 7, she was kidnapped by slave traders and was shipped off to the colonies on a slave ship named the Phillis (which is where her name is derived). There isn’t much information on Wheatley Peter’s life prior to her enslavement.

In August of 1761, she was sold to an affluent family in Boston. John Wheatley was a tailor, whose clientele included well known figures of the time, such as John Hancock. His wife, Susanna, was reported as being in search of a “domestic” and purchased the young “slave refugee” for a small sum. The captain of the Phillis believed the girl to be “terminally ill, and he wanted to gain at least a small profit before she died” (PF).

Not only did she survive, within the first 16 months of arriving to the colonies she had mastered the English language. She also studied astronomy, geography, history, Greek and Latin, amongst other studies and while continuing her “domestic” work. Her love and talent for poetry was recognized at a young age, and at 13 she wrote the poem, “On Messrs. Hussey and Coffin,” which was published on 21 December 1767 in the early American colonial newspaper the Newport Mercury. By 18, Wheatley Peters had a collection of 28 poems and international acclaim for her elegy, “An Elegiac Poem, on the Death of that Celebrated Divine, and Eminent Servant of Jesus Christ, the Reverend and Learned George Whitefield”.

Around this time, Wheatley Peters began searching for a press to publish her first collection of poetry. In May of 1771, after being rejected for publication in the colonies because of her race, she and Nathaniel Wheatley (son of John and Susanna) set off to find support in London. Wheatley Peters had gained support from wealthy contributors of evangelical and abolitionist causes, and was able to secure publication. The forward in her first book, Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral, was signed by John Hancock and other Boston notables, and included a portrait of Wheatley, to prove the legitimacy of a Black woman’s talent.  Some time after this, she returned to Boston, and was freed from slavery.

Death consumed the majority of the Wheatley family from 74-78, during this time Wheatley Peters continued to write poetry and offer support for evangelical and abolitionist causes. She had a public correspondence with George Washington in 1776, over a poem she wrote in praise of him. On April 1st, 1778, Phillis Wheatley married John Peters, a free Black man, and took his name.

On December 5, 1784, Phillis Wheatley Peters passed away, at the mere age of 31, some sources claim she passed from complications during childbirth. For much of her life, Wheatley Peters is described as being in poor condition, and is said to have suffered from a chronic asthma condition. This, plus the subsequent poverty from being “free”, not equal, is likely to have contributed to the early deaths of her three children, as well as her own.

Wheatley Peters only published one book during her life, as she was not able to secure fundings for her second collection. She has been reported to have written as many as 145 poems in her life, although many have been lost. She wrote many of her poems in iambic pentameter with the couplet being her favorite poetic form. Despite her young demise, Phillis Wheatley Peters legacy carries on, securing her place as a prominent poet in American history.

Lives of the Writers: Gene Stratton-Porter

In honor of Women’s History Month I felt it would be important to mention a female author who did not live far from South Bend. Gene Stratton-Porter dedicated her life to writing and nature. Want to learn more about her? Read on!

By JENNA SULE

Photo from: Encyclopedia Britannica

Gene Stratton-Porter was an American author, naturalist and nature photographer from Wabash County, Indiana. Porter was formally educated in the Wabash schools. Though, she never officially finished Highschool.

Early on in her life, she took an interest in the nature that surrounded her home. Her father has a farm which fostered in her an appreciation for animals. The Indiana Historian, a magazine which explores the history of Indiana states that birds were her favorite. She also really enjoyed the local swampy areas; she later used her fame to help preserve these areas.

She married Charles Dorwin Porter in 1886 and became a mother a year later. Still she found herself wanting to be more than a mother and a wife. According to The Indiana Historian, she was allowed a certain amount of freedom in her marriage and she was able to seek out a way to make her own income. As a result, she found her way into writing about nature.

Illustration by Wladyslaw T. Benda from Stratton-Porter’s “A Girl of the Limberlost“

Her first book, The Song of the Cardinal, was written in 1903. This book was written from the perspective of a male cardinal who sings to find a mate. While singing, he helps a farmer and his wife rekindle their marriage. Later, she wrote Freckles (1904) and The Harvester (1911). She also dabbled in books that had to do with her love for nature. She wrote Moths of the Limberlost (1912) and Wings (1923), both strongly focus on nature. 

Encyclopaedia Britannica also includes that she was “remembered for her fiction rooted in the belief that communion with nature holds the key to moral goodness”.

After the success of her novels, she used her influence to help push conservation legislation in the Indiana wetlands that she loved. Even today, you can still tour her home in Limberlost Swamp. 

Sources say that because of her fame and lack of privacy she moved from Indiana to California. She was one of the first people to build a house in what is now Bel Air in Beverly Hills. Stratton-Porter died in 1924 due to a car accident. According to The Indiana Historian, she was unable to complete her dream of building a bird sanctuary.

Lives of the Writers: Oscar Wilde

Oscar Wilde was the epitome of aestheticism, therfore, it is a no-brainer why Wilde is one of my favorite writers as someone who lives for aesthetics and writers.

BY CASSIDY WHITE

This is perhaps the most common portrait of Oscar Wilde.

When people think of Oscar Wilde, the first two thoughts that often come to mind are his novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, and the fact that he was gay. These are common facts that anyone who has taken an English course or even looked it up online can confirm. However, there is an entire deep history surrounding his adulthood that remains unknown to many. I’m here to change that. Understanding the circumstances of his life, I believe, adds deeper meaning to every piece of work he published. 

