STAFF Editors in Chief Joe Nelis Brian Hartt Regent/Advisor Glen Brewster Creative Writing Editor John Faugno Critical Writing Editor Kristin Backert Art Editor Meredith Donaho Cover Artist Jared Senatore Layout Joe Nelis READERS Creative Writing Readers Jonathan Diker Jeneanne DeBois Vanessa Estime Sarah Lewis-Stowe Cara Petitti Joseph Roy Christina Tilton Critical Writing Readers Leigh Koonce J. D. Sellgren SPECIAL THANKS Glen Brewster Lyndon Seitz Jared Senatore Elfrida Gabriel Josh Wilkin Editors’ Notes A mural is specifically defined by the way in which the architectural elements of the structure it is painted on are incorporated into the mural. In a mural, the line between form and function blurs. While murals can come as paintings or tiles, they can also come as writing. Allow us to explain. 2 2013 Edition What is writing? Well, it can be a lot of things. It can be an essay on the postmodern in Shakespeare, a poem about apricots, a short story about a church with a broken window, a shopping list, a love note, a trite introduction to a regional literary magazine, ad infinitum. Even more, writing can be regarded as both a noun and a verb -- a form and a function. How are you writing? In cursive? Print? Fountain pen? Computer? Writing can be a lot of things. The word is inherently inadequate to explain what you're doing. Or is it? The common denominator of all these writings is the use of symbols to convey meaning. Writing, in all its haphazard glory, is the use of symbols to share reality. Yet, sharing isn't a one way street, as we learned in preschool. All writing, when it is read, becomes an interpretation. We place our own unique meaning into the words -- our own reality. And so in writing, the function of the author, the function of the reader, and the form of the symbols collapse into one. Writing is a mural of shared realities. And with that, we proudly present Mind Murals, a collection of critical, visual, poetic, and fictitious realities -- writing -- to share with you. Brian Hartt Co-editor in Chief Associate Student Representative, 2012-2013 Eastern Region, Sigma Tau Delta Of all of the street art I have seen since moving to Pittsburgh, my favorite thus far is a mural. A two-story building along Penn Avenue in the neighborhood of Garfield juts out further than the homes it follows. This section of wall is filled with a depiction of a bride ascending the stairs into her home, the windows of which are open to allow the curtains to waft outward in the breeze. The colors and the mural and its orientation complement the houses and lawns around it. It is an example of someone’s artistic work can both reflect and impact a community. 3 Mind Murals Nothing is created in a vacuum. That mural is an example of this, as is this collection of works. By contributing to Mind Murals, you are sharing your work, your thoughts, your inspiration, your fears, your anxieties on display for the entire Sigma Tau Delta community to see and interpret. Mind Murals functions in a way very similar to that wall in Garfield, in that it represents a single fragment of the entire community of scholars and composers. The difference between that mural in Garfield and this issue of Mind Murals is that we know personally that this collection contains multitudes. The work of several writers, artists, and editors has gone into the creation of this beautiful work. This particular issue has seen its share of difficulties and delays, but despite the problems it has flourished into something of which I am proud to be a part. Through the tireless efforts of the writers and artists contained within and the readers and editors tasked with narrowing down which pieces made it to print, we present to you a piece of your impact on the Sigma Tau Delta, your addition to the wall. Joe Nelis Co-editor in Chief Student Representative, 2012-2013 Eastern Region, Sigma Tau Delta TABLE OF CONTENTS Poetry Apostle’s Creed 8 4 2013 Edition My Beautiful Christian Neighbors 9 Ana Mia 10 Ode to the Toilet 11 Omagh, August 15, 1998 12 This Time 13 Won’t You Guide Me Tonight 14 Fight Club 15 Emmett Till 16 My Deliverance 17 Child 18 “Life doesn’t stop for anybody” 23 Perfect Wrists 24 Going Up 25 Eight Years Old (Through the Three Stages of Being) 28 During Lull in Storm 29 NOLA 30 Kayaking 32 Trapped Between Panes 33 Bamboo Stalks in the Bamboo Grove 34 “Don’t Call Me Annie” 35 Lost 36 Yi Peng Festival 37 BALANCE 38 If. If. 40 Prose Late for a Funeral 43 5 Mind Murals Excerpt from Trooper 47 The Color of