Presentation Time!

First off, good job everyone who presented this week, and good luck to all presenting next week! Everyone's paper topics seem really interesting, and the best part is they all deal with very different subject matter.

Yesterday, I was really interested at Kelsey's angle for her paper. Everyone in the group is doing something completely different with the book, and Kelsey's interest in how video games and a teenage understanding of death in this story was, I thought, a unique view to research. I agree that teenagers perhaps don't have a good grip on death and the finality of it, especially since teenagers seem to have a hubris that they think makes them invincible, but I would argue that really, no one has a good grip on death, at any age. I don't think one can ever be prepared for the finality and empty feeling death leaves behind. I think that the teenage component in this case is important because Peter's ideas about death are grasped from a video game which allows him to simulate the deaths of many of his classmates, and then redo with fresh life in everyone. The deaths the characters in the game face aren't final as in real life, and I am unsure whether that is a distinction teenagers, or just Peter himself fails to make.

I wonder if you should concentrate on making the distinction that Peter doesn't distinguish death in a game from real life very well, and focus on the reasons why that may be. There may not be an answer to this, just more cases, as Peter's own brother dies within the story, raising more questions as to why Peter can't see death as a finality.

Overall, I think this topic is brilliant, and the group's description of the novel has intrigued me to put it on my christmas list!

Again, good luck with these papers everyone!

Fire in the Community

'"Grab a bucket and come on!" Gus screamed.
Within minutes, the house was totally engulfed in flames. Paul drew water from the well as the others dashed it onto the burning structure. His arms ached from the constant lowering and pulling of the chain, but as long as they were trying, he knew he couldn't quit. There were at least twenty men present, and all of them moved as if the house were their own. They knew their efforts were useless; anyone could see that. The blaze was simply too hot to battle. Those at the end of the line were tossing more water on the ground than on the fire, but they had to try' (Black 283).

This passage is at the start of chapter 31 on page 283. It is the passage in which Eva Mae burns down the house of the kids who attacked and raped Paul that night in the woods. The men in this passage are trying to save the burning building and those in it, vigorously pouring as much water as they can onto the house, in a losing battle against the flames engulfing it. The sentence, "There were at least twenty men present, and all of them moved as if the house were their own," provides a look at the community of Swamp Creek. The people in the house weren't exactly well-liked by the community, but they were a part of it nonetheless, and the fact that their house is on fire is enough to bring the rest of the community out to help. Each man putting out the fire put all their strength into smothering the flames with water, even though they knew, ultimately, it was no use. These men "moved as if the house were their own," demonstrating a camaraderie between the community members that runs deep. This passage demonstrates a community willing to provide strong aid to anyone within that unit, a display of strength and loyalty essential in keeping together and protecting a large group of people.

Whilst on the one hand this passage demonstrates an incredibly proactive and helpful community, on the other it provides us with insight to the harmful individuals who choose to attack, and hurt other members of the community. The people inside the house were the group who attacked Paul in the woods and raped and beat him almost to death. These community individuals were not the same kind as those who came out to try and help them in their desperate time of need. Instead of providing aid to other members of the community in an effort to keep it intact, they do the opposite and strive to deteriorate the strength of the community by instigating fear.

Eva Mae was also part of this community, and it was she who set fire to the house in the first place, causing this outbreak of community kindness as well as illustrating yet another side of the community complex, that of personal revenge for another's crimes.

We see when looking at all the characters involved in this passage, that our concept of community changes with every new lens of perspective we put on while assessing each characters' situation.

