Astral Facts, Spring 2014: My Couplets Runneth Over

Astral Facts, May Spring 2014

My Couplets Runneth Over

Astral: (Theosophy) Consisting of, belonging to, or designating, a kind of supersensible substance alleged to be next above the tangible world in refinement; as, astral spirits; astral bodies of persons; astral current.

My Couplets Runneth Over

We have come to the end of another academic year, which is always a bittersweet time as we see people moving on and relationships altered.  Often we hear the discussion about viewpoints regarding a glass partially filled with water, with the optimist seeing it half full and the pessimist seeing it half empty.  People usually don’t ask the engineers, who merely see a waste of materials.  

After all, if we’re only going to have eight ounces in the glass, why use a 16-ounce glass?  Have we ever seen products sold in the stores like that: a 12-ounce drink in a 16-ounce bottle or 20 ounces of pickles in a 32-ounce jar?  (Of course the “half gallon” of ice cream now comes in a “1.75 quart” container, but that’s business and marketing – not science!  Crackers and cereal may settle in that big box, again marketing at work.)

Even in business and science, the “Humanities Science” aspects play an important role.  This is why we often see the emphasis placed on the intangibles related to the “quality” that STEM analysis cannot measure.  The STEMmers measure quantity rather than quality – but what about ice cream measured in “scoops”?  How much is that really?  Visit places such as Cold Stone Creamery, Marble Slab, etc. where a few “scoops” costs as much as the “1.75 quart” half-gallon. 

Thus, in the “science” of marketing and advertising, where every restaurant is cooking up a similar slab of beef, the mantra is “sell the sizzle, not the steak!”  Starbucks isn’t successful because of the over-priced coffee and milk; it is the essence of the “Third Place” ambiance being marketed that appeals to the consumer.

Since the days of Plato, this relationship between content/form, style/substance, mind/body, however/whatever has piqued human interest.  The study of the external in order to understand the internal has spun off into fascination and emphasis on the external itself.  Even so, in the final conclusion, the STEMmers have reduced it all to the common dominators of electrons, protons, and neutrons and down.  So where’s the source of quality?  Try going to Baskin-Robbins and ordering a few scoops of protons, neutrons, but easy on the electrons!  (They won’t ask if you’re paying cash – obviously it will be charged!)

We’ve tried that in the Humanities as well.  Poems combine ingredients of iambic pentameter, enjambment, synecdoche, metonymy, onomatopoeia, assonance, sonnet form, free verse, ballad style, alliteration - on goes the list.  However we choose to identify and define the bits and pieces or the big picture, merely soldering together the components and plugging the arrangement all in will usually produce something as lifeless as Victor Frankenstein’s “creature” before the chemicals react or lightning strikes (as depicted in the film).  It is that lightning that inserts the spark and animates the body’s arrangement of protons, neutrons, and electrons.

During this past season, we lost one of the great sources of such sparks:  Maya Angelou.  Consider her most famous line/title:  “I know why the caged bird sings” – only half the couplet, yet overflowing with electrifying content.

Walter Lowe
Astral Facts is a somewhat regular presentation of Humanities Science, produced in the bowels of the Humanities Science offices during the academic year.