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Tell Wiliam Immediately That Matrimony Was Unwise

Tell Wiliam Immediately That Matrimony Was Unwise

Tell wiliam immediately that matrimony was unwise; ludicrous and stupid,

Girls and sluts, will lay with others perpetually; -

“Ladies” we see in Novels traumatically illusion oxpeckers;

We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!

Though some think boobs help brain technical troubles melt;

those wild thoughts will badly hinder an amazing hug,

Also athletes usually-grown north like smelling farts;

For this, for everything, we are out of tune;

UNDER CONSTRUCTION

A TREATISE ON GOOD MANNERS

A TREATISE ON GOOD MANNERS

This essay, written by Jonathan Swift, is a satirical piece that criticizes and pokes fun at good manners and superficial behaviors. Analyzing the essay, I would start off focusing on the fact that at the beginning of the essay, Swift begins writing in a very literate and ornate manner. His vivid and elegant diction make the reader admire his way of writing. He starts off talking about good manners and how important and complex they are. Then I would talk about how through the essay, he contorts his and the readers view of manners. He uses irony and imagery when giving examples in order to make the reader realize how simpleminded the whole notion of good manners existing truly is. Towards the end of the essay, he flips his view and ultimately says that good manners don't really exist. He uses a sonnet-like flip that opens the reader's mind to the author's true beliefs. I would try to connect this with the Canterbury Tales which we learned about and how there is a parallel in how both authors use the target that they are criticizing as a method of criticizing it in a very Don Quixote-like manner.

SPUNK

SPUNK

If I were to analyze this novel I would first of all focus on the language that Hurston uses. She uses a heavy Southern vernacular when she writes the dialogue of the characters in the novel and normal standard english when she describes what is going on in the novel. This is similar to how Twain uses the way that the characters talk in order to describe the novel and give the characters more personality and life. The tone of this novel is didactic. It is a narrative short story that tries to express the complexity and dangers of communication itself. By creating the characters of Elijah and Walter, the two men who discuss what is occurring in the novel, the author shows how dangerous talk is because it can act as the spark which many times spurs human action. The novel also criticizes the social construct of criticism and gossip. Another topic which I would go into is the role which women play in spunk. For the men in the shop and for both Joe and Spunk, Lena is just an item. They treat her as if she were some type of prized bitch (dog) and dehumanize her. Also, the whole notion of weddings and marriages and commitment is played with in the story. The characters do not show that they believe in many of the laws that govern matrimonial relationships such as fidelity and they use weddings in order to cover up and fix the way that people look at them. An example of this would be how Spunk and Lena were going to get married because they were tired of people treating them in a weird way. I believe that through the plot and the use of dialogue, Hurston is able to create a story which teaches a lesson about morals.

DIS POEM

DIS POEM

For this poem I would first of all start by saying that the language used in the poem (the diction and spelling/grammatical choices) are very interesting because they give the poem a somber tone. The author uses repetition and enjambment to create a sense of fluidity within the poem. The poem also begins uncapitalized and ends in ellipsis. This further creates the sense that the poem does not have a beginning nor does it have an end. This poem is about the history of Africa and the author uses these literary techniques in order to create a patronizing, didactic, and somber expository poem. The last lines in the poem are very intriguing. The author repeats "in your mind..." three times. This creates a sense of unfinished thought which makes the reader really try to connect what he or she has just read with what the reader has in their head. The poet criticizes the poem itself many times saying that the poem needs to be written, that it has no poet, that it is irritating, and that it will not be amongst the great literary works to just name a few. By doing this, it is showing how the history of Africa itself has not been the most coveted.

