A Time In Plague: 2013

Open- Genre Project

For my project, I did a video summarizing the Sun Also Rises. For the movie, I used the movie Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara, in which 3 freinds decide to go on a bachelor trip to spain. You can read the wikipedia page, or even watch the movie on Netflix (its hilarious) and see that it has absolutely nothing to do with The Sun Also Rises. The summary is followed by a message from Jake about life. I hope you enjoy and laugh a lot. The link is availible at http://youtu.be/ORjcNWrEhxQ. It is also availible at http://youtu.be/LYFAmOrf_Yk

Pilate as the pillar of Song of Solomon: almost like Christophine in Wide Sargasso Sea

I feel that Pilate can almost be seen as one of the biggest protagonist of Song of Solomon as she is the story's moral guide (almost like a Christophine like figure). Although it is true that the narrator of the book hardly ever focuses on what Pilate is feeling or the state she is in, her presence in the book is strongly felt throughout. Ironically, although she is named after the Roman statesman who crucified Jesus Christ, according to the New Testament, Pilate has a complete lack of cruelty. Most often, she is actually leading someone who is in need of guidance.

While Pilate's role in the novel isn't as physically visible as someone like Milkman's, it is definitely just as important (perhaps even more). Pilate is a survivor of the strong racism and yet she is loving and altruistic. Her loving nature implies strength rather than weakness. Most importantly,when a man tries to beat her daughter, Reba, Pilate takes the event very calmly (as Mr. Mitchell mentioned almost like an experienced ‘badass’) pushes a knife within just an inch of his heart and persuades him (and he obviously accepts) to never touch Reba again. Impressively, Pilate is in her sixties (again old age, like Christophine, where old age shows power, experience and knowledge) and the abuser is a strong young man, Pilate still prevails.

In Song of Solomon, Morrison seems to suggest that Pilate’s powers, strength, and everlasting love above all, come from the African-American cultural traditions. By singing and expressing her feeling indirectly through the songs about Sugarman’s flight, Pilate shows her strength and tries to calm the memories of the past, specifically the oppression that her ancestors had to go through. Not only does she make herself content, she also makes the other characters who live in the present surrounding her joyful. In the end, Pilate becomes the novel’s model character, clearly expressing that power does not have to come at the expense of gentleness (although it is hard), and that freedom does not have to come at the expense of the happiness of others.

In these manners, Pilate is much like Christophine. Christophine was the character who was the mentor to Antoinette in the Wide Sargasso Sea and here, Pilate can be seen almost like a mentor like figure to Milkman (his life is empty without her initial guidance). Another factor is when Christophine makes the love potion, and Pilate does something similar. There is also the fact that both are seen as figures with some kind of “supernatural” power. So all in all, both characters have many similarities.

Milkman like Antoinette?

Milkman is just like Antoinette in many ways. Milkman was born into a rather privileged household with a want to always escape but has to live through instead. In order to make his life more peaceful, he tries to make friends with Guitar. He does this because in he does not want to be the part of a household which both the poor blacks resent (because of jealousy for money). Interestingly, this is quite similar the way that Antoinette reaches out to Tia (Tia is from a lower class and is still friends with Antoinette, for a time being). However, the class tensions that are present between these friends are much more pronounced and visible in the case of Antoinette, specifically because she does not even have the option of fitting into any community. Guitar also mentions something similar to Milkman when he says that ‘you do not fit in either communities’. And just like Tia throws a rock at Antoinette (which I feel was done with intent to kill), Guitar tries to hang Milkman.

However, they do have their differences. Mainly, Milkman is a male in a much more modern society (well more modern than that of Antoinette's times) and because of this he does have a shot at actually getting out of the situation he is in, for example, as he so says himself “I’ll buy a plane ticket,” and he does. And while he was stuck there, he was in a relatively comfortable and protective environment. In somewhat of a contrast, Antoinette was a female in an era wher she could simply not leave, and so was stuck (like Milkman) but stuck forever (unlike Milkman) She was made to come of age way too fast for her own good. And as a female in a ante-modern era, she was not able to simply leave. She had to marry, and thus was stuck forever

