{"id":1713,"date":"2012-03-30T15:04:51","date_gmt":"2012-03-30T19:04:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/?p=1713"},"modified":"2013-11-02T12:28:41","modified_gmt":"2013-11-02T16:28:41","slug":"hall-to-mcnair-september-11-1980","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/hall-to-mcnair-september-11-1980\/","title":{"rendered":"Hall to McNair: September 11, 1980"},"content":{"rendered":"<table>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td style=\"vertical-align: top; background: white; float: left;\"><a class=\"shutterset\" title=\"Letter from Hall to McNair, September 11, 1980.  Colby College Special Collections.\" href=\"http:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/files\/2012\/01\/Hall-McNair-19800911-001-colby.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-2078 alignleft\" style=\"border: 1px solid gray; background: white;\" alt=\"Hall-to-McNair-09-11-1980\" src=\"http:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/files\/2012\/01\/Hall-McNair-19800911-001-colby.jpg\" width=\"250\" height=\"250\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #808080;\">[Click image to view]<\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td style=\"background: white; padding-left: 30px;\">11 September 1980<\/p>\n<p>Wes McNair<br \/>\nBox 43<br \/>\nNorth Sutton, NH 03260<\/p>\n<p>Dear Wes,<\/p>\n<p>Joey thinks \u201cThe People Upstairs\u201d is absolutely perfect,<br \/>\nand will be delighted to send it out, but I see a couple of<br \/>\nthings I am not so sure of, so I persuaded him to let me<br \/>\nwrite you about the poem before he sends it out.<\/p>\n<p>In the first one, I think that \u201cdrifting\u201d is a classic<br \/>\ndead metaphor. I\u2019m not crazy about \u201cweightless\u201d either, but<br \/>\nI really dislike \u201cdrifting,\u201d which is a distinctly unanchored<br \/>\nunrowboat. I\u2019m not so positive about \u201c ,\u201d when you<br \/>\ncome to that\u2026<\/p>\n<p>In the third part, it is \u201cfaint scream\u201d that bothers me,<br \/>\nnot the article. It is because screams have been faint since<br \/>\nthe beginning of creation. I think everything else is just<br \/>\nfine here. I\u2019m not absolutely positive about the end of the<br \/>\nsecond part, which is the difficult part. But there\u2019s nothing<br \/>\nwrong with the diction! (I am just not positive that it is<br \/>\nall there or that it is said with as much clarity and force<br \/>\nas need be.) But I feel fairly sure about drifted and faint.<\/p>\n<p>If you feel equally sure, in the other direction, I<br \/>\nwill pass the word to Joey.<\/p>\n<p>Love as ever,<\/p>\n<p>Don<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\"><em>Editorial note about this letter<\/em><em>:<\/em><\/span><\/strong>\u00a0After Don&#8217;s small complaints about &#8220;The People Upstairs,&#8221; McNair sent him this revised draft in his ensuing letter.<\/p>\n<p>The People Upstairs<\/p>\n<p>1<br \/>\neach night<br \/>\nwe hear them<\/p>\n<p>ascending the stairs<br \/>\ndescending<\/p>\n<p>deeper and deeper<br \/>\ninto the floor<\/p>\n<p>falling while rising<br \/>\naway from themselves<\/p>\n<p>their weightless voices<br \/>\nmoving out<\/p>\n<p>of earshot far<br \/>\ninto the next world<\/p>\n<p>2<br \/>\no feet<br \/>\nforgotten servants<\/p>\n<p>left out<br \/>\nof the conversation<br \/>\nof mind and hands<br \/>\nwe hear you<\/p>\n<p>waiting<br \/>\nunder the desk<br \/>\nwe understand<\/p>\n<p>your great patience<br \/>\nand your<\/p>\n<p>mystery moving<br \/>\nbeyond the cloud<br \/>\nof ceiling carrying<\/p>\n<p>the body dream<\/p>\n<p>3<br \/>\nabove our heads<br \/>\nthe thin scream<\/p>\n<p>of pipes dissolves<br \/>\nthe corners of rooms<\/p>\n<p>and feet walk past us<br \/>\nin space<\/p>\n<p>free of the tables<br \/>\nlamps and chairs<\/p>\n<p>which hold us here<br \/>\ndying of definition<\/p>\n<!--themify_builder_content-->\n<div id=\"themify_builder_content-1713\" data-postid=\"1713\" class=\"themify_builder_content themify_builder_content-1713 themify_builder tf_clear\">\n    <\/div>\n<!--\/themify_builder_content-->\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[Click image to view] 11 September 1980 Wes McNair Box 43 North Sutton, NH 03260 Dear Wes, Joey thinks \u201cThe People Upstairs\u201d is absolutely perfect, and will be delighted to send it out, but I see a couple of things I am not so sure of, so I persuaded him to let me write you [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2206,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[35324,596,42965,35504,42973],"tags":[],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1713"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2206"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1713"}],"version-history":[{"count":22,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1713\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10065,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1713\/revisions\/10065"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}