The Company of Wolves

Angela Carter definetly knows how to take an innocent  fairytale and turn it into someting macab.  She writes more than once that the wolf is carnivore incarnate and he's as cunning as he is ferocious.  But little red riding hood is not scared, because she hasn't experienced enough life to be afraid so she goes into the forest only armed with her knife.

The one that is cunning is little red riding hood, because she is teasing the wolf from the very beginning, knowing even in her innocence he wants something that she has.  Her virginity.

Her fear was not of the woods and wolves and naked men, but the fear of losing her innocence.  Throwing the shawl and her other clothes into the fire was symbolizing that she could not go back to the young girl that she used to be.   Just as the wolf is going to devour her Carter puts a total twist on the story.  She has the wolf right where she wants him.

She  is talking about the blizzard will die down maybe reading between the lines Carter is saying; the incaciable lust that the wolf has for her will "die down" for now.

Reading this story had me really analyzing every aspect of the words that Carter put on the page.  It was a great example of intertextual writing.  This type of writing really makes you think.  The ending in this story at least she survives the wolf.

Research Plan

For our research project our group desided on the Aleuts which are distant relatives of the coastal Eskimos.  We have broke our project into four different sections culture, art, traditions, dance, and clothing.  I picked clothing, because I am amazed at the materials they use to make these garmets.  My question is what can I learn about the overall culture of the Aleuts.  So far in my research I have found that they make alot of different clothes from fur-seal, so it seems that nothing is wasted because that is also one of the meats they eat also.  My questions as I go into my research further are:

1. What tools and materials were used to make the clothing?
2. How did they make their dyes?
3. Who was in charge of making clothes?
4. Why they rarely wore pants?

I envision my audience as being college students researching new information on this subject and possibly people searching sites looking for false documentation.  My question is important to me because I think it is interesting to learn about the cultures of different people.  I think that everyone should know who their ancestors are and learn past and present values and customs so we can pass it down to the next generation. 
I think that the question will be important to anyone reading our site for the same reasons.

As I said my job to the group is to find as much information that I can on the clothing that was worn then and now by the Aleute's.  My responsiblity to the group wike is to write my part of the essay to be incorporated into the final paper.

I have started Googling and searching the web for information.  My next step is to go to the library and look for books on Alaska history, Aleute.  I am also going to search the Alaska digital archives, and maybe find some videos.

Our group is going to meet this Sunday so we can work on the research prospectus.  We will also discuss a time schedule, and set a timetable so we are all on the same page so to speak.

I feel more confident about this as I just dive into it.  I am concerned about not being able to find the information that I need, but I will cross that bridge when I come to it.

I am part Cherokee, and for years I have been wanting to research my ancestors but have just put it off.  This assignment has inspired me to do it, because I am the only one that can pass this information on to my son.

"The Cove"

I wasn't sure what to expect when I started watching "The Cove", because it starts out with Richard O'Barry wearing a surgical mask talking really fast, talking about people following him, driving crazy!  I was thinking, this is the guy that trained "Flipper"?   The style of the film reminded me of "Mission Impossible." After watching the heart wrenching documentary, I was stunned as to how this needless slaughter of dolphins could be taking place in a small, isolated cove in Taiji, Japan.

The filmmakers took a one sided approach to try and expose what is happening and say that it is a cruel slaughter of an intelligent mammal.  They said that the dolphins meat has such a high concentration of mercury that it is unfit to eat, so they are labeling it whale meat to make a profit. 

Japan says that what they are doing is legal, so why the big cover-up if they feel that what they are doing is moral and ethical.  Louie Psihoyos had to use night vision cameras and sneak past the tight security.  If they are caught they said they could go to prison.

The style of the film was described by a reviewer at the New York Times as "Trojan horse."  I think that what they meant is all around you can see pictures of dolphins, sculptures, cute dolphin boat rides, dolphin shows, etc. portraying the cute smiling dolphin; and little do the Japanese know that in a hidden cove this beloved mammal is being slaughtered by the thousands, right under their noses.  Just like the Trojan's they only see the horse.

I thought it was ironic that Richard O'Barry spent part of his life capturing dolphins and training them, and now the other half trying to save them from that.  I feel that after the Japanese watch this film some will probably think why are these people trying to change what has been going on for years and others will have the same reaction that I did having had grew up with "Flipper."

I think that this film plays on a noble cause, and the question I keep asking myself is, should dolphins and other animals have rights?  I think so.

Overheard Conversation

I took the bus after class today in search of a good place to eavesdrop on people.  I decided to try my luck at Fred Meyer East in the deli area.  I arrived there at around noon which ended up being the perfect time, because alot of people stop there to eat lunch.  I found myself a table after getting some baked chicken and Jo Jo's and got out my note pad trying not to look too inconspicuous.

