"Specimen Days"

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses Michael Cunningham's work "Specimen Days." It specifically discusses the three genres associated with this work - the ghost story, the thriller and science fiction. It shows how Cunningham's work is named for a collection of Walt Whitman's works by the same name. It then describes how, in the three varied narratives, "In The Machine" (ghost story), "The Children's Crusade" (thriller) and "Like Beauty" (Science fiction), the three differing times in New York City are explored through the lives and interactions of the characters.

From the Paper:

"This idea of Whitman in the first novella as a man to be followed as a replacement for education is essential to the understanding of the character, Lucas who is seeking to find his way into a world that will swallow him, the machine of progress. (Cunningham 4) It would seem a juxtaposition that emulating a critic of progress would be the answer of a young man given the job of a man who had been killed by the machine, but it demonstrates the validity of Lucas' desire to "stop striding altogether." (5) Lucas availed to recite Walt's unfinished work, "Lucas and Catherine would go into the book, for the book was never finished. Lucas would recite it to Walt and to everyone. He would recite what Walt had not yet written, for his life and the book were one thing, and everything he did or said was part of the book." (91)"

Sample of Sources Used:

• Bahr, David. "After Hours: Acclaimed Author Michael Cunningham Channeled His Love of Virginia Woolf in the Hours. in Specimen Days, He Considers the World after Walt Whitman." The Advocate 7 June 2005: 60.
• Cunningham, Michael. Specimen Days: A Novel New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2005.
• Gambino, Richard. "Walt Whitman: He Was a Liberator of People and Culture, Using a Liberated Poetic Form." The Nation 21 July 2003: 14.

More papers on "Specimen Days":

• Analytical Essay # 25277 : "Walt Whitman and New York City"
• Comparison Essay # 49606 : "Art and Society"
• Analytical Essay # 23796 : "Whitman and the Civil War"

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