Auto/English474F-Graphy

Today, as we finished up the documentary The Stories We Tell, I was thinking about (Sarah’s biological father) Harry’s idea that his story with Diane (Sarah’s biological mother) is just his, and doesn’t belong to anyone else. Furthermore, his idea that he was telling the truth. I felt that the way he felt about his story versus how Michael (Sarah’s unknowingly ‘adoptive’ father) felt about the story paralleled the binaries between written and oral tradition. I felt as if Harry believed his story existed in a vacuum of reality, and the draft of his story with Diane was the truth, and that it held more validity than the shared stories told in the documentary of everyone, where each voice held some weight. The documentary, to me, feels like it has more of an oral tradition to it. It all centers around one narrative, that of Diane and her life and times, but morphs with each individual perspective while retaining some key characteristics like Diane’s outgoing personality and her love for her children and such. Harry’s comment about how the multiple voices create a sense of bottomlessness with the story, and therefore a sense of falsification, was interesting. It also parallels the logic of why people often have a distaste for oral tradition: it’s difficult to distinguish one author, one voice, one truth. But don’t multiple voices decrease bias, and therefore lead us closer to this asymptote of objective authenticity everyone seems to be striving towards?

(note: I’m working from home, and for whatever reason the ubc library won’t let me log in and use the resources. But related articles to check out that I wanted to hyperlink: “Orality” by Courtney Macneil, in which she describes the differences between oral and written tradition/culture and it’s related controversies, and the book by Chamberlain titled “If this is your land, where are your stories?” where he discusses First Nations peoples and their use of stories in the creation of an ‘authentic’ culture.)

Chamberlin, J. Edward. If this is your land, where are your stories?: finding common ground. Toronto: A.A. Knopf Canada, 2003. Print.
Stories We Tell. National Film Board of Canada, 2012. DVD.
MacNeil, Courtney. “The Chicago School of Media Theory Theorizing Media since 2003.” The Chicago School of Media Theory RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 May 2014.

(Note: I’m not entirely certain about my status as this week’s class blogger so here’s a ‘just in case’ post)

Pre-English 474F, I wasn’t very knowledgeable about the Haiti in general. I didn’t know it’s history, culture, or people. Dany Laferriere’s book, The World Is Moving Around Me, therefore provided an interesting first representation of Haiti to ‘fresh eyes.’ One of the things I noted and wish to discuss in today’s blog post is the aspect and role of religion on Haitian culture, as depicted by the book. I noticed a lot of Christian themes and tropes throughout the text, such as how emphasis is placed on certain places that are spared, notably gardens, as seen on page 16 and 45, 67, and more loosely on page 48 as a yard, and even in the preface on page 11 where Haiti is called a ‘Garden of Eden.’
Throughout the book, other religious topics appear frequently. Laferriere himself writes a passage on ‘The Role of God’ on page 121, depicting the religious image of the city ‘on its knees’ (121), an image of prayer and exhaustion. The people can only count on ‘themselves..and God.’ (121) In another section, DL (for short) discusses how “Homer believed the gods sent us misfortune so we might make poetry of it.” (51) There are many Gods and religions in this book, but I think the two prominent ones are that of Christianity and that of Voodoo. Filo, DL’s radio spokesperson and artist friend sang the praises of Voodoo on page 37, while DL’s mother preached the opposite, asking “What can you do but turn to Jesus?” on page 93. This split is interesting. Christianity was introduced to Haiti, as this helpful article clarifies. I was curious, what is the symbolism of people native to Haiti appealing to a foreign religion for help during the earthquake, during a time of need?
I know the religion has been well established following the murder of much of the native population upon Columbus’ arrival and the importation of slaves forced to adhere to the new religion, as the article denotes, but I still think there is some relevance in those who believe choosing to believe in something foreign, not home grown and, in antiquity, intrusive, opposed to a native religion. DL places a lot of emphasis on the intrusion of foreigners attempting to help, and makes a point of noting that the Catholic Church strategically worked its way into the hearts of the poorer classes in the last few decades (87). Does anyone else read a deeper meaning in the choice of some to appeal to a ‘foreign God’ and ‘foreign religion’?

Works Cited
“The History of Haiti and Vodou – Overview.” The History of Haiti and Vodou – Overview. Ethnological Museum Berlin. Web. 7 Nov. 2014. .

