Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Being Different Killed Vallejo in "Black Stone Lying on a White Stone"
Not only do I like the brevity of Cesar Vallejo's "Black Stone Lying on a White Stone," but I also like how the title is possibly representative of what the poet is conveying in the poem (in my opinion). It is very interesting how he connects the title of this poem to his life and political beliefs. Not only was "[putting] his upper arm bones on wrong" possibly representative of a different type of abstract painting not popular at the time, Picasso's work, but Vallejo in general was all about being different, at least from his home country's point of view. Vallejo was a man not commonly found in Peru. In fact, he was arrested for erroneous charges in Lima, Peru he was exiled from France for charges of being a communist. He supported the Russian Revolution. Black and white are two opposite colors. He might have felt like a one black stone living in a community of white stones, where is completely different. Vallejo may have felt that because he was different, he would be killed in Paris (where he spent the last three years of his life), and probably did not express his political beliefs violently because of the statement he made, “Cesar Vallejo is dead. Everyone beat him, although he never does anything to them (non-communists); they (non-communists) beat him hard with a stick and also with a rope.” In those times, being a communist supporter in certain areas was a crime, possibly punishable by death. Vallejo was expressing in this poem the pains of being different. Also, it is easy to distinguish the difference between black and white. So, this title may imply that it was easy to distinguish a communist from a non-communist.
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I think that your discussion of the title and the poet's status as an individual, someone separated from the status quot is dead on. That said, I think that you are overstating the importance of his political beliefs on this poem. Certainly some of his later poems a very political in nature, but I'm not sure that this one is. Also, be careful about the reference to Picasso. Firstly, Picasso WAS quite popular around that time that Vallejo was writing. Secondly, when I referenced his paintings in class the other day I didn't intend to imply that Vallejo was making any explicit reference to Picasso. I simply wanted to point out the fact that Picasso's fractured cubist images were being produced around the same time that Vallejo was "putting his arms on wrong". Why might poets and artists of this time period have all of a sudden taken to representing man as a series of parts fractured instead of as an organic whole?
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