Revelation in film: 'American Beauty' (2000)
John Bjarne Grover
The first part of this article is a study of the relation between some parts of the US film 'American Beauty' and my poetry book 'Hammerfest' from 1997. In the second part, I analyze a poem of Paul Celan in parallel with the poem I used for the study of the film - and this should allow for the conclusion that the parallelisms are not due to deliberate copying but to universals of poetic cognition.
I wrote the first part of my Endmorgan Quartet in 1997. It was the book 'Hammerfest' which I made a first edition of and got it registered in the copyright register in Washington (and London) on 17 December 1997. One year exactly later, the shooting of the film 'American Beauty' started. It was released in 2000 and got a lot of Oscars.
It was as late as 2005 that I started taking interest in the relation between these two works, and I made a parallel reading of the first 26 (out of 117) minutes. On basis of this detailed study and the general surface properties of the rest of the two works (I remember that I was a little upset after having seen the film in 2000 - I thought that it was based on my name and elements from my life - but it is likely that this would have been of less interest compared with this textual parallel to my book), I discovered that two interesting things could be said about them:
1) The film American Beauty is a detailed copy of my book - second by second through the film running in parallel with my book - on the microscopic level. One can study the minute details in the pictures and find correlates in my poetry.
2) However, if one sees the film and reads the book, nobody would ever dream of thinking about the film as a copy of the book. The two works are completely different on the macroscopic level.
Even the introductory pages and index and postscript found representations in the film. The question naturally arose whether the film-makers had got hold of my book after it was self-published to libraries in London in December 1997. There are some traces of elements related to my life and therefore I could not escape the question whether they had used my book (the December 1997 edition) and made a running parallel. Also, the material which follows the DVD tells of such possibilities. However, the more I have been thinking about it, the more I am inclined to conclude that this is the sort of parallel which is not likely to have been deliberately made. It is rather the sort of 'somnambulistic' precision and certainty which is very difficult to mould into a coherent film with a smoothly running story. I cannot conclude definitely on either option, but the film can of course be studied in its details anyhow.
I made the first version in 1997 without parallel texts. Then in 1998, I completed the second book in my Endmorgan Quartet when I discovered that it was a perfect parallel to Luke 24. That is when I had the even bigger discovery: The first book, Hammerfest, was a perfect parallel to Luke 23. It was even by and large readily segmented according to the verses in the chapter. I could just put the parallel text in on top of the pages. It is likely that this discovery was at the time when the preparations to the filming was going on in USA. My book is primarily a parallel to Luke 23, and only secondarily have I found that it is a parallel to this film.
Assuming that it is a true revelation - that the film-makers did not use my work deliberately (and I certainly had no access to their material - I knew of course nothing about the plans for this film when I wrote 'Hammerfest') - the question is what it means. There was an answer to this in the last part of the work, completed with 'Gentlemen' in 2005, in the text about 'the American girl'. The film tells that the American girl entered the stage already in the first book. I have concluded that a detailed copy on micro level which is not visible on the macro level resembles the political scenario in the postwar era, in the relation between USA and Europe. Then a 'revelational' parallel along with the number of Oscars could be a signal of a reorientation in US films - away from the 'Klipra connection' and 'Celan stories' and similars that has characterized the genre since the 1940's. It could mean a US willingness to contribute to dam up for the massive unidirectional east-west flux there has been through some decades and return to an equilibrium or even movement eastwards. Which also could indicate a reorientation towards a more esthetic or art-based language of US film, away from the propaganda orientation. Which of course would be a very positive development.
The phenomenon of parallels resembles the relation between my text in 'Cardiff/Harding' and Hitler's postcard. Which perhaps suggests that the parallel to the film 'American Beauty' could be about finding a rooting of a historically defining program. To the extent that there are uncertainties as far as concerns the question whether my poetry has been used deliberately or not, the methodological situation resembles that of the studies of Fast Forward, my study 'The theatre of the heart' (based on Rilke's elegy), the 'inner voice' etc.
