It's 12 o'clock somewhere...

What time is it? Oh, it must be noon in Gryyyyon!!! How I miss the sweet sound of these church bells out my window....

The Waste Land

If there is one piece of literature that describes the polar opposite of how I feel about the mountains, it would be T.S. Eliot's poem The Waste Land. To me, the mountains are a sublime expanse of beauty and wonder. Eliot had quite a different perspective of the Alps.
After a mental breakdown in England, Eliot decided to take a 3 month vacation from work to get his life back on track. His marriage was falling apart and he was not stable. During this time, he wrote his most famous piece The Waste Land. Specifically, he wrote part V, What the Thunder Said, in Lausanne, Switzerland. This poem described the mountains as a desolate place. He writes "Here is no water but only rock / Rock and no water and sandy road...Dead mountain mouth of carious teeth that cannot spit." Eliot makes the mountains seem lifeless and barren. This, however, is not the case as I have experienced. The mountains are lush with green grass, wildflowers, and crystal clear springs.
It is hard to imagine coming to the Alps and only viewing the mountains in a negative way, as Eliot did in his poem. My experience here has been one full of beauty and splendor. The mountains are create such a sublime landscape that can leave me in an endless state of awe and to describe them as otherwise seems blasphemous.

And the Mountain Sings

The Alpine Symphony is not like a normal symphony because it is 22 continuous sections of music. Strauss composed the symphony to match up with an experience of 11 hours spent climbing the mountain. It starts at twilight just before dawn to the following nightfall. It actually was the last symphonic poem written by Strauss based on an experience he had as a boy when he and some climbers lost their way heading up a mountain and were caught in a storm and soaked on the way down. It premiered on October 28th, 1915 in Berlin and first performed in the United States on April 27th 1916.

The first movement is Night. It opens with strings, horns, and lower woodwinds. Eventually every degree of the scale is heard at the same time representing the deep mysterious night of the mountain. Strauss amazes me as he communicates his surroundings through his poetic symphony. In the third movement, The Ascent, he starts the transition for the introduction into the main part of the piece. He presents two main themes that are reoccurring throughout the piece. The first is a marching theme full of dotted rhythms to suggest the physical act of climbing through the use of large upwards leap. The second was a pointed triumphant fanfare played by the brass which comes to represent the more rugged dangerous aspects of the climb.

Strauss even paints a picture in the movement called On Flowering Meadows through the use of pictorial-ism. He uses isolated points of color by the short notes in the winds, harps, and pizzicato in the violas to dot the landscape. I cannot think of a more talented composer who could write a symphony with such musical description.

My home away from home

After internet confusion and this being stuck on someone else’s computer, I finally get to post this a week late!

This past weekend, seven of us went to Venice. It was a few long train rides down as we watched as mountains turned into fields. I started to sweat as the temperature and humidity began to rise. Who knew that my body would forget about the hot Kentucky summers and grow accustom to the cool alpine breeze.

We wandered through the maze-like streets to get to our hotel in the San Marco area. After a few wrong turns we made it to Hotel Rio. The architecture in Venice is so intricate. We would turn down a random alley and find a beautiful church out of nowhere. Saturday we went shopping at the Rialto but my favorite part is when we found a small shop down a back alley that had antique jewelry. The shopkeeper was an elderly lady who smiled at me as I played dress up in her jewelry. As I waited for Tomitha to dig through a gigantic basket of beads, I looked on the other side of the store where there were old knickknacks lining the shelves and floor. It felt like I had stepped back in time and was looking at her attic. I started to read the titles of some of the books she had that were old and tattered. I suddenly realize she had four books by Lord Byron sitting there in their red worn book covers. They were in Italian but I could tell she had read them many times. It was funny to think that Bryon followed us even Venice.

Saturday late afternoon we went on a hunt for Harry’s Bar which was a common watering hole for Ernest Hemingway. It also was the place where the peach flavored drink the Belini was invented. The bar was right on the water and if you weren’t looking, you would walk right by it, as we did earlier that day. Everyone was dressed to the nines as we walked in, in our t-shirts and shorts.

