Sarah Palin, The Anti-Poet
Watching Sarah Palin resign the other week, I remembered how frustrating it is to listen to her speak. She uses simple words, but combines them into a fog that's hard to penetrate, out of which a few political clichés like "freedom" and "reform" appear. Most politicians, of course, obfuscate to some degree, but Palin is a master, and she does it constantly. Look at how she turns a simple statement into a mind-numbing puzzle (this is from Hart Seely's terrific collection of found poems taken from actual Sarah Palin quotes):
You know,
Small mayors,
Mayors of small towns--
Quote, unquote--
They're on the front lines.
A quick analysis reveals why understanding Palin can be such a challenge. She follows a folksy "you know" with a clear misstatement--"small mayors"--which she follows with a clarification, which she then amends with the inexplicable "quote, unquote." By the time she gets to her point--that small town mayors are on the front lines (which she could have simply said)--one is too bogged down in misstatements, repetitions, poor syntax and folksiness to know what to think. This is, no doubt, why her interviewers often look a bit stunned, jaw slightly agape, when Palin finishes answering a question: they don't have a clear idea of what she said.
When you extend Palin's speaking style (if it's even a style) to a more complex issue like the bailout, it becomes a sort of verbal Armageddon. Here's another found poem by Seely called "On the Bailout":
Ultimately,
What the bailout does
Is help those who are concerned
About the health care reform
That is needed
To help shore up our economy,
Helping the--
It's got to be all about job creation, too.
Shoring up our economy
And putting it back on the right track.
So health care reform
And reducing taxes
And reining in spending
Has got to accompany tax reductions
And tax relief for Americans.
And trade.
We've got to see trade
As opportunity
Not as a competitive, scary thing.
But one in five jobs
Being created in the trade sector today,
We've got to look at that
As more opportunity.
All those things.
Your head should be spinning at this point.
Julian Gough of the UK's Prospect Magazine opined facetiously this past December that "Palin is a poet, and a fine one at that. What the philistine media take for incoherence is, in fact, the fruitful ambiguity of verse." His example of this "fruitful ambiguity" is a found poem he termed "The Relevance of Africa:"
And the relevance to me
With that issue,
As we spoke
About Africa and some
Of the countries
There that were
Kind of the people succumbing
To the dictators
And the corruption
Of some collapsed governments
On the
Continent,
The relevance
Was Alaska's.
Gough elaborated on his tongue-in-cheek theory: "A great poet needs to leave open the door between the conscious and unconscious; Sarah Palin has removed her door from its hinges. A great poet does not self-censor; Sarah Palin seems authentically innocent of what she is saying. She could be the most natural, visionary poet since William Blake." Great poets, of course, do self-censor (even the Beats), at least during the editing process.
Gough's editorial got me wondering if there's any legitimacy to viewing Palin's peculiar speech as a sort of poetry, but I can't think of a poetic movement with which Palin has much in common. Almost all poetry--regardless of its aims-- strives for clarity, precision and some sort of communication. Even if a good poem is difficult, or even surreal, it's carefully crafted to be that way, in order to facilitate a type of understanding. Palin's speech, intentionally or not, works against understanding. Her tangle of folksy obfuscation is the antithesis of poetry, and perhaps more than any other public figure today, she's something of an antipoet.
I do think there are similarities between Palin's statements and a Buddhist ko-an--a deliberately provocative and unanswerable question like "what is the sound of one hand clapping?" But whereas the ko-an aims at enlightenment, Palin offers delightenment--if that were like, you know, a word. Quote unquote. All those things. (Sigh)
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Someone posted this on another SP thread. It's clever, sorry if it's already on this tread.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_X1J4-BrIY
Fortunately or unfortunately, SP didn't take up the guitar and join the anti-folk movement in the 1980's.
She speaks WORD SALAD--and then tosses it.
SP has a knack for rearranging sentences like a scrabble game. If the word fits she uses it, especially if it's a a triple point word. Unfortunately, the result is an incongruent mix of babble and flabble (my double letter score)- want to challenge it?
http://teutonic13.wordpress.com/
What is important about Palin is what she represents. Particularly to her supporters. People who support her look at her and say "She's just like me!" These are people who were suspicious of G. W. Bush's intellectual bona fides. Too pointy headed for them, those Yale and Harvard degrees! They want Sarah Palin and Joe the Plumber in 2012! Such people are numerous (they breed like rabbits) and dangerous (they vote and own guns).
and spell fonetically. lol.
And think like George W. Bush. Actually she does sound like Geprge.
Too bad I can't spell.
Let’s see, works her way through college, becomes mayor of a small town and then is elected Governor of a state, this sounds like what the left wing calls a true American story. She can speak without prepared speeches written by others and without teleprompters, without saying a a a a a a twenty to thirty times in a conversation and this is a bad thing. Obama went from being elected to the Ill. state senate, immediately started his campaign for the U.S. senate and the started his campaign for the Presidency, sounds like somebody who doesn’t like to finish what he starts, now there’s Hope to believe in.
Your heroine quit
to run in two thousand twelve
was she "feed" up too? LMAO
Worked her way through six (5 plus one of those a second time - Idaho U) colleges in just 6 years, as she kept quitting along the way, once because she didn't like the weather. Ugh. She's a quitter and a whiner - among a lot of other things, including contract breaker. She entered into a contract with her state and broke it when it became too inconvenient for her. Perhaps Alaskans can sue her for that. I'd like to see that added to those pesky ethics complaints that keep mounting.
