A blog for SUNY Geneseo students and faculty interested in American Studies
As many of my classmates have stated: it seems only appropriate to end this blog posting assignment with a reflection on what I have already done. Specifically, I’d like to look back on my first blog post of the semester.
“Doubt is the big machine. It grinds up the delusions of women and men.” — Victor Lavalle, Big Machine
Continue reading ““Looking Back While Pushing Forward…” A Reflection”
In class discussion yesterday, Maria Papas brought up this passage from Big Machine to support her argument that the book does not glorify substance abuse:
“Go and tell someone the worst thing about yourself. Cheated on a husband. Abused your child. Or, like in my case, that you’ve been addicted to heroin for half your life. Just tell them that and nothing else. You find that people come up with an entire history based on that one fact. They assume the worst about you.” p.95
To me, this quote speaks about perception and first impressions, a topic I’ve written about before and am interested in. Immediately I was reminded of the quote I picked out last Friday from Big Machine
“The face of goodness may surprise you.” p.265
By Lindsey “Yee” Kriaris and Abby “Haw” Ritz
Last semester, we participated in an independent art exhibit with some of our mutual friends (Marty Benzinger, Clio Lieberman, Sabrina Saleta, Maddie Walker, and Natalie Hayes). This was actually how Lindsey and I first met! We all had certain things in common: we liked art and we liked to make art in our free time, but none of us had ever participated in an art exhibition before. We gathered as a group throughout the semester, and brainstormed potential themes. Something that could not only apply to all of us individually, but something that could also apply to all of us as a group; a theme that would not only allow us to express all those things which we wanted to express but would allow us to express through the various different mediums with which we all worked. Everyone in the group had a different style, different medium, and different point of view. However, we all appreciated having a chance to promote art-making on campus. This was an entirely different artistic experience for both of us, predicated as it was on sharing what we made and considering what we made to be art, and thus, in turn, considering ourselves to be artists. Continue reading “Ceci n’est pas une artiste”
I definitely do not have an answer for anything I am about to express here, but it is something I am curious about. In his novel Big Machine, Victor Lavalle constantly engages in repetition and recursion. Many of the people and concepts that were introduced early (or earlier) in the novel travel with us until the very end… faith, doubt, the Washerwomen, Ricky’s relationship with his father… Even Peach Tree. Even the message, “Doubt is the big machine,” is right there on the last page. But what about the other machines?
Continue reading ““Doubt is the Big Machine…” but What About the Other Machines?”
Steve Prince is an educator, and artist, and a devoted Catholic who has made it his mission to spread this sense of remembrance to people and students across the world. His artworks are full of rhythm and movement, in still like frames that almost seem to capture every narrative referenced or self made. His common medium is usually printmaking. He uses linoleum cuts in order to create his pieces, a style of art where labor is intense. Usually his pieces are in black and white which contrasts normally, to the context of the pieces which are not so simply “black and white.” The pieces are usually commentary of our world’s histories and narratives. Entwined in his pieces is that of biblical symbolism that is influenced by Prince’s own faith and that which could be the faith of others like him. His works are powerful and tells of the constant struggle, beauty, and pain. Many pieces also tell of hope for the future and takes into account the sustainability, or balance, of the worlds societies, environment, and economy.
I value Prince’s work because he is working toward world progression in being able to confront our sour history, and he is trying to reach out to students, which I appreciate because his art gives hope and a platform to build conversation about the world and what needs to be changed.
Plant in Me Linocut 36″ x 22″
There have been many different names over the years for the genre of music known as spirituals. In addition to the names listed above, they have also been known as “sorrow” songs and “freedom” songs. I am interested in why these two adjectives, seemingly contrasting in meaning, have been used to describe the same type of music.
I’m currently taking American Visions: The Hero in Film with Professor Gillin. In this class we discussed the classic hero structure presented in Joseph Campbell’s The Hero With A Thousand Faces. This book analyzes in depth fairy tales and folk lore across many cultures, looking for similarities in the stories. Campbell boils down the structure of the classic hero adventure tale into segments.
