courage

Speaking Of Courage speaks of courage in a reflective manner.  Norman Bowker talks about what he didn’t do, not what he did.  In my eyes he was way too hard on himself.  Speaking Of Courage is about Kiowa’s death and how Bowker feels about it.  It is also about how courage isn’t always rewarded.  He fought bravely in the Vietnam War, but now nobody besides his father gave him the time of day.  Bowker thinks that what he didn’t do was courageous, making him cowardly.  The book has a definition of courage as what one felt is best.  Obrien thinks he wasn’t courageous cause he didn’t run away from the draft.  Though the definition of courage is moot, I see courage as being honorable and honest.  It is doing what you are supposed to do and not bitching out under any circumstance.  If you get drafted, the only courageous way you can get of it is refusing to go and accepting responsibility and facing the consequences and penalties you have to.  Running away isn’t the courageous way out, but that’s under my interpretation.  Ive learned that people have many different views of courage, and a situation has to be examined from multiple angles before we can say it was courageous or not.  There is no reason to prefer my interpretation to anybody else’s interpretation of what courage means. I think the way Bowker frames the story of Kiowa isn’t courageous.  He frames it as how he almost won the silver star, which is an award for courage.  He really is trying to tell the story of how Kiowa died.  Masking the real significance of the story is cowardly.  It is hiding what he is trying to convey, making him a liar, thus a coward, in this instance, but what he did in Vietnam was neither cowardly, nor outstandingly courageous.  He tried to save Kiowa, or atleast wanted to, and took responsibility for his death.  The fact that he takes responsibility for Kiowa’s death when there is a chance he couldn’t save him makes him courageous as well.

VOCAB WORD: MOOT used about 2/5 of the way though the blog.

Memoirs and wHat not.

I read A Day to Remember, by Ivory B., age twelve, Illinois.  I thought all of the elements of story telling and memoir writing were their except for character development, but due to the short timeframe of the story character development would have a very minor role.  I think that besides the timeframe this was a very good template for a story, but the content seemed awful, even if written by a twelve year old.  The writing is alright as far as grammar and flow go, but everything that happens is really uninteresting.  The story was also missing a rich, descriptive vocabulary, but that is understandable on grounds that the writer is a twelve year old.  There was a lack of reflection, which I think has to do with the content.  The nature of this content doesn't have implications whether you ride the water slide or not.  There wasn't major reflection in any way.  I don't think there was a significant message in the story.  As far as story telling elements went, there was a show of voice and tone, although morals couldn't be seen because of the plot.  There is a surprising amount of imagery, for being written by a twelve year old.  The story lacked dialogue, but again, due to the content of the story dialogue wouldn't give any insight to the conflict, which is not present, in the story.  All in all, I think this is a good template, with the exception of timeframe, dialogue, and descriptive language for a good memoir.  This brought to my attention that a memoir has much more meaning if there is a sort of conflict in the story, if there is no conflict, then there is no significance to the story, nothing is bettered, nothing is worsened, everything simply doesn't matter past its literal meaning, which is bad for a story.

The Vietnam War

The Vietnam War was really a completely political war.  It was a proxy war between the United States and Russia.  Russia and the United States fought many proxy wars so as to have beacons of communism and capitalism all around the world.  It began when  communist North Vietnam attacked South Vietnam.  The North Koreans saw this as a colonial war, fighting away the French who were aided by the United States and later South Vietnam.  The war started in 1955 and ended in 1975 with the fall of Saigon to the Vietnam People's Army.  The war greatly affected Laos and Cambodia as well, leaving up to 500,000 people dead.  Estimates of Vietnamese casualties vary from under 1 million to above 3 million.  It was opposed by a very large proportion of the population on grounds that it was seen as an imperialist or colonial war, and that the United States's involvement in the war was greatening tensions in the region and leading to more bloodshed.  The United States involvement in the war officially ended in 1973, although fighting lasted until 1975, though all United States combat troops had been home for 2 years.  I think that this was one of the most useless wars for America to have gotten involved with.  It was entered for political reasons such as fighting communism, but the political benefit was lost relatively early on in the war.  The war was opposed from 1962 and the United States then tripled the number of troops in Vietnam.  This war was also a failure in protecting the world from the threat of communism, for the United States left the war before it was over and allowed the communist North Vietnam to take over South Vietnam.  This war was very unsuccessful, hurt America, and made America look like a fool, for we failed to accomplish anything but prolonging the conflict.

http://www.history.com/topics/vietnam-war
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnam_War

Let America Be America Again

The poem discusses the oppressed and the free of America and how really all are one, and how most people will go through different lives all in one life, the poem singles out how every race, even white people are weak, but later tells us of the dreamers of the American Dream, who, though still working and poor, are truly free, for they can, in time, do anything.  The poem then assesses the current situation, which nationally is very bad, for there is much disregard of the law and a lack of legitimate upward mobility, but it then reinstates hope that we will regain the American Dream.  I don't agree with this assessment of the American Dream in several ways.  I believe a limited form of the American Dream can be achieved, and that is of reasonable financial security, but happiness is never a guarantee, and the United States is becoming less of the hegemon it once was in the global scale, so that in itself hurts much of the American Dream, for no longer can Americans have that sense of national pride as being the best, for once they are no longer the hegemon they cannot even boast culture for the United States is so new.  The only thing the Unites States has is diversity, so the interpretation of the American Dream must change.  Also, I believe in complete relaxation of the government, as an agent solely to keep the peace, so I think that for us to have the highest potential for upward mobility, we must all be able to manipulate markets and commodities in an almost backstabbing way.  I think that gives the fairest chance to everybody, because then everybody has the chance to cheat, in a way that requires  skill.  I'm ranting, I believe in Laizzes-faire economics, and I think the American Dream as far as happiness is concerned isn't real, but exists only to have people work for something.

A Figment Gatsby's Imagination

On page 86 at the tizzop begins the sequence of which i shall transcribe Gatsby's thoughts into. That sounded like a mix between Yoda and I. This is where Gatsby and Daisy are awkwardly reunited at Nick's crib. I used crib because I'm trying to make slang more acceptable educationally and socially.  Please, pardon the slightly abrasive language.

Oh god, it's raining, this is no good.  I might as well knock on the door so I can meet my damn fate.  Where is he.  Finally opened it...bastard.  Oh god, this is no good, what type of an entrance should I make, I have to be quick, I'm there, dammit.  What should I say-it's actually her.  What do I do for small talk, I;m good at this with people who don't matter.  This is awful. She said "I certainly am awfully glad to see you again." What do you say to that, please Nick come free me from this misery.  Finally he's here.  I hope I look slick and am not just making an ass of myself.  I wonder what she thinks.  I'll be witty.  "We've met before," I said coolly.  I chuckled, truly an Awful Idea.  Damn clock just fell, but I caught it.  I need to sit down.  "Im sorry about the clock," I said.  "It's an old clock," this had to be one of the worst possible answers he could've given.  "We haven't met for many years," said Daisy, who probably can't stand me at this point.  I'll act like I care about her a lot, it'll mean something to her, so I said "Five years next November." This comment had an adverse effect.  Goddamn.  She must think I'm the average creep.  Nick's butler brought in a tray of tea.  I decided to let Nick and Daisy go at it to restore some sense of comfort.  Then Nick completely snaked me, he just stood right up, I asked "Where are you going?" You could tell I was in distress, and this man said "I'll be back." I said "I've got to speak to you about something before you go." Is the only thing I could say to get at least a moment to gain my composure.  He's going to kill me.  I told him "This is a terrible mistake," I shook my head, "a terrible, terrible mistake." This man said "You'e just embarrassed, thats all," he thought I hadn't noticed, dumb ass.  He then said "Daisy's embarrassed too." I was shocked. I asked "She'd embarrassed?" He coolly said "Just as much as you are." I then told him "Don't talk so loud." He then started baking me, "You're acting like a little boy," I responded politely, but pissed, "Not only that, but you're rude.  Daisy's sitting in there all alone." I silenced Nick's almighty ass and went back to Daisy with newfound confidence and assurance.

The american dream.

To me, in the last 60 years, the American Dream can be represented entirely by the 1950's middle class suburban family.  In today's world, that vision is slipping away and cannot be brought back.  It is a turning of the age.  The old ways must be rejected, it is a far more liberal time.  Half of Americans believe that the "if you work hard you'll get ahead" notion is widely dead.  No longer can dedication take you all the way.  We are slipping forward into a new form of caste system.  New cycles of failure are being created because of the gap in lifestyle. If people choose to, or are unable to dedicate themselves, they cannot provide for their children enough to rise out of that cycle, who in turn will be trapped as their parents, because of the failures of their grandparents.  The American Dream is a dying notion, now only those who dedicate themselves, have massive amounts of raw skill, and have the resources to keep up with society will be able to break the caste of the future.  Everyone who has the ability, want, and talent to read this should, and take this as forewarning, so they do not fall into the traps of the future.

http://articles.latimes.com/2010/sep/27/opinion/la-oe-rodriguez-dream-20100927

Don't Front

Big L was a 90's rapper who was murdered in 1999, he only released 1 album during his lifetime.  His second album, named The Big Picture, was finished, but unrealeased at the time of his death.  He never got the love that Biggie and Tupac got.  This had more to do with content than skill, Big L is lyrically one of my favorite rappers ever, but his content is almost exclusively explicit descriptions of murder, selling drugs, and smoking weed.  Though many rappers' content is similar to this, Big L stands out to me because of his superior lyricism and the complexity of his rhymes.  Though the content isn't so complex he uses very complex metaphors which I love to find in music.  The song Don't Front is a freestyle of his which I love and have started to act on. When I sat to act on, I don't mean to act on violently, but I feel I can no longer be so forgiving and trusting of everyone.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8v6nWXGMaI