Quit at five schools, quit as commissioner, quit as mayor, quit as governor. Thinks Africa is a country, doesn't read (except off a teleprompter, of which one in August made her sound coherent), gave an interview in a towel (how slutty is that, exactly?), used each of her "public service" jobs to enrich her family. Obama went from being the child of a welfare mother to scholarships that he turned, by hard work and native intelligence, into a law degree with honors, then made his family fortune by writing two best-selling books. You're right: No comparison.
obama as "child of a welfare mother" is kinda funny, since he was also the granchild of a vice president of bank of america, and thus raised in hawaii's upper class, and sent to the island's best private school.
Read up on current events before you draw these inappropriate comparisons, please. Nobody has a problem understanding the President when he speaks, despite his verbal hesitations. He actually speaks in complete sentences, despite them. SP hasn't yet learned the MEANING of a complete sentence, much less the complete thought that precedes it. The point of the story is well taken. Her speech is unintelligible....AND she quit the office of the governorship after 2 and 1/2 years, siux months of which were devoted to running for Vice President of the US, a time during which she barely set foot in the state that she was elected to lead. At least, when Obama ran for state senator and the US Senate, he didn't leave Illinois.
You missed a spot, justfeedup....she worked her way through several colleges.
You're right, she doesn't hesitate like Obama does, but ther's more information in his "uh"s than in an entire Palin burblespeech.
what did I leave out....Oh, yeah! Your girlfriend bailed on the people of Alaska.
Only Sarah Palin could say "I'm no quitter" while announcing that she's quitting being governor.
And apparently, only justfeedup can say that PRESIDENT Obama doesn't finish what he starts while Palin's bailin' on State 49.
"I'm quitting -
not quitting really....although I'm leaving.....
not leaving really....just - you know....going my own way.....
so I can serve Alaska better.....
better than the toip job I just quit....er not quit.....
you know...also too.
I thank the people of Alaska....the small people....the good people,
the real Amerikans.....I say
"Thanks....but no thanks"
and as I hold up my child to show off what a good mom/pitbull/grizzly I am
PLEASE leave my children out of this!
also.
Divine!
Brilliant! And right on point. It's almost a quote.
splendid! Funny, also too.
LMAO!! Funniest thing i have EVER read on her!!!
It's amazing that someone so dumb can be such a popular political figure. It isn't some celebrity Paris Hilton type popularity. We are talking President of the United States. It's a sad commentary on our once-great country. It just goes to show you that religious nuts don't care about character, intelligence, integrity. All that matters is that one believes in Jesus (or claims to believe); all else is irrelevant (see also: G.W. Bush).
My personal favorite Sarah Palin "poem"
"Oil and coal?
Of course, it's a fungible commodity and they don't flag,
you know, the molecules,
where it's going and where it's not.
But in the sense of the Congress today,
they know that there are very, very hungry domestic markets that need that oil first
So, I believe that what Congress is going to do,
also, is not to allow the export bans to such a degree that it's Americans that get stuck to holding the bag
without the energy source that is produced here, pumped here. It's got to flow into our domestic markets first."
Thanks a LOT, KarenVC! Now I've got a headache.
Can everyone please stop putting this woman in the spotlight! Take a picture, blog about something other then this created walking headline.
Stop hating on the poet.
She's an artist and she don't look back. She never stumbles, she's got no place to fall. She's nobody's child, and the law can't touch her at all.
Stop hating on the poet.
She's an artist and she don't look back.
She never stumbles, she's got no place to fall.
She's nobody's child, and the law can't touch her at all.
Did you HAVE to post this twice? It makes as little sense the second time as it did the first time.
She's a poet, she don't know it,
she's already blown it.
It is a puzzlement that this woman after her 5 colleges in 6 years actually was awarded a degree. Apparently English was not a requirement. Perhaps the next governor will make her poet laureate of Alaska........
Very interesting article!
Yes, the mystery of Sara Palins force of attraction should not be dismissed.
Yes, she and what she represents is a threat to USA and the entire globe and the mission is to avert that threat.
She deceives people, that's obvious and the reason could certainly be her talent for inverted poetry.
One reason she uses this language is not mentioned in the text:
Ignorance
Her own ignorance and her audiences and supporters ignorance.
This is part of the base of her success and the antidote is as always, education, this, for most of us painful process.
Obama has talked about it but I haven't seen any progress so far, I suppose the ecomonics has precedence?
Going to Chef School does not produce a good chef. It's in the DNA. Either you can cook or you can't, you can pretend to be able to cook. But the taste you leave in the mouth is the proof in the putting (pudding). No amount of education will an intelligent person make. A head full of facts spouted by rote memory does not cut the mustard. Their needs to be a fully functioning intellect behind it for words to make sense.
There, not their. Sorry, have not had coffee.
Agree completely wit h your argument, which is why I've found it hilarious when conservatives talk about how all Palin has to do is bone up on foreign affairs or economics or finance to make it on the national "stage". Regrettably you can't MAKE someone smart. She is a case in point. (Palin's stage is the beauty contest, not national politics.)
Obama is not only talking about it, he's doing something about it. He's trying to make community colleges a stronger component of our educational system so that kids can get training for better jobs than if they had only a H.S. certificate or GED. He's also trying to strengthen HeadStart so all kids get a positive introduction to primary school and he's touting the importance of science and engineering to our economic prosperity and leadership. However, there's only so much the president can do on his own. We need to pressure Congress to "get with the program" and invest in the future and not just deal with tactical wins in the present.
13 year olds are definitly more Mature ! LOL !!
If this Clown ever becomes President, the United States will become even more of a Laughing Stock around the World then we we're under Bush. God Help Us!!
Let's keep the words President and Palin absent from each other in sentences. Just don't go there.
boss limbaugh was singing her praises just yesterday----he told an amusing anecdote about screaming at a teenage guest who was speaking the truth about palin ("quoting the drive-by media") & apparently went off on him
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