The emotions relative to these sort of phenomena relating to revelational poetry tend perhaps to vary somewhat uncontrolled between 1) of course it is a deliberately made copy and 2) of course it isn't. The reason for that would be that revelational poetry follows a poetic logic and not a traditional one. The mapping cannot be explained by ordinary reasoning. Some people may perhaps say that of course 'American Beauty' has to have been made with 'Hammerfest' in the hand. That is far from certain. The interesting material comes up when one finds the revelational relation between two such works. That is also when one can start studying the nature of the poetic logic in the relation between them.
Integrity is the metric of the new poetic logic. I don't know if anxiety relative to poetic logic is related to the phenomenon of anti-semitism.
I notice with particular interest that the parallels I studied was relative to the zipped parts of my book. Those are the first 45-50 pages - the text is not written linearily but I have folded the log of poetic observations 2-3 times and thereby obtains classes of up to 8 words to pick and choose from for each line - which makes mistakes and failed attempts in the progress of poetic observations less disastrous. At page 50, there is the onset of 'arbitrarity', and the rest of the work (with only 2-3 minor exceptions) is written linearily without subsequent editing of the lines or their order.
I bring two excerpts of the detailed study here - some three minutes 10:00-13:15 from the scene where 'Carolyn Burnham' (played by Annette Bening in the film) tries to sell a house, and the minute at 23:42-24:42, the scene where Frank Fitts opens the door - bridging by a jump or 'redirection' over to the scene in the car. The text is from my 1997 edition (without parallel texts from Luke), pages 11-15 (the text 'Potatoes' starts on page 10 - it had this title in the 1997 version but the title was deleted in later versions) and the second excerpt at pages 29-31. The book is 107 pages, the film 117 minutes.
The reason why the second excerpt from the film is an interesting part is that it contains a notable jump which is cued by my own poem and which has a certain interpretation in the film. It is about a jump in scene (not in Seine). It could even be about 'the European reason', cp. the mention of Australia. This phenomenon could be suggestive of the assumption that the film is not made with my book in hand. The excerpt is from the text called 'The Street', a series of small shops and businesses along an idyllic part of the town. The businesses excerpted here are 1) "Nacquapotinta d'Onina", probably a crystal-bowl future-seller, 2) 'Lank", a solicitor's firm, 3) "Property education" (apparently an estate agency) and 4) "Our Victim", probably some psycho or socio business (only the beginning of it given here). The comment at about 23:48-50 tells of a strong link to my book: "You just drop it in the water and it's done" = "Nacquapotinta d'Onina", which tells of some crystal-bowl peeping into the future, which is what they sell there. You see? (It can be noticed that the film was written by 'Alan Ball'). 'Lank' means 'hand', here the ones reached from the neighbours. Followed by some slight doubts or at least considerations deep down in the soul. Property education: What are you guys selling? Title and first line in this shop should perhaps have been swapped.
As to the time annotations in the column to the right, they are probably reasonably good. When I move forwards and backwards on the DVD, my computer clock timing of the film tends to get a little out of tune, a second or two fast or late, but I think the time annotations are rather precise.
