LECTURE  ART AT THE TIME OF CHRIST IN CONCRETE   From Naturalism-Verism to avant-garde

HOW TO READ CHRIST IN CONCRETE

• READ the text OUT LOUD IN YOUR MIND.
   
• FIND THE RHYTHM as if you were reading poetry or the lyrics of a ballad (Robert Frost comes to mind, rhyme excluded.)
   
• It's not necessary to remember the names of secondary characters and who said what to whom. Don't expect directions like "He said" "She answered" "He thought" "She told herself" etc.
   
• Lines of dialogue are introduced without attribution. In certain points several people are talking (choir/chorus effect) but individuals are not identified (see page 21-22; 32 for example.)
   
• At times you will also find a character speaking a line followed by a thought without a clear transition.
   
• There are several passages where THE SOUND of language wants to reproduce THE SOUNDS of the work place.  These are strings of words without punctuation intend to create a sound effect (page 8 "Trowel rang.." 46 "Racing up floor cubed..."; "Compression engines snort viciously.."
  BEST PURE NARRATIVE EXAMPLE: p. 170 Steel.)

Di Donato wanted to render into English the texture and nuances of the ITALIAN speech of his characters. In order to do so, he opted to TRANSLATE LITERALLY (aka, transliteration) from Italian into English.
 

Here are a few examples:

FOR PLEASURE translates PER PIACERE which means PLEASE

I SENSE BAD: MI SENTO MALE (I feel sick - I don't feel well)

SEAFRUIT: FRUTTI DI MARE (seafood: mussels, clams, shrimp etc.)

MOTHER MINE: MAMMA MIA

CHILDREN MINE: BAMBINI MIEI (children of mine)

SISTER MINE: SORELLA MIA (sister of mine)

FORCE: FORZA (push, keep going, c'mon)

THE HEAD IS SEEN: SI VEDE LA TESTA (we can see the head)

"Geremio" clearly derives from "Geremia," translation of Jeremiah, the name of the biblical prophet whose books of lamentations (see Jeremiad) prophesized the downfall of the Hebrew Kingdom.

I had never heard the name GEREMIO used in Italian. Most likely since the word ends with "A" it was taken to be a FEMININE name (like most of -a ending names in Italian.)  Therefore it was *MASCULINIZED into an -o ending name.

This phenomenon can be seen in names like "IMMACOLATO": the origine is "IMMACOLATA", an attribute of the Vergin Mary (immaculate). Same with ANNUNCIATA or ANNUNZIATA (the "Annunciata" is again Mary who received the annunciation that she will give birth to Jesus.)

3. "Work. Sure. For America beautiful will eat you and spit your bones..."

5. "Hey Geremio! Is your gang of dagos dead?"

6. That night was a crowing in the life or Geremio."

6. Tarantella (keep it in mind for when you read "FIESTA")

9. The men were transformed into single, silent beasts.

13. "Is it not possible to breathe God's air without fear dominating with the pall of unemployment?"

17. Reference p. 215.

25. "The wop.."

33. For hours her love's violence flowed.

41. "Let me go! Let me escape! This role I do not wish to play!"

42. Except our need.

41. Did Annunziata hear all they said?

45. In his boardinghouse bunk.

51. Here comes the son of dead Geremio.

53. "Well, then, he wasn't a citizen."

57. "Whattsa matta you!"

58. "I have nothing to do with the charities."

65. Christian = example of metonymy: it stands for "humane, compassionate person"

66. What cock of Christians = "what kind of a *#@&*  Christian" ?

66. Just = Right

67. Pig of God = one of the heaviest curses and imprecations in Italian

68. Santos: narrator's bravura

73. Hollering at girls (grapes)

78. Stream of consciousness

79. Wife from Italy

81. Godfather this cock (see p. 66 note)

82: Job as character: stream of consciousness.

85. Ci Luigi's Italian (86, 87)

92. That's the way the world is

98. Became a spectator

100. Jews children of Christ.

103. Compensation Bureau, no English spoken

104. The cripple, straight narrative. 

105: English accent. Dirt.

[A surprising chapter, and one of my favorites: everything is set up to make the reader expect the rudest, most disrespectful and coarse treatment  by this self-proclaimed sensitive. The description of filth, the low-class language all converge to create a repulsive scene. And yet, the Cripple surprisingly turns things upside down: she reveals herself to be very intuitive and even caring toward Annunziata and Paul. 

(Personal hypothesis: it could be that the character "wrote itself," in that Di Donato initially shaped the character in a certain way, but then the character took a life of her own and imposed herself on the writer.  If you have ever written fiction you know this does happen.)]

108-109: trance, interruption

110. They forgot themselves... / He had to go and god needed him... no pain

111. If a child dies it's because Geremio needs company

112. Cup of tea for Annunziata.

117. Louis

118. Spoke in Hebrew (Yiddish)

119. He hated cruel people, war etc.

123. Compensation bureau, straight narrative POOR PEOPLE

124. The system.

125. Eyetalian names confusing, problems with Eyetalian workers

126. Careless like children.

127. Case adjourned

128. What world and country are we in?  [Bewilderment]

It is frankly impossible for me to guess why Di Donato chose a Spanish word for this chapter. All hypotheses are welcome.

