"He took a duck in the face at two hundred and fifty knots"
Anchor Passages:
Pg. 35 (After seeing the Michelin Man, says this mantra, gives story of the origin)
Pg. 158 (In the bar, after getting the watermark number. Relaxes her after the meeting).
General Thematic Significance:
(a) The importance of the ideas is that it is an examples of and tool of coping. By repeating the story, or phrase, after stressed situations, she calms herself, "land" the plane, and overcome the situation. The story was told to her by her father.
(b) It comforts her. A verbal tic.
Related terms:
"secure the perimeter," pilates, advertising, low chance occurrence
Questions:
1. What does the duck mean?
2. Why does it comfort her?
/Fashion/
Anchor Passages:
Pg. 17 (Cayce explains that she has a significant negative reaction to labels)
Pg. 148 (An extreme reaction to branding, specifically Hello Kitty)
Pg. 18 (Fashion has becomes a 'simulacra of simulacra of simulacra'with re: Tommy H)
Pg. 35 (Cayce has a phobic/allergic reaction to the Michelin Man)
General Thematic Significance:
(a) Cayce is adverse to things that are not unique and to consumer culture in general. She feels, on a deeper level, a disgust for teh practice of society to be defined by logos and the things they buy.
(b) Cayce is symbolic of a society in which abstract concepts like 'fashion' and 'marketing' manifest themselves so strongly that they become actual physical sicknesses. Like 'TH' the simulative, artificial aspects of our culture have become reality.
Related terms:
Labels, brands, Michelin Man, 'Tommy Hilfiger event horizon'
Questions:
1. Why is it important that Cayce feels aversion to the things that society values?
2. Why is it that the consumerist idea is important to Cayce's job?
3. How great an impact do you think trademarking has on our social and cultural perception?
4. To what degree does our modern day fashion represent our culture?
/Jet Lag/
Anchor Passages:
Pg. 63 (Jet lag affects the brain and the soul)
Pg. 1-2 (Literal effect of jet lag on the body and the more abstract effect, the loss of self-awareness)
General Thematic Significance:
(a) Jet lag is a form of disconnection with the self. We get caught up in the business of everyday life and constant floods of information & decisions, and neglecting a deeper experience of the world. The physical disruption of our natural rhythms.
(b) Jet lag signifies the alienation between the artificial, modern world and the soul. The soul has a natural order and it gets confused because of artificial times zones. It connects with Cayce's allergy to brands because logos are a symbol of the artificial, modern, mass produced consumerism.
Related Terms:
Fashion, Footage
Questions:
1. How are jet lag and footage connected?
2. Does Cayce resolve her jet lag by the end?
/Footage/
Anchor Passages:
Pg. 78 (Footage as an aft form that gives Cayce a sense of purpose and connects a community together)
Pg. 66 (Bigend describes footage in terms of how it is made, organized, and at 'face-value', while Cayce recognizes its deeper meaning and its impact)
Pg. 22-23 (Parkaboy says you should go to new footage..)
Pg. 69 ("Do you imagine that...the footage is a work of proven genius")
General Thematic Significance:
The footage consumes both Cayce's personal and professional life. It symbolizes a complex relationship between the market world and the truly organic. Everything in the novel, in the same way, is connected to the footage, of the idea of the footage.
Related terms:
marketing, art
Questions:
1. What isn't related to the footage?
2. What is Gibson trying to tell us with the image of the footage?
/Mirror World/
Anchor Passages:
Pg. 108 ("They're part of the mirror-world...")
Pg. 70 ("Everything, today, is to some extent the reflection of something else.")
Pg. 3 (When C. explains the term to mean slight differences between cultures)
Pg. 60 (After a company dinner...)
General Thematic Significance
(a) Gibson's idea of a mirror-world in Pattern Recognition reflects characters' distorted views of the world. Cayce refers to this mirror-world in a negative way, almost as if this 'mirror-world' is a distorted reflection of life. This is significant, because the book exposes how a society oversaturated with media view the world.
(b) Mirror-world provokes the idea of simulacra. The thematic significance is that everything is a simulacra or mirror of something else. Everything is moving closer to being artificial or digital.
(c) Mirror-world is Cayce's way of exposing parallels in societies different from the one that she is used to. ON the surface they may look similar but they each have small variations that globalization can't account for. Cayce notices mirror-worlds throughout the novel and always makes her uneasy.
Related Terms:
Simulacra, disorientation, allergy, parallelism
Questions:
1. Since Cayce views the world as a mirror-world, how does this alter her views about people?
2. What purpose do the MW serve?
Sunday, December 19, 2010
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
A Post Modern Reader's Guide
Chapters 2 & 3 (Kayla, Emily, Courtney, and Emma)
1. Parody:
“They stretched all the way down past the music library and onto the interstate. Blue, green, burgundy, brown. They gleamed in the sun like a desert caravan.” (5)
“Not that we don’t have a station wagon ourselves”. “It’s small, it’s metallic gray, it has one whole rusted door.” (6)
-We thought that this was parody because first they describe the station wagons as something that rich people have and how marvelous they were, and then they describe their own with a rusted door. It was a little ironic how they described a so-called “car of glamour” with a rusted door.
2. Breakdown between ‘high’ and ‘low’:
“That’s exactly what I want to talk to you about, “ he said. “You’ve established a wonderful thing here with Hitler. You created it, you nurtured it, you made it your own. Nobody on the faculty of any college or university in this part of the country can so much as utter the word Hitler without a nod in your direction, literally or metaphorically.” (11)
-Murray is equating Hitler with Jack as two people being synonymous, but he is using it as a compliment. Murray is giving him a form of an expert, but most people wouldn’t equate Hitler with a compliment.
3. Challenging “grand narratives”:
“You’ve evolved an entire system around this figure, a structure with countless substructures and interrelated fields of study, a history within history. I marvel at the effort. It was masterful, shrewd and stunningly preemptive. It’s what I want to do with Elvis.”
-Equating Elvis with higher education is a weird association. Instead of him being seen as a cultural value, he should be part of a music class instead. Hitler changed the world, where as Elvis was for entertainment.
4. Simulacra:
“Wilder was still seated on the counter surrounded by open cartons, crumpled tin foil, shiny bags of potato chips, bowls of pasty substances covered with plastic wrap, flip-top rings and twist ties, individually wrapped slices of orange cheese.” (7)
-Food is something that we see on TV therefore we buy it. Even though most of the time you don’t know what you’re buying, what’s in it, or if it’s real or not, but you believe that you should buy it because it was on TV.
5. Disorientation:
“The smoke alarm went off in the hallway upstairs, either to let us know the battery had just died or because the house was on fire. We finished our lunch in silence.” (8)
-The characters in this book have a distortion of reality. The have been desensitized from possible harms. It’s like they are “on the other side of the TV”.
1 & 4 (Parody and Simulacra):
“Being here is a kind of spiritual surrender. We see only what the others see. The thousands who were here in the past, those who will come in the future. We’ve agreed to be part of a collective perception. This literally colors our vision. A religious experience in a way, like all tourism.” (12)
-Tourism is kind of a joke. Everyone is taking pictures of the same barn, but they are not viewing it for organic purposes. Each person thinks that they are creating their own “original version” when in reality, everyone is ending up with the same picture.