New Proposal and Annotated Bibliography

After finding my five sources, reading over them and annotating them for the bibliography, I have determined that my thesis will be something along the lines of studying the traits of masculinity and femininity through Dana’s dysphoric feelings as he was growing up. I have found a few different sources studying children and their ideas of gender, and how they came to determine their own gender through watching their parents, but also through feeling either masculine or feminine urges. The scenes I want to close read are the scenes in which Dana describes his feeling of being a girl even when he was a boy growing up, as well as his confusion over how best to act like a woman and ‘pass’ in public, instead of immediately being pinpointed as a man trying to look like a woman. Given these scenes, I would question how one innately knows one way or the other which gender they feel they are, and how we tell which gender strangers are. I will look at texts that present both evidence that gender is inherently felt, and also texts which present evidence that gender is socially constructed. Dana’s case would be evidence that gender is a felt knowledge, and that no matter how hard he tried to become a boy as his biology determines, he will never be able to ‘perform’ it correctly. 

My research does lean more towards the sociological side of things, but the studies I have found lean toward more true life accounts of real people’s experience which I can use to validate the experiences presented in the fictionalized story of Trans-Sister Radio. 

Annotated Bib:

Black, Daniel. Perfect Peace. New York: St. Martin's, 2010. Print.

This text is about the life of a young southern girl who has grown up with six older brothers her whole life, and when she is only 8 years old, her mother tells her that she was actually born as a boy, and now must become one of them. Her mother had always wanted a girl and so when the seventh child came out as a boy she refused to accept reality, and raised her as a girl anyway. The story centers around the young child and her difficult transition from girl to boyhood, and the problems she has letting go of her female self, and embracing her new male self. The book makes a commentary on the side of nurture, implying that gender is learned through social cues. I will use this text in my essay to show another antithesis source, further asking the question as to whether gender is a learned or inherent trait. There are several passages after Perfect finds out she is indeed a boy instead of the girl she always thought she was, about her longing for and missing the old the Perfect which would be particularly beneficial for my paper.

Colapinto, John. As Nature Made Him: the Boy Who Was Raised as a Girl. New York: HarperCollins, 2001. Print.

This book chronicles the true life story of Bruce/Brenda/David Reimer who suffered a circumcision mistake at 7 months old that caused his penis to be so badly burned it shriveled and broke off. At the age of 22 months, baby Bruce was surgically castrated, and become the Reimer's only daughter, Brenda. It was expected that at the age of 12, Brenda would start hormone treatment to induce the production of breasts and a shapely female figure. At this age she would also undergo surgery to complete her vaginal structure. The book provides a detailed breakdown of the events as they unfolded, as well as backgrounds on all the doctors and psychiatrists involved. I will use this text in my paper to help prove the point that Chris Bohjalian's novel, Trans-Sister Radio tries to get across, that gender is inherently felt inside, no matter the physical anatomy on the outside. David Reimer in this case felt alienated in his girl clothing and in himself as Brenda, and only felt comfortable when allowed to express his masculine side.

Leli, Ubaldo, and Jack Drescher. Transgender Subjectivities: a Clinician's Guide. Binghamton, NY: Haworth Medical, 2004. Print.

This book is a collection of studies done on transgendered men and women, their families, and how they were diagnosed. It uses autobiography, and a number of other contributing psychiatrists to determine how to identify a person with gender dysphoria, and what the next step to their recovery from it will be. I plan to use three different chapters from this book in my essay to back up my claim that gender is inherently determined by a 'feeling' or understanding of one's self, regardless of anatomical results. I plan to use the first chapter, 'Sexual TNT: A Transman Tells the Truth About Testosterone', by Griffin Hansbury, MA, MSW; the fourth chapter, 'Witnessing and Mirroring: A Fourteen Stage Model of Transsexual Identity Formation' by Aaron H. Devor, PhD; and finally the seventh chapter, 'The Diagnosis and Treatment of Transgendered Patients' by David Seil, MD. In using these three chapters I will be able to assert the feelings of one transgendered patient, how a transsexual identity is formed, and finally how that identity is diagnosed by the doctors capable of performing the surgery to fix the problem. These findings will help to prove my thesis that gender is a natural, not learned issue.

