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Whirligig
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From: lhendr at unm.edu <lhendr>
Date: Tue, 27 Oct 1998 13:08:54 -0700 (MST)
I'm glad we're still discussing Whirligig because after I had written about whirligigs as "banal and mudane artifacts of popular culture," I received a message from Nancy Balz, which she said I could share with you, and which caused me to do some more thinking, both about whirlgigs and about the book. Nancy wrote,
"I wanted to make one small aside to your comment on seeing whirligigs as `banal and mundane artifacts of popular culture' which may be true in one sense as they are scattered throughout gardening catalogs etc. these days. However, a quick look into almost any book on early American folk art, such as the one that comes to hand at my library here Treasures of American Folk Art from the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Center by B. T. Rumford and Carolyn J. Weekly probably might add a little to thinking about the whirligig tradition and a larger world view of action whimsies, humor, irony and historical views, the fates and the play of the gods, nameless artists and the passage of time and our evolving appreciation of `art'".
This made me realize that there are whirligigs and whirligigs, and that actually in _Whirligig_ Brent progresses from making the banal and mundane kind of whirligig to making his own designs, without "the book," that are actually forms of art. It struck me that this is yet another metaphor for Brent's development as a person, growing from one who followed dictates imposed from outside and rebelled against them, to one who created his own plans, and his own life. He grew from making cookie-cutter copies, to creating. He mastered a craft and in the process began mastering his life.
Thinking about this sent me back to _Missing May_, with its whirligigs that Summer calls "mysteries." Summer says that Ob is an artist, and none of his whirligigs are farm animals or cartoon characters. "One whirligig was meant to be a thunderstorm and it was so like one, black and gray, beautiful and frightening. Another was Ob's idea of heaven, and I thought his angels just might come off that thing and fly around that house trailer any minute, so gold and light were they. There was Fire and Love and Dreams and Death. Even one called May, which had more little spinning parts than any of the rest of the whirligigs, and these parts all white--her spirit, he said. They were grounded to a branch from an oak tree and this, he said, was her Power." (pp. 5-6, _Missing May_ Yearling pb)
At the end of the book, when they've finally come to terms with May's death, Ob and Summer and Cletus fill May's garden with the whirligigs,
"with Dreams and Thunderstorms and Fire and that bright white Spirit that was May herself." And the wind blows and sets everything free.
I'm not sure what other connections might be made here or what other meanings might be derived from the significance of whirligigs in these two books. Can anyone think of other "whirligig" books?
Linnea Hendrickson Lhendr at unm.edu
Received on Tue 27 Oct 1998 02:08:54 PM CST
Date: Tue, 27 Oct 1998 13:08:54 -0700 (MST)
I'm glad we're still discussing Whirligig because after I had written about whirligigs as "banal and mudane artifacts of popular culture," I received a message from Nancy Balz, which she said I could share with you, and which caused me to do some more thinking, both about whirlgigs and about the book. Nancy wrote,
"I wanted to make one small aside to your comment on seeing whirligigs as `banal and mundane artifacts of popular culture' which may be true in one sense as they are scattered throughout gardening catalogs etc. these days. However, a quick look into almost any book on early American folk art, such as the one that comes to hand at my library here Treasures of American Folk Art from the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Center by B. T. Rumford and Carolyn J. Weekly probably might add a little to thinking about the whirligig tradition and a larger world view of action whimsies, humor, irony and historical views, the fates and the play of the gods, nameless artists and the passage of time and our evolving appreciation of `art'".
This made me realize that there are whirligigs and whirligigs, and that actually in _Whirligig_ Brent progresses from making the banal and mundane kind of whirligig to making his own designs, without "the book," that are actually forms of art. It struck me that this is yet another metaphor for Brent's development as a person, growing from one who followed dictates imposed from outside and rebelled against them, to one who created his own plans, and his own life. He grew from making cookie-cutter copies, to creating. He mastered a craft and in the process began mastering his life.
Thinking about this sent me back to _Missing May_, with its whirligigs that Summer calls "mysteries." Summer says that Ob is an artist, and none of his whirligigs are farm animals or cartoon characters. "One whirligig was meant to be a thunderstorm and it was so like one, black and gray, beautiful and frightening. Another was Ob's idea of heaven, and I thought his angels just might come off that thing and fly around that house trailer any minute, so gold and light were they. There was Fire and Love and Dreams and Death. Even one called May, which had more little spinning parts than any of the rest of the whirligigs, and these parts all white--her spirit, he said. They were grounded to a branch from an oak tree and this, he said, was her Power." (pp. 5-6, _Missing May_ Yearling pb)
At the end of the book, when they've finally come to terms with May's death, Ob and Summer and Cletus fill May's garden with the whirligigs,
"with Dreams and Thunderstorms and Fire and that bright white Spirit that was May herself." And the wind blows and sets everything free.
I'm not sure what other connections might be made here or what other meanings might be derived from the significance of whirligigs in these two books. Can anyone think of other "whirligig" books?
Linnea Hendrickson Lhendr at unm.edu
Received on Tue 27 Oct 1998 02:08:54 PM CST
