White Privilege Article

Reading this lady's list of the 50 effects, i can agree and relate to all of them in some shape or form. For example, the number statement on her list about chosing to be in a business that mostly has the race she acquires. When given that option, any person, no matter the race can do such a thing. Like the natural process of every human being, we like to be and stay in a group of people that we are comfortable with. But one of the effects that interested me the most was number 46.

In a way, this effect represents how the many different races within a society yearn to be someone else. All the shame can be covered up if one were to wear a different shade of cover - up make up. In a sense, it's kinda like hiding the person you truly are and who you truly present.

Culture Within Literature

(This post is just pure blah, sorry for the headache)
this is how it came out in my "edit posts" link soo...gotta love technology, right?

The discussion%20of%20race%2C%20gender%2C%20and%20class%20is%20very%important%20because%20these%20three%20characteristics%20are%20the%20foundation%of%20humanity.%20Every%20different%20race%20has%20a%20particular%20life%20and%a%20particular%20point%20of%20view%20along%20with%20different%20genders%20and%different%20classes.%20Along%20with%20being%20the%20foundation%20these%20three%characteristics%20are%20some%20of%20the%20most%20controversial%20and% influential%characteristics.%20All%20the%20evolutions%20that%20have%20happened%20between%race%2C%20gender%2C%20and%20class%20have%20changed%20dramatically%20over the%past%20decades.%20Anyhoot%2C%20these%20three%20characteristics%20have%20a%huge%20influence%20on%20our%20literature%20of%20today.

Let's%20take%20race%20as%20the%20first%20example%3B%20Harriet%20Tubman's%20%22Uncle%20Tom's%20Cabin%22%20is%20a%20great%20story.%20Obviously%20it's%20all%20about%20slavery%20and%20the%20underground%20railroad.%20Since%20Tubman%20is%20an%20African%20American%2C%20a%20reader%20of%20a%20different%20race%20can%20%3Cspan%20style%3D%22font-style%3A%20italic%3B%22%3Ebelieve%3C%2Fspan%3E%20her%20because%20she%20is%20writing%20from%20her%20own%20personal%20experience.%20Of%20course%2C%20if%20a%20white%2C%20slave%20owner%20were%20to%20have%20written%20this%20story%2C%20the%20interpretation%20coul%20have%20been%20totally%20different.%20The%20connection%20that%20other%20readers%20would%20have%20could%20possibly%20be%20different%20from%20the%20connection%20that%20they%20had%20with%20Tubman%20more%20negative...%20But%20basically%2C%20no%20matter%20what%20circumstance%2C%20many%20aspects%20of%20any%20culture%20comes%20into%20our%20writing%
without%20anyone%20of%20us%20really%20noticing.

cultural%20backgrounds%2C%20in%20a%20way%2C%20create%20our%20personalities.%20Thus%2C%20our%20personalities%20are%20translated%20through%20our%20writing.%20Of%20course%2C%20there%20are%20probably%20a%20few%20select%20stories%20that%20do%20not%20have%20that%20world%20connection%2C%20but%20it's%20very%20rare.%20As%20in%20terms%20of%20the%20relation%20to%20pop%20culture%2C%20that%20just%20goes%20to%20show%20how%20we%20use%20our%20daily%20culture%20to%20relate%20what%20a%20particular%20author%20is%20saying.