It wasn't long and three guys came and sat down at the table diagonal from mine and one said "I am going to have to shovel my roof off with all this snow we got this week!"  The next guy said "Yeah, I was thinking the same thing."  The third guy said, "Well I was up on my roof shoveling snow and the shingles are so old that my feet couldn't get traction so they just went out from under me and I slid off the roof..... My room mate came out and said, "did you just fall off the roof man?"  "No I jumped."  The first guy says, I wonder if my insurance would cover if my roof caved in?"

This is how it could be taken, Three friends go out to lunch to discuss how they are going to collect on a big insurance settlement.  They are using "shoveling the roof" as a cover up.  Everyone that is listening to them thinks they are talking about shoveling snow,  but that is a cover for what they really have planned.

Context can be easily misconstrued.  It reminds me of "Three's Company" Mr. Furley was always eavesdropping on Jack, and what was an innocent conversation got totally blown out of proportion.  It is very important to be clear in what you write.

Salvation?

Hughes story really makes me think about how vulnerable we are as childeren.  I remember my view of God was that he was a God to fear and that if you did anything bad then he would punish you.  How he must have felt so alone with his secret crying under the quilts and his grandmother thinking that he was crying because the Holy Ghost had come into his life, when it was that he didn't want to disappoint her by saying that he had lied and decieved everyone in the church.

Hughes expresses alot of emotion in this writing and description.  You can feel the anticipation as they sit there waiting for this wonderful thing to happen in the hot, crowded church.  The way he describes the sermon, and all the moans and shouts. 

Hughes began this essay with bland scentences without any emotion then speeds up the cressendo all through the essay to where you feel like you are sitting in the hot church right next to him.  He ends the essay the same way he began, bland and bland with no emotion.  Matter of fact.

I kind of felt like it left me hanging, wanting more.  I wanted to know if his faith got restored when he got older.

I wonder if why he named this "Salvation?"  Maybe it was since Jesus didn't come to help him, he desided he didn't believe anymore and that in itself is his own salvation. 

 

Me Talk Pretty One Day

The reading, “Me Talk Pretty One Day” by David Sedaris, was a story I can relate to, because I am a 41 year old going back to school.

What I got out of this story is going back to school late in life can be very intimidating.   Almost like learning a foreign language. 

Walking into class and you feel like all eyes are on you and everyone seems to carry themselves with ease and confidence.  That is very intimidating.  Makes you feel like Pa Kettle as Sedaris says, with everyone dressed in the latest styles young and attractive.   In my case, Ma Kettle.   I wonder how many even know who Ma and Pa Kettle are?

You can sense the hostility of the teacher and how she is speaking to the students when she asks them to state their names, nationalities, and occupations, and a brief list of things they liked and disliked and it soon becomes apparent to me that any answer would be the wrong answer.  I know how I feel on the first day, worried that I am going to say something stupid, or sound “old.”

I liked Sedaris’s questions, How often is one asked what he loves in this world?  Then publicly ridiculed for the answer?  He then recalls his mom flushed with wine yelling out all that she loved and him and his sisters waiting….I think to hear her say their names instead she says “Tums.”

I feel that Sedaris was waiting all his life for approval and recognition and wanting to belong somewhere and probably searching for the words of love his mother could not give him.  No matter what the teacher said to him he still pressed on spending hours every night studying. He did take comfort in the fact that his fellow students felt the same.  I think in the same sense he was always searching for his mother’s approval and never got it.  I think that the teacher and mother have a connection in the story.  Even in the end when Sedaris realizes that he has understood what the teacher was saying even though it was negative.  He has a feeling of euphoria just from knowing that he understood every word she was saying.

I think the understanding he talks about is the understanding of himself.

I really liked this reading.  I ended up reading it over and over, and each time I did I found more hidden meaning to it.  Like the part Understanding doesn’t mean that you can suddenly speak the language.  Far from it.  It’s a small step, nothing more, yet its rewards are intoxicating and deceptive.

Look at your fish

The essay "Look At Your Fish" by Samuel Hubbard Scudder caught my attention from the start.  The title alone made me want to read more.  Fifteen years prior, Scudder was signed up as a student of natural history and entered the laboratory of Professor Agassiz and studied and worked with him.  Later he became his assistant at the Bostorn Society of Natural History.

In this essay he talks about the first assignment the professor gave him, which was to observe this fish called a haemulon.  He told him to keep the fish in a tin tray and keep it moist with the alcohol from the jar.  I like how he describes the huge neckless glass bottles with their leaky, wax-besmeared corks, half eaten by insects and how grimy they were.  The way Scudder describes the smell of himself after the time he spent with the fish.

Scudder thought that after ten minutes he had seen all that could be seen about the fish, but the professor keeps telling him to look at your fish and every time he does he discovers more about it each time and this goes on for three days. 

Agassiz's persistence  in the matter to keep looking and keep observing taught Scudder that there is more to it than meets the eye and not to look at things at the surface.

Scudder says it was the best entomological lesson he ever had, but I think it can also be looked at as a lifelong lesson.