The Man Who Wasn't There

On of my most favorite lines from the movie, The Man Who Wasn’t There would probably be the barber shop scene where Ed Crane(I think?) says to his brother-in-law(don’t remember the guy’s name) if he knows about hair. It keeps growing and we just cut it off and throw it away. But it never leaves us, and keeps coming back. I thought that this was one of the strangest things in the movie. Of course, the movie was full of strange things ranging from the court cases to the UFOs (I really don’t know what they were about). What was stranger (ah get it!) was when he continued saying that he was gonna take the hair and mingle it with dirt, common house dirt. Something along those lines. Even if we look at this scene, for a moment avoiding the rest, we can still get a pretty good idea that there are a few loose screws on this guy. This can be seen again and again, with him from the office to Walter’s house. There is certainly something that is not right. And this leads into the fact that the world isn’t the right place for Ed, it is not made for a guy like Ed. On top of that, his actions only make the situation worse. We can, as an example, take the dry cleaning incident. Ed at first is interested in it, but cannot get his mind around whether it would be a good thing or is it a hoax. When he finally does invest his money, all it does is come and bite him back in the end. He is punished for a crime which he didn’t really commit at all: the death of that entrepreneur. Similarly, Mersault is punished for a crime he didn’t really commit: not having any emotions when his mother died and his place in society, specifically, how he does not fit in. This would probably be one of the biggest differences between the book and the movie, and we should expect differences, as this movie never took any copyright permissions to make a movie of The Stranger. But I feel, that although he could have protected himself, like Mersault, he was too tired of life, the society in which he resides (not even resides, maybe a better word would be stuck), and how he has nobody or nothing to look forward to in life.

Rochester’s Confusion and the latter’s effect on Antoinette

Ever since Rochester has appeared in the novel, starting in part 2, I have felt that he is an emotionally confused character. I am not saying that he is sick (mentally, not physically), but rather confused. Confused because he doesn’t know what is going on in his life. In a primogeniture society, Rochester is the second son, and thus will not be inheriting any of the family estate/money (interestingly enough, primogeniture is still active, even as of today, in the case of the British Crown Hierarchy). Rochester comes to the society in which Antoinette has been residing for so long as a completely new person. Although he does feel superior and does have some self-confidence, it is not anywhere near the confidence of Mr. Mason. Rochester doesn’t understand the terms of the society and the ways that the society resides in. I guess that in this manner he is almost similar to Mr. Mason as he doesn’t understand the black community like Antoinette does. This is another way he is confused: why is Antoinette so close to these people (not sure he considers them people, but anyways), why does she feel o.k. around the company of these people? Because of his ripe and inexperienced age, he isn’t able to answer these questions, that look so easy to answer by the reader. This puts him in utmost dilemma. This dilemma, is causing issues with Antoinette. It appears that Antoinette is unhappy with the way her marriage is going. She is unable to cope up with this and is not understanding what to do with this. I feel sad because her life is just constantly full of tragedies: her real father died when she is really small, leaving the family in disgrace, her house is burned down in the fire, she loses one of her ‘best friends’ upon the burning of the fire, she loses her disabled brother in the fire, and her mother after being proclaimed mad by society is put in an asylum where she later dies. Its full of tragedies, and what's left to see is where the story takes us? Will the marriage between Antoinette and Rochester turn out in a lovey-dovey relationship or will it take a sharp Stranger/Metamorphosis tragic turn? We can only find out in a couple of days.

Blog: The finger Rule and Class Discussions October 25 2013

During the in-class discussions, often times discussions lag on (or start slow) because of various reasons. However, there are times, at which point a lot of people start discussing things. Now in these situations (although it’s a bit sad because class discussions usually start to pick up the curve towards the end of the class period) many people are left hanging. I know that I am one of these people. That is why I write down whatever I have to say on the left side of my notebook (note taking tips!). Often you would hear stuff like “Well, this is sort of off but...” or “On a side note, in response to...” and a lot of times the conversations would just move too far ahead for what the person is trying to say. Anyhow, that is why I voiced my opinion in class about the finger rule. At first I had thought of a more rigorous and complex system, but that was quickly vetoed down. The finger rule is that instead of the normal hand that you raise, if you have a quick point to make in response to somebody, and then you raise your index finger. This rule was made to be used under the normal discussions. BUT in today’s class discussion (I FEEL EXTREMELY SAD YOU WEREN'T THERE MR. MITCHELL), this rule, in BETA mode, was 'misused'. It could be seen that this rule clearly doesn’t work when literally everybody has something to say because the discussions are moving at a steadier pace and then everybody is holding their index finger! It could also be clearly observed that today’s discussion was probably the most fascinating of all discussions this entire year: there were multiple debates and unlike any of the other days many people had different opinions about the topic at hand. This day was the most controversial, amusing, and thoughtful day in terms of in class discussion. Maybe this was also because the topics were come up by students and class discussion was led by students.

