Kristine's English 373 Bloggidy Blog

Search for the Son: Globalization and "Meet the Natives"

2009-12-16T17:05:00.000-08:00

Search for the Son: Globalization and "Meet the Natives" from Kristine Peterson on Vimeo.

ARTIST’S STATEMENT
The 2007 UK series “Meet the Natives” documents the experience of five tribesmen from the island of Tanna, Vanuatu on their first trip to Great Britain. During their four week adventure, the natives have a lot to discover about England, while the English benefit from their lessons of simpler life. The program is full of laughable moments, like when the natives learn how to use a vacuum cleaner and taste their first beer, but also touching reactions to people living on the streets of Manchester. The spiritual quest behind their journey, however, was at times overlooked by viewers watching purely for entertainment. On Tanna, traditional belief says that the son of their Kastam god has taken the form of an Englishman (Adams, par. 3). When Prince Philip visited their island in the 1970s, villagers were so awed by his material wealth and stature that they named him their lord. For decades, they have awaited his homecoming that is said to bring magic, riches, and immortality to Vanuatu. Yapa, Joel, JJ, Posen and Albi of “Meet the Natives” are sent by their chief to find their savior and ask for his return. Although they go home happily empty handed, they bring back a message of false hope for his future arrival. Through my own editing of “Meet the Natives,” I hope to visualize the argument that while globalization aids in the understanding of each other’s cultures, this interaction can also create a mystified perception of the dominant society. In the case of the Tanna island natives, the Prince Philip cargo cult is a direct result of confusion in a globalizing, ever more Western world.

In 1988, historian James Clifford stated that globalization enables people to be aesthetically inventive, to partake of the “ironic play of similarity and difference” (Foster 149). “Meet the Natives” provides a fascinating, informal look into Melanesian culture, which simultaneously challenges various Western ideas and values (Lederman 440). Many times during the documentary, the tribesmen, who are descendents of cannibals, appear to be far better humanitarians than us of the West. When first exposed to the issue of homelessness, one of the natives, on the brink of tears, says:

It made me sad to realize that they need help, but people were unable or unwilling to help them. There are many buildings not used, but many people are still homeless. My heart was crying and I felt a heavy weight on me. [This] has made the issue feel real to me. I can’t say anything else about this because I feel so sad. (“Meet the Natives” Part 8)

The heartfelt opinions of these simple-minded hunter-gatherers profoundly affect viewers such as myself. There are complexities about Western culture they do not know of, yet provide a fresh outlook for people who live and breathe it daily. For example, the natives are pleased to witness “people of every color” mixing together on busy streets, but dislike the way strangers do not interact with one another. Part 16 includes one of the natives saying, “There are a lot of people going to work. They are rushing and they don’t talk. Even when I smile at them, they don’t smile back. They just walk. I wonder where this lifestyle is taking them.” Anthropologist Kirk Huffman, a consultant to the project, notes how much more open-minded and interested in big questions they are in comparison. He states, “In the West, we are obsessed by little things. Our culture is all about how: to travel faster, to live longer, and make more money. Smart cultures are more about why. They are more reflective. That's what they can teach us" (Adams, par. 27). When the natives learn how to artificially inseminate pigs, they are quite understandably not pleased either. Despite one Englishman’s explanation that it is more cost efficient, they consider the practice wrong and unnatural. In a scene where they are given the task of cleaning a house, the natives agree that it takes so long because there are too many unnecessary decorations and other clutter. Unlike similar documentaries of this style, there is more to be learned from the natives than by the natives, who I believe are actually aware of this themselves. “May the message we bring over help the good people of England. Let the people of these buildings, cars, and planes feel and experience what we have to share with them, so they can live well here as we do on Tanna,” prays the chief (“Meet the Natives” Part 8).

