so since I epically suck at the portion of this course that is worth the biggest percentage, I thought it would be appropriate to assure that the portion that is worth the least is always done on time and such, therefore I am doing my final mandatory blog post.

So this is not my first time at the rodeo of Things Fall Apart. It isn’t my second time but ladies and gentlemen of have read this book thrice (only to be beaten by The Stranger– 6 times) and so i feel like in the grand scheme of things I get what is going on — Atleast compared to Heart of Darkness which was just a freaking shitshow if i ever read one, i understood Les Liaisons Dangereuse more which was in french and written in the 18th century. but i digress.

So when I first read this novel I read it has a companion piece to this book called The Poisonwood Bible which is about a missionary family coming to the Congo and how everyone, but the crazy dad, go ‘native’ in some shape or other. My teacher (shout out to Ms.Clark) who i love hates HOD and so we didn’t to the classic pairing. I think that was very beneficial because I didn’t go into it pre-disposed to thinking that TFA was just a response to HOD. I was able to look at it as a stand alone novel.

I don’t think this is an amazing novel. better than HOD and much better than the majority of the pages i had to look at this year but this ain’t no amazing work of literary genius like some stuff. Don’t get me wrong it’s a nice read and somewhat thought provoking but kinda just meh. Like I just feel that there is no point to this novel. I KNOW THERE IS but by the end of the novel I don’t feel like I know any of the characters that well and therefore i don’t care about any of the characters and therefore i don’t give a crap. It is sorta like Kingdom of this World in that regard. You barely know Okonkwo so when he hangs himself you aren’t left spinning. This is a weak example but when i read The Titan’s Cure (when I was like 11) I cried at the end of the book when Zoe was killed. The cathartic release was just so amazing and the tension that was built up through the novel and the connection created by the author was so intense that all I could do was cry (same thing in the film Atonement)

This is ofcourse a book of symbols. The most prominent, in my opinion, is the use of snakes throughout this book. If you read PWB you see the importance of snakes there too so that may be why I notice it. in TFA, Snakes represent the society itself, the African culture. It is one of their gods and therefore once that random guy kills it, the whole society falls apart. I also picked up throughout the novel this time all the times they reference hanging- oooooo foreshadowing ooooo

Apparently this book was written to show that Africans aren’t one dimensional characters but full fledge human beings but this novel does nothing to propel this. All the characters are flat and most are vicious and kinda dicks. If you want to read a book where this is actually done read Book of Negroes or better yet The Color Purple

I am done.

Now for my little tirade of sass.

Things really fell apart in the reading list this term (see my pun). i don’t think it it necessarily anyways fault, it is just how the cookie crumple. Although there were some highlights this term (Austen, Freud, Wollstonecraft) in general the readings this term (and mostly last term) seemed to continually get less and less interesting in my opinion. Now I will admit freely that I am not the brightest bulb in this bunch – in fact I may be the dimmest but I know I am not the only one who felt that these books just were…in a word…meh. I still have yet to really see the whole remaking/remodeling in these books. Like I see the connection in Kant and Genesis and Butler and Sophocles but that is all…..and maybe Hobbes and Rousseau if I knew what the hell the former was saying. I know that this isn’t necessarily a class of “Great Books” but i think that it could use a bit more greatness and less Haiti (everything goes back to Haiti)

But life ain’t all bad. I got into the BFA program (theatre) and so now I know my trajectory so I have come to realize that i don’t care about essays and Paine. I don’t need to. I remember as a child wanting to be a historian – yup not happening!

YES!

any who, I was looking at the lists of prompts that were given for Beauvoir and Conrad and number five instantly grabbed me “is Marlowe racist” I didn’t realize we would have the option of writing about Christopher Marlowe, how exciting. I will say briefly that Marlowe could be conceived as racist because all the characters are white and as typical in this time period whenever something is described as negative it is also black (i.e Othello) and don’t forget there is a play called the Jew of Malta. But does that make Marlowe racist or simply a product of his time like our friend Isabella Thorpe – that is up to you!

in our discussion of Heart of Darkness one thing kept going on in my head: the lyrics from Spring Awakening. I will try and attach the video below.

one more typed essay guys!

let me know if the link works.

