sp09250tyjohnson

= "Homer-Erotic" by Chuck Rybak (2007) = // Tyler Johnson //

When I first heard the word "homoerotic" we were learning the Iliad in class, so naturally I heard "Homer-erotic," which, given the number of men stationed in one place for a decade with not much to do, made perfect sense to me.

Pleased with this sharp-edged word, I hoisted it like a javelin, pointed it at my friends, made jabs at parties hosted by smart people. "O, that's entirely Homer-erotic," I would say into the profound pauses I understood to be the requisite awe.

I patiently explained to my girlfriend how being Homer-erotic was different than being gay, which was a whole separate deal, and that this love was the epic love of friends, the bond beyond beers. This was marrow love, forearm-clasping love, I'd-play-on-your-team love.

Because theory is no good without practice, I brought my spear to the bar where Bud Light camps outside the walls of Miller, where men, without irony, wear the jerseys and numbers of other men, just like the girls in high school who dated and fawned over the football players.

A man among men, I duly sacrificed hecatombs of peanuts and buffalo wings , watched giants gaze up at the Olympian big-screen and seize their neighbor's hands, "Brother, our team will not fail this dawn, and if they do, let the earth yawn and swallow me in shame."

Muses, who were the manly lords and officers? Dick, raider-of-refrigerators was there, and seated next to him was Frank, son of Ronald- they loved the waitress with her tits that launched a thousand ships, but they'd been dishonored at home, where the slaves weren't as grateful as they should be.

I'm embarrassed to say when I first learned of my error, of "homoerotic" as reality, but let's just say that men had already packed and made it home from Troy while I was the last one standing, and not because I'd won the Homeric spelling bee.

Once it was gone I wanted my word back. I miss you Agamemnon, dick that you were. I miss the big cry baby, Achilles, as well. I miss the Homer-erotic annunciation of men who offend fickle gods and mispronounce all that they've heard with pride.

Now, I sit as quiet as a bowl in a china shop. I beg the gods for an escape goat because not knowing the score is cutting your nose, despite your face. Make no mistake- when you say it right, "homo" makes the men see red, ill-fated pigment of the imagination.

Upon first reading "Homer-erotic" my initial impressions were masked by a larger feeling: worry. I have little background in greek mythology and by the time I read the fifth through eighth stanzas I wondered if it wouldn't just be easier to read __The Iliad__ cover to cover rather than try and look up each reference individually. Because my analysis of this poem will constitute a major portion of my class grade I immediately focused on all the references I didn't get until I realized something more important, that understanding the mythological references in this poem enhance the reader's enjoyment of it but are not essential to understanding its basic message. My basic initial impression of this poem is that it is about a student who, hearing it for the first time, mishears the term homoerotic, picturing "Homer-erotic" in his mind's eye (Rybak, lines 1, 3). The teacher must have then gone on to hint at examples of homoeroticism from __The Iliad__ (without being too specific or drawing any pictures). Meanwhile, the student believes he is hearing a description of what it means to be "Homer-erotic", drawing some of his own conclusions along the way. Had the student heard the word correctly, the prefix "homo" would have been a dead giveaway to its true meaning (Rybak, 53). The student then gives several entertaining examples of how his newly learned term, rather than impressing people, draws confused and shocked looks instead. This wry, self-depracating poem is an example of the humorous, if embarrassing, things that can happen when one tries too hard to impress others with his knowledge.

Way 2: Engaging with the text
Other than the obvious fact that this poem is divided into six line stanzas it has very little recognizable pattern or form. It is written in free verse and has no apparent examples of alliteration, rhythm, rhyme or assonance. The stanzas divide the poem into individual thoughts and the pauses between them do make reading this poem aloud more effective. Line breaks are the other tool used by the author. The grouping of words in lines seven through nine accentuate the speaker's phallic description of using his new word.