Cultural anthropologist Rena Lederman defines globalization as the “radical intensification of relations between geographically separated places; to a structurally transformative movement of people, things, and ideas across cultural and national borders” (428). In “Meet the Natives,” we get a feel of the intense culture exchange from Tanna to England and back. I was surprised to find that more advanced studies on contemporary Melanesia, however, are few, rather incomplete, and far between. Most of which were conducted in the 1990s, they do explore historical experiences of Western influences, representations of regional and global relationships, anticolonial movements, and resistance to changes in religion, sexuality, and morality (Lederman 437). Most interesting to me has been their change in religious belief, which is a primary focus of my project. In the early 20th century, Tanna was converted to Presbyterianism by colonizers and missionaries (Stanley, sect. 6). The tribes reverted to traditional beliefs, however, just before WWII, when they claimed to have seen a spirit regularly appear on the island. At this time, about a thousand men were being recruited by Americans to work at military bases of Efate, a nearby island of Vanuatu. The sight of black soldiers and large quantities of Western goods left them mystified. “John Frum,” or “John from America” has become a cultural icon that is said to bring wealth from overseas (Raffaele 72). This was the beginning of Vanuatu’s “cargo cults,” whose members believe the same type of ships will return one day with loads of cargo meant for their people (Stanley, sect. 6). Huffman, who also spent seventeen years in Vanuatu, explains: "You get cargo cults when the outside world, with all its material wealth, suddenly descends on remote, indigenous tribes” (Raffaele 70). Since the locals are confused where the endless supplies come from, they believe there has been some holy interference. Dr. Andrew Lattas, a lecturer and cargo cult researcher from the University of Newcastle, says that we should not be surprised to find globalization merging with local religious traditions (75). About the Prince Philip cult featured in “Meet the Natives,” which is a division of the John Frums, he explains, “The hegemonic conditions for making the modern world livable require new kinds of lies, new kinds of secrets, and new kinds of collusions with whiteness and modernity” (Lattas 76). Theoretically, this is evident in both “Meet the Natives” and other research of the island nation. As each day passes, Tanna’s inhabitants grow less patient for their savior’s return, asking questions like “Where is Prince Philip?” and “Why doesn't he come?” (Shears, par. 40).

I chose to condense this documentary series into a short video that highlights exactly what I got out of it: globalization’s effects on indigenous island people. Although it is captivating to witness the group of tribesmen’s first experiences of the Western world, Tanna’s cults wouldn’t exist without this limited exposure. I have found that globalization is effective in both opening one’s eyes to new cultural perspectives and obscuring them at others. The latter part of the video is devoted to the natives’ journey to find Prince Philip, hence the title “Search for the Son.” I used the campy “Yellow Submarine” by The Beatles as a contrast from island beats to the familiar music of Great Britain. The song denotes a sense of adventure and togetherness, which I also deemed fitting. I hope to have successfully visualized my argument to those not familiar with “Meet the Natives.” Putting a face (or five) on the word “globalization,” I believe, is effective in understanding what it means to our rapidly changing worldwide culture.

Works Cited
Adams, Guy. "Strange island: Pacific tribesmen come to study Britain." The Independent. N.p., 8 Sept. 2007. Web. 2 Dec. 2009. .
Foster, Robert J. "Melanesianist Anthropology in the Era of Globalization." The Contemporary Pacific 11.1 (1999): 140-159. ScholarSpace. Web. 3 Dec. 2009.
Lattas, Andrew. "Capitalizing on Complicity: Cargo Cults and the Spirit of Modernity on Bali Island (West New Britain)." Ethnohistory 52.1 (2005): 47-80. Humanities Int'l Index (EBSCO). Web. 3 Dec. 2009.
Lederman, Rena. "Globalization and the Future of Culture Areas: Melanesianist Anthropology in Transition." Annual Review of Anthropology 27 (1998): 427-449. JSTOR. Web. 3 Dec. 2009.
"Playlist: Meet the Natives." VanuataVeritas's Channel. YouTube, 24 June 2009. Web. 2 Dec. 2009.
Raffaele, Paul. "In John they Trust." Smithsonian 36.11 (2006): 70-77. Humanities Int'l Index (EBSCO). Web. 3 Dec. 2009.
Shears, Richard. "Is Prince Philip a god?" Mail Online. N.p., 3 June 2006. Web. 2 Dec. 2009. < http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-388901/Is-Prince-Philip-god.html >.
Stanley, David. "Vanuatu Travel Guide." Vanuatu travel with author David Stanley. South Pacific Organizer, n.d. Web. 2 Dec. 2009. .

