GRSJ 224 Blog

From an ugly, bold blood sucking creature to an attractive superhero, the common perception of vampire has changed dramatically during the past centuries as evident in the literature and its adaptation.  The difference between Bram Stoker’s Dracula in the Victorian age and the movie Dracula is a case in point.

The most significant changes associated with Coppola’s adaptation is the incorporation of various elements of romance in the movie. In the original novel, Mina is in love with Jonathan Harker and has no romantic tie to Dracula at all. In the movie, Mina is portrayed as a reincarnation of Dracula’s lover Elizabetha, and she has the full memory of her previous life with Dracula. Mina also willingly drinks Dracula’s blood instead of being forced to do so as depicts in the novel. In addition, Dracula is largely considered a villain and associated with negative animalistic characteristics of a blood sucking monster. In Coppola’s movie, the mutual affection between Dracula and Mina has accounted for some of the violence that Dracula commits, making them unavoidable on the grounds for love. As a result, the callous and primal vampire figure is associated with many qualities such as loyalty, affection and determination.

It is clear that the 1992 Bram Stoker’s Dracula has significant difference from the original novel in that the movie has altered the plotline to include a more humanized vampire and many typical Hollywood romance scenes.

The many times I drove by Vancouver’s downtown eastside (DTES) I have committed the” unforgivable but not unprecedented oversight” as Blomley states in his book.  This week’s readings has allowed me to think about the different aspects of colonialism and its remaining impact on urban land use conflicts as well as the array of social, economic and cultural issues that have resulted from it.  Of the many creative pieces, I personally found the Painted Tongue to be the most touching and thought provoking short story as I have discussed in the previous blog posting.

Another creative work of a completely different genre has also caught my attention. 8^th Fire is a CBC production of television series that focus on amending the relationship between Canadians and First Nations.  In the episode Indigenous in the City, the idea of urban space conflict is presented in a completely different light in comparison to Boyden’s work. The episode starts off by stating the fact that more and more indigenous people are living in the city instead of on the reserve and it is time to “get to know your neighbors”. The rest of the episode is composed of interviews from well accomplished middle class working professionals and artists of indigenous ancestry.  Dr.Evan Adams, a physician, Kent Monkman, celebrated visual artist and Taiaike Alfred, a professor at University of Victoria just to name a few.  The take away message from the elite representatives is that education in their own history, bridging divide between cultures and allowing cultures to flourish are important.  While in reality, the majority of aboriginals does not live in a loft studio in the city or even have a job. The rampant poverty, crimes, HIV, drug abuse and social injustice are the real problems and these issues are barely touched on in the episode. The space conflicts that resulted from dispossession to displacement are the main concern for many of us, but the portrayal on TV deliberately avoided the harsh confrontation of these issues. This inevitably conforms to the taste of middle class, or in order word, a form of gentrification. Painted Tongue on the other hand, describes a homeless aboriginal person wandering in the city while exposing through his own eyes the numerous social problems and juxtaposition that exist in the present day downtown Toronto. Painted Tongue is a classic case of double displacement as stated in the course notes. Even though both of the creative works convey the important issues about urban space conflicts,  they have taken very different approach.

Girl Who Mysteriously Revived Three From Death Bought 100 Acre Estate

Kate of Drimalegue was observed by several bystanders and neighbours of northwest Gort na Leachtan last month to have mysteriously revived the lives of three young men from death. Neither of the parents or the revived have disclosed any detail about the inexplicable event. No policeman or paramedics were at the scene to confirm the legitimacy of this claim, but several witnesses asserted that the three men were pale and breathless when they were found in the morning. An anonymous source stated that Kate has recently made several purchases of real estate in Gort na Leachtan. The information is confirmed by a local realtor and other reliable tips. Yesterday Kate has been seen at the property department of the city hall with her newly married husband, the eldest of the revived. According to an anonymous source, the couple have just purchased an 100 Acre estate in northen Ireland, 30 miles from Gort na Leachtan. A spokeperson of the Internal Revenue Service of Ireland has confirmed that the couple will not be investigated. The IRS will not disclose financial information about Kate and her husband, quoting the Financial Information Privacy act. However, many residents of the Gort na Leachtan believe that Kate has obtained the grand sum from witchcraft and dark magic. Others claim that Kate has most likely been in contact with the family of vampires, Michael and Edward Derrihy. The Derrihy family was one of the wealthiest in Europe and some elder citizens believe they had hidden gold in the fields of Gort na Leachtan although no reliable source has been able to confirm such claim.