Way 3: A Point about Form and its Relationship to Content
This poem is written without any regular metrical form or rhyme scheme, therefore it is free verse. Not adhering to rigid, formal structure or convention befits this particular poem as it is about a guy who is kind of clueless, at least in this story. The two devices that are used by the writer to make this poem more effective are line break and stanza break placement. 

Way 3: Another Point about Form and its Relationship to Content
Probably the most notable structural element of this poem's form is the stanza division. While the stanzas are all identical six line lengths which would seem to be restrictive they do an excellent job of dividing the poem into unique sections of content. Stanza one tells the reader how the narrator's faulty assumption came to be. Stanza two details the narrator's embarrassing use of this malapropism. Stanza three relates the narrator's stubborn insistence that he has actually learned a new term rather than simply gotten the wrong idea. This division continues for the remaining six stanzas and the reader notices the pattern early on, expecting each stanza to explore a new aspect of the story. 

Way 3: Another Point about Form and its Relationship to Content
Another element of form in this poem are the line breaks. Most notable are the breaks dividing lines seven through nine as mentioned above. Lines seven through nine are one long sentence which is also divided by commas. The line break division accentuates the phallic connotations in this sentence better than the commas do because comma placement is bound by the rules of punctuation. The author ends line 7 with "I hoisted it"; line 8 reads: "like a javelin, pointed it at my friends" and line 9 begins with "made jabs at parties". By laying out the sentence in this way it draws attention to the individual phallic connotations making them more obvious to the reader. 

Way 4: Unpacking an Instance of Figurative Language
This is a metaphor which compares the word Homer-Erotic to a spear. A spear is literally defined as a weapon with a long shaft and sharp head, which I originally thought was used for both thrusting or throwing. After looking into the historical warfare tactics of __The Iliad__ more thoroughly I now know that a spear, as the warrior's principle weapon, would be held onto and used over and over, not thrown. Javelins are of similar construction, though smaller, and were intended to be thrown at one's opponent, sometimes from a chariot. ("Iliad") A spear or a javelin is not a sword, when we think of a sword we think of two people squaring off, both with swords, fighting a drawn out duel. A spear or javelin on the other hand is made to do all its damage in one shot, impaling the other person or would be prey. Rather than looking for a protracted fencing battle as one would expect with a sword fight the spear or javelin would either hit or miss its mark immediately. The protagonist takes his "spear" to a bar where he can hunt for someone to try his new word on, impaling him with it, as one would in war. Connotatively, the narrator believes that this word should and does render his opponent speechless in one blow, saying it "into the profound pauses / (he) understood to be the requisite awe". 

Way 4: Another Instance of Figurative Language
This is a metaphor because the waitress' breasts were obviously not responsible for launching ships (Rybak, 34-35). This metaphor alludes to Helen, who was said to be the most beautiful woman in the world and whose abduction is the principle cause of the Trojan War. Because the number of Achaean ships sent to invade Troy and retrieve Helen was possibly upwards of a thousand she is said to be the face that launched a thousand ships. ("Trojan War") By using this metaphor the narrator is clearly getting into the spirit of __The Iliad__ in which women are objectified, something to be coveted, possessed and competed for, whose physical beauty is of primary importance. 

Way 4: Another Instance of Figurative Language
This is another metaphor. "Bud Light / camps outside the walls of Miller" (Rybak, 20-21) alludes to the setting of the Trojan War in which the Achaeans camped outside the walled city of Troy for its ten year duration. ("Trojan War") The narrator, seeking to try out his new "word" in battle, is looking for a modern day situation analogous to the Trojan War and heads to a sports bar. 

