Wet Nightmares

SR:
Dry Fantasies of the Aids-prone?

Hmmm...interesting....

weird...kinda left me sickened....

[ #1 by GhalibZaman on December 18, 2002 8:41am PT
SR:
Dry Fantasies of the Aids-prone? ]

Sounds more like syphilis in last stage. -ew

Actually this was well written, bright, humorous and creative. And yes, the writer is correct; y`all men are afraid of this scenario which is why we get to read such incisive, intellectual posts from the usual suspects....one of our interactors is so bechan with the idea of syphillis that he evokes it in almost every posts he writes in response to text that isnt the usual Islamo fodder....do you think he understood Ibsen`s Ghosts when he read it? Will someone buy him the Cliffs Notes?

# 5
Same difference ;)

Gupt-roag(hindi/hindvi), or abla-e farangee(farsi/urdu); all are the gifts of the modern-day magis to the civilised worlds of Africa & Asia.-

Sohail, I am sure you have read Rabelais` Gargantua. If you haven`t, you should.

Samina, You may be oversimplifying the phenomenon and the repurcussions of a profound feeling called ``fear`` here. Fear is involved everywhere, in every social situation, interaction, gathering whatever you may like to study and it does not have to be between sexes alone or even one sided. Fear is one of the many forces that drove evolution and has contributed in human kind being where it is today. Just saying that women are afraid of men or vice versa does not say much. This can be stated for the purpose of oversimplification or for the purpose of exchanging knowing smiles while the ``weaker`` sex gets to ``gloat`` about an ``imaginary`` scenario. But as far as real value in gaining insight on the phenomenon of fear of objectification, role reversals, and other social phenomenons is concerned I am not sure where this would leave us. Anyway if the first case was the object of your statement then perhaps I should leave it here. (Do make note of where I have words in quotes. I hope you can understand what I am trying to say here)

[ #7 by Saminasha on December 18, 2002 12:07pm PT
...
one of our interactors is so bechan with the idea of syphillis that he evokes it in almost every posts he writes in response to text that isnt the usual Islamo fodder....do you think he understood Ibsen`s Ghosts when he read it? Will someone buy him the Cliffs Notes? ]

I would like to study Quran. Do they have Cliffs Notes for Quran? -ew

I dont know about the others but I just thought this was a case of guilts on part of hte author !!

Afrasiyab,
I quite understand your point and appreciate your reference to Rabelais. And yet I cannot mask the sheer joy I have in daydreaming in response to this particular piece, of how the world would be so different if men could have babies the way we can...and yes, we are better than the male gender, simply because we put up with missiles, billy clubs, oil rigs and that hideous creature called Howard Stern. In an honest world, there would have been reckoning a long time ago and I wouldnt have to worry about my President`s really stupid missile Star Wars plan...

EW:
I`m sure Hamidm2`s Notes would do...

Hydra,

What I love about this is that you`ve got the hard science delusion that social sciences are ``easier`` and more ``rational`` and ``linear`` and you arent even a prof!

Lord God Bless You Please, Doctor Rabbani,
I`ve SoHail`d You in Ways You`ll Never Know!

In the heart that magic touches,
a mystical spell drifts
through that soul:
to urge and drive
the hand of craft
to completeness
in the finishing
of one precious article.

The soul cannot live
without writing,
write without living,
to inhale breaths of splendor
that moves not the physical,
but the spirit of the writer
in his creating:
Hiding but ....
symbolizing the truth of fantasy.

RE ... ``The little plastic jesuses are imported from Taiwan and the wooden crosses come from Yakima, Washington...``.

Reality Check: Makah Native-American Sovereign Tribe of Yakama does make wooden crosses or Totem Pole Crosses in Yakima, Washington. It is the mainstay of their tribal economy. Well researched article!

...why is everyone so worried about the symbolism in this piece?...just read it and enjoy it for the great piece, albeit a bit off-the-wall, of writing that it is...

Role reversal in gender struggle was imminent so SR`s vision is not quite far fetched. There is no one to blame for this reversal of roles but men. As men, as Dr. Frankenstiens we are the one who created this monster; we are the one who let this monster out; we are the one who raised it, nurtured it and gave it the strength so now it can squeeze the shit out of us.

