Third lecture for my students in English 104A, UC Santa Barbara, spring 2012. Course website: http://patrickbrianmooney.nfshost.com/~patrick/ta/s12/index.html

1. Lecture 3: Money Talks
Babbitt and e.e. cummings
English 104A
Spring 2012
9 April 2012
“Beauty is truth, truth beauty,” – that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.
—John Keats, “Ode on a Grecian Urn,” lines 49-50

2. Amy Lowell (1874-1925)
● Member of the
prominent Lowell
family
● Socialite, poet.
● A talented poet in her
own right.
● Played an essential
role in bringing
imagism to the
attention of a wider
public.

3. Edward Estlin Cummings (1894-1962)
● Often written “e.e.
cummings”
● There is no definitive
evidence that cummings
himself preferred this
orthography
● Essayist, novelist, painter,
playwright, and poet
● Probably best known for his
formal poetic
experimentation
self-portrait, approx. 1920
● Rarely titled his poems.

4. e.e. cummings
● Despite the heaviness of
today’s selections,
cummings is best known for
his early, Romantic-
influenced work, which is
much lighter.
● Key terms (for our
purposes):
● Syntactic/typographic
experimentation
● Modernism
● The avant-garde cummings, 1953

5. Experiments within formal strictures
● Cummings’s work often stretches the limits of
traditional poetic form without abandoning it
completely.
● Notice the regular metrical rhythm of “i sing of
Olaf glad and big”:
i sing of Olaf glad and big
whose warmest heart recoiled at war
a conscientious object-or (lines 1-3)
● This poem is in iambic tetrameter throughout
most of its length, with occasional variations.

6. ● Much of “Olaf” depends for its effect on the
tension between the grammatical (syntactic)
structures and the line breaks:
but---though an host of overjoyed
noncoms(first knocking on the head
him)do through icy waters roll
that helplessness which others stroke
with brushes recently employed
anent this muddy toiletbowl,
while kindred intellects evoke
allegiance per blunt instruments--- (lines 7-14)
● Here, cummings constructs a series of linked
dependent clauses to propel the reader,
headlong, through Olaf’s experience.

7. “next to of course god america i” (1923)
1 "next to of course god america i
2 love you land of the pilgrims' and so forth oh
3 say can you see by the dawn's early my
4 country 'tis of centuries come and go
5 and are no more what of it we should worry
6 in every language even deafanddumb
7 thy sons acclaim your glorious name by gorry
8 by jingo by gee by gosh by gum
9 why talk of beauty what could be more beaut-
10 iful than these heroic happy dead
11 who rushed like lions to the roaring slaughter
12 they did not stop to think they died instead
13 then shall the voice of liberty be mute?"
14 He spoke. And drank rapidly a glass of water

8. “next to of course god america i” (1923)
a "next to of course god america i
b love you land of the pilgrims' and so forth oh
a say can you see by the dawn's early my
b country 'tis of centuries come and go
c and are no more what of it we should worry
d in every language even deafanddumb
c thy sons acclaim your glorious name by gorry
d by jingo by gee by gosh by gum
e why talk of beauty what could be more beaut-
f iful than these heroic happy dead
g who rushed like lions to the roaring slaughter
f they did not stop to think they died instead
e then shall the voice of liberty be mute?"
g He spoke. And drank rapidly a glass of water

9. “next to of course god america i” (1923)
● This poem is, of course, a
sonnet.
● In fact, it is a Petrarchan, or
Italian, sonnet.
● There are many ways to
discover what form a poem
has. One of the easiest:
Google the rhyme scheme.
● Make sure to actually read the
results. Note that, in this
example, Google is suggesting
incorrect answers.
● We will have more to say
about this sonnet later in
the afternoon.

10. Babbitt’s language
Especially at the beginning of the novel, Babbitt’s
language is absorbed in chunks from the
linguistic field all around him:
“It was not only, as the placard on the counter
observed, ‘a dandy little refinement, lending the last
touch of class to a gentleman’s auto,’ but a priceless
time-saver.”
Babbitt’s interior monologue:
“And― Certainly looks nice there. Certainly is a
might clever little jigger. Gives the last touch of
refinement and class.” (p. 45; ch. 5, sec. 2)

11. Many of Babbitt’s phrases are appropriated and
passed along as whole blocks of ideas that
serve as essentially meaningless tokens:
“The men leaned back on their heels, put their
hands in the trousers-pockets, and proclaimed their
view with the booming profundity of a prosperous
male repeating a thoroughly hackneyed statement
about a matter of which he knows nothing
whatever.” (p. 94; ch. 8, sec. 2)
“Which of them said which has never been
determined, and does not matter, since they all had
the same ideas and expressed them always with
the same ponderous and brassy assurance. If it
was not Babbitt who was delivering any given
verdict, at least he was beaming on the chancellor
who did deliver it.” (p. 116; ch. 10, sec. 3)

