20 Tishrei/8 October, 2009

This morning I finished the second story from Uwem Akpan’s collection “Say You’re One of Them” called “Fattening for Gabon.” It was more of a novella with over a hundred twenty pages with the uplifting story of an uncle who was trying to sell his niece and nephew into slavery in Benin. The story is told from the perspective of a ten year old boy. His uncle eventually changed his mind but it was too late by that point and he got killed. At the end of the story, the boy runs away, having to leave his sister behind. I didn’t love the story, but it was interesting. It certainly felt like a perspective of a ten year old child where the reader arrives at many conclusions a lot faster than the main character. And one gets a better perspective of a regular daily life and expectation of a live in a seaside town. In this story, as in two others I’ve read (I also read the third story today since it was very short), there is a big emphasis on the food. Each country has its own special dishes that are carefully described and eating plays a prominent role in each story. I think I was interested in that aspect of life the most. Also reliance on religion is a big theme in all stories so far. The characters read the Bible and know it thoroughly; they attribute many fortunes to God but don’t blame God for misfortune. Another thing I like is the author’s use of language. The way people spoke in the Kenyan story, with a specific mix of English and native language is not the way people spoke in the Benin story with a mix of English, French and a local language. The speech patterns were also distinct. I’m glad I can read French and can follow the conversation better, even as the French is pretty basic, and I can certainly relate to mixing of languages because in some conversations I mix English and Russian all the time. The use of language makes each story feel more real. The third story “What Language is That?” is told from a perspective of a six year old Ethiopian girl from a Christian family who can’t understand why she can no longer play with her Muslim best friend, after some religious riots. She doesn’t understand adult differences in faith and why she can’t visit the family who are not “bad people” but just don’t hold the same beliefs, especially as not long before her father encouraged the friendship. The story is less than ten pages, but it is my favorite so far. The moment when both girls sneak on their opposing balconies and give each other air hugs is sweet and poignant. The author does a great job picturing children’s point of view and pointing at flaws at the adult society.

Today my students had a class discussion about a new reading. Next week I give a midterm for two days and this reading is for the midterm, so I could not help them understand it. It was really hard not to interfere and ask them leading questions. For much of the discussion there was not a lot of depth to their understanding of the reading or comprehension of the metaphors. I don’t think they got the main point or at least could not distinguish between the author of the article and the subject she is profiling. Well, at least we get another class later to discuss it more, this time hopefully I can make them dig deeper. They read Lauren Slater’s “Dr. Daedalus” article about a plastic surgeon who want to build people wings. The story is really about the question of what makes us human, whether our rootlessness is the cause of need for change and going to extremes, about separation and/or integration of body and soul. Reading it this year, with “Dollhouse” on TV, I even understand the article a little differently, or at least think about the question of identity more. But, of course, just as their tepid interpretation of Daedalus myth (which I made them look up), they focused on the building wings part and not on the cautionary tale of flying too close to the sun and hubris of Icarus. My students seem to come up with very liberal and western ideas of valuing individual choice and happiness to the point where everyone should do what one likes even in extreme plastic surgery. However, most do want to at least include a clause of not harming others. I now need to write a midterm question that they can actually answer.

Free pizza! Today after I was done with classes and was heading home, I passed the free pizza giveaway by Residential Life. Last week they fed people pretzels. It seems there is extra money on campus. But hey, free pizza!

( Bones S5E4 )

Andrew Lloyd Weber wrote a sequel to “Phantom of the Opera” and called it “Love Never Dies.” Aside from the creepiness of the original story which is not really that romantic, this just seems wrong. And, of all things, it will be set at Coney Island. That’s right, our Coney Island in Brooklyn. The Phantom will relocate to the amusement park, apparently, ten years after the original ended. Lloyd Weber found the original ending too boring so he decided to write a sequel. That or he just wants to do crazy things. Coming to London next march and to New York next November.

Exodus WTF moment of the day: chapters 31 to 35 finish Moses’ stay on the mountain and go into the story of the Golden Calf. Which is a really frelled up story. Moses burning the calf, breaking it into a powder and then making people drink it. Did he want to give people gold poisoning? Curious aside: the gold came from the earrings of wives, daughters and sons. Aaron’s justification to Moses for building the calf was just repeating the basic story “Hey, they asked and we thought you might be dead” while not taking the blame saying that he just threw the gold into the fire and “out came this calf,” magically constructed, obviously. Then Moses orders the murder of three thousand people, making sure people kill their “brother, friend, neighbor”. And then he praises the men who killed for heroism since they did slaughter their unarmed family and friends. And on top of that God sent the plague to punish the people, although Moses did convince him that it would be a bad PR move to kill everyone and start over (Egyptians wouldn’t be in awe of Israelite God anymore if he leads the people out of Egypt just to kill them all later). Then, after sending a plague, God needed a time out from dwelling among the people so he wouldn’t be tempted to just kill everyone. Oh, and I never realized that when Moses goes to talk with God, he doesn’t exactly go alone. He has an aide/servant. Very bureaucratic of him.