"In these studies I have sought to re-name the things seen, now lost in chaos of borrowed titles, many of them inappropriate, under which the true character lies hid. In letters, in journals, reports of happenings I have recognized new contours suggested by old words so that new names were constituted. Thus, where I have found noteworthy stuff, bits of writing have been copied into the book for the taste of it. Everywhere I have tried to separate out from the original records some flavor of an actual peculiarity the character denoting shape which the unique force has given."
In 1922, traveling with the passport photo seen above, William Carlos Williams, with the help of his wife Flossie, composed the majority of In the American Grain while on a European vacation. At a time when many prominent adherents of high modernism rejected the assumed shallow depths of the American intellect and embraced the life of the expatriate, Williams mined his native waters to expose portraits from which the American identity may be partially defined. Not the stories of history textbooks or even necessarily true stories, but the tales inspired by the characters found in primary sources.
In 250 or so pages, Williams travels brilliantly from Eric the Red all the way to Abraham Lincoln, often replicating the voice or the sensibilities of the subject in such dazzlingly gorgeous language that I laughed to think that this is the poet's prose outing as it often sings like poetry. As mentioned by Rick Moody in the introduction to the latest edition from New Directions, Williams has almost completely suppressed his own voice and simple word choices in order to channel the figures of whom he writes, sparing the reader nothing when it comes to violence, hypocrisy, rigidity and still rejoicing in the passion of these early Americans.
Anyone that has ever read their native country's history in the history books of another country understands more completely what they suspected of the vast subjectivity of popularly accepted views of the past. In that light, Williams' literary treatment of history is no less valid than accepted historical fact. While our history books are often based upon the cult of personality, Williams bases his portraits upon the essence of personality, the difficult realities of character and circumstance that framed outcomes whose smaller preceding moments are subject to interpretation.
The assumption that history is the story of great men whose actions determine reality for faceless masses is also treated in a sharp manner, humorously disregarding the casual villanizing of lesser characters. Especially amusing to me were the descriptions of the feared witches of Salem who were observed sitting on people, keeping people from sleep, and pranking their cattle. Or actually any of the subtly menacing descriptions of the Puritans brought me a mischievous readerly joy.
Also really enjoyed the treatment of location as its own character in the text, hinted at throughout and then stated explicitly in the next to last portrait in the book that features Edgar Allen Poe.
"Disarmed, in his poetry the place itself comes through. This is the New World. It is this that it does, as if --
It is in this wraithlike quality of his poems, of his five poems, that Poe is most of the very ground, hard to find, as if he walked upon a cushion of light pressed thin beneath our feet, that insulates, satirises - while we lash ourselves up and down in a fury of impotence.
Poe stayed against the thin edge, driven to be heard by the battering racket about him to a distant screaming - the pure essence of his locality."
And from the same section, this much-quoted passage points to the timelessness of Williams' instincts as to the American identity. A passage that still resonates today.
"[America] has become 'the most lawless country in the civilized world,' a panorama of murders, perversions, a terrific ungoverned strength, excusable only because of the horrid beauty of its machines. To-day it is a generation of gross know-nothingism, of blackened churches where hymns groan like chants from stupefied jungles, a generation universally eager to barter permanent values (the hope of an aristocracy) in return for opportunist material advantages, a generation hating those whom it obeys."
But there is love and admiration in all the voices of dissent. The language is glorious and twisted into the most beautiful designs. A design of American identity not typically offered but stunning in all its complexities and faults. A must-read.
This is this month's selection for our non-structured book group. Summer fun, house guests who should have left earlier than they did, moving, and poor planning will delay some of the posts for this one. :) But this is after all a non-structured book group. Will update links as they appear.