As unique as Venice is, I was extremely happy for Sunday to come for us to return “home”. When we stepped off the train in Sion, I let out a sigh of relief to see the mountains. They were extremely comforting for some odd reason. It was crazy to think that I could visit a place as gorgeous as Venice and still prefer the mountains and countryside of Switzerland. Gryon had become our home and had given us the freedom we had been reading of in Wilhelm Tell. In Venice I felt very trapped and tightly confined to one area but up in the Swiss Alps I felt free to open breeze and safe to explore. (On the right is the picture I took in Sion as we got off for the first time in Switzerland after Italy. Even cloudy it looks beautiful!!)

Caitlin

Fidelio is a story of oppression and liberation. The theme of the story is its only relevance to Switzerland; it is relevant because of the story The Prisoner of Chillon by Byron which is about a man suffering in the dungeon of Chillon who is eventually set free. Fidelio is an opera written by Ludwig Van Beethoven about a woman, Leonore, disguised as a man, Fidelio, in order to free her husband, Florestan, from his unjust imprisonment. Looking back on the dungeon in the castle Chillon while thinking about the story of Fidelio, I realize how dreadful the thought of a loved one trapped down there must have been for Leonore. It is clear through Leonore's actions and dangerous situations she put herself in that she is desperate and determined to save her husband. She finds that Florestan is the one prisoner not allowed to be seen and that he is being purposefully neglected by the orders of the Governor of the Prison, Pizarro. Leonore makes several subtle attempts to see her husband but fails to find him. Finally, just before Florestan is to be murdered by Pizarro, she finds him in the lowest, darkest dungeon cell and fights off Pizarro to save him from his bloody fate. When they are reunited the music is absolutely great, sublime. The music which has been dark, ominous and full of sorrow has now been completely shifted to bursting with joy and refreshing wonder and awe. I do not know exactly what they are saying to eachother because I do not speak German, but Beethoven makes it well known that the two lovers are blissfully reunited. This theme is very common to Swiss literature (although this piece is not Swiss; it is German) because many found peace, freedom, and/or liberation on the mountains; I know I found peace and a sense of liberation of the heart while in the Alps. And so, the theme of oppression followed by liberation is shown to be true and quite prevalent in the Swiss Alps.

Everybody Needs Somebody

Switzerland was Paradise, perfect; even in its imperfections, dangers, I found perfection. The air was pure; the water was unbelievably refreshing; the scenery was sublime. I was spoiled in Switzerland in many ways. I knew that I had a family that loved me when I returned home (even though I avoided thinking of home as much as possible); the mountains, although beautiful to the point of breathlessness, could not love me back. This is something that crossed my mind upon looking over Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.

Frankenstein created a being in order to fill a void his mother's passing created within him; he wanted a creature, a relationship of reciprocated love. Instead of loving his creature, upon its first breath he loathed his creation. The creature eventually confronts his creator at Mont Blanc, the tallest and arguably the most beautiful mountain in Switzerland. This is where the monster shares his somber story of being completely rejected and further hated by all of humanity including the one person that could and should always love the creature, Frankenstein. Society's rejection of the creature is due to his hideous physical appearance. However, if one were to take the time to speak to the creature, one would realize how gentle, loving, and beautiful the creature truly is. Unfortunately the creature reveals that his only companion is isolation, the mountains. As the creature concludes the story of his oppression, he demands that Frankenstein create a companion for him, a being just as hideous and rejected by society so that he may have a mutually loving relationship with this being. Frankenstein agrees at first but when the project is almost completed he destroys the creature before it is given life. This demolition also destroys Frankenstein's creature's last chance at having the one this he has always wanted, reciprocated love. The creature then turns into a monster of destruction and death. Now death is his only companion, and together they wreak havoc on mankind, especially Frankenstein.

When we visited Mont Blanc I thought only of how beautiful it was and how wonderful it must be to experience the mountain; I thought "I could stay here forever." As a wise friend once told me, hindsight is 20/20. Now, looking back on the experience and the relevant literature, I realize that the mountains were different for me than they were for Frankenstein's creature because I have seen and felt reciprocated love and don't have that expectation for the mountain. One can always love the mountain, but the mountain will never love one back.

