Men beware, she is hot to handle. But not without cause. I think That rich is a real writer. Now that is not to say that others aren’t, but Rich has gone through the correct thought process. She knows that it is beyond gender, Male or female, that it requires something else. That it must transcend normal thought. In this she is finding a power that women have for so long, in the writing world, been denied. I don’t see any reason why they should be excluded, for what human can do another can do, but hey I may be the only person who thinks that way!
There is something that she writes on page 546 that really snatched me, because it was the way I first began to think when I began writing…oh and to be sure I am NOT a female, so this only further proves that writing/communication is not unisex. “For about ten years I was reading in fierce snatches, scribbling in notebooks, writing poetry in fragments; I was looking for clues, because if there were no clues then I thought I might be insane.” Me too. Early in my life I came into a library of books. Among them were great authors like Herman Melville and Nathaniel Hawthorne, to whom I owe a great debt. However in the rush to experience what it felt to write I thought that I could find something in these books and authors that would help me in my own style. Wrong. Sure they all influenced me, but my style is born from my own soul and that is something I had to come to terms with, after thousands and thousands of crumpled papers!
I would also like to say something about Sources. One line in this entire thing encapsulates what I have been fighting myself. “I have resisted this for years, writing to you as if you could hear me.” I do not speak well verbally, and often times not even in writing, but somehow in writing I always manage to say something, or better yet to someone. All the things that I can’t articulate with the mouth I can sure as hell articulate with my pen. For years growing up I would write letters to my father asking him to get divorced, why did he put up with such abuse? I know it sounds crazy but if you care to comment, as I have only received two (and from the same person!) Maybe I’ll tell you a little about it.
Thursday, September 20, 2007
Harriet Jacobs
I wish I was more competent for the task I have undertaken…that’s what keeps popping into my mind as I read Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. I think it’s possible that she has been through so much, as is apparent in the story, that she doesn’t even know how talented she is.
There are a few things I would like to say . One is I may not have been a slave, but I do know exactly what it is like to be controlled by another’s will. Not to have thought nor breath that is my own. I was mastered by my stepmother in a most psychological way. There was no help from my father “They were the objects of her constant suspicion and malevolence. She watched her husband with unceasing vigilance; but he was well practiced in the means to evade it.” That perfectly describes my own father. He spoke little and did all he could to avoid my step mom.
How can there be so much evil in this world.? Jacobs cries out, in all modesty “IN the view of these things, why are ye silent, ye free men and women of the north? Why do your tongues falter in maintenance of the right? Would that I had more ability! But my heart is so full, and my pen so weak!” That’s an amazing quote to me because it still rings true today. Because people are uninformed and so no desire to be informed, never will they know of the horrors that still exist within the hearts of evil men today.
Bottom line is that I appreciated Harriet Jacobs view of slavery a little more than James Baldwin. It is more human. Jacobs writes from her experience . I like that because I like to see the truth in all things. I do not like things sugar coated, I don’t like things to be alluded to, and I really don’t like it when an author doesn’t allow me to feel what the author felt. I feel bad because I am supposed to. This is something I am sorry ever happened to anyone and I will do all in my power to prevent from ever happening again. That I believe is the point…to learn one’s lesson.
There are a few things I would like to say . One is I may not have been a slave, but I do know exactly what it is like to be controlled by another’s will. Not to have thought nor breath that is my own. I was mastered by my stepmother in a most psychological way. There was no help from my father “They were the objects of her constant suspicion and malevolence. She watched her husband with unceasing vigilance; but he was well practiced in the means to evade it.” That perfectly describes my own father. He spoke little and did all he could to avoid my step mom.
How can there be so much evil in this world.? Jacobs cries out, in all modesty “IN the view of these things, why are ye silent, ye free men and women of the north? Why do your tongues falter in maintenance of the right? Would that I had more ability! But my heart is so full, and my pen so weak!” That’s an amazing quote to me because it still rings true today. Because people are uninformed and so no desire to be informed, never will they know of the horrors that still exist within the hearts of evil men today.
Bottom line is that I appreciated Harriet Jacobs view of slavery a little more than James Baldwin. It is more human. Jacobs writes from her experience . I like that because I like to see the truth in all things. I do not like things sugar coated, I don’t like things to be alluded to, and I really don’t like it when an author doesn’t allow me to feel what the author felt. I feel bad because I am supposed to. This is something I am sorry ever happened to anyone and I will do all in my power to prevent from ever happening again. That I believe is the point…to learn one’s lesson.