FABSTRACT

2009-12-09T19:06:00.000-08:00

The 2007 UK series “Meet the Natives” documented the journey of five tribesmen from Tanna, Vanuatu to three cities in Great Britain. Inevitably, the natives had a lot to discover about England, while the English learned a lesson about simpler life. There were funny moments when the natives learned how to use a vacuum and drink their first beer, but also touching times when they couldn’t understand the concept of homelessness. The spiritual quest behind their journey, however, went overlooked by some viewers watching purely for entertainment. On Tanna, traditional belief says that the son of their Kastam god has taken the form of an Englishman. When Prince Philip visited their island in the 1970s, they were so awed by his material wealth and stature that they named him their lord. For decades, they have awaited his homecoming that is said to bring magic, riches, and immortality to Vanuatu. Yapa, Joel, JJ, Posen and Albi are sent by their chief to find their savior and ask for his return. Although they go home happily empty handed, they bring back a message of false hope for his future arrival. Through my own editing of “Meet the Natives,” I hope to visualize the idea that while globalization aids in the understanding of each other’s cultures, this interaction can also create a mystified perception of the dominant society. In the case of the Tanna island natives, the Prince Philip cargo cult is a direct result of confusion in a globalizing, ever more Western world.

Works Cited

2009-12-03T20:42:00.000-08:00

[Tentative] Works Cited

Adams, Guy. "Strange island: Pacific tribesmen come to study Britain." The Independent. N.p., 8 Sept. 2007. Web. 2 Dec. 2009. < http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/strange-island-pacific-tribesmen-come-to-study-britain-401461.html >.

This online magazine article is about the production of the documentary. It provided some background information not mentioned in the series, so I found it useful as a reference.

Foster, Robert J. "Melanesianist Anthropology in the Era of Globalization." The Contemporary Pacific 11.1 (1999): 140-159. ScholarSpace. Web. 3 Dec. 2009.

The paper "reviews some of the relevant intellectual resources available to Melanesianist anthropologists and considers the implications of globalization for ethnographic fieldwork." I'll use it to study how social interactions have changed due to communications with larger world powers like Britain and the U.S.

Lattas, Andrew. "Capitalizing on Complicity: Cargo Cults and the Spirit of Modernity on Bali Island (West New Britain)." Ethnohistory 52.1 (2005): 47-80. Humanities Int'l Index (EBSCO). Web. 3 Dec. 2009.

Although this article is about a different (yet quite similar) cult, it will aid in my discussion about the effects of global commerce on these nativistic movements.

Lederman, R. "Globalization and the Future of Culture Areas: Melanesianist Anthropology in Transition." Annual Review of Anthropology 27 (1998): 427-449. JSTOR. Web. 3 Dec. 2009.

The author of this article briefly talks about some anthropologists' findings about native culture and a need for a discussion about globalization. I'll use it to research how Melanesian culture has changed over time in respect to colonization and globalization.

"Playlist: Meet the Natives." VanuataVeritas's Channel. YouTube, 24 June 2009. Web. 2 Dec. 2009.

This is the actual documentary. I did a pretty good search of the internets, and found nothing about how to cite a series of Youtube videos. So I took a stab at it by attempting to cite a playlist of parts 1-18. If you know how to properly do this, your help would be greatly appreciated!

Raffaele, Paul. "In John they Trust." Smithsonian 36.11 (2006): 70-77. Humanities Int'l Index (EBSCO). Web. 3 Dec. 2009.

"When material wealth suddenly descends upon indigenous tribes, they don't know where it came from and believe it must have been summoned by magic or is in some other way supernatural." This article discusses the events that led to the formation of cargo cults following the end of WWII. Good for historical stuff.

Shears, Richard. "Is Prince Philip a god?" Mail Online. N.p., 3 June 2006. Web. 2 Dec. 2009. < http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-388901/Is-Prince-Philip-god.html >.

This is just another news story about the Prince Philip and John Frum cults. I used it to write my previous blog so I threw it on here.

I need one more scholarly source! Still hunting...

