17IIJihei’s house and paper shop, in a thriving street by the Tenjin15Shrine at Temma, was a business of old standing, and despite the master’slong neglect of business it yet retained some appearance of prosperity—aprosperity entirely due to the efforts of his wife, O-San, ever busy aboutdeals with customers and the management of household affairs
Money, Money, Money by ABBA
Stung to the quick by these vilifications of her lover,Koharu, lost in thought, did not greet her new guest.
Nobody by Mitski
Oh! The woman was a thing for sale! Cheapgoods! He had been infatuated with a mere light-fingered wanton. Shouldit be point or edge? Even now their faces were silhouetted on the paperdoors. Oh! To beat her, to trample her down!
Dear Ms. Leading by the Dear Hunter
“How thin the poor girlhas grown! She thinks of nothing but me. How I wish I could whisper toher that I am here and should like to elope with her. How I long to let herknow of my coming! How I long to call her by name!”
El Tango De Roxanne from Moulin Rouge! the film
“Is it true, Sir Knight, that one who dies in the ‘Ten Nights’12 shall goto paradise?”“How should I know such a thing? You had best ask the priest ofyour family temple.”“You are right. I have another question to ask you. Which is the morepainful method of suicide, by the knife or the rope?”
Bury a Friend by Billie Eilish
“Koharu Dono,” said Tahei with a sardonic smile, “let me hasten tothank you for bestowing on me the good name of Ri T¤ten.
this is Sympathy for the Duke from Moulin Rouge!
‘Bondless Tahei’ will possess Koharu Donoto-night. Well, a drink, madame.”
this whole place gives me "the Duke" vibes from Moulin Rouge. Sympathy for The Duke from Moulin Rouge! the Musical perhaps
Tahei
we don't know who Tahei is yet, but we know he's the enemy
Poor JiheiSama! He and I are not particularly close, but that braggart of a Tahei hasput about a rumour concerning us, so that all my patrons have forsakenme, and my master, who lays all this at Jihei’s door, keeps him away fromme and I cannot even write to him.
so Koharu is not in love with Jihei Sama per se, but they're cordial. because of this rumor, Koharu has lost all her work and her pimp basically forbade Jihei so now she kinda has nothing
was a damsel of supreme beauty namedKoharu of the brothel Kinokuni-ya.
Koharu is a prostitute and she's right gorgeous
Wheatley was the abolitionists’ illustrative testimony that blacks could be both artistic and intellectual
the first revolutionized demonstration of black excellence
He stood in the doorway, smiling broadly, an engaging, open, friendly smile, the innocent smile of a five-‐year-‐old.
he never had to grow up because he was always babied and given the benefit by his mother and the rest of society, probably.
Chig knew she did not really understand what had happened, what he wanted of her.
she wasn't aware of the internalized racism she was showing, and now she may be too old to understand
“That’s not true, Mama. You know it. GL was light-‐skinned and had good hair and looked almost white and you loved him for that.”
he was almost passing, so he had the privilege. people love romanticizing mixed babies and people, too.
good deal younger than Hiram,
I wonder if Hiram is a rich man
Uncle Hiram an
where did Uncle Hiram come from?? never mentioned him before
His father spoke only when spoken to, and then, only one word at a time, as if by coming back home, he had become a small boy again,
there has to be some trauma here. everything before this points to it, but being reverted back to childhood in your childhood home screams trauma
dies and they lift me into the ground
comfortable with death. she seems very old, ragged and rugged, but still mentally with it.
where’s Hiram?
who is Hiram? GL and Rose's son?
he had all her teeth, but they were too perfect to be her own.
dentures = fake smile?
hat was when Chig saw his face, grimacing. She hugged him; Chig watched the muscles in her arms as they tightened around his father’s neck.
a gesture of love is perceived as a gesture of violence and threatening
t Charles wouldn’t never send my grandson to see me.
what happened?
Chig had a suspicion now that the reunion had only been an excuse to drive south,
why would he need an excuse? does Chig hate the grandmother?
ut when he had bent to kiss the old lady’s face, something new and almost ugly had come into his eyes: fear, uncertainty, sadness, and perhaps even hatred.
his mom?