Story is poorly written. I think SR has deliberately tried to dumb it down so that the ``intellectuals`` at chowk could understand it. Never forget that a copmpromised art is not art, its business - the show business.

AN APPEAL FOR A BOYCOTT.

Dear People,

In the name of humanity and in the name of good conscience I would like to appeal to you to boycott Nestle products from now on. The multinational coffee corporation, Nestle, is demanding a $6m (£3.7m) payment from the government of the world`s poorest state, Ethiopia, as the country struggles to combat its worst famine for nearly 20 years.
The money is compensation for an Ethiopian business, which the previous military government nationalised in 1975. It could feed a million people for a month, according to Oxfam.

Dear People,

Let us not forget that humanity is starving in Africa for no other reason but ruthless loot and plunder of Europeans. People there suffer civil wars, death, hunger, torture, only because Europeans have and still are playing games and looting gold, diamonds and other natural resources without impunity. Let us also not forget the centuries of slavery, prejudice, and apartheid that Europeans have subjected Africans to. And now they have balls to ask for compensation? Only one who should be paying compensation here is the Europeans to the Africans for they are the one who committed crimes against humanity and inflicted inhuman indignity to the Africans.

Dear people!

Just imagine your children and loved ones in place of starving Africans. If you care for humanity; if you care for dignity of a human being you must boycott these capitalist corporate thugs.

Dear people.

Please keep in mind that Nestle is not the only one but 40 other multinational vultures are also hovering above the dying Africans.

Say No to Nestle. Say no to Capitalist Corporate Vultures

http://www.guardian.co.uk/famine/story/0,12128,862655,00.html

GZ, Hydra,
Since I neither use nor would know how to access Cliff`s Notes, I found a critical essay on the plot lines of Ghosts. Put on your thinking caps my dried up little friends!


Ghosts: A Microcosm of Human Behavior

By Canova Henderson, Autumn Miller, and Amy Smith
Drama is a form of art in which the artist creates a story concerning people and their conflicts without personally describing, narrating, or explaining what is happening. In many parts of the world, there were ancient rituals that this may have developed from, but Greece is where true drama is believed to have originated. Tragedy was first introduced when Peisistratus reincorporated the festival of Dionysus, the god of wine and fertility, between 534 and 531 B.C. The festival came to consist of three types of plays: tragedy, a serious play with sad events; satyr, or satire; and comedy, a light-hearted and rather amusing play. Playwrights held competitions for which they would write three tragedies and one comedy. These were then performed and a winner was chosen.
The actual development of plays is somewhat vague. It is known that the earliest tragedies were largely just lyrical dances. Thespis was the first to separate one man from the chorus and create dialogue between the two. Aeschylus reduced the size of the chorus, minimizing its significance and giving greater weight to the actor. He also added a second actor. This greatly enhanced the opportunity for conflict to occur. Sophocles is believed to have developed ``the well-made play`` which was so admired by Aristotle. Euripides responded to demands to be enlightened. With thoughts stemming from Socrates, he returned to Aeschylus with grand choral effects.

The art of tragedy began to flourish. Plays were written and performed in large numbers throughout the fourth century. For a time there was even a school for tragic poets (Encyclopedia Britannica 626-632).

Since the earliest records of drama, man has sought to communicate the follies of his race using this art as a median. Henrik Johan Ibsen`s nineteenth century play Ghosts may be seen as a classic example of a superbly written tragedy portraying behaviors typical of mankind over the ages.

Henrik Johan Ibsen is the father of modern drama. He was born in Skien, Norway on March 20, 1828. He left home at the age of fifteen and moved to Grimstad where he became a druggist`s apprentice. He was exiled completely from respectable society when he fathered an illegitimate child (M Meyer 455).

This did not stop him, however. Ibsen became a medical student at the University of Oslo but quickly drifted into journalism and theater. He was soon appointed playwright, stage manager, and instructor of drama at Bergen National Theater. Six years later, in 1857, Henrik moved back to Oslo to take charge of another theater and stayed there until 1862 (M Meyer 456). Ibsen married Susannah Thoresen in 1858 and she bore him a son, Sigurd, one year later. They moved to Rome where Ibsen became increasingly involved in his work and family and, as a result, had few close friends. It was here that Ghosts was published in 1881.