Chapters 4-5 (Frosty, Becky, Robby)
1. Chapter Four opens with a scene of great parody. Jack describes overeating and obesity as an addiction and a sickness that has fallen upon the people of Blacksmith. Much like Babette, despite their better efforts, the people of Blacksmith remain overweight. Nevertheless, the eldery, the people who can't even keep track of their own thoughts and actions, are "slim and healthy-looking" and well dressed, while the townspeople "don sweatsuits".
2.The chapter proceeds to go into a sense of great disorientation. Jack lists all the things that Babette does, and finds himself asking "What do I do?" Furthermore, Jack and Babette have a discussion about where Bee and Steffie met, and their hypotheses vary as far apart as California and Florida. Jack and Babette are so far removed from their own lives that they don't even know which coast is which. Also, Jack's equilibrium is so disrupted that he frequently sees colored spots.
3. The grand narrative of true love and marriage is then called into question and parodied when Jack states "Who will die first?". Although a valid question, this inquiry completely misses the point of being in a loving relationship. Why are Jack and Babette so interested in this question? Are they just waiting to move on to the next person as they've both done multiple times in the best, or do they feel that what they have is too good to be true and can't possibly last?
4. Jack's disorientation is again brought up on the last page of the chapter when he states "I am the false character that follows the name around". Jack does not know what he is or what he is doing, but just follows the expectations that are set before him, much like a member of the Nazi party, unquestioningly obeying. Furthermore, this purveys a strong sense of simulacra, simply doing what is projected or suggested by the media or some other outside influence.
5. On the first page of Chapter Five, the TV provides an example of exquisite parody and simulacra. Thinking about one's spine is hardly the original intention of yoga, yet somehow the TV suggests that everyone should sit half lotus and do exactly that.
6. Murray provides an incredible example of the breakdown of high and low. Firstly, Murray feels that buying off-brand food is somehow a contribution to the greater good, and says that irregular peanuts are avant garde. Furthermore, Murray states that Babette has "important hair", which, for anyone whose relative has had cancer and chemotherapy, knows isn't true. Hair is actually unimportant in the long run.
Murray provides further parody on the last page of Chapter 5 as Jack discourses about Murray's development of vulnerability. The idea and purpose of personal development is to draw out the positive, empowering traits that help one to be successful, not to develop one's vulnerabilities.
Chapters 6-7 (Heather, Andrew, Shane)
1. Parody In Chapter 6, Jack and Heinrich are talking about rain."Is it raining," I said, "or isn't it?" "I wouldn't want to have to say." "What if someone held a gun to your head?" "Who, you?" "Someone. A man in a trenchcoat and smoky glasses. He holds a gun to your head and says, 'Is it raining or isn't it? All you have to do is tell the truth and I'll put away my gun and take the next flight out of here.'"
This is an example of parody because Jack and Heinrich are debating on whether it is raining outside or not which should be a simple question with a yes or no answer. Instead, Jack turns it into a life or death situation. By doing so he shows how Heinrich can't commit to an answer and stick with it. Clearly, Jack's story shows the absurdity of the situation.
2. Breakdown between 'high' and 'low'
On page 30, Jack and Babette are in their bedroom fooling around, but decide to look at old photographs. Photos are usually representative of the good times that you are trying to reminisce in. Instead while looking at the photos they see people that are uncomfortable. "Children wincing from the sun, women in sun hats, men shading their eyes from the glare as if the past posessed some quality of light we no longer experience," Also, after looking at the photos for hours with his wife, apparently having a good time, Jack asks "Who will die first?" An unmistakable example of high and low.
3. Challenging grand narratives
On page 26 after watching a film on Hitler Jack says, "All plots tend to move deathward." In many stories this is certainly true, but by no means is this true in ALL plots. Many plots have nothing to do with death. By making such an overgeneralization Jack makes the studentsquestion the plots of all filmography and thus challenge "grand narratives."
4. Simulacra – In the discussion between Jack Gladney and his son, Heinrich, on the car ride to school, Heinrich questions his father about the reality of the rain. The debate begins when Heinrich tells his father that the radio said it is going to rain. Jack tells him their senses tell them it is raining now, and Heinrich begins to relentlessly challenge this statement. Heinrich refuses to rely on his senses that tell him it is currently raining, and he only believes that it WILL rain because that is what the radio said. The radio has become his reality.
5. Disorientation – After Jack shows the film of background scenes to his class, a student’s question provokes a discussion of plots. Jack begins to lecture to the class about how “all plots tend to move deathward.” After this he questions the reality of his own statement, exemplifying disorientation: “Is this true? Why did I say it? What does it mean?”
Chapters 10-11 (Paul, John, Joe)
Murray's descriptions of ads show the breakdown of high and low. On Pg 51 he describes the experience of television as a religious experience, fitting into a psychic pattern to the chants and mantras of advertising jingles. He describes how the "medium overflows with sacred formulas," with the word sacred obviously tying into a higher belief. Equating television, an everyday entertainment, with material goods, base requirements for life, with something spiritual clearly shows that the ability to distinguish between high and low is gone.
The discussion of the murder's motives reveal simulacra. Jack asks questions about how and why the man shot these people which expresses the traditional story the media publishes about the man with the rifle. The feet that Tommy Roy actually did kill in that way suggests that he learned that method of killing from the media also. This suggests that the cycle of simulacra will continue.
Disorientation can be seen not just in these two chapters but the whole book. Jack wakes up in the middle of the night, and immediately starts to have an attack over odd numbers and what they represent. The time he sees when he wakes up is off and he realizes he will be turning 51 the next week. He wonders why he is infatuated with this and he is not sure what it means. Soon after getting of this topic, Babbette bring is back up saying that the difference between 50 and 51 is what is odd and what is even, once again questioning the difference and what it means.
Chapter 10 begins with a strong parody of the value of college. It begins by listing the high cost, and afterwards naming the seeming uselessness of the education delivered. They sit in a terrible posture in the library, which ties into the value which elders place on posture in the section about Babette teaching classes on the subject. This marks the lack of value of college, as though this grand amount of money is spent on the education, true maturity, represented by posture, is in no way achieved.
The section involving the ATM is a definite example of challenging the grand narrative, in this case capitalism and self-value through financial game. Jack goes to check his ATM balance and finds that the system has "blessed his life". The tie between his value and money is clear literary irony, challenging the ideal life that the world feeds us. The description of the deranged person being removed from the bank by armed guards shows that a defunct person has no financial value.
Chapters 12-13 (Ryan, Ryan, and An)
1. The parody in this section is based around Jack’s German teacher, Harold. When he was talking about meteorology and the effect in his life, he said that he lost his faith in God. He then said he “turned to meteorology for comfort” after seeing a young, confident weatherman. He became a teacher and began teaching in everyday places, even to include church basements. In this sense, meteorology became a parody of religion. He even stated that when teaching, he, “…saw a hunger in their eyes. A hunger, a compelling need.”
2. The breakdown between high and low can be shown when the police hire a psychic to find the Treadwells. The fact that the police, a supposedly respected organization that uses science and certain proven methods to solve cases (the high) are using a psychic, an unproven and often times inaccurate way to solve problems (the low), displays this.
