Questions for the class:
Enjoy your Spring Break!
This podcast was about The Jungle by Upton Sinclair. We considered the effects of the novel in terms of it sociopolitical impact. We also discussed what the American Dream meant to both the characters in the novel, and the greater American Dream at the time. I took on the role of Podcast host, editor, setting up the recording, and choosing the topics to elaborate on. I also chose the questions that we would be answering after the group reviewed our options. I think to improve this podcast, we could have more of a coherent structure. What I mean by that is: having the entire group ready to answer each question in order to form a better conversation. What ended up happening was each participant could only really answer one question, so it was more of an interview than a discussion. I would also have every person hold their own microphone so that the audio and conversation could flow more naturally because every time we wanted clear audio, I would have to either hand the microphone to someone or lean over to get their response. I think podcast voices are important because it is a very easy way for the public to digest material. I also think that having access to your words and language in written form is a skill and a talent, and that more people are better at talking than writing. Therefore giving people the opportunity to talk rather than write gives them more freedom and creative expression on important topics. Hearing people talk about important topics in a podcast might also inspire those who hear it to continue the conversation. There is also the possibility of sharing a work. When sharing the written word, there is a lot more time that it takes for things to be distributed and consumed and talked about. Meanwhile, having a podcast gives listeners the ability to share pieces or passages from that important conversation much more easily. The amount of information that can be transmitted through podcasts is greatly increased, even if the finer details of writing might be more precise. I think should I do another podcast for this class, it has to be in the stairs for consistency. But on a more serious note, the conversations and thought provoking questions might take more precedence over the literary analysis. When discussing significant work, the conversations we have in class don’t always quote the text, but I feel that important points are constantly being made. Bringing personal experience to the conversation is exactly the medium that podcasts were made for. There is no better way to engage people who might be scared of literature than to take out the reading. This is maybe not the right mindset to have about it, but I believe that inclusivity is not straight forward.
“I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked,
dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix”
In this line, Ginsberg begins the setting of the poem as dark and dystopian, setting the tone to be quite like “Gotham City”. He emphasizes the social situation of the era. Using the word “starving hysterical naked” Ginsberg described how both people were suffering economically the same time described it to be a social chaos. Ginsberg also hinted the social rights movement going on.
“Moloch whose eyes are a thousand blind windows! Moloch whose skyscrapers stand in the long streets like endless Jehovah’s! Moloch whose factories dream and croak in the fog! Moloch whose smokestacks and antennae crown the cities!”
Ginsberg personifies the city as a ‘Moloch’. The term blind windows may refer to people ignoring others struggles and problems. The author also mentions the ‘Moloch’ to have endless skyscrapers defining the city to be very urban and endless Jehovah’s which is a Hebrew term for God. The factories dream and croak in the fog, the author personified the factories and described them to “dream and croak in the fog”, referring the fog to pollution.
In class for participation and attendance, students close read and annotated lines from Allen Ginsberg’s long poem “Howl” (1954-1955) based on the following commentary from Ginsberg himself:
In reading John Okada’s No-No Boy, I reflected on my personal life. I grew up in a similar, but different way to the Japanese Americans on the west coast. As I grew up, I was always treated as different than my white classmates or neighbors, but I didn’t have an Asian American community that I was a part of. So I can deeply relate to the isolation that Ichi felt throughout our readings. No matter what clubs I participated in or how I dressed or what my interests were, I was always known as the “pokemon kid” or “anime face.” Since my parents had grown up in very different circumstances, and in fact they wanted me to assimilate to White American culture, I was unable to relate to my family. Ichi is isolated for different reasons, but to his own community he is ostracized because he said “no-no.” In choosing to say no to getting drafted and no to renouncing Japan, he had also said no to both his American citizenship and his Japanese community. Honestly, since I did the welcome to the week for this reading I will just include the photos of Japanese internment camps that I found for that video. What strikes me the most about these images is that American Citizens who were born in this country were having their Great Writ of Habeas Corpus violated for years in an indefinite term. It just goes to show again that the government in America has hypocritical definitions of who “Americans” are and what their rights are.
People wait in line for their housing assignment at the Manzanar internment camp in the California desert in 1942. More than 110,000 people of Japanese ancestry were removed from their homes and placed in camps in several states during World War II
An American soldier guards a Japanese internment camp at Manzanar, Calif., May 23, 1943. (AP Photo)
An American soldier guards a Japanese internment camp at Manzanar, Calif., May 23, 1943. (AP Photo)
People wait in line for their housing assignment at the Manzanar internment camp in the California desert in 1942. More than 110,000 people of Japanese ancestry were removed from their homes and placed in camps in several states during World War II
This political cartoon, drawn by Dr. Seuss, depicts Hitler and a Japanese man. The fear preyed upon here is the exagerated idea that their faces will be carved on Mount Rushmore as opposed to American founding fathers. I am not sure if the Japanese man is meant to represent a specific person, but is interesting to note that he does not like the Japanese emperor during the time of WWII in my opinion. It’s crazy to think it might just be a stand-in figure for all Japanese people. This just goes to show why people may still have been hesitant for a book critical of anti-Japanese racism in 1956. Japanese people, and racist charicatures of Japanese people, were a bonafide symbol of villainy.
What does it mean to read No-No Boy in this class? In this time period?
This novel is still extremely relevant today, and goes to show how universal the immigrant experience in the US can be. Ichiro feels alienated and isolated as an outsider due to his nationality. This theme is particularly relevant in the context of modern politics and the rise of alt-right xenophobia. There has been a growing sense of nationalism and a backlash against diversity and immigration. In the US, this is particularly relevant for immigrants from Latin America and the Middle East/North Africa, and in Europe it is especially focused on the Middle East/North Africa. In the last few years, the rise of fascism internationally has occurred parallel to this backlash against multiculturalism, meaning both the discriminatory practices against immigrants/people of color/foreigners and the global threat of fascism are still present. Racism and anti-immigration movements, both in policy and socially, reject many individuals who try to find a place in Western societies, mirroring Ichiro‘s personal struggles with being an outsider. This novel is still very important in reflecting the experiences of people of color and immigrants in the West.
Intro about WWII
Questions:
Passage 1
[“Sure ,” he said, but he told himself that he understood, that the reason why Taro was not a son and not a brother was because he was young and American and Alien to his parents, who had lived in America for thirty five years without becoming less Japanese and could speak only a few broken words of English and write it not at all, and because taro hated that thing in his elder brother which had prevented him from thinking for himself. ]
Passage 2
[ Mr. Kumasaka placed a hand on the rounded back of his wife, who was forever beyond consoling, and spoke gently to Ichiro: “you don’t have to say anything. You are truly sorry, and I am sorry for you.”
“I didn’t know” he said pleadingly”
“I want you to feel free to come and visit us whenever you wish. We can talk even if your mother’s convictions are different.”
“She’s crazy. Mean and crazy. Goddamned Jap!”
He felt the tears hot and stinging.
“Try to understand her.” ]
“Moloch in whom I sit lonely! Moloch in whom I dream Angels! Crazy in Moloch! Cocksucker in Moloch! Lacklove and manless in Moloch!” – Part II
I think this is the line where he says Moloch the most times. It stuck out to me because the entire poem is written with almost the same starting phrase or word that differs with each part. This example is ginsberg taking it to the extreme in my opinion.
“who threw potato salad at CCNY lecturers on Dadaism and subsequently presented themselves on the granite steps of the madhouse with shaven heads and harlequin speech of suicide, demanding instantaneous lobotomy” – Part I
I love this line because of the descriptive imagery. I think throwing potato salad is such a real and pedestrian phrase, but in this context it is more visceral and powerful. I also love how the second half of the line is so vulgar, it exemplifies the public reaction to the vulgarness of the poem. The speech of public suicide is this poem in itself because of how risky it is to publish.
“I’m with you in Rockland
where you’ve murdered your twelve secretaries
I’m with you in Rockland
where you laugh at this invisible humor
I’m with you in Rockland
where we are great writers on the same dreadful typewriter” – Part III
The connection between secretaries and typewriter is strong. Then the connection between the typewriter as a tool to write that Ginsberg also uses connects him to the murders. It is the sense that all people are being assaulted by the same force, but that the solidarity that Ginsberg has with his people is an almost invisible connection. It is stronger than murders because of the power of literature. One can share the written word, and those written words can connect people beyond what is observed on the surface level.