“So what do you think we are? I can do the pledge of allegiancewith my eyes closed.”
feels like American indoctrination. all it takes to be an American is your pledge to the cause...you're choosing this hill to die on. at the same time, it seems the narrator doesn't think they're true Americans...probably because they're not white.
while everyone else wasinspecting the damage we’d done, I threw the umbrella down a sewer
realizes she needs to support her family now more than ever. even though it would be easier and more comfortable to hold onto the umbrella, because the situation is suboptimal, it would mean emotionally abandoning her family (and culture).
We wouldn’t have hit the car behind us that hard if he hadn’t beenmoving too but as it was, our car bucked violently, throwing us all firstback and then forward.
the mom was distracted by the idea of white privilege and literally started moving backwards. got in an accident, but technically I think the person behind her (white) would be at fault since it's a rear-end.
“Another accident.”
happens all the time
“Didn’t you hear me?” he went on, starting to thump on the hoodwith his fist. “Don’t you speak English?”
racism they experience every day. also it's a stereotype that women and Chinese people can't drive...so what about both lol
Remembering what I had said to Miss Crosman, I tried to maneuver theumbrella under my leg so she wouldn’t feel it.
the guilt of comparing her life to the life of a white person is weighing her down now. she wishes she could take away her envy and desire to be somebody else. maybe now it seems just as embarrassing and disappointing as her mother having a job.
Eugenie Roberts’s father is EugenieRoberts’s father,
Eugenie Roberts' father is...white
“I wish you would quit,” I said after a moment.
why lmao? she's working to sustain your lifestyle. shut up
“A promotion already!” she said, finally.
trying to be happy?
“I should call next time,” said my mother. “I just don’t like to saywhere I am.”
why is working such a disappointment?
Iquickly collapsed the umbrella and put it up my skirt, holding onto it fromthe outside, through the material.
hiding it from mother because she knows she won't like it
Suddenly I knew just what she wanted to hear. “I wish you were mymother.”Right away I felt bad.
why did she think that's what Ms. Crosman wanted to hear? and does this signify giving up her identity because it's what she thinks will appease others? automatically she feels bad for the severance because she knows it's wrong to forego yourself that way.
It’s stupendous!
adopting Ms. Crosman's word
“Who told you it belongs to Eugenie? It’s not Eugenie’s. It’s mine.And now I’m giving it to you, so it’s yours.”
so is this white privilege? or was it the narrator's assumption of white privilege?
“You poor, poor dear.”I knew that I was in store for another bolt of sympathy, and bracedmyself by staring up into the umbrella.
narrator is aware of the sympathy/pity. she fixates on being protected by privilege instead of addressing head-on
She came out with a blanket and the white umbrella.
Ms. Crosman is a sweetie, I think. maybe this is out of pity, but it's still thoughtful and caretaking, not spiteful. I feel like any other older white woman would say, "fine, if she wants to sit out there like a dummy, she'll have to face the consequences."
“She’s working! She’s working! She’s working!”I put my hand over her mouth
like working is an embarrassment. they have an image to maintain with Ms. Crosman. they feel they have to level up to Eugenie's upper class-ness or else they're not going to be seen as worthy of the same things she is. Ms. Crosman obviously knows and doesn't really care, but the narrator is scared, while Mona wants to be practical or just accepting of their situation.
“Because that would mean Mom really isn’t coming any minute.”
she's afraid of what she already knows is true. she's trying to convince herself just as hard as she is Ms. Crosman.
“See, she’s on her way,” I said.
feels loyal to her family despite knowing the white life is easier than what they're living. it's like the envy makes her double-down on her loyalty.
“My mother is a concert pianist,” I said.She looked at me for a long moment, then finally, without sayinganything, hugged me.
seems like she hugs her out of pity because everything they've said about their mother so far has been a lie. Ms. Crosman thinks she's lying again.
even moredifficult piece to play for her.
feeling like she has to prove her worth
You are a genius, young lady.
narrator is a genius, but Eugenie has a natural-born gift -- a God-given talent. meaning Eugenie doesn't have to try, but the narrator had to have worked really hard to achieve a similar (not the same) accolade.
“Oh! That was stupendous,” she said without hugging me
same words, different actions. actions > words
“And you can relax, you poor dear...This isn’t a bootcamp.”
bootcamp-esque stress for people who are not white in America
Allyou want is things, just like an American.”