Thursday, September 13, 2007
Houdini's Box
Seeing isn’t believing. I’ve always believed this philosophy, and I have also always been a fan of Houdini. I first saw the Metamorphosis performed while I was in grade school. The Boise Little Theatre had come to my school performing a play about the great Harry Houdini. I was amazed and astonished that such a feat could be accomplished. After reading this essay I felt amazed and astonished all over again like I was in grade school all over again. The concept of escape comes up continually. Escape from ourselves and the world around us and all that it entails. Personally I believe this whole heartedly. Everyone needs a little escape know and then. Places things into perspective. The problem is, where is there to escape to? Can one really hide from everything? What do you think Houdini would have said. He would have said something along the line of my own personal philosophy. Impossible only means just hasn’t happened yet.
Alice Walker
I am not Black. I am most certainly not a woman…but my heart is still broken. I cannot even begin to describe the feeling of the knife as it plunges into my heart. I cannot begin to number the sins that leak from the wounds it creates. They are not only mine, but are shared with generations of men and women. Their trespasses are mine because I refuse to forget them. I shoulder the weight of the damage they have caused because I will not forget those who have suffered. They did not suffer by my hand, but they might as well have. I can see it in the eyes of their ancestors. The pain that is written upon their souls that they cannot explain because they can’t forget it either. I don’t know how to tell them I’m sorry without sounding condescending or presumptuous. I don’t know how to tell them that there is a thing called love. There is a love that goes beyond a man and a woman…even beyond God. It is nothing that could ever be expressed with words. It can only be experienced when it is felt. So overpowering that it feels as if you are only a child again, fresh from the womb, and free of all evil that was bestowed upon you by the actions of those that came before you. I am not Black. I am not a woman…but my heart is still broken.
richard Rodriguez
I like this one a lot…a lot! Rodriguez writes from a very human perspective, and I see a lot of myself in the story of his education. I think it’s a theme that’s developing in me. First it was Henry Adams, and now a more contemporary author Richard Rodriguez.
Rodriguez talks about how, over the years, his education increasingly distanced himself from his family and from that of those around him. He felt alone. That is entirely how I first felt when I began to read everything in my sight. He also talks about how there seemed an enmity between him and fellow students. People like us are considered suck ups or brown nosers. Really people just don’t like being outclassed. Although I will be the first to admit that that is far from the truth, and takes a high level of ignorance to believe. It is only human to feel like someone thinks themselves better because they are “smarter.” Everyone has something to offer whether you’re a paint mixer or the president. I think it is this above all that I have taken from my reading. There is value in almost everything we do, and knowledge is not to be coveted…it is to be shared. Anyways I have rambled on long enough as this is only the surface of what I am really feeling, and would take me damn near 1000 pages to express…if I’m lucky.
Rodriguez talks about how, over the years, his education increasingly distanced himself from his family and from that of those around him. He felt alone. That is entirely how I first felt when I began to read everything in my sight. He also talks about how there seemed an enmity between him and fellow students. People like us are considered suck ups or brown nosers. Really people just don’t like being outclassed. Although I will be the first to admit that that is far from the truth, and takes a high level of ignorance to believe. It is only human to feel like someone thinks themselves better because they are “smarter.” Everyone has something to offer whether you’re a paint mixer or the president. I think it is this above all that I have taken from my reading. There is value in almost everything we do, and knowledge is not to be coveted…it is to be shared. Anyways I have rambled on long enough as this is only the surface of what I am really feeling, and would take me damn near 1000 pages to express…if I’m lucky.
Deep Play
Wow, I have to admit that even for me this was a slow read. That aside I would like to point out a couple of things that I found really interesting. I was completely amazed at the sheer weight that the Balinese people place on these cockfights without really placing any weight on them. I know it sounds weird but please bear with me.
It becomes clear that the cocks are a representation of their owners. Everything that the owner sees in himself, he will try to culture in his bird. His honor, his dignity, and even his social status. It’s interesting to me that theses cockfights are like wars in other countries. They ally some and destroy others, yet the only blood shed is that of the chicken. Please don’t get me wrong, ALL life should be cherished and protected. But remember one thing. Violence is a part of nature that is inescapable. To eat and to survive, one (man or animal) must kill.
