Week 17 EC Reading Notes : The Old Gun

Mo Yan - The Old Gun (1188-1198)

Background

Critics described the work of Yan and as “Roots Seeking”. This was a literary movement in the 1980s, “one of many waves of response in China to the collective experience of swift modernization in the preceding decades. The optimistic narratives of revolutionary progress that buoyed the nation…” (1188).

The story “... portrays a younger generation trying to reconnect with its ancestors. Near rated in the third person, the story revolves around a boy and his relation to his dead father through the troop of the “ old gun”.” (1188)

“His desire to perform a difficult and symbolic charged act, namely firing a gun, represents compensation for wrongs done to him in the past, but it also represents the larger desire for control, vitality, and power. “(1188)

“The language creates an almost mythical world of wild ducks, flooding waters, weaving sorghum stocks, kaleidoscopic Colors as the sun slants across the landscape – and untamed natural world, for feeding, hunting, and killing. “(1189)

Story

The author takes great pains to describe the area that the boys in. He uses vivid descriptions of nature. (1190)

“Now, though, There was no rust – he had sandpapered it all away. The gun lay their twisted like a hibernating snake; at any moment, he felt, it might wake up, fly into the air and start thrashing the sorghum stocks with it steel tail. “ (1191)

Excitement of the boy preparing his gun, is described as an itching, sweating, nervousness with his heart pounding. (1191)

He’s there near the sandbar for duckhunting presumably.

“It’s time, he thought, I should open fire, but he didn’t do it. As he ran his hand over the trigger he suddenly realized his great disadvantage, recalling with a sense of pain his index finger: two of the joints were missing, the last one alone remained, a neural tree stump squatting between his thumb and his middle finger. “ (1192)

When he was six years old his mother told him how his father had died, he was shot by the very gone he holds now. Which is a family heirloom handed down by his grandmother.

“Though he appeared and tent on his books, he was always aware of the spirit of the gun; he even seem to hear it clicking. He felt like you do when you see a snake – wanting to look but scared at the same time. “ (1193). -is the snake something of nature to be respected? Or is it something ominous and dangerous that should be feared? He admits to his mother that he wants to kill and not study. His mother chopped off his index finger so that he could never use the gun to kill anything. She did not want anything else to be killed by the thing that killed her husband.

He can’t seem to remember last time he ate meat, this may be why he wants to kill one of the ducks. To cook and eat. (1194)

His father’s mother had killed her husband with the gun. And his father tried to kill himself with the gun. (1196)

“He toppled slowly to the ground, trying with all his strength to open his eyes. He seemed to see the ducks floating down around him like rocks, falling into his body, piling up into A great mound, pressing down on him so that it became difficult to breathe. “ (1198) he died?

Week 17 Analysis: Giri & Bala

In the Tale of Giribela, Giri had a daughter and called her Bela. Giri's husband was a low life swindler. And everyone, including her parents knew this. Yet, even after her husband Aulchand, disappeared for almost a year after their marriage, her parents still gave her to him. Even after he was proven a liar, a thief, and a swindler, they gave her to him. Her mother even comment on how she knows that he is lying to them, but how smooth he is with those lies as if she is impressed (1151). This tale evokes deep emotion and empathy for Giri. She makes a life with her husband and struggles hard while very young. When her husband sells her daughter to an unknown man she becomes undone with anger and sorrow. Bela was lost and no one seemed to care. They called it fate (1157). But Giri knew the truth.

“Giri sat silently with her eyes closed, leaning against the wall. Even in her better grief, the realization flashed through her mind that nobody was willing to worry about a girl child for very long. Perhaps she should not either. She too was a small girl once, and her father too gave her away to a subhuman husband without making sufficient inquiries. “ (1157)

A girl was property from the moment she was born. Giri did not like this, she did not approve. But she could not change anything. As wise and resourceful as she was, she was not a man. Mahasweta Devi used this tale as an illustration to the heart of a mother, the capabilities of a woman, and the injustices done to those in the lower cast. The separation of class and sex is so strong and so harsh that if a woman is poor, she is worse than poor due to the way she was born. Women held no value but to be wives to men. They held no purpose but to serve a man from birth, to her husband, to death. The fate of a girl should not be determined because she is a girl. Rather, let her make her own fate with her own choices, and not those of others who claim to own her.

