I Love Twain... Final Reading Blog Post!!! #6

     Although this last reading may not have been as funny as some in the past it is probably my favorite book from this semester.  Maybe it is because I didn't have to read it cover to cover, maybe it is because each section was short, maybe it is because it read like a bunch of clever jokes. However, I think when it comes down to it, it is the satire that won me over.  The wit of Twain and his strong commentary on humanity, religion, and society is what appeals most strongly to me. As I close off this amazing semester in Literature and Civilizations, I will it say again, it is the intellectual and relatable humor that really gets me.  This book really delivered in that department.

    

     I get my books from the athletic department and I can genuinely say that I will be sad to return this book to them. I even took a picture of the cover so I could remember this book on  a later day.  Twain relays an interesting reflection of my own mental musings.  Many of the ideas he holds, rest strongly in my own opinions. Twain's support of women's equality and his criticism of man kind are real and honest.  There is no topic that he leaves unturned.  His commentary on the nature of religion reveals taboos and ideas that most people leave untouched. 

     Many comedians are stereotypical in their commentary on women, relationships, America, and life.  Twain takes a completely different approach though. Twain focuses on all of human's faults and folly, the things we keep hidden and don't want to admit.  He takes all these things and puts them out in the open, he forces the reader to be aware of the very hypocrisies that human kind holds so dearly.  While some people may not want to hear this I personally love this sort of witty satire and criticism of a species that thinks so highly of itself.  Our brains, our thoughts, our intelligence - they are both a gift and a curse. 

    

     As Twain states, no human can beat nature's design.  I love the comic above, especially after noticing Twain's criticism of America throughout the book.  Nationalism can be a good thing, and the American spirit is strong. However I think I can see where Twain is going with his commentary.  Americans have a sense of more than just pride.  It is almost an ignorant attitude of being better than everyone else and right about everything. No one can really say who is right and who is wrong but our system has flaws just like everyone else and it is not right to put ourselves so ahead, not only of nature, but of other nations and peoples as well. I am happy to be human and proud to be an American, but I think Twain was definitely getting at something. 

Bandar Meet #6

     I met up with Bandar at 1873 again today.  He is still feeling sick and so our conversations were mostly circular.  Something that I forgot to mention from the last time we talked was that we discussed Daylight Savings Time.  Because Bandar didn't know about the time change, he was very confused when his watch and clocks said one thing, while most of his electronics said another.  He asked me why we did the time change and I tried to explain that it was meant to help save electricity and adapt to the light but he thought that this was pointless for the most part.  I laughed and said that I didn't really see the point of it most of the time either.

     Today we talked about the upcoming breaks and our plans.  He asked how school was going and if my family was all right.  Then he asked if I was going home to California for the break.  I asked him about his plans and he said that he might be going to California too, in order to visit his brother there but that he most likely would stay in Texas.  He also mentioned that his parents may possibly be coming down to visit for Christmas and that they would all meet up in San Francisco. If this didn't happen he said he might travel back home but that he didn't really want to.  He told me there isn't much entertainment back home so other than seeing his family he would be bored and would have to spend time checking on his company which is not his main focus right now.  

    I asked him how his family is doing and he said his father is very busy traveling for work. He mentioned that his father was a bit crazy.  Apparently his father has some ties to the coal business and has been to Iraq during war time.  He even mentioned that one of his father's friends had been killed once going there but that his father still insists of going back.  Bandar's father once suggested Bandar go help him with business but Bandar has no desire to go to such a dangerous area and is concentrating on being a student right now.  Next year Bandar is planning on getting his Bachelors degree at a near by college and explained to me that when he went to visit he discovered that many of the students there have been in jail and are criminals and that this worries him.  I will make friends with them, he told me, "better to be on their good side."

    Then he mentioned a time at his apartment when a homeless man knocked on his door but then left when Bandar could not understand what he was saying.  He asked me if African American people were hard to understand.  I mentioned Hokum and explained that even for a native English speaker, sometimes the slang and lack of annunciation makes the culture hard for anyone to understand.  He continued on to talk about a black woman at the 7-eleven near his house who he also has a hard time understanding.  Apparently she has offered to help him with his English though to which he declined.  "I can not understand her," he told me and then mumbled some nonsense to further prove his point.  I laughed and said I knew what he meant.  Overall this was most of our conversation though we revisited the topic of the breaks and travel several times more.

Wisdom in Wit - Reading Post #5

    When I first began reading the Tales of Juha, I was not impressed.  They were an easy read and pretty entertaining, but they didn't do anything special for me.  I did not find myself laughing out loud or taking great interest in the short tales.  After the second reading though, I have found that I enjoy some of the stories much more than others.  The section titled "Social Satire" really impressed me.  I will repeat it again that jokes which I can relate to and that make a statement are more likely to make me laugh than some trick.  The first section we read was full of wit and outsmarting others, but this section really spoke to me because it pointed out things in reality. It's like comparing "Space Balls" to "South Park."  One engages in a slapstick sort of humor while the other commentates on issues in society in a negative but funny way.  

