ghosts & admissons

Self Administered I.Q. Test

Ok I am thankful that someone has come to my defense before an army of anon’s descended upon my blog to tease me, but none the less I conducted an exercise last night. After returning from an event with Toronto Mayor David Miller and his main challenger Jane Pitfield I decided to test this new theory. I picked up the play “Short Eyes” by Miguel Pinero and read the entire thing. I sat on my bed surrounded by unpacked boxes in my new apartment squinting in the poor light. Sure a play is probably easier to understand than an opera, and it was written in the 70’s, so the references were a bit more contemporary, but there were large portions written entirely in Spanish. So I had to recall what I had learned from an unwilling tutor and rely heavily on context. So here goes; here’s my summary and I will contrast it to either commentary that I will find online, or get my brother to do a similar review.

“Short Eyes” by Miguel Pinero is set in an American prison in the 1970’s. The characters are either black, Puerto Rican or white and they are extremely loyal to their race in the face of sex or violence, but spend most days interacting in and amongst each other. They live in a relatively quiet wing of the correctional institute but things get shaken up when Clark, a pedophile is introduced into their midst. A series of confessions, barters and violence then reveals the savagery of the environment. In a place where the only real ownership one has is over their soul, the inmates are forced to parcel off and barter pieces of it in order to survive. Suddenly the main characters Juan and Julio have to determine if retaining their humanity by protecting Clark from the threat of violence while sacrificing their own body is more important than self preservation at the expense of themselves emotionally and spiritually. When confronted by a vast network of different loyalties these two are forced to make a poisonous decision with no virtue available by any outcome. Short Eyes reveals the hopelessness of the struggle between self actualization and morality faced by America’s poor, and the effect that race and inequity plays in that.

Look it up, see for yourself and someone please provide a conclusion of their own to see if I’m an idiot or not.

posted by El Chupacabra @ 11:25 AM