One-Eyed Sheep Lover

I mentioned in class yesterday during mine and Lydia's presentation that there is a lot of debate over whether or not Polyphemus is a sympathetic character. Because Odysseus is the hero of the story, it's a little hard for me to think of the cyclops who ate his crew as sympathetic. However, looking a little closer into it, I think I do have some sympathy for Polyphemus.

Polyphemus is really just a shepherd who tends to his flocks everyday and makes cheese. He minds his own business, until a crew of men he's never seen before show up in his cave indulging in his possessions. This is where judging the situation becomes difficult because Odysseus is used to hospitality wherever he goes, as it's a tradition and he expects basically everyone he meets to be nice, and thinks it's perfectly acceptable to help himself to whatever he wants in Polyphemus' cave. He's used to being treated well by strangers. However, Polyphemus doesn't believe in hospitality and is incredibly offended that Odysseus and his men would do such a thing. I don't think what Odysseus did here was completely wrong because he's used to hospitality, but it is rude. On the other hand, if I were Polyphemus, even knowing about the tradition of Greek hospitality, I think I would also be mad at the intruders. As a two-eyed, pint-sized human, I can't say I would have been so angry that I would eat Odysseus' men, but I can kind of understand Polyphemus' reasoning. 

I'm not sure if I completely pity the Cyclops or not. I initially saw him as simply the villain, but after considering what happened in Polyphemus' perspective, I definitely think there's more to the story than that. The different views on hospitality complicate the scenario, but overall I think that I do pity the Cyclops a little bit; Odysseus' actions don't make him seem like a perfect hero.

(if you have any thoughts on this please comment them, I would love to see different opinions!)

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From the Bat's Perspective

One thing I have written in my notes that I find to be true for all of the readings we've done so far is: 'Perspective skews judgement.' I think this is something that I tend to forget when watching an action movie. I often find myself questioning why the police is always so hellbent on catching the protagonist. They're doing your job for you, how will chasing after them help anyone? Slowing down the hero isn't going to help anything. 

Well I think putting things into perspective has changed that view. In "Easier Than Typing," it's pointed out that though we see Batman on screen as a superhero who has good morals and has little flaws, if these movies weren't created and Batman was running around Champaign, I would be a bit wary of his motives. A normal person can only appear to be perfect for so long. I think I would recognize the good aspects of Batman, but at the same time I would expect his perfection to fade as he gained prestige. If he can inspire fear in criminals, he could inspire fear in the public as a vigilante. We wouldn't assume he's perfect because we would see him as a person dressed like a bat. With more power, his morality could shift and be a threat to anyone, not just criminals. I so often associate heroism with perfection that it almost surprises me that a person can be both a hero or a villain 

Perspective definitely played a role in "Victory Lap," but in a different way. If I heard about things that Batman did, I would be inclined to think of him as a hero, but if I heard anything about Kyle Boot similar to the descriptions that Alison gave, hero is the last thing that would come to mind. Even as I was reading, I was trying to figure out how he would fit into the story. If I knew Kyle as just another Uni student, I probably wouldn't think anything was particularly off about him. But like I mentioned in class, when Saunders gives us insight on his thought processes, I went from thinking about him like just another person to almost worrying about him. He has so much emotion built up inside of him that at any time he could crack at any point in time, and if he were a classmate I would be worried that he would crack at something I said (and if his reaction would be anything like what he did to the kidnapper, I would definitely be terrified). It happens to occur at a more convenient time and it is this aspect of him that turns him into a hero. 

So I guess something I'll keep in mind throughout this class is that perspective skews judgement.

An Open Letter to Black People in Horror Movies

For my poetry reading I chose a slam poem entitled "Open Letter to Black People in Horror Movies". What initially drew me to this poem was the performance given by Omar Holmon and Anthony Ragler. The way they perform the beginning of the poem is hilarious (and I think the audience thought so too). As the poem continues, they keep the same strong tone, but the stanzas quickly go from being funny to being very serious, and I found myself being surprised at the transition. When I first watched their performance, I had to occasionally pause the video to let the words sink in. 

In class, we discussed most of the points I wanted to get to. But I'm still thinking about one thing that came up in discussion: black actors in Hollywood and how they are represented. Before class, I searched up the poem on Youtube so I could transcribe it, I came across a comedian talking about why black people aren't portrayed in horror movies. I've honestly always thought that black people either aren't in horror movies because they're more logical or die first, and that's it. However, after I found this poem, it gave that idea more reasoning. For one thing, the poem talks mostly about the horrors of everyday life. So maybe the reason people say black people are more logical than white people in horror movies is because the everyday struggle of surviving forces them to be cautious or else there are consequences. This is shown in the lines "Son, the fuck I look like being scared of some goddamn movie monsters? I'm from Brooklyn..." We wouldn't usually compare just living in a city as scary or threatening, but there's so much more to the situation. Another poem we looked at this semester said that the ghetto is scarier than every monster, so I thought of that as well (let's be honest, Freddy Kreuger probably wouldn't be able to make it). 

In some horror movies (or so I've been told) the black characters always die first. Something Tim mentioned in class interested me as well, and it related to the line "Don't go check on the white guy, he'll be fine, his privilege will protect him." White people are likely the ones writing these horror movies, so white privilege does in a way come into play in these situations. It's the white writers that are killing of these characters, so they're not safe anywhere. Hollywood's representations of black characters shows more than I expected. (I think this also relates to the line "so we aren't even safe in fantasies.")