The family returned to Norway ten years later. Shortly after the age of seventy, Henrik suffered several strokes. He died on May 23, 1906 at the age of seventy-eight. He had written twenty-eight dramas in his lifetime (M Meyer 457).

Henrik Ibsen`s influence on modern drama was both thematic and technical. His way of treating serious subjects drove plays of sentiment off the stage. Henrik`s technique of ``analytic expression`` became an addition to nearly every modern dramatist`s repertoire. His ideal of economical, uncluttered structure ``is not a particular influence on the contemporary playwright, it is the very air he breathes`` (M Meyer 458). Ibsen also contributed double-density dialogue through this play. This is when characters say one thing and mean another. It is very much like ``beating around the bush.`` It helps people say difficult things without stating them directly. Ghosts was also the first great tragedy about middle-class people written in plain prose (M Meyer 490-491).

On November 23, 1881, Henrik Ibsen wrote a letter to Jacob Hegel in which he stated, ``Ghosts will probably cause alarm in some circles; but that can`t be helped. If it didn`t there would have been no necessity for me to have written it`` (M Meyer 482).

The play was published in December of the same year. Unfortunately, Ghosts did not sell as well as was expected. People did not want it in their family libraries because of its content (M Meyer 483).

Ghosts is the story of a woman, Mrs. Alving, who leaves her husband but is persuaded by Pastor Manders, whom she loves, to return home to a man who cheats on her. Captain Alving has an affair with the maid and they produce a child, Regina. His wife bears a son, Oswald, who turns out to have inherited his father`s syphilis. Oswald is sent to boarding school at a very young age in hopes that he will not learn the truth about his father and maintain respect for both parents. However, when he returns from Paris, he has no love or respect for his mother, for he has never known her, and wishes to marry Regina, ignorant of the fact that she is truly Alving`s daughter. Mrs. Alving has built an orphanage to honor her dead husband. Yet, when it burns, the money ends up being used for a brothel which is to be called, most fittingly, Captain Alving`s Home. The past is finally brought to light at the conclusion but this does not ease the widow`s pain. She is still haunted by ``ghosts`` and her own indecisiveness.

This play attacked some of the most sacred principles of the age. It attacked the sanctity of marriage and the duty of a son to honor his father. It referred to venereal disease and defended free love. It also suggested that, under certain circumstances, incest may be justifiable. People did not want to buy or perform the play because it was, as Ludvig Josephson said, ``one of the filthiest things ever written.`` It was ``a repulsive pathological Ghosts 5 phenomenon which, by undermining the morality of our social order, threatens its very foundations`` according to Erik Bogh (M Meyer 484).

In 1882, Ibsen said, ``The play is not concerned with advocating anything. It merely points to the fact that nihilism is fermenting beneath the surface of Norway as everywhere else. A Pastor Manders will always incite some Mrs. Alving into being. And she, simply because she is a woman, will, once she has started, go to the ultimate extreme`` (M Meyer 486).

The world premiere of Ghosts was in Chicago on May 20, 1882 at Aurora Turner Hall with Helga von Bluhme playing Mrs. Alving. This is the first record of any Ibsen play being performed in the United States (M Meyer 487).

Ibsen`s contemporaries saw Ghosts as a play about physical illness and failed to see what it is really about. The play is truly about the ``devitalizing effect of a dumb acceptance of convention.`` It stressed the importance of waging war against the past, the need for each individual to find freedom, and the danger of renouncing love in the name of duty. It attacked the hollowness of great reputations, provincialism of outlook, the narrow and inhibiting effect of small-town life, the suppression of individual freedom from within as well as from the outside world, and the neglect of the significance of heredity (M Meyer 488). In fact, Oswald`s very illness could be a symbol of the dead customs and traditions which cripple us and lay waste to our lives (M Meyer 490).

There have been questions concerning the play`s authenticity as a tragedy. True tragedy, as defined by Aristotle, should be complete within itself. It should have unity of place, time, and manner. It should also inspire intense feelings of pity for the tragic hero and fear that their experiences may someday be your own. Henrik Ibsen`s Ghosts has these qualities. ``[It] has been described by many critics... as the most classically constructed of Ibsen`s plays, not merely in its obedience to the Aristotelian unities but in the economy of its construction`` (M Meyer 490).