Martin, Carol Lynn, and Diane Ruble. "Children's Search for Gender Cues. Cognitive Perspectives on Gender Development." Current Directions in Psychological Science 13.2 (2004): 67-70. JSTOR. Web. 19 Nov. 2010.

This article explains that the idea of gender is learned process starting in early childhood, and is learned from the male and female adults around them as they are growing up. This journal will be used to describe the antithesis of my debate, as the nature vs nurture debate is probably the biggest debate in human history, I cannot write this paper without acknowledging the other side of the argument. My thesis will be based on true stories of people experiencing gender dysphoria initiated by a fictional work of literature, while my antithesis will be informed using psychological studies performed on children, and a contrasting work of literature.

Stoller, Robert J. Sex and Gender. New York: J. Aronson, 1974. Print.

This text is split into three different sections: Patients with biological abnormalities, Patients without biological abnormalities, and Aspects of treatment. The first section details patients with abnormalities of genitalia, and studies their classifications of gender due to these abnormalities. The second section deals with patients who have no physical abnormalities, but suffer from gender dysphoria, in which they feel that their bodies betray the gender they feel they are inside. The final section details the different type of treatment for those with 'biological abnormalities of sex'. and the treatments of transvestism and transsexualism. I will use this text in my essay to help prove my thesis that gender is psychological, not biological issue. The patients presented in the sections of what is to be masculine, and what it is to be feminine have significant attachment to their given genders, despite abnormalities they have suffered suggesting their gender should made otherwise.

Thirty? Again - Speaker

Thirty? Again By Elizabeth Lewis (page 133)

Oh to be thirty
To be thirty
To be young and fit
With a head of dark hair
My skin soft and smooth
With no wrinkles there
To be light on my feet
To remember with ease
The things I've forgotten
No pain in my knees
To feel I'm attractive
To even one man
To work for a living
To go back again?

Oh, come off it, people
Do you think I am crazy
To go back sixty years
To live them again
The work and the diet,
The grind and the pain?

Thank God I am ninety
Not thirty again.

I really liked this poem because I love how the speaker isn't reminiscing and wishing she were thirty again, she is reminiscing and realizing that she is much better off on the side of life she is on, rather than going back sixty years and doing it all over again.

The speaker is the poet in this poem, and she describes what it is to be ninety by talking about what it is to be thirty. Instead of complaining about having grey hair and wrinkles, pain in her knees and feeling unattractive, she wistfully remembers what is was to not have wrinkles, pain, and to be attractive "To even one man" (12).  This element of having the speaker be the poet herself really works to get across her point that it is better to be happier with yourself as you are, rather than wishing and hoping you could go back in time and be the person you were a long time ago (because that just isn't going to happen, is it?). Describing herself in this poem instead of talking about a different person gives the poem authenticity and credibility. The reader also feels a relationship to the poet - we get a sense of who the poet is as a person, a person who is seemingly very satisfied and settled with herself. She conveys a very likable character, someone I feel I could sit and have tea with and a great conversation.

This ability to build a relationship with a reader in a short, 22 line poem ensures that her poem will be remembered, and she has managed to leave her print on the world long after she has left it. She divulges intimate details of her life - her wish to feel attractive, for instance, is so slyly inserted in the poem it would be easy to gloss over. But it is there, in that small detail, where Lewis reveals a personal insecurity and desire to be wanted by another person. I feel sorry that she feels unattractive and unwanted just because she is old, but I can see that out of everything it is to be thirty, this is the only thing that she perhaps wishes she could get back.

I remember a movie quote that said something about age, and feeling worn out and in pain is because you used your body, and you earned the age you feel. Age is a thing which has to be experienced for yourself, it isn't something one can describe to another. And even though Lewis sees the benefits of being thirty over ninety, she realizes that to go back would be to do over her life for sixty years, and she's rather satisfied with how it went the first time around.

Blog Holiday

Hey guys!

I'm taking my blog holiday this week, so ill see you here next week!

Hope you all have a great weekend!