Multiliteracy

"The terms multimodality, multisemiotics and multiliteracies, then, are attempts to account for the diversity in communications that are encountered in everyday life, and how these affect what we make of them." (Williamson 2). So we have the three terms that basically describe the meaning of life, through a literary sense if you will. But what is the story behind these three semi - long words? Multimodality basically means using our five common senses to conncect with the world of a literary piece or the world in general. Multisemiotics builds upon the meaning of multimodial by basically stating that of course, we all use/have used our senses to receive a deeper meaning, but not everyone will configure the same meaning or get the same feeling from using their senses. Let's take this obvious example: the smell of meat; a vegetarian may quiver at the scent of hamburgers on the grill but a person who likes meat may have a drooling problem(if hungary). Actually, with meat, a vegetarian and a carnivore of course can use all there senses and of course each of their reactions will cause a different reactions. To move on, multiliteracy is basically like the term, multimedia (or at least nowadays). Multiliteracy basically states that in order for a person to fully understand something, a particular "design" must be used. Words, a lot of the times, are not enough for a person to fulling understand the concept. In my opinion, it is a good idea to use words, pictures, and human expressions/involvement. The example from the reading is perfect - the heart. The teacher draws is (picture of design), the teacher says"bump - bump" (word of design), and the use of the teacher's hands to describe the "bumping" (human involvement). Human involvement is important because your taking your own personal experience and teaching it to others that may have a similiar experience - relating to others is great writing/teaching skill.. We love to tell stories through our own eyes - it's human nature This particular literary design is almost like a life cylce, it constantly moves in a circulur motion.
In fact, McCloud brings forth this type of concept. He basically states that this cycle of design helps provide a deeper meaning. but sometimes comics have more art less words, more words, less art, or the amount of words and art are equal. Each of these different designs promote different ways of interpreting a literary piece.
In conclusion, this article is basically stating that we, as human beings have been using our senses since the beginning of time. Our senses have helped us come up with the crazy stories of today. Our senses have helped promote diversity that keeps our world and our wordly interpretations interesting. Thus, such diversity has been put to our multiliteracies; so many different ideas can be found through them intentionally or unintenionally.

So sorry that this is so long! If it makes your head hurt, just skim through it!...haha

McCloud Ch. 1-4

In my opinion, i believe that "real" literature is the type of literature that one can receive a message or many messages. Along with these message, in "real" literature, one can connect their personal feelings with what the author is trying to say. Whether it's a picture book or a novel of fine print, "real" literature is all about the human connection with the author's words.
Before reading the first four chapters of McCloud's book, i had a very biased opinion about comic books. In all honesty i thought comic books were stupid and annoying and made the reading experience not as enjoyable. I found it annoying trying to match up the word bubbles with the characters who were actually doing the talking; and i guess, i kinda got the sense that comic books were the "reading for dumbies" type of literature. Before reading McCloud's thoughts, i never really aprecciated the creativity and artisty that went into comics.
Of course, while reading through these chapters, all the literary terms kinda got me in a bind at times but nonetheless, a lot of his ideas interested me. The whole idea on how comics use subject to subject, aspect to aspect, etc, etc boggled my mind. I never really thought one could go so deep into a comic book. Also, i really enjoyed learning about the idea of the blank panels. They truely intensify and and make the story come to life as a story would in a very descriptive and in depth novel. Going back to my ideas on how i thought comics were kinda a dumbed - down version. But as readers, we love to picture images from the stories in our head and actually, comics do just that. Comics are pure artistry is the ability to connect readers to the story through visual implications.

La Guernica

First off, using my interpretation from Bang's ideas, i notice that all the different shapes used in this work of art promote a specific tone for a viewer. Obviously, the shapes that Picasso has used are not your everyday shapes. He used shapes that are distorted and morphed. Along with these morphed shapes, the colors that he applied to them are colors of the dreary kind - blacks and bluish grey colors are not your typical "feel good" type of colors. Of course, Picasso uses white and while the color white usually means peace, in Picasso's La Guernica, white is the color of death. I don't mean to have such scattered ideas, but going back to the morphed shapes. These shapes are are not put into a specific order, they are scattered and displaced throughout this work of art. An interesting characteristic about this painting is that Picasso's repetition of the eye. That is the only shape that is a consistent shape. Actually, this painting is about when the Germans invaded Spain. In the background, it's pure black. In concordance to the meaning of this work of art, the black background could symbolize that darkest hour of the Spanish people or simply mean that the Spanish were attacked in the middle of the night without warning. Thus, the morphed shapes could represent all the body parts that were scattered due to the bombings
Going back to the frequent use of the eyes, the eye could symbolize the horror of watching someone you love or a complete stranger die. Actually to add another random point, the shapes of the heads are intriguing because they're almost whispey like - as if they're ghosts still lingering around the area where they died. But ultimately, this work art is pure representation of the absolute pain and suffering that the Spanish had on that one long and dreary night. Another random point to add, there is a definite top to bottom distinction. The gigantic eye could represent God's forever watching eye and forever lasting power. As for the gaze, all of the eyes that are present are looking to the left except for one. It could be possible that all the characters looking to the left could present the world's ignorance towards these characters' suffering; and the few sets of eyes looking at you (almost with their necks broken) could be saying "look what the international society has become".

