The House of Darkness - Zelda Peach
Preface: I realize that we talked about this in class on Thursday, but I had already written this beforehand and still want to discuss the matter some more.
“There is a house whose people sit in darkness; dust is their food and clay is their meat. They are clothed like birds with wings for covering, they see no light, they sit in darkness.”
These are the first few lines that Enkidu is told in his warning dream on page 92 in tablet three. To me, these words are hauntingly beautiful. I have thought about them ever since I first read them and I cannot get them out of my head. I have highlighted them, underlined them, and rolled them over in my head way too many times. What do they mean? Should I picture it as a literal image of people in darkness eating dust? Or is it some sort of metaphor for humans on earth compared to the gods? In a book where dreams matter so much, I feel like these first few words are extremely powerful. Is the dust that the people eat their own lies and the light they can’t see the truth of the world? I honestly don’t know. When reading these lines, I was first reminded of Plato’s cave analogy where people also sit in darkness and are fed only lies. However, in the context of this book, I get the idea that the “somber-faced man-bird” is telling Enkidu about Hell. Later in the dream, we are told about the “Queen of the underworld” and the “the book of death”, and these facts would seem to point to the obvious conclusion that this place being described is hell, but...I think there is something more. I honestly do not know, maybe this blog post is just showcasing my love for depressing poetry or maybe there is something else really here. Let me know what you think and thanks for listening to my rambles.
P.S I commented on Spencer and Kayla's posts
I honestly saw those words and knew he was talking about hell. Back then I feel as if that is where everyone supposedly went for eternity, simply because they believed heaven was for the gods. Only people who are taken away by the gods into the heavens like Utnapishtim will really understand heaven. I also see these words and almost immediately think: "Little Boxes" a song about communism where everything is the same in a repeated cycle. It makes me think of life without God, how unfulfilled and purposeless it is.
ReplyDeleteSide Note: Did you HAVE to write about feels? Dude. Its the second week of school.
Recently, I have started reading The Inferno, and I am in love with that book. It is gorgeously written and has many insights about what Dante viewed of hell. Given what I've read, I agree that these words do seem to be referring to hell or at least an underworld. However, I cannot read this without thinking about a big city in the depression. They too had little food, ragged clothes or none at all, and for most the only possessions they had were themselves.
ReplyDeleteAlso, your puns need work. Sorry but not really.