Author: bravo0925

Miró Miró

  1. Miró is a reference to the Spanish painter Joan Miró, who was active in the late 19th century. He was known for his works which fused abstract art and Surreal fantasy. His style changed from as his view on modern life evolved. The chapter title Miró, Miró, on the Wall, alludes to the famous line from Snow White, “Mirror, mirror on the wall”. Claire Soderberg, the main character of this chapter, references this with “Miró, Miró on the wall, who is the deadest of them all?” This is a reference to her upper-class status and her the sadness she is in over the passing of her son, Joshua. 
  2. The primary characters that we’ve been introduced to so far are Claire, Ciaran, Corrigan, Adelita, Blaine, Fernando, Jazzlyn, Lara, Philipe, Sam Peters (The Kid) and the other programmers, Solomon, Tillie, Gloria and the other grieving mothers. I have counted about 70 connections in the book alone.Lara and her husband Blaine were predominant painters in New York. They decide to move to the outskirts of town to gather themselves and practice art styles from the 20s and 30s. Lara and Blaine are the passengers in the car that hit Corrigan’s van on the parkway, which resulted in the death of Jazzlyn and Corrigan. This relationship is interesting because she took the blame for the accident even though Blaine was driving. Ciaran forgives her for this and they soon develop a relationship.I think it’s worth noting that Lara and Blaine both study the same art that Joan Miro became so popular for in his time. I also think the connection between Marcia and the tightrope walker was interesting too. She was sure that the man on the wire was her son coming to say hello. Claire only asked the question as to why a man would risk his life such a task as walking a tightrope above 110 stories.

 

Let the Great World Spin Chapter One

From the Dublin Bay in Ireland to the projects in Bronx, New York, Let the Great World Spin has taken me from one end of the Atlantic to the other. The prologue of the book sets you up almost above the World Trade Center in 1974, around the time the novel takes place. You are watching Philippe Petit walked a tightrope between the two towers. To me, this represents the bridging of two worlds and two brothers, Carian and Corrigan. These two brothers grew distant at one point and lived two different lives. One joined a monastery and moved to the Bronx where he thought he could help the “lost souls”, while another took up a normal life. The prologue can also represent the joining of the two brothers and those in the Bronx projects (prostitutes, the pimps, drug addicts).

This chapter took me on an emotional rollercoaster. From when Corrigan was young and helping the homeless and addicts in Dublin, to when we learn he leaves his door open for the women to use between clients in the Bronx left me in awe. Corrigan takes beatings from pimps and continues to leave his door open for the women knowing the consequences. For this, he is the most interesting character to me. He is a man with a history of helping others, but for also getting mixed up in what they to do.

The most baffling part of the chapter to me was the car accident. After Corrigan went to pick her up from jail, he got rear ended and Jazzlyn went flying out of the car and died on impact. Corrigan is taken to the hospital and when Adelita (his love affair with her took me by surprise) visits him, announces that he sees something beautiful. Could this be heaven?

Oedipus

Oedipus is best known for his roots in Greek mythology in the story Oedipus Rex where he kills his father and marries his mother. Merriam-Webster defines Oedipus as a complex in which a child feels sexual desires toward the parent of the opposite sex along with jealous feelings toward the parent of the same sex. In summary, Oedipus at Colonnus, Sophocles exaggerates the culmination of the tragic hero’s life and his mythic implication for Athens. During the course of the play, Oedipus experiences a transformation from a hopeless drifter, expelled from his city because of his evils, into a symbol of immense power, capable of extending divine blessings. In conjunction to Stanley Diamond’s, The Beautiful and the Ugly are One Thing, the Sublime Another: A Reflection on Culture, Oedipus Rex is used as an example to measure joy within cultural realization. It describes a culture’s struggle as being something against all forces that reduce people to productive social mechanisms. A society’s needs can be simplified to routine as symbolism and are turned into behavior. Here, culture no longer serves as an expression. That realization is in the words and description that Sophocles uses when Oedipus shuffles off the guilt for his sins. The language used in this play transcends the norm and basic. It is in works like Oedipus Rex and King Lear in which culture was no longer mere functionality but transcends the norm. It is in cases like that where joy “exists”.