What makes a lyric poem “lyrical” is a constellation of interrelated attributes that have characterized Anglophone poetry from the Renaissance (if not earlier) to the present. Lyric poetry is frequently soliloquy-like. Lyric voices speak from beyond ordinary time. Lyric poems are inhabited by situations and tableaux transcending ordinary temporality. Lyric descriptions are charged with depictive intensity. Lyric poetry is musically expressive. Lyric poems evoke heightened and eccentric states of consciousness.
–Seo-Young Chu, Do Metaphors Dream of Literal Sleep? A Science-Fictional Theory of Representation (2010
When we looked over this definition in class I really loved it. I think the way she describes the word “lyrical” in such a way that I cannot think of a better definition. She herself, sounds very poetic in he description of the word. As we looked at the story in class I noticed Casey also speaks in a very poetic way. I found a lot of the passages can be taken out of the context and put on a blank piece of paper and it can sound like a poem. To me, I love that she is able to do that in a story. I feel as though sometimes stories can be very tedious to get through but when the author gives you such a poetic description it really paints a picture in your head and brings life into the story. I like her style of writing and even though the story itself is not as interesting to me, the way she writes keeps me reading it.
Also, in working on our common place books and bibliographies, I feel as thought getting down to the basics and narrowing our searches is helping move it along. I do feel somewhat confused and worried that I may not have enough information to keep my paper alive and intriguing. I also do not want to constantly cite all of these authors. I have ideas which I want to express but the thought of sitting down to try and make everything come together is a bit stressful for me at this stage.
I like your comment, Jessica, that Professor Chu’s definition of “lyrical” also sounds very lyrical/poetic. It’s a bit meta, but I think a reader could prescribe each attribute that is given in Chu’s passage and identify each aspect in the text itself. And I, too, agree that Casey’s narration in “The Man Who Walked Away” is poetic.
Jessica, I agree that Casey poetic ways bring the story to life. I honestly felt that without her poetic way, this would be a boring novel. This is not one of my favourite novel, but i also agree with you that her writing kept me alert while reading. I didn’t understand how Albert past experience becomes a fleeting image, to me it made no sense because he would be dead. Albert experience reminds me of a dream. When we dream we normally don’t remember anything what happens the next morning but we are aware that we had a dream about something.
I totally agree with you Jessica on Casey’s poetic ways. It does give us a picture but there are instances where I find myself wondering “Do we really need to know this?” or “Is this relevant?” For example, on page 23, Casey describes Albert’s personal session. I cannot think of the relevance for this scene. Maybe there isn’t any. All I could think of was how innocent the metaphor is for this scene.
I kind of feel the same way about the novel because of the rhyme I keep on reading this otherwise it seems boring to me. I always play around with the words “click click” and how we press the mouse click click and I think some of the sounds are made to catch our attention. It does keep me focused and the author wants our attention to see how we relate our self to this novel.