“Rime”, written originally in 1798, about 162 years before the creation of the Post Modern movement, with that far of a gap, one could ask, how does writing from many years past have any correlation with postmodernism? In such a case as this, a wolf might tell you such information as this. Simple… often concepts and ideas, in any form of literature, carry similar aspects and ideas to others, even if they are held apart by more than a century and a half of time. In a more simplistic understanding, someone might tell you that just because the concept of postmodernism wasn’t invented till the late 1960s, doesn’t mean aspects of that concept couldn’t be used in literature from way before its time. Now, a wolf might again explain this (correlation between *Rime and postmodernism) to you as this: In The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, many examples of the postmodernism movement can be found, from multiple narrators, to tons of black humor, and a whole lotta randomness and playfulness.
Read it for yourself here: “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”
Multiple narrators are when “narratives [are] told from shifting perspectives, often toggling back and forth between author and narrator, or performer and audience.” This is seen within “Rime” with the following lines:
How long in that same fit I lay,
I have not to declare;
But ere my living life returned,
I heard and in my soul discerned
Two voices in the air.
'Is it he?' quoth one, 'Is this the man?
By him who died on cross,
With his cruel bow he laid full low
The harmless Albatross.
The spirit who bideth by himself
In the land of mist and snow,
He loved the bird that loved the man
Who shot him with his bow.'
The other was a softer voice,
As soft as honey-dew:
Quoth he, 'The man hath penance done,
And penance more will do.'
PART V
First Voice
'But tell me, tell me! speak again,
Thy soft response renewing—
What makes that ship drive on so fast?
What is the ocean doing?'
Second Voice
Still as a slave before his lord,
The ocean hath no blast;
His great bright eye most silently
Up to the Moon is cast—
If he may know which way to go;
For she guides him smooth or grim.
See, brother, see! how graciously
She looketh down on him.'
First Voice
'But why drives on that ship so fast,
Without or wave or wind?'
Second Voice
'The air is cut away before,
And closes from behind.
Fly, brother, fly! more high, more high!
Or we shall be belated:
For slow and slow that ship will go,
When the Mariner's trance is abated.'
This section from “Rime” reveals that the Ancient Mariner was put into some sort of Trance, or a sleep-like state, and that these two voices are talking about him and his current circumstance. The multiple narrators in this section, not including the overall narrator of The Ancient Mariner, creates a sort of randomness. Also, it creates a path inwhich more information about the Mariner can be provided, with it not actually coming from him himself. Either by this being a stylistic choice that Coleridge used or not,seeing these lines from a more postmodern perspective definitely highlights some interesting aspects of the dialogue, such as its other postmodern quality of Historiographic Metafiction, which is when historiographic topics are mentioned in a work and are questioned in unique perspectives or ways. While Rime might not question the historiographic events as much, it sure does refer to them, such as the lines:
By him who died on cross,
With his cruel bow he laid full low
The harmless Albatross.
This refers to when Jesus died on the cross. Which then brings to mind the wonderful “Teenjus” from The Righteous Gemstones, “Teenjus” is short for Teen Jesus and is based upon the life of Jesus as a Teenager. The Righteous Gemstones is a comedy show that makes fun of large megachurches and the families that run them. There is also the part that mentions that the Mariner travels the earth and shares his tale. This could be in reference to the myth where they are forced to travel the world without ever being spotted by others and not allowed to rest. I don’t remember the individual's name, but I recall hearing of a myth that I believe is similar to the concept mentioned above.
Black Humor or Dark Comedy is a style of writing that jokes about very serious topics as in death, pain, and suffering, which looking at Rime through a postmodern lens, definitely fits, especially in the lines such as:
Four times fifty living men,
(And I heard nor sigh nor groan)
With heavy thump, a lifeless lump,
They dropped down one by one.
The souls did from their bodies fly,—
They fled to bliss or woe!
And every soul, it passed me by,
Like the whizz of my cross-bow!
And
The many men, so beautiful!
And they all dead did lie:
And a thousand thousand slimy things
Lived on; and so did I.
And of course
An orphan's curse would drag to hell
A spirit from on high;
But oh! more horrible than that
Is the curse in a dead man's eye!
