A Study to the Self through Prefixes

Abstract

A Study to the Self through Prefixes Ae Hee Lee (bio) 1. Multi-: more than one; many, especially variegated. Example: "multicolor." Think kaleidoscope. A spinning circus of several colored-glass. From the Latin multus, much, many. The existence of more than one. In one. Another example: "multicultural." Think you. Think of those you loved. Think myriads of others. 2. Notice people applaud at the word "unity." Strangely enough, words like "mixture," "composite," and "amalgamation" are often attributed to Frankenstein's creature. Abomination. The "monster" (from the Latin monere or warn) must be hidden, devoured, or assimilated (notice though, "monster" sounds closer to the Latin monstrare which means "to show"). Notice you are not alone in your desire for this being to have a name of its own. 3. Another prefix: inter-. From the Old French entre- or Latin inter-. Between, among. Poet Kimberly Blaeser once talked about a liminal space in which mixed bloods and mixed cultures find themselves. She called the in-between not a phase of being but a state of being, not a tragedy but a position of power. A strength and balance that only bridges possess. Don't forget "Intermediary"—don't underestimate it. 4. Read Andersen's "The Little Mermaid," again. The ending: the little mermaid cannot go back to be a mermaid, having been human, and cannot become human, having been mermaid. Her sisters at the sea, the prince for whom she endured the pain of invisible knives needling her soles—neither understood her love. When she turns into foam, don't cry for her, don't hate the story. Read it again. 5. Prefix: cross-Surprise: originating from the word "cross." Can refer to the shape of a cross, or across. Example: "Crossroads": An intersection of two or more roads. Neither here nor there. Figuratively, a meeting place. A shared place, a place of sharing, which belongs to no one for those that belong nowhere. Old European folklore tells stories of fairy processions happening at crossroads. A threshold to new worlds. 6. Recall the Venn diagram from your math class: a diagram of logical relations between different sets. The more circles, the closer to a field of flowers. Admire Venn diagrams, watch how the circles always converge in the middle. Ask: who fits outside these spaces of meeting? Who can live untouched and alone? 7. Paradox: Everyone belongs, but belonging is not easy. [End Page 24] 8. Another prefix that means across: trans-. Also means beyond and through. In Third Factory, Viktor Shklovsky writes, "There is no third alternative. Yet that is precisely the one that must be chosen." To transform oneself is to transcend. An unchanging thing is a dead thing.1 9. Learn from words. Words know that they cannot be restricted to a single meaning, and that their many meanings become their history and identity. Learn from people: words come from people—they were made in their image. 10. In his essay "The Argentine Writer and Tradition" Borges thought there were no camels in the Koran and wrote that "[Mohammed] knew he could be Arab without camels." Wonder: what do you not need, to be what you are?2 [End Page 25] Ae Hee Lee Lisa Beech Hartz directs Seven Cities Writers Project, a non-profit that brings cost-free creative writing workshops to underserved communities. She currently guides poetry workshops for men and women in a city jail and a memoir workshop at an LGBTQ community center. "Mural" is drawn from a manuscript exploring the life and work of Abstract Expressionist Lee Krasner. Lisa's ekphrastic collection, The Goldfish Window, was published by Grayson Books in 2018. Footnotes 1. Translation by Richard Sheldon 2. Translation by Esther Allen Copyright © 2020 Pleiades and Pleiades Press