Way 4: Another Instance of Figurative Language
=== Another detail of the poem, the time when the narrator finally learns of his mistake, is described as: "men / had already packed and made it home from Troy" (Rybak, 39-40). After the Trojan War concluded, most of the warriors either never made it home, or, in the case of Odysseus, took a long time and endured much suffering to make the journey. ("Trojan War") This is another example of the narrator using a metaphor to poke fun at himself and how long it took him to catch on to the truth. === ===Way 5: Analyzing the Setting Setting is not an overly important element in this poem. The only place where setting is described is in stanzas three through six when the protagonist is in a bar trying out his new word. The bar depicted is probably a sports bar, men wear jerseys and watch games on an "Olympian / big-screen" (Rybak, 27-28). The author hints that this bar is a place which caters to manly men when he describes a patron: "Dick, raider of refrigerators" (32) and the waitress "with her tits that launched / a thousand ships" (34-35). These, like many of the descriptions in this poem are allusions to __The Iliad__ using modern examples. We would not expect to hear a modern day bar patron say: "Brother, / our team will not fail this dawn, and if they do, / let the earth yawn and swallow me in shame." (28-30). While the vernacular itself is unrealistic it humorously makes light of the exaggerated importance fans place on modern sports teams. This fits well with the rest of the poem in which the protagonist makes light of himself and this funny situation. ===



Way 6: Identifying and Analyzing Point of View
This poem is written in the first-person point of view. This is evident is because he refers to himself as "I" throughout the poem. It is not completely safe to assume that the "I" referred to in this poem is actually the author. The protagonist has a self-deprecating but healthy sense of humor in this poem. He is able to poke fun at himself over this past mistake: "when I first learned / of my error" (Rybak, 37-38), "let's just say that men / had already packed and made it home from Troy" (39-40). The fact that this poem is written in the first-person point of view limits us from knowing exactly what the people he said this "word" to thought at the time but the fact that he says it: "into the profound pauses / (he) understood to be the requisite awe" (11-12) gives us a pretty good idea. The most critical thing that would be lost in another point of view is in the nature of the humor. The fact that the protagonist is poking fun at himself rather than poking fun at another person invites the reader to laugh along with him without inhibition. 

Way 7: Analyzing Complexity, Ambiguity & Difficulty
The underlying ambiguities of this poem are in the narrator's intent and in the reaction of the people to whom the narrator says "Homer-Erotic". We are certain that the narrator is later embarrassed by his misuse of the word homoerotic: "I beg the gods for an escape goat / because not knowing the score is cutting your nose, / despite your face." (Rybak, 50-52) Stated correctly the proverb is: "cut off your nose to spite your face" and the term is "scapegoat". These malapropisms are themselves ambiguities because the reader initially wonders whether the narrator is misspeaking to poke fun at himself or he is genuinely clueless. These mistakes and other misstatements: "//bowl// in a china shop" (49) and "//pigment// of the imagination" (54), affect the tone of the poem because the reader is not sure if they are made intentionally and he should laugh //with// the narrator or they are unintentional and he should laugh //at// the narrator. In all likelihood these mistakes are made intentionally by the narrator to poke fun at himself due to the sheer volume of them in rapid succession in the final stanza. The other major ambiguity of this poem lies in the fact that we do not hear the full context and see the narrator's audience's reaction when he uses the term "Homer-Erotic". We do know that his audience was speechless and did not bother to correct him as he said it "into the profound pauses / (he) understood to be the requisite awe" (11-12). If the narrator's audience understood that he was saying "Homer-Erotic", which sounds similar enough to be mistaken for "homoerotic" when spoken aloud, this would probably change their reaction. When hearing "Homer-Erotic" correctly one would either think that the narrator is clueless or that he is using a term that they have never heard. On the other hand, if the narrator's audience assumed he said "homoerotic" this changes things significantly. Depending on who the narrator is speaking to, and in what context, he could either be putting down homosexuality or glorifying it, bashing someone or propositioning them. Since we don't know what the audience hears and in what context we don't know for sure if their reaction is more benign, like confusion or perplexity, or is more serious, like insult or disgust. The poem concludes with the lines: "Make no mistake- / when you say it right, "homo" makes the men see / red, ill-fated pigment of the imagination." (52-54). This gives us a clue that on at least one occasion, the narrator may have offended someone with this loaded term. 