Reading Notes B- Week 17: Mahasweta Devi's Giribala

Mahasweta Devi Giribala (1147- 1164 )

Background

A fiction and prose writer, social activist in Asia, dedicated mainly to the under represented aboriginal people “whose existence has been threatened since before recorded history. “(1147)

Born into a Hindu family in 1926 they were very wealthy and considered high caste.

“... her proper name is Mahasweta, as devi is simply an honorific term attached to many Indian female names. “(1147)

Her father was a poet and novelist. Her mother was a writer and social worker. Her uncle is a filmmaker. She was related to a sculptor. And also a scholar. So she was able to openly “... cultivate her literary and political interests. “(1147)

The text

“Nobody ever imagine that she could think on her own, let alone act on her own thought. “ (1149)

Aulchand- married Giribala. Paid for Her with 80 rupees and a cow. (1149). She is also called Giri. She’s 14 years old.

Her husband is Aulchand, and even after he disappeared for almost a year her parents still gave her to him. Even after he was proven a liar, a thief, and a swindler, they gave her to him. Her mother even comment on how she knows that he is lying to them, but how smooth he is with those lies. (1151)

Mohan- Aulchand’s accomplice in his games.

Bangshi- family friend of Giri (1150)

Amy from the babu’s house hates Giris husband(1152) - she calls him a ganja addict.

“The only team they shared was a home of their own. “(1152)

They’re firstborn was a girl named Belarani (1152)

The next was also a daughter named Poribala, then a boy named Rajib, and a daughter named Maruni. All of her children were born in poverty. And so after the last she asked the doctor to sterilize her. When her husband found out he beat her for the first time. (1153)

He was always trying to sell her silver belongings. Even when treating her so badly.

Her oldest daughter started working at seven years old.

Aulchand says “Saving a daughter only means having to raise a slave for others. “ (1153)

He called his wife a whore for being sterilized and she threatened to cut her children’s heads off and then her own with a knife.

Week 17 Reading Notes A: The Perforated Sheet - Salman Rushdie

The Perforated Sheet - Salman Rushdie (1129-1143)

I loved this reading. The quotes were so profound.

“ Clock-hands joined palms in respectful greeting as I came. “ (1131) - his midnight birth

“… I had been mysteriously handcuffed to history, “(1131)

“I, Salem Sinai, later variously called Snotnose, stainface, Baldy, sniffer, Buddha and even piece of the moon, had become heavily in bordered in fate – at best of times a dangerous sort of involvement. And I couldn’t even wipe my own nose at the time. “ (1131) - So many names, he seems very bothered by it toothless them all. As of claiming them into his identity. Others opinions of him. He had a so many names, he seems very bothered by it to list them all. As of claiming them into his identity. Others opinions of him interwoven into the fabric of who he is when in fact he could’ve had a say.

He says he will be 31 years old, could this number be significant because 31 is how many days are in a traditional month? (1132)

He doesn’t have a hope of saving his own life yet he fears of certainty, is not absurd to not wish to preserve ones own life? (1132)

“I have been a swallower of lives; and to know me, just the one of me, you’ll have to swallow the lot as well. “ 1132)

… As my Clock-ridden crime-stained birth. “(1132)

Aadam Aziz- grandfather 1132- he will not bow or touch his face to the earth for any God or man because he hurt his nose praying. Later his nose itching is a sign that trouble and depression is coming. (1133)

“ in those days Travellers were not shot as spies if they took photographs of bridges, and apart from the Englishmans’ house boats on the lake, the valley had hardly changed since the Mongol Empire. “ (1133)