Impressions on The Metamorphosis

The Metamorphosis is my personal favorite from all the books that we have read so far. The reason is because it was short, funny, and most importantly easy to read. While The Sun Also Rises was also funny, probably more, I found it harder to read because there were ‘turnarounds’ → what Jake looked like on the outside was not what he was on the inside. Maybe that this was the case because this book is a translation. This is one of the most interesting of things -- did Kafka mean something, and the translation changed it? Maybe, but I’m not German so I can’t say!

I also enjoyed viewing the character of Gregor. I am really shocked by the way his family treats him. Previously, he was simply a paycheck for them so they did take minimal care, but from what can be seen in the book, it looks like they didn’t actually care about him. But on top of that, after his transformation, they simply forgot about him. As I stated in class, Gregor is like a cow who has stopped producing milk, a chicken who has stopped producing eggs, and now, ‘resources’ are just going in with nothing coming out. And this is my main point. How can a family be so cruel as to simply ignore their son? A doctor is sent for in the 1st chapter but there is no reference to a doctor actually coming in and trying to treat Gregor. The purpose of a family is to take care of each other not to just let go. What is really shocking is how Gregor is simply shunned and yet he doesn’t believe that. He stills believes in his family, he trusts his family. What do you guys think? Is it fair or virtuous the way that his family treats him or is it unethically injustice?

SAR vs. Metamorphosis

In the Metamorphosis by Kafka and the Sun Also Rises by Hemingway connections are intertwined which may not be able to be seen at first glimpse. On the surface it doesn't look like there is much of a similarity but there are some.

The Metamorphosis	The Sun Also Rises
Gregor, in the first few lines, is not able to sleep after undergoing his transformation. This causes him to be uncomfortable and he struggles to get up or sleep.	Jake, towards the beginning of the book, is not able to sleep, even though he tries to force himself to, because of ‘re’-meeting one of his ‘best’ friend.
Gregor is unable to find friends due to his rather annoying job. He is fixated at repaying the debt that his parents owe and from what i can see so far in the book, he has a lack of friends due to this.	There is a pattern about good/bad friends and friendship in general which can be seen in SAR. This trend is most popular with Jack because he is the quiet one, yet if he explodes, a lot would come out.
Grete takes care of Gregor, because she knows that someone needs to do it, and it seems like she does like to do it.	Jack takes care of Brett by backing her up in every situation. He always comes to her help. It is like a spring where the two ends are Jack and Brett. There relationship is this spring coming in closer and then going back out but the spring never bends or break.

Reflextions on Brett from The Sun Also Rises

One of the most popular in class discussion that I have seen is about Brett: you either hate her or you love her. However, my situation is sort of in the middle(ish?) because there are some things about her personality which I wasn’t too fond of while on the other end of the spectrum, some things I do like about her character. One of the things which I don’t like about her is how she takes Jakes’ advantage. Towards the ending of the book, when Brett runs out of money she knows that Jake will always listen to her and so she ‘forces’ Jake, in a way, to come there. Perhaps a better word to forces might be pressures. It is rather interesting because during the course of the book, towards the middle, I started to become slightly sympathetic to Brett, but from the beginning I didn’t like her. When she is first introduced to us, she gets drunk and starts shouting in the street at Jake. Although it was in its position a bit funny, it also made me not like Brett.

On the other side of the coin, Brett was, at times, a rather kind person. In one of the scenes towards the end, Jake starts to want to get drunk because he didn’t know what to do. At that time, Brett was right next to him hugging and urging him that ‘Jake, please don’t get drunk’.

To sum up, I will say that Brett has a good side to her. She really does, but that side of her is hidden deep after her personal ego and attitude.

