WAStudent+Alden

Urban/Nature in Whitman: Alden’s Response to Caroline’s Assignment My initial response to the first two images, the painted lithograph and “A Gorge in the Mountains,” was one in which the juxtaposition of the two images seemed to be a very explicit representation of the prevalent city/country, constructed/natural, collective/individual dichotomy present in Whitman’s work. Yet what I found interesting upon spending more time with these images was that despite their seemingly incongruous elements, they were more that mere oppositions to one another for they both had similar stylistic attributes. First, the canyon present in “A Gorge…” is also mirrored in the painted lithograph as the built up urban walls themselves create a manufactured gorge. Both works recede into a single focal point, the waterfall and an American flag (the one at the end of the broad avenue), respectively. Perhaps I’m reading too much into these vanishing points, but it is nonetheless interesting to note that the sheer-scale and grandeur of “A Gorge” recedes into the large waterfall in the distance – suggesting the power and magnitude of the natural order is rooted in the immensity of the waterfall. So too, to the hustle and controlled chaos of the urban environment depicted in the painted lithograph finds its focal source of authority in the figurative representation of the American flag. It is almost as if the entire scene emanates from the mythic representation of power the flag holds. This juxtaposition immediately called to mind for me, Whitman’s lines in LoG: // “Through the clear atmosphere I stretch around on the wonderful beauty, The enormous masses of ice pass me and I pass them. . . . the scenery is plain in all directions, The white-topped mountains point up in the distance. . . . I fling out my fancies toward them; We are about approaching some great battlefield in which we are soon to be engaged, We pass the colossal outposts of the encampments. . . . we pass with still feet and caution; Or we are entering by the suburbs some vast and ruined city. . . . the blocks and fallen architecture more than all the living cities of the globe.” // I feel that these lines resonate with the two pieces, and I think its rather strange that here Whitman depicts the natural world as being the figurative decay of the urban world. With a bit of imaginative recontextualization, the jagged rocks in “A Gorge…” are reminiscent of the rubble of failed attempts by the realm of the collective, the realm of the urban, to subvert and dominant the realm of the natural. It is also of interest to focus on the choice of word, “battlefield” as it situates the relationship between the urban and the natural as one of inherent contestation – and it seems that throughout LoG, Whitman valiantly tries to reconcile this archetypal conflict. It is rather difficult to guess what the painted lithograph is about. There is a chaotic feel to the lithograph, yet what strikes me as most confusing is the fact that there seem to be firemen engaging in a rescue of some kind, yet immediately behind them appear to be what looks like a picket line. While the assertion of Broadway being “democratic” is somewhat hard to garner from the lithograph alone. Polysemic perhaps, but I have a hard time extending “democratic” to the representation even in light of Whitman’s poem on Broadway. I feel that the sheer representation of a sort of social multivalency (i.e. poverty alongside wealth) doesn’t necessarily preclude a social democracy. I guess what I’m trying to get at, is while from the lithograph alone I can extract that many social positions are being depicted – I can’t necessarily ascribe social agency to any of representations, and as such am having difficulty “reading” Broadway as democratic. Feedback: Great assignment Caroline! I appreciate that you left the assignment rather open ended, in the sense that the student can arrive at our own conclusion rather than be led explicitly to what you wanted us to get out of doing the assignment. I felt that the aesthetic commentary in light of Whitman’s poetry on the relationship between the natural and urban to very engaging, yet I’m still struggling to reconcile the way in which any discourse on the “democratic” fit into this relationship. It’s probably my own shortcomings in failing to understand how the “democratic” relates to the images you’ve provided – but that’s probably the only point that I’d need a little more help with.