tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16341497.post7577877151450916429..comments2023-04-12T06:57:22.726-04:00Comments on Buggeryville: TranslatableChrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06700221349311740958noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16341497.post-48450352403468021682009-02-15T13:13:00.000-05:002009-02-15T13:13:00.000-05:00If you're asking "How do national anthems go about...If you're asking "How do national anthems go about promoting the nations in question?" then "The Internationale" at first seems irrelevant because, although it has been asserted to be an anthem, it isn't about a nation, whereas that old Dr. Pepper song ("I'm a Pepper, she's a Pepper.... Wouldn't you like to be a Pepper too?") is suddenly revealed to be a national anthem of sorts. Although I would that "The Internationale" does offer a nationalistic gesture -- it promotes union between a set of people against another set of people (namely, tyrants). But is "The Star-Spangled Banner" an anthem? Well, barely, and it takes a couple of verses to really get to the anthemic bits, to stop being "just a lot of questions written during a fire", as <A HREF="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ialcz5mn158" REL="nofollow">Laurie Anderson put it</A>. And The Star-Spangled Banner's use of the "unanthemic" as an anthem might be telling in interesting ways, just as Darwish's use of the "unpoetic" might achieve certain "poetic" effects in context (akin to "bringing up the house lights" in the middle of a play?).<BR/><BR/>But yes, this is a liminal case, and I'm trying to trace out the borders I'm using, so that you know whether anything I say applies to how you're thinking about the world, or not. I'm not saying people who disagree with me are wrong, just different.Chrishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06700221349311740958noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16341497.post-24135390847086440902009-02-15T12:11:00.000-05:002009-02-15T12:11:00.000-05:00As a quick note, to say that "the text is 'unpoeti...As a quick note, to say that "the text is 'unpoetic'; its intricacies 'are found not in its verbal texture', but in its 'situation', its 'political gesture', told through its 'assertion of Arab identity'" seems to me as problematic as insisting that The Internationale is "unanthemic" because it does not involve a nationalistic political gesture, because it (may) involve(s) a rejection of national identity rather than its assertion, etc., etc.; to suggest that a text may be unpoetic because "I feel the poetry-reading parts of my brain failing to light up" looks to me like asserting The Internationale is unanthemic because one's heart doesn't fill with national patriotism when one sings it. (Or, which, maybe you're fine with! But it seems to me like an odd set of lines to draw.)<BR/><BR/>Or, that's how it strikes me. But this seems a liminal case - our mileage with one-another's borders may vary.khrushchevinlovehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08987610982263061410noreply@blogger.com