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Hammerfest Excerpt #1: Ah, and I should have something to wash away, blowing away the sackness of the winter stock and hay. In these first hours, we've not read. That rows us and keeps us, so you will change your faces. You will have very small obviouses of this double waving of the index finger. In the social complexure of the Lord spoken anterior, we chunk the mew size. In chinges mood, the swishing of the broom and lemon peel have got a writer's consternation, as on a sentimental journey to the Baltics or to farther Russia where flattery is fuel. It's something different from sex, as shared as tired language: What is this? Compute the self discontinuous. Or in a comedy of underwear: This keeps me on and on to continue. Have you put on a shower for the evening? (The sound of water when the water's pouring out). Full of this tricolorean city, the PANAM stewardess says: "Blume... Diese Weisen..." On entering the underground, the man to the right of the woman says "Do her!" He let out in the Green Lane. ...slide relating with no hearing, with no ... pre-conorsion ... He is the author of "The history of grammatical definitions". It's relating to the hearing. She said over her left shoulder: "A man of thirty, puking education, with a fullfledged dream of opacity". It is she who does it. I'm sorry. His hand chops it out: A specific mask, including person, gone for a year. Physis. Does it make any difference? I leave the house, like swallowing a potato or toothpaste. I'm going to make a reprint and distribute it. The door bangs like a woman's vocal cords, not following me but every day pronouncing her own name till it fades in the middle of her mouth. On the bus, I read John Wellington, as on an airplane waiting for the shield to land: "Besides the biggest toe, upon the second, lo, a wart or blister blessed by fingers' row..." Haven't I seen this somewhere before, in some more unsuitable outfit lacking the collar fur of this Jacob sitting on Esau's wooden boxes without passepartout? But then whenas the cry (some trifling HA-name high) imprinted on the invoice counterpart... I am Benjamin in his lousy jacket blowing like a newspaper in the wind, escaping the outdoor street claustrophobia fumbling with the doorlock keys and locked-door till the inside Auden sound of a cracking hob gives in to its difference. Excerpt #2: Nacquapotinta d'Onina In this analysis of spiritual taste there is a station. I'm a ticketmaster. But Rational himself is rational. You see? Lank The letter filled to a size, everything else which I shouldn't have done - I mean, all the specific lines. I'm afraid not. - He's got to apply to a... - ...specific? "Er hatte die rechtere Hand. Auch wenn es der Stand der Dinge, die Ferne macht es die Meinung der ausstammen, der mich gleich belackt". Property education You smake? There is the problem with the report on the library. I think it's alright. But rather to suggest that a model of server..., I think equimind, like sophis...: It's about the turn of the renaissance, I mean, the turn of the present century. Well, I don't know. Bind is the mental of my mind. In the same vein the colour line lies through acuity of the corner. This means that my conference is going to Nottingham and redirect the reason why I, necessarily, my homely has tonight, and left Australia. Nothing more when I moved in. Ask me: It must be four metres or more if you shall install. Ask for eine Formulierung - Schillers als maximale in eine halbe Woche entgangen. Our Victim I'll take your seat I'll take your square problem as long as I leave anything a few days earlier. You will find perhaps no knowledge. It is possible that it can be turned into the turnreflex. The question is what can be asked and what can be asked for. |
