Writing I find exciting often gets called experimental. In America this is another word for marginal. It's patronizing. Other countries distribute legitimacy in literary culture differently. For example, when in the U.K., Kathy Acker wrote for the Times Literary Supplement. Can you imagine Acker writing for the New York Times Book Review!? Just the experience of reviewing her work in the NYT Book Review caused several reviewers to spontaneously combust. On the other side of the Atlantic, debates on literary aesthetics are part of public — not just academic — life. Not so here, which means the conventions of representation that underlie mainstream fiction in this country can't be effectually critiqued. (I don't consider academic debates to be part of public life.)
So what conventions of representation am I talking about? Consider identity. Mainstream fiction tends to assume separate and coherent individuals, each with a single body and character which is built, rather than destroyed, by conflict.
I believe it is possible to have one identity in your thumb and another in your neck. I think identities can travel between persons who have an unusual mutual sympathy. Let's not even mention multiple personality.
But what I want to talk about today is the manipulation and construction of social distance. Mainstream fiction assumes a position not too close, not too far away. A situation is implied, an entire social horizon, which is speckled with white individuals who maintain distance from one another and from social “problems".
Containment. Segregation. A narrative structure which covertly mirrors the growth of white suburbs since WWII, where there is no discomfort around racism because only white people are present. Breaking this long chain of social convention at any link can easily result in personal and literary deformity, which is another term for experimentation.
My sister was older, and kept her drugs and screwing in the basement the same way she kept her jewelry there. Her lovers were thin white men whose trouble was drug-related. When Paul got out of Cook County Jail he carried an odor of rape and had large nerve spots in his eyes. Fear moving like a breeze in a prison yard, I could feel that in my stomach when he was around; otherwise I didn't care. I thought about Monica. Her sharp teeth and brown cheeks. The way her greed slid across my hips could be scary but her palms were narrow as slots, that made it okay to have sex with her.
Ken Jennings was a map nerd from a young age himself, you will not be surprised to learn, even sleeping with an old creased atlas at the side of his pillow, most kids his age were cuddling with a trusted blanket- Jennings was not. As he travels the world meeting people of kindred spirits--map librarians, publishers, geocachers, and the engineers behind google maps. Now that technology and geographic unknowing is increasingly insulting us from the space and land around us, we are going to be needing these people more than ever. Mapheads are the ones who always know exactly where they are and...
Ethnic group is a settled mannerism for many people during their lives. Both Zora Neale Hurston, author of “How It Feels to Be Colored Me; and Brent Staples, author of “Just Walk On By: A Black Man Ponders His Power to Alter Public Space,” realize that their life will be influenced when they are black; however, they take it in pace and don’t reside on it. They grew up in different places which make their form differently; however, in the end, It does not matter to them as they both find ways to match the different sexes and still have productivity in their lives.. Hurston was raised in Eatonville, Florida, a quiet black town with only white passer-by from time-to-time, while Staples grew up in Chester, Pennsylvania, surrounded by gang activity from the beginning. Both Hurston and Staples share similar and contrasting views about the effect of the color of their
Rottenberg, Catherine. "Passing: Race, Identification, And Desire." Criticism 45.4 (2003): 435-452. Humanities International Complete. Web. 19 Dec. 2013.
We have a concrete hero character in Beowulf, and a concrete villain in Grendel. We see this as a theme throughout the epic poem. The dichotomy of good versus evil is the fundamental backbone of this piece of literature. It is so significant due to the fact that everything that happens in this book is someway related to good versus evil. If Beowulf wasn’t so good at heart, he would not even be enticed to leave his homeland and go help the danes. Without the drive in Beowulf 's heart to do what is right, all of his heroic moments of glory would not exist. Once this is pointed out to the reader, it becomes so clear that one could wonder why the book isn 't just named: “Beowulf, a Story of Good vs. Evil.”.
