11-09-2018, 06:42 AM
Hi Ally, not going to let this slip down just yet I'm afraid 
What fascinates me about this poem is the many layers of meaning possible. I originally read Greg as rather reprehensible, but at each pass I came to feel more sorry for him and concerned by the requirement for readjustment. I found myself wondering what life for Greg would have been like had society been different and had his understanding of aesthetics and ethics matched a little better. And then I reminded myself that basically all humans are just bags full of chemicals slapped around a food processing tube, and Greg's bag needed a slightly different composition.
"endless displays of paper dolls
joined at hands and feet,
correctly coloured in." - this to me represents expectation. This would be the essence of perfection in a kindergarten classroom, after all. We love conformity in our children - it makes them easier to organise and fit into standardised boxes. Man orders woman. Women. One man to a chain, and they're all much the same.
As Greg's dose reduces - presumably as he makes progress - the women are backgrounded. Is a man more serene, more at peace and more socially acceptable if he sees no women at all? What happens to Greg when the grebe is startled, no longer serene?
You see, this is why I love to read poems that don't give me answers. Tomorrow I will have different questions. Thank you for writing such a tangent-presenting piece of poetry.
What fascinates me about this poem is the many layers of meaning possible. I originally read Greg as rather reprehensible, but at each pass I came to feel more sorry for him and concerned by the requirement for readjustment. I found myself wondering what life for Greg would have been like had society been different and had his understanding of aesthetics and ethics matched a little better. And then I reminded myself that basically all humans are just bags full of chemicals slapped around a food processing tube, and Greg's bag needed a slightly different composition.
"endless displays of paper dolls
joined at hands and feet,
correctly coloured in." - this to me represents expectation. This would be the essence of perfection in a kindergarten classroom, after all. We love conformity in our children - it makes them easier to organise and fit into standardised boxes. Man orders woman. Women. One man to a chain, and they're all much the same.
As Greg's dose reduces - presumably as he makes progress - the women are backgrounded. Is a man more serene, more at peace and more socially acceptable if he sees no women at all? What happens to Greg when the grebe is startled, no longer serene?
You see, this is why I love to read poems that don't give me answers. Tomorrow I will have different questions. Thank you for writing such a tangent-presenting piece of poetry.
It could be worse