American = things = white umbrella = white privilege American --> white privilege
I wanted to open it, twirl it around by its slender silverhandle; I wanted to dangle it from my wrist on the way to school the waythe other girls did
she wanted to know what life would be like to have white privilege. how would it feel to finally fit in and be treated just the same way?
“Yourglasses are filthy, honey,” she said to Mona. “Shall I clean them for you?”
they were filthy after all. and Ms. Crosman is acting nice and motherly toward the girls. "honey"
only to see their brake lightsflash then fade at the stop sign at the corner.
her white privilege is so prevalent in her life that it has become invisible...she forgets about it because there is no necessity for it anymore. the white privilege got her where she needed to go, and now she doesn't have to rely solely on whiteness anymore to take her further.
umbrella
left the influence of her white privilege with the girls
Mrs. Roberts, radiant with pride, swept her daughter out of the room
White Eugenie's mother gets to be there for her
“My glasses are clean. You’re in the way.”I looked at her. “They look dirty to me.”“That’s because your glasses are dirty.”
one blaming the other for her own problems?
I believed it...She had auburn hair, blue eyes, and, I noted with a particular pang, apure white folding umbrella.
racial thing here? "of course she had an older boyfriend, she's white"? the umbrella being pure white could signify white privilege protecting her from the hardships these girls have to face (the rain). since it's an umbrella we could also read white privilege as an "umbrella term" somehow eventually.
wet.
scratch that last annotation
“And anyway,those aren’t the kind of clouds that rain. Those are cumulus clouds.”
educated
piano lesson
seems like at least a middle class or upper middle class activity. mom is working to support that
“Those are American people,” I said
30 seconds in and the narrator is already informed (and informing the reader) of the Chinese vs. American cultural divide
while they discuss I am silent, and go bathe and admire myself.
trusting in the Universe to take care of things, he goes off and minds his own business and takes care of himself, the only thing he has control over.
Showing the best and dividing it from the worst age vexes age,
Age isn't Age without the best and worst of itself. there is nothing in this world which doesn't have a best time and a worst time of its existence.
Lack one lacks both, and the unseen is proved by the seen, Till that becomes unseen and receives proof in its turn.
this reminds me of how people say "seeing is believing." he seems to equate the seen and the unseen, saying they're both just as valid as each other despite their tangibility. if you lend your third eye to the unseen, you start to question the validity of the seen, until eventually the unseen proves the seen as vice versa.
you
this poem is so mf long
Clear and sweet is my soul, and clear and sweet is all that is not my soul.
if clear and sweet is both the soul and everything that exists outside the soul, it seems as though they are one. the only distinction is that the soul is defined by the writer.
Sure as the most certain sure, plumb in the uprights, well entretied, braced in the beams, Stout as a horse, affectionate, haughty, electrical, I and this mystery here we stand.
this whole stanza gives some feeling of stability...though stability of what, I don't really know. with the mention of a horse and beams and uprights, it kind of feels literally like a stable too
To elaborate is no avail, learn’d and unlearn’d feel that it is so.
feels like Whitman is the original perpetrator of "if you know, you know"
But I do not talk of the beginning or the end. There was never any more inception than there is now, Nor any more youth or age than there is now, And will never be any more perfection than there is now, Nor any more heaven or hell than there is now.
there is no point talking about birth or death, anything from the past or the future. all we have is what's happening in the present. we have to enjoy the present moments we have because they are fleeting.
You shall listen to all sides and filter them from your self.
wrapping up from the previous stanza, he's saying that we should live in our own definition of the world and understand things as we perceive them, not to be defined by anyone else.
Have you reckon’d a thousand acres much? have you reckon’d the earth much? Have you practis’d so long to learn to read? Have you felt so proud to get at the meaning of poems?
questioning everything that has a standard set by society. we're think a thousand acres is a lot because it's what we've been told. we've been "taught" to read ONE way until we're at least in high school or college and then we have to redefine and relearn.
A few light kisses, a few embraces, a reaching around of arms,
it's been said enough times that this is a sexualization and romanticism of nature
Echoes, ripples, buzz’d whispers, love-root, silk-thread, crotch and vine, My respiration and inspiration, the beating of my heart, the passing of blood and air through my lungs,
he jumps from metaphysical to anatomical here, signifying an intertwining between himself (physically and spiritually) and nature.
