Of the selections read in the poetry packet, I enjoyed the poem, "The Plot Against the Giant" the most. This poem, to me, was a statement about the power of words. The giant I interperate to be an audience that unless you find some way to placate, will crush you into oblivion. To an artist, I suppose that would mean you have to create something that will stand up to the giant, catch its eye, and make it stop and take notice.
The first girl wants to use the smell of flowers, something subtle and gentle, to check the giant or make him take pause. To me, this represents an artist creating something gentle to be idled at by people. Perhaps a painting or a floral arrangement? Something along those lines. Just that level of art, but the kind of art likely to go not well noticed, like a painting in a hotel room or a sculpture in the lobby of some second-rate casino.
The second girl wants to get the giants attention using flashiness and glitz. Unlike the first girl who was content to simply make the giant take pause, this second girl wants to abash the giant. Thats a much more harsh and aggressive word. The second girl wants to make the giant stop in his tracks, doubt himself, lose confidence, be shaken to his core. This to me means the more shocking, contemporary, or generally louder forms of art. Angry music or powerfully graphic images meant to shock and startle the audience/giant.
The third girl, in French, says "Oh, la...le pauvre!"
For those not fluent in Frenchanese like me, but who DON'T have a neighbor from Frenchland, it essentially means "Oh my, pitiable thing!" The third girl doesn't want to idly catch the giants eye like the first girl, but she doesn't want to use glitz and glitter to get his attention. She will puff, attracting the giant through nothing more than its own curiosity. Once close, she will simply whisper into his ear. But, the girl will say it (whatever it is, I dont think it matters what shes saying as much as how well she says it) with such force, truth, deceit, power, in a world where all the giant hears is "gutturals," that it will wholly unmake the giant.
This poem makes me think of something Stephen King once said, "More than anything else I wanted to get inside my readers' defenses, wanted to rip them and ravish them and change them forever with nothing but story." I think the third girl captures this sentiment.