Thursday, September 6, 2007
James Baldwin
Stranger in The Village
Time and time again I am constantly suprised by man's shining acomplishments, but also of thiers outrageous shortcomings. James Baldwin writes the perspectives of whites on Blacks in America versus those abroad. When James Baldwin visits the villag, the people there are taken with a kind of wonder but not somethign that can be contrued as being racist. He is confronted with the stark contrast of belief with that of his native home in America. He realizes that people can see the same thngs different ways. For hundreds if years in America the balck man was not even really considered human, but a piece of property. Only now in these modern times is this very same sentiment, not always the same but a constantly changing prejudice, staring to ebb and die. Baldwin writes " It is only now beginning ti be borne in in us-very faintly, it must be admitted, very slowly, and very much against out will-that this vision of the world is dangerously inaccurate, and perfectly useless. For it protects our moral highmindedness at the terrible expense of weakening our grasp on reality. People who shut thier eyes to reality simply invite thier own destruction, and anyone who insists on remaining in a state of innoconce long after that innocence is dead turns himself into a monster."
Chew on that for awhile...
Time and time again I am constantly suprised by man's shining acomplishments, but also of thiers outrageous shortcomings. James Baldwin writes the perspectives of whites on Blacks in America versus those abroad. When James Baldwin visits the villag, the people there are taken with a kind of wonder but not somethign that can be contrued as being racist. He is confronted with the stark contrast of belief with that of his native home in America. He realizes that people can see the same thngs different ways. For hundreds if years in America the balck man was not even really considered human, but a piece of property. Only now in these modern times is this very same sentiment, not always the same but a constantly changing prejudice, staring to ebb and die. Baldwin writes " It is only now beginning ti be borne in in us-very faintly, it must be admitted, very slowly, and very much against out will-that this vision of the world is dangerously inaccurate, and perfectly useless. For it protects our moral highmindedness at the terrible expense of weakening our grasp on reality. People who shut thier eyes to reality simply invite thier own destruction, and anyone who insists on remaining in a state of innoconce long after that innocence is dead turns himself into a monster."
Chew on that for awhile...
Gloria Anzaldua
Entering the Serpent
This one was a little bit of a surprise. I have to admit that I wasn’t really prepared for the twists and turns Gloria Anzaldua takes in her writing. I really felt like the beginning of this reading was rather tedious and I constantly felt like a weight was pulling me down further and further into the depths as I read. The History of her people was interesting and deserves the attention she gives it, but I could barely hang on. Until I came to the end and realized she wasn’t talking just about her history, but rather her belief. Gloria has a great perception of the “Spirit World.” When she began to write about our ability to perceive this world in everything, but we continually tell ourselves otherwise because of the society we live in, that teaches us that such things cannot possibly exist. I can attest to, in my own life, something similar. There’s a feeling you get when you know you’re connecting to something outside yourself, and I refuse to ignore that. There is something more than this mundane ,working-world mentality. I have a human brain and with that impossible only means just hasn’t happened yet.
How to Tame a wild Tongue
I felt lost. Like I couldn’t identify. Then I thought, am I supposed to feel this way? Gloria Anzaldua writes in such a way that really paints the picture of what she is trying to say. You can really feel what it’s like to be so different that even the closest ones around you can still make you feel like an alien. It breaks my heart to read that she was punished for speaking her own language. It makes me ashamed that my own people would be so narrow minded as to forget the beauty of culture. I think we as humans have a responsibility not to just humanity, but to ourselves. We need to realize that there is not one way to approach things, but many way in which to see something. Your perception can change if you step outside yourself and dare to see the things you fear.
This one was a little bit of a surprise. I have to admit that I wasn’t really prepared for the twists and turns Gloria Anzaldua takes in her writing. I really felt like the beginning of this reading was rather tedious and I constantly felt like a weight was pulling me down further and further into the depths as I read. The History of her people was interesting and deserves the attention she gives it, but I could barely hang on. Until I came to the end and realized she wasn’t talking just about her history, but rather her belief. Gloria has a great perception of the “Spirit World.” When she began to write about our ability to perceive this world in everything, but we continually tell ourselves otherwise because of the society we live in, that teaches us that such things cannot possibly exist. I can attest to, in my own life, something similar. There’s a feeling you get when you know you’re connecting to something outside yourself, and I refuse to ignore that. There is something more than this mundane ,working-world mentality. I have a human brain and with that impossible only means just hasn’t happened yet.