Trans-Sister Radio Paper Proposal

In my paper, I plan to research what exactly it means to be a man and woman based on biology, societal structure, and stereotypes. I plan to look into any research that might have been done on how we enforce gender roles on small children, so they fit into societal stereotypes as they grow older. I want to explore what effect gender role reversal has on families, and then the potential of the effect it could have on society as a whole. I find the fact that Dana is discovering what it means to be a member of the opposite sex outwardly very intriguing, and want to explore how a real-life male to female transsexual is accepted by society and whether she feels like a woman as much on the outside as she does inside, after the operation.

I'm really just toying with the idea of gender and whether it is just that - an idea - or, is it something more tangible; are women naturally more attuned to be nurturers, etc.

Gender and gender roles will be a large part of my research, as will research about the after effects of post-op transsexuals.

Evaluation

Every week in my blog post, the material I am posting about is very specific to that week of study in class, and so every blog post comes out radically different than the week before it. After reading through each of my posts through the semester so far, I discovered that I really tend to use the blog as a medium for thinking out loud and asking questions of my classmates that came up while I was reading. In class, I don’t have these questions ready to ask, but writing the blog seems to provoke more questions for me, hence the reason they mostly end in questions to be answered in the comments on my posts. 

Over the past 5 weeks, I have noticed my posts getting shorter and shorter, and I think this is due to the fact that as the semester has progressed, my life has become busier and busier. However, I don’t want to my work to suffer because of this, and am going to make a conscious effort to make sure my blogs are longer and more detailed. 

I think that with every week I try to focus on some smaller aspect of the novel/ article I’m working with to make sense of just a small part of the text. If I were to try to dissect a larger problem/theme, I would get too overwhelmed with it, and end up having an extremely long post. 

The week we had to work on Fernando Botero’s artwork on the Abu Ghraib pictures was my favorite post. I really liked looking at a picture and trying to find meaning in the smallest aspects of the picture. A picture can mean many things all at once, and different things to each person who views it. I liked writing about what I thought about these paintings, and I also enjoyed looking at which paintings other people looked at and reading what they thought. 

What surprised me when I was re-reading my work, was the first post about 1 dead in attic. I now wish I had picked two different stories to focus on, since the issue I first had a problem with now seems irrelevant. I think this is partly due to the fact that it was the first week, and I hadn’t finished the book at the time. 

Overall, I think that after this exercise, I will try to make sure that my blog posts are longer, and more analytical to the topic at hand. 

Made for Lifetime

The books we have discussed so far have always had this backdrop of disaster around them, but this book is missing that. However, the texts we have read all focus on the human psyche and explore how to deal with strong human emotions after a life changing event, which is what this book is largely based on. Trans-sister Radio tells the story of a man changing into a woman, and the effect it has on the relationship with his new girlfriend and her family. The story is told from the point of view of all the parties involved, switching between them from chapter to chapter, thereby providing different insights to the issue. 

I haven’t read much of the book so far, but I think the character I am most intrigued by is Allison. It will be interesting to see her struggle with the information that the new guy she has fallen for wishes to be a woman, thereby changing Allison’s sexual orientation. 

I don’t think a movie version of this book would be bad - when I think of it as a movie, I think of a movie like My Sister’s Keeper to compare it to.  It would probably end up as a made-for-tv movie shown on the lifetime channel. My first idea for a star in a movie version of this book would be natalie portman as the daughter, Carly. I’m not entirely sure why, I can just see her in this role. Other than that, I have no idea who else I would cast. 

Fernando Botero's Artwork

This image painted by Fernando Botero is called Abu Ghraib 31, and was painted in 2005. 

The stark white of this image with the two smears of red really caught my eye.  The lack of color directs the eye to the posture of the prisoner, kneeling with his hands tied above his head as if praying to get out of there. His naked body and covered face coupled with his position provide a sense of anguish and desperation successfully without having to explicitly show a tortured face, etc. 