Stokes Jr., John. “Bible Gardens Revisited.” Bible Gardens Revisited. Web. 7 Nov. 2014. .

Laferriere, Dany. The World Is Moving Around Me. Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp, 2013. Print.

woman ‘demanding answers from heaven’ 46

Animopomorphized isn’t technically a word, but when broken down the etymology, one is lead to the words ‘animal,’ ‘form/shape,’ and a modifier that makes this word a verb. So, in brief, for something to take the form of an animal. This phenomena is what happens to the characters in Art Spiegelman’s Maus. The lines that were drawn between Jews, Germans, and Nazi’s (as well as the French) diverge further into biological lines, and the ‘types’ of humans become species.
I was curious about reading deeper into effect of exchanging the humans for animals. In class, we already established that the medium of ‘comic’ has broken barriers in the eyes of many between fiction and non fiction. Lines have been blurred. On one hand, it is based on a historical account. On the other hand, the medium, and use of common North American animals, all of which have been domesticated, (yes, even pet pigs are becoming ‘a thing’) create a childish air to it that’s fraught with ‘adult’ meaning.
Firstly, we’ve learned that the symbol of Jewish people as mice, as vermin, has been well propagated by Nazi’s. The Cat and Mouse trope is well established in North American culture at the very least. But there are many more layers of symbols within the story itself and outside of it, regarding the story itself as well as the story of the story.
The animals allow Spiegelman to visually depict scenes that he himself has not witnessed, which, in a way, detracts a bit from possible backlash against misrepresentation. The cartoon format removes the risk of some inaccuracies, making the ‘real’ into more of a symbol, the same way that the people who existed and were involved in the Holocaust were reduced to their ideologies and beliefs, symbols of another kind. The people were homogenized into a universal, as are the animals.
The animals themselves also have symbolism in the Judaic tradition. This helpful website denotes some of these symbols: for example, the cat as a symbol for power and wholeness, the mouse as frugal and scrutinized, the pig as a symbol for rebirth, and the frog as a healing animal. These themes can be seen embodied in the animal characters of Maus.
Finally, on a more academic note, the visual depiction of the animals allows Spiegelman to physically show the way the Panopticon operated in the Holocaust. This term is a part of Foucault’s book Discipline and Punish. Essentially, a small group of people in power, or even one person in a position of power is able to control the masses through the use of the ‘divide and conquer’ mentality. By physically and mentally separating them in a structure like the one below, the hegemony is able to keep continuous watch over the persecuted/trapped without them knowing when they are being watched, keeping them in a state of fear and in threat punishment. The cat’s keep the mice in check, mentally and physically through this idea.

Citations:
Foucault, Michel. “Discipline and Punish, Panopticism.” Foucault, Info. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Oct. 2014. .

Kipperman, Doug. “SDJA – Art – Animal Symbolism.” SDJA – Art – Animal Symbolism. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Oct. 2014. .

Vokes-Dudgeon, Sophie. “Miley Cyrus Gets a Pet Piglet, Snuggles up with New Pet on her Private Jet.” Latest News. N.p., 11 Aug. 2014. Web. 23 Oct. 2014. .

I know this is late, but I was laying in bed feeling guilty for dropping the ball on the blog post and thinking about my school courses, and how the material from vastly different courses somehow synthesize into a coherent theme. One example that struck me and prompted me to write this in spite of the tardiness was the idea of the collective voice.
In both Oppals juridical text and the material in my ASIS 358 class on the poets of India, a single voice editing for many or many voices perpetuating a single message become prevalent issues. These two things relate because, as we’ve learned, in India some of the very prominent voices in poetics often gain a followership. One example being of Mira, a 16th century radical poet (in her historical/social niche). She became so famous that poems began to be written by people claiming to be her. This poaching of authorship was(And is in contemporary times) not received with contempt, but is embraced. Her message is the enduring trait that matters, more so than the concept of who the real author is herself. This idea of authorship made me think of parallels with “Missing Sarah” and “Forsaken,” and how the idea of speaking for others has become such a huge issue, for example when MDV edits Sarah’s voice, or when poems are submitted in lieu for eulogies and miniature life narratives. It makes me wonder where the balance is between the message, the propelling force behind a work, a works purpose and the details of the author and the people represented by the topic. Such are my thoughts at 1am.