131. Their comrade-worker Christ

133. God question

136. No poet ......

141 The men bent forward. They instinctively put hand between legs.

142 And by the Madonna, without let I feel pain in the toes.

145 Home sweatshop (see photos in video "The Way They Lived")

147. Superstition (Son of Italy) "Out leaped a real baby Devil, horns and all!"

148-154 Debauchery on Christmas Eve: curses, blasphemy, visit brothel, fake crucifixion, drunk like skunk.

155. "Sondy Glause"

157. Night school.

159 "What ails this Nazone?"

161. "The Americans like yourself call it 'claps.'"  Pinned on the wall were French postcard pictures. "the obscenity gripped his eyes and chilled his senses."

164-9 Gloria and Paul's sexual awakening -- and guilt. "Oh mother mother I have desire great desire for woman and my only will is for Gloria's fruits ....I cannot tell you --- I must never let you know..."

170. Big Steel. Pure descriptive text: a masterpiece, a bravura piece

173. "great dangerous Job who thrilled Paul."

174. Award. "The men ran away with the job; to the delight of the foreman and the firm." "Night and day they lived with the award.........while foreman's morbid pall loomed over shoulders." [Compare this paragraph to the description of Wall Street today.]

175. "So they gi'e it to the goddamn li'l Dago." "When the workers saw the women they removed their caps and hats."174. Win the award.

176. "these glaze-skinned, soft, white-fingered men"

179. "with the Lucy's children and Orangepeel-Face's children playing cowboys and Indians"

181. "masks of confused severity"

187. "That is what one can call Man!" exclaimed the Lucy lustily, and his hand sought directly the Regina's knee."

188. "...I tried my luck, but what luck have I, I ask you?"

189. "Sing on, O guitar of mine"

191. "We are Italians! Know you what that means?.."

193. TARANTELLA

199. "Nineteen Twenty-Nine!"... "And how say the journals? What says the pie-eating coffee-drinking A-merde-can signore the President?" ..."and in their bewildered minds hunger and the fear of hunger set in..."

200. "Mama, let's go to the Cripple."  .... "Ask father  ..... what our future will be-"

203. "I will work like a fighter!...Discovered by an Italian - named from Italian - But oh, that I may leave this land of disillusions."

205. "He who works, eats. He who does not work eats, drinks, and dances."

207.  "He did not hear foreman Jones rushing over the littered scafford to him. Jones leaped over a mortar tub with hand outstretched to snatch Nazone's trowel from him. "Y'bastard you're's slow's the coming o' Christ!'

209: "A laborer laid a tarpaulin over Nazone."

211. ".....Mama, what is today.....?" ".....Twenty-eight..... July......"  ".....Good Friday, Thirtieth of March..... was papa....."

212:  Paul's nightmare (212-215). It is expressed as 'stream of consciousness', as 'internal representation of reality: the narrative of an event with all the satellite thoughts and emotions that go along with it. The Nazone incident is told as a sequence of voluntary events. Paul then wanders around looking for Christ. He runs into his father and together they go to Job.  It is a process of emotions, thoughts, ideas that converge toward an "EPIPHANY = revelation, discovery".  P. 212: "I was cheated, my children also will be crushed, cheated. His father begins to absolve and sighs faintly, Ahhhhh not even the Death can free us, for we are .... Christ in concrete......"

215. "Paul bolted up in darkness, his heart racing and his consciousness groping painfully in resurging maelstrom."

216. "He pushed the crucifix aside and stared into her eyes."

217. "For a few Sundays she had waited for him to go to mass."

218. "The scaffolds are not safe, for the rich must ever profit more."

219. "Boys," said the foreman, "that's all there is -- there ain't no more!"

220. "Yes. Yes, he gave me courage to live for my children." "I want justice here! I want happiness here! I want life here!"

221. "My sainted son is dead."

223-224. "Mama, let us find our own world, and never part."  Annunziata's delirium, life flashes in front of her eyes. Tarantella: the furious-paced dance that resembles life, it's a curse, when tarantella plays, you must dance, you cannot stop.

“In the home of Geremio the air has become hunger. In the home of Geremio stomachs have become wounds. In the home of Geremio senses have become famished mouths. In the home of Geremio hearts have become swollen vessels and eyes ceaseless falls…in the home of Geremio the love of Geremio has become rising mountains” (60).

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The cripple says he says that he never left you and never will. He says he's watching you with his endearing love every minute and that he's doing all in his power from the spirit woild to protect and help you...Now he stands back and wanted to make a wish to yourself. The wish of your hearts desires don't let me hear it!" (page 107).

At this moment I felt the happiness and upliftedness that Paul and Annunziata were feeling. They were looking for hope all this time and had finally gotten it. Knowing that they are in touch with the spirit of Geremio gave them the power to keep fighting through the suffering that they were going through.

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"for the lord will take these two onions and four potatoes and break them into portions to last until my arms are strong for work" (51)