(Im)Possibilities

With the development of Ricky Rice’s pregnancy in LaValle’s Big Machine, I thought it the perfect moment to reflect on one of my favorite readings from this semester, Butler’s sci-fi short story “Bloodchild”. If you’ll recall, Butler dismisses the notion that her story alludes to slavery in the afterword, which sparked controversy in the class from those who read it as such.

“It amazes me that some people have seen ‘Bloodchild’ as a story of slavery. It isn’t.”

While I read “Bloodchild” as a love/coming-of-age story, and perhaps I’ll write a blogpost outlining why I agree with her assessment, I’m more interested in an author or artist’s right to control the interpretation of their work post-release. Continue reading “Possession, Interpretation, and Octavia Butler’s Bloodchild”

The other day in class, we were asked to form small groups and discuss The Last Angel of History in conjunction with our course readings and concepts. Even though I had scribbled down several notes and quotes during our viewing of the film, I was not sure where to start or what to say. I had a bit of trouble following the film’s trajectory, but have since been actively trying to ground myself in any way I can.

Continue reading ““Straddling” Between Genres”

Big Machine by Victor LaValle has easily become one of my favorite books to read in my whole academic career. If it weren’t for all the analytical discussions we had in class, carefully examining every literary detail of the book, I would have never developed this deep appreciation or interest I have now. Even though I respect the book, that doesn’t mean I appreciate the theme behind it, which may be the intention. From what I theorized from the readings our class had so far, I think that the ‘big machine’ in question is institutions in our society that ordinary people have questioned. The skepticism citizens hold against the government, religion, and other organizations with huge support could be the driving force behind the very success of sustaining these institutions. If doubt is the big machine, then LaValle could be alluding to how institutions in our society operate and should be brought into question.

Continue reading “Doubt is the Big Machine”

Please let me preface this by saying that I want this post to be broad, so that my fellow peers may have their own interpretations of what I have chosen to focus on.

Throughout our reading of the novel, religion has been at the forefront of our conversation, and it is an aspect of the novel that intrigues me. Being raised in the Baptist church and being a part of a youth program that required me to memorize Bible verses (for prizes of course), I found myself comparing passages or events in the reading from the past week to those that are in the Bible.
When I first began to notice the Biblical aspects of the novel was when Ricky is talking about the Washerwomen, “Christianity filtered through the wisdom of three women, three sisters from Jacksonville, Florida” (104). At first, when I was reading about the Washerwomen it sounded very odd to me (aside from the fact that they were a cult), but there was also as part of me that equates them as the ‘modern’ version of Jesus’ twelve disciples.
Another example was, “The Whisper created suns and planets, insects and beasts, right before the Heurequeque’s eyes. A single breath from the Whisper’s lips, and deer appeared in the world. Venus was created with a hum” (264). I saw this to be very clearly mimicking Genesis, the first book in the Bible, specifically chapter one, “In the beginning God created the heaven and the Earth…And the Earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters…And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day” (Genesis 1:1,2,31). It is shocking to me that this novel revolves so much around religion given the traumatic experiences Ricky has with the washerwomen.
I am hoping that with the ending of the novel there is finally answers as to how Ricky was able to cope with the events that happened in the staircase, and how he is able to trust religion after. Or, maybe because of the tragic events Ricky is needing to rely on God more than ever?

As the end of the semester approaches and I write my final blog post, I am beginning to reflect on the beginning of the semester and how I felt about the idea of blogging for this class as opposed to writing the traditional essays that I’m used to. Continue reading “A Blog Post About Blog Posts”

The Americans are a brave, industrious, and acute people; but they have hitherto given no indications of genius, and made no approaches to the heroic, either in their morality or character….Where are their Foxes, their Burkes, their Sheridans, their Windhams, their Horners, their Wilberforces?—where their Arkwrights, their Watts, their Davys?—their Robertsons, Blairs, Smiths, Stewarts, Paleys and Malthuses?—their Porsons, Parts, Burneys, or Blomfields?—their Scotts, Campbells, Byrons, Moores, or Crabbes?—their Siddonses, Kembles, Keans, or ONeils—their Wilkies, Laurences, Chantrys?—or their parallels to the hundred other names that have spread themselves over the world from our little island in the course of’ the last thirty years, and blest or delighted mankind by their works, inventions, or examples?

—Sydney Smith, “Who Reads an American Book?” 1820

I knew I wanted to write something about monuments, and so I went back to the syllabus to try and find a way to connect my thoughts to the texts of the course. This quote, monumental in itself, immediately stood out to me. To me, this quote is trying to “define” American culture, to assign America a monolith identity or character. What makes this quote especially humorous to me is that Smith can only seem to understand American culture through his own critical lens. Smith’s quote suggests that the only indication of genius is a resemblance to the Great Figures who have come before. This perception seems counterintuitive to the way I think about genius, as a spark of something entirely new, but I can’t say it’s not a perspective I’ve encountered in academia.

Continue reading “America the Monument”