Like most lazy Sundays I spent time on my phone scrolling through Snapchat. To my surprise, the content was different from what I tend to see on a regular day basis which consists of selfies and video recordings of friends. There was a snapshot of where a girl by the name “Maddie” posts a picture of her or someone else wearing a face mask saying “Black face and sunsets with my bae” then followed by a “jk they’re face masks.” This picture re-appeared in over twenty snapchats followed by people’s disappointment over the snaps saying the post was insensitive and racist. That Thursday, the President’s Committee for Diversity and Equity held some drop in hours in which students could come by and discuss their feelings on the incident. During the drop in hours multiple students opened up about how they felt about this incident in front of many faculty members. A student shares that many people believe that they are allowed to do and or say things that are exclusive to a community because one single person of that community says they can or that they are not offended. However, it is important to understand that community members will not all react in the same way. These forms of complex friendships reminded me of Pat Parker’s poem, “For the white person who wants to know how be my friend.” Parker who was an African-American lesbian feminist poet and activist, has the speaker juxtapose many situations showing how complex these relationships may be.
What Role do Symbols and References Play in Literature?
Symbolism has always been a complex thing for me to grasp. My freshman year of college for one of my education classes I had to listen to a podcast that discussed standardized testing. Please note that I was unable to relocate this podcast online, so I will be discussing from my own memory. From what I can remember about this podcast it told the story of how a poem was published within a Texas State standardized test. When the poet of the particular poem saw the questions that were asked in relation to her poem she could not even answer some of the questions. For example, one of the questions regarding symbolism asked, “What does the color red of the door symbolize?” In the podcast the poet explained that picking red as the color of the door meant nothing, it was just the first color to pop into her head. In Jennifer Galvao’s blog post “What I Mean to Say Is…” she explores an idea that I believe this particular poet was probably feeling when she came across the standardized test questions. Jen writes, “every time I choose a word in my writing, I am unknowingly trying to find that symbiosis between content and form- a way to express what I mean. At the same time, going back to the ‘plugged in’ idea, the word I choose sometimes bears a meaning that I did not intend.” Connecting Jen’s astute thought to the story told in the podcast, it seems to me that the creators of the standardized test selected a meaning behind the red door that the poet did not even intend. Continue reading “What Role do Symbols and References Play in Literature?”
Bam! Distracted!
As I approach the end of the semester, I feel myself becoming overwhelmed with all the things we have due. As the sun comes out and the warmth surrounds us, it is so difficult to stay focused and push through. Today in McCoy’s class, we briefly discussed all the outside forces that can distract us and cause us to procrastinate. I thought this was interesting because distractions and disturbances surrounded us throughout the class, and I was paying careful attention to them. Continue reading “Bam! Distracted!”
The Pleasant, More Positive Narrative
The pressure to look and seem positive can be proven by societal expectations and through literature. The pressure to uphold a certain facial expression or narrative is consistently forced. One example of seeming positive can be shown when telling women to smile. Journalist Jess McHugh states, “You should smile more” isn’t just an annoying catcall; it’s a social demand.”
What I Mean to Say Is…
The goal I set for myself at the beginning of this semester was to more actively consider the practice of “doing language.” My conversations with Dr. McCoy have helpfully provided me with the metaphor of being “plugged in” to sockets that I am not aware of or did not consent to. Today’s exercises were a very useful literal example of “doing language” on the microscale—considering “thE” and “thUH,” considering whether a sound originates from my chest or from my throat. I don’t often think of language as such a physical, bodily process. Continue reading “What I Mean to Say Is…”
Saartjie Baartman: The Story of the Many Sides of Autonomy
(Trigger Warning: this blog post contains discussions of racialized sexual violence against black women.)
