Re: The Dwarf Beneath The Mountain // Rob

In message <1190977242.297756.280210@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, George Dance <georgedance04@xxxxxxxx> writes
On Sep 28, 3:26 am, Sherrie Lee <sherriel...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Sep 27, 7:05 pm, George Dance <georgedanc...@xxxxxxxx> wrote:

> On Sep 25, 1:31 pm, Sherrie Lee <sherriel...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> > On Sep 25, 3:51 pm, George Dance <georgedanc...@xxxxxxxx> wrote:

> > > On Sep 25, 12:40 pm, Sherrie Lee <sherriel...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> > > > On Sep 25, 3:17 pm, George Dance <georgedanc...@xxxxxxxx> wrote:

> > > > > On Sep 25, 11:18 am, Sullivan the Poet <sullivanp...@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> > > > > wrote:

> > > > > > On Sep 25, 5:50 pm, George Dance <georgedanc...@xxxxxxxx> wrote:

> > > > > > > On Sep 25, 6:51 am, Rafael Corazon <P...@xxxxxxx> wrote:

> > > > > > > > The Dwarf Beneath The Mountain

> > > > > > > > The dwarf beneath the mountain fears the light
> > > > > > > > because it once cast out his crooked shade
> > > > > > > > so now he speaks through crevices and cracks
> > > > > > > > that twist towards the world yet block the sun.

> > > > > > > > The dwarf beneath the mountain hates the world
> > > > > > > > because it does not love him but that truth
> > > > > > > > is far too painful even in the dark
> > > > > > > > and so he claims it has abandoned God

> > > > > > > > and since his one true deity is made
> > > > > > > > in his own dwarfish image from the night
> > > > > > > > it has no time for simple charity
> > > > > > > > and it cannot forgive the joyful day.

> > > > > > > > The dwarf pretends to be an oracle
> > > > > > > > and hopes his endless venomed muttering
> > > > > > > > will seep out through the stones into the streams
> > > > > > > > and stop the breath of every single soul.

> > > > > > > > The dwarf beneath the mountain is a fool
> > > > > > > > for even if he closed all other eyes
> > > > > > > > he still could never walk outside for fear
> > > > > > > > of being seen by some abandoned mirror.

> > > > > > > > Rob

> > > > > > > > --
> > > > > > > > Rob Evans

> > > > "Gee (George), I don't think there is a dwarf in this movie."

> > > > -- Gloria Mundy
> > > > _Foul Play_

> > [...] The argument seems to need to address that which
> > defines Art.

> > A big hunk of it has be reflected in the editing. That's like Rob's
> > poem. One would have to wonder, however, if this "dwarf" type has it
> > in himself to edit the mirror. Then again, he hides himself. I don't
> > know why he has to be a dwarf except for syllable count and sound. Why
> > couldn't he be a hermit?

> Because a hermit isn't different enough. That's important because:

> As I read it, the dwarf is like the Devil. A person feels anger, hate,
> frustration, etc., and sometimes anxiety and unhappiness as a result
> (as those are most unacceptable emotions, which can get one punished).
> So he makes up or reifies some external thing to be the source of the
> hate: a devil or a dwarf - that gives him an acceptable outlet for his
> hate, as he can now hate it. The trick for that to work is for the
> person to not realize that he's hating his own emotions, and for that
> the external thing should be as different from the person as
> possible.

I took the voice of the poem to be the mirror who was there to reflect
the characteristics of the dwarf and who felt the dwarf would not come
out for fear of this mirror's (who was abandoned) reflecting these
characteristics.

The mirror said nothing about any acceptable feelings because it
reflected only that which it projected upon the dwarf as if the mirror
was some all seeing thing (which it acts as the omniscient voice of
the poem).


True; but at least it is clear, to both of us, that the poem is not
reflecting the dwarf's feelings, but projecting those feelings onto
him. Insofar as the poem is a mirror (and to some extent they always
are), it's reflecting the speaker's feelings, not the dwarf's. Why
that happens is my own theory, of course; all the poem shows is that
it does happen.


And that's just the thing. It acts. It has to act because
so far as what is true is the dwarf has yet to allow himself to be
reflected in the mirror. The dwarf, the mirror alleges, will not allow
the light to be seen/to see, and later will not allow any eye to see
the dwarf. The mirror becomes powerful this way as it takes on the
role of a possible eye that is indestructable.



That's the (IMO completely unconscious) irony of the piece; the poem
itself becomes the very mirror that the speaker (insofar as the dwarf
is his mental construction) is so desperate to avoid.


As I read it, the mirror wants the dwarf and has a bitter tone toward
the dwarf who, the mirror asserts what might happen, (if the dwarf)
closed all eyes. The simple charity for which the mirror says the
dwarf has no time is a lie. It is time that could be the charity that
the dwarf will not give the mirror. The mirror then calls the dwarf an
"it", making the dwarf the mirror, in the mirror's image. Time is what
is really being read between the cracks and crevices as the mirror
projects its own lack of simple charity onto the dwarf. The mirror is
unkind, and it can be projected that it will waste the dwarf's charity
through this unkindness.

The mirror speaks to only cracks and crevices during the night because
even the mirror does not reflect the light. Without the dwarf it
reflects only what's there. Itself.

I thought the dwarf could be more of a hermit because the idea of
hermit is something withdraws. The dwarf withdraws and the mirror
projects light. What is seen is not the truth but the reverse. After
studying dwarf I see how the mountain dwarfs this object. The object
becomes a dwarf via the existence of the mountain. The mountain cast a
shadow that the dwarf hides in. This is what makes it a dwarf and not
a simple hermit.

> > I love how "fear" and "mirror" sound together.

> Yes, that's a neat effect. "Fear" and "mir" are the actual rhyme, with
> the last "-ror" being a sort of echo of the rhyme. IIRC, Pete Townsend
> used it in /Tommy.

I got the fear/mir part and read the poem the best I could in that
accent.

> > This could be a cute kids' book, but it needs to be more rhym-i-er.-

> I think a kid's book would work better with an obvious-cartoon bright
> red Devil ("that keeps me in this tourist town") rather than a
> misshapen but recognizably human short person.

Like Rumpelstiltskin! If that's the case, I disagree.


I felt sorry for poor Rumpy; he did all that work, and got nothing for
it.

Nothing but a broken heart.

Rumpelstiltskin

I drifted here as a penniless overspill
from war. Just another oddly-named refugee
but one who could make cloth and had the business skill
to turn it into gold. They tolerated me.

I prospered, made connections, came to own a mill;
married into a good, if threadbare, family.
She was vain and spoiled but I found I loved her still
even though she wouldn't take my name, literally

or seriously. But she stayed long enough to fill
her pockets then she cut me off with military
precision in a war with different ways to kill,
or dispossess. Again my heart's a refugee.

As for my princess, well, hers was the victory
and I suspect she'll write a different history.



Silly Willum also said that this was autobiographical. So it's a tough decision - did he REALLY believe I was a refugee mill owner or had the ignorant *** just never heard of Rumpelstiltskin.

Be grateful George - as long as Will's around, you're not quite the dumbest Duck on the block.

Rob

--
Rob Evans

--
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