Art +Author Project
Antihero/Hero
On Trans
The process of through is ongoing.
The earth doesn’t seem to move, but sometimes we fall
down against it and seem to briefly alight on its turning.
We were just going. I was just leaving,
which is to say, coming
elsewhere. Transient. I was going as I came, the words
move through my limbs, lungs, mouth, as I appear to sit
peacefully at your hearth transubstantiating some wine.
It was a rough red, it was one of those nights we were not
forced by circumstances to drink wine out of mugs.
Circumstances being, in those cases, no one had been
transfixed at the kitchen sink long enough to wash dishes.
I brought armfuls of wood from the splitting stump.
Many of them, because it was cold, went right on top
of their recent ancestors. It was an ice night.
They transpired visibly, resin to spark,
bark to smoke, wood to ash. I was
transgendering and drinking the rough red at roughly
the same rate and everyone who looked, saw.
The translucence of flames beat against the air
against our skins. This can be done with
or without clothes on. This can be done with
or without wine or whiskey but never without water:
evaporation is also ongoing. Most visibly in this case
in the form of wisps of steam rising from the just washed hair
of a form at the fire whose beauty was in the earth’s
turning, that night and many nights, transcendent.
I felt heat changing me. The word for this is
transdesire, but in extreme cases we call it transdire
or when this heat becomes your maker we say
transire, or when it happens in front of a hearth:
transfire.
The antihero is becoming the new norm in the search of a protagonist. This is only possible due to the passage of time allowing for a laxation in the moral code by which the hero is held. Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary defines a hero as “a mythological or legendary figure often of divine descent endowed with great strength or ability” (“Hero”). The poem,“On Trans,” highlights the ever present nature of transition. In the same dictionary, the antihero is defined as “a protagonist or notable figure who is conspicuously lacking in heroic qualities” (“Antihero”). The constant change in the expectation of the public allows for the antihero to gain an equal presence next to the hero as the person being cheered on by the masses.
Oberman plays with use the prefix trans- to show omnipresence of being in transition. In the first line of “On Trans,” the speaker states the ubiquitous nature of change. “The process of through is ongoing” (1). The state of changing expectation, changing human nature, or changing mindsets are constantly in motion. Hero comes from the Greek culture with an etymology being traced back to the Greek term heros. In ancient Greece there exists an emphasis on the strong man who honored his nation and family. The warrior that sought the next battle and continues to acquire more honor and fame because heroes live forever. However, since “people change and are changeable,” immortality by way of tales told after death is not as contemporary a mindset of the modern public (Share). Public perspective has shifted from needing the flawless example of a human in a hero. Considering that the hero was designed to be devine in nature, the fact that the hero now exists in the form of a flawed human shows a partial deconstruction of the ideals to which heroes are held. Abou-bakr states in his article about poet prisoners how the hero and the antihero are related in nature. “First, that the antihero is
not the opposite of the hero, but that the two are embedded within one another, or even that one is the development/product of the other” (262). Thereis more than one view when the question arises over hero versus antihero. Just as speaker in “On Trans” states, “I was leaving, / that is to say, coming / elsewhere” (4-6). Going can be viewed as coming and both are correct within context. Antihero and hero are not independent of one another. While there may be transition between the two, a definitive state where only one exists is not easily defined. Only the perspective of the viewer determines the interpretation of actions and allows for classification of the antihero.
The allowance in society of the antihero comes from the evolution of what is acceptable in the actions of a hero. Just as the speaker in “On Trans” reiterates the shifting of existence, “resin to spark, / bark to smoke, wood to ash,” the ideals that hold true today may not survive to tomorrow (16-17). Human nature is ever changing. Just as the definition of a word can change with the use by individuals, so can the moral code that regulates human action. The same goes for a hero that fights for his nation and acts in the name of honor and pride. Now the acceptance of acting simply because one is capable is arising. There is an absence of needing to answer to one textbook moral code. There is a shift happening that allows room for decisions without moral to exist. In short, the antihero is able to subsist in the ubiquitous state of transition.
Antiheroes and heroes are intertwined with one another. The presence of one may neither negate nor reinforce the other. The definition is based on the ever transitioning perspective of viewing public. The lack of stasis in a singular mindset is the point made in “On Trans.” The state of existing is ongoing, as is the state of change. Heroes have passed through time and generations of interpretation. The antihero now exists with an individual purpose and a different motivation than that of the hero.