American Beauty = 10:00 = fills with wind = on stick and hello-sign = 10:02 metaphysics behind car = 10:03 keeping balance, holding rear of car = 10:04 behind out from car = 10:05 = double way-wing = of in-deck swinger = 10:07 movement of body and technology = 10:09 the Lord = 10:15 the mews' eyes = 10:20 the hinges mood = 10:21 = 10:22 lemon-appeal = 10:23 writer's constipation? = 10:25 sentimental journal = 10:26 Cardiff/Harding, pen and card-diff = 10:27 = 10:28 = 10:29 = 10:30 = 10:31 underwear = 10:32 on-and-on wiping = 10:33 continueing = 10:34 = 10:35 = 10:36 = 10:37 = 10:42 'Pam An' stewardess = 10:46 blod me disse-weissen = tricolorean = 10:48 vacuum-cleaning carpet = 10:54 in the mirror, two persons = 11:00 wiping stain = 11:04 Carolyn Burnham letting out = 11:11 looking up in ceiling = 11:19 Mao without a wart: no prick on nosen = 11:24 academic type = 11:27 probably written something like that = 11:30 looking down on floor (cp. 'looking up') = 11:32 left shoulder = energy costs = 11:35 a pugge-list? cram-list = 11:36 a pugilist? = 11:39 = 11:42 fun backyard get-togethers = 11:47 = 11:52 a specific expression = 11:56 (13 - 18 July 1997) = 11:58 = 11:59 = 12:00 = 12:05 = 12:08 = 12:10 = 12:15 = 12:20 = 12:22 = 12:23 = 12:25 = 12:40 finger's row = 12:44 some other genre of film = 12:50 = 12:53 = 13:05 'I am Annette Bening', jump in fiction = 13:11 = 13:15 (18-19 July, 18 September 1997) = 23:42 = 23:48 = 23:53 = 23:55 = 23:57 = 23:59 = 24:03 = 24:04 = 24:06 = 24:08 = 24:10 = 24:12 = 24:15 = 24:17 = 24:20 = 24:21 = 24:23 JUMP FROM HERE DOWN TO 24:27 THE TEXT IS REDIRECTED (the European reason?) = 24:27 = 24:30 = 24:34 = 24:36 = 24:38 = 24:43 The full poem 'The Street' was written in the period 24 August - 25 September 1997 |
The parallelism between my 'Potatoes' poem and Celan's 'Tarussa'
The poem of Celan in the below analysis is from his 'Niemandsrose' (1963), the poem called 'Und mit dem Buch aus Tarussa', which turns out to be a very good parallel to my poem 'Potatoes' which I analyzed above in parallel to the film. The parallel between 'Tarussa' and 'Potatoes' is almost perfect line by line (even if the start could have been better). There are only very few bumps on the carpet, and the main difference is that my poem has some 4-5 lines which Celan's has not. Those 4-5 lines are also the weakest part of my poem - one really feels how the poem loses height and nearly goes into a spin before it returns to its standard height again. However, Celan has a motto from Zwetajewa ('Tsvetaeva' etc) to his poem - and it turns out that this motto fits in perfectly in these lines in the middle of mine. It is here that a comparison with 'American Beauty' can prove that the film is not a copy of my poem. The scene in the film is from 'Carolyn Burnham' cleaning the house she is about to sell - the energetic wiping of the windows and the kitchen part. The mapping of the film to my poem is weak in these lines - but very good to the motto from Celan's poem. Even the cleaning of the dirty kitchen is there: 'Få jeg se på ete-skiten' = 'bse poety zhidy'. This is once again about 'the marina mystery', as I could call it: I have several times come across this mystery that texts have bumps and curls around such 'marina' occurrences.
This should prove that the film is not a deliberate copy of my poem. Or at least one should say that the chances that such deliberate uncredited borrowing is the reason for the parallelisms are very small and can probably be ignored. The right way to say it is probably that this is a valid proof indeed - but it is perhaps not so certain what it really proves. (I notice the relation between 'Burnham' and 'Clapham'). The mapping to Celan's poem is a proof that the parallelisms between these three works are due to poetic logic and not to deliberate copying. I should add that I had never read neither Celan's 'Die Niemandsrose' nor his 'Lichtzwang' when I wrote my 'Endmorgan Quartet' in 1997-98. Nor had I, of course, been in any contact with material to the film. The 'Tarussa' poem is the second last in Celan's 'Niemandsrose', while my 'Potatoes' is second first in my 'Hammerfest'. In the second edition of the book, I added Luke 23:05 as parallel text to this poem.
In the following analysis, my poem is in the first and Celan's in the second line of each segment. The italics are the motto from Zwetajewa. Celan's text is from 'Die Gedichte' (2003).
Shut up the dramatis persona.
Vom
It is already too overcrowded.
Sternbild des Hundes, vom
We have enough of roles.
Hellstern darin und der Zwerg-
But they say: We need more of us.
leuchte, die mitwebt
They say: We are not - / we are not what...
an erdwärts gespiegelten Wegen,
A string at the gentle oldest face.
von
Then Mr.X is out for his walk.
Pilgerstäben, auch dort, von Südlichem, fremd
Can you sprinkle my bone
und nachtfasernah
with Kuhnstones?
wie unbestattete Worte,
This is what Jelly & Fish is about,
streunend
in their half contortious vibrations,
im Bannkreis erreichter
through academic censorship
Ziele und Stelen und Wiegen.
brought over to the other realm (of OM).
