From The Dry Salvages by T.S. Eliot (published in 1941) The river is within us, the sea is all about us; The sea is the land's edge also, the granite Into which it reaches, the beaches where it tosses Its hints of earlier and other creation: The starfish, the horseshoe crab, the whale's backbone; The pools where it offers to our curiosity The more delicate algae and the sea anemone. It tosses up our losses, the torn seine, The shattered lobsterpot, the broken oar And the gear of foreign dead men. The sea has many voices, Many gods and many voices. ---------------- I just read this at the beginning of the Afterword by Jeffrey S. Levinton in the 1989 edition of Rachel Carson's, The Sea Around Us. It is a section of a much longer poem, that itself is part of a set, Four Quartets , that were largely written during World War II. The Dry Salvages was written during the air-raids in Britain, and it is very sad. I'm not vouching for the whole thing, but ...
You make some valuable comments regarding surfing and sexism. I found growing up as a male that it was expected that girls were at the beach to look at. (I see women and life differently now) You are right. if men and women are to be equal there has to be a real equality and a genuine change in how women are portrayed to/in the world. I think the clips are important to make us aware. If you talk about something but don't show me i tend to loose the idea in the flood of words. I posted on Mick's vimeo. I'll have to see what he says in response. I would rather not have women portrayed as just a body or just as window dressing. When that happens the women are seen as less than human (just a body to fill in space on a video) they don't have to be treated as human and that is not a safe place to be.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your thoughtful comments Stephen, and for backing my use of the clip - the reasons you mention are exactly the reasons why I posted it.
ReplyDeleteI'll go and see if Mick has responded to your comments. And thank you for speaking up!