COMING BACK OWER THE BORDER

COMIN BACK OWER THE BORDER

For this passage I would first do is focus on the language itself. The poem is written in either some type of old english jargon or it is the language that a slave or uneducated person would use. Then I would talk about how the poem starts off talking about "Coming back ower the Border" (line 1). I would go into detail talking about how this uneducated person perhaps has crossed some type of border and may have experienced liberty and wealth. The narrator shows excitement when he writes that "It isna jist the biggins" (line 3). In the second stanza, the author uses rhyme and consonance in order to highlight the emotions that the narrator is experiencing when talking about this new place that the narrator is describing. In the second and third stanzas, the narrator talks about what the "North" (line 9) is "nae" (lines 5 and 9). The last two stanzas have A-B-C-B end rhyme and start off with the words It's/The/The/The. The Author uses these similarities in structure to once again show the level of knowledge which the narrator has been exposed to. In the final stanza, there is a clear reference to phonetic differences that the narrator has experienced such as the "'O'" (line 14), the "'R'" (line 15),and the "'wee this' see thon' Och, gonnae'" (line 13). This poem is about how vocabulary and communication especially the phonetics are one of the things that are most impacting. This person that has clearly been freed from his or her normal life and has been exposed to a new way of seeing the world and the most impacting thing has been the manner of speaking.

Packet Work

For "A Very Short Story" written by Ernest Hemingway there was a clear cynical tone. I felt that the story itself is very sad and has an aspect of hopelessness. Hemingway uses careful diction and tone in his narrative in order to convey the short story's message.

"Fog," poem written by Carl Sandburg is very analytic yet nonchalant. Sandburg uses diction and enjambment in his poem to create a type of fog-like effect within the text when the reader reads the poem. Also, there is personification when Sandburg says that the "fog comes on little cat feet" (line 1).

Prestigious Black Women

First off, I wanted to say that I really enjoyed being able to listen and see Toni Morrison. Her majestic feel and power really captivated me. She gives this impression of being a very strong woman that sort of demands respect, you know what I mean?

Well, anyways, I really liked this interview. I thought that the whole analysis of laws and how they tend to "define the relations between people" (Morrison 7:13) was very interesting. Morrison goes into detail and talks about laws in early America that made white people in general feel superior than blacks. (Once again, I find myself going into this whole racial issue but to hell with your criticism about me being repetitive, right?)

So, slavery...

I find the whole interview almost ironic because there's this scrawny, clearly American white guy asking this powerful, strong and proud black lady about whether she feels like they are now in a "post racial time" (Rose 8:30). I don't know why, but I got the feeling that this guy is sort of telling this proud and almost resentful African American woman that has written a variety of books about racial constructs that the whole notion of racism is America nowadays is a fraud. I think that Morrison handled it very well in how she said that racial hierarchy is a "fantasy" (Morrison 10:30) but I think that what she might have really wanted to say is that OK, although there aren't anymore racially biased laws there are still unwritten laws in the social construct of America which keep alive the racial crudeness in this nation. To me, this is clear because I mean, how often in Song of Solomon has the whole motif of people trying to get away from their pasts and prove themselves in the present come up? All of the biblical references in the novel and the whole idea of people being freed from an oppressed past is clearly connected to the black people's history. The time period in which the story takes place is also very associated with black rights and the whole racial revolution topic.

All in all, I like Morrison. She clearly uses the past and the present when thinking about books and what to write about. She takes these things into consideration in absolutely all aspects of the novel and I think that this is what makes her such a great author.

Advance in Time

OK, so I guess it's time for an analytic blog. I feel as though in the last blogs I've been sort of talking about myself and how I've associated my life with the novels that we've been reading, so I guess that it is time for a nerdy blog.

Here it goes...

We see that in the Dead Family there is an obsession with the past. The past is what haunts the characters. Whether it's Macon Jr.'s father's death or Ruth's abuse when she was young, it is this fear or apprehension regarding the past that makes the characters cause suffering in their present lives. Macon Jr. told Milkman on page 73 about how there are reasons for the anger that he feels towards Ruth. Instead of moving forward with their lives, characters like Macon Jr. dwell on the past and fail to look into the future.

