I worked out the chords for the second verse of “Mon Légionnaire” by Raymond Asso.
I played my Martin acoustic guitar during song practice for the first of four sessions. I shortened my usual rehearsal by only playing one verse and one chorus of most of the songs because I wanted to have extra time to work on my essay proposal, which is due at midnight.
I weighed 87 kilos before breakfast.
I worked on my essay proposal in the late morning but got sleepy so I took a siesta from 11:00 to 12:30.
I weighed 86.6 kilos before lunch, which is the lightest I’ve been at midday in seventeen days. I had some grapes and would normally have had an avocado and tomato salad but I didn’t feel like eating after the grapes. I worked on my essay proposal.
In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown and back.
I weighed 86.2 kilos at 17:30.
I took a siesta from 18:00 to 19:00.
All I had for dinner were some grapes. I think I was focused on finishing my proposal and didn’t want to deviate. I finished at around 23:15. Here it is:
Proposal:
In the Medieval poem “Pearl” the narrator dreams Christian imagery to facilitate mourning while in the novel Pearl by Siân Hughes the grieving narrator arrives at a more Pagan approach to reconciliation with loss. The “Pearl” narrator comes to a forced, quick, and simple solution that results from the vision of his lost daughter teaching him that she is now in a better place as conceived by Christian theology and that he should also aspire to attain that same destination through purification. The Pearl narrator takes half a lifetime to finish the grieving process but arrives there in a more organic and convincing manner. The “Pearl” solution walks on the multiplication of one precious, beautiful, and rare material object that is suddenly everywhere. The splendour that the mourning “Pearl” father experiences in the world where he finds his daughter is almost entirely visual. His descriptions of her before his dream are also visual comparisons with the titular gemstone. By contrast the Pearl narrator evokes an experience of her mother that ranges all of the senses in a happy experience of an extraordinary approach to the ordinary. Ordinary fragrances, sights, textures, tastes and sounds that are accessible to everyone are rendered beautiful and valuable. I propose to write an essay comparing the approaches to mourning of these two texts and will draw a thesis from my research that favours the organic approach to mourning as depicted in the novel Pearl.
To support my argument, I will use quotes from: “Mysticism and Materiality: Pearl and the Theology of Metaphor” by Kerilyn Harkaway-Krieger such as, “metaphor is the linguistic site of the phenomenon that we call ‘mysticism’” and “dreams… are a form of metaphor”. This facilitates the idea that the narrator’s dream in “Pearl” is a mystical experience.
“Symbolic and Dramatic Development in Pearl” by A. C. Spearing: “By forgetting that the girl's soul is immortal, even though her body dies, the Dreamer has underestimated her absolute value”; "the kingdom of heaven is likened to a pearl of great price”; “the single pearl on the Maiden's breast, as it were the symbol of the symbol”; “submitting to God's will, he now accepts positively the loss of his pearl, as he was unable to do at the beginning of the poem.” This illustrates the religious idea that mourning is dealt with by offering one’s loved one and oneself up to an imagined higher power.
Trees in Anglo-Saxon England by Della Hooke: “The symbolism of trees is complex: their roots and branches evoked an image of a link between sky and Underworld; their longevity represented continuity and wisdom; the seasonal behaviour of deciduous trees gave rise to a cyclical symbolism, an allegory of life, death and rebirth”. This connects with the lost mother’s relationship with nature in Pearl.
The Pagan Religions of the Ancient British Isles by Ronald Hutton: “In the British Isles no less than four separate continuous lines of descent connect ancient paganism with the present.” I will connect this with the Pearl mother’s perhaps intuitive Paganism.
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