Von
I like to borrow and to look.
Wahr- und Voraus- und Vorüber-zu-dir-,
Exactly one year ago,
von
the bang from a metallic bar.
Hinaufgesagtem,
Then drives away a speedy car.
das dort bereitliegt, einem
The hermeneutic script
der eigenen Herzsteine gleich,
(I have wiped out the details)
die man ausspie
grew heaven and earth around.
mitsamt ihrem un-
WOMAN: "...you just meaning...?"
verwüstlichen Uhrwerk, hinaus
MAN: "...I've f..."
in Unland und Unzeit. Von solchem
- and a paper from a calendar torn off.
Ticken und Ticken inmitten
So to turn it round again
der Kies-Kuben mit
is for me the best solution
der auf Hyänenspur rückwärts,
there can be.
aufwärts verfolgbaren
Hm. Poem and continue door.
Ahnen-
Three Poles up the stairs at the YMCA:
reihe Derer-
Svolvaer, Nutrie and Wiley.
vom-Namen-und-Seiner-
The first is a stone,
Rundschlucht.
the second a vibraphone,
Von
and the third had entered out a key,
einem Baum, von einem.
wie in ortlichen Luft...
Ja, auch von ihm. Und vom Wald um ihn her. Vom Wald
Ah, and I should have something to wash away,
Unbetreten, vom
blowing away the sackness
Gedanken, dem er entwuchs, als Laut
of the winter stock and hay.
und Halblaut und Ablaut und Auslaut, skythisch
In these first hours, we've not read.
zusammengereimt
That rows us and keeps us,
im Takt
so you will change your faces.
der Verschlagenen-Schläfe,
You will have very small obviouses
mit
of this double waving
geatmeten Steppen-
of the index finger.
halmen geschrieben ins Herz
In the social complexure
der Stundenzäsur - in das Reich,
of the Lord spoken anterior,
in der Reiche
we chunk the mew size.
weitestes,
In chinges mood,
in den Grossbinnenreim
the swishing of the broom
jenseits
and lemon peel
der Stummvölker-Zone, in dich
have got a writer's consternation,
Sprachwaage, Wortwaage, Heimat-
as on a sentimental journey
waage Exil.
to the Baltics or to farther Russia
Von diesem Baum, diesem Wald.
where flattery is fuel[ish].
Von der Brücken-/quader, von der
It's something different from sex,
er ins Leben hinüber-/prallte, flügge
as shared as tired language:
von Wunden, - vom
What is this?
Pont Mirabeau.
Compute the self discontinuous.
Wo die Oka nicht mitfliesst. Et quels
Or in a comedy of underwear:
amour! (Kyrillisches, Freunde, auch das
This keeps me on and on
ritt ich über die Seine,
to continue.
ritts über Rhein.)
Have you put on a shower for the evening?
Zwetajewa
(The sound of water / when the water's pouring out).
Marina
Full of this tricolorean city,
"Vse poety zhidy"
the PANAM stewardess says:
Von einem Brief, von ihm.
"Blume... Diese Weisen..."
Vom Ein-Brief, vom Ost-Brief. Vom harten,
On entering the underground,
winzigen Worthaufen, vom
the man to the right of the woman says
unbewaffneten Auge, das er
"Do her!"
den drei
He let out in the Green Lane.
Gürtelsternen Orions - Jakobs-
...slide relating with no hearing,
stab, du
with no ... pre-conorsion ...
abermals kommst du gegangen! -
He is the author of
zuführt auf der
"The history of grammatical definitions".
Himmelskarte, die sich ihm aufschlag.
It's relating to the hearing.
Vom Tisch, wo das geschah.