It is because of this that Morrison writes about how when Milkman was walking in the street to Guitar's house, Milkman "closed his eyes and then opened them"(78) and realized that everyone was going the opposite way that he was going. This happened after Milkman thinks about his past and what it means for him in the present. He says to himself, "And how did I forget that? And why?" (78) after he remembers how his mother breast-fed beyond infancy. The fact that Milkman opens his eyes and he is going against the flow of everyone on the street is clearly indicative that Morrison is making his situation be a metaphor for what he is actually doing internally. He is going against what his parents have done their whole lives and is actually looking forward into his future by analyzing his past. This is very different than Ruth or Macon Jr. who fail to discuss or analyze the past that has affected and ultimately scarred their lives.

Ok, that was dull, now I want to post this smart little quote I heard on some documentary about how "Humans were the first creatures that created the notion of a future." I don't remember who said it or what the exact words were but I remember that it talked about how the idea of future is unique to the human mind. Interesting, no? Ok. I'm going to shut up now. Ok, bye.

Anecdote

When I was only four years old, my parents decided that I was going to move to Miami. Living there wasn't so hard due to the fact that nearly 57% of Miami Dade's population is hispanic. This made living there much much easier. It was pretty easy to communicate knowing little english and life honestly wasn't so different than in Bogotá. Life was quite chillin if it hadn't been for one small thing...

Whenever we had any type of governmental hearing to either get our residency cards or our visas checked or whatever, my mother and father would always pray to lord baby Jesus that we would not have some douchebag latin guy have to care for us. Although this may sound surprising, it was always the Colombian immigration worker that would put on his little fancy immigration badge and think he was the shit making us wait for hours. It was always the Bolivian or Venezuelan agent that would feel that his position at the US Immigration Agency gave him some type of permission to treat us like drug-dealing thieves. We would spend hours sitting in those uncomfortable waiting room chairs just waiting for the pedantic and hotheaded latino agents to finally realize that we weren't bad people. They, being latino and all, felt that they were something superior. They felt that for some reason the fact that they had been able to become official US government agents made them special and gave them permission to treat us, their true countrymen, like crap.

Anyways, this reminds me in Song of Solomon of the part where they talk about how Macon Dead tells Mrs. Bains that she needed to pay her rent or else she and her sons would end up living on the street. When asked by her sons what Macon Dead said, Mrs. Bains replies, "A nigger in business is a terrible thing to see. A terrible, terrible thing to see" (Morrison 22). At first when I read this I said to myself like, "Yo, what the hell, this poor guy is only doing his job. Why does she have to be such a mean lady and say that about the poor man." But then I remembered those snobbish assholes in their uniforms and honestly, I feel for this lady...

I Believe I Can Touch the Sky

OK so here I am in my house reading this new book we got called Song of Solomon and I think to myself, "What should I blog about?" After reading a few pages, I get to the part where they talk about Mr. Smith the insurance agent and his suicide and thats when I began to think about the whole notion of flying and believing that you could actually fly...

Our class is centered around traveling (hence "Literature in Motion") and I think that there is probably some connection between this guy deciding that he could actually fly and the whole idea that when you travel and come out of your comfort zone and quotidian routine, then you're able to learn more about yourself as a person.

The narrator of the novel tells us that "None of them (the people of the city) had suspected he (Mr. Smith) had it in him" (Morrison 9). According to this, Mr. Smith had no crazy habits and never really did anything out of the ordinary and because of this, no one had expected that he would suddenly pull some crazy stunt. As I think about Mr. Smith and his belief that he could fly, I asked myself, "what would Mr. Smith gain by flying?" Perhaps he was tired of his life and wanted to free himself from his responsibilities. Maybe he had somewhere to go, someone to meet... Maybe he was trying to get to know himself or he might have even felt that by flying he could change himself.