Hello UBC blog world,

Today in tutorial we discussed Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex. As I said in my last post, I find it difficult to discuss was a key feminist text seeing that I am a white male and often seen as the oppressor of women and society – heck we white men are the oppressors of everyone (and I am not denying this). 

In the last few weeks I have tried to stay as quiet as i could during discussions, because frankly I have nothing to add and when I do add things I get either shot down or blank stares of WTF, but today I spoke up and said that i cannot fathom why so many women IN CANADA state that they are oppressed when comparatively they are so equal (if not perceived as better) I know that this will elicit many comments and frankly I am sure that most people are better read on this subject so I can’t argue my opinion with any solid first hand evidence.

my point is: Sometimes I find that “others’ not just women but any group that had been severely oppress in the past hold on to this as a barttering chip. Now I do not say that women and minorites don’t get underpaid compared to white men but sometimes (not always) i think this chip is played to discredit someone elses accomplishments. I know that it Ariela reads this, she will say that this is a problematic view point and I say: Oh well.

Anywho,

I was on the bus today and i frazzled pregnant woman got on the bus with a stroller. She was lookign quite rough and like any typical young mum with multiple kids. then she opened her mouth. I will admit I was eavesdropping and she began talking about quantum physics, and how by the age of 16 she had completed 2nd year physics and how she fiured out nuclear chemistry by herself yada yada yada and it reminded me of the discussion we had about how women seem to get yack no matter what they do and I thought she was a perfect example of a woman who can have both: be a mum and still be a goddamn phd scientist.

Also,

next year arts one should do Hamlet and the Lion King – remake/remodel the most famous play in the world.

Ok,

only a couple more to do of these and then i can begin blogging about my BFA journey

so I read this about two weeks ago, so on the bus on my way to lecture I will be revisiting this text and adding on to this blog. i just don’t want to be told that I am late because it takes me so long to get home so i am going to do this half ass one and then improve on it.

So i will start this by saying that I thought Simone de Beauvoir was from the 18th century – apparently not. I feel like such a dork, but I am sure that in Manon lescaut they say that name at some point.

I totally get that women have been subjugated through out all of time, and trust me I am totally on her side. But I just find some times through out the text she goes a bit melodramatic (I hear Ola and Ariela shrieking right now).

I don’t know how much I agree with her view that “the eternal feminine corresponds to the ‘black soul’ and to ‘the jewish character’ i think what happened to the african americans/Europeans had it much worst off. Women were for sure misused because of their sex but most were not mass murdered via gas chambers or thrown on board a ship and left to rot as you were sold into slavery.

It is hard for me to criticize a piece of feminism because I am a white man and therefore if I am not 100% gungho then i am labeled as a misogynist and stuck in the middle ages. I am not. I agree whole heartedly that women are equal 9if not better) than men and should be treated as such and not like walking vaginas. I just think sometimes the way people go about expressing this is wrong and mean and vindictive,

Her text and her description of the sufferage of women reminded me of how women are treated in Gilead in Atwood’s THE HANDMAID TALE. Not completely, but similar

So the lecture was awesome (as per usual with Jill) and she highlighted something very interesting. She saying that when making out identity, we make the Others. It is very interesting i think. We all make a slave/master thing no matter what, even if we don;t mean too.

Simone de Beauvoir seems like a real cool lady. I desperately wants to read “She came to stay”. Sounds like an interesting look into a strange/intriguing menage a trois.

I have also come to realize that since january I have really stopped enjoying writing these blogs. I find myself not having anythign interetsing or thought provoking to say. I am so done with all this. I miss reading stuff for the enjoyment of it and can’t to be in the BFA and reading stuff that doesn’t have to do with boring stuff that I am too pea brained to understand.

so close.