Citations:

Martin, Nancy. “Mirabai by Nancy M. Martin.” Mirabai. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Oct. 2014. .

Tuesday’s class really created an interesting discourse about Canadian history, and the role of life narratives in this National Literary Canon. It arose questions about who was doing the writing, who was being written about, and how accurately this reflected the various facets of an important historical event. As we learned, in the specific historical events revolving around the building of the Canadian Pacific Railway, the people who were doing the writing consisted of members of the dominant white male hegemony that was strongly in place at the time. They wrote about others of that elite class, as seen by poems of the time period like ‘Towards The Last Spike,‘ an epic poem that chronicles the building of the CPR that focuses in on the nailing in of the last spike and minimally addresses the workers who built the vast majority of the rest of the railway, Chinese Immigrants in particular.  The intertextuality and allusions on page 130-131 in the Diamond Grill was very effective at counteracting this violent, misconstrued history and turning it on its head by taking the language and documentation and distorting it to show a truth that was and is much ignored. This section is a part of a discourse about censorship and perception of a nation, and how one can revise the teaching of history so it encompasses the previously invalidated experiences of minorities (who are often exploited then forgotten in the building of a nation.) This topic is still prevalent today, in cases like this where Colorado is considering revising the history textbooks to downplay the civil disobedience that catalyzed civil rights movements. How can we incorporate more Auto/Biographies in education to create a more truthful account of historical events? And whose stories are valid, and to what degree? How do we teach History objectively?

Works Cited

     Associated Press. “Hundreds of Colorado students protest history curriculum changes that would promote patriotism.”Fox News. FOX News Network, 24 Sept. 2014. Web. 24 Sept. 2014. <http://www.foxnews.com/us/2014/09/24/hundreds-colorado-students-protest-proposed-history-curriculum-changes/>.

Pratt, E.J.. “Towards the Last Spike (Annotated).” Towards the Last Spike (Annotated). N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Sept. 2014. <http://www.trentu.ca/faculty/pratt/poems/texts/188/fr188annotated.html>.

Welcome to UBC Blogs. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!

The other week, I read an interesting article by Matt Honan, a professional blogger, on the website ‘Wired.’ It was directly relevant to our in-class discussion today of Pariser and how Facebook whittles down our world view through a feedback system that generates power through our likes, comments, and demographical information. In summary, Honan liked everything he saw on Facebook for two weeks, then observed the effects on his timeline in comparison to pre-liking-spree. With each like, his ‘filter bubble’ narrowed in one direction or another, onto different political spectrums or, as he put it, “down rabbit holes of special interests until we’re lost in the queen’s garden, cursing everyone above ground.” (Honan) This caused me to wonder what it does to people who just join Facebook, and how it affects their mental development and growth in terms of the supposed website ‘goal’.

Facebook, as we discussed in class, is theoretically designed to expand the horizons of our knowledge, and create social connections to people in our own community, and, as the logo depicts, across the world too. However, if one joins Facebook, enters in the mandatory information, adds their friends, and begins to ‘like’ things that tailor future information that is propagated on our News Feeds, how does this affect one down the line? I’m curious to know how adversely this reinforcement system affects one’s ideological, cultural, and personal beliefs in comparison to someone who doesn’t use Facebook. I think this system creates dangerous binaries within the Facebook society, as in you are either a or b, and are visually limited to only the information of your self- imposed group, disarming you from engaging in a legitimate discourse or having a fair argument with the information presented on both sides of a topic. This, in turn I believe, affects people in the sense that they are unable to discuss issues in real life out of the confines of a laptop screen, as they are uninformed, biased, and illiterate in anything but the beliefs they already held from the start. Facebook is instead creating binaries, lines, and borders, separating individuals instead of connecting.

          Honan, Matt. “I Liked Everything I Saw on Facebook for Two Days. Here’s What It Did to Me | WIRED.” Wired.com. Conde Nast Digital, 14 Aug. 2009. Web. 11 Sept. 2014. <http://www.wired.com/2014/08/i-liked-everything-i-saw-on-facebook-for-two-days-heres-what-it-did-to-me/>.

Lareau, onathan . “Non-Dual Thinking: There Are Things We Don’t Know.” Tiny Buddha. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Sept. 2014. <http://tinybuddha.com/blog/non-dual-thinking-there-are-things-we-dont-know/>.