12. Babbitt’s rise in social position is based on his
ability to put these phrases together in an
engaging manner:
Babbitt, to Paul: “And remember how I wanted to be
a lawyer and go into politics? I still think I might
have made a go of it. I’ve kind of got the gift of the
gab—anyway, I can think on my feet, and make
some kind of a spiel on most anything, and of
course that’s the thing you need in politics.” (p. 126;
ch. 11, sec. 4)
P.J. Maxwell (Paul’s lawyer): “The trouble with you,
Babbitt, is that you’re one of those fellows who talk
too readily. You like to hear your own voice. If there
were anything for which I could put you in the
witness-box, you’d get going and give the whole
show away.” (p. 223; ch. 22, sec. 1)

13. “next to of course god america i” (1923)
1 "next to of course god america i
2 love you land of the pilgrims' and so forth oh
3 say can you see by the dawn's early my
4 country 'tis of centuries come and go
5 and are no more what of it we should worry
6 in every language even deafanddumb
7 thy sons acclaim your glorious name by gorry
8 by jingo by gee by gosh by gum
9 why talk of beauty what could be more beaut-
10 iful than these heroic happy dead
11 who rushed like lions to the roaring slaughter
12 they did not stop to think they died instead
13 then shall the voice of liberty be mute?"
14 He spoke. And drank rapidly a glass of water

14. “He had enormous and poetic admiration, though
very little understanding, of all mechanical
devices. They were his symbols of truth and
beauty. Regarding each new intricate mechanism
—metal lathe, two-jet carburetor, machine gun,
oxyacetylene welder—he learned one good
realistic-sounding phrase, and used it over and
over, with a delightful feeling of being technical
and initiated.” (Babbitt 57; ch. 6, sec. 1)

15. Babbitt’s language and ideas are diffuse
(p. 133; ch. 13, sec. 2)

16. NEWT action

17. Babbitt’s language is in flux
This is because Babbitt himself is constantly
changing:
“But dearie, I thought you always said these so-
called ‘liberal’ people were the worst of—“
“Rats! Woman never can understand the different
definitions of a word. Depends on how you mean it.”
(p. 263, ch. 26, sec. 5)
Note that Babbitt here tries to portray himself as
having a stable identity, despite the changes in
his character throughout the novel.

18. The label “socialist”
● Not always a description of a political position.
● Sometimes, a way of labeling someone in such a
way as to place them beyond the pale of those
who engage in “reasonable” political discussion:
● Babbitt: “to be an out-and-out spiritualist would be
almost like being a socialist !” (p. 106; ch. 9, sec. 1)
● Babbitt’s address to the Zenith Real Estate Board:
“The worst menace to sound government is not the
avowed socialists but a lot of cowards who work
under cover—the long-haired gentry who call
themselves ‘liberals’ and ‘radicals’ and ‘non-partisan’
and ‘intelligentsia’ and God only know how many
other trick names!” (p. 157; ch. 14, sec. 3)

19. “Now, these strikers: Honest, they’re not such
bad people. Just foolish. They don’t understand
the complications of merchandizing and profit, the
way we business men do, but sometimes I think
they’re about like the rest of us, and no more hogs
for wages than we are for profits.”
“George! If people were to hear you talk like
that—of course I know you; I remember what a
wild crazy boy you were; I know you don’t mean a
word you say—but if people that didn’t understand
you were to hear you talking, they’d think you
were a regular socialist!” (p. 263; ch. 26, sec. 5)

20. Difference and Exclusion
Democrat/Republican Socialist
Man Woman
White Black, “Dagoes and
Hunkies” (121; ch 10),
Jewish, etc.
Virility Failure
Business Labor
Wife “A Woman” (283; 315)

21. Money and Wealth
Colonel Snow: “Well, you can’t expect the decent
citizens to go on aiding you if you intend to side with
precisely the people who are trying to undermine us.”
(307; ch. 32, sec. 3)
“[...] so did the large national advertisers fix the
surface of his life, fix what he believed to be his
individuality. These advertised wares—toothpastes,
socks, tires, cameras, instantaneous hot-water heaters
—were his symbols and proofs of excellence; at first
the signs, then the substitutes, for joy and passion and
wisdom.” (79; ch. 7, sec. 3)

22. “Advertising in its entirety constitutes a useless
and unnecessary universe. It is pure connotation.
It contributes nothing to production or to the direct
practical application of things, yet it plays an
integral part in the system of objects, not merely
because it relates to consumption but also
because it itself becomes an object to be
consumed. A clear distinction must be drawn in
connection with advertising’s dual status as a
discourse on the object and an object in its own
right. It is as a useless, unnecessary discourse
that it comes to be consumable as a cultural
object.”
―Jean Baudrillard, The System of Objects (1968)

23. Media Credits
The photo of Amy Lowell (slide 2) taken from the front of Time
magazine is in the public domain. Source:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/df/Amy_Lowell_Ti
me_magazine_cover_1925.jpg
Cummings's self-portrait (slide 3) is in the public domain. Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:EECummings_pd4.jpg
The photo of e.e. cummings (slide 4) is in the public domain. Source:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:E._E._Cummings_NYWTS.jpg
George Babbitt's sketch (slide 15) is in the public domain because it
is excerpted from a work whose copyright has expired.
I believe Newt Gingrich's sketch (slide 16) to be in the public domain
because it was produced by an employee of the United States
Federal Government during the performance of his duty.