The reddish brown stains on the floor and wall make me feel somewhat sick - I can not determine whether they represent blood, or excrement. Perhaps it is the intuition that they are supposed to represent both that makes me feel sickened in a way that the real photographs didn't. I think that by leaving things ambiguous and unsaid often times makes images more powerful, because the observer is left to imagine more horrific circumstances. 

As with most of the art pieces in this slideshow, the prison bars are prominent in this picture. While in the real photographs there were many images of bars to show they were in a prison, they rarely featured so explicitly in the pictures. Botero's paintings however mostly focus on the imprisonment of the prisoners, showing them often times behind bars, or holding on to the bars trying to break them apart to escape. I think that this feature of prison bars gives a sense of urgency and fear that the real photographs couldn't convey with all their attention focused on the use of dogs, and fear on prisoners faces. 

Overall, I do believe that the painted images create a greater sense of fear and despair than can be represented in the real photos. The exaggerated form of the subjects provides a bigger canvas for pain and destitution, making it more 'real' and depressing. 

Naming

Throughout the novel thus far, there seems to be a strong emphasis on the importance of names, and how significantly they relate to identity. We touched on this in class today, and I really wanted to say more on the topic. 

In the aftermath of 9/11, many lives were lost, and the nation as a whole felt as if part of their identity was stolen from them. The twin towers being such a symbol for the wealth, strength and power of the United States helped to define what this great country has become. In the wake of their collapse, many Americans were wondering how the nation would continue with such a significant loss to their national identity. 

This novel focuses on the response to the questions - How to go on? Who are we? Have we lost our identity? 

Through the emphasis on names in the novel, Delillo illustrates how important names are to an identity, and how when we lose those names, we lose a part of our identity. 

He starts with explaining how the Alzheimer's patients in Lianne’s class are slowly losing their sense of identity. She tells them to sign everything they write with their first name and first letter or their last name, “as if they were characters in European novels. They were characters and authors both, able to tell what they wished, cradle the rest in silence” (30). Also, it’s hard enough remembering someone’s first name, let alone their last name - especially when you have a disease that deteriorates your memory. The names of the patients themselves tells something about each one - Carmen G. would embellish her pieces with phrases in Spanish, unsurprising, since Carmen is a Spanish name, etc. 

The significance of names is also illustrated in Keith’s poker friends. Delillo describes them as, “three of the cardplayers were called by last name only, Dockery, Rumsey, Hovanis, and two by first name, Demetrius and Keith. Terry Cheng was Terry Cheng” (149). The significance of a character like Rumsey only wanting to be called by his last name, alludes to the fact that he is a shy character, with a mysterious quality about him. Therefore, his first name being a mystery is logical. A forceful, opinionated character like Terry Cheng wanting to always be called by his full name shows his identity and personality before one even gets the chance to know him. 

‘The Siblings’ names are worth mentioning, because in the neglect to name them properly, they are left without identification. Other characters in the novel who have names, also have a personality described to the reader, whereas these nameless 9well, mostly nameless) characters have no identity or personality as far as we can see. 

In the aftermath of 9/11, the people with names are those with identities; it is how we are able to find the lost and see who is left in the wake of this disaster. In Delillo’s novel, the characters of any significance are those he names for us, and gives an identity to. 

9/11

This article shocked me in a number of ways. The first thing that shocked me was the fact that it took six years for a memorial proposal to be submitted, and then another three years for it to actually be approved. The fact that there were 26 people involved in the terrorist attacks who had some involvement with the town, and it took almost a decade for any sort of memorial to be instated, was in my opinion, a little ridiculous. Memorials, like the article mentioned, are a place which “provide(s) a healing force” (Loh 1).  Having this memorial instated earlier would have helped further with the healing process, and could have provided a talking point for members of the community to remember the good times with their lost friends, and to never forget the tragedy that took their lives. Often, burying death and trying to ignore it will only have it’s repercussions. 