I thought it would be fun to see if I could fit Ricky Rice’s character arc in LaValle’s big machine into Campbell’s theory. Continue reading “The Hero’s Journey”
Splinters by Amina Diakité
When the night splinters
Fractured by a sense of static
We open our eyes to a glimpse
Of warmth that touches our cheeks
To our chins
To see glass portray a picture of trees
Pierced by light of color
Through branches strong
We sink deep into the lush of comfortable
To only understand the confliction
Of being blessed for another day
Yet only wanting to pull at the silent and limp
Who stay in a sleep like death
Without darkness there would be no light
How blessed you must be to see the light
If only they knew that light could blind
When reading this poem I couldn’t help but connect this bittersweet truth, to that of Plato’s Allegory of the Cave. The truth, is knowing the reasons for the disconnect between those within the Veil and outside of the Veil. This circumstantial analogy had popped up in the INTD class, the Art of Steve Prince in it’s comparison to W.E.B Dubois’s Veil which explains the implication of knowledge and the lack thereof. I felt it explained the allegory adequately which, also illuminates to real life situations. The allegory goes to explain a group of individuals who are forced to live in a cave, they are blind to what real life has to offer and are limited to what information they are told. One of the individuals is freed and is able to experience life in its entirety, later after enjoying freedom and realizing that everything they’ve learned had only been a fraction of what the world is actually about that freed individual goes back into the cave in order to help and explain to his captivated peers that what they have learned of the world is a lie, he will then try to help free them. The rest of the captivated individuals however get mad at the freed individual and in a group like fashion they decide to resist against what the freed individual is saying. Later the captivated create this trio that states that if anyone tried to take another person out if the cave then it would mean death for said deliverer. How does this connect to the real world and W.E.B. Du bois Veil? When we think about the Veil we get to understand that it serves as a dividing factor between the haves and the have nots. The have nots are the poor, impoverished, low skilled, undervalued, uneducated, and the have’s are everything but.
When someone from the have nots side makes it across the Veil you would expect for their to be celebration. But usual that individual is looked down upon, whether from jealousy or out of spite. There is this constant pulling and balancing of both worlds. The poem goes to relate to that constant balance and for the most part the imbalance where such disconnect between the two groups on either side of Du bois’s Veil. There should not be any disconnected when we look at this analogy. There should be no forced individuals who are made to spend the rest of their lives in caves, and there should be no gabble to hurt or dismiss an individual trying to help people leave the cave. People should be willing to leave there oppressive state and people not in the oppressive state should make it their duty to help those who are.
I’ve been pondering weather over the last couple weeks, mainly because our weather has been less than pleasant lately. In the not so distant past, humans didn’t have expansive scientific knowledge and understanding of geography, an aspect of which is the study of weather. Instead, in seeking to explain natural phenomena, past civilizations attributed these extraordinary events to the will of the gods or other supernatural beings. By the time the Abrahamic faiths rolled onto the scene, the basic default was to presume that it was God who controlled the weather. During the Middle Ages, Christianity was widespread throughout Europe along with the idea of divine providence or God’s intervention in the universe. This led to the belief that God was an omnipotent force who judged each person’s earthly deeds and respectively punished or rewarded within the mortal lifespan. An assumption was then formed that it was God’s will that the poor were poor because they were being punished for their wickedness and that the rich were rich because they were being rewarded for their piety. Thus, bad weather was a result of disfavor from God.
Upon first analyzing the picture below during our collaborative blog post, I did not know what to make of it. My group and I started off by trying to make out specific things we saw in the picture such as the watch in one of the horseman’s hand and what looks to be a shadow of a person behind the little girl. As I explained in our blog post, I stated that the older woman was reaching for the little girl while Alexis thought that the woman was reaching for the watch. I tied both of our assumptions together with Kazon and Devin stated that the little girl could be a depiction of the older woman. This made me think of how we are oblivious to what is around as children because we have yet to experience what the world has to offer. As we grow older and become wiser through things we have faced in life, we start to wish that we can go back in time and use what we know now to change the past. Continue reading “Old Lady in the Upper Room”