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.

Crazy Little Thing Called Love

So what is this crazy little thing called "love"?

Is it a mere mirage

that disappears and fades

as the moments

pass by

Or is it a second

an instant

a though

a flash?

Ok, so here's whats up: is love only a chemical reaction that stimulates us for an instant? Is love what we are forced to believe in thanks to the over romanticized world we live in?

As I write, I think about all the "love" that I have witnessed in my life in all of its phases (my sister's wedding, my parent's constant bickering, my friend's infatuation with the hottie in the grade above, another friend's parents divorced yet amicable). Are these things all love?

Personally, I think that love is something which is felt only at instants. Love is the ability to tolerate your partner's vices. It's the ability to see the good in all things.

Reading Pride and Prejudice I see many kinds of love (the love that is shared between Darcy and Elizabeth at the end of the novel, the honest love felt by the Bennet's uncle and aunt, the forced and unconvincing love felt between Mr. Bennet and Mrs. Bennet). What are all of their stories? Is all of their love true and genuine?

P.S.

ID LIKE TO INVESTIGATE WHICH MARRIAGES IN THE NOVEL ARE CENTERED ON LOVE AND WHICH ON CONVENIENCE FOR MY ANALYTIC ESSAY. GOOD OR BAD IDEA?

A Man's Dilemma

Ok so here's my dilemma....

I talk too much. I'm slightly too comfortable with everyone and honestly, I really don't get embarrassed easily. I tell things as they are and many times, I suffer from this habit. However, when it comes to mushy gooshy things, I tend to hold back... ALOT. I overanalyze and I always question my impulses. And the worst part is that because of my inability to act instinctively (almost Hamlet-like), I almost always get fucked over.

Many times in my life I question my method and I ask myself whether I should change in any way. Maybe hold back a little? Perhaps act a little bit more mysterious?

As I read Pride and Prejudice I find myself looking at the ways that the characters associate with one another. One character which really called my attention was Mr. Darcy. Throughout the whole novel he is seen as a big headed, unsociable ass. He doesn't express himself and constantly repels all types of communication that is addressed at him. He doesn't dance with Elizabeth at any of the balls and all that he does throughout the beginning part of the novel is criticize everyone and everything that he sees.

Darcy seems to have an inability to speak or maybe he is just using this "mask" to hide his true personality. He uses this shell to protect himself and not let anyone near him sentimentally except the people that have always been there for him (Bingley). He has suffered from the things that his good friend Wickham did to him and his sister and he has created this shield in order to protect himself and his family from getting hurt again.

Should I, like Darcy, become a sheltered introverted person because of all the pain that I've had to deal with? Or should I just take out my umbrella and protect myself and my smile from all the world's shit that just keeps tumbling down on me?