An Awkward Letter to Junot Diaz

Dear Junot Diaz,
I thoroughly enjoyed your book despite having no condescending plot, and being a series of short stories, two characteristics of books that I dislike. I don't know why I like it as much as I did but I found it a pleasure to read. I'm drawn to your writing style (or at least more than I am to Maxine Hong Kingston) because I find that yours is more straight forward. I find Maxine's writing style to be too poetic to my liking to the point that I get her dreams confused with the reality she presents. And while you have metaphors in your book they are more subtle and therefore I find it to be more interpret-able as well as poetic. You also seem to be able to capture human nature of the characters in the book as if they were each you when you were younger.

30 minute Free-Write

The task here I guess is to find flashes of memory or whatever or something like that at least. Im not sure what to really write about or what really comes to mind first. My childhood wasn't really that eventful. Pretty average really. The same thing happened over and over again and no wild or exiting things really come to mind or that I find drawn to. I went to three schools before coming to bard. PS15, Grand Concourse Academy, and Ps3. One thing that really shaped me was that transition. I used to find myself to be sensitive. Too sensitive. As in everything bothered me or every insult whether serious or not I took seriously. Always looking for someone else's approval and always so goddamn arrogant. I hate my younger self with a passion. I like to think that he and I are two different people. Sometimes I wish I could do things over where I don't hate my younger self. Thinking about it there is one thing that comes to mind when thinking of my transition from the charter school to the public one. I was not ready for it at all. The maturity levels of kids in Public school are way higher than those in a public charter school. During my first weeks I was bullied pretty hard. Back then I took it pretty seriously but thinking about it now I probably deserved it. Hell, I would bully me too. There are things I wish I learned before going to a public school. Like how much the brand of your clothes mattered, or your hair cut. The closest definition I had of a shape-up were those sketchers shoe commercials I had seen the week before. One thing that sticks out to me most was when the question we had to answer was: If you were stranded on an Island list what five things you would bring? While some answered with common answers like food and water, others answered with oreos and kool-aid or something stupid like that. I, feeling like I HAD to prove how clever I was went with the smart ass answer of Solar panels, radio, communicator, and two other things I can't remember. From that day onward I was known as the asshole who brings solar panels to an island.

Assignments 3 + 4

3) I look out the window and see a drunkard swaying with every step, on the verge of puking. I remember back in college when my buddies and I would get smashed on rum and beer. I absolutely hated it, regretting every decision I made afterwards, and promising myself to never do it again to find myself at it the next week. But then again I wasn't driving so why not?

4) From a ginkgo tree I changed the subject out of the window into a drunkard. Like the ginkgo tree, I used this new subject as a point of nostalgia for the narrator for his time in college. In his objective correlative he describes his time in college seeming farther in the past than it really is and yet he is able to remember things that he had learned in it such as the ginkgo tree.  

Fiesta 1980 nts

Task 4

"'I am a female avenger.'"(Kingston 43)
"'Girls  are maggots in the rice. It is more profitable to raise geese than daughters."(Kingston 43)
"When I saw his startled eyes at my breasts, I slashed him across the face and on the second stroke cut off his head."(Kingston 44)

The first passage is how Maxine introduces herself to the Baron, the one she blames for the childhood that she didn't have despite creating her fantasy as a woman warrior. The second passage is the sexist statement that the baron states to Maxine right before he is executed. The third passage is how Maxine decides to execute the Baron after showing her back of all the people that he had wronged, and had killed him after staring at her breasts.

What I find surprising about this moment is how she decided to reveal herself as a woman in such an unsubtle manner what I expected was for her to let down her hair and that would be enough for the baron to believe that she was female to my shock she decides to tear off her shirt to what seems as if to exaggerate it. And while Mulan was never really shown brutally killing anybody in the ballad or in the movie adaptation, Kingston beheads him like and animal, and seems to use his sexist statement and his perverted action to justify what slashing his face and beheading him.