Not-so-short Final Project Proposal

2009-12-02T20:35:00.000-08:00

I've just spent the afternoon watching a fascinating 2007 UK documentary series called "Meet the Natives." In has been broken down into 18 segments on Youtube, averaging about 8 minutes each. Here's the promo:

In this series, 5 men from the Kastam tribe of the island Tanna travel to England to experience life in a land they believe was connected to theirs at the time of creation. Yapa, Joel, JJ, Posen and Albi spend a week with each English "tribe": a middle class, working class, and upper class family. They call themselves "the first Tannese explorers."

An article from Britain's The Independent said the following:
"...for generations, western anthropologists have traveled to faraway lands to live among native tribes and document their way of life. But, until now, anthropology has always been a one-way street; alien cultures have never 'gone native' over here."

The 5 tribesmen do not travel to England just to experience a different lifestyle, however. They are on a religious mission to meet a person they have been worshiping all their lives. In Tanna, they believe England's Prince Philip is God's son. For 33 years, they've been waiting for Philip to return and rule the island, making life better for all of its people. Prince Philip is their Jesus.

Here's another excerpt from that article I just mentioned:
"The story runs something like this: at the start of the last century, English missionaries visited Tanna in an effort to convert them to Christianity. This angered the Kastam God, who sent his eldest son over to the UK to try to stop them. On Tanna, this son was a spirit, but in England they believe that this spirit has taken on the form of a man. When the Royal yacht Britannia visited their island in the 1970s, they decided that this man was Prince Philip. Shortly afterwards, the tribe sent the Duke of Edinburgh a club, by way of a gift. Several months later, Buckingham Palace returned the favour, posting them a framed picture of a smiling Prince Philip holding the club. In such gestures are legends born. Today, that photograph is a religious icon, their equivalent of an altar at a church."

SIDE NOTE: In Things Fall Apart, English settlers visit native tribes with a religious mission. In "Meet the Natives," natives come to England also with a religious mission. Interestingly, Vanuatu (the nation of islands that includes Tanna) was under French and British rule until 1980, when it became independent. Since then, it has been working hard to re-develop its very unique Melanesian culture. Well hello again, postcolonialism!

Today I was introduced to what are called "cargo cults." A cargo cult is a type of religious practice that may appear in traditional tribal societies in the wake of interaction with technologically advanced cultures. The cults are focused on obtaining the material wealth (the "cargo") of the advanced culture through magical thinking and religious rituals and practices, believing that the wealth was intended for them by their deities and ancestors. I was surprised to have never heard anything about this phenomenon in discussions about the effects of globalization.

Anyway, the end of the documentary is bittersweet. The natives finally get to meet Prince Philip, who tells them he is not ready to return. They are happy with this, and take the news back to their village. What saddens me, however, is that these people continue to wait for an update. Prince Phillip will most likely never visit despite their offer, which sounds great in my opinion anyway:
"We want him to spend the last years of his life here, because we believe that when he returns as our god, his powers will make our wrinkles disappear and we will have many wives to attend to our every need. He won't have to hunt for pigs or anything. He can just sit in the sun and have a nice time."

I'd like to make a short video project that visualizes my argument: While globalization gives us the opportunity of reaching out to different cultures (as we will see in the humorous and touching moments of "Meet the Natives"), it also creates confusion and sadness for native peoples (i.e. the whole Prince Philip ordeal). Through my montage/condensed version of the documentary, I hope to demonstrate that.

Since this post is already kind of lengthy, I will put Tentative Works Cited in the following one.

Tiananmen Square Google Image Results

2009-11-27T14:45:00.000-08:00

Here are the Google image search results for the 1989 Tiananmen Square protest in China (left) and the U.S. (right). I thought this was pretty interesting although completely expected. Click here to see the full version.

Lahiri's Mysterious View of Love and Marriage

2009-11-05T21:23:00.000-08:00

I regret to say I know very little about India. Like anyone else I think of red dots, colorful bangles, delicious curries, and that incredibly catchy "Jai Ho" song from Slumdog Millionaire. I have one friend of Indian descent, whose mother's house I cleaned over the summer. Her husband Surrender (I know! such a cool name) left India to practice cardiology and met his wife, a Caucasian woman, in the states. I always wanted to ask her what it was like when she visited her husband's homeland with her American children, sort of like the Das family did in "Interpreter of Maladies." I got to look at some of their travel photos, but that is about the extent of my experience.