How to Tame a wild Tongue
I felt lost. Like I couldn’t identify. Then I thought, am I supposed to feel this way? Gloria Anzaldua writes in such a way that really paints the picture of what she is trying to say. You can really feel what it’s like to be so different that even the closest ones around you can still make you feel like an alien. It breaks my heart to read that she was punished for speaking her own language. It makes me ashamed that my own people would be so narrow minded as to forget the beauty of culture. I think we as humans have a responsibility not to just humanity, but to ourselves. We need to realize that there is not one way to approach things, but many way in which to see something. Your perception can change if you step outside yourself and dare to see the things you fear.
Henry Adams
The Education of Henry Adams
Where do I begin? That’s a good question, and one worth answering after reading the Education Of Henry Adams. I was both stunned and delighted to find that there are many parallels between myself and the young Adams. We both realize that education, knowledge, learning, or whatever you would like to call it means nothing without desire. We both live in times where it seems students are mass produced to try and fit with the changing ideologies of efficiency and continuity. And we both hold a deep respect for women, while at the same time acknowledging the fact that they are still full of…it.
Something I read in this essay that hooked me like a fish, came when Adams began to distinguish himself form the average student. Henry Adams writes “ He regarded himself as the only person for whom his education had value, and he wanted the whole of it.” I could feel something inside bubbling to the surface as soon as I read that passage. It was some connection I was making. I was connecting two different worlds and two different times by the fact that I felt the very same way as Henry Adams describes himself during his Harvard years. Henry Adams uses the word “Self-possessed” He writes rather eloquently what we would today just as soon say “DUH”
Something else I would like to mention from the Harvard days of young Adams. This springs back to what I said earlier about students being mast produced. If we consider the time gap we find that we are experiencing very nearly the same situation as young Adams is living through. Think about it…Most of us were born in the Twentieth century, have seen the Twenty first century, and are continually lost in the struggle to keep up with new technologies and systems that born, and digitally born constantly. There is a great desire for well greased cogs to operate these new systems and thus the emphasis on learning is placed on complacency rather than on knowledge.
I really don’t want to talk about women, but I must. Today’s woman is a very different creature than today’s man. Women have achieved the recognition of their power, as opposed to the pursuit of that recognition during the life of Henry Adams. Today’s woman is an individual staying afloat by her own will and power and not by that of any other man…or woman! Today’s woman doesn’t like her hand held, and will expose you to the very core if you should cross her. Of course this only applies to my experiences with American women in a limited time frame of twenty two years.
Also, it wouldn’t kill you to respond to this and give me reasons why any of this is B.S.
Where do I begin? That’s a good question, and one worth answering after reading the Education Of Henry Adams. I was both stunned and delighted to find that there are many parallels between myself and the young Adams. We both realize that education, knowledge, learning, or whatever you would like to call it means nothing without desire. We both live in times where it seems students are mass produced to try and fit with the changing ideologies of efficiency and continuity. And we both hold a deep respect for women, while at the same time acknowledging the fact that they are still full of…it.
Something I read in this essay that hooked me like a fish, came when Adams began to distinguish himself form the average student. Henry Adams writes “ He regarded himself as the only person for whom his education had value, and he wanted the whole of it.” I could feel something inside bubbling to the surface as soon as I read that passage. It was some connection I was making. I was connecting two different worlds and two different times by the fact that I felt the very same way as Henry Adams describes himself during his Harvard years. Henry Adams uses the word “Self-possessed” He writes rather eloquently what we would today just as soon say “DUH”
Something else I would like to mention from the Harvard days of young Adams. This springs back to what I said earlier about students being mast produced. If we consider the time gap we find that we are experiencing very nearly the same situation as young Adams is living through. Think about it…Most of us were born in the Twentieth century, have seen the Twenty first century, and are continually lost in the struggle to keep up with new technologies and systems that born, and digitally born constantly. There is a great desire for well greased cogs to operate these new systems and thus the emphasis on learning is placed on complacency rather than on knowledge.
I really don’t want to talk about women, but I must. Today’s woman is a very different creature than today’s man. Women have achieved the recognition of their power, as opposed to the pursuit of that recognition during the life of Henry Adams. Today’s woman is an individual staying afloat by her own will and power and not by that of any other man…or woman! Today’s woman doesn’t like her hand held, and will expose you to the very core if you should cross her. Of course this only applies to my experiences with American women in a limited time frame of twenty two years.
Also, it wouldn’t kill you to respond to this and give me reasons why any of this is B.S.
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