literary study, politics, and Shakespeare oh my! :o

So I really had no idea what George Will was trying to say. His writing was all over the place for me. And the parts that I did understand were just his opinions about other books and how they were wrong in some way or another. “In “Wuthering Heights,” Emily Bronte, a subtle subversive, has Catherine bitten by a male  bulldog.” I have read Wuthering Heights twice, and I fail to see the importance of Catherine being bitten by a male dog. That bit of information is just a minute detail compare to all of the other events that happen in the book. He goes on to take small events from other pieces of writings and says that  they “reflect the imperialist rape of the third world… references to peas and flower buds are encoded messages of feminist rage…” Okay I get that these are his opinions but where is he coming up with this stuff! It just sounds plain crazy to me.

                I really like and agree with what Stephen Greenblatt has to say. He sticks to his own beliefs, but also acknowledges that writing can have more than one meaning. He did this with Will’s thoughts about The Tempest, “Since it is very difficult to argue that The Tempest is not about imperialism. (It is, of course, about many other things as well, including the magical power of the theater.)”  I also really like what Greenblatt says about trying to control and sort out the arts that they like and dislike. “But art, the art that matters, is not cement. It is mobile, complex, elusive, disturbing.” For me this quote means that there is more than one way of looking/ reading a piece of writing. There is no right or wrong way of writing, it’s expressing and sharing your emotions and ideas with others. 

Colonizer vs. Colonized

I think the colonizers believed their ways to be the one true way in doing things. They would conquer an area and find the natives behaving in what they would consider a "savaged" manner. They would then proceed in colonizing them, and teaching them the one true way. I totally saw this with Prospero and Caliban. When Prospero and Miranda first come to the island, they meet Caliban and care decide to care for him and teach him to speak. But i think Caliban was getting along  fine without Prospero and Miranda's help. Caliban says " You taught me language, and all i can do with it is curse" (page 45). I believe that Prospero and Miranda saw Caliban as a savaged beast, but really Caliban just had a different way of living then they did. Although i think Prospero would justify his actions by saying he was helping Caliban live a better life. In Cultural Studies it says that " Often the colonizers justified their cruel treatment of the colonized by invoking European religious beliefs. From the perspective of many white Westerners, the peoples of Africa, the Americans, and Asia were "heathens," possessing ways that must be Christianized." (page 236) I think Prospero thought that Caliban's ways need to be fixed in order for him to live a more productive and happy life.  If i saw someone doing something that could be done in a faster more productive way i would certainly them. But although i don't necessarily agree with what Prospero did, i guess i do understand why he did it.

I also thought that Caliban was perceived to be a savage to Stephano and Trinculo. Stephano even says, "This is some monster of the island, with four legs, who seems to me to have some kind of ache. How the hell does he know our language?" (page 99). To Stephano, Caliban's looks are savaged like, but yet he speaks. I think Shakespeare is actually showing sympathy towards Caliban. I think because we actually get to hear how Caliban feels about Prospero and being controlled, we see that Prospero's ways and ideas were forced upon Caliban. When Trinculo comes, Caliban chooses to be his servant so i wouldn't consider it colonizing.  

I think like in the video clip, when people hear about a certain group being/acting a certain way, they think that all people of that group are like that. It's a single story of how some people are assumed to be like. If we hear both sides of the story, from the colonized and the colonizer, i think we could get a better understanding of why people do the things they do, and how people feel about those actions. And hopefully this could/could have prevent/prevented entire cultures being taken over and being colonized/ controlled.  

Ohhh man, The Tempest Act 1...

Thank the Lord for sparknotes! I don't think I would have understood anything from this play, if i hadn't read no fear Shakespeare! Any who, I read the character overview before I read the first act of the play and my first feelings towards Prospero were taht of pity. I felt sorry for him because his land was taken from him by his own brother, and he was casted away to this island with nothing but is infant daughter. As i got to act 1 scene 2, i began to see the rude, controlling, deceitful, revengeful side of Prospero. He controls his daughter by not telling her who she is, or why they are living on the island. He is rude towards not only his daughter, but to Ariel who does his every wish and towards Caliban, who first showed him the ways of the island. Prospero is deceitful because he tells Miranda that "much luck is on my side, and my enemies have happened to wreck their ship on this island" (page 8)  which is not true at all for Prospero told Ariel to cause the crew to jump off of the ship and to hid the ship on the other side of the island. We can also see Prospero deceitfulness when Ariel says "let me remind you what you promised me but haven’t come through with yet."(page 11) With this quote we can see that Prospero had promised something to Ariel, but has yet to follow through. I have a feeling that Prospero is going to say he will do a lot of things throughout the play, but will not follow through with them. In addition ( and this is just my prediction), i think he will cause his daughter to run away with Ferdinand (or someone else) by the end of the play. Just some ideas. 

Video Response

Wow, great video. It really shows you that your perception of the world isn’t always going to be factual. I guess if you grow up believing a certain thing to be true, you’re never going to know anything different unless you see it differently. In our society today, we have created stereotypes for every ethnicity, culture, gender, religion, etc. People aren’t bothering to learn about other cultures, because they think they have all the information they need from television shows, and newspapers. We need to get back to the basics, and take the time to actually learn about one another and not assume things to be true. Not all Asians are good at math; I am terrible beyond words at math. Not all Italians eat pasta every single night, and not all Hispanics like Mexican food. It’s crazy how all these stereotypes come about, and even more crazy how many people actually believe them. When people meet me, I don’t want them to assume things about me that they think are true. Like that because I’m from Clovis I love the rodeo, or that I eat rice with every meal, just because I’m Asian. I absolutely hate the rodeo, and rice gets super boring after a while. I want people to discover the things about me that are unique, and that separate me from everyone else.

A couple of summers ago we had a foreign exchange student from France come and stay with us, and she was very surprised to learn that we didn’t eat at fast food restaurants every night. In France, and many other European countries, America is perceived as this country with fat people that eat McDonalds every night. We here know that’s not entirely true, but those who have never traveled to the U.S. don’t know that because they have never seen it for themselves. I think it’s all in the way information is delivered. If on a foreign television show, they portray everyone in the United States to have blond hair and blue eyes, image the surprise many people would have when they come to discover that not everyone has blond hair and blue eyes.
This video made me realize that I need to think before I make an assumption about a specific topic or person. Not everything that is said/written is true; we need to take the time to hear every side, for everyone is going to have different stories and experiences.