I was also shocked to hear of one man’s demand that the words “Murdered by Muslim extremists” be on the memorial of his son who was killed in the attacks. I am curious as to how that issue was resolved as the article never tells us the outcome. Did this man get his wish? I doubt it. Is he so wrong in the phrase he wanted on the memorial? Obviously, using the word ‘murdered’ instantly will raise tensions in the town, as their are surely at least a few Muslim families in the area of Kent. However, was his son actually ‘murdered by Muslim extremists’? Can we call this attack a murder? I am puzzled (for some reason) as to the answer to this question. 

I also wanted to call attention to what one Muslim, Ibrima Jobe said about there being many Muslims in the two towers at the time of the attack. The terrorists responsible for this attack were indeed Muslims, but it is not fair to project their misdeeds on an entire population of people. The religious hate crimes on Muslims in the aftermath of 9/11 sky-rocketed, yet I can’t even recall that ever being an issue the papers reported on. 

Were Americans so damaged after this event that we felt the need to strike out and harm innocent people - and basically get away with it? Where are their memorials, who speaks out for them?

1 Dead in Attic

The two columns closely related in my opinion are ‘The First Time Back’ (9/7/05), and ‘Tears Fears and a New Year’ (1/1/06).

In ‘The First Time Back’, Rose describes the scene that first meets his eyes upon entering the city for the first time since the hurricane. He goes back to his home and finds that it is still standing, along with most of his neighborhood, and all his old favorite haunts. He describes Uptown as the city’s ray of hope, despite the lack of trees and the local Circle K being looted. He confesses to being one among those looters after he stole a bottle of mouthwash from the Winn-Dixie and was apprehended by narcotics officers from Rusk County, Texas. “I told them I thought it was okay to take what we need... I told him I will come back to this Winn-Dixie one day and pay for this bottle, and I will. I swear it” (11). He then goes on to tell of a dead guy on the front porch of a house, and how that is now such a common sight that ‘everyone has a dead guy story’. At the end of the column he confesses that he hasn’t been down to the water yet to see the true devastation that awaits him there, but he knows that there is somewhere to start with the re-building - right at home. 

In ‘Tears Fears and a New Year’, Rose is writing from four months after the hurricane. The devastation and urgency of the situation is finally starting to sink in, especially with the Christmas season and new year festivities that would usually be taking place. He starts by looking back on the year and asking the question, “how did we get here?” (134). He then talks about ‘crying jags’ and his own personal melt down in Winn-Dixie when he tries to pay for the mouthwash he looted all those months ago. He tries to explain to the cashier that he doesn’t want to take the mouthwash home, he just needs to pay for what he has already taken, but cannot get the words out without blubbering. 

This is where the connection between the two stories is made. It is interesting how in the first story, he takes the mouthwash (seemingly) without a second thought, knowing that he will, at some point, come back to the very same Winn-Dixie to pay for his stolen item. However, when the story is re-visited months later, he now seems to be showing great remorse (one could maybe argue an unnecessary amount) for his small crime. The cashier is sympathetic to his distress, calling him ‘baby’ and telling him that everything is OK. The strange thing in this scene is how truly un-glued he appears, in front of a bunch of strangers, no less. He could’ve just played it off easily to make it no big deal (it wasn’t, really), but instead becomes very dramatic about it. 

Perhaps I am being insensitive; I mean, the guy has been through an awful lot in such a short span of time - they all have. But I can’t understand his unrestrained emotion over a bottle of mouthwash. I was wondering if you guys had any thoughts as to why this little scene played out the way it did, or if you even noticed it’s strangeness at all. 

Welcome

Hi, I'm Kerrie, I'm a senior majoring in English Literature and minoring in Film Studies, however, I spent last year studying in Santa Cruz, California so I feel like a newbie all over again.

I'm looking forward to taking a contemporary class - it seems all I do is read old literature! The book club idea seems fun, and given that our next class is being held at the Dairy Bar, it looks like we're off to a great semester!