Its interesting that Morrison would begin her novel this way, with something so complicated and curious as a suicide (specially this one with its bizarre qualities). Maybe some of the characters in the novel will have to face the same obstacles that Mr. Smith may have had to face? Or maybe they might even ask themselves the same questions that led Mr. Smith to believe he could fly? I look forward to seeing how Morrison is going to play with this idea of flying.

Exploitation

In 1899, Rudyard Kipling wrote a poem that would be able to reflect the paradigms of a generation. The White Man's Burden is a poem that talks about how it is the duty of a "white man" to civilize and tame people from conquered lands. This poem demonstrates the clear way that "white" society justified their oppressive and cruel actions.

In A Heart of Darkness, there is a part where the narrator is talking about how once he had "a visit to the doctor" (Conrad 74) and there, "two woman knitted black wool feverishly" (Conrad 74). The narrator explains how this pair of women are made up of a "young one" and an "old one" (Conrad 74). I believe that these two women represent white generations and how both manipulate the indigenous people of Africa (the same way as the women work and give shape to the wool). Conrad writes later on page 74, "I thought of these two, guarding the door of Darkness . . . one introducing, introducing continuously to the unknown, the other scrutinizing the cheery foolish faces with unconcerned old eyes." This excerpt's purpose is to clearly show the readers how the narrator is going into a job where the important thing is to manipulate and exploit. Both of the women are "guarding the door of Darkness." Darkness here may mean Africa itself. Also, the fact that they are doing their task with "unconcerned old eyes" shows how the women (representative of white oppression) don't show any type of consideration or care.

Our Corroded Nature

In A Heart of Darkness, we are exposed to a view of human nature. Some people think that innately we are "good" creatures, others think that we are nothing but savage beasts. Joseph Conrad uses his novel in order to show his view of humans.

Personally, I have thought about this and I would like to dedicate this blog to what I think regarding our nature as human beings.

Human nature has been lost. Our instinctive drive has been pulverized to the point where we are merely the reflections of the machines that we ourselves have created. We spend our time on earth focusing on producing and on achieving fixed tasks. Menial tasks that will mean nothing to us in the future. We will eventually die and our time and effort will be forgotten alongside our bodies and names. I believe that civilization, along with the existence of a "free will" and "moral choice," have destroyed what we used to be, what we were meant to be. The balance that comes with nature has clearly ceased to exist in our society. Because of these oppressive forces, humans nowadays live in a state of despair and anguish trying to search for some truth. People everywhere live their lives looking for something which might be able to fill this gap. Although this bleak judgement may seem condemning, we find joy in the small things in life which fill us with hope and energy to continue on the journey that is life itself. Be it a small flower, the kiss of a lover, a beautiful sunset. These things for some reason allow us to, at least momentarily, find joy in our lives.

I am exited and look forward to continue reading A Heart of Darkness and read about the views of Conrad.

In Loving Memory

I'm standing on a tomb, my palms are sweaty, and I'm out of breath. I look around and try to find a clue that might give me the reason why I am standing here in the middle of a scary-ass Villa de Leyva cemetery. While my left hand has a tight hold of the rosary that hangs around my neck, my right hand hangs freely by my side. I continue to walk around the churchyard when suddenly I feel my right pinky shoot up with pain. I check my pinky and notice a prickle protruding from the tip and a plump red drop forming where this foreign object is now tightly fastened. At first I feel a mix of anger and pain but then I look down at the ground and see the cause of my pain, a beautiful yellow rose. This rose captivates me. I look around and notice a plenty of similar roses growing randomly around the field. For some reason I feel more calm, not so scared now. I begin to think about all the people that had been buried in this cemetery. What was their childhood like? Were they good husbands? Wives? Brothers? Friends? Standing in this city of the dead, I thought to myself, "Could it be possible that my life will end up summed up on some tomb stone? Everything that makes me me, gone forever..."