Childlike Wonder

Children see beauty and wonder in everything.  Everyday they make a new discovery, finding happiness in the smallest details. They live constantly in a state of wonder and awe at their surroundings.  However, this state of pure innocence and beauty does not last forever. As children grow, becoming adults, they lose the newness of the everyday. It becomes monotony, and instead of seeing how beautiful their world is, they are drawn to what they don’t have. 

We can only hope to catch a glimpse of the awe we once had everyday, as children, when placed in new situations where nature’s beauty overwhelms the senses, leaving only utter amazement.

This overwhelming feeling is what struck me when I first saw the Swiss Alps. For three weeks I wondered if the people who lived there ever stopped seeing the beauty surrounding them everyday. How could they? The mountains were so overwhelming and so amazing, and yet on the trains many opted to read the newspaper, instead of looking out the window.  They went on with their lives instead of stopping and staring in awe at the landscape. Every second of everyday they see beauty that millions never even get the opportunity to view in their lifetime, yet it is taken for granted. 


 Heidi by Johanna Spyri is a timeless children's novel.  It displays all the wonder and awe and simplicity of childhood, while simultaneously depicting Spyri's ideas of childlike perspective, as well as health in nature, specifically the Swiss Alps.

Spyri breaks it down for the reader.  Life does not have to be this large complex system that we so often become tangled in.  We create that, and sometimes it takes a child's perspective to see clearly how mistaken we are.  Heidi reveals this to her Grandfather.  He is so set against humanity.  For years he refused to come into town, or even so much as talk to anyone besides the priest.  It took Heidi, a small child, to show him the errors of his ways, and to teach him how to be apart of the community again. As adults we sometimes blind ourselves, we hold on to grudges, focusing on the negatives without seeing the light in the situation.  Children on the other hand forget, and forgive easily.

Spyri's next focus is, health in nature.  This is evident in Heidi's move to the city (makes her sick) and Clara's move to the mountain (makes her well). This message is a bit more basic. Spyri sees nature's purity as health and wellness for the body, and the mind. The Swiss Alps in particular are so untouched, they are pure nature, in all its innocence and beauty.

What's interesting is Spyri's connection between childhood and nature, they are both innocent, simple, pure, and most importantly, they are both ideal.  The health of character's not only increased as they moved into nature, but also as they enjoyed life more, letting go of their petty resentment, and became more childlike.  Grandfather is a great example.  Although he lived secluded on the mountain throughout the story, he was not fully well until he was able to let go of his anger and rejoin his community.  Therefore, Spyri reveals to us that being in nature is not enough, you also must have that childlike simplicity.

Looking at the Swiss Alps is utterly amazing.  You literally  cannot look at anything else, they are too beautiful to take your eyes off them.  However, this experience got me thinking. Why do we need to be ripped out of our comfort zone to "see" the beauty of nature?  The beauty of nature is in our own backyards and just like the Swiss travelers reading the paper, we take it for granted every day.  We look at the Alps and say, "This is more beautiful than anything in Kentucky."  We want it cause we don't have it every day, but how many of us would be almost indifferent to the landscape if we lived in Switzerland our entire lives?

Beauty comes in many forms.  If you take it for granted, one day it will be gone.  Kentucky is a beautiful state we need to realize the beauty that we get to see everyday.  It may not be as, "In your face," as the Swiss Alps, but it is still amazing and awe-inspiring.  Most importantly though, just like the Swiss Alps, it is worth protecting. If we fail to see the value of the beauty of our land, someone else will find the material value, and we will be forced to live with the consequences.

This is my last blog.  I loved my Swiss experience. This was the opportunity of a lifetime and I already miss Gryon. Thank you Professor Davies for setting up such a fantastic class experience.  I enjoyed every second of my time spent in Switzerland.  It was definitely a trip worth going on and one I would recommend to anyone. Thank you again for allowing me to have this opportunity.

Mary