Relationship between Boxing the Compass and Genesis 6-9 - Admission/Application Essay Example

The Relationship between Sandy Florians Boxing the Compass and Genesis 6-9 Boxing the Compass by Sandy Florian represents navigating through the memories of the mind. Florian has used the metaphor of using a compass to go inside her memory to view the events that she has experienced. “This is my empty box” (Florian 17), this is how she sets up the base for the way she perceives her memory in mind. There is the subconscious or the memory box inside the brain and there is a conscious. Memory storage works like a lake where a boat drifts across it to reach the shore of consciousness so that it can be interpreted and analyzed there. But every thought process has its beginning and its end in the irony is that the end lies within the beginning. Florian’s narrative about memory and thoughts hints at the story of flood mentioned in the Bible. In the book of Genesis chapters 6-9 are dedicated to the story of Noah’s Ark. It is also known as the story of flood. It is written that God was watching how humans have turned wicked and disobedient. Therefore, he decided to wipe the human race from Earth. “I am going to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy all life under the heavens, every creature that has the breath of life in it. Everything on earth will perish.” (Genesis 6:17-18) At this time of Gods fury one righteous man Noah made God reconsider his decision. God told Noah to build an ark to save his chosen people, which included Noah and his family. God intended to send a catastrophic flood to destroy all the creatures. God gave Noah instructions how to carry on this journey of ark by bringing a pair of every living creature. This included seven pairs of all clean animals plus all kinds of food that can be stored for those animals. Noah did as he was instructed by God. When the Ark was ready they all went into it and the rain started falling on Earth. It rained heavily for 40 days and nights. The earth was flooded with water for 150 days and every living being was killed in the process. When the water receded the ark halted at the mountains of Ararat. Noah waited for eight more months with his family in the ark, waiting for the earth to get dry. After almost a year God instructed Noah to leave the ark. Upon setting foot on the ground Noah built an altar and started worshiping the Lord with offerings. Noah’s flood story heavily influences Sandy Florian’s books. She tries to draw similarities among biblical scriptures and her own observations. Her words are not to mock the biblical narratives. She only strives to create an analogy, a parallel dimension or a small role model answer the questions that have been boggling the human mind since the beginning. The way this flood story is portrayed in the Genesis she finds stark similarities with the fierceness of flood of thoughts that ravages across her mind. Thoughts and impulses assigns Florian specifically delves into the mystery of memory storage in the brain. She uses scientific language to understand the neurological pathways of storing memory. At the same time, retrieving memory as it is, instead of wishfully distorting it, is the correct use of the ‘compass’. Locating a memory within the brain with precision is the desired work that Florian seeks. However, Florian comes across a dilemma when her brain is flooded with memories. This flooding has been linked with the flood in Noahs time mentioned in Genesis 6-9. There is no comparison but an analogy between the two. The direct analogy between the flood of thoughts (memories) and the water flood Noah faced has been discussed more vividly in her work The Tree of No (2008). In todays time there is also a flood but is not the flood that God’s messenger faced, it is the flood of thoughts (Casey, 2010). A clear discussion of the memory is portrayed in her book Boxing the Compass (2013). It is as if the discussion about the flood of memory left in her previous book has now been extended in her later work. The relationship between Noahs flood and Florians narrative cannot be mistaken. The thoughts flow like water rushing in her mind and the might and power of the thoughts overrule any resistance she creates in her head. Noah could not control the flood either. He could only build an ark and save the creatures as God had commanded him. Similarly Florian cannot control the flood (of thoughts). Moreover, when she has to dig deep inside her memory she has to work so hard to pull out a piece that was stored in her mind. “…we do know that 200 million years ago, the super continent, Pangaea, broke into parts that drifted across the Earth and opened the mouths of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans…” (Florian 18) Digging into her memory is much like going to the depths of the earth. It is also like going back and analyzing the history of the earth (Lydick, n.d.). If that is not enough locating memory is much like navigating the path in the ocean with the help of compass. There are 32 points that make up a compass bisecting it (Lydick, n.d.). Sailors use these lines on the compass to find their way. To correctly name the 32 points in order is known as boxing the compass (Lydick, n.d.). Florians hypothesis is that memories are located exactly as navigating the path through the ocean. Therefore, boxing the compass actually means experiencing the self (Lydick, n.d.). Navigating through the memory represents recognizing one’s existence. Each memory is located within space and time yet all packed into the mind. The mind sometimes called the box or the empty box. It is the whole world of each individual. It represents past, present and future of each soul. Even Noah’s story of the flood is also stored in the memory. It can be located by boxing the compass somewhere in the mind there is a direction that leads to this specific catalogue. “In leaving the course materials behind, inscribing and