3. This section challenges the “grand narratives” via the German lesson at the beginning of chapter 12. When one views education, they picture universities and refinement. This is shown more as an examination by the teacher. The experience was described by Jack. “When I opened my eyes he was only inches form my mouth, leaning in to peer. I used to wonder what he saw in there”. This description described Jack as more of a man being observed for amusement than one being educated.
4. An example of simulacra comes during Harold’s story about meteorology. He explained that he was watching a weather report on TV when he first discovered his love for the science. He watched a weatherman predict the weather for the next five days and was “mesmerized by his self-assurance and skill. It was as though a message was being transmitted from the weather satellite through that young man and then to me in my canvas chair.” He saw a pattern between the weather on confidence, and upon learning more about it, would even be confident enough to talk to people on the street.
5. Disorientation is the major principle n chapters 12 and 13. An example would be Denise and Bob’s conversation on page 56. She was asking him questions about his work and what he’s raising money for, and suddenly a British voice is mentioned that says “There are forms of vertigo that do not include spinning”. This has nothing at all to do with the situation and yet it is put into the book. Also, on page 58, Jack is thinking about the marriage that his wife and her ex-husband Bob had and how terrible it was. Yet, despite this, he notices his wife having a look of sympathy and fondness towards him. Why would one feel fondness towards a man such as Bob? The final example we would like to provide is on page 60. The psychic sent the police on a trail to find the Treadwells and, instead, found something completely unrelated. Each time she sent them looking for something, the police found something else.
1. Parody:
“They stretched all the way down past the music library and onto the interstate. Blue, green, burgundy, brown. They gleamed in the sun like a desert caravan.” (5)
“Not that we don’t have a station wagon ourselves”. “It’s small, it’s metallic gray, it has one whole rusted door.” (6)
-We thought that this was parody because first they describe the station wagons as something that rich people have and how marvelous they were, and then they describe their own with a rusted door. It was a little ironic how they described a so-called “car of glamour” with a rusted door.
2. Breakdown between ‘high’ and ‘low’:
“That’s exactly what I want to talk to you about, “ he said. “You’ve established a wonderful thing here with Hitler. You created it, you nurtured it, you made it your own. Nobody on the faculty of any college or university in this part of the country can so much as utter the word Hitler without a nod in your direction, literally or metaphorically.” (11)
-Murray is equating Hitler with Jack as two people being synonymous, but he is using it as a compliment. Murray is giving him a form of an expert, but most people wouldn’t equate Hitler with a compliment.
3. Challenging “grand narratives”:
“You’ve evolved an entire system around this figure, a structure with countless substructures and interrelated fields of study, a history within history. I marvel at the effort. It was masterful, shrewd and stunningly preemptive. It’s what I want to do with Elvis.”
-Equating Elvis with higher education is a weird association. Instead of him being seen as a cultural value, he should be part of a music class instead. Hitler changed the world, where as Elvis was for entertainment.
4. Simulacra:
“Wilder was still seated on the counter surrounded by open cartons, crumpled tin foil, shiny bags of potato chips, bowls of pasty substances covered with plastic wrap, flip-top rings and twist ties, individually wrapped slices of orange cheese.” (7)
-Food is something that we see on TV therefore we buy it. Even though most of the time you don’t know what you’re buying, what’s in it, or if it’s real or not, but you believe that you should buy it because it was on TV.
5. Disorientation:
“The smoke alarm went off in the hallway upstairs, either to let us know the battery had just died or because the house was on fire. We finished our lunch in silence.” (8)
-The characters in this book have a distortion of reality. The have been desensitized from possible harms. It’s like they are “on the other side of the TV”.
1 & 4 (Parody and Simulacra):
“Being here is a kind of spiritual surrender. We see only what the others see. The thousands who were here in the past, those who will come in the future. We’ve agreed to be part of a collective perception. This literally colors our vision. A religious experience in a way, like all tourism.” (12)
-Tourism is kind of a joke. Everyone is taking pictures of the same barn, but they are not viewing it for organic purposes. Each person thinks that they are creating their own “original version” when in reality, everyone is ending up with the same picture.
Chapters 4-5 (Frosty, Becky, Robby)
1. Chapter Four opens with a scene of great parody. Jack describes overeating and obesity as an addiction and a sickness that has fallen upon the people of Blacksmith. Much like Babette, despite their better efforts, the people of Blacksmith remain overweight. Nevertheless, the eldery, the people who can't even keep track of their own thoughts and actions, are "slim and healthy-looking" and well dressed, while the townspeople "don sweatsuits".
2.The chapter proceeds to go into a sense of great disorientation. Jack lists all the things that Babette does, and finds himself asking "What do I do?" Furthermore, Jack and Babette have a discussion about where Bee and Steffie met, and their hypotheses vary as far apart as California and Florida. Jack and Babette are so far removed from their own lives that they don't even know which coast is which. Also, Jack's equilibrium is so disrupted that he frequently sees colored spots.
3. The grand narrative of true love and marriage is then called into question and parodied when Jack states "Who will die first?". Although a valid question, this inquiry completely misses the point of being in a loving relationship. Why are Jack and Babette so interested in this question? Are they just waiting to move on to the next person as they've both done multiple times in the best, or do they feel that what they have is too good to be true and can't possibly last?
4. Jack's disorientation is again brought up on the last page of the chapter when he states "I am the false character that follows the name around". Jack does not know what he is or what he is doing, but just follows the expectations that are set before him, much like a member of the Nazi party, unquestioningly obeying. Furthermore, this purveys a strong sense of simulacra, simply doing what is projected or suggested by the media or some other outside influence.
5. On the first page of Chapter Five, the TV provides an example of exquisite parody and simulacra. Thinking about one's spine is hardly the original intention of yoga, yet somehow the TV suggests that everyone should sit half lotus and do exactly that.
6. Murray provides an incredible example of the breakdown of high and low. Firstly, Murray feels that buying off-brand food is somehow a contribution to the greater good, and says that irregular peanuts are avant garde. Furthermore, Murray states that Babette has "important hair", which, for anyone whose relative has had cancer and chemotherapy, knows isn't true. Hair is actually unimportant in the long run.
Murray provides further parody on the last page of Chapter 5 as Jack discourses about Murray's development of vulnerability. The idea and purpose of personal development is to draw out the positive, empowering traits that help one to be successful, not to develop one's vulnerabilities.
Chapters 6-7 (Heather, Andrew, Shane)
1. Parody In Chapter 6, Jack and Heinrich are talking about rain."Is it raining," I said, "or isn't it?" "I wouldn't want to have to say." "What if someone held a gun to your head?" "Who, you?" "Someone. A man in a trenchcoat and smoky glasses. He holds a gun to your head and says, 'Is it raining or isn't it? All you have to do is tell the truth and I'll put away my gun and take the next flight out of here.'"
This is an example of parody because Jack and Heinrich are debating on whether it is raining outside or not which should be a simple question with a yes or no answer. Instead, Jack turns it into a life or death situation. By doing so he shows how Heinrich can't commit to an answer and stick with it. Clearly, Jack's story shows the absurdity of the situation.
