In Percival Everett’s re:f (gesture), Everett hides the meaning of his poems with convoluted descriptions of the human body. Instead of using common terms, such as the nose, Everett uses the scientific name, such as the “nasal fossae” (51). Claire Corbeaux mentioned that by using scientific terms Everett removes the romanticism because the reader is unable to discern Everett’s intent. However, I clearly saw the sexual romanticism, but this may be because I have some predisposed knowledge of the human body, as a Biology major. I understood the terms Everett was using and I believed that Everett was able to romanticize the human body even more than if he did not use them. This idea attacks New Criticism advocates because objectively there would be no value in Everett’s work without knowledge of those terms, but when known, there is more meaning then there could have been.
New Criticism advocates appreciate the value of a piece of work in an objective point of view. They believed that literature should be “self-referential” and be “self-contained”, that no outside source would be necessary (335 Murfin). This point of view is very narrow and limits authors’ abilities to create meaning beyond the scope of the reader. Although it is more practical for the author to write in a way so the audience can understand what they are writing, it does not mean that having a more convoluted writing technique is inferior than writing with a standard technique.
I believe Everett was attempting to show, in his words, “Even if the words are utterly confusing, there is meaning”. Even if you do not understand what you see, there can be a whole lot of meaning. Everett writes in his poem “NASSAL FOSSAE”, “I smell your sex, pressing through the outer nose, filling my upper and central septum, brushing my bone. Deflected from the mesial plane, one side increases, the other diminishes, unequal only spatially” (Everett 51). Everett is describing how the scent of a person’s sex organ is being spread throughout his nose, but without knowledge of the definitions of the “upper and central septum” or the “mesial plane”, all you will get from the poem is that he is smelling a sex. However, with knowledge of these specific terms, one is able to understand how Everett is describing the pathway or story of how the scent travels through the nose and interacts with different parts of it. New Critics would be unable to see the deeper story that Everett is telling without using outside references and deeper analysis.
https://baklol.com/baks/Misc/Ruin-Your-Childhood-Forever-_318/Playduck-_30422
This general concept is seen in children cartoons. Due to the lack of predisposition of the kids, they are unable to recognize that “Playduck” is a reference to Playboy, a lewd magazine. They will assume that is just a normal magazine and not see the meaning that is deeply embedded in the picture. In the perspective of a child, New Criticism would see it as a duck reading a magazine at the movie theater, but upon closer inspection and knowledge of outside sources, it is a perverted duck reading a lewd magazine in public.
Everett’s re:f (gesture), and the Bugs Bunny cartoon reveals that things should not always be taken at face value. At first it may seem like Everett is simply mentioning that he smells a person’s sex, but upon closer inspection, Everett is describing in greater detail how the scent of a sex fully envelopes and interacts with his nose. The Bugs Bunny cartoon may seem innocent, but upon realizing that Playduck is a reference to Playboy, there is a completely different meaning to the picture. New Critics would see the face value and miss the meaning that is there. It is essential to research unknown topics because what may seem inferior and lack meaning may be riddled with complexity and implications.
Everett, Percival. re:f (gesure). Abani, Chris. Red Hen Press. Los Angeles. 2006.
Murfin Ross, Ray Supryia M. The Bedford Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms. Third Edition. Palgrave Macmillan. 2009.