Vacation Reading

I am in Playa del Carmen mexico. The air is warm, the water is turquoise and the overall atmosphere is relaxing... divinely so.
We are renting a house about 30 steps from the water's edge, and I am sitting on the refreshingly cool tile floor in the living room because I can't pick up the wireless connection and thus have to plug the computer into the wall. I just had the need to come inside out of the sun and blog.

Oddly enough, I chose to spend time on the first two days in paradise reading a story that describes exactly the opposite - war. I started reading this story on the plane and turned the final page about 2 hours ago - the book is completed but I know the story will remain in my mind for quite some time. For those of you who don't know me, I am a Starbucks freak and consequently for the past several months everyday when I go in for my iced venti non-fat latte, I have had the cover of A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier staring back at me from the register. Having heard stories of boy soldiers, and recent depictions of their experiences through movies like "Blood Diamond" I felt the need to become globally aware on the issue.

Ishmael Beah wrote his memoirs that outline, in my opinion, three key periods of his life - before his involvement in Sierra Leone's civil war, during his time as a soldier and his rehabilitation and integration into society following his military years.

Bottom line - the story was heartwrenching, fascinating and very hard but most of all I feel like it opened my eyes further to what is really going on around the world (and what we don't hear about in the everyday news in the US - that is why I enjoy Anderson Cooper so much)! When I think about Ishmael's story, I feel helpless in some respects. What can I possibly do to help spark the change needed in the world to end such attrocities? Perhaps I need to find time to donate to such global issues - but I don't know where to start...... Any suggestions?

I have convinced myself that I will meet Ishmael Beah and in some way join his quest to stop people from tearing the childhood out of children's lives around the world.

Big Love and why I Big Love HBO

So, with the end of Six Feet Under a few years back, I mourned. It was a tough time for me - my Sunday nights just weren't complete without the Fischers on my TV screen. I was convinced that HBO would never recapture what they had. On top of that, Curb Your Enthusiasm was canceled, Sex and the City was long gone and Rome didn't look like it was coming back (yet it did to my delight). When Big Love started last year I refused to watch. It just didn't interest me and it could never compare to its predecessor.

Last week a friend of mine at work was talking about how he just completed watching the 1st season of Big Love and that I should definitely watch. I caved and now I'm hooked.

What is it about HBO's programming selections that make them so appealing and even addictive? My theory is that it helps all of us "run of the mill" viewers to embrace our inner "freak." See, I am NOT a fan of labels - I actually find them limiting. Case and point literary movements (what actually defines a literary movement?) political parties in the US (citizens tend to say they are one or the other and are hesitant to branch out past these two categories) and dare I say religion?! I think that "freak" is a negative word in most contexts, but I think that we should steal it back and make it something positive, because being different is in fact a positive thing. I digress.

HBO takes characters who, by all socio-political classification, do not live "normal" lives and tells their stories in "normal" ways leaving many viewers intrigued. The Sopranos, for example, tells the story of a mob family who kills at will and gets away with it, yet humanizes the characters through Tony Soprano's therapy sessions, and his marital woes with his wife Carmella. Six Feet Under did not have one single character that did not have some sort of issue (sex-addiction, physical illness, mental illness, sexual identity crisis, self-esteem issues, rage, etc.) yet they all functioned and loved each other without judgement thus persuading us to love them too! Big Love takes a polygamous Mormon family and shows us their lives in the context of suburbia, not the rural compounds we have come to read about with the arrest of Warren Jeffs several months ago.

In watching these shows, HBO allows us to step back and look at our lives and shed some light on our life situations and sometimes even say, "What they think of me, doesn't really matter at all! I am who and what I am!" HBO does not judge, nor should we.

Many, however, are concerned that these care-free representations of "deviant" people are harmful because they encourage deviance in our society. I agree that there is a risk that someone watches the Sopranos and fanticizes about putting someone through a meat grinder but will they act on it? Do they act on it? Whose responsibility is it to ensure that they don't? Their parents, their teachers, their doctors... not TVs. Regardless, I think that the educated viewer can see this programming for its positive attributes.