War 54 Maggie 58 Their Initials 60 A Portrait 65 Night Sweats 67 The Wandering Hand 69 Her 72 A Kingdom of Her Own 75 Almost Nowhere 77 To Speak as Cars 79 Anatomy of the Modern Ages 86 The Curious Death of Anita J. Blake 93 Critical Essays Susan Sontag’s On Photography: A Marxist Contestation to Zoe Strauss’s “Ten Years” Exhibit Space Fill98 Honored Apparitions: Political Specters in Richard II 103 The Old Man’s Reverse Psychology in Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus 110 Slow Down, Slaughter: How Chaucer’s Pandarus is a Good Friend, but an Unethical Uncle 116 A Moveable Feast: Truth and Fiction to Create Hemingway’s Paris 121 The Struggle with Identity and Sin in the Wife of Bath’s Prologue 128 Dostoyevsky’s Moral Critique: Crime and Punishment and the Case against Utilitarianism 135 His “Litel Bok” and “Tragedye:” Deceptive Narration in Chaucer’s Troilus and Criseyde 143 Pandarus the Trickster 149 The Like That Dare Not Speak Its Name 157 Wizarding Woes: Exploring the Hierarchies of the Harry Potter Series Through the Use of 162 American Africanism and Critical Race Theory 6 2013 Edition Visual Art Rule 42 Negral 74 Untitled (Brittany Hilton) 97 Stairs of Greek Theatre 127 Untitled (Sara Stammer) 168 7 Mind Murals Analija Zampogna Westminster College Apostle’s Creed Families that pray may stay together; although, fear may rise from Atheism, the prayer of a liberal endeavor. Temptation to flee the sacred oppressor is fought to avoid a cataclysm. Families that pray may stay together. From freedom of thought to a transgressor, deviating from Catholicism, would seem like a fatal endeavor. Sacrificial beliefs are made in error, so as not to create antagonism. Families that pray may stay together. Loyalty is begged by Mother and Father, who blessed you with the curse of Baptism. This cause is becoming a hopeless endeavor. Renounce your Communion, and see the danger in an outcast’s view on chauvinism. This family may pray, but not together, since honesty is a fated endeavor. 8 2013 Edition Rachel Jones Notre Dame of Maryland University My Beautiful Christian Neighbors ignite me and flip me over and turn me in i am the bad child who runs away from home whispered confessions in a church full of sin i kiss all the boys that leave scars on my skin but i know better than to call them my own ignite me and flip me over and turn me in the door licks its splintered metal skin the neighbors tear down the forest they have grown whispered confessions in a church full of sin i went to the bible study to find a new friend but all i found was a soul poorly sewn ignite me and flip me over and turn me in madness found a friend in the sharp teeth of gin the neighbors chanted prayers all night on the phone whispered confessions in a church full of sin i am their little lost child with a head full of pins and the stains on the earth all covered in snow ignite me and flip me over and turn me in whispered confessions in a church full of sin 9 Mind Murals Yelena Sanchez University of Southern Florida Ana Mia Bones protrude like broken glass under taut blue veined skin and sharp edges jut and meld with scars and road maps made by shattered glass slippers, and the talking mirror with its rounded borders garbles reality like a Picasso and she, standing naked gnaws and shaves excess until there is nothing left but teeth and bones and hollowed spaces carved out by words from those no bigger than mice. 10 2013 Edition Aaron Pinkard The College of New Jersey Ode to the Toilet Sublime shitter the one exposed to the annals of human disgust and misery and serves as reservoir for the waste that runs deep and true, yes you, with your round and porcelain orifice you swallow the remains of sadness. The baggage that pulls us down, makes us sick. You take it. You’re devout and dedicated with a hard cased shell to cover the sacrosanct chore of forgiveness, a denial that we can afford but you deplore. The stench of our lives is a testament To your work. The highest Gandhi the holiest Christ you are the paragon for what it means to serve Granting relief from the pain that we ourselves deserve. 11 Mind Murals Christopher Bogart Monmouth University Omagh, August 15, 1998 You know people are dying every single day through bitterness and hate, and we're saying why? Larry Mullen, Jr. drummer, U2. Sharp crack Cuts cold. Echoed peers Bound off brick To bent ears. Birds rise, Flap frantic wings, ‘Scape to sky. Mother’s cry – Clean round hole Below baby brow – Straight through Blue eye.