Seven days, seven nights, I saw that curse,
And yet I could not die.
The most notable black humor in these lines is the death of the entire crew, except for The Ancient Mariner. There is also the mention of curses that adds to the black humor. This section also includes self-reference as the text mentions “a thousand thousand slimy things,” which is mentioned earlier in the story, and “Like the whizz of my cross-bow!” which refers to when the Mariner killed the albatross with his crossbow.Of course, this whole tale is full of black humor, quite literally even mentioning Death for that matter, in fact, there’s so much more. But, I’m a lazy wolf and don’t want to quote ¾’s of Rime and the few examples provided, I believe, get the point across (that being that Rime is full of black humor).
Randomness and Playfulness is when authors “embrace the chaos” to make the story more confusing and the plot harder to decipher. Which is totally apart of Rime and can be seen in the lines:
The dead men gave a groan.
They groaned, they stirred, they all uprose,
Nor spake, nor moved their eyes;
It had been strange, even in a dream,
To have seen those dead men rise.
The helmsman steered, the ship moved on;
Yet never a breeze up-blew;
The mariners all 'gan work the ropes,
Where they were wont to do;
They raised their limbs like lifeless tools—
We were a ghastly crew.
And
The body of my brother's son
Stood by me, knee to knee:
The body and I pulled at one rope,
But he said nought to me.
Viewing these lines from a postmodern view, one the black humor is evident, but more so is how profoundly strange these lines are, for one, the crew's corpses all “rise from the dead” and begin to work and steer the ship and what not like absolutly nothing is wrong and everything is completely normal and the way it should be. My mind is trying
to picture this “ghastly crew,” and pretty much what comes to mind is Pirates of the Caribbean. Also, you can’t forget the fact the last line, where his dead brother’s son (his nephew) and he are working pulling one of the ropes, just your completely average day on the ship, just a living breathing dude, and the corpse of his dead nephew woriking together, yep that seems completely normal to me. Just picture it real quick. Close your eyes and imagine the corpse of someone you know, presumably well, and you just hanging out working together like good ol' friends hangin' out… It’s really Fung** up. Same with the black humor, there is lots of randomness in Rime, I just don’t feel like pointing it all out, and frankly, how many people actually care, or are even going to read this? There's the part where the ship out of nowhere sinks into the bottom of the ocean, which is quite random. This also then brings up the self-referencing, since that line
refers to the albatross falling off the Mariners' neck, when the curse is lifted and sinks like lead into the bottom of the ocean.
Rime in many ways makes me think of Decortication
of an Airplane, the song Semantics by Nnamdi, and the music video for Gorillaz Humility. First, the magic realism “an uncomfortable blend of mundane daily life and surreal events” in Rime, the fact that though it being quite random and chaotic, it is still about a ship sailing and the crew onboard it working and sailing the ship.
To read more about the Decortication of an Airplane and how it's postmodern, you can click here to go to RAVVIE_DAWOOF’s post about that. (Yes, this wolf is fully aware of this being shameless plugging, yet dis woof don’t care).
Next, in Semantics by Nnamdi, there is a lot of black humor, which reminds me of all the black humor in Rime. Semantics also has references to drug use, while I don’t think Rime has anything like that, unless we assume he was high when he killed the albatross, which could give an explanation for him killing a random bird for no reason. Anyways, that reminds me of The Polish Cow, and then that in turn reminds me of The Polish Dog by ChefGatsby.
And if you're interested in learning more about Semantics and how it's postmodern, click here for another one of my shameless plugs for my post.
Lastly, there is the randomness and playfulness of Rime, which reminds me of the overall randomness of Humility, especially the interspersed clips, throughout the music video, they’re pretty random… like really, one clip is a guy flipping the camera off, and another shows a guy holding a sign that says Super Sh**ty Advice for 1 dollar, there is
more of course.
For more about the randomness and playfulness of Gorillaz Humility, and how it is postmodern, click here for this wolf’s last, shameless plug to his post.
As always, this wolf likes to end with his thoughts, so his thoughts are this: It’s interesting how much a different perspective of events can change your understanding of how you see something, He really doesn’t have much to say, so, for one final time.