Reading A Heart of Darkness I was taken back to this moment in my life. On page 68 Joseph Conrad writes, "We live in a flicker." While these words ring in my head, I think about the burden that lies within them. We are all destined to be ashes. We are destined to be nothing but a memory and a grave. Life as we know it is nothing but a flash of ephemeral brilliance. To Conrad, our lives are only a flicker in what is the storm of history.

What Makes Us Chuckle

I think we all know that different people find different things funny. Because of this, I have decided to look up on YouTube an example of different types of comedy in order to visualize the great variety.

OLD HUMOR- Abbot and Costello- (1940's), Frank McHugh in "Make-Believe Ladies Man (1930), Vernon and Ryan's Blackface Performance (1950)

SMART HUMOR- President Reagan's Humor, BBC Comedy: Could Jesus Walk on Custard?

STUPID HUMOR- Jim carrey at his best, Funny Prank, David Spates

DIRTY HUMOR- Dirty Jokes, 93 Year-old Tells a Dirty Joke

MESSED UP HUMOR- Happy Tree Friends

OK, so now that you've seen a few example, here's the whole list.

El Jhon Bayron, el Duvan Ferney, el Maicol Estiven, la Chacha, la Shirley Zurleidy, la Sandra Kateryne, la Angie Lorena, la Maryin Faizuly, etc.

In my chimney smoke filled room, I sit and read The Cherry Orchard. I'm in the outskirts of Bogota in what you could call my summer "villa" (page 85). This humble house of mine is used very frequently by my family. We try to come here whenever possible and enjoy being out of the hectic city. The birds' chirping, the small children's laughter, and the warm glow of the sun contrast sharply against the ill-favored honking of cars, the ñero on the side of the street waiting to take your cellphone, and the hail crushing against your windshield.

As I sit here enjoying this beautiful day, I start to think about how this suburban fenced in community resembles what may become of the cherry orchard. My mind starts to drift off and imagine how the people that used to live here on this land used to live. How were their homes? Did they have to leave because of economic pressures? Where may they be now? Stuck in the city, forced to work at the traffic light selling gum or cigarettes?

The more I read Chekov, the more I realize that his work mirrors our reality. The reality that may be hidden behind a curtain...

I'm finishing off my blog now, and I sadly come to the realization that it's time to head back to Bogota; my reality.

IHGEI JDBLJ QWHEKDJ QHBWEC QEUHKJQ!!!!!

Ok, so I'm in my house reading my book. Chillin. All of a sudden, my phone rings, I decide to pick it up. Talk a little bit with my brother. You know, the usual "how was your day- good, how about yours- good- alright well nice to hear from you- yeah we should chill soon- aight goodnight" conversation. I hang up the phone and continue reading the Cherry Orchard when out of no where and without previous warnings, my mom bursts through my door with a PBJ sandwich, (which I adore) and a nice cold tall glass of milk. She sits down in my bed and we talk about how crappy the weather is in Bogota and how much time she spent on her way back from the supermarket since the traffic was so bad. After like 15 minutes or something, she decides that we've bonded enough and goes off to her room to do whatever it is she does in there (probably watch some novela or something). Once again, I try to continue reading my book and feel lil bit disappointed when I see that I've only read 4 pages in the 45 minutes that I had been sitting down. Crap, it's 7 and my dog is getting a little bit fidgety. I decide it's time to walk my dog. I stand up put on my shoes (the old tall ones that wont get ruined by the wetness of the pavement since it just rained). I make my way down my elevator with my dog and as I walk out of my apartment I remember that I forgot to bring down my sweater. I have to make my way up the elevator again to my apartment (my dog is quite confused at this point), wait for my mom to open the door, go to my room, go search my heap of dirty clothes until FINALLY I find my comfy sweater which is so torn up not even the hobos of the 72 would dare approach me, then make my way down on the elevator, and finally make my way onto the little park I live next to. I walk like 20 minutes up and down my block until my dog finally decides to poo. So I make my way up the 72, almost fall a few times because the pavement is so goddam slippery (they should probably fix that), until finally I find myself back in my room after having taken off my sweater and shoes and continue to read when all of a sudden I read on page 68, "Lopahin (peeps in at the door and moos like a cow). Moo! (dissapears)" (Chekhov).

