Short takes #4

Wow I just realized how behind I am on short takes!
Having just read several essays, now seems like a good time to catch up!

"Human Cruelty" by Hayden Carruth (the essay I will be doing my presentation on)

First, I would like to say that this may be one of my favorite essays I've read in this book. It's probably second only to "Son of Mr.Green Jeans" which takes the cake for my favorite.

In this essay, Hayden Carruth describes an experience he had as a child. There was a popular radio show in the 20s and 30s called Major Bowes' Amateur Hour which was kind of like an American Idol kind of talent search contest. The "Major" had a gong he would bang if someone was doing terribly, to further embarrass them. On this particular day (Carruth says that the World's Fair was going on in New York at the time. He doesn't remember the year but thinks it was 1932. Remember that.), they had brought in an African drummer that didn't know a lick of English. He drummed, the crowd booed, and the gong was banged (bung should be the word for banged). BUT, having no idea what the gong sound meant, the drummer kept drumming until they actually physically removed him from the stage. This bothered Carruth deeply. Carruth understood that there were terrible people (like Hitler) who did terrible things (genocide), but this was his horrifying realization that horrible, awful, fucked up people were amongst the general population as well. He wanted no part of it, no matter what kind of image that would project for him, he was not afraid to be called womanly, he had proved his manliness.

 

Hayden Carruth would be horrified if heard this Tech N9ne song >:D muahaha

Alright, so what's so great about this essay, you may ask?
 Well for one thing, the essay is written in 3rd person. Interesting stylistic choice, Carruth.
And also, I did a bit of research on Hayden Carruth. He was born in 1921 and died in 2008 after a series of strokes. He wasn't an essay writer really. He was a critic, novelist, reviewer, an editor, and a highly regarded poet. He was married four times, divorced 3 times. He had two kids, one of which died in 1997. He had a lifelong battle with mental illness, most notably severe anxiety and phobias. He lived in a mental hospital for a while, then felt "cured" and left, then soon after he relapse and returned to the mental hospital. When he returned, they gave him electroshock therapy which damaged his memory. This is important to the essay. The World's Fair took place in New York in 1924 and 1939. There was no World's Fair in 1932. At the  end of the essay he says he had proved his manliness in other ways. He's probably referring to the fact that he served in the Army in 1949 and 1950. He attempted suicide in 1988 when his 3rd wife left him. He refused an invitation to the White House in 1998 because he found Clinton to be atrocious.
I found this quote, where he speaks about a period of time that he spent living in his parents attic, terrified of the world.
"Agoraphobia is when every night at 2:00 AM for 5 years- that's 1825 nights- you go out loaded with Thorazine to walk in the street... and you never get more than 100 yards away from your door."