Just the blog info we went over in class

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090113/od_afp/lifestyleaustraliatourismoffbeat_20090113032028;_ylt=AqJiwSnuxdnrJpTM.0wNR2QazJV4

Poem

"Fire and Ice"

~by Robert Frost

Some say the world will end in fire,

Some say in ice.

From what I've tasted of desire

I hold with those who favor fire.

But if it had to perish twice,

I think I know enough of hate

To say that for destruction ice

Is also great

And would suffice.

The photo you see on the right is a "fire and ice" rose. Just thought it was appropriate for the name of the poem. As for this poem concordance with the literary theories i thought as interesting, it doesn't necessarily go along with the feministic point of view. Unless if one were to take a longshot to say that metaphors used for "fire" and "ice" represent the two distinct views men have towards women. In concordance with the Religion theory, as i said before, fire and ice are two forms in which the world will end - in volcanic fire or in another ice age.

How to Define an American

Whether a citizen or not, any soul that walks upon this land is an American. Even if a foreigner sets foot on our soil, he is considered an American for the duration of time that he stays within our borders. These foreigners are sharing and learning the same American history that born and raised Americans are still learning today. Though mixed with many nationalities, every American citizen is born with foreign blood.
Our foreign blood made this country the great country it is today. The bond between all of our different American nationalities have created the so many wonderful rights we have today as a nation. Our foreign blood has taught us how to work so hard to make a works pay or how to fight through discrimination, racism, sexism, or whatever have you. Yes, our country has made its' poor choices and yes, our country is currently in a freakish gamble...it doesn't matter. The American citizen moves on. The American citizen knows how to survive through any disaster. The American citizen knows what it means to be proud. Thus, if at some point this country shall be no more, the American citizen will go down to our Motherland's grave as astute as a soldier.

TWO MOST INTERESTING THEORIES

With this class having the title of Literary Interpretation, It is important for a reader to be able to use different literary theories in order to efficiently retrieve what a specific reading is trying to suggest. Looking at a particular text from different points of view helps broaden a reader's perspective and forumlated unbiased opinions(hopefully). Furthermore, the two theories that interest me the most is the Feminist Theory and the theory of Religion.

Hence I am female, the Feminist Theory holds a distinct interest within my heart. In general, women have their own "standard of living". Though the role of women is slowly getting closer to the equivalence of men, women have long-lasting stereotypes. For example, women are meant to be the affectionate type. Women are supposed to be polite and always mindful of others, etc, etc. Women are not supposed to have the same amount of power as men because since the beginning of time, men, obviously, have always had a much higher authority. I actually have to praise William Faulkner for his story "A Rose for Emily", because his story states that for Emily to have committed murder is so unlady like. This is interesting because Emily broke away from the "womanly" norms. Take the poets Sylvia plath or Emily Dickinson for example; through their powerful and poetic versuses, they have been able to speak the words of women that have been silenced for too long. Im all for women standing up for themselves and slapping society in the face every once and a while The Feminist Theory is interesting because through literary works, the reader can see just how far women have come and the progress us women have made; and while the idea of Feminism promotes a lot of sparks, the Religious theory is very interesting as well.

Another theory that interests me is the Religious Theory. One reason why this theory is so interesting is the fact that religion is such a controversial topic. This is a type of topic that sparks a lot of interest to basically everyone because, now this is just my opinion, religion is such an ambiguous existance. It is obvious that a lot of poems and stories have many references or allegories to some religious topic or religious figure. For example, Robert Frost's poem, "Fire and Ice", Frost used fire and ice (two ways proven in the book of Revelations that the earth shall come to an end), to describe how he ends his own life. But coming back to why religion is so interesting is the fact that many people are quite fascinated with the unknown. The Unknown frightens many people. Thus, people want to erase this grey area of the unknown by seeking out literature for answers or ideas to an unknown fact. Another interesting thing about Religion is that it consumes are lives. Many wars have been declared based on religious reasons. Religion is a form of power to us humans and we like to use power. As Religion is a very controversial topic, all literary theories have all very interesting perspectives when it comes to analysing literary works.

The feminist theory and the theory about religion cath my eye the most. Both of these theories, when using them to interpret literary works, can provide the reader with many different perspectives and meanings. From all these different theories, one may be able to understand a certain literary work better if he looks at from more than one perspective.