“No, returning, he saw through traveled eyes. Instead of the beauty of the tiny Valley Circle to buy giant teeth, he noticed the narrowness, the proximity of the Horizon; and felt sad, to be at home and feel so utterly enclosed. “(1133)

Quote on the morning when the valley, gloved in a prayer- mat, punched him on the news, he had been trying, absolutely, to pretend that nothing had changed. “ (1133)

“… He learned that India – like radium – had been ‘discovered‘ by the Europeans; “(1134)

Week 16 Closed Reading: Morrison's Moral

Exploring the idea of racial stereotypes. Also exploring the idea that we hold certain traits comment to certain races and ethnic backgrounds. Taking into account the era’s and Life changing events that took place during those times that take place in this story, we see the shifting around of what we thought we knew.

Twyla is our narrator. So we open with the view that she may be black, as the author is black. And her name is less traditional and Roberta’s.

“My mother danced all night and Roberta’s was sick. “

“Every now and then she would stop dancing long enough to tell me something important and one of those things she said was that they never wash their hair and they smelled funny. “

“Twyla, this is Roberta. “

“My mother won’t like you putting me in here. “ - Twyla about rooming with a girl from another race.

“ so for the moment it didn’t matter that we looked like salt and pepper standing there and that’s what the other kids called us sometimes. “ defining the difference and contrast physically yet they are the same in almost every other way emotionally. (1174)

Here we see how different their upbringing was with their mothers.

“I saw Mary right away. She had on those green slacks I hated it hated even more now because didn’t she know we were going to chapel? And that for jacket with the pocket lining so ripped she had to pull to get her hands out of them. But her face was pretty – like always, and she smiled and waved like she was the little girl looking for her mother – not me.” Her dance her mother. Her mother was very affectionate with her when they greeted she held and smiled at her daughter. But she asked foolishly and emotionally at the rude greeting of Roberta’s mother. (1176)

“I looked up it seemed for miles. She was big. Bigger than any man and on her chest was the biggest cross eyed ever seen. I swear it was 6 inches long each way. And in the crook of her arm was the biggest Bible ever made. “ Roberta’s sock mother. She offered a cold reading to Twyla’s mother Mary. That Mary did not receive very well. Or gracefully. (1177)

“She was sitting in a booth smoking a cigarette with two guys smothered in head and facial hair. Her own hair was so big in wild I could hardly see her face. But the eyes. I would know them anywhere. She had on a powder blue halter and shorts outfit and earrings the size of bracelets. Talk about lipstick and eyebrow pencil. She made the big girls look like nuns.” When Twyla sees Roberta again. Is Roberta black? Her hair is so big? Her mother so religious? Twyla is a waitress, is she white? her mother is a dancer, is she “trailer trash”? (1178). Are these two ideas that different at all? I think that is what the author is trying to say.

Twyla marries James- (1179)

“Waiting in the checkout line I heard a voice say, “Twyla! “. The classical music piped over the aisles had affected me and the woman leaning toward me was dressed to kill. Diamonds on her hand, a smart white summer dress.” (1180) they meet again.

“But she was waiting for me and her huge hair was slick now, smooth around the smell, nicely shaped head. Shoes, dress, everything lovely and summary and rich. I was dying to know what happened to her, how she got from Jimi Hendrix to Annandale, a neighborhood full of doctors and IBM executives. “ Did Twyla not thing she could make it in life? Is Roberta white with her hair straight and her clothes so rich in a nice neighborhood? Roberta even had two servants (1182). In those days, could she if she was black?

Roberto was against integrating the schools. She was a step mother of four children. Her husband a widower. “And who do you suppose was in line, big as life, holding a sign in front of her bigger than her mother is Cross? Mothers have rights to! it said.” - is Roberta white? Or does she hate the white people who have oppressed her race for generations (as per the argument those days)? Was Twila change for the better by her interaction with her “black friend” from childhood? Is that why she doesn’t care about her child going to school with other children that are other races?