One of the most dreadful memory of my life is the time that I transferred bus on east Hastings Street alone in midnight. I remembered how I tried to keep my distance from the people who were wandering around yelling incomprehensible words at me. Painted Tongue by Joseph Boyden revoked me to think about them in a way I egocentrically never had before.  The protagonist, Painted Tongue, is a stereotypical homeless indigenous person striving from day to day living in urban Toronto. He exhibits all the negative stereotypes, being alcoholic, incomprehensible and mentally disturbed.  Through the narrator’s perspective, several controversial issues are discussed in the course of the story, such as residential school, gentrification, and criminalization.

Through my research, I was surprised to find that the author Joseph Boyden is not of a significant aboriginal background. According to the Canadian Encyclopedia, Boyden is of Metis of Irish, Scots and Metis descent. Boyden grew up in Toronto and his father was a decorated medical officer in WWII. Unlike most Aboriginal story writers, Boyden grew up in the influence of a Catholic family and education. Perhaps his diverse background and lack of identification with a particular tribe, enables him to place more emphasizes on social issues instead of cultural ones in Painted Tongue.

In this module’s course materials, there are two topics that are related to Japanese immigrants in Canada. The first is from the required reading, The Kappa Child and is the history of Japanese Internment during WWII. I found in this part of the module to be especially worthwhile to not only consider the impact of racism and politics, but also explore the impact resulted from the difference in social values between Japan and Canada from a cultural and psychological perspective. This perspective may also be extended to the concept of intersectionality, “multiple systems of oppression and discrimination” that immigrants in Canada must deal with. The obstacles that are experienced by immigrants are not only resulted from the oppression during interaction with the Canadian society, but also come from within the family, whereas the various members of the family responded and adapted differently to the environment and thus caused a gap in communication and understanding.

The protagonist of the Kappa Child is a Japanese Canadian girl who moved to the West Coast and then to Albert as a child. The author Hiromi Goto herself, went through a very similar experience in her childhood and she has incorporated ideas and stories from her personal life into the novel. While The Kappa Child is not an autobiography, the novel offers just as powerful a narrative of an Asian settler family on the prairie. One of the main characters in Goto’s novel is the dogmatic and abusive father, who persists on growing Japanese rice on the arid land. While the child has moved to Canada in an age of three, she has not been influenced by the values and social norms of a Japanese society. Her father on the other hand, is perhaps deeply instilled by the Japanese values, one that emphasizes pride and integrity over work rather than self.  In the novel, the author repeatedly expresses her resentment and ridicule towards her father’s ambition to grow rice and her respect for her father gradually turns into fear as the plot develops. In Minoru’s film Memory of Exile, the 9 year old Japanese boy who is born in Canada is forced to go back to Japan with his father. The dreadful description of his experience and difficulties his family encounters in Japan is not unlike Goto’s depiction of the prairie, both filled with melancholy , frustration and helplessness.

Reference: Hiromi Goto, Interviewed by Gavin J. Grant

As a relatively recent immigrant to Canada, the process of settling down has been a rather unique and challenging experience, especially when trying to fit in with the Canadian culture.  This week’s reading evoked me to think about the issues arose from the earlier immigrants and the First Nations of Canada, and how differently the experience was for the indigenous residents and immigrants at that time comparing to now.

Leanne Simpson is a member of Alderville First Nation with Michi Saagiig Nishnaabeg ancestry and a celebrated indigenous academic, writer and spoken word artist (leannesimpson.ca). In her “Bubbling like a Beating Heart: Reflections on Nishnaabeg Poetic and Narrative Consciousness”, she delicately offers the reader insights into a Nishnaabeg perspective, revealing her tremendous effort in preserving her culture while critically analyzing the role of narratives and other formats of storytelling play in decolonizing and protecting the indigenous communities. Simpson has tactfully chosen to include words directly from her Native language, and followed up with a carefully phrased translation that often has meanings in many folds. Although the constant need to refer to footnote places a burden on readers, there is no other way to accurately convey her intention. Simpson also discusses the significance of narrative in the article. She emphasizes the critical role of “rebuilding a culturally based artistic renaissance and nation-based political resurgences” the Nishnaabeg poetics and narrative consciousness of play (page 110). In the article, Simpson stresses the importance of such writing would have in shaping the future. As her closing sentence remarks, “[…] engaging in artistic pursuits aligns us with our creative energy of our Origin stories, thereby liberating new realities and new possibilities” (p117).

