miércoles, 23 de octubre de 2013

12 O'Clock News by Elizabeth Bishop, comentario

Este poema de Elizabeth Bishop es un vanguardista estilo lírico, compuestos por dos partes visiblemente claras, las palabras de la izquierda que tienen relación con los objetos propios de la profesión periodística y la parte derecha donde se desarrolla la descripción de un lugar caracterizado por una economía agraria de organización en terrazas, con su particular raza de hombres y mujeres y presa de una guerra. Si hacemos una crítica basada en el "New Historicism", teniendo en cuenta cuando se publicó y los intereses de la autora, podemos asociar ese país con Vietnan, por sus campos de arroz, sus pobladores y la guerra en la que intervino Estados Unidos. Si además consideramos el texto como un todo, la parte izquierda y la derecha, conseguimos reconocer la verdadera intención de la autora al unir Vietnan, la guerra y el periodismo. Así podemos reflexionar sobre la labor periodística en las guerra y sobre la verdad y lo que nosotros llegamos a conocer de ella.

12 O'Clock News by Elizabeth Bishop is a vanguardistic lyrical construccion. It is made in tow parts, the left one is compoused by words about journalist and the right one is a description of an asiatic, agrarian and in war country. If we make a  critic, in a New Criticism way, we will point at the structure in two halves and the methaphores that link terraces and plains in the key-board or the type sheet and the agrarian fields or even the cementeries. But if you attack the text from a New Historicism hand, them, you could link this country with Vietnan, thinking in the period that it was writen, or the objets in the left half with the interpretation that news companies did about the conflict, so, you could realise you only know, throug journalists, that "Power" whants.


gooseneck lamp
As you all know, tonight is the night of the full
moon, half the world over. But here the moon
seems to hang motionless in the sky. It gives very
little light; it could be dead. Visibility is poor.
Nevertheless, we shall try to give you some idea of
the lay of the land and the present situation.
typewriter
The escapement that rises abruptly from the central
plain is in heavy shadow, but the elaborate terrac-
ing of its southern glacis gleams faintly in the dim
light, like fish scales. What endless labor those
small, peculiarly shaped terraces represent! And
yet, on them the welfare of this tiny principality
depends.
pile of mss.
A slight landslide occurred in the northwest about
an hour ago. The exposed soil appears to be of poor
quality: almost white, calcareous, and shaly. There
are believed to have been no casualties.
typed sheet
Almost due north, our aerial reconnaissance reports
the discovery of a large rectangular ‘field’, hitherto
unknown to us, obviously man-made. It is dark-
speckled. An airstrip? A cemetery?
envelopes
In this small, backward country, one of the most
backward left in the world today, communications
are crude and “industrialization” and its products
almost nonexistent. Strange to say, however, sign-
boards are on a truly gigantic scale.
ink-bottle
We have also received reports of a mysterious, oddly
shaped, black structure, at an undisclosed distance
to the east. Its presence was revealed only because
its highly polished surface catches such feeble
moonlight as prevails. The natural resources of the
country being far from completely known to us,
there is the possibility that this may be, or may
contain, some powerful and terrifying “secret
weapon”. On the other hand, given what we 
do
know, or have learned from our anthropologists
and sociologists about this people, it may well be
nothing more than a 
numen, or a great altar
recently erected to one of their gods, to which, in
their present historical state of superstition and
helplessness, they attribute magical power, and
may even regard as a “savior,” one last hope of
rescue from their grave difficulties.
typewriter
eraser
At last! One of the elusive natives has been spotted!
He appears to be—rather, to have been—a
unicyclist-courier, who may have met his end by
falling from the height of the escarpment because
of the deceptive illumination. Alive, he would have
been small, but undoubtedly proud and erect, with
the thick, bristling black hair typical of the
indigenes.
ashtray
From our superior vantage point, we can clearly see
into a sort of dugout, possibly a shell crater, a “nest”
of soldiers. They lie heaped together, wearing the
camouflage “battle dress” intended for “winter war-
fare”. They are in hideously contorted position, all
dead. We can make out at least eight bodies. These
uniforms were designed to be used in guerilla
warfare on the country's one snow-covered moun-
tain peak. The fact that these poor soldiers are
wearing them 
here, on the plain, gives further
proof, if proof were necessary, either of the childish-
ness and hopeless impracticality of this inscrutable
people, our opponents, or of the sad corruption of their
leaders.


From The Complete Poems: 1927-1979 , by Elizabeth Bishop.
Copyright © 1979, 1983 by Alice Helen Methfessel.
Used by permission of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, LLC.
All rights reserved.
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4 comentarios:

  1. Muchas gracias Ana, tu comentario me ha servido para entender el poema y poder terminar un trabajo de la universidad.

    Un abrazo.

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  2. Gracias Ana por tu reseña. Breve, concisa, y muy útil.

    ResponderEliminar
  3. Buen post, he tenido que hacer un trabajo sobre Elizabeth Bishop y este poema para la Universidad y tu opinión me ha servido, muchas gracias,

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  4. Me ha aclarado mucho como enfocar mi trabajo de la uni. Mil gracias!

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