One can safely say that there is unity in the play Ghosts. All three acts occur in Mrs. Alving`s house. Five people come to this house as a part of a closed society. ``Ibsen has cornered them in a situation in which the self is inexplorably brought to trial and convicted of bungling its past`` (H Meyer 57). The play takes place between one morning and the next, concentrated to a period of twenty-four hours. Through the night, the characters confess, deny, and defend until everything unravels and the truth can be seen. The morning breaks and, as the sun rises, the horrid truth is unveiled (H Meyer 57-58). Everything about the play leads up to a moment of truth at the conclusion. Every aspect of the plot and the actions and words of the characters focuses on achieving this end. ``Each act reflects in miniature the inner form of the play, whose basic purpose is to get at the truth`` (H Meyer 57).

All the characters in Ghosts are seeking some social or material advantage. Engstrand, Regina`s ``father,`` wants money, the Pastor would like respectability, and Mrs. Alving is searching for her true human condition. ``She tests everything... in the light of her extremely strict if unsophisticated moral sensibility: by direct perception and not by ideas at all... she is tragically seeking.`` Many critics notice a link between Mrs. Alving and the character Oedipus of Oedipus Rex. Both are searching for the truth about themselves and, when this is found and their past is revealed, it brings them to ruin (Fergusson 41). Mrs. Alving is haunted by her husband`s reckless past as she sees it relived through her son and maid. In the end, she faces the past, finds truth, and watches as her world crashes down around her.

One may find that Oswald was not actually Alving`s son. The possibility that he was Pastor Manders` son is quite likely. Early in the play, the pastor reminds Mrs. Alving of the time she ran away from her husband and sought refuge with him. He states, ``I dissuaded you from your wild designs`` (Ibsen 249). Throughout the play, the widow seems to be defensive about her son`s heredity. Such safeguarding could be denial of a past affair between herself and Manders which very well could have produced Oswald. One may recall a scene where Manders remarks in reference to Oswald, ``But there`s an expression about the corners of his mouth...something about the lips that reminds one exactly of Alving...`` and Mrs. Alving refutes, ``Not in the least. Oswald has rather a clerical curve about his mouth, I think`` (Ibsen 245). This scene may hint that Manders is trying to find something within Oswald that resembles the captain rather than himself, and Mrs. Alving tells him that if he is to resemble his father, he must resemble Manders. More evidence to support this theory is the time at which Oswald went to boarding school. He was sent away at the age of seven; this was to shelter him from the slanderous facts of his family history and keep people from noticing his resemblance to Manders (Ibsen 252). One may ask about the section where Oswald explains his disease as one he contracted through the sins of his father (Ibsen 267). This may be explained by his lack of moral training. Since he never really lived with his family, proper values were not instilled in him. Through this interpretation, one may gather that Ibsen is trying to suggest that lack of ethics and sexual misconduct, and the abortion of duty can only lead to sticky situations.

There are many symbols present throughout Ibsen`s work. The first is rain. Outside of Mrs. Alving`s home it remains stormy until the truth is faced and the sun begins to rise on a cloudless new day. In Ghosts, rain is used as a symbol of the cleansing of evil and impurities. It washes away the facades so that the truth may be seen and the ``ghosts`` may be finally put to rest. When this takes place the sun, another symbol, rises, revealing reality. Mrs. Alving said, ``And then we are, one and all, so pitifully afraid of the light`` (Ibsen 258). All the characters are afraid to face reality, especially Mrs. Alving who, upon seeing the detrimental effects of Oswald`s illness, cries ``I can`t bear it; I can`t bear it! Never!`` (Ibsen 285)

Fire is yet another symbol Ibsen uses. When Oswald comes downstairs with Alving`s pipe, he recalls an incident when he was given the pipe in his youth. Young Oswald smoked until he became sick. This is a foreshadowing of his illness, another sickness caused by careless actions (Ibsen 245). Another time when fire is seen is when the orphanage, built in honor of Alving, is burned (Ibsen 273). The truth, like the fire, is rising quickly, devouring the illusions. When it has extinguished, the fantasy world has gone up in smoke and all that remains are the painful ashes of the past.