Diffrences between Mrs. Dalloway and The Mezzanine

In my previous blog, I talked about the major similarities between Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway and Nicholson Baker’s The Mezzanine. But like in every story there is a beginning and an end, there are similarities and differences in two texts as well. A major difference which can be spotted immediately in reading both the books is the different styles of writing probably due to the different time periods. While Mrs. Dalloway was published in the 1925, The Mezzanine was published in 1988. Logically therefore, there are distinct changes in the manner that both books are written. But also, Virginia Woolf’s writing is a bit more confusing. At several instances, I was confused whether it was some character speaking or Woolf. In the Mezzanine, as it is all told through Howie, we are never in doubt of who is saying what. Also, many times, I thought that in his footnotes Baker was being just descriptive, however, that is not the case in Woolf’s writing. Her passages are always including other things than just material object description such as other character's consciousness, their thoughts and opinions about others, and their life around them.

In addition, The Mezzanine is told in the first person perspective, with Howie giving a sort of autobiography about his past. On the other side of the spectrum, Mrs. Dalloway is told in the third person perspective. In The Mezzanine, we are simply recounted ( I really have no idea how to phrase this) a story in Howie’s perspective while in Mrs.Dalloway, we get the perspective of so many different characters by getting into their head as well as the narrators’.There is also the obvious difference of the time periods: Mrs. Dalloway takes course over a day and The Mezzanine takes course over a much shorter 30 seconds.

Similarities in Mrs. Dalloway and The Mezzanine

In The Mezzanine, we see Howie's total attention to every spec of detail, pretty much about everything, and from varying time periods as well. When reading Mrs. Dalloway, I imagined that it was going to be about something totally different but that turned out to be wrong.After I started reading Mrs. Dalloway, I immediately started comparing it to The Mezzanine; I found that the two novels are surprisingly similar in their manners of presenting the book.

Mrs. Dalloway takes place over the course of one day which to most readers is probably an incredibly short period of time for a story to take place: the book is literally about a woman’s entire life in one day (and people relating to her). In the Mezzanine, Nicholson Baker takes this to a whole different level: the story takes place over the course of less than a minute (an escalator ride). In a way, I almost felt as if the author, had he read Mrs. Dalloway, was laughing at Woolf as if it were a competition. The incredible amount of detail which is portrayed by Nicholson Baker and Virginia Woolf, in their respective works, making both the Mezzanine and Mrs.Dalloway so unique and interesting. Another similarity is the usage of time in both books. While the duration of the book lasts in one particular set, both books "switch" to diffrent periods of time in the past, specifically in the Mezzanine with Howie talking about his lunch hour, his bathroom trip and more, while in Mrs. Dalloway, expeiriances of charcters in the past and their respective stories like Sally Seden, Septimus' history, amogst a few.

Although people might think that these two books should be very different, at a closer look, we are able to find some rather perky similarities. Today, I would like to leave you with a question: what would Woolf have thought of Baker’s the Mezzanine? And Baker likewise to Mrs. Dalloway?

First Panel Presentation: Clarissa a trauma victim?

Today, I had an opportunity to attend my first panel presentation. I really enjoyed both that were presented: not only did they influence me more into Mrs. Dallow, Septimus and the thoughts of relativity, I also learnt and understood what to do and what not to do in my own panel presentation (funny cause it's like in October). I really thought of the first panel presentation (From the article "Trauma and recovery in Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway" by Karen Demester) as quite intuitive relating Septimus to Mrs. Dalloway, in ways that I had not really thought of before. Septimus is a war veteran, with the war severely affecting him and his perspective of life (mainly suffering from shell shock) such as a disbelief of death, seeing signs and other abstract things which others don't. On page 24, when Woolf takes us into Septimus' head " ...how there is no death ..... But he dared not look. Evans was behind the railings." Evans is dead, he died in front of Septimus, and yet Septimus still sees him. Similarily, it was brought up that Clarissa saw her sister die in front of her with a tree comming down. This brings up an interesting question "Is Clarissa really a trauma victim?" To answer this question correctly, it will be necessary to look at the definition of trauma closer. Trauma is, in general, a deeply disheartening, distressing and disturbing experience. By this definition, Clarissa has been through a serious traumatizing experience However- unlike Septimus who at first did not react at Evans death considering himself "manly", he later has severe emotional distress and depression, which can also be referred to as shell shock- Clarissa, from what is depicted in the book, went through this moment, and has locked it in a place in her head and moved ahead. Clarissa has become a socially accepted person in society as she has moved on; and so could have Septimus, had he been able to move on. I don't know, what do you guys think?