Lahiri's stories touched on those aspects of Indian culture I was looking for a bit, but while searching for differences I found more similarities. I think "A Temporary Matter" hit us so hard because we can relate to the characters regardless of what country we come from or what color our skin is. "The Third and Final Continent" is about experiencing a new land and a new culture. I'm sure we've all at one point felt like a foreigner.

One difference we can't overlook, however, is this topic of marriage, which both Kourtney and Gannon discussed in their blog posts. Coincidentally, I am no marriage expert either. I do know that Indian marriages are traditionally arranged for economic and social benefits. In America, by contrast, we wed for love, which interestingly leads to a 44% higher divorce rate than India.

In our class, we discussed the possibility that the married couple in "A Temporary Matter" does reconcile shortly after the story ends. Some of us happy ending lovers hope that when Shoba turns the lights off and they join together to cry at the table, it is a fresh start for them. So don't just be depressed, Gannon. And read the rest of the last story!

As Kourtney mentioned, there is a sense of familial duty in Indian marriage. Women certainly have their place, and as we read in "The Treatment of Bibi Haldar," they are shamed for being unwed by a certain age. Men, however, have an obligation to keep the marriage together as well. I found Mala's husband's little grievances kind of silly, yet familiar:

"I would have to buy her her first pair of snow boots, her first winter coat. I would have to tell her which streets to avoid, which way the traffic came, tell her to wear her sari so that the free end did not drag on the footpath." (The Third and Final Continent pg. 190)

I have to wonder if that's much different than how my boyfriend feels when he takes me out each weekend. Surely he's thinking:
"I will have to buy her her dinner, her movie ticket. I will have to tell her to stop playing with her food, which d-bags to avoid by the bar, tell her to put her cell phone on silent so that it does not go off in the theater."

We're all humans, right? Maybe it wasn't as important which marriages succeeded/failed based on whether they were arranged or not. Every relationship has some of the same characteristics regardless of who chooses it.

One last thing. Mala and her husband could only find love and happiness once they started relating (by TALKING) to one another. Mrs. Das' failure to communicate led to a huge scandalous secret suitable for The Maury Povich ("you are NOT the father!") Show. Shoba pushed the mourning of her child aside so far that it pushed away her husband too. These couples were just horrible with communication!

You Try to Write Your Stories in China But They Say No, No, No

2009-10-29T22:34:00.000-07:00

Ha Jin did what he had to do. I hate to learn of such rigid censorship, mass brainwashing, and loss of creative expression that actually occurs in a world outside of Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, but I'm glad that I've had the opportunity to read his stories as a result of his decision to write in English.

If Conrad had written Heart of Darkness in his native Polish, it wouldn't have reached all those snooty English people he wanted to. My guess is that his novel would have remained in Poland for the most part. Since we, the descendents of those Europeans, look at Heart of Darkness as a starting point in postcolonial literature, that's a pretty big deal.

But back to Ha Jin. If he had even tried to publish The Bridegroom in communist China, what kind of punishment would he have received? Let's look at what they would have found objectionable.

"After Cowboy Chicken Came to Town," page 187:
"We nicknamed Mr. Shapiro 'Party Secretary,' because just like a Party boss anywhere he did little work."
STOP, FOOL! You can't diss the Party. Big no-no.

"Alive," page 19 and 41:
Fei, twice noted for being a new or young Party member, is a villain for taking Guhan's job. He is described as "too clever and oily." ALERT THE CENSORS! Once again, any art or literature that doesn't serve the Party/make it look good is restricted.

"A Tiger-Fighter is Hard to Find," page 60:
The narrator recognizes that the Wu Song tiger beating story was "pure fabrication that has misled readers for hundreds of years." The actor going crazy and failing to beat the tiger shines negative light on the communist system in general.

"Saboteur," the whole story.
This one really makes the Party look bad. Chiu is clearly taken to jail for being a scholar rather than the "scene" they accused him of making. It also shows that Party members are unhappy enough to take it out on innocents, as Chiu did by intentionally spreading hepatitis in restaurant settings.