You should definitely watch their performance and think about the content, I think there's a lot to be said about black people in horror movies.

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Dearly

Beloved is very complicated and confusing and I'm enjoying it very much. I like how as Sethe's story unfolds, we also begin to learn Paul D's, and Denver's, and Beloved's stories. There's so much I could talk about in this post since so many things have happened so far, but one thing I kept thinking about was how Sethe feels "flattered by Beloved's open, quiet devotion" but if Denver showed the same adoration, she would feel annoyed because she doesn't want to have a dependent child.

This strikes me as odd because we've accepted that Beloved is the ghost of the baby. But at the same time, Sethe doesn't even realize that Beloved is the baby, so why does her relationship with Beloved seem closer than her relationship with Denver? Maybe something that involves the death of the baby has to do with Sethe's disgust at having a dependent child. It seems to me that the pain of losing her children was a lot of Sethe to handle, and maybe Denver being more independent will lessen the blow should Sethe ever lose her. Of course, that's just one idea I have, and I hope that we find out more about Sethe's experiences with the baby soon, maybe it will explain this dynamic. Also, it would be great to hear anyone else's ideas in the comments!

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Art

Style Wars definitely opened my eyes.

I've never really thought much of graffiti. I always thought that all graffiti looked the same and I was always confused about how it got where it was, but that was about it. The movie definitely gave me a different perspective on this art form. The community that came from this one idea makes me wish I could be a graffiti writer too, and be able to carry out my name in such a unique way.

Whenever criticism of graffiti came up in the movie, especially from the mayor, we all laughed, which I think is an appropriate response. During discussion, Jack pointed out the ironic situation that the authorities were in. Graffiti supposedly supports violence, but the measures they took to prevent graffiti weren't better. Not to mention the dogs they also used to deter graffiti writers. Whoever was talking about this plan also seemed so enthusiastic about someone getting trapped in the razor structures on the top of the fences.

I consider graffiti to be an art, and I know the mayor and other critics would disagree, but it's definitely a skill and it brings beauty and color. Isn't that something art should do? Bring life and creativity and be inspirational? They're only seeing graffiti as vandalism, but I think it's more than that. 

Also, I personally think that the trains with graffiti looked better than the clean ones.

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Dancing Invisible Men (or something like that)

If I am to be somewhat honest, I'm having difficulty writing about The White Boy Shuffle or organizing my thoughts about the chapters. I think it's because of the details and some are absurd, and others are true though somewhat hard to believe, and then there's the whole thing with basketball, and it's getting lost in my head, but I'm going to try to write about it anyways.

(Side note, though, I think my intros are getting better, so there's some progress)

Something I thought a lot about was the contrast between the reactions of Gunnar and the narrator in Invisible Man when called the n-word. We already had discussion about this and some people touched on this on their blogs, but I'll put my thoughts out there too.

The narrator and Gunnar are similar in the sense that they both want to fit in (at least in the beginning). The narrator wants to be like Bledsoe, and wishes to become successful in his society, just like Gunnar wants to fit in after realizing how different he is from the other residents of Hillside. They differ because the narrator wants to fit into white society, whereas Gunnar wants to get away from the image of being a white black boy. I think we pretty much covered in class that this is one of the reasons why the n-word has different effects on the two, though they have similar goals.

On a somewhat different note, this Gunnar, who is elated at being called the n-word, is so different from the Gunnar who purposefully misses free throws and doesn't want to do things just because others want him to. This train of thought doesn't really have a point, but I just found it interesting that after Scoby gives Gunnar this confidence boost, he completely transforms and becomes the person we are reading about now. So trying to be someone he wasn't ended up making him the person he really is? Or something like that. 

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Ethnic Notions and Zack & Cody

If I had to describe the documentary Ethic Notions in one word, I think it would be: unsettling. There was a lot to take in and there were many uncomfortable characterizations that I've been thinking about and trying to organize, but that's not working out very well so I think I'm just going to talk about a couple of things.


Something that I noted most throughout the documentary was the role of children. Initially the depiction of black children as wild animals was a way to justify showing them being shown in such an uncivilized manner and as victims to "comic violence".  It was mentioned around this part of the movie that the fear of black people entering white society came together in these artistic renditions where black children were literally removed from the picture. Later, very racist products, like board games with the n-word in their names, came out that were marketed towards everyone, including children. Additionally, we talked in class about rhymes and songs that we still sing today that were initially racist and along the way changed to be less offensive. These reproduced games and songs were meant to teach children and train them. The question is have they (in a way) succeeded?


Simple rhymes like 'Eeny, meeny, miny, moe' are still widely known today, and though some words and images have been replaced so that it isn't racist (this is also true with Aunt Jemima and other brands that changed bits and pieces), is there still some significance simply because it is still known? A good point was brought up that these songs have been passed down for a long time, which created an emotional tie, so they evoke nostalgia. I'm not really sure if the fact that they're still known is negative, but it's something I found interesting. Also, some stereotypes are still projected in the media. We talked about black superheroes, as well as the children's TV show The Suite Life of Zack & Cody (probably my 2nd favorite show when I was younger, only behind Hannah Montana) which has a black character who is the manager of a hotel. This show has previously been praised for breaking stereotypes, but the character Mr. Moseby still seems to be stereotypical (though not in a modern sense). He's portrayed as more feminine and therefore emasculated, and as a "mammy" figure. Though these stereotypical portrayals are not typical, they still occur today. I guess this brings me back to my question, have the caricatures succeeded? I'm not sure, but when looking at the media today, I think my answer is maybe.


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