Over the course of the semester, we have read many different responses to Whitman and his influence over the literary world. However, it wasn’t until we read Ben Lerner’s 10:04 that I could feel and understand Whitman’s influence in a fictional verse setting. All of our previous readings have shown Whitman’s influence over poetry and essays as authors responded to Whitman and his ever looming presence, but it wasn’t until I read 10:04 that I began to examine Whitman’s influence in the fiction writing field. As I read 10:04, I could truly feel Lerner’s love and understanding of Whitman’s style be expressed through his own writing. If I didn’t know any better, I could of sworn that 10:04 was written by a Whitman incarnate due to Lerner’s Whitmanesque style. Along with his style and diction, I could also see Whitman’s influence over Lerner through Lerner’s metafictional representation of himself. In his novel, Lerner uses Whitmanesque metafictional tactics to craft this story. While I was reading Lerner’s novel, I couldn’t help but to think about how I would go about writing a novel in this style. With all of this in mind, I decided to try to imitate Lerner’s imitation of Whitman’s style and try to incorporate a level of metafictional aspects into a short excerpt.
So, I give you…
9:36
I can feel my sympathetic nervous system fire its synaptic signals through my lanky form. My blood vessels go into vasodilation as adrenaline begins its production in my medulla . My diaphragm spasms and contracts, shooting a tiny bit of air into my lungs and keeps it in there to linger a bit too long for comfort. It takes some time for the tremor of panic to reach my tips of my lower appendages. The smell of 409 and bleach wave through the air and burn my nostrils. My cardiologist’s office was converted from a home that used to belong to one of the wealthiest family in the town who have long since moved far away from this pitiful town. To the north, the home-turned-office overlooks an almost empty Walmart parking lot. To the south, a basketball court harbors an enthralling game between those with shirts and those without. Right in the middle, I wait for my diagnosis. I sit and watch the game as opposed to the sad, almost empty lot. A few months ago, I started having syncopal episodes during mildy inopportune times. At first, it seemed like harmless dehydrated episodes. That is until I lost all feeling in my extremities and blacked out only to wake up to my 2014 Mazda 3 wrapped around a hydro pole.
Reflection:
Writing that short excerpt was some of the hardest creative work that I have done. It felt wrong for me to force myself into writing in Lerner’s style — a style that is so different from my own style. In an interview with Foyles, Lerner briefly discusses his style. Lerner states that there is not a clear distinction between critical and creative works, especially in his own work as his works tend to be “inflected with critical language and [try] to be vehicles for critical thought” while also remaining very personal to himself (Foyle, 00:00:00 – 00:00:28). In this critical, yet creative regard, Lerner’s style is very emblematic of Whitman’s own style, but not exact in line with Whitman’s own style. Both authors try to use a certain style of writing in order to convey something very personal to themselves. While Whitman occasionally wrote from the perspective an omniscient poet was able to faithfully share the experiences of minorities in the United States, Whitman’s poetry still remains incredibly personal to himself. The same can be said for Lerner with his critically personal style.
SOURCE:
https://www.newyorker.com/books/this-week-in-fiction/ben-lerner-05-25-19
Wow, Noah, even though your creative response was short it felt so much like the work of Lerner in 10:04 because he has the ability to bring awareness tot he most minuscule happenings in the day while still focusing on a broader topic. The way he writes is sort of like stream of consciousness, but more like a reflection of the consciousness rather than a real-time depiction of someone’s thoughts. I like how the narrator in your brief work switches between different senses, as I think I remember Lerner doing in his novel. The narrator first responds to the major things around him like the smells and sights of the cardiologist office, then zooms out to the basketball court and the players and what they are wearing, then into the past when the narrator first realized you had a heart problem. It is a very interesting and captivating style, but it does risk the reader being confused like I sometimes was while reading 10:04.
As hard as that creative work may have seemed to you, I felt as if it flowed naturally while reading. What I enjoy about this kind of writing, and more specifically the story you wrote, is that it forces the reader to dig up the meanings behind what the writer is saying. What I mean is that it isn’t as simple as saying “my adrenaline started to rush,” but rather something way deeper that makes the reader think on a more creative level and see the experience of adrenaline rush down to the microscopic level of experience. This was well done, Noah.
Great creative engagement here! I likey Ivy’s description of Lerner as being less stream-of-consciousness than a reflection on consciousness. That’s a great way to capture what both you and Lerner accomplish here: the intimate textures fo daily and highly cerebral experiences, and yet some distance on those that allow us to view how the protagonist’s experiences fit into the wider world. This is sort of the writerly engine for Lerner that allows him to write in such an intensely cerebral way, and yet somehow to forge ahead with bold reflections on human connectedness. I think Whitman ends up there as well, but they arrive there at very different means. In that sense, Lerners key question is how to arrive at Whitman’s often utopian conclusions in a postmodern world.
I especially like how you capture Lerner’s sort of detached relationship to his own body and processes, like there’s some separation there. Nice work!