When we analyse the space in a text,
firstly
we have to distinguish between two kinds of space; inner and external
space.
According to the external space, Children’s Time stands
for a
unique and a very obvious location, which is the city swimming pool. Deena Larsen gives some
references to
the reader to know where exactly these children are spending their
time. For
instance the name of one of the nodes is “pools of” and in this stanza
the
author names the location, the city swimming pool during summer.
The
fact that the action takes place in this kind of space can suggest that;
firstly it is an opened space, no walls, neither restrictions nor
rules, no
worries. Thus, this poem is mainly narrating children’s activities that
take
place in a swimming pool and require no obligations but freedom,
liberty and
happiness such as running, laughing or shoving. This aspect emphasizes,
in a way,
what childhood is.
Taking into
account
this, the author uses some metaphors to reinforce this idea of lack of
restrictions and free will. For instance in the node called “running”
he uses impossible
birds to refer to the children, to put emphasis on their energetic
and
lively behaviour and actions. According to the vocabulary, the author
uses
vocabulary referred to nature such as water, light or air. These elements can also reinforce the
sensations of lack of restrictions and freedom.
Once spoken
about
external space, we should deal with the internal or inner space within
the
poem.
As I said
before,
all the elements suggest the reader to place the poem in an opened and
material
space, a swimming pool. But if
we look
carefully we realise that the allusions to an inner space are apparent
as
well. Each stanza is composed by
four
lines, but the author makes a distinction between the first three ones
and the
last one, Larsen puts apart the last line and gives it a different
sense. In
all the nodes the last line has not the same material meaning as the
previous
three ones; these last lines appear as a description of each node but
with an
abstract and more internal meaning. Some examples are an endless
time, lives
intertwined, endlessly over the slippery tile, going around the world in
nothing flat. These allusions imply an enlargement of time, as the
time
these children are having is endless. But apart from this, these last
sentences
of each stanza implies a wider space. They place the poem somewhere
else apart
from the city swimming pool, somewhere far away, not physical space but
abstract somehow.
This inner
space is
full of light, water, wind; it is full of good feelings swimming into an
endless time of no rules or worries, as the children’s space. This idea
is
offered over all by two examples in “past” and “the wind”: going
around the
world in nothing flat, and thinking of nothing but light.
Therefore,
this poem
offers a contrast between the two kinds of space in the text. In one
hand it
describes children’s time in the swimming pool, full of laughs, water
games,
etc. But on the other hand it uses this material space to create an
abstract
one full of happiness and freedom; which come up from natural elements
such as
air, water, wind…
These
sensations of
going out to an abstract and wider space from a material one can be
interpreted
as author own feelings or memories, in a way. Larsen uses the space to
look for
a way out to express her own memories and to travel away from them; and
she
does it through describing children’s times in a common city swimming
pool.
The use of
the
language is also very characteristic in this text. First, the author
combines
two kinds of language; in one hand one type of language related to
children or
more material like “pools of, children, running, laughing and sliding”
and on
the other hand a natural and abstract kind of language such as “past”
and “the
wind”. Then, Larsen uses constantly the continuous form in
verbs, “running”,
“laughing”, “shoving” “jostling”… perhaps to give a sensation of length
in
time.
LARSEN,
DEENA, Deena
Larsen’s Hypertext and Electronic Literature Corner, last visited
December
9th 2008, (http://www.deenalarsen.net/)
LARSEN,
DEENA, Children’s
Time, copyright 2001, last visited December 9th 2008, (http://www.deenalarsen.net/
children2/)
FERNÁNDEZ
DE GOROSTIZA SAMPER, Cristina, Entrevista a Deena Larsen, Universitat
de Valencia
Press, 2002/2003, last visited December 8th
2008, (http://mural.uv.es/fers
am/entrevista.html)
IndexPage
Introduction
Conclusion
Academic year 2008/2009
© a.r.e.a./Dr.Vicente Forés López
© Ana Maiz Rodríguez
amaizro@alumni.uv.es
Universitat de València Press