Another intriguing aspect to HBO's programming is the same as the intrigue with reality TV (and Realism in literature) and that is that we are ALL, deep down, voyeurs who would love to be a fly on the wall in someone's life. The classic sitcoms of the 80s and 90s (or even before if you care to go back that far) do not accomplish the realistic elements necessary to intrigue the peeping tom inside all of us. They don't show any realistic situation, the characters are simply that - characters. HBO manages to make them real people, to transport them from the screen into our living rooms and consequently our lives.

Anyway - if you haven't seen Big Love or Six Feet Under run (NOT WALK) to your computer, put it on your Netflix queue (Or go to the video store), and get the DVD. It is well worth the effort!

Great video

Another fun one for the semester's end.

The embedded video won't play, so you will have to link to the site:

http://funnyordie.com/v1/view_video.php?viewkey=3efbc24c7d2583be6925

Enjoy, everyone!

"Abortion is Illegal" Applying Brecht's Criticism to Modern America

In class on Monday, we discussed Marxism with Dr. Rings, specifically the Marxist perspective evident in the German Theater and Music of Brecht.
We listened to and analyzed the music that Brecht wrote, and I had the pleasure to work on his song, "Abortion is Illegal" (AII). The lyrics, despite only being sung by one person, depict a conversation between a pregnant woman who doesn't have any place to live, and a Doctor.

Here are some of the lyrics:

"Well, doctor, it's my period.

Why, you should just be glad
The population figures are getting a little boost.

But, doctor, we have no place to live.

But you've a bed, I'm sure, so chin up, little lady!
Don't overwork for a spell.
You're going to be a lovely little mother,
You're going to make a hunk of cannon fodder.
It's what your belly's for
And that's no news to you and what else can you do?
And now do not squall:
You're having the baby, that's all.

Well, doctor, an unemployed man, now he mustn't have a child.

But, woman, that's just an added incentive for the man!

But doctor.

Please Misses Renner, I can't quite follow you now.
Our country, you know, needs people to man the big machines!
You're going to be a lovely little mother,
Youre going to make a hunk of cannon fodder.
It's what your belly's for..."

The song goes on, but that gives you a taste...

The marching rhythem of the song (particularly when the Dr. is responding) evokes a military chant, a call to arms for women to provide the government with children to fight their wars. Sound familiar???

In the US today, abortion is a huge moral debate. The argument is often tied directly to the Church and the religious right. However, a Marxist approach to today's reality could be considered valid. We are fighting 2 wars (Afghanistan and Iraq), we hear constantly that there are not enough soldiers, enough supplies, enough money, enough cause, etc. for these wars, but the President is pushing to overturn Roe V. Wade and make abortion illegal in the US. Like in the song, poverty is not an argument for abortion. It doesn't matter, in the US (according to some), if you are poor and pregnant, it is your duty as a woman to have a baby. The poverty levels in the US climb yearly, as 16 year old girls get pregnant and can't support their children, as people unexpectedly lose their jobs, etc.

It is an interesting perspective, and one to ponder a bit....

------- Update on May 01 -------


Amazing how things fall in place... I love it.

I was flipping through the profiles of people on myspace who went to my High School in Tenafly NJ. I came across the profile of a graduate from 2004 who is currently serving in Iraq. As you may or may not know, on Myspace, there is a free text box for one to indicate his/her occupation.

What did this soldier have listed under his occupation?

Cannon Fodder

The "Boom" and le Nouveau Roman

This week in class, we spoke about the Latin American "Boom" novel. Characterized by a non-chronological storyline and drawing the reader into the text (amongst other things). The conversation amongst the French students shifted to one of comparison between this movement and the French "Nouveau Roman" specifically to Michel Butor's "La Modification."

Like "The Cubs," Butor plays with narration and the chronology to draw the reader into the text (making the reading "active"). "La Modification" is written in the 2nd person formal "vous" (the equivalent of "you" in English), so the reader feels like they are actually doing the movements of the narrator, Leon. "You push the door with your arm." and "You put your suitcase on the rack, etc...." The symbolic internal modification of Leon happens when he is on a train thinking about his past and his options for the future. The story bounces back and forth between present and past - the only indication of the present being the rain on the train's window, or the train stopping at one of the many stations on the way. All in all, a very interesting book and reading experience.