A figure who has come up A LOT in my scholarship this semester is Saartjie Baartman. Baartman, or the “original booty queen,” was “the most famous black woman in 19th-century Europe.” (In lieu of perma-linking the same article over and over again, I’m indicating now that the first permalink is the only source I’ll be quoting.) She was a native of South Africa and worked as a servant until she and her employer hatched a plan. They decided that they would go to Europe and “make [Saartjie] a star in the human freak show circuit.” Due to her large buttocks, she and her employers figured she’d become a hit in the eyes of western europeans who had never seen women like Saartjie up close, they’d only heard rumors which focused on the “exoticism” of eroticized body parts (read: longer labia and larger buttocks). Continue reading “Saartjie Baartman: The Story of the Many Sides of Autonomy”
Brockway the Artist
In my last blog post, I briefly touched on Glenn Ligon’s idea of “Send me something from where you are, but don’t come here.” In this statement, Ligon is describing the process of cultural appropriation and the troubling trend of black artists not receiving credit for the things they create. As I thought more about this idea, I began to wonder about how I could apply it to other works we have read throughout the semester. After re-reading a number of sources, I have the conclusion that Ligon’s statement is perfectly reflected in the chapter of Invisible Man that we read for class, particularly in Mr. Brockway. Continue reading “Brockway the Artist”
Half Glass Full…or Half Glass Empty?
The concept of recursion has been an ongoing theme in Dr. McCoy’s class. We are consistently going back, cross checking, and returning from where we came from. The first couple weeks of this class, I truly didn’t understand this process. I would say to myself, “Ok, never going to read that again”. However, I did not appreciate the work as much as I should have, and the more I return to our earlier work from the beginning of the semester, the more questions I have and want to be answered.
Sitting in my Foundations of Creative Writing class this past week, we were engaged in a class workshop where we critique each others work. One of my classmates wrote a poem about war and toyed with the word “creature”, ” The townspeople cry up to the metal creatures of the sky”, comparing airplanes in war as these “metal creatures of death”. Instantly, this word brought be back, almost like a “That’s So Raven” moment. I found myself sitting in McCoy’s class again, sweating from the over heated Welles room, watching the snowflakes fall, dreading having to walk in the cold. I started to remember our class discussion of creatures in “Bloodchild”, the power-hungry “creatures”….or are they? I eventually tuned back into class but went straight to our blog posts, digging for Toby’s post, “What Makes a Creature?”. I remember reading it and thinking “Ok, cool”, unaware that his post would inspire me months later. Recursion is real! Continue reading “Half Glass Full…or Half Glass Empty?”
This Is Not Making Paint
In Sarah-Anne Michel’s blog post, “This Is Not a Post,” for the Art of Steve Prince class, she presents analysis of one of my favorite works of art. “Treachery of Images” is a painting by Rene Magritte in 1928 in which the text seems to contradict the image. While the image is of a pipe, the French text underneath translates to, “This is not a pipe.” Magritte’s rationale for the text is that because the work depicts an image of a pipe, it is not in fact a pipe. I think Sarah-Anne sums up the complexity well with her statement, “words can mean what they say and not say what they mean.” In another context a reader may be presented with a text that faithfully describes the aesthetic of a pine tree. And yet, if the reader interprets, “This is a tree,” they are missing that it is the authors portrayal of a tree. The author’s unstated purpose may be to promote preservation of wildlife, so they may manipulate their portrayal of the pine tree to suit that purpose. It’s up to individual viewers/readers to be vigilant about interpreting how a work may mean more than it says.
Of the texts we have read so far, I think one that most clearly demonstrates the distinction between surface meaning and subtext is Chapter 10 of Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man. Continue reading “This Is Not Making Paint”
My Theory Between “Big Machine” and “Us”
During the “Into the Lungs of Hell” section in Big Machine, protagonist Ricky Rice is assigned by the Dean of Washburn Library to complete a mission in Garland, California. With the Gray Lady as his accomplice, Ricky was the chosen Unlikely Scholar to kill Solomon Clay, a former Scholar gone rogue. The Gray Lady informed Ricky that Solomon’s plan included assembling the homeless population to commit mayhem in society. I found it interesting that a Scholar picked a social class that is often disregarded in society to be his vengeful army to wreak havoc onto others. After reading this section, a light bulb went off for me, and that is how my theory of Jordan Peele’s Us relating to Big Machine came to be.
***Spoiler Alert: I will try my best not to spoil the movie for those of you who haven’t had the chance to see this movie yet. I will merely provide information from the film that relates to the book as an attempt to prevent revealing the ending. Continue reading “My Theory Between “Big Machine” and “Us””