In the past couple hours, I read that the statue of Walt Whitman is being removed from Rutgers-Camden campus because he was racist.
My first reaction was 'G-damn these oversensitive young activists, ' and I went into full defense mode. It was Whitman who wrote in Leaves of Grass :
A man’s body at auction
(For before the war I often go to the slave-mart and watch the sale.)
I help the auctioneer, the sloven does not half know his business. . .
Gentlemen look on this wonder.
Whatever the bids of the bidders they cannot be high enough for it. (1)
This is not only one man, this the father of those who shall be fathers
in their turns
In him the start of populous states and rich republics, Of him count-
less immortal lives with countless embodiments and enjoyments,
I adore the egalitarian, huge hearted queer and his hymn to America and to us all. An amazing man, an observer not detached from what he observed, caught up with the very solid earth beneath his feet, the sun on his back, the hand of his lover, but also an idealist seeing the inherent promise of perfection in the less than perfect world we live in:
COME said the Muse,
Sing me a song no poet yet has chanted,
Sing me the universal.
In this broad earth of ours,
Amid the measureless grossness and the slag,
Enclosed and safe within its central heart,
Nestles the seed perfection.
By every life a share or more or less,
None born but it is born, conceal'd or unconceal'd the seed is
waiting.
How could they chuck him in the Old Racist Loser pile? But I started hunting around a little, and yup, indeed he was a racist. It's bad, too. The site doesn't allow copying, but it's here --I think people can access it as a courtesy if you're not a member.
So what do I do with this cognitive dissonance? And it's big. He sounds like Ontologuy or SmartCat. Or maybe, since he came first, they sound like him. I don't know how the same man who wrote Leaves of Grass could possibly be the one quoted in that biography. But he is. Maybe the answer is in Song of the Universal: "Amid the measureless grossness and the slag, Enclosed and safe within its central heart, Nestles the seed perfection." To Walt was born a piece, or more or less, and it shone out at times, like the sun on a cloudy day.
But you all might as well know I'm sort of heartbroken, confused and saddened to learn that Walt had a lousy view of African Americans as an amorphous whole, although when confronted with individuals, he was more fair. It was the fashion of the time to study the shape of skulls and to postulate on behavior and apply Survival of the Fittest. It was ugly, and part of the grossness of our feet of clay.
So I can see why they're taking down his statue, but I'm still crying.
My first reaction was 'G-damn these oversensitive young activists, ' and I went into full defense mode. It was Whitman who wrote in Leaves of Grass :
A man’s body at auction
(For before the war I often go to the slave-mart and watch the sale.)
I help the auctioneer, the sloven does not half know his business. . .
Gentlemen look on this wonder.
Whatever the bids of the bidders they cannot be high enough for it. (1)
This is not only one man, this the father of those who shall be fathers
in their turns
In him the start of populous states and rich republics, Of him count-
less immortal lives with countless embodiments and enjoyments,
I adore the egalitarian, huge hearted queer and his hymn to America and to us all. An amazing man, an observer not detached from what he observed, caught up with the very solid earth beneath his feet, the sun on his back, the hand of his lover, but also an idealist seeing the inherent promise of perfection in the less than perfect world we live in:
COME said the Muse,
Sing me a song no poet yet has chanted,
Sing me the universal.
In this broad earth of ours,
Amid the measureless grossness and the slag,
Enclosed and safe within its central heart,
Nestles the seed perfection.
By every life a share or more or less,
None born but it is born, conceal'd or unconceal'd the seed is
waiting.
How could they chuck him in the Old Racist Loser pile? But I started hunting around a little, and yup, indeed he was a racist. It's bad, too. The site doesn't allow copying, but it's here --I think people can access it as a courtesy if you're not a member.
Walt Whitman's America
Winner of the Bancroft Prize and the Ambassador Book Award and Finalist for the National for the Book Critics Circle Award In his poetry Walt Whitman set out to encompass all of America and in so doing heal its deepening divisions. This magisterial biography demonstrates the epic scale of his...
books.google.com
So what do I do with this cognitive dissonance? And it's big. He sounds like Ontologuy or SmartCat. Or maybe, since he came first, they sound like him. I don't know how the same man who wrote Leaves of Grass could possibly be the one quoted in that biography. But he is. Maybe the answer is in Song of the Universal: "Amid the measureless grossness and the slag, Enclosed and safe within its central heart, Nestles the seed perfection." To Walt was born a piece, or more or less, and it shone out at times, like the sun on a cloudy day.
But you all might as well know I'm sort of heartbroken, confused and saddened to learn that Walt had a lousy view of African Americans as an amorphous whole, although when confronted with individuals, he was more fair. It was the fashion of the time to study the shape of skulls and to postulate on behavior and apply Survival of the Fittest. It was ugly, and part of the grossness of our feet of clay.
So I can see why they're taking down his statue, but I'm still crying.