Memories

 Listen to the song in another tab while reading, its a good song and is kind of related.
"Hey remember that time that we hiked up to that waterfall in the woods and dove off the top?"
"Yeah that was sweet! It was like 100 feet tall!"

I'm sure that you've heard a conversation like this before. A stark over exaggeration of the actual events that transpired is so common in society that we don't even realize it anymore. This romanticizing of the past is prevalent in society as well as in The Great Gatsby. Gatsby has an idea that "'...you can! [repeat the past]'" (110) He has blown up his memory of Daisy so much that she can never live up to his standards. He has had so much time to reflect on his time with Daisy that he kept remembering it better than it was, like the cliff in the example wasn't really 100 feet tall. Every time he thinks of her he remembers her better than before. Thus the sense of "nostalgia" he feels for her is very skewed because his memories are not pure and he has boosted what she was actually like. We as humans are all guilty of this. We all remember things better, or worse, than they were in order to make our lives more exciting. The truth is that only a few of us truly experience fun, amazing adventures that are worth remembering, and everyone else pretends that they have had fun things like that in their lives too. Gatsby has sailed "three times around the continent" (100) that's an adventure worth remembering. So the message today is that next time you can go adventuring or do something random and fun, do it. I know its cliché but life's too short man. Way too short.

Igorance is (not) Bliss

This week in class we talked about the 1920's and the era of extreme consumerism that developed during that time. Ignorance is bliss. This common, horrendously overused cliché could not be more relevant. Here are these happy people of the 1920's (pre stock market crash mind you) who are spending like there is no tomorrow. Now claiming that for these people that ignorance is bliss is absurd, because they had to live through the Depression post 1929. If this ignorance really is bliss, its a very temporary, very fragile bliss. These people cannot claim ignorance either, the National Thrift Committee published this warning; advising citizens to "invest carefully," and "make a budget," things that, if they did, they could have avoided the Depression. These 10 steps were supposed to lead to "Success and happiness" but instead they got the hardship of a deep recession. The people of the 1920's had warning signs, and they eventually had the hardships of the Depression. This makes it safe to say that they were neither ignorant nor blissful. If this isn't a sign for people today to be on the watch for these warnings, I don't know what is. The 1920's is a perfect example of how there is no possible way for ignorance to be bliss.

Rules Rules Rules

Punctuation is still highly valuable in the ever changing world that we live, as it allows us to connect to those in the future and understand those in the past.

Throughout the history of the United States, the Constitution and the rules which it lays out have remained constant. Sometimes in history it became necessary to make amendments and revisions; but the base meaning of the Constitution has remained the same. Just as it has been necessary for these laws to remain the same, it is crucial for the communication of people that punctuation stay in use. Through the base rules we can gather enough meaning from any piece of text to draw conclusions from it and understand the author's message. Digital communication and its code and lack of grammar has led to the, "downfall of literacy," (Hitchings) and the loss of expression among teenagers. The thought that punctuation isn't needed because poetry can function without out it is preposterous, writing can be divided into two subsections, creative expression and technical writing. In creative expression such as "On Punctuation" by Elizabeth Austen, Austen can convey to us as readers that she is not a fan of the "formality or tight-lipped fence/ of the colon," (Austen) as this is a simple thought and doesn't require definite limits on it. But if Dr. Lewis Thomas was writing instructions on how to take the prescription pill he gave a patient, I would feel more comfortable if he wrote with proper punctuation and grammar. The agreement between author and reader for the transfer of "grocery bags" (Dolenick) as the author gives the reader responsibility is crucial for the continuation of literature in society. We must not change the rules or usage of punctuation in today's society or else we will doom ourselves into a "dystopian [world]" (Hitchings).

Haunting Beauty

If you play the song I linked in the background it just adds to the atmosphere of the piece.

"Frieda lowered her head, too pleased to answer. I reached for it. He snapped his thumb and forefinger, and the penny disappeared. Our shock was laced with delight. We searched all over him, poking our fingers into his socks, looking up the inside of the back of his coat. If happiness is anticipation with certainty, we were happy. (page 16)
This passage is beautiful to me for many reasons. One is that it details none other than pure child excitement. Frieda and Claudia are probably the happiest that they have ever been, and they can forget all the other bad things going on in their life right in the moment. Every child deserves to get the chance to play and run and be a kid. Due to their situation Frieda and Claudia were forced to act 'adult' and 'proper.' A second reason that this piece speaks to me is that I enjoy the use of a simple basic magic trick to mesmerize the kids. It is interesting because one will often see something similar to this trick on TV being used to entertain kids of any race-typically white- but here we see it being used to entertain the two black girls. This is a nice cross-over of racial standards, and one that is probably over looked at a quick glance. Later in the passage Claudia says, "We loved him..." (16) in regards to Mr. Henry. It is strange for two little girls who have such a distant relationship with their parents to feel so close to a random stranger who walks through the door. It shows how isolated the girls really are, that they think they love a man whom they just met because he simply talks to them and amuses them. While this may seem like a negative thing, in my eyes it is a hauntingly beautiful comment on just how bad the girls situation really is. It is extremely scary thing but it is disguised in such a positive and happy story that it seems strange.