     The first story I really liked was the one that relates to the cover image.  As a FTDM major with a minor in Journalism and Art I am constantly surrounded by the idea that not everyone can be satisfied. All these subjects involve the creation of a "product" that many may love and others will hate.  It didn't matter what Juha and his son did, not everyone can be made happy, people will always find something to criticize.  

      I also really liked the story where Juha changes and gets a different reception from the same group of people who had ignored him earlier.  When he said "eat oh sleeve" I actually laughed at this great cognitive shift.  There is much truth in this idea.  I have definitely seen a difference in the way people I don't know interact with me when I am dressed up to go out in comparison to when I am in my athletic "comfort" gear.  The image of a man actually doing this at a party to make a point also seemed entertaining to me.  Too often people will "judge a book by its cover," myself included.  Just this summer I learned to scuba dive with a middle aged man.  He seemed confident and plain but at the end of it all I found out he is Jessica Biel's father.  This is just further proof that things are not always as they seem.

    

          There were two others I enjoyed from this section.  The first was the story about the man who was mourning his dog, who was near death because of hunger, but would not share his food with it.  The second was the one where Juha goes to visit a man who always spoke kindly to him but who then claimed not to be home even though he was. These both pointed out very human flaws that can be seen in society everywhere.  In a vague and general way they all call out the hypocrisy that plagues all of us.  Human nature is simply that way, everyone driving faster than you is crazy and everyone going slower than you is stupid.  It is critical and closed-minded, but everyone has moments like this.  Seeing this called out in these characters just brings it to light in a way that doesn't attack any one person, and so it becomes humorous.  

Meet with Bandar #5

     After an incredibly long break period I finally got to meet with my conversation partner again. He has been sick with the flu for over two weeks now and is just now starting to feel a little bit better. He explained to me that he had gone to the hospital and that he had not been going to class lately in order to rest and get better.  For the past two weeks he has simply been staying at home, resting, and eating. I asked him if the hospital helped him at all and he told me that they gave him a prescription but that he would not use the medicine.  Then I asked why. He told me that he did not trust the chemicals and that he preferred vitamins and natural supplements. Although I have been helped greatly by antibiotics and other prescription drugs in the past, I could understand why someone would not want to put that in their body.

      Later in the conversation he told me congratulations on Obama. I laughed because my journalism class just before had been talking about how explosive and negative social media had been on both sides regarding the election. Many people are happy about the results, but many are angered and dismayed too so it seemed ironic that he would be congratulating me without knowing how I felt about the results. It was a nice cognitive shift since lately the election seemed to be such a dramatic thing and, having heard that from him, I was able to take a step back from the party lines and just appreciate having voted this year. I asked him if he had watched or been interested in the election.  He told me that he had not but that if he was going to have an opinion he would vote for the democratic party. When I asked why he explained that he did not like how war focused the republicans seemed, which I laughingly agreed with.  I asked him how the political system worked in his country.  He told me about how there was a King with no voting and that when he died his brother or heir would succeed him. I asked if that bothered him at all.  He paused a minute before shaking his head to say no, it's the police you have to worry about he told me.

      After this we moved on to lighter topics.  We talked about multi-tasking and chess.  He explained to me some internet games he plays on how amazing the web is for connection people all over the world.  Last time we met, Bandar asked me to send him a link to my blog once I had explained the concept to him.  This week he mentioned it.  "It was good," he told me, "I liked it."  This made me happy since I had been a bit apprehensive at first about sending him the link.  These posts are about my learnings and my opinions on the experience and I did not know what he would think of my outside view. I asked what he had to do for our meetings.  He explained that the teacher had given them a sheet to talk about what we had discussed.  I asked him what he put down and he told me "everything."  This apparently did not go over well with his teacher, who insisted he specify what type of "everything" we talked about.  This made me laugh too because we often talk about so many vague and varying topics, that when I sit down to write my blog posts I often have a hard time remembering specific topics of discussion. We are hoping to meet again this Friday providing he doesn't get too sick again but it was good to catch up.

Hapa Girl - My 4th Reading Post

     For the past few weeks I have been really struggling with the excerpts from Hokum.  As reading is already difficult for me, trying to sort through the unusual dialect of the authors challenged me even more.  On top of that, the bitter grudge embedded within the reading (although understandable) made it difficult for me to find the stories truly laughable.  This week, some of the readings have really touched me though. Both for humorous reasons and for how relatable they are.

    The story that touched me the most was Ellison's "Invisible Man," about the yams. I am not sure if the overall absurdity of the yams and the revelation about freedom through food was supposed to be funny but I actually found it comically inspiring.  Yes, perhaps discovering a sense of empowerment and liberation through food is over the top and ridiculous, but I enjoyed the "message" of this story. The rich imagery of the yams and setting helped contribute to the impact of the story on me.  I found myself lifted up with the narrator as he expressed his joy for not being ashamed of what he liked and creating opinions for himself, instead of what society deemed correct.  I grew up very sculpted by the media and world around me.  Television and books taught me I wasn't supposed to like vegetables and that all men are not to be trusted.  Although the narrator's experience with the yams was a bit comical, I actual felt a strong connection to the meaning because I was so affected by society growing up.

