I Dwell In Possibility, by Emily Dickinson

10/2/2014

An audio-video interpretation by Chris Mooney-Singh

Eleanor link

10/4/2014 11:16:50 am

This video gave me a feeling of claustrophobia, and it had me rushing back to the poem to read it anew. I now read it ironically, as if the speaker is a doll in a dolls house, trying to persuade the reader that she's free when she's really in a prison of her own making. Numerous windows and superior doors don't point to possibility, or do they? The only open part of the house is the roof, hinting at the heavens, more of an afterlife than the here and now. Gathering Paradise usually hints at death. I see the poem through a different lens now, whether or not you intended that. Did you?

chris@wordforward.org link

10/4/2014 04:17:48 pm

Hi Eleanor,
To be honest I didn't intend to make it feel claustrophobic (being someone comfortable in enclosed spaces). However I can see perhaps it might appear so. I was looking for a way to unify the images, so I took 'back views' of women in 19th century paintings (yes there was quite a tradition of this pose as I discovered). There is only one front view shot of ED at the end which comes from an Amherst wall mural (The other part appears in the video separately). In this video mix I limited myself to still photos throughout and a few shots of the ED museum and gardens. There are one or two 'pans to sky'. So I agree that my attempts at 'transcendental glimpses' was severely limited toward the end. 'Paradise' was perhaps represented by garden shots at the end -- again from the ED Museum grounds. Thanks for pointing this possible claustrophobic reading out. Chris.

I Dwell In Possibility, by Emily Dickinson

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Chris Mooney-Singh

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