Throughout her Mulan inspired fantasy her actions show to be the exact opposite of Mulan. While Mulan is extremely cautious to not show any signs of womanliness Maxine seems to not care and shows multiple signs of it such as marrying a man, getting pregnant, and giving birth. This contributes to a point I made previously of Mulan successfully fufilling her goal as a man while Maxine fufilled her goal but as a woman. This is what she accomplishes by contributing this part. Her pride of being a woman and her little efforts of hiding it.

Draft (also in BETA)

Gabriel Hudson

3/10/15/////3/11/15

In Octavia E. Butler’s short story, “Bloodchild”, the author includes multiple scenes in the book that can easily be described as gruesome and mature. It is usually thought that whenever an author includes such scenes it’s for the sole purpose of having her readers cringe at the horror behind her words. Books such as the Goosebumps series or by the “King of Horror”, Stephen King, do their best to create a circumstance that sends the reader cowering under their bed sheets for safety.

And yet the horror within “Bloodchild” has an almost alternative effect. Despite its disturbing nature there is much depth found in the plot and the development of its characters. The complicated relationships between these characters is what makes this short story interpretable in multiple ways as well as easily relatable.  What about this novel allows such connections to be made with the characters?

The answer to this is found in the sickening sequences of the story. With both the reader and the main character sharing the same feelings of disgust and confusion the reader can easily relate to the character and can understand the reasoning behind his decisions.

Transitions:

1. Off the bat the reader is told about the close relationship he has with his sister, mother, and alien as well as the distant relationship he has with his older brother and the Terran relationship with the Tlic.

• This shows that this will be of importance
• Creates a backstory to look upon and view how these relationships may be changed

     2.  The inclusion of the Blood and Gore effects the relationship of the characters

• Changes the relationship between Gan and T’Gatoi(TG)
• Changes the relationship between Gan and Qui
• Changes the maturity of Gan (considers suicide)
• Creates a dire situation between Gan and Han
• Creates a relationship between Gan and the reader as both are in disgust with the pregnancy of Lomas

     

     3. The decision making is based upon the cruelty of the Blood and Gore

• The difficult decision of either accepting the pregnancy or passing it to Han (the reader can relate)
• Questioning of the intension of his decision. (To save Han? Or for the prideful reasons of not being like Qui?)

4. …………..

Conclusion: As we can see here the mature scenes of the books intensifies the plot and creates a new understanding of the main character on another level. While some may argue that relatability and character relationships don’t define the level of depth a book has ………………………

  

 

Text Exploration #2

            Text Exploration #2

In towards the end of the story T’Gatoi (TG) and Gan have an argument over who TG should impregnate as Gan debates within himself if he would be able to live comfortably knowing that TG’s maggots would be crawling inside her.

“Would it be easier to know that red worms were growing in her flesh instead of mine?”-pg 26

Wording/Syntax:  Gan calls the newborn children of the Tlic mere “red worms.” This shows the amount of respect Gan has for these children that no they are not valuable lives but mere red worms compared to the importance of his sister.

Word Definition: According to the OED the word easy is to be “At ease; characterized by ease or freedom from pain or constraint.”

Connection/Trouble: While it may seem heartfelt that Gan wouldn’t be able to live peacefully knowing that she bears the worms of TG this statement still seems somewhat problematic. Gan does this so that he could live easily but doesn’t consider how his sister would feel that he’s undergoing the pregnancy. While yes he only does this to put himself at ease that the pain his sister is going through won’t be his fault but he doesn’t actually consider what if she actually would like to bear TG’s worms instead of her own. I mean who would want to bring children in such a manipulative world their in?

Paraphrase: This is when the vicious scenes of pregnancy come into play and make this short story as intense as it was. With the reader cringing along with the main character on what he had viewed it doesn’t make it difficult at all to relate to him. To understand what you’re sacrificing for the sake of others.