I was in high school during the airing of Juno.  I didn’t have the heart to watch it because its pro-life stance I gathered from the trailer. The teenage me back then was too sensitive to confront the subjects of teen pregnancy, abortion and adoption,   I have made the right choice. I found it to be perhaps one of the most twisted and misleading movie about teenage pregnancy that has ever aired. Juno, the sixteen year old heroine, with her sarcastic and arrogant tone, is depicted as unrealistically callous and uncaring about her pregnancy;the stressful part of teen pregnancy is not clearly portrayed and largely over shadowed by Juno’s character. Moreover, the scenes about the abortion clinic are fairy tale versions of what happens in the real world.  Juno’s decision about the abortion seems to have changed by the very false facts about “finger nails”. The clinic is nothing but portrayed consistently unappealing and even dreadful which eventually leads to Juno running away. As well, the language used to talk about reproductive health in Juno is more than troubling, although perhaps is only intended to achieve a witty effect in some case. A worker (receptionist?) at the abortion clinic offers Juno a free condom and then adds unnecessary comments about her own personal intimate life.

As the lecture note states, the Oscar wining Juno is a conservative victory. It is another example of how representational media has been utilized to bombard the audience with untrue and biased images.

Reproductive politics is a topic so controversial that I dare not to discuss with my family or friends or anyone I care about. There is an overwhelmingly negative connotation towards the loss of virginity before marriage in Chinese culture. Women in TV shows and novels  who commit such acts almost always end up in tragedy. Such plotlines have caused heightened anxiety regarding pre-martial sex for many of my friends in China. For this reason, I am well aware of the hidden psychological control from cultural presentations and their implication.  It was not surprising that the researchers discovered the similarity in skewed portrayal about abortion in American TV shows and fictions as well.

In the abortion scenes videos, there are a number of negative adjectives used to describe abortion, such as “unholy” and “wrong” in Godfather and Degrassi High. The scenes portraying abortion as an invasive and excruciating procedure are more than never cracking for me to watch. In Fast time at Ridgemount High, the pale girl wearing a scrub hat(which is unnecessary) on the table is  scared of the pain, and still tormented by her indecision. Likewise, Cider House Rule feature the abortion procedure with emphasizes on the metal equipment and the devastated reaction of an observer.  Dirty Dancing depicts the serious complications due to an unsafe and unsanitary abortion which also confirms with the social myth.

The word “choice” has different meanings in the videos. As Spike in Degrassi High says, it is her choice to have the baby and there is no simple right or wrong answer that applies to everyone.  The choice emphasized here is the autonomous decision for one to choose what is the best. In Citizen Ruth, the nurse offers Ruth the choice she has — adoption. The choice of the men is also discussed by many women in Meaghan’s stories as well as in the movies/TV shows. It is evident that the women’s choice is heavily influenced by her partners in many cases. Christina in Grey’s Anatomy booked and did not show up to her abortion appointment because of Hunt’s opposition, which leads to the conversation betwwen Meredith and Hunt in the video clip. However, the choice could often be much more complicated. In Jack and Bobby, Jack’s mother outcries, “you choice isn’t really a choice“, which reflect the complications about the choice hierarchy.

Without knowing much about the context of the lesson, I started reading the ninth edition of Rose Kushner’s book “If You’ve Thought About Breast Cancer…” The chapters provide a comprehensive coverage about breast cancer from screening to coping to recovering, in a rather methodical order.  Although the writing is structured similar to an academic publication, I found Kushner’s book very layman friendly for the amount of details it contains and with a hint of empathetic overtone.

It was when I finished the other readings in the lesson that I finally come to realize how radical a literature on the breast cancer was in Kushner’s time, an age when the very words “breast cancer” were considered shameful.  Back then, the overall women’s health issues were either overlooked or regarded with much repugnance, in addition to be largely constricted by moral and religious dogma. Breast cancer was one of the problems, so were contraception and abortion, which perhaps were issues taken up by more feminists. Although Kushner did not pose as a feminist for most parts, she did condemn the “Male Chauvinism” and publicly criticized the President of U.S. for his indifference over his wife’s body, citing the masculine society as the cause. According to Barron H. Lerner in his book The Breast Cancer Wars: Fear, Hope, and the Pursuit of a Cure in Twentieth-Century America, M.D., Kushner once wrote:

No man is going to make another man impotent while he’s asleep without his permission, but there’s no hesitation if it’s a woman’s breast.

Her use of comparison to male genitalia is much similar to feminist writings against female genital mutilation and other movements.

The slides also mentioned the fact that Kushner refused to authorize the one step biopsy and mastectomy procedure, and as a result was turned down by 18 surgeons. I could only imagine the amount of courage that would enable one to not only fight against cancer, but also the male-dominated institutions that reinforced “unnecessary and inadvisable” procedures (Week 3 Slides).

I truly admire Kushner for her effort of disseminating factual and meaningful information, for her progressive stance in the face of cancer, and for her movement against the powerful and mainstream male dominated media.