Way 8: Considering Canonicity
This is a good poem. To use baseball as a metaphor for poetry then literary canon inclusion is like the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame for poetry. Out of 750 current major leaguers I can think of about four from Wisconsin. Chuck Rybak is a professor/poet from Wisconsin whose work is good enough to be published so we'll call him a big leaguer. There are 750 active major leaguer baseball players at any given time and only about two to four former players are voted into the hall of fame per year. The point is, when you reach the highest levels in any pursuit the differences between goodness and greatness are measured in smaller and smaller increments but they are harder and harder to achieve. In other words, from a purely statistical sense, it is extremely unlikely for the best poets among us to achieve literary canonicity just as there are long odds for the very best ball players among us to reach the baseball hall of fame. Aesthetically, this is a humorous, well written poem, but it limits itself because it is important that the reader has read __The Iliad__ to fully appreciate it. Presumably, most of the people who are debating whether something should be included in the literary canon have probably read __The Iliad__ however, or they would not be taken very seriously. This poem is representative of someone from our cohort who is taking an english class and presumably the elements which are representative of our time such as Bud Light, Miller, big screens and buffalo wings will be around for a long enough time to maintain the relevance of the setting. Whether these particular references remain fresh and timely or not, the situation, where one is overzealous in demonstrating their intelligence and looks silly afterwards, is something we've all probably done at one point or another and can easily relate to.

Way 9: Biographical Context
Chuck Rybak and I have a fair amount in common. We are similar aged white males, are each married with a daughter, and we both live in Wisconsin (About the Author). I also found out where he grew up, went to college, and where he works but that is the extent of the biographical information I could locate about him. In spite of the several things we have in common these are all basically just statistics and it would be fallacy to make assumptions about what makes a person tick based on statistics alone. 

Way 10: Historical and Cultural Contexts
History is defined as: the past events of a period in time or in the life or development of a people, an institution or a place ("History"). This poem was written in 2007. As Foucault points out in __A Practical Introduction to Literary Study__: we must remember that as members of the dominant belief system of our day and part of our own history it is difficult for us to evaluate our own culture from a historical perspective (page 236). This being said we can make a few assumptions about our current culture here in the United States. Higher education is as accessible to the masses as at any time in our history. While it is expensive, loans, grants and scholarships have made it so that nearly anyone can receive a college degree if they choose to do so and are willing to make a few sacrifices along the way. For this reason, the poem is more easily relatable because many more people are well educated enough to have read and studied __The Iliad__ in school as the protagonist is relating in the poem. Homosexuality is beginning to become more and more accepted as a lifestyle in our country. Homosexuality is no longer defined as a deviant behavior or a mental illness as it once was. In several states same sex unions are being recognized and same sex couples enjoy the same privileges and rights that heterosexual couples enjoy. While homosexuality is far from being completely accepted in this country, and can still be a sticky subject, it can be argued that it is more accepted than at any time in our history. For this reason we can relax, lighten up a bit and laugh at the poem rather than be offended or worry excessively about offending others. Probably the most obvious elements of the poem to the casual reader are the many references to __The Iliad__ and the Trojan War as a whole. At first I did not consider this to be a historical context per se because when I think of history I don't think of it including greek mythology. But in the case of this poem it is necessary to have a working knowledge of these stories, which may include some partial truth, in order to better understand it. Originally, I also considered historical context only from the perspective of the date when the poem was written and published, but our understanding of the ancient historical elements of the Trojan War and __The Iliad__ are still being explored and debated to this day which makes our understanding and interpretation of them dynamic and worthy of discussion. The first detail to explore then is: how did the narrator make his error in the first place? The story of The Iliad and the Trojan War is a story of men fighting for pride and honor, collecting and fighting over women as they go. So why would the narrator's instructor use the term "homoerotic" at all, making his mistake possible? The nature of the relationship between Achilles and Patroclus, two Achaean warriors, is still debated to this day. ("Iliad") Some believe them to be a homosexual couple while others believe they had a platonic, close friendship bond that two warriors in battle would share. In any event, it is easy to see how it would be possible for a student to misunderstand this discussion, hearing "Homer-erotic" and associating it with an "epic love of friends" (Rybak, 16).