2. Breakdown between 'high' and 'low'
On page 30, Jack and Babette are in their bedroom fooling around, but decide to look at old photographs. Photos are usually representative of the good times that you are trying to reminisce in. Instead while looking at the photos they see people that are uncomfortable. "Children wincing from the sun, women in sun hats, men shading their eyes from the glare as if the past posessed some quality of light we no longer experience," Also, after looking at the photos for hours with his wife, apparently having a good time, Jack asks "Who will die first?" An unmistakable example of high and low.
3. Challenging grand narratives
On page 26 after watching a film on Hitler Jack says, "All plots tend to move deathward." In many stories this is certainly true, but by no means is this true in ALL plots. Many plots have nothing to do with death. By making such an overgeneralization Jack makes the studentsquestion the plots of all filmography and thus challenge "grand narratives."
4. Simulacra – In the discussion between Jack Gladney and his son, Heinrich, on the car ride to school, Heinrich questions his father about the reality of the rain. The debate begins when Heinrich tells his father that the radio said it is going to rain. Jack tells him their senses tell them it is raining now, and Heinrich begins to relentlessly challenge this statement. Heinrich refuses to rely on his senses that tell him it is currently raining, and he only believes that it WILL rain because that is what the radio said. The radio has become his reality.
5. Disorientation – After Jack shows the film of background scenes to his class, a student’s question provokes a discussion of plots. Jack begins to lecture to the class about how “all plots tend to move deathward.” After this he questions the reality of his own statement, exemplifying disorientation: “Is this true? Why did I say it? What does it mean?”
Chapters 10-11 (Paul, John, Joe)
Murray's descriptions of ads show the breakdown of high and low. On Pg 51 he describes the experience of television as a religious experience, fitting into a psychic pattern to the chants and mantras of advertising jingles. He describes how the "medium overflows with sacred formulas," with the word sacred obviously tying into a higher belief. Equating television, an everyday entertainment, with material goods, base requirements for life, with something spiritual clearly shows that the ability to distinguish between high and low is gone.
The discussion of the murder's motives reveal simulacra. Jack asks questions about how and why the man shot these people which expresses the traditional story the media publishes about the man with the rifle. The feet that Tommy Roy actually did kill in that way suggests that he learned that method of killing from the media also. This suggests that the cycle of simulacra will continue.
Disorientation can be seen not just in these two chapters but the whole book. Jack wakes up in the middle of the night, and immediately starts to have an attack over odd numbers and what they represent. The time he sees when he wakes up is off and he realizes he will be turning 51 the next week. He wonders why he is infatuated with this and he is not sure what it means. Soon after getting of this topic, Babbette bring is back up saying that the difference between 50 and 51 is what is odd and what is even, once again questioning the difference and what it means.
Chapter 10 begins with a strong parody of the value of college. It begins by listing the high cost, and afterwards naming the seeming uselessness of the education delivered. They sit in a terrible posture in the library, which ties into the value which elders place on posture in the section about Babette teaching classes on the subject. This marks the lack of value of college, as though this grand amount of money is spent on the education, true maturity, represented by posture, is in no way achieved.
The section involving the ATM is a definite example of challenging the grand narrative, in this case capitalism and self-value through financial game. Jack goes to check his ATM balance and finds that the system has "blessed his life". The tie between his value and money is clear literary irony, challenging the ideal life that the world feeds us. The description of the deranged person being removed from the bank by armed guards shows that a defunct person has no financial value.
Chapters 12-13 (Ryan, Ryan, and An)
1. The parody in this section is based around Jack’s German teacher, Harold. When he was talking about meteorology and the effect in his life, he said that he lost his faith in God. He then said he “turned to meteorology for comfort” after seeing a young, confident weatherman. He became a teacher and began teaching in everyday places, even to include church basements. In this sense, meteorology became a parody of religion. He even stated that when teaching, he, “…saw a hunger in their eyes. A hunger, a compelling need.”
2. The breakdown between high and low can be shown when the police hire a psychic to find the Treadwells. The fact that the police, a supposedly respected organization that uses science and certain proven methods to solve cases (the high) are using a psychic, an unproven and often times inaccurate way to solve problems (the low), displays this.
3. This section challenges the “grand narratives” via the German lesson at the beginning of chapter 12. When one views education, they picture universities and refinement. This is shown more as an examination by the teacher. The experience was described by Jack. “When I opened my eyes he was only inches form my mouth, leaning in to peer. I used to wonder what he saw in there”. This description described Jack as more of a man being observed for amusement than one being educated.
4. An example of simulacra comes during Harold’s story about meteorology. He explained that he was watching a weather report on TV when he first discovered his love for the science. He watched a weatherman predict the weather for the next five days and was “mesmerized by his self-assurance and skill. It was as though a message was being transmitted from the weather satellite through that young man and then to me in my canvas chair.” He saw a pattern between the weather on confidence, and upon learning more about it, would even be confident enough to talk to people on the street.
5. Disorientation is the major principle n chapters 12 and 13. An example would be Denise and Bob’s conversation on page 56. She was asking him questions about his work and what he’s raising money for, and suddenly a British voice is mentioned that says “There are forms of vertigo that do not include spinning”. This has nothing at all to do with the situation and yet it is put into the book. Also, on page 58, Jack is thinking about the marriage that his wife and her ex-husband Bob had and how terrible it was. Yet, despite this, he notices his wife having a look of sympathy and fondness towards him. Why would one feel fondness towards a man such as Bob? The final example we would like to provide is on page 60. The psychic sent the police on a trail to find the Treadwells and, instead, found something completely unrelated. Each time she sent them looking for something, the police found something else.
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Paul, Emily and Emma's White Noise Post
In the novel White Noise, Jack Gladney is a professor of Hitler Studies. Hitler is the point of fascination for Jack and he is drawn to the fact that Hitler is synonymous with the command of death. Hitler was able to manipulate crowds into thinking that his mass slaughtering was justified, which allowed him to carryout genocide and experiments on people he considered lesser beings.
The Holocaust, brought on by Hitler, has been viewed, by a majority of people, as a mass genocide of a group of people in order to control the human race. Other people, such as Neo-Nazis, believe that Hitler’s holocaust was just a mass science experiment. In the book Ethics and Extermination by Michael Burleigh discusses both the views of the Neo-Nazis and the views of the Left-Sided Germans and how they viewed the Holocaust. On pg. 172, Aly and Heim state that “ The destruction of the socioeconomic existence of Polish Jews did not spring from the minds of racist, but from those of respected Hanceatic economists...This mass extermination [of the Jews] was not contrary to the Mein hold concept of industrialization, but rather an integral part of it, while conversely those who practiced extermination used just such scientific lines of argument to invest their activities with higher meaning.” Summed up, this states that the reason for Hitler’s creation of the Holocaust was not to get rid of an entire race, but instead to do research for scientific reasons. The counter argument, and a more popular belief, is that “ ‘science; switched its concern to the enduring supra mortal, collective gene pool, abandoning the impossible dream of mass well-being in favor of the easier goal of mass annihilation” (p. 180) This argument is that the Holocaust took place because Hitler and the Neo-Nazis wanted to create a genocide, and rid the earth of the Jewish people, and hopefully gain control of the human race.
