Whitman's 20th Century Cultural Ubiquity

I depart as air….. I shake my white locks at the runaway sun,
I effuse my flesh in eddies and drift it in lacy jags.

You will hardly know who I am or what I mean,
But I shall be good health to you nevertheless,
And filter and fibre your blood. – Walt Whitman from Song of Myself

When considering Whitman’s presence in contemporary popular culture, these lines from Song of Myself take on a whole new and somewhat prophetic meaning. Similar to the air and the water that Whitman transforms himself into at the end of this poem, Whitman’s presence in popular cultural is as close to ubiquitous as any poet might expect to achieve. He is everywhere, and, as he tells us, you will hardly know what he means. Whitman’s poetry, his image, his persona, his inspiration, his sexuality, his interest in nature, and his celebrity all seem to be increasingly popular avenues for those purveyors of mass media to lean on. And while they do so with a consistent frequency, their reasons for doing so and the resulting implications regarding what Walt Whitman was all about, are far from consistent. An internet search quickly reveals a plethora of appearances, from books, to movies, to magazines, to television, to commercials, as well as some neat little finds such as the “Walt Whitman Mall” in Huntington, NY and the accompanying “Walt Whitman Corporate Center” (the irony here of course is strong but I will save these for some other time). Here is a quick summary on my three culturally related finds:

Movie: Bull Durham (1988)

In short, Bull Durham is a love story revolving around a journeyman minor league catcher, an up and coming pitching prospect, and the small town English teacher (and probably the greatest baseball movie ever made). Susan Sarandon plays Annie Savoy, a lover of baseball and the men who play it as well as the local mystic and female component to the story’s love triangle. Annie opens the movie entering Durham North Carolina’s minor league ball park and states: “Walt Whitman once said: ‘I see great things in baseball. It’s our game, the American game. It will repair our losses and be a blessing to us.’” Later, after tying Ebby Calvyn “Nuke” LaLoosh to her bedposts for some hotly anticipated sexual shenanigans, Annie reads him several lines from I Sing the Body Electric which befuddle the dim-witted LaLoosh, particularly her reading of the line “limitless limpid jets of love.” While I could not find clips of either of these scenes, I have included the well known clip where Kevin Costner’s character Crash Davis gives his speech on what he stands for. And while he does not specifically reference Whitman, you can hear a little Whitman in him, both in terms of the content of the speech as well as it’s cataloging structure. In general, Whitman references within the movie are used to reinforce the theme of baseball as the quintessential American game as well as Annie’s mysticism and sexual freedom with which she operates in the movie. The references to Whitman in this movie work harmoniously with the themes of the movie and are generally consistent with my own conception of Whitman and what he stood for.

Movie: Leaves of Grass (2009)

Leaves of Grass is a goofy comedy and crime story staring Edward Norton who plays the roles of both Bill and Brady Kincaid, identical twin brothers who have taken very different paths in life. Bill has run as far away from his small town roots as he can, shedding his southern accent and achieving career success in the highly structured world of Ivy League academia (classical philosophy to be exact). Brady, on the other hand, remains rooted in his Oklahoma hometown exhibiting little ambition beyond his desire to smoke weed and develop his state of the art grow house that supports his weed habit as well as his family. When Brady gets himself into trouble, he lures his brother home with some subterfuge to help him out. Comedy ensues and Bill learns a few things about himself along the way. The small town English teacher, played by Keri Russell, functions as the love interest for Bill and helps him learn a few things about himself by, among other things, quoting a few lines to him from Whitman’s To You while fishing for catfish (see clip). The title of the film refers both to Walt Whitman as well as to Brady’s preoccupation with marijuana. Whitman is ultimately used to support Bill’s enlightenment and his recognition that he can’t hide from his true self no matter how many textbooks he is familiar with. Toward the end of the movie, Bill gives a speech that reminded me a lot of Whitman’s When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer. While the movie makes no connection between Whitman and drug use, you might certainly assume this to be the case if you knew nothing about Whitman, and it does raise some interesting questions about the writer/director’s intentions. Finally, I would note that Susan Sarandon plays the mother in the movie – what is it with Susan Sarandon and movies with Whitman in them?

Internet Song/Video: “Walt Whitman” by My Robot Friend

I discovered this video through its mention in Andrew Jewell and Kenneth M. Price’s article “Walt Whitman: Twentieth-century Mass Media Appearances” from 2006. I have included access to the full song on the blog so I will skip any description. The song and accompanying images are focused mostly on Whitman as the poet of sex and homosexual love. The point of view on these matters is hard to pin point though. It is unclear to me whether the song is meant to function as condemnation, celebration, or merely playful representation. The video does not shy away from more controversial images including pictures of Whitman seated with young children with suggestive lines from his poetry overlayed on the image. Jewell and Price state that “My Robot Friend understands Whitman as a playful cultural figure, one whose image is deeply intertwined with sexuality and gleefully accommodate irony and humor.” The clip certainly serves to reinforce the wide range of portrayals Whitman receives in public media.

So what is it that makes Whitman so popular in American mass culture? I have some thoughts, albeit incipient ones that are far from complete. Firstly, I believe Whitman’s “Americanism” makes him a natural person to use as a representation for those looking to promote the American dream, whether that be new Levi’s jeans or something more ideological. Furthermore, while Whitman can in some ways be thought of as the quintessential American ideologue himself, he was also frequently distrustful of institutions including those of the American government and the people who ran them. In other words, he loved the idea of America but not necessarily all the tangible forms these ideas manifested themselves as. Whitman, in effect, is patriot and rebel at the same time. This spanning of the spectrum allows for the use of Whitman’s persona in messages with patriotic themes without any sort of implied or underlying political agenda. Whitman can appeal to both right wing die hard patriots and left wing progressives at the same time. Secondly, there is something about much of his poetry that simply transcends time and topic. Just as I used lines from Song of Myself to introduce this post, others have found a myriad of ways to utilize, and oftentimes manipulate, Whitman’s words for their own cause or interest. Whitman is challenging to categorize, both the man as well as his poetry, which allows for endless and oftentimes contradictory uses of his words and image without the risk of public backlash as a result of a perceived misrepresentation. There seems to be a thought among people, particularly Americans, that any ties to Walt Whitman are “good health” no matter what the context.