Way 11: Theoretical Application of Gender Theory
Looking at the poem through the lens of a gender critic would raise a couple of issues. Constructionist theory might pose the question: in what way is the narrator's gender identification a learned behavior? In the poem the narrator tries to emulate what he believes it means to be a manly man: watching football, drinking beer and eating chicken wings with other men at a sports bar, a classic male bonding ritual of our time. A gender critic might also raise the possibility that heterosexuality and homosexuality are not absolutes but rather sexuality is a spectrum where absolute heterosexual inclination and absolute homosexual proclivity are at opposite ends allowing infinite possible points in between (Brown and Yarbrough, 233). The narrator's misunderstanding of this issue seems to be a common one, that you are either one or the other and the mere suggestion of a gray area in between calls one's status into question or doubt. This perspective doesn't necessarily call the poem narrator's sexual identification into question but does point out his lack of understanding or agreement with this concept. 

Way 12: Theoretical Application of Psychoanalytic Theory
Early psychoanalytic critics might point to the author's use of phallic imagery in lines seven through nine as the result of an unresolved oedipal conflict held over from the phallic stage of infantile sexual development. In Freud's theory, males who do not identify well with their mothers in this phallic stage, ages three to five, may be excessively ambitious or vain later in life. Freud asserts that males may use symbolic gratification later on during the genital stage, ages 12 until usually 18, to come to terms with this unresolved conflict. While the poem does not give us insight into the author's relationship with his mother, the narrator is clearly using his new word to impress his friends and he describes the word and its use in phallic terms: spear, javelin, thrust, etc. Both of these elements of the narrator's motivation: vanity and phallic fixation, fit Freud's theory.

Way 13: Unifying Interpretation
After looking at this poem thirteen different ways it is easier to see how analyzing any piece of literature in this amount of detail would open up new inroads of understanding. Some works may have richer figurative language or setting details to unpack while others may have greater historical or biographical background. This is why it is important to look at each work from every possible perspective. Otherwise we may dwell on its superficial features and ignore the other ways of looking at the piece, missing out on important aspects of understanding. In this poem, a young man misunderstands his teacher. The historical context of __The Iliad__ helps us understand how this particular misunderstanding is possible. Theoretical applications help us understand just what it is about the narrator that causes him to take his next step, passing along the misunderstanding, embarrassing himself and confusing others. The author's application of historical references from greek mythology to our own times make the poem entertaining and unique. Lastly, the narrator's intentional misuse of common expressions also add humor and ensure the reader that he is poking fun at himself. At first read, this was a challenging poem for me. It includes a sticky subject, ambiguity, and a huge amount of mythological references, many of which were unfamiliar to me. The most obvious measure of the effectiveness of the "Thirteen Ways" to me is the way my understanding, comfort level, and appreciation of the poem increased with each perspective. While I am sure there are still many details I have missed and viewpoints I haven't explored about this poem I now appreciate how looking at a single piece of literature in many different ways increases our understanding and enhances our enjoyment of reading.

Works Cited and Consulted
"About the Author." __mainstreetrag.com.__ Main Street Rag Publishing Company. 25 April 2009 

Brown, James S., and Scott D. Yarbrough. __A Practical Introduction to Literary Study.__ Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2005

"History." Encarta World English Dictionary. North American Edition. 2009

"Iliad." Wikipedia. 1 May 2009 

"Psychosexual Development." Wikipedia. 7 May 2009 

Rybak, Chuck. "Homer-erotic." __Tongue and Groove.__ Charlotte: Main Street Rag Publishing Company, 2007

"Trojan War." Wikipedia. 1 May 2009 

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