The atmosphere is not a perfume, it has no taste of the distillation, it is odorless, It is for my mouth forever, I am in love with it,
the world (physical and spiritual) is not a perfumed, man-made, attractive distraction. he "likes" the perfume, but he is "in love" with the atmosphere.
Houses and rooms are full of perfumes, the shelves are crowded with perfumes, I breathe the fragrance myself and know it and like it, The distillation would intoxicate me also, but I shall not let it.
sounds like he is aware of the distractions of life and he sees them for what they are. although they are attractive distractions, and he enjoys them, he won't let himself get lost in the distraction.
I loafe and invite my soul
I know this sounds so Gen-Z white girl, but this is my Instagram bio lol. I believe here it means that you find more of yourself when you're totally relaxed (loafing). He's taking some time to himself and seeing where his mind and soul wanders. I like that and really want that for myself.
Every thing has tended to regenerate them; new laws, a new mode of living, a new social system; here they are become men: in Europe they were as so many useless plants, wanting vegetative mould, and refreshing showers; they withered, and were mowed down by want, hunger, and war; but now by the power of transplantation, like all other plants they have taken root and flourished! Formerly they were not numbered in any civil lists of their country, except in those of the poor; here they rank as citizens.
everybody is getting a new start. the whole slate is being wiped clean. if you were poor before it apparently doesn't matter because everyone who has settled has no choice but to build from the ground up right alongside you.
to what purpose should they ask one another what countrymen they are?
it doesn't matter where they came from because they're all in the same boat now. it's nice that the author doesn't think it's important where someone was from. now that's every white lady's favorite insult,"go back where you came from," and the person it's aimed at is like "I'm from Cincinnati but ok"
Do you think that the monarchical ingredients which are more prevalent in other governments, have purged them from all foul stains? Their histories assert the contrary.
identifying from experience that monarchies don't work as a way of ruling a country. I can see how, at this point in time, going from a monarchy to a presidency would be WORLDS different, but the way the world is now in 2020, I barely see a difference. it seems the same. presidency is now outdated the same way monarchy was here.
Here are no aristocratical families, no courts, no kings, no bishops, no ecclesiastical dominion, no invisible power giving to a few a very visible one; no great manufacturers employing thousands, no great refinements of luxury. The rich and the poor are not so far removed from each other as they are in Europe
sounds like a utopia lmao. how dope would it have been if we didn't develop aristocratical families and government officials?
Here he sees the industry of his native country displayed in a new manner, and traces in their works the embryos of all the arts, sciences, and ingenuity which nourish in Europe.
there is a lot of hope in this statement. when you put it this way, I do imagine that's a good feeling. like "it's just like home, but this time it's ours"
this is the work of my countrymen, who, when convulsed by factions, afflicted by a variety of miseries and wants, restless and impatient, took refuge here.
this reminds me of learning in elementary school that the early settlers (not the conquerers or whatever) came to America for things like religious freedom. if that's actually true and not just what young Americans are spoon-fed, then that does make them refugees. I'm so quick to demonize the early Americans, but I know there were a lot of innocent people who just wanted a better life.
summarizing
It's important to identify main ideas, but when I really think about summaries...they're useless. A kid can figure out how to summarize something. It's pretty self-explanatory
“They frequently bring up background knowledge that they’ve learned in other classes, and I don’t think they question why we are also learning these topics in ELA.”
Learning transferable information is so much easier and more engaging, especially to younger kids. I remember learning stuff in school and never caring because "I'll never use this again." At least if the information is transferable, the students can make connections and use it to help themselves.
even weave some comedy and sass in there
This is important to do, as I feel scholarly texts should be more colloquial in order to serve as wide an audience as possible.
Leo, as masculine, to the Sun
I am a Leo myself and this do be making some sense. Pretty early into the article, I'm already learning so much I didn't know.
If the younger members of a community view the older members as contemptible or suspect or excess
what about older members of a community towards younger members? that happens, too
Too often, we pour the energy needed for recognizing and exploring difference into pretending those differences are insurmountable barriers, or that they do not exist at all.
"I don't see color" is just as bad as racism.
and from the Post-Structuralist idea that language writes rather than reflects identities
I don't have any idea what this means
The primary matter they must separate from is the mother, who for them represents the tie