The first line indicates that “the world” does not need to worry about the true sufferings and feelings but recognized them while they wear their mask. This creates the illusion that is beyond the dissembling of society but the sake of dishonesty and duplicity. Following this line is rhyme once again over wise and sighs. From the opening stanza of the poem, it presents a speaker who then one speaks in first person plural. The poem as a very indirect tone towards the audience. In this stanza, the writer also begins to develop a character. The characters being between us and them are becoming more developed. The term “we wear the mask” is not only the title of the poem but it is repeated throughout the stanzas three
The contrast between good and evil is evident in Beowulf and effectively characterizes the many diverse people and creatures featured in the poem. From the highest hero in Beowulf to the most vile villain in Grendel, the tendencies of the characters, as well as their environments and the motives behind their actions, illustrate the deep differences that run between the virtuous and the wicked in the epic poem
As Grendel drifts through the night he comes across Hrothgar's mead hall and is angered by the Warriors singing during their celebration. As the Warriors all began to sleep Grendel crept into the hall to kill 30 Warriors by snatching them up. "The monster's thoughts were as quick as his greed or his claws: he slipped through the door and there in the silence snatched up thirty men, smashed them” (Unknown 36-39). The evil deed makes Grendel the antagonist based on what the author said. This allows the reader to suggest that Grendel is the evil character and will introduce the good character soon. The cynical deed Grendel had done spreaded around like wildfire and Beowulf heard about what the beast had done and then decides to kill the beast and others.
Containment theory: A theory positing that every person possesses a containing external structure and a protective internal structure, both of which provide defence, protection, or insulation against
In this passage from the novel Between the World and Me, Ta-Nehisi Coates utilizes meaningful, vivid imagery to not only stress the chasm between two dissonant American realities, but to also bolster his clarion for the American people to abolish the slavery of institutional or personal bias against any background. For example, Coates introduces his audience to the idea that the United States is a galaxy, and that the extremes of the "black" and "white" lifestyles in this galaxy are so severe that they can only know of each other through dispatch (Coates 20-21). Although Coates's language is straightforward, it nevertheless challenges his audience to reconsider a status quo that has maintained social division in an unwitting yet ignorant fashion.
Though each article has its differences in style, perspective, and concerns, all three reinforce the idea that race relations in the 1930s and 1940s, especially in the South, were in dire need of work. Whether the issue was how African Americans were viewed, treated, or thought of in American life, the main point that seems to come through in each author’s work is that on the whole, things needed to change from the prejudiced and stereotypical behaviors of southern America and, to a greater extent, the country as a whole. Race relations were not a high point in history, and it is a shame things did not get better sooner than they did. Du Bois, Wright, and Myrdal showed the state of the world after the Reconstruction era and before the Civil Rights movement, which was harsh and controversial yet had a big impact on American life and American history.
During these past two years, nearly all of the world has been exposed to the downward spiral of Amanda Bynes. The former child star has fallen, like many others, from the squeaky clean persona which we saw from her work on The Amanda Show. Many child stars have been fascinating cases in the psychology world whether it be caused by the stress of living in the spotlight or parental problems. Bynes’ case is a tragic one, especially for those of us who grew up with her show, so being able to understand from a clinical view point what is going on with her is important to me.
In the epic poem Beowulf, the struggle between good and evil reveals its omnipresence in even the oldest of tales. The many allusions and symbols throughout the story relate to Christianity and other Pagan beliefs. By looking at them, it becomes apparent that the author of Beowulf believed that the constant war between good and evil is not only fought by the common man but also in the ranks of their highest esteemed rulers and warriors, and even in their dreaded nightmares where monsters lurk and wait for the death of man. Beowulf was written during the budding of Christianity in England, when it was newly forming. In the story there are obvious references to Christian rituals.
Paul Lawrence Dunbar, an African-American poet, describes the suffering that blacks were subjected to in his 1913 poem, “We Wear the Mask”. In his poem, Dunbar asserts that blacks are partially responsible for the suffering of African Americans due to their belief that a deceptive “mask” was necessary for their survival.
"We Wear the Mask" written by Paul Laurence Dunbar was done with African-Americans in mind. Around this time African- Americans were treated so bad it was like they were animals. Some were beaten to death while others were abused. They were given limited rights because many Caucasians did not consider other minorities to be of equal status. Dunbar's poem shows African- Americans internal emotions such as anger, fears, and sadness. He uses metaphors to explain what cannot be said in words because most African-Americans didn't want to come off as weak. So they hide their emotions behind a mask that looked like they were content with everything.
It has been said that Cartography originated thousands of years ago. Wall paintings believed to represent a maps of the heavens exist all around the world. The oldest maps that have been preserved on Babylonian clay tablets are from around 2300 B.C. Cartography as a whole was dominant in Greece as the subject was more advanced than other locations and so the spherical Earth was well known amongst Greek philosophers. (Aber, 2008). The reference-line principle was created by one of Aristotle’s disciples. Dichaearchus was this disciple’s name and he obtained this theory by placing an orientation line that ran from east to west. (Fuechsel, 2013)