any ideas? at 5:35 AM

im looking to develop a research of ideas of how one's self is "characterized" by their actions, possessions, and the people they are surrounded with. not necessarily about self image, but the placement of the "self" amongst others. how does one fit in? how does one change theirself to meld into the norm.

nom nom nom nom nom at 5:10 AM

"There is much pain here. Some people think you can have your cake and eat it. the cake gets mouldy and they choke on what's left. going back after a long time will make you mad, because the people you left behind do not like to think of you changed, will treat you as they always did, accuse you of being indifferent, when you are only different"(Whinterson 160-61).

Jeanette Winterson uses a rendition of the classic line "you can't have your cake and eat it too..."
to describe people's indifference to change. people remember you as they...remember you. when this idea changes, it is sometime rejected, and found to be repulsive. but, like a piece of cake that gets moldy, things are not around forever.

Oranges at 5:39 AM

I would like to take the analogy to The Matrix’s idea of choosing to believe one step further. Instead of taking the blue pill, or the red pill, instead I like to see belief as more of vitamin supplement. There are several kinds out there, but only you can choose which one is right for you. If you miss a few days of not taking the pill, it wont kill you, and you can pick it right back up again when you find it necessary. Other vitamins might do the same thing for me, and I can’t really prove that any of the others are the wrong choice. I do know that when I get sick, it is usually because I have not been taking my vitamins.

My beliefs have been significantly challenged. As a conservative pre-med major I sometimes find it very difficult to bury down the “knowledge” that I have gained on my Sunday mornings. My biology courses talk of Darwin, Evolution, Natural Selection, Genetic Drift, and call the Big Bang as the key influences of who we are today. I pretend to believe this for the exam, but I find that I still resort back to my roots in the church for my true beliefs.

Oranges seems to ignore or avoid anything that it does not accept. Up until now, whenever Janette encounters something that her mother does not like, or finds inappropriate for the mind of a faithful child, she [the mother] removes it completely from her life. The book foreshadows that Janette is homosexual. In the beginning of the book Janette gets her comic books from two women who like to give her treats of banana bars, Janette finds the ladies strange, but does not know exactly what it is about the women that make her different. When her mother attempts to repress the homosexual influence in Janette’s life, she offers her an orange, which seems to represent heterosexuality moreover they represent the entire repressive system that Jeanette's mother espouses.

Oranges at 5:39 AM

I would like to take the analogy to The Matrix’s idea of choosing to believe one step further. Instead of taking the blue pill, or the red pill, instead I like to see belief as more of vitamin supplement. There are several kinds out there, but only you can choose which one is right for you. If you miss a few days of not taking the pill, it wont kill you, and you can pick it right back up again when you find it necessary. Other vitamins might do the same thing for me, and I can’t really prove that any of the others are the wrong choice. I do know that when I get sick, it is usually because I have not been taking my vitamins.

My beliefs have been significantly challenged. As a conservative pre-med major I sometimes find it very difficult to bury down the “knowledge” that I have gained on my Sunday mornings. My biology courses talk of Darwin, Evolution, Natural Selection, Genetic Drift, and call the Big Bang as the key influences of who we are today. I pretend to believe this for the exam, but I find that I still resort back to my roots in the church for my true beliefs.

Oranges seems to ignore or avoid anything that it does not accept. Up until now, whenever Janette encounters something that her mother does not like, or finds inappropriate for the mind of a faithful child, she [the mother] removes it completely from her life. The book foreshadows that Janette is homosexual. In the beginning of the book Janette gets her comic books from two women who like to give her treats of banana bars, Janette finds the ladies strange, but does not know exactly what it is about the women that make her different. When her mother attempts to repress the homosexual influence in Janette’s life, she offers her an orange, which seems to represent heterosexuality moreover they represent the entire repressive system that Jeanette's mother espouses.

Apoligies, and a Warning at 11:36 AM

I posted my blog a few hours ago.
and lucky enough i checked it.

i stole a link to an image of American Born Chinese....and got caught doing it, thus it was replaced with an image that some people might not find exactly pleasant.

it has been removed, and i apologise to anyone who was offended by it.

may this be a warning to any future posts of media on this blog.
be careful!

Acceptance, Connections, Big White Culture at 8:09 AM

I find the Youtube video black doll vs. white doll to be quite saddening. After reading The Bluest Eye, I had assumed that perhaps the prevalence of the feelings of white beauty would not be as high. According to the small sample of the video, these ideas are still present.

I have a few problems with Kiri Davis' video experiment.

• The video has obviously been edited, but has it been edited to show only the results Ms. Davis wants to show?

• Ms. Davis only shows black children being interviewed. I am very interested to see if a survey of children from other races would also choose the white doll. What happens if you add a third doll of Latino or Asian complexion?

At face value the video does show that the message preached by Toni Morrison, and Bell Hooks still applies to us today. Even Yang's American Born Chinese reminds us of the cultural dominance whites hold over other races. Yang exaggerates the way Chinese American youths view themselves with the characterization of Chin Kee

Another theme, quite prevalent in both texts, is the search for self-acceptance. Yang and Morrison show that the dominance of white culture causes the children to never truly accept who they are. The man behind the counter look down on Pecola, it must be because she is black, not because he is taller than her. He uses short language with her, it is not because she doesn’t speak, it is because she is ugly…
“The distaste must be for her, her blackness…”(Morrison 49).

Taking off Those Glasses at 6:19 AM

As the story of Jin's self discovery comes to a close, and he learns the true identity of the monkey king, yin wang, and most importantly, himself, he attempts to repair the friendship he and wei chen once shared. his discussion with chen is initailly hostile as he convinces chen to give him a chance and to hear him speak. as chen slowly lets the barrier down and returns to their friendship, the friendship is visually repaired by the removal of chen's sunglasses. p282
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2EDtxEumFI