mote than words
a story by melanie mensch
Waibel creates 'honest'
poems through experience
"Poetry is an orphan of
silence. The words never quite
equal the experience behind
them."
- Charles Simic, Pulitzer
prize winning poet
Her words speak louder on
paper than any other way.
Unlike those students previ
ously featured, whose artistic
media included sculpture,
dance, music, textile and paint,
Emily Waibel is an artist in an
expressive form that is some
times overlooked: the written
word.
Writing both poetry and
short stories that sort through
her own life experiences, the
sophomore English education
major takes readers on a visual
and emotional journey of raw
honesty.
“Some people don’t consider
writing an art form like painting,
singing or dancing,” she said,
“but writers are just the same.
Painters see a concept in colors
and angles. Musicians hear con
cepts in notes. Writers just use
words instead.”
Last year as a student in
English professor Greg Kuzma’s
poetry class, Waibel unknowing
ly gained attention with each
assignment
Kuzma called her poetry
“extraordinary.”
“She didn’t believe us when
we tried to tell her,” he said. “I’m
not a fan of pretty words but how
hard the writer works to tell the
truth of an experience. She’s
honest, and I’m grateful for her
honesty.”
Waibel’s poetry, which was
published in the 2000-2001
"Laurus,” UNL's undergraduate
literary magazine, unknowingly
draws readers into a mesh of
intense emotions about differ
ent experiences, such as a death
disrupting a close family, shat
tered love and the beginnings of
inner growth and change.
As the middle sister in a close
family, Waibel said her parents,
Bob and Kathleen, and sisters,
Allison and Liz, in hilsa, Okla.,
inspire the emotions behind
Steven Bender/DN
Waibel,a secondary-education majorat
UNL, writes poetry from life-inspired
events. She said being at work, around
family or friends added to her creativity.
many of her writings.
“My family is very important
to me,” Waibel said. “They are all
such beautiful people and have
done such beautiful things with
their lives. Through poetry, I
want to communicate to them
how much they have influenced
me. They've shaped so much of
who I am now.”
Although Waibel said poetry
was her forte, this fall she
entered a short story fiction
class and found the switch more
challenging than predicted.
“I thought they would be
more similar, and I love to read
short stories,” Waibel said. “But
it is a struggle for me.”
But the class' professor, Judy
Slater, said Waibel excels at both
writing styles.
“It’s impressive to see some
one who writes both fiction and
poetry well,” Slater said. “You
can tell she's a poet because her
stories are lyrical, but she also
knows how to tell a story, which
you sometimes don’t need to do
in poetry. I’m lucky to have read
her work.”
Waibel said her poetry is
comprised of everyday “scenes”
in her life, and she deals with dif
ficult issues, which is hard to do
verbalhn
It is a huge emotional
release for me,” Waibel said. "It's
something I just have to do. I
can't explain it. I am most
inspired by memories that are
slowly pieced together in my
mind. Things that people
around me say or do find their
way into these poems.”
Kuzma said Waibel's poems
took courage to write because
they are about topics like grief
and death; they’re especially
hard to’present in a classroom
setting.
“She dared to do it,” he said.
“Because of her courage^other
people brought more of mem
selves to the class and weren’t
worried about protecting
images. She showed people the
benefits of being honest”
Her poems, which reflect
memories of funerals, moving
and the comfort of family, told
the “truth of experience,” Kuzma
said.
“She stared into the dark
void, and she didn't close her
eyes or scream or turn away,” he
said. “She took us into a depth of
awareness so compelling, the
surface of the poem disap
peared, and we were meshed
into the vision of the poem. And
nobody taught her to do that.”
LEFT: A rough version of Waibehs poem
“Landscape”
Rethinking'Fight Club':The violence still irks, but potent vision remains
BY SAMUEL MCKEWON
7 want you to hit me as hard
as you can"
-Brad PiU, “Fight Club”
7 wanted to destroy some
thing beautiful"
- Edward Norton, "Fight
Club”
Repulsion.
That’s my recollection of
“Fight Club.” At least, the first
viewing of it on opening night,
after anticipating it like few
films in 1999.
It’s the kind of rollicking,
daring film vision that repre
sents the height of craft. The
surreal opening credit
sequence. A quick hook at the
top of a credit office building
with the two stars. A clever, bril
liant, deeply veined first act. The
setup for something grand,
transcendent. A meaningful
tome on the cathartic and dan
gerous nature of materialistic
America.
Then, repulsion - the word
that adequately describes my
reaction to the much-debated
fight scenes in “Fight Club,”
blotting out the commentary
and singly drawing attention to
themselves as set pieces of iso
lated, backroom fist violence of
such a visceral nature that the
blood scrunching between the
cheek and the teeth of the fight
er can be heard on the sound
track.
There has been worse vio
lence depicted onscreen -
“Saving Private Ryan” contains
20 minutes of brain-rattling vio
lence in its opening sequence
basically deadening all plotlines
arriving after it.
But has there been violence
that more poorly served a film
Film Commentary
than this? “Fight Club,” a clever,
relatively gruesome novel by
retired airline mechanic Chuck
Palahniuk is about something.
So is, I’ve discovered in many
viewings, the film.
Those fight scenes are about
- and solely about - the various
ways one’s body can contort
with blood gushing in all direc
tions. It lingers particularly long
on how blood trickles along
cold, hard cement.
In my initial review last year,
I mentioned them (there’s four
or five major sequences,
depending on what you call
major) as the primary reason for
an unfavorable opinion, while a
colleague gave it a favorable
one, choosing to stick on the
tack that those who didn’t like
“Fight Club” did not get it.
I very much understand the
film, as much as one can, I sup
pose, after multiple viewings,
and listening to director
Fincher’s and star Edward
Norton’s commentary on the
DVD package. The fight scenes
are still flinch-worthy, and it’s
questionable as to whether they
add any real art to the produc
tion.
And yet, “Fight Club” is an
essential movie for the 21st
Century - one of the few out
there - that skewers materialism
with such a bold, fierce bravado,
and certainly, you wonder what
all the fuss over “American
Beauty” was for. The latter has
ice water running through its
veihs; it’s detached, damning,
judgmental. “Fight Club” has
hot, black blood running
through its two-hour-plus run
ning time. It judges by showing.
This review, then, is a rever
sal of sorts, recognition of “Fight
Club’s” virtues while singling its
long period of flawed, violent
behavior as an anathema. Along
with Paul Thomas Anderson’s
“Magnolia,” which serves as a
companion piece, “Fight Club"
is the most ecstatically made
film of 1999 in terms of ambi
tious, cinematic showmanship.
Please see FIGHT CLUB on 6