Thursday, March 19, 2009

TRUE/FALSE

After reading True/False, I was a bit bewildered. At first, it just seems like a bizarre list of random things. It is really hard to understand what the author is getting at. However, at the same time I felt like the poem had a purpose that I was completely missing. This of course drove me crazy. It wasn’t until I read through it again and physically marked the seemingly more meaningful statements, or actually answered “true or false” to some of the questions that it started to make some sense.

Even if I’m wrong, which who really knows what any poem is about except the author, I feel like I may be on the right track. To me, the poem is about society’s tendency to constantly standardize everything. Most major issues are not black or white. Most controversial topics do have a great deal of gray area, and have many situational dependencies. Even so, it seems that people/ politicians/ leaders/ organizations strive to create laws and rules to hold special issues or stories at one extreme. To take a topic with a lot of “unknown” or a lot of variables surrounding it, and to simply decide true or false about it is Dean Young’s way of showing how ridiculous disregarding “the gray area” can be.

Some of the lines seem simple, and therefore are more confusing. Why would this be in the poem at all? Or why even a true/false question? For example, number 52 states “parking meters lie.” At first, you might put false. Then you think, if it’s false why is that line even on here? Then you wonder, maybe parking meters do lie? This and other lines like 52, make the poem seem like it is suggesting conspiracy. When something simple that you trust day in and day out (you don’t have a choice when it comes to parking) is questioned, you start to wonder about other more important things. The feelings of suspicion, betrayal, and paranoia that such questioning leaves you with can be quite powerful. In my opinion, Dean Young does a great job with this. He is teaching his readers to think!

With purpose in mind, each line raises a question and makes a statement about society. Some are more obvious than others. (Though I love analyzing this sort of thing, I can’t do all 100. I'd be banned from blog-town!)

Overall, the most important thing here is format.

The lines are numbered. There are 100 (magic number) lines. The title serves as direction. (This is crucial to the poem, too.) There are only two options, true or false. Black or white, right or wrong. The thing is, not one question can be answered with a definite true or false.

Dean Young is showing that you cannot possibly take an important topic or issue and fit it nicely into a little simple box. We should ask questions, consider all sides of a matter, and use the gray paints on our pallets more often. (Even when putting quarters into a meter!)

-Rachel Alberico

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