    The story that really made me laugh was Senna's "The Mulatto Millennium." The whole first half of the story about identifying as black did not really interest me but I found myself laughing out loud throughout the list of mulatto classifications the narrator invented. A lot of the descriptions had huge amounts of stereotyping and silly names that had their own tone of racism within them. However, as the narrator made jabs as California (my home state) I couldn't help but laugh.  I nearly died during the part about the "Tomatto" as the first black president, especially in light of Obama and this year's election. 

    As a child of mixed decent (half asian and half white) who has struggled with identity, this descriptive stereotyping definitely felt like something I could relate to.  Many times I have had people ask me what I am or just label me as "that asian girl," which I always was offended by.  I took pride in my mixed decent and in being "hapa." More often then not, I too wanted to relate more closely to my "white side," because in America and much of the world, that just seemed to be the "better" thing to be. Growing up I even had a shirt that said "hapa girl." I thought that was the coolest thing to identify with. As I have stated in the past, how closely I can relate to a subject really affects how funny or important it is to me.  The sassy nature of this piece and my background as a "mixed" person really made this piece stand out to me, as it did not relate strictly to African American culture and history. 

Did I Miss the Punch Line?

   I really enjoyed the readings today about the fashion senseless man and the Tip-Top Club.However neither, especially the radio one, struck me as particularly funny.  When I first read the radio story I kept waiting for the punch line, when I finally got to the end I had an empty feeling that perhaps I just missed something, which is possible, but for the life of me I can not figure out what it is. The story was a good one and I could see the irony between the positive point of the show and how its listeners actually react poorly to a new host, but this still did not make me laugh. Perhaps the story was more of a parody on radio shows, the industry, and its devoted followers but I could not really get into that side of it.

   What I did gain from the radio story was more a sense of inspiration.  I actually liked the idea of a "news" show that focused on a community and finding joy in stressful everyday life.  This is a great contrast between typical news shows that seem to point out all of societies flaws. Before the Club got hostile and cultish I really like the flow of the story. Perhaps because I was inspired by the first part, it stopped me from finding more humor in the second half because I took it too seriously. Either way, it left me entertained and refreshed but I would not say amused.

   The next story was much more funny to me, although not quite laugh out loud.  The story itself was so human, talking about the insecurities all people face with fashion and their external appearances.  I enjoyed this story because it was relatable and realistic. I wouldn't say the story had wit, but it certainly had honesty, which made it that much better.  I loved the imagery and silly rhymes for all the fashion don'ts.  The crazy clothing choices the man makes throughout the story and all his self doubt and depreciation were definitely amusing.  I especially loved the butt enhancing pants and catheter. Each fashion fail was a story of its own that ultimately led to the full circle completion of the story. I really enjoyed how blunt the narrator is and the way he shares all his misfortunes and internal thoughts.

   One of the things that was best for me was the reliability of this story.  As a woman I have certainly struggled with body image issues and bad fashion decisions. There have been many a time where some over the top body enhancing product or crazy clothing item has been tempting for just a moment.  My mom also happens to be great at the same game the narrator's sister plays where she convinces you that you NEED some silly item.  Keeping up with fashion is a task all of its own and I have definitely felt behind before.  I was a tomboy in elementary school and did not figure out how to dress myself properly till my Junior year of high school.  Even today I find myself fighting Texas fashion with my California senses which often gets me made fun of.  Clothing and fashion will always prevail to be ever changing and demanding and the way this story combined all these problems into a very personal narration definitely kept me amused.

Conversation Partner Meet #4

   Today I got to meet with Bandar again. We both talked about our weekends and our break. I told him about my trip back home to California and we discussed the weather for a bit.  I talked about how I liked sunny days with a blue sky in comparison to the gray overcast Texas has been having lately. Bandar disagreed, saying that he enjoys the gray sky and that he had visited Seattle once and that he really liked the weather there. 

   I asked if he had success getting a car in Dallas the week before but he told me that the man selling the car was asking for too much money.  He explained that there are frequent car auctions in the area and how he might go to one of those.  We discussed cars some more and he talked to me about why he likes European and Asian car companies so much better than American.  I told him about the Acura my family owns and he explained that Acura does not exist where he lives so he would not be able to get service on the car or parts for the car if he shipped it back home with him.

   Later he asked me how my classes were going. I told him about how I was struggling in my Spanish class and he was surprised that TCU had a significant foreign languages department.  He asked why Spanish was so difficult when many of the words were close to English and I explained that it had been a long time since I had taken Spanish and I was lacking in my basic knowledge.  He then empathized with me, talking about how he had learned English at a private school when he was young but that there was a long time between then and TCU where he didn't have much practice or training.  I talked about this class for a while and how professors make a big difference in learning experience. This he also empathized with.  He told me about a teacher who had travelled the globe teaching english and how they were so much better at understanding accents and respecting the variety of culture among the students. It is always really cool to hear how the different perspectives between students can still be so similar.  Bandar feels that learning is mostly something he does on his own though, and that teachers are just there to help.  He strongly suggested I find someone fluent in Spanish to converse with, just like he does with me.