Week 10 Critical Conversation: ruth weiss and Free Association
ruth weiss, a famous poet also known as the “ Beat Goddess” was born on June 24th 1928 in Berlin, Germany. In 1938, ruth, and her parents fled from Germany to escape the Holocaust and went to the United States of America. After her family settled in Chicago, ruth at the young age of ten wrote a poem about how moving to America saved her life. ruth quickly excelled in writing and graduated top of her class. ruth changed the spelling of her name from Ruth Weiss to ruth weiss as a protest to Germany where the nouns are capitalized. From an early age ruth used many forms of free association. Free association is when poets are able to create consciousness narrative's based psychological responses. ruth uses many raw emotions when it comes to her writing style. In her 1977 “ Desert Journal” ruth makes the audience feel a sense of disorientation by utilizing free association.
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This sense of disorientation is seen straight off the bat on day one of the poem:
“ The tables sat end on end
they were dropping into the cavity of mouth
slowly
one would not notice” ( weiss 10)
Knowing that there are no tables in the desert conveys the idea of disorientation. This also shows free association in the poem as a way to express how she is feeling in a way that audiences can connect too. weiss also makes mention to Edger Allen Poe’s “ The Raven” with the line:
“ NEVERMORE quoth the bird — -” ( weiss 10)
This mention of “ The Raven” creates a sense of disorientation by showing the raw emotions that are felt when coming to a new place. By ruth adding in all of the random moments such as the reference to “ the Raven”, she shows the unpredictable aspect of going to a new place for the first time.
“About.” The Ruth Weiss Foundation, www.ruthweissfoundation.org/about. Accessed 10 Mar. 2024.
weiss, ruth. “Desert Journal”. Trembling Pillow Press 2012. pp. 9–30
