Titan ✂️🌊🇺🇸
is OceanGate our generation’s Lusitania?
I know it’s already old news but like, I’m at this literary program in Lisbon right now (called “Disquiet”) and we analyzed this poem today about the Lusitania that reminded me SO MUCH of OceanGate. I had to write a submarine poem, you guys. And of course respond to Larissa’s piece from last week, which also interrogates what we obsess about online.
****Some context if you don’t know what the Lusitania is... it’s pretty much the boat that started World War I. It was a British passenger ship that was sunk by a German submarine (because they were like, carrying weapons or something) and it got America sooo riled up, that they declared war on them a few years later!!*****
So (in Carrie Bradshaw voice) as I sat down to write this poem, I couldn’t help but wonder... is OceanGate our generation’s Lusitania? Will this camaraderie against the ineptitude of the billionaire class usher in the next World War? One that happens not between nation-states, but against the 1%??? Read more to find out!!
xx K
Titan ✂️🌊🇺🇸
Those who advance against implosion Cutting into it like safety scissors The Xbox controller of their flawless spheres Live off screen time and tax evasion
by me, Kelly Mullins, in direct response to Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen’s piece, “Lusitânia”, which was originally published in Portuguese and translated to English. I’ll leave both versions below for our bilingual baddies!!
Lusitania 🔪🌊🇬🇧
Those who advance against the sea Driving into it like a whetted blade The black prow of their wooden boats Live off moonlight and little bread
by Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen, translated to English by Richard Zenith and Alexis Levitin in “28 Portuguese Poets: A Bilingual Anthology”.
Lusitânia 🔪🌊🇵🇹
Os que avançam de frente para o mar E nele enterram como uma aguda faca A proa negra dos seus barcos Vivem de pouco pão e de luar.
by Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen, the original Portuguese version
Well that was a fun history lesson, wasn’t it? Hope you took notes because there will be a pop quiz next week! Okay, bon voyage!! ⛵ ⛵ ⛵