Engstrand is also a symbol. He represents society as a whole. He has a crippled leg and yet says about his ethics, he has ``two good legs to stand on`` (Ibsen 262). Society is very much like this. It seems to be solid and stable but has weak foundations. It will never completely heal or lose its flaws. Oswald could be interpreted as a major symbol in the play. ``[Mrs. Alving] makes him the symbol of all she is seeking: freedom, innocence, joy, and truth`` (Fergusson 41). Oswald is ignorant of the truth, giving him a false sense of innocence. He seems to have some power to stand up for his own beliefs, something his mother lacks. She, as a wife and mother, is given Ghosts 10 the duty to uphold the moral structure of the home. However, ``Oswald is of course not only a symbol for his mother, but a person in his own right, with his own quest for freedom and release... Oswald is the hidden reality of the whole situation`` (Fergusson 41). His illness remains hidden in its origins along with his past, but within him lies the truth.

The orphanage and Captain Alving`s Home, a brothel, are both subtle symbols. The orphanage represents the illusion Mrs. Alving has created while the brothel is the reality of her husband`s life. In the end the truth is made known, the orphanage burned, and the brothel takes it place. This coincides with the awakening from illusion to reality.

Michael Meyer states, ``Ghosts has been described as the most classically constructed of Ibsen`s plays, not only for its coherence to Aristotle`s definition, but in the economy of its design.`` This is not exactly true. Manders is given quite a lot of superfluous dialogue. Some say he represents one of the very few examples of Ibsen allowing his personal feelings to get out of hand so much that it unbalances his composition. On the other hand, the author`s adherence to the Aristotelian aspects of tragedy greatly overshadows this discrepancy.

Aristotle defined a tragedy as a work uniform in time and place that is also highly realistic. Ghosts fits this definition. All scenes take place in the garden room. This satisfies the requirement of unity of place. In addition, all catalystic action occurs in this room. The play`s time span is about one day. It is just long enough for Oswald to come home, tell of his ailment and his plans to marry Regina, and learn the truth about his father. If this really happened, it would take approximately the same amount of time used in the play. The reality factor is also very prevalent. The scenario could happen. A woman leaves her promiscuous husband, and, at the persuasion of the pastor (whom she is in love with), ends up returning to the loveless humiliating marriage and helping to keep her husband`s reputation sparkling clean. It is also possible for a child to contract venereal diseases from his or her parents. The reality factor helps to put pity and fear into the audience, thus fulfilling another qualification of tragedy.

Of course, the most important criteria of a tragedy has yet to be discussed, the tragic flaw. Indecision appears to be the ultimate downfall of the tragic hero, Mrs. Alving. The first indication of this can be found in the opening act of Ghosts. Here, Pastor Manders and she try to decide if the orphanage should be insured. The Pastor argues that, since the orphanage is ``to a higher purpose,`` it would be scandalous to do so. Such a thing would send out a message that God could not be completely trusted. Mrs. Alving is torn but eventually gives in to the preacher`s wishes saying, ``No. We`ll leave it alone`` (Ibsen 242). As a result of this, when the orphanage burns to the ground it is unable to be rebuilt.

Even at the very end of the play, this hero cannot decide whether she should put Oswald out of his misery by giving him poison as he has requested or let him suffer through his last days in agony.

Mrs. Alving has another small fault. Her sense of duty stops her from doing what she feels is best. This is what returned her to her husband. This is what caused her to cover up his affair and illegitimate child.

The style of Ghosts is very simple. It is written in everyday prose, making it easy for nearly all to understand. The characters are ordinary, middle-class citizens. However, Ibsen uses much double-density dialogue, enhancing the style of his work. Manders and Mrs. Alving spend much of their time circling around issues they refuse to deal with directly. This literary device makes the play more realistic due to the fact that people tend to dodge embarrassing topics.

Henrik Ibsen`s Ghosts is a microcosm of human behavior. The scenario presented could occur, in his nineteenth century society or our twentieth century one. The characters are realistic. They can all be found in any town or family. We all know of a Mrs. Alving, the woman devoted to her family and concerned about their image; an Oswald, the detached son; and a Pastor Manders, a ``holy`` man hiding the truth. Ibsen has done a wonderful job of creating a miniature universe.