To gain control of the human race, one must learn how to manipulate the biological processes in one’s own favor. To learn how to do this, many unorthodox experiments were preformed on prisoners in concentration camps. The prisoners obviously had no choice in whether or not they would participate in the experiments and were not informed on the procedures being done to their body. There was a vast array of experiments preformed including investigations on Hypothermia, genetics, sterilization, surgery and twin research. The majority of the subjects ended up were dead, disfigured or disabled due to the experimentation.
What is interesting is that most of these experiments were done to improve human life. For example in the freezing experiments simulated the conditions the armies faces on the Eastern Front. The first test we run to see how low a person’s body temperature could be lowered before becoming unconscious or dying (25 degrees Celsius). Then, after obtaining these results, attention turned towards how to revive a frozen person. Many cruel tests were preformed to determine the best method of revival, but these experiments proved successful in not only reviving a frozen victim but also in expanding our knowledge of the human body functions.
The bettering of the human race did not stop at manipulation after birth. Hitler also toyed with the idea of Eugenics. The concept of eugenics existed prior to the second world war and had strong support (especially among leading intellectuals) in Britain, France, Germany and the United States, but it was Nazi Germany that took the concept to its horrific logical conclusion: the extermination of all members of society not considered racially fit. Before 1939 most eugenists didn't support the killing of "inferior" genetic specimens, but rather a mandatory sterilization, or, failing that, a forced war between nations with armies consisting of the elderly and genetically inferior. Most eugenists considered war to be the ultimate detriment to racial advancement: the strong, physically able members of society died while the weak remained behind to reproduce and pass on their genes. Eugenics was therefore declared the ultimate policy of peace, a notion that Hitler himself supported. With the outbreak of the second world war sterilization was no longer viewed as sufficient to counteract the loss in prime racial stock; extermination became widespread, and the pool of the exterminated grew larger. People accused of being "alcoholics" were placed on the list, as were single mothers and people suffering from non-permanent mental distress. In addition the process for conviction became lack; a judge was not required to even examine a person before determining whether or not they deserved death.
The implementation of eugenics in Nazi Germany involved a great deal of propaganda. By 1939 the rationalization emerged that not only was extermination of racially inferior people good for the nation as a whole, but actually merciful to those killed: the state should mercifully end all lives that were "not worth living". The other main justification for the killing was the death of Germany's "best" as soliders: if the best had to die for their country, the reasoning went, there was no reason the lesser civilians should not also make that sacrifice. By 1939 the proganda machine was in full force convincing its population of these ideas. Classroom teachers instructed their students to draw their family trees, with the intent of finding and pruning "weak limbs" of the tree. Nazi films, produced by the state, depicting the mentally handicapped as subhuman beasts were played constantly. Tours were given of mental asylums by prominent eugenists, with the strong implication that they were a burden on the racial purity of the German people. Over six thousand future SS members went on these tours, with many of them concluding their tour by suggesting that machine guns should be set up in front of the asylum entrance, in order to best mow down the patients. The propaganda campaign was effective; in a 1939 survey 73% of parents said they would consent to the killing of their own child if it was proved to be mentally handicapped.
The presence of science during the Holocaust period obvious proved to be very influential in the acts carried out among the victims. Maybe science was used as an excuse to dish out hatred, or perhaps the bases of many actions was, indeed, for scientific exploration. Regardless of the motives, the truth still remains that the experiments and executions on the victims of the Holocaust were cruel and coldhearted. Still, it is interesting to hypothesized that maybe the Nazis actually believed that they were doing the world an academic and scientific favor.
Burleigh, Michael. Ethics and Extermination: Reflections on Nazi Genocide. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge UP, 1997. Print.
Szöllösi-Janze, Margit. Science in the Third Reich. Oxford: Berg, 2001. Print.
Burleigh, Michael. Ethics and Extermination: Reflections on Nazi Genocide. United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press, 1997. 160-185. Print.
Monday, November 15, 2010
Courtney and Jake's Group Blog Post
In the novel Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko, Tayo suffers from shell-shock and has lost himself. Betonie is a medicine man who is trying to help Tayo find a way out of his suffering and back into his life before the war. Betonie takes Tayo through a traditional healing ceremony where sand paintings play an important role.
A traditional ceremony occurs on the Hogan, which is a Navajo earth-covered wooden dwelling. It is carried out by the singer, also known as the hataali, who sings and draws figures that attract Holy People. The hataali is traditionally male, as it is believed that a woman’s menstrual cycle represented a powerful spiritual event and could disrupt the ceremony. The person who is going through the ceremony, the patient, sits on the sand painting and the singer takes the sand from the figures and applies them to the that person. This is done to transfer the healing and protective power of the Holy People. The sand painting is then erased or destroyed after the ceremony is completed.
Photographs of true sand-paintings are difficult for that very reason. Because the painting is a sacred object, and once used contains the toxic remains of an illness, they are usually destroyed within 12 hours of creation. A medicine man will rarely let an outsider sit in on a ceremony as a photograph may distract the chanter or disrupt the entire ceremony. Most sand paintings that are for sale online or in stores are deliberately modified reproductions with reversed colors and calculated errors. To produce a true sand painting only for display or distribution would be considered a profane act.
Traditional American Indian healing techniques have a large emphasis on art. These techniques are extremely important because many American Indians barely visit psychiatric hospitals, mental health clinics, and special education in schools because of social, economic, and environmental pressures of racism, poverty, alcoholism, substandard reservation housing conditions, and hostile education systems. Ritual is the expression of all the arts brought into one expression. All art forms are indistinct from one another. Myths, prayers, songs, chants, sand paintings, and music are all used to bring who wants to be healed back to the source of tribal energy. Spirituality, medicine, and art are combined to return origins, confront and manipulate evil, death and rebirth, and restore the universe. In Navajo sand painting ceremonies, origin myths in song, prayer, and sand painting is used to heal the person into wholeness and of mental health by having them identify with the symbolic forces that once created the world (Navajo…”).
Much of urban and reservation American Indian life is marked by alcoholism or suicide. A way to reduce these problems is to bring back many customs and traditions of the culture. Public Health Services has noticed that some of the ceremonies are beneficial and allow medicine men and women to work in collaboration with physicians, counselors, educators, and other helping professionals. It is believed that combining more technological and spiritual forms of healing will be most beneficial to American Indians because it can allow a better grasp on culture and their identity. There is close relation between physical and mental health so it is important to rebuild self-esteem, a sense of belonging, and cultural pride.
Resources
Coleman, Victoria D., Phoebe M. Dufrene. “Art and Healing for Native American Indians.” Journal of Multicultural Counseling and Development July 1994. Academic Search Premier. Web. 13 Nov. 2010.
“Navajo Paintings in Sand.” UNESCO Courier Dec. 1996. Academic Search Premier. Web. 13 Nov. 2010.
Parezo, Nancy J. Navajo Sandpainting: From Religious Act to Commercial Art. Tucson, AZ: University of Arizona Press, 1983.
Reichard, Gladys A. Navajo Medicine Man: Sandpaintings. New York: Dover Publications, 1977
A traditional ceremony occurs on the Hogan, which is a Navajo earth-covered wooden dwelling. It is carried out by the singer, also known as the hataali, who sings and draws figures that attract Holy People. The hataali is traditionally male, as it is believed that a woman’s menstrual cycle represented a powerful spiritual event and could disrupt the ceremony. The person who is going through the ceremony, the patient, sits on the sand painting and the singer takes the sand from the figures and applies them to the that person. This is done to transfer the healing and protective power of the Holy People. The sand painting is then erased or destroyed after the ceremony is completed.
Photographs of true sand-paintings are difficult for that very reason. Because the painting is a sacred object, and once used contains the toxic remains of an illness, they are usually destroyed within 12 hours of creation. A medicine man will rarely let an outsider sit in on a ceremony as a photograph may distract the chanter or disrupt the entire ceremony. Most sand paintings that are for sale online or in stores are deliberately modified reproductions with reversed colors and calculated errors. To produce a true sand painting only for display or distribution would be considered a profane act.
Traditional American Indian healing techniques have a large emphasis on art. These techniques are extremely important because many American Indians barely visit psychiatric hospitals, mental health clinics, and special education in schools because of social, economic, and environmental pressures of racism, poverty, alcoholism, substandard reservation housing conditions, and hostile education systems. Ritual is the expression of all the arts brought into one expression. All art forms are indistinct from one another. Myths, prayers, songs, chants, sand paintings, and music are all used to bring who wants to be healed back to the source of tribal energy. Spirituality, medicine, and art are combined to return origins, confront and manipulate evil, death and rebirth, and restore the universe. In Navajo sand painting ceremonies, origin myths in song, prayer, and sand painting is used to heal the person into wholeness and of mental health by having them identify with the symbolic forces that once created the world (Navajo…”).
Much of urban and reservation American Indian life is marked by alcoholism or suicide. A way to reduce these problems is to bring back many customs and traditions of the culture. Public Health Services has noticed that some of the ceremonies are beneficial and allow medicine men and women to work in collaboration with physicians, counselors, educators, and other helping professionals. It is believed that combining more technological and spiritual forms of healing will be most beneficial to American Indians because it can allow a better grasp on culture and their identity. There is close relation between physical and mental health so it is important to rebuild self-esteem, a sense of belonging, and cultural pride.
Resources
Coleman, Victoria D., Phoebe M. Dufrene. “Art and Healing for Native American Indians.” Journal of Multicultural Counseling and Development July 1994. Academic Search Premier. Web. 13 Nov. 2010.
“Navajo Paintings in Sand.” UNESCO Courier Dec. 1996. Academic Search Premier. Web. 13 Nov. 2010.
Parezo, Nancy J. Navajo Sandpainting: From Religious Act to Commercial Art. Tucson, AZ: University of Arizona Press, 1983.
Reichard, Gladys A. Navajo Medicine Man: Sandpaintings. New York: Dover Publications, 1977
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Becky, Heather, John Group Blog Post
Gender disparities are a common theme throughout Song of Solomon. These differences characterize the dual struggle between civil rights for men and women’s rights along with it. By examining gender roles in the book we can see the importance Robinson places on not “leaving a body.” We interpret this to mean that men should not leave or forget about the women in their lives as they search to define their role in a society that treats them with violence and discrimination. The differences presented in the book are reflections of the violence and struggle we found throughout our research.
Women’s jobs were to maintain the household, a role that was ascribed to them throughout the 20th century. Women were made out to be “delicate flowers” that needed to be protected from the evils of the working world. The cult of domesticity was a southern ideal that held that a modern woman needed to be “domesticated” and elegant, therefore the only suitable position for her was to be submissive to her husband while maintaining the household. This ideal was most common among southern plantation wives. In the north more women took factory jobs to fill shortages brought on by World War II. These all-women factory jobs were considered a way to foster the ideal woman who would still be expected to conform to the norms of the cult of domesticity. These factories offered forms of education, residence within the factory, and strict schedules that the female workers were expected to follow (Watson 38). This was also seen as a way to get women out of their parents’ house until they were married giving them a trade to help them earn extra money. It was not designed to permanently integrate them into the workforce by any means. In the south, if a woman were to take a job she was expected to be a maid in a household, as seen with Corinthians in Song of Solomon. However, most women were simply expected to make the man of the house’s life easier. Southern women were less likely to find themselves in factory work at all as they held onto the ideals of the cult of domesticity more strictly than northern women did. The difference between northern and southern women is a nuanced picture in this book. Images of violence help explain more clearly the roles women played during a time when men were making the rules.
Violence is a major theme of Song of Solomon. Throughout all of America’s history, violence has played a major role in everyday society. This was especially present during the riots that occurred between the 1940’s – 1960’s. Most of these riots occurred because of race and civil rights. Another part of these riots, and all other violence during this time, was who partook in all of these violent acts. “The typical rioter was a young black male,” (Graham 16). Usually the only time women were involved in violent acts during this time was when they committed a non-violent crime such as larceny, or when they were the victim to rape or some sort of sexual harassment. In The Detroit Rioters of 1943: A Reinterpretation, they took a sample of the people who were arrested in the riots to get an idea of what kind of people were involved in these riots. Of the 246 people that they analyzed, almost 88% were African-American, and 95% of them were males (Wilkerson 57). This sample of the people who were involved is very accurate, as blacks were trying to work for their civil rights during this period. Males throughout history have always been seen as more violent, and this sample proves this point. Throughout Song of Solomon violence is seen time and time again, and it can be seen throughout this book the difference in who partakes in these violent events. Every person who is involved in the seven days is a male, and along with this, the only people who partake in the hunt of the bobcat are males. Women’s roles were is essence never defined by them but rather resulted due to the absence of men due to greater world conflicts.
When their husbands went off to fight in World War II, it was necessary for many women to replace them in their jobs. During this time, there was also a huge increase in women working as nurses. After the war, most women stopped working and went back to their roles as housewives, raising children and keeping house. It was the social norm of married women to worry only about their duties in the home, and some employers even prohibited the hiring of married women. Many women did not even want to have a job because it was too difficult to have a job and maintain their job at home. However, some women were motivated by the past decades’ economic turmoil to keep or get a job. Working women held traditionally-female jobs such as secretaries, teachers, in retail, and mostly nurses. Female nurses in the 1950s (primarily white and not married) encouraged other women to work, especially those who had previously worked as nurses. Since there was a need for nurses, employers stopped prohibiting the hiring of married women, and part-time work was introduced into American society. Married mothers were now more open to the idea of working if it meant they could work while their children were in school. This was a major factor in the increase in women’s employment in the 1950s.
Our research shows that American women, especially African American women, had little to no say in their lives. It was common place for many women to feel left behind as their husbands, father, or brothers were allowed to go out into the world and make something of themselves. Women were thought of as pieces of furniture within the household, having no other use outside of that setting. Robinson addresses these ideas through her use of female characters in Song of Solomon. Robinson explicitly addresses this idea during Lena’s long speech in which she chastises Milkman for thinking he has any right to dictate the course of her life.
Faue, Elizabeth. Community of Suffering & Struggle: Women, Men, and the Labor Movement in Minneapolis, 1915-1945. Gender & American culture. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1991. Print.
Graham, Hugh Davis. The Public Historian. University of California Press, 1980.
Irons, Charles F. The Cult of Domesticity, Southern Style. Reviews in American History 38.2 (2010): 253-258. Project MUSE. Madison, WI. 18 Aug. 2010 < http://muse.jhu.edu/>.
Watson, JH. Cult of Domesticity and the Lifestyle of Victorian American-women. Nineteenth Century, 7.4 (1982): 37-39.
Wilkerson, Martha, and Dominic J. Capeci Jr. The Detroit Rioters of 1943: A Reinterpretation. Michigan Historical Review. Central Michigan University, 1990.
Women’s jobs were to maintain the household, a role that was ascribed to them throughout the 20th century. Women were made out to be “delicate flowers” that needed to be protected from the evils of the working world. The cult of domesticity was a southern ideal that held that a modern woman needed to be “domesticated” and elegant, therefore the only suitable position for her was to be submissive to her husband while maintaining the household. This ideal was most common among southern plantation wives. In the north more women took factory jobs to fill shortages brought on by World War II. These all-women factory jobs were considered a way to foster the ideal woman who would still be expected to conform to the norms of the cult of domesticity. These factories offered forms of education, residence within the factory, and strict schedules that the female workers were expected to follow (Watson 38). This was also seen as a way to get women out of their parents’ house until they were married giving them a trade to help them earn extra money. It was not designed to permanently integrate them into the workforce by any means. In the south, if a woman were to take a job she was expected to be a maid in a household, as seen with Corinthians in Song of Solomon. However, most women were simply expected to make the man of the house’s life easier. Southern women were less likely to find themselves in factory work at all as they held onto the ideals of the cult of domesticity more strictly than northern women did. The difference between northern and southern women is a nuanced picture in this book. Images of violence help explain more clearly the roles women played during a time when men were making the rules.
Violence is a major theme of Song of Solomon. Throughout all of America’s history, violence has played a major role in everyday society. This was especially present during the riots that occurred between the 1940’s – 1960’s. Most of these riots occurred because of race and civil rights. Another part of these riots, and all other violence during this time, was who partook in all of these violent acts. “The typical rioter was a young black male,” (Graham 16). Usually the only time women were involved in violent acts during this time was when they committed a non-violent crime such as larceny, or when they were the victim to rape or some sort of sexual harassment. In The Detroit Rioters of 1943: A Reinterpretation, they took a sample of the people who were arrested in the riots to get an idea of what kind of people were involved in these riots. Of the 246 people that they analyzed, almost 88% were African-American, and 95% of them were males (Wilkerson 57). This sample of the people who were involved is very accurate, as blacks were trying to work for their civil rights during this period. Males throughout history have always been seen as more violent, and this sample proves this point. Throughout Song of Solomon violence is seen time and time again, and it can be seen throughout this book the difference in who partakes in these violent events. Every person who is involved in the seven days is a male, and along with this, the only people who partake in the hunt of the bobcat are males. Women’s roles were is essence never defined by them but rather resulted due to the absence of men due to greater world conflicts.
When their husbands went off to fight in World War II, it was necessary for many women to replace them in their jobs. During this time, there was also a huge increase in women working as nurses. After the war, most women stopped working and went back to their roles as housewives, raising children and keeping house. It was the social norm of married women to worry only about their duties in the home, and some employers even prohibited the hiring of married women. Many women did not even want to have a job because it was too difficult to have a job and maintain their job at home. However, some women were motivated by the past decades’ economic turmoil to keep or get a job. Working women held traditionally-female jobs such as secretaries, teachers, in retail, and mostly nurses. Female nurses in the 1950s (primarily white and not married) encouraged other women to work, especially those who had previously worked as nurses. Since there was a need for nurses, employers stopped prohibiting the hiring of married women, and part-time work was introduced into American society. Married mothers were now more open to the idea of working if it meant they could work while their children were in school. This was a major factor in the increase in women’s employment in the 1950s.
Our research shows that American women, especially African American women, had little to no say in their lives. It was common place for many women to feel left behind as their husbands, father, or brothers were allowed to go out into the world and make something of themselves. Women were thought of as pieces of furniture within the household, having no other use outside of that setting. Robinson addresses these ideas through her use of female characters in Song of Solomon. Robinson explicitly addresses this idea during Lena’s long speech in which she chastises Milkman for thinking he has any right to dictate the course of her life.
Faue, Elizabeth. Community of Suffering & Struggle: Women, Men, and the Labor Movement in Minneapolis, 1915-1945. Gender & American culture. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1991. Print.
Graham, Hugh Davis. The Public Historian. University of California Press, 1980.
Irons, Charles F. The Cult of Domesticity, Southern Style. Reviews in American History 38.2 (2010): 253-258. Project MUSE. Madison, WI. 18 Aug. 2010 < http://muse.jhu.edu/>.
Watson, JH. Cult of Domesticity and the Lifestyle of Victorian American-women. Nineteenth Century, 7.4 (1982): 37-39.
Wilkerson, Martha, and Dominic J. Capeci Jr. The Detroit Rioters of 1943: A Reinterpretation. Michigan Historical Review. Central Michigan University, 1990.
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Tony Morrison’s Song of Solomon reiterates the concept of violence throughout the novel. The reader witnesses violence as force that is motivated by a myriad of emotions, ranging from love to a rudimentary desire for balance and equity, as expressed by Guitar’s actions involving the Seven Days. These actions are those somewhat paralleled by real-world events, but can be seen most apparently in White mob violence and Black retaliation.
In addition to the historical significance of racial violence, one can observe equally intriguing (and admittedly horrifying) philosophical connotations that stem from racial tension. While it is indisputable that the majority of race related violence is a result of bigotry and ignorance, the underlying motivations for these acts of violence echo philosophical musings concerning social dynamics. When viewed in terms of Hobbesian theory, racial violence assumes an interesting role as a form of “extra-legal justice” (Austin 162), acting as a means of social control implemented by a racial majority. If one considers post-Reconstruction lynching, for example, it is clear that these instances of violence were, in part, motivated by a desire to subjugate African Americans and restrict their movement. These actions are conspicuous, tangible representations of Hobbes’ conception of human nature as a struggle for dominance. In the same manner that displays of violent dominance are used as a means of subjugation, one must also consider their role as a means of liberation. Retaliatory violence can thus be seen as the corollary to racial violence – a response that is reminiscent of the Seven Days organization in Morrison’s novel.
Among the frequent reasons that have been cited by African Americans as motivation for violent action, the reason of self-defense is relatively common. In history, African American communities were constantly put under the threat of racial violence. One threat that African Americans faced is lynching, an extrajudicial execution carried out by mobs in most cases due to racial prejudices. As a result, African Americans tried to resist and protect their families, often fleeing in order to avoid confrontation with White mobs, which could result in deaths of their friends or relatives who might be targeted by lynching. In most cases they were caught by the mob while trying to escape. Due to their lack of social and legal influence, they did not have many choices but to fight back fiercely to protect themselves. In another case, in Little Italy, Cleveland, Ohio an African American fatally shot a White American because of the fear of being attacked. This event happened shortly after the Hough Riot, which killed four African Americans and critically injured another thirty. After this event, African American men in the community met and established and armed guard force to cruise around during the night to protect the community and they were all highly alerted about the possibility of being attacked by Whites.
Black response to white mob violence was a very controversial topic even into the mid-1900s. Many cases where violence was used, ended in the prosecution of a member of the Black community, often with denial of any legal action afterwards. In the case of Rosa Lee Ingram, who claimed to be the victim of unwanted sexual advances from a white man, her retelling of the incident was completely ignored. Upon denying his advances, the man drew his gun; at which point her sons attacked the man to defend their mother. The sons were tried and convicted of murder, and were eventually given the sentence of life in prison, though they received parole in 1959. Events such as this tie heavily into Song of Solomon, as the text outlines situations where Whites who committed heinous, unjustifiable crimes (such as the murder of Macon Dead) go unpunished, contrasting with the real world where perfectly justifiable Black defense to White violence is, with no contemplation, sentenced heavily. In the case of Jim Robinson, police raided his church due to accusations that he preached hoodoo and held “wild orgies”. During the raid, a struggle occurred in defense of Robison between two Black men and a White police officer, ending with the officer being shot and killed. In response, the two men were executed, and though he escaped the event, Robinson was later caught and killed as well. Events such as this show the horrid and violent crimes of Whites being ignored in spite of the fact that Blacks took action in self-defense.
Racial violence depicted in Tony Morrison’s Song of Solomon roots from racial tension and reveals philosophical connotations of desire to impose control on African Americans using extrajudicial systems. The violence, which results in the self-defense efforts of African Americans, ultimately evolved into retaliation from African Americans. These preemptive “self-defense” actions from African American unknowingly gave sympathy to White crimes against Blacks in the same period. To make sure this issue won’t be repeated in the future, an effective legal system must be enforced to protect African Americans and the government should support the Black community to establish their social position.
References:
Austin, A. "Race and Lethal Forms of Social Control: A Preliminary Investigation into Execution and Self-help in the United States, 1930-1964." Crime Law and Social Change, 45.2 (2006): 155-164.
Hill, Karlos. "Resisting Lynching: Black Grassroots Responses to Lynching in the Mississippi and Arkansas Deltas, 1882-1938." Www.ideals.illinois.edu. Web. 25 Oct. 2010.
Race, Violence, and Urban Territoriality : Cleveland's Little Italy and the 1966 Hough Uprising, Todd M. Michney, Journal of Urban History 2006 32: 404
Shapiro, Herbert. White Violence and Black Response: from Reconstruction to Montgomery. Amherst: University of Massachusetts, 1988. Books.google.com. Web. 25 Oct. 2010.
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Katrina, Ryan S. Ryan W. Research Paper
Racism is a central theme in Song of Solomon. The novel takes place in Michigan in the 1930s and understanding the historical context surrounding the novel is critical for understanding the meaning of the story. Michigan has been the center of much turmoil from racism in our nation’s history. Michigan was home to many important figures in black civil rights history such as Ralph Bunche, Fannie Richards, and William Ferguson, and was also the location of the Detroit Riots (Absolute Michigan). According to The Origins of the Urban Crisis: Race and Inequality if Postwar Detroit, by Thomas Sugrue, “The problems of limited housing, racial animosity, and reduced economic opportunity for a segment of the black population in Detroit had led to embitterment,” (260-261). During the early twentieth century, times were difficult for black Americans. The unemployment rate was high, housing opportunities were scarce, and discrimination was high (Sugrue 260-264). Housing conditions were so bad, in fact, that according to Andrew Wiese in Places of Their Own: African American Suburbanization in the Twentieth Century, “Racist application of [land use] regulations closed the door on development for blacks, and the enforcement of sanitary regulations led to the demolition of existing housing,” (97). The Detroit riots also shaped the civil rights landscape of Michigan. The violent riots demonstrated that the discrimination against black population was still great and that these people were growing increasingly discontent (Sugrue 260).
During the 1920’s, Michigan saw a substantial increase in African American population due to the industrial labor movement as a result of Henry Ford’s factories. Along with this migration came an increase in racial violence against African Americans. In 1910, Detroit’s black population was 5,700(1.2%) and reached 81,000(5.9%) by 1925 (Widick 25). Through these years, blacks gained power and black professionals began to leave the ‘Black Bottom’ slums. However, out of fear that a black population would bring down property values, there was frequent violence against these new residents (Boyle 109). The extent of this violence discouraged many blacks from ever leaving the slums, out of fear for their family’s safety. Along with the African American migrants came poor southern whites looking to work in the factories. This created an uneasy environment comparable to that of the south, which attracted Ku Klux Klan activity in the north (Widick 27). During the Great Depression, great numbers of blue-collar workers in Michigan lost jobs. This loss increased job discrimination against blacks as white employers laid off blacks first and hired them back last. The unemployment among Detroit blacks reached 80%(Widick 44). During subsequent black marches demanding employment, police brutality against blacks was common. In some cases, the police fired hundred’s of shots at demonstrators at point-blank range (Widick 49). By the 1930’s, racial violence was commonplace in Michigan due to racism, desire for segregation, and class inequalities.
One of the major themes in the novel Song of Solomon is music. In the book, Toni Morrison used music as an expression of trauma. This can be compared to something known as the “talking cure”, a term first noted by Anna O, a hysteric suffering from trauma. According to the notes recorded by Sigmund Freud and Josef Breuer, Anna started off experiencing delusions and hallucinations and by the end of the day, was able to understand what was going on and give a vivid description of her trauma (Vivis 256). The music in the Song of Solomon and other works by Morrison often describe some trauma. For example, the first time a song is used in the book is when Mr. Smith was preparing to jump off of Mercy Hospital. The song could be said to represent the pain and trauma that Mr. Smith was experiencing.
“It was a genuinely clarifying public notice because it gave Southside residents a way to keep their memories alive and please the city legislators as well. They called it Not Doctor Street, and they were inclined to call the charity hospital at the northern end No Mercy Hospital since it was 1931…before the first colored expectant mother was allowed to give birth inside its wards and not on its steps. The reason for this hospital’s generosity to that particular woman was not the fact that she was the only child of the Negro doctor, for during his entire professional life he had never been granted hospital privileges and only two of his patients were ever admitted to Mercy, both white. It must have been Mr. Smith’s leap from the roof over their heads that made them admit her.”
Now knowing what we do about the historical context of the story regarding violence and racism, and also understanding the historical context of the theme of music, we appreciate better the meaning of this passage in relation to the text. We can now see that a reason for the pregnant woman not being admitted to the hospital was because of the racism and violence that was the relationship between races in Michigan at the time. Mr. Smith’s leap and the music that was sung at the time of this could be an expression of the trauma he has experienced from living in a time surrounded by this discrimination.
Boyle, Kevin. Arc of justice: a saga of race, civil rights, and murder in the Jazz Age. New York: Henry Holt and Co., 2004.
“Michigan’s Rich African American Past.” Absolute Michigan. Leelanau Communications Inc., 2010. Web. 19 Oct. 2010.
Sugrue, Thomas J. The Origins of the Urban Crisis: Race and Inequality in Postwar Detroit. N.p.: Princeton University Press, 1996. ACLS Humanities E-Book. Web. 19 Oct. 2010.
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