She said over her left shoulder:
Von einem Wort, aus dem Haufen,
"A man of thirty, puking education,
und dem er, der Tisch,
with a fullfledged dream of opacity".
zur Ruderbank wurde, vom Oka-Fluss her
It is she who does it.
und den Wassern.
I'm sorry.
Vom Nebenwort, das
His hand chops it out:
ein Ruderknecht nachknirscht,
A specific mask,
ins Spätsommerohr
including person,
seiner hell-
gone for a year.
hörigen Dolle:
Physis.
Kolchis.
I discovered the parallel by way of the last word. There are various sorts of parallelisms which are rather interesting. For example, 'vom harten' maps onto 'Diese Weisen' by the form 'vom weichen'. There are some phonological parallels which are more interesting than the semantic ones. For example, 'The hermeneutic script' relative to 'der eigene Herzsteine gleich' is more interesting phonologically than semantically. Cp. also 'with a fullfledged dream of opa-city' relative to 'zur Ruderbank wurde, vom Oka-Fluss her'. 'Then drives away a speedy car' = 'das dort bereitliegt, einem'. 'He let out in the Green Lane' = 'Gürtelsternen Orions - Jakobs-' etc. This sort of phonology takes the place of the former rhyme in poetry. Celan calls it, in this poem, for 'Gedanken, dem er entwuchs, als Laut / und Halblaut und Ablaut und Auslaut, skythisch / zusammengereimt'. The first word in the line 'in den Grossbinnenreim' should be on the line above but is moved here for showing the phonological-semantic parallel to my line. These things are really what the poems are about - and hence the quality of proof in them.
The above was put out on the internet on 21 October 2006, and I add on 22 October: The proof can be observed in the seconds of the film representing the motto from Zwetajewa: "Vse poety zhidy" = 'all poets are Jews'. The Norwegian reading of the Russian comes out as 'få jeg se på ete-skite[n]' = 'I must have a look at the eat-dirt'. This is a second in the film without dialogue, and the following three images from the film (at 10:40) represent the relevant second:
In fact the time point for the series of pictures is 10:40-10:43, which means that the time designation is telling of the concept of the turning point (42.666% represents the concept of 10 lines, word #43 or #42.666). Since this is the essential point in the proof, and it is without dialogue, it also means that the chances that this second was planned in detail before my book was published are small. The proof consists in the raising of the head above the level of the kitchen surface. I notice the similarity with the 'revelation motive' from Vilnius and Tarkovskij's 'Solaris':
It may be a breakthrough for poetic science that it is possible to construct proofs of authenticity in this sort of evidence. It means that it is possible to construct a poetic metric of integrity - a sort of truth function - which is exactly what is needed for the new science. However, what exactly is proven in this particular, I don't know.
Celan's poem takes its point of reference in Tarussa, the town some 100 km or so south of Moscow, at the banks of the river Oka. This is where Tsvetajeva wanted to be buried (she was found hanged in 1941 in Jelabuga, followed by rumours about forced suicide - cp. the name-similarity with 'Bjarne Eidsvig', cp.also the issue of transference of ashes) and where Mandelstam's wife Nadeshda lived in the sixties, when Celan got a letter from his friend Einhorn from the place, as is the background for the poem (Wiedemann in Celan 2003). The name 'Tarussa' or 'Tarusa' resembles also the form 'Zarasu'. The title 'Potatoes' was something I put on the poem when I made the first edition, in December 1997, but I omitted it when I started using parallel texts as 'titles' to the poems. I think it was one of the last things I did with the book - I had to put titles to the poems (most of them were called only 'Letter from [A WORD/NAME]' but this one looked like a bowl of potatoes, which was the reason for the title. The name 'Zwetajewa' means something like 'Potatoes' - in addition to the more normal 'flower' reference - cp. the revelation in 'Geliu Gatve 6' = 'Flower Street 6' = 'Zwetajeva Street 6' in Vilnius.
© John Bjarne Grover
On the web 18 October 2006
Last updated 5 December 2007