It's odd sometimes to think about mythology, and how it feels like there are so many scholarly layers assembled around an individual myth. With popular myths, like Icharus flying into the sun, or Persephone being kidnapped by Hades, there are tidy correlations drawn to life lessons or nature. We "know what they mean." And I fear it leads people to shelve mythology as something quaint and entertaining. So that when they come upon a myth, like Cronos sneaking into his father bedroom and castrating him, it doesn't make sense. Or it's exotic. In either case, the first impulse is to consult these scholarly layers and get the definitive answer. Why did something so horrible have to happen?
Alec Niedenthal's short piece, "The Possum He Was Say This Long" in Agriculture Reader 4 feels like myth to me. It features "the father" and "the son." And it addresses the very complex relationship a father and son are going to have. Of course, the son will want to overpower the father. The father will encourage the son's spirit, but he won't let the son cross a certain line. And the son will admire the father, because the father is so encouraging. And the whole cycle surges forward. The son testing that line. The father keeping the son eager. How is anything like this supposed to end? In the Greek myth about Cronos, the son comes to his father at night and castrates him.
Not in Niedenthal's short piece. In fact, I would say the father wins in this struggle, cutting the son at his little knees at the last line of the poem. I admire the sudden shift. But I recommend Niedenthal's work, because it puts me in an uncomfortable position. I feel all that paternal warmth in this poem. I feel the son's gleeful affection. And woven in with that, I feel a disturbing fealty expected by the father from his son. And the son's happy compliance. I refer specifically to the scene of the father and the son in the shower, which, to me, is reminiscent of Abraham in the book of Genesis instructing his servant to put his hand on his thigh and swear an oath. For me, Niedenthal's piece is saturated with allusion. It's like a big ball of complicatd mythological relationship world, and that ball is bearing down on you while you read.
Recommended links:
Alec Niedenthal's Blog (Be careful. He is up for most things.)
Agriculture Reader
A letter Niedenthal wrote to the Times where maybe he casts himself as the son of this short piece.