effacing, embedding an experiment, because this is the box in which she spirals” (Florian 53-54) As Noah waded through the flood in his ark, Florian talks about her experience of navigating the emotional waters in her memory. Noah expertly navigated the ark through dangerous waters carefully avoiding the rocks and making it across safely. Florian goes through regret, benevolence and sometimes brushes against nostalgia, passing by elation, facing trauma while avoiding the clusters of depression. The whole book is written through the perspective of a ship navigating through the sea. It is acting to Noahs Ark navigating through the flood. In the very beginning of the book Florian writes that; “She opens her canvas arms and legs as if the sail had been blown, tramontana, levante, ostro, poniente, but the wind keeps changing directions” (Florian 8) When Noah’s Ark was in the waters it did not have a particular direction. It was God who was steering the ark. The same way, Florian describes the wind keeps changing directions as if there is no destination clearly within sight. Noah’s Ark also landed at a destination which was unknown to him. And then Florian describes that; “…she wants to be named by the lying down element but its her name that keeps changing, her body.” (Florian 8). Florian uses scientific language as well as a dash of biblical scriptures. She connects all the linguistic elements into a serene picture of sea. Florian recalls how her mother taught her about seas when she was a little girl. Florian also describes that she read the Bible. She mentions the bread and fish in Boxing the Compass, a direct relation with the biblical narrative. Florian has not only considered Noah’s flood story into her book. She goes beyond that and extracts other biblical narratives and ideas, and creates a parallel in her work. The Gospel of Mark mentions the event at the Sea of Galilee. Christ fed 5005 loaves of bread and two fish (6: 35-44). The small number of food including only five loaves and two fish are symbolic as it is the figuration of this word (Lydick, n.d.). In her book Florian’s motives of using bread and fish translate into a realistic meaning of the word. For instance, the symbolic meaning of the book is about the box. It can be a bathtub, a crib or a coffin. The mentioning of water and plenty of thought is not incidental. It is intended to relate to the story of the flood from the Bible. The mentioning of woman lying down at the bottom of the family pool trying to recall the words are echoed in the novella. The very start of Florians book states that “a wind rises” (Florian 7). Wind has been mentioned in the Genesis regarding the story of the flood many times. Similarly, Florian explains the directions on the same page; “North is indicated by the spearhead above the t, but the t soon evolves into the lily-like fleur-de-lys.” (Florian 7) There is a good chance that fleur-de-lys in fact represents Easter. While the flooding parts represents the flood of Noah. Moreover it is the beauty of the book that nothing is directly and explicitly related with Bible. It is because it would have defeated the purpose of writing such a book. Florian wanted to create a book parallel to the Bible. It is not as much to challenge the book but in fact it was to answer the questions about the creator and the creation. As mentioned before the more evident relation between the flood story from the Bible and Florians narrative about the flood is present in her previous works such as The Tree of No (2008). To understand Boxing the Compass the reader can also get significant help from her previous works. To help understand what she has been building throughout her process of writing. Sandy Florian has created a textbook by keeping in mind the biblical narrative. By doing so Florian asks some unanswered questions about the real author of the Bible. Probably her intention is to create a book that resembles Bible and then she questions that if people can believe and obey Bible then why dont they believe and obey a similar book? Again it is not a challenge to the Bible or its followers it is to answer the question. Questions that have been bubbling the human mind since the very beginning. In this process you creates a small model of Bible and then asks the question about the proof that the Bible has in fact been written by God. She is probably seeking proof about that. She delves into the concept of the creator. She also hypothetically accepts the argument about God being the author of Bible but then she goes one step forward and asks even if it is accepted that the world has been created by a deity how does that make him qualified to be a God. Or perhaps, is it just the animalistic nature of the man. Florians whole book is not based only on Noahs Ark. It relates to many biblical narratives. But the real reason behind relating such stories into her book is about finding the truth. Florian tries to look for validation and proof why and how a person believes in the Bible. Towards the end of the book the picture painted make the reader realize that probably they have find box the compass. But if someone actually boxes the compass they make a 360° turn, meaning that they arrive at the same point (time and space) from where they started their journey. Noah’s journey is also similar. The Genesis mentions that Noah was a man of soil. The man is created from soil when he dies he is returned to soil. He becomes the part of his own origin. It is also the 360° turn; the man starts his journey and its end lies in its beginning. Reference Casey, Daniel. "A War With History: Kelly Lydick on Sandy Florians The Tree of No." Gently Read Literature. N.p., 1 Feb. 2010. Web. 27 Apr. 2014. . Florian, Sandy. Boxing the Compass. N.p.: Noemi, 2013. Print. Lydick, Kelly. "Swirling Memory, Magnetic Force: A Review of Sandy Florians Boxing the Compass, by Kelly Lydick." Drunken Boat. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Apr. 2014. . Read More