Geography III

From what I have read so far of Bishop is that she is trying to explore the relation between the conscious and subconscious in the way she writes. Her topics seem to be more on the level on a persons relation to themselves versus the world around them. How much they actually participate in the life that goes on right out side their own personal bubbles. Relating this to a book on Geography then makes sense. Not geography in the physical sense with islands and mountain ranges, but in the metaphysical sense where we try to deal and understand the landscape and contours of a persons consciousness and how we relate consciously to the world around us. When I read her poetry I feel she is one soul feeling out whether she can safely connect with the souls in her vicinity. Or she is just realizing that all of us are all connected and we are all one big land mass while at the same time individual islands. I know it may seem like I am taking the analogy of actual land a bit too far. I suppose it can seem a bit cheesy. But when she talks about actually understanding that how we connect in the first poem "In the Waiting Room" that is what it feels like to me. That she has realized that she is not the only country in the world. That there are other nations out there with other individuals and groups of people. She has gone out and discovered this, understood more about the world around and is not really sure how she feels about that. She is no longer the center of the universe. The sun doesn't revolve around the earth, the world is not flat. And with this new knowledge she goes on cautiously to apply it to everything else she encounters.

The Women in these Men's lives...

At first women do not seem to have a very important role. They seem to be almost an after thought. Just the other part to these important men. But even though they don't seem to have significant roles they do hold a lot of leverage in their hands. Deals are made or broken because of them and husbands appear to not be able to make decisions without them. Their apparent need or association with control contrasts incredibly with the business men's lack of control. Men give the impression that they are very manly. Being a man is a very important characteristic that they are all trying to attain or believe they have. And one of the most dominant traits of being a man is control. They seem like in control kind of guys at first but as you go through the story time after time they are shown to have little to no control over the situations around them. At the beginning when Levene talks about having closed the deal and then had an un-lucky break because the deal went down because the guy was married (again result because of a woman). And when Levene and Roma feel like they are on top of the world because of the incredible closings they made that then end up failing because for Levene the Nyborgs are crazy, and for Roma, Lingk's wife doesn't agree with it. Then only way they feel they can get control back into their hands is by cheating. Playing the customer, bending the rules, stealing the GlenGarry leads...etc. It is the women who seek and find control by actually doing the right thing or just playing the men. Perhaps this is the purpose of the women. To just have characters who contrast completely with the men that Mamet is writing about. They helped to really point out their already exaggerated traits. Roma who thinks he is always in control loses to a wife who is never introduced. Levene loses to a crazy lady who never intends to make good of the contract she has signed, and also the daughter who is depending on him for medical bills, which he can't seem to pay unless he steals.