A Side Note

As a random side note, I was sitting in a hotel room a few nights ago, arguing over the remote with my mom and flipping channels, when, what should come on? (drumroll please) Ghost World!! I busted out laughing, though we didn't watch it. Okay, good story i know

Contemplating College Lit

I don't know about anyone else, but I loved this class (no, I'm not just saying it for brownie points or other such silly things).

My favorite book was Persepolis; my least favorite was Catcher in the Rye and Caucasia hovers somewhere in the middle.

My favorite part of the class though was the discussions we would have in class. I really enjoyed hearing other people's opinions, whether or not I agreed with them. Actually, quite often a discussion would make me change my mind, or at least shape the way I thought about the topic.

My least favorite was, sadly, the blogging. For me at least, it became one more chore. I wish I could say differently because I had been looking forward to it. Maybe I'll still continue with my own blog though. If it's something I do on my own, maybe it wouldn't be so bad.

Final Caucasia Thoughts

I definitely had a love/hate relationship with this book. I liked the basic story, and I liked how the book dealt with issues that unfortunately tend to be shoved under the rug nowadays. I just had some problems with the way it was written. It was very slow; the narration had a tendency to either ramble about things I didn't care about or abandon topics that I actually wanted to know more about. Granted, the plot did begin to pick up after awhile and I really started getting into it (though that could have been because I was on a long car ride at that point and had nothing better to do).

So would I recommend this book? Maybe. It would depend upon the person and what they like to read. But I would warn them that they're in for a looooooonnnnnnnnggggg haul.

Initial Caucasia Impression

So far, I like Caucasia. I know a lot of people are frustrated because it's moving so slowly but I'm not too bothered by that. The way the people interact with eachother is really interesting. It's like Mr. Kunkle said, we're all used to seeing the Civil Rights Movement wrapped up in a neat little package, but in reality, it was much more complicated. Caucasia really examines that, along with the shifting images of race.

One thing I noticed was how a lot of the white people close to Birdie seemed to want to be black. Birdie herself wished she was more like Cole who was closer to black. This makes me think of Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry (it took place in the 1930s in the south), which we read in 5th grade. When a new girl came to town who was still black, but was lighter than the main character and the rest of her friends and family, everybody loved her and wished they looked more like her. So there was a sort of about-face that took place somewhere in there.

After Killing us softly

I think Kilbourne was definitely right. The problem is everywhere. I once overheard my uncle, who is a marketing consultant, on the phone with a client: "yes, yes, I find that so interesting, the different effect a woman narrating would have versus a man." Granted, that doesn't sound that bad, but such ideas could lead to so much worse.

The problem though, is not just in the advertising industry. It's in magazines, tv shows, books...sometimes I think the creators don't even realize what they're doing. For example, I read Glamour magazine; though Glamour claims it is trying to incorporate models of different body sizes and send a message that "individuality is sexy," the very next page after such statements will include advice on how to lose weight, find the perfect clothes, or how to achieve celebrity hairstyles. Don't get me wrong, apart from those issues, Glamour is probably one of the best magazines for boosting self-esteem I've ever seen (though that isn't saying much). There are others that are much worse.

Light Years

So I sat down to read Light Years (my choice novel), telling myself that I was only going to read a little bit, but before I knew it I'd finished half the book. In other words: spoiler alert!!!

One of the things that stuck out at me most was the fact that all israeli kids join the military. It's as expected as going to high school. I just thought that was interesting. I also thought it was interesting that women were constcripted for military service alongside the men, though they are much less likely to serve in active combat or officer duty. I looked it up and according to Wikipedia (which is always reliable) "As of 2002, 33% of lower-rank officers are women, 21% of Captains and Majors, and 3% of the most senior ranks" Apparently, in more recent years, women are serving more and more equal combat duty. Here's the link to the article, by the way: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel_Defense_Forces#Regular_service


I was also highly entertained by Maya's description of American college students, with their floral skirts and high ponytails. Maya wondered how her roomate knew how to dress like everyone else. She thought that maybe it was a college thing, or an American thing.

I think it's a high school thing.

effects of the war

While reading Persepolis, I keep coming back to the children and how they behave. They've experienced war, revolution, violence, and opression and it seems to have affected them profoundly. While playing, they pretend to be revolutionaries ("I'll be Che Guevara." "I'll be Trotsky.") or they chase after Ramin with nails. Perhaps what strikes me most is how aware of the political situation all the kids are. Marjane calls her mother a representative of the revolution (or something like that). I can't decide if that awarness is just a reflection of how politically involved Marjane's parents are, or if all kids, by necessity, had to know what was going on.

I can't help comparing this to my own experience growing up--I played everything from army men to house, but there was nothing political involved. I barely knew who the president was until I was eight or so.