White "Guilt"

I'm a privileged white male. I was born into a well off family in a very prestigious suburb in south eastern Michigan. Being born a white male was no choice, it just happened. Just like I didn't choose for white people to start slavery years ago; just like I don't discriminate against women nor did I tell any other man to. In class the words "white standards" and "male ideals" are thrown around quite often, and with more scorn than you might realize. When you say that those are just the way "white people" see things, you're being a bit general, and dare I say racist. Yes I can see the sideways glances thrown my way because I am white and a guy. I can hear the accusatory undertone in your voice. I didn't choose for other whites to be bigoted, or to oppress women. All I'm asking is that when you continue to discuss how white men throughout history have been so terrible, you stop looking at me as if I'm one of them. You might not notice it but I am sure that the one other Caucasian male in the class knows what I mean because we've talked about it. It is hurtful, to be generalized for what others have done. "There are inequalities everywhere." (Williams) In his article Williams talks about how facts regarding women's and men's pay being unequal are used frequently but they are false and incomplete. "A study shows that female doctors earn only 64 percent of what male doctors earn. But it turns out that only 16 percent of surgeons are women, whereas 50 percent of pediatricians are women. Even though surgeons have put in many more years of education and training than pediatricians and earn higher pay" (Williams)  It is assumptions like these that hurt men. The first everyone blames is the white men and it is tiring, so please stop blaming me for the "standards of white men." I just want to not feel threatened while sitting in class, as does everyone else. So please stop pretending like I'm such a bad guy, just because of what other white people did in the past. Williams Article

Rap Music Messages

For the sake of decency I have linked to the clean version of the song. If you wish to find an un-edited version, it isn't hard to find.

Ok, lets talk about rap music. Rap and its overuse of the "N-word" as we discussed in class is obviously not a good thing, it's a misuse of such a terrible word. That isn't what I want to talk about though; what I want to talk about, is how rap as a genre is typically associated with "gangsta" and "ghetto" themes. This association given to rap walks hand in hand with a negative connotation. Yes, rap does have roots in tough urban streets, yes rap often uses many expletives, yes rap does typically objectify women, yes rap is often vulgar and violent. Despite all these negative things, rap can still teach us a lesson. It is inspired by the struggle, the work and the rough times faced by rappers. Rap is inspired by passion and yeah, sometimes that passion causes rappers to swear, or say vulgar things, but that doesn't mean we should count out rap as a genre. Lets examine the song "Runaway" by Kanye West. Runaway was released shortly after the Taylor Swift incident at the VMAs. While Kanye uses vulgar language in the chorus such as "a***ole" and "scumbag" and "do*****ag" he still wrote this song as an apology to Taylor. He uses such harsh language to highlight how he feels about his actions. "I I I I did it, alright alright I admit it, now pick your next move you can leave or live with it." Kanye, does his best to apologize in this line (he is highly egoistic and can't just say sorry but that's a different story)  and he succeeds in not only merging a meaningful message of sorrow but also creating a chart topping song. Kanye is a prime example of how rappers can mix foul language and insightful messages, showing that there is more to the genre than the words themselves. Much like an analysis of an essay, it is necessary to ask why the author uses certain rhetorical devices just like it is necessary to ask why a rapper uses certain curses and lines. Looking past the base level will reveal a deeper meaning that is trying to be conveyed. So give rap a second chance and look past the foul language, and find what the artist is really trying to tell you.

A Sorry Attempt at a Synthesis Essay

"Synthesize: v. to combine a number of things into a coherent whole." -Oxford Dictionary

This week we were encouraged to take a shot at writing a synthesis essay for our blog post. Before beginning such daunting task (how can I write something we haven't even talked about?!? Surely I will die trying) I thought I would ponder the ideas of synthesizing. To bring together and find an underlying meaning throughout multiple works is essentially a compare/contrast minus the contrast right? I simply am trying to make this as basic as I can so that I can understand what exactly I'm supposed to do, because I'm in need of guidance. Anyway here's my shot at an brief body paragraph for a synthesis essay we worked on earlier this week. (Also my picture is of my council from stugo camp this summer because I've never "come together" with a group of people like those and we became one close unit and I still talk to all of them.  It's kind of like a Synthesis since it was us coming together as a group, I had no clue of what to do for a picture so I did that.)

     Through the oppression of those seen as "different" a group can dehumanize themselves and create a "mob mentality" that essentially protects them from feeling guilty. This oppression is nothing new in our society, quite the contrary actually, even in the 1800's people like Edwards said that God would, "tread on" and "cast out sinners" (Source D). This ostracizing of those who are different leads to the group losing their single identity and being seen as the "Ideal" people. Just as Indians are cast out of white society, Alexie was cast out of Indian society because skin color, "doesn't make two men brothers" (Source E). This example of how the group that is being oppressed chooses to oppress one of their own shows how deep rooted the dehumanization can be. Alexie has nobody to relate to; not whites and certainly not Indians. The dehumanization of oppressed and oppressor is deep seeded in human nature and not likely to go anywhere anytime soon.