Over all the examples and arguments for or against which girl is black and which is white is both pointless and the point at the same time. Morrison wanted the audience to face their preconceptions and biases. Her work is a stroke of genius. And her knack for storytelling and engulfing the reader in her work is almost unmatched in modernist literature.

Reading Notes Week 16 B : Ōe Kenzaburō the clever rain three

Ōe Kenzaburō the clever rain three (1115-1128)

The narrator that’s critical opinions of everybody. (1118)

Rightfully expressing the authors opinion of Americans trying to control the proceedings.

Language is confused early on. “He is my wife.” (1118). This could be an indication to the confusion of everyone as they hallucinate?  

Agatha- American middle aged woman.

“Jewish Indian poet from Bombay,” (1117)

Narrator Is critical of false pride and bad haiku. (1118) yet may ironically be falsely proud.

Narrator hardly names his characters. But names their nationality. Typically American.

“ This garrulous Young Americans have become so distraught over if the insubstantial rumors that he was a spy that he was now any private institution for the psychologically disturbed.” (1118) - first hint it indication of insanity blatant.

The dark is a prolific theme. Maybe due to the author's personal depression and torment? The “dark” or “darkness” is repeated on nearly every page. Even blackness is noted throughout.

“This black tree Krishna has climbed is undoubtedly what would be called an Indian in my country. It has certainly been bo tree through the sensibility and techniques of the Indian folk art style.” (1119)

Delight in nature and landscape (1120)

“Nevertheless, since desk had already fallen when I had been brought to the house, even when I cut off the minibus I have been any puts see the entire tree; as a matter fact even know I was only peering into the darkness where the tree purportedly stood.”(1120)

“The moisture I smelled coming from the darkness, therefore, was the rain that the dense fingertip leaves were causing to fall and new on the ground. “(1120) - maybe he died by drowning? Or was hit by a car in the rain? I don’t know why this quote reminded me of “the lovely bones”. He is just so depressing. Everything sound pretty but saddening.

Reading Notes Week 16 A: Toni Morrison

Toni Morrison : Recitatif (1172-1182)

"Recitatif" is the French form of recitative, a style of musical declamation that hovers between song and ordinary speech, particularly used for dialogic and narrative interludes during operas and oratories. An obsolete sense of the term was also "the tone or rhythm peculiar to any language." - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recitatif

Toni morrison uses rhythm and a sing song style to all of her writing. (1173)

Her stories center around pushing the preconceived notions that people hold in their minds. She touches on the issue of race, gender, equality, diversity, class, and poverty. She also weaves love and violence together in seamless transitions. She uses conflict to amplify the emotan between her characters. (1172)

In Recitatif, the racial preconceptions we hold shift our focus from scene to scene. One moment Twyla is white, and Roberta is black, and viceversa. Every since the divided racial line is introduced, the reader is left to assume which girl is which. This in a way bridges the gap in differences in humanity.  

“... we weren’t real orphans with beautiful dead parents in the sky.” (1174)

“I used to dream a lot and almost always the orchard was there.” (1175)

Maggie: Bent legs and wore a silly childs hat. She was a mute and could not tell on those who abused her. The question is, what happened to her after the orchard? She never comes up again in their memories after that event. And Roberta asks in tears “What the hell happened to Maggie?” (1187). Their memories mean so much to them for years, and as time goes on they start to question their validity, as their counterparts remember things slightly different.

“Maggie was my dancing mother. Deaf, I thought, and dumb. Nobody who could tell you anything important that you could use.” (1186)

Roberta - against integration in school, sometimes her hair is poofy and big. Sometimes straight. Step mother. Husband is rich. Mother was sick. Had to go back to the orphanage.

Twyla - mother danced. Never went back to the orphanage. Worked as a waitress. Married a firefighter. Had one son. Was for integrating schools.