In conclusion, to wrap things up, once and for all→ The Final “Comment” of the Journey

I can’t believe it. I’m done. And yet, this day which I’ve been looking forward to for five years, it now seems odd. There’s a fear in me which is trying to hold me back. But in the tackling of this fear, I have realized many things. I have realized that life is neither in the future nor in the past. Life, I have realized, is the name of this moment. The feeling of this moment is the feeling of life. Cherish this moment, because as I said in my Final Project for 20th Century Novel, “who knows if the time which is here right now will be here tomorrow.”

When I received my first essay, back in the 20th century novel class, I still remember the shock on my face. As I flipped glanced over my essay, franticly looking for my grade, I saw all the purple marks all over the paper. I reached the end. Whoa. It was a C. B.S. was not an option in this class. I was scared. I was gonna drop the class. Then it hit me. Wait a second, this is what I need. I don’t need three misspelled words circled on my four page essay and given a B+. I need this detail, I need these comments. So I started revising.

English or writing had never been my strong points. But with the amounts of response papers, proposals, blogs, and comments, I have seen an incredible growth in myself as a writer. There’s a reason that I choose Mr. Mitchell’s classes as my English classes for four semesters in a row (just scroll down through this site, I’ve been using the same blog title for 2 years) and that’s because there is an atmosphere in the class that I enjoy. And all of this has helped shape me as a better writer as well. I always saw writing essays and blogs as a big project and was always unsure of what to write on. But then a pattern started emerging. I realized that I can use the blogs to talk about prompts in class, or things that were brought up that I couldn’t think of anything to say on then, but can say now. And all my response papers have also been based on that concept. The thesis of each of my response papers is an idea I got while reading other people’s blogs, or following on what somebody mentioned in class. There’s an irony in that last sentence which is that none of papers (or blogs) contain a thesis statement. I discovered a writing style that I really like: a collection ideas, beautifully intertwined together. Enough on writing, time for some fun.

My favorite moments, by far, were when I was arguing against the class (yes, the WHOLE class). Oh yes, this happened on multiple occasions, but those are few of the best times that I’ve had at Uni. I have always tried to bring a different perspective, a different viewpoint to discuss on. And I often play devil’s advocate because that’s fun and it also makes the discussion fun.

• The ending of Memory of Running is unnecessarily cheezy and ruins the novel.
• As stupid as it sounds, cutting half of Ragtime makes total sense. I mean think about it, Ragtime the movie, focuses on the Coalhouse Walker aspect of the plot and briefs over the first of the novel in like 5 minutes, even less.
• Calling a protagonist who robs banks a hero instead of an “anti-hero” makes sense because everyone has their own viewpoints. In the minds of the rich, Robin Hood is the bad guy and to the poor, he is a god.

It was frustrating, at times, because my points are spot on, yet I don’t have the words to back them up. This happens to me so much. I’m on the right side of an argument, I just don’t have things to support my arguments. When I sleep over it, all of a sudden, POOF, I have these fantastic ideas, and it depresses me that I didn’t get these ideas at the right time. But such is life.

I will not bore you with mellow-drama, but really, these classes have been a great learning experience for me. I hope you enjoyed this class, and will continue to take classes like these. This was a hidden gem, an experience I had no idea I was going to have, but I am glad I explored this new path. It has made me into a new person, it has made me think differently, with an open mind. I would like to thank all my classmates who have helped shape discussions and various moods during the classes, but most of all, I would like to thank Mr. Mitchell for allowing this growth in me as a writer, as a reader, as a critique, and as a person. Thank you.

Sag, Family Drama, and Trains

I have enjoyed Sag Harbor. However, I’m not sure whether to indicate Sag Harbor as a coming of age novel. Everyone agrees that Benji has gained a much more clearer sense of identity. He starts the summer with this fight of finding his place in the world, and he gets *somewhere* closer to that my the end of the summer. The reason I say somewhere is because unlike the rest of the novels which we have read this semester, Benji goes through the least growth. Even towards the end of the novel, when Benji is contemplating his look for the first day of school after school, and what he will do during the school year, the things he say seem pretty immature, and not much of a change from his thinking at the start of the novel. And let’s not forget that it is also true that not much happens in terms of plot development, because the novel focuses a lot on describing Sag Harbor and the culture around it, as well as how that impacts Benji. Then again, that’s what keeps the book down to Earth and close to reality. And I think that’s why I liked this book. This book depicts a real-life example of a teenage kid’s story. And as a teenager, when I read this, there are many aspects of the novel which I can immediately connect to, even though it takes place in a completely different time period. In short, while I wouldn’t classify Sag as a coming of age novel, I would certainly describe it as a fun and truthful read.

Now I also wanna talk about something a little more minute. Recently, somebody in class talked about the similarities in the dynamics of two sibling “rivalries”, and I just want to comment a little bit on that. The first is sisters Ruth and Lucille from Housekeeping, and the second is brothers Benji and Reggie from Sag Harbour. In both, we see a sibling dynamic which starts out great but then diverges into something else.  Ruth and Lucille are separated due to their split choices of path. The separation is forced, because Lucille takes the structured path of society, while Ruth chooses the wandering path of nature. Contrary to this, Benji and Reggie’s separation is much more of a mutual understanding. They both spend their summers apart from each other, listen to different music, go to different school, and even work at different places. Ruth and Lucille’s relationship ends to a point at which they don’t even think about each other. Benji and Reggie understand that they are different human beings, and they have separate identities. I think this is a good place for a typical Shaleen-style metaphor: Ruth and Lucille catch the same train. Lucille’s goes forward, Ruth’s goes in reverse. Bengi and Reggie hug, say goodbye to each other, and hop on to different trains going to different locations. Sorry for the corny metaphor, but that’s how I see it (and that’s what’s important :D).
Saturday, May 16th 

The Sound of (Alien) Music to the ears of the “Pickaninny”

In class last Friday, Mr. Mitchell played “Trans Europe Express” along with “Don’t stop… Planet Rock”. There was one key segment that was common amongst both. That is posted in the video below.

Mr. Mitchell mentioned how the style of music reminded him of an alien ship landing, alieny music ish. All of a sudden, the connection between aliens and this music hit me. In the Bollywood film Koi Mil Gaya, which is a remake of the Hollywood film E.T., the protagonist communicates with the aliens using a system that his father has invented. In order to communicate, he has to push buttons in a specific order, and each button makes its own sound. The order put together along with the sounds, sounds just like that key segment. Watch it below:

Trans Europe Express

Afrika Bambaataa & Soul Sonic Force - Planet Rock

→ Koi Mil Gaya--Volume is slightly low , try using headphones …

I never knew that this music came from here, but some people did. On the Wikipedia page for Koi Mil Gaya under the soundtrack section, it says “[The film] also uses uncredited music from the Art of Noise ("Moments in Love") and Kraftwerk ("Trans-Europe Express").” I just thought that was interesting, so I shared it.

The second and main part of my discussion is relating to the “pickaninny” scene. We see Bengie feeling not so comfortable after he is patted on the head. His friends imply racism. I see a more gender role coming into play. Let’s not forget that about the girl, Meg. Benjie thinks that Meg has a thing for him, because she often creates accidental touching incidents when working beside him (and you see him being all self-conscious because of his dirty clothes and braces). So when a girl touches him, it’s alright, cause she’s makin a move at him. By the transitive property, when Martine pats him on the head, it’s cause he’s making a move on him. That’s how I read the whole scene. I get the racism angle, and I know that Benji takes revenge on Martine because he wants to show him (more like, show his friends) that he isn’t a little boy puppet who Martine can just control. He’s a man.  

Saturday, May 9th