Oscar Wilde, his full name being Oscar Fingal O’Flahertie Wills Wilde, was born in a small home in Dublin on October 16^th, 1854. His childhood home would later be turned into what we know today as Trinity College, where he studied at from 1871 to 1874. He became the face of aestheticism and was even mentored on the subject. As ironic as it sounds, Wilde could not actually speak Irish (Gaelic), but he was fluent in French, German, English, and had a working knowledge of Italian and Greek. 

Oscar Wilde only wrote one novel but wrote several small pieces including, The Importance of Being Earnest. However, many may not know that he was also a successful children’s book author, having published a collection of child-friendly stories that became widely popular. He later married Constance Lloyd, who was also a children’s book writer. They went on to parent two boys, Vyvyan and Cyril.

Oscar Wilde was certainly known for being dramatic

While Oscar Wilde was married to Constance Lloyd that did not stop him from pursuing a relationship with Lord Alfred Douglas, who is described as his first and only true love. Douglas’ father had Wilde incarcerated for sodomy after refusing to stop seeing his son; Wilde took the punishment with grace. Through his time in jail, Lloyd and their kids never left, sticking with him and supporting him through it all. However, Lloyd and the children changed their last name to Holland in an attempt to hide from the judgement cast upon them because of Wilde’s conviction. 

One of three sculptures in Dublin

Oscar met his fate on November 30th, 1900 in the privacy of his own home. It is documented that his final words were, “My wallpaper and I are fighting a duel to the death. One or other of us has got to go,” which is poetic and very much what one would expect from Wilde. Flash forward to 1997 when a series of three monuments were erected in his honor in Dublin. Still widely studied for his aestheticism, Wilde remains one of the most influential writers of the Victorian Era.

Lives of the Writers: James Joyce

“The object of the artist is the creation of the beautiful. What the beautiful is is another question.” 

― James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

BY Jenna Sule

James Joyce lived an interesting life filled with art and adventure. However, his early life started rather tame. Joyce was born on February 2, 1882, the oldest of ten children. His father was a singer but due to poor choice with drink, the family’s finances fell which pushed them further into poverty. Despite growing up destitute, Joyce had a natural gift for literature, which caused his family to push for him to get an education. He went to various Irish schools where he obtained degrees in art and modern language. According to The James Joyce Centre, he also learned around 17 languages including Arabic and Greek.

James Joyce
by Jacques-Emile Blanche

In 1904, Joyce started releasing his stories in various Irish magazines and journals. This was just the start of a series of stories written by Joyce. It was only three years later that he started writing his most famous work, Ulysses. Apparently, the success of his other works encouraged him to write the novel.

Among Joyce’s early works is a collection of short stories, Dubliners, published in 1914. He also released , A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916), Exiles (1918), Pomes Penyeach (1927), and Finnegans Wake (1939).

During WW1, Joyce and his family moved to Zurich, where he worked on Ulysses. Towards the end of his life, in 1940, Joyce made it to the south of France. It is thanks to Paul Léon, his close friend, that we have a lot of Joyce’s manuscripts because he went back to Joyce’s apartment in Paris to protect the family’s personal belongings. Unfortunately, it was only a year later that Joyce died in Zurich (where he had been given asylum with his family) on January 13, 1941 at the age of 58. He is now resting in Fluntern Cemetery, Zurich.

Lives of the Writers: Edgar Allan Poe

Why was Edgar Allan Poe so obsessed with death? Was it his tragic life, or maybe because he was a Capricorn? Find out the reason why and more as I give you all the most interesting facts about my favorite poet of all time!

BY CASSIDY WHITE

Possibly one of the most notable figures of the Romantic era, Edgar Allan Poe has become quite the household name for many a people. From his dark and haunting writing to his mysterious death that still has experts stumped, there are few people who don’t know at least something about Poe’s life. However, there are still many things that most people don’t know that I believe would be interesting for our readers to learn. So, here we go!

Photo from Wikipedia

To kick things off, the first fact to be noted is that Poe was actually an orphan from Boston, Massachusetts. He was raised in Virginia by the Allan family. He found his passion for writing after failing as an officer cadet at West Point–a military academy known for its strict policies and intensive training for soldiers. Before he began writing his most notable works, he wrote for a Boston newspaper under the pseudonym of Henri Le Rennet. He published several poems and short stories over the span of his career, but it wasn’t until 1845–four years before his death–that he became successful. “The Raven” is what cemented his existence in literary history, and is still revered as one of the most iconic poems of the Romantic era.

As explained by Wikipedia, “Poe’s best known fiction works are Gothic, adhering to the genres conventions to appeal to the public taste. His most recurring themes deal with questions of death, including its physical signs, the effects of decomposition, concerns of premature burial, the reanimation of the dead, and mourning.” Several historians have theorized that this blatant obsession with death, and particularly the “death of a beautiful woman” that he so frequently states across several of his works, can be directly tied to all the women he lost during his life, including his mother and his wife (or maybe it’s because he was a Capricorn!).

Photo from The New Yorker

Now, let’s dive in to some obscure facts that may be even more interesting! For starters, Poe worked for years as a critic, and eventually came to be known as “The Hatchet Man” among literary circles because he wrote scathing reviews about works of other authors. On top of that, he also published several politically satirical essays. While he inherited what today would be considered several million dollars (seventeen million to be exact) from his aunt when she passed, Poe still spent the better part of his life largely in debt. At one point, his debts became so much that he was forced to file bankruptcy because he owed 25 different loan creditors.

Edgar Allen Poe was a true mess of a human being, but aren’t most of us? He had his faults, his own traumas, but he still made art that captivated the world, and is still known as one of the greatest poets of the Romantic era. As someone who has felt much the same, and aspires to make art that people will remember, I can relate, and that’s why he’s my favorite poet of all time. Just think of all the things we still don’t know–and never will know–about him!

My favorite book to date: Poe’s entire oeuvre!