P.S.- I've been thinking about this video all week. This is how you contaminate food in a big way. Thanks for the proper demonstration, Lorraine.

STAY BEHIND THE SNEEZE GUARD!

Mirror, Mirror, on the Wall---Holy Crap, IS THAT ME?

2009-10-08T21:31:00.000-07:00

What jumped out to me from Spivak's essay (and said "Hey! Words I know!") was a recollection of the "many images of mirroring in the text" (242). It turns out there are quite a few mentions of the word "looking glass" in Wide Sargasso Sea. A quick search through the Google Books version of this text brought up at least ten results.

I had not realized how much time Antoinette spends looking at her reflection. I suppose she's quite aware of her beauty and loves her pretty rich girl things. As a child, she actually tries to kiss the girl in the mirror, while admiring one woman at the convent solely on the perfection of her hair and another for the care of her beautiful teeth without the use of one. Rochester, however, does recognize her vanity.

At first he is not as bothered by it: "All day she'll be like any other girl, smile at herself in her looking-glass (do you like this scent?)" but later finds satisfaction in taking away this part of her character. He thinks, "She'll not laugh in the sun again. She'll not dress up and smile at herself in that damnable looking-glass. So pleased, so satisfied. Vain, silly creature" (99). COLD!

The manipulative bastard finds a bunch of ways to destroy Antoinette's pride- repeatedly telling her he doesn't love her, resenting her homeland, sleeping with the chick in the room next door, and oh yeah: giving her an ugly-ass name. But I think he really ices the cake when he takes away her mirrors. Don't act like you haven't had a really bad day/week/situation/relationship/life and felt a *wee* bit better when you notice that your hair looks good.

On page 107 she recalls, "I saw Antoinette drifting out of the window with her scents, her pretty clothes and her looking-glass" when her husband refuses to call her by her name and eventually moves her to England to hide her in the attic.

If you are going to beat the girl's spirit to a pulp, Rochester, can't you just let her keep one thing- her beauty? Apparently not! All of her pretty dresses are hung away and she is forced to wear those raggedy gray memaw sweaters with kitty cat iron-on transfers that you can only find in the 25 cent bin at Goodwill. OKAY OKAY I lied about that last part, but you get the point. Even Grace Poole wonders why they can't give her anything nicer considering all the money they have (110). Her hair gets rattier than mine does the morning after a crazy dream and her skin is probably discolored due to malnourishment, lack of vitamin D and because she's more cracked out than Courtney Love.

In the end, it is most chilling when Antoinette sees the "ghost" at Thornfield Hall.
"It was then that I saw her- the ghost. The woman with streaming hair. She was surrounded by a gilt frame but I knew her" (111-12).
That is presumably the first in some time- as well as the last- time she looks at herself in the mirror.

Revisiting Wide Sargasso Sea

2009-09-30T16:12:00.000-07:00

I thought I'd try to get this blog done a bit early due to tomorrow being !!FONDUE NIGHT!! at my house and quite frankly, I'd rather be dipping little pieces of food in cheese than analyzing literature at that time. Just sayin'.

In other news, I'm glad to be rereading Wide Sargasso Sea. Or at least I think I read it before... I might have run out of steam by the time I finished Jane frickin' Eyre and more or less skimmed it over. But that was over two years ago, and I feel like I have to read things twice before I truly understand them anyhow.

I wrote down some things that were advised as themes in the text, including:
-social relations
-racial discourse
-woman vs. man
-elements of the supernatural
-displacement
-assimilation
-class things

Talk about get your highlighter ready! I've decided to play especially close attention to gender (woman vs. man) in this one. Rhys wrote a lot about the powerless woman and contributed significantly to feminist perspectives. I'm also interested in how male dominance may or may not lead to psychological problems in women.

I find Rhys herself particularly interesting. Fascinating was her success despite her many hardships along the way. According to her Wikipedia page Rhys once declared, “I have only ever written about myself."

Did anyone check out her picture in the preface?

What a photo!