Are you serious?

Here I am, trying to establish n understanding of exactly what the hell is going on in this little story with the orchard and the girls and the dogs and the train and the old man and the punching in the face and the fancy waistcoat and the peasant and the WHAT THE HELL IS A COW DOING THERE!?

So, I stop there. I look at the page, stare at those two little lines which have thrown me off of my train of thought and thats when it hit me. Two hours and a half had passed and here I was, only 25 pages into the text I was reading. Thats when I realized Chekhov is a genius. My life, full of little random snippets of randomness which all have absolutely nothing to do with one another, is exactly like this play. The "Moo!" on page 68 stands for My brother's phone calls, my mother's snacks, my dogs's pooping, my bad memory, etc...

So to end this blog in a random note, I simply wanted to show the Llama Song

YEEAAAAHHHHH BOOOOIIIIIIII

Wow.

So I just read the Are Huck and Jim a minstrel show and honestly I didn't really know much about them so I decided to youtube "minstrel shows" and this came up...

"Minstrel Show"

(Hope you weren't too lazy and actually saw the video, whoever you are creeping on my blog....)

So, I'm sort of in shock. The ties between rap industry and minstrel shows are scary!!! It's seriously sort of messed up how white people actually do entertain themselves with the black community. As the video shows, people like Flavor Flav and Glozell are idolized and admired because of their stereotypic performances which bring them fame.

I'd like to know:

What do YOU think about his problem in our society today? Do you think the African American community benefits from this type of admiration by white society (according to the video)? Do you think that America is currently embracing the "black" society or is white society merely mocking the African Americans just like they did back in the day with the minstrel shows?

Historical Revisionism

First of all, I wanted to say that I really liked how Was Twain borrowing from others unjustly when he wrote The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is written. It was really concise and I really enjoyed the opening paragraph of the article. It was smart and it was really able to "capture" me and hold my attention.

I'd like to add my response to my previous post, Shining City Upon A Hill. I believe that Mark Twain's novel should not be altered in any way. I haven't been exposed to a lot of Mark Twain's novels so I can't say that my vantage point is really as accurate as I want it to be. But I do feel that through his language and diction, Twain is actually able to capture the essence of his epoch. Whether he did so knowingly or not, one may never know. But what makes his works so important is exactly that. He represents a nation and its problems. The fact that the author used the word "nigger" is fundamentally the very base of the fact that he is an author.

I'm sure that Twain used the word "nigger" in his everyday life and the use of that word in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn shows how life was for Twain and for all other Americans. Saying that you think that the word "nigger" or "injun" should be changed in Twain's works is like saying that you approve of Holocaust revisionism. You can't change history and by messing with the documents which prove the very existence of history, you are tampering with undebatable truths!

Taken from Wikipedia

Shining City Upon a Hill

In response to What’s different about this newer gentler edition of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn I think that it is absolutely ridiculous that people would actually go through the hastle of changing a historic document like Huck Finn just because it says the n-word a couple of times.

I feel that this decision by the editor clearly demonstrates what is going on in America nowadays. The underlying racism in everything in American culture is surfacing and what these little notions by some rich white men actually do is trying to "fix" or make up for the hundreds of years which African Americans have been dealing with white intolerance. The fact that there are a few laws in the constitution don't necessarily mean that the racial problems in America are over. No, sir. What the American government has done is simply put a big fat cloth on top of the clearly present racism which is corroding the very foundations on which America was built.

Racism in America is an incendiary topic which has always caused sensational responses. Perhaps the "shining city upon a hill whose beacon light guides freedom-loving people everywhere," as Ronald Reagan one stated, is merely a conglomeration of mere hypocrites whose menial task is only to make themselves feel clean and free of any "immoral" qualities.