Having read "100 years of Solitudue" by Gabriel Garcia-Marquez (amongst other books of his that I love), I was glad to read "A Old Man with Enormous Wings." The juxtaposition with the magical (Celestial) and man throughout the story was interesting. The idea that this man could be an angel, or he could just be a man with wings played with the notion that we all have labels that are not necessarily true. I can't help but think of Saussure's "Signified" and "Signifier" - The word "Angel" signifies celestial being with wings, however mysterious being with wings does not necessarily signify "Angel."

Anyway - I enjoyed the class discussion.

Laments of a Hokie Brother

I have been glued to the computer - switching between CNN.com, facebook messages with my cousin, Rachael, who is a student at Virginia Tech, and e-mails from my brother, a Virginia Tech Alum. I have read accounts of policemen and volunteer EMTs moving bodies as their cellphones and PDAs rang and vibrated in their pockets. I have read the mini-biographies of the brilliant faculty and hardworking students who died at the hands of one individual, and I have shed tears at just the thought of the loss their friends and families must feel.

When my brother started studying at Virginia Tech, our house was innondated with Hokie Gear, our cars covered in "Hokie Parents" "Hokie Brother" "Hokie Sister" "Hokie Grandparent" decals. We hung the maroon and orange banner in front of our house with pride and watched Hokie Football as if we had all attended the university. Whenever we would go down to visit, we could tell when we were getting close to campus because of the barns painted with the Tech logo, the license plates showing their school pride, and the fact that almost anyone we saw was wearing VT shirts, shorts, hats, or any other combination of clothing. The spirit on campus was palpable.

Today, the emptiness, the anger, the loss and the sadness have replaced that spirit.

One of the fallen Hokies (as per CNN.com) was a political science and French major from Dumont New Jersey - one town over from where I grew-up - named Matthew LaPorte. Another, an International Studies and French Major from WestTown New York named Caitlin Hammaren. These victims were people, with pasts and futures that were ripped from them at the hands of one deranged individual.

My brother knew the engineering faculty killed - and stated that his eyes watered everytime he thought about the incident.

Mine do too.......

To all Hokies out there - Keep the spirit of Tech alive, rise up in the face of violence, and hold the memory of your fallen camarades close to your hearts.

PoCo Inc.

Let me start off by saying how much I enjoy the abbreviations of literary movements, such as Post(-)Colonialism = PoCo, Postmodernism = PoMo, etc. I wish we could always just speak in abbreviation... that would be fun.

Having read an article on PoCo, and reading Cesaire's "Cahier...." I couldn't help but think to the future. With the onslaught of cultural colonization resulting from technological advancements, multi-national industry, and the fluidity of the world's population will we get to a point where all texts can be considered Postcolonial?

Today there are many examples of texts in which the author strives to overcome or define him/herself in terms of national pride, a return to cultural origins, racial identity etc. in contrast to the ideals of the cultural colonizer. In recent years, several French texts (often classified as anti-american) place the French culture in a position of priveledge with relation to the USA (or many other nationalities). Is this truly anti-anyone, or is it pro-national pride? Perhaps such texts could be read from a PoCo point of view in which the French author is trying to call for both national pride in the face of American cultural influence.

Along the same lines, what types of literature will come out of Iraq in the coming years (or any of the US "Petrol Colonies" as the foreign press would say)? How will this literature be regarded on a global scale? As the predominant colonizer in the world today, how do we as Americans deal with such criticism? (Hopefully we will not simply blow the "colony" up... that seems like the default reaction nowadays).

In a period in which everyone feels the need to define themselves with religious, sexual, national, political (and on and on) labels, perhaps the world could benefit from some international perspective. Labels are limiting, and can even be dangerous. Therefore, perhaps the world population can learnto embrace change without giving up heritage. It is important for everyone (colonizer and colonized) to realize that identity and change are not mutually exclusive.


Anyway- just my 2 cents on Co and PoCo. (Stay tuned. In my next blog I will discuss Petco, Movie Trading Co. and Geiko). =0)