Potentially Offensive Blog

2009-09-18T01:16:00.000-07:00

I read Things Fall Apart while at the same time reading When Religion Becomes Evil by Charles Kimball for my Sociology of Religion class. While trying to piece things together in the chaotic stew that is currently my mind, I began to focus on the role of religion in the story.

I enjoyed our class discussion on Smith and Brown and the possible significance of their names. Were they purposefully given generic white people names? Possibly. But to me they represented various degrees of religious faith. Smith reminds me of your strict fundamentalist grandma who tells you you're going to burn in a painful, firey Hell if you don't commit your life to Christ. Brown is your more calm, understanding grandfather who encourages you to learn about other faiths, but tells you you better go to a Christian church if you intend on going to Heaven.

In Gikandi's essay "Achebe and the Invention of African Literature," there is a quote from Achebe describing his upbringing that I could relate to. "When I was growing up I remember we tended to look down on the others. We were called "the people of the church" or "the association of God." The others we called, with the conceit appropriate to followers of the true religion, the heathen or even "the people of nothing." (301) To quote Stephanie Tanner from Full House (bad, I know), HOW RUDE!

But oh how I read this and reflected on my own Christian upbringing. I was taught this, accepted it, and now find it quite disturbing! I was raised in a way that made me look down on the non-believers. I was told to feel sorry for them. I was better than them.

This concept of "we" vs. "they" is built right into religious language.
In Judaism it's the chosen people vs. gentiles
In Christianity it's the Children of God vs. pagans
In Islam it's the warriors of Allah vs. infidels
...and so on.

We've discussed xenophobia and the fear of "the other" a number of times. I've also seen this a lot in my Sociology class. The "we" the "they" and the "other" arrogance is pretty crappy. And a lot of the time it's due to deeply-rooted religious beliefs? SAY WHAT?

At this time I wanted to poo-poo religion completely! Take a big caca on it! Thanks a lot, religion, for the Crusades, suicide bombers, honor killings, Godhatesfags.com, Glenn Beck, the Inquisition, female genital mutilation, those twins being left in the Evil Forest, and that horrible life-sucking look my mom gave me when I told her I had taken on a more agnostic approach, followed by "SO YOU'RE NOT COMING TO HEAVEN WITH US?"

But then I read the next sentence in that Gikandi essay: "It was out of this identification with the culture of colonialism--and his ultimate disillusionment with it--that Achebe became a writer."

So I guess I can't blame all evil on religion after all. Colonialism and its religious missionaries brought education to Africa and beyond. Without that happening, we wouldn't have Things Fall Apart.

I'm probably putting my own heart into it too much and am really just trying to figure out my own beliefs. But I'm *still* kind of unclear on how Achebe can write this novel and declare to the world his own Christianity.
You confuse me, Achebe.

I Love the Internet.

2009-09-16T19:39:00.000-07:00

Things Fall Apart was good too.

My Brain Hurts

2009-09-10T23:09:00.001-07:00

Sorry for the lack of better title. My thought train is on a derailing path of doom, as you might see in this post. But anyhow...

Should we read Heart of Darkness?!?!!11
I liked when J. Hillis Miller notes that you have to read something before telling everybody else they shouldn't. For some reason this was a big AHA! moment for me. On page 463 he states, "It is impossible to decide authoritatively whether or not we should read Heart of Darkness without reading it in that strong sense. By then it is too late. I have already read it, been affected by it, and passed my judgment, perhaps recorded it for others to read." From what I understand, everyone ends up reading it in trying to decide if we should. Hmm.

On another note, people are typically curious and likely to read books upon hearing they're banned or controversial in some way. If you're going to make a lot of fuss about Heart of Darkness and forbid people from reading it, you're giving it free publicity anyway.

But back to the texts. I want to comment on Achebe since he is the #1 Anti-Heart of Darkness guy. I so badly want to be on his side. The way Conrad portrays his entire African race gives me the serious sads. Also, I haven't sleep-drooled on any of the first 38 pages of his book, but that's beside the point. We all know Achebe takes it too far in his critical essay with what becomes personal attacks and dismissing his literary work because he's a "bloody racist." Yet as we've discovered, who wasn't back then?

Should we read Heart of Darkness? My vote is yes. For the most part (depending on what news network you watch), we as a society are far past the age of such blatant racism and sexism being the norm. As we read it, we know it is wrong and are pretty offended or bothered by it. We are never, however, past this issue of xenophobia and fear of "the other," which is another great reason to read and discuss Heart of Darkness.

Now I want to know something from you: Who does "we" represent to you? College students? High school kids? Higher educated people? Lower? Any person off the street? Would reading Heart of Darkness be beneficial to some and not to others?

I SOUND LIKE I KNOW WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT SO LISTEN TO ME

2009-09-03T17:30:00.000-07:00

The title of the essay "The Comparative Worth of Different Races" alone was enough to make me cringe. Thus I wasn't surprised to encounter gems like:

"...during my travels to Africa...the mistakes the negroes made in their own matters were so childish, stupid, and simpleton-like, as frequently to make me ashamed of my own species."

But before I start wagging my AW HELL NAW finger, here's a little background on the author, Sir Francis Galton:
•Lived 1822-1911
•Darwin's cousin
•Founder of eugenics: the study of genetics to improve inherited characteristics

.....Say what?

Yes, the popularity of eugenics eventually led to the murder of millions of people with intentions of creating a "master race."
Cue the AW HELL NAW finger.
Cut to the end of Kurtz's pamphlet: "Exterminate all the brutes!" (pg. 50)

I was reminded of this pamphlet that was supposedly "beautiful" and "noble" and "eloquently" written while keeping in mind the Galton piece.

"First, the negro race has occasionally, but very rarely, produced such men as Toussaint l'Ouverture (leader of the Haitian slave rebellion)...showing a difference of not less than two grades between the black and white races, and it may be more." (pg. 225)

What Galton meant by "grades" refers to the grading system he came up with.
A-G = above the mean
a-g = below the mean
X = genius
x =
He puts Greeks at the top of the scale, while Australian aborigines and the c-b rank of Africans are thrown at the bottom with "smart dogs." To him, the most intelligent Englishman (G or X) = an intelligent Greek, but not the most intelligent class F or G. Both races were far superior to Africans, whose G and X = only the E and F of English.

Galton could be considered a "scientific racist." Scientific racism denotes the use of scientific or ostensibly scientific findings and methods to investigate differences between races, often to support or validate racist attitudes and worldviews. It is based on belief in the existence and significance of racial categories, typically with a hierarchy of superior and inferior races.

In Heart of Darkness, I see the causes and effects of this scientific racism, which leads to the overall attitude common within the two: We are simply better than you and that is that. The white race has always been superior to yours; you and I are aware of it. We have come to make you better. And in Galton's case: Here is a bullshit scientific approach and fancy language to justify it. Blahdy-da, blahdy-dee, I sound official so damnit, I must be right.

AHOY, BLOGGIES!

2009-08-25T18:25:00.001-07:00

Welcome to my very own ENGLISH 373: 20th & 21st Century Global Literatures in English blog. Are you excited yet? No? Well, enough about you. This is my introduction!

My name is Kristine Peterson and I'm a 21-year-old (finally!) senior (FINALLY) here at the magnificent WSU Tri-cities. After a long, exciting summer of adventures, travels, and watching Desperate Housewives reruns while everyone else was at work, I'm back and ready to tackle a new batch of courses including this one.

Some of my favorite things/interests/hobbies include:

-Fashion (even though my own is tacky and often just bad)
-Popular culture (mostly celebrity crap, I will not lie.)
-Internet culture (I'm looking at you, Spaghetti Cat)
-Digital technology & culture (It's my major)
-Electronic music (not the "furiously waving glow sticks in the dark" kind)
-Animals (like 'em too much to eat 'em)
-My pets (two kitties and a Pomeranian)
-AS SEEN ON TV products (R.I.P. Billy Mays)
-Bagels (who doesn't love a bagel?)

That said, I hope to keep my posts interesting and as on-topic as I can. I'm not that deep of a thinker but I will try to provoke some good thoughts and discussions! If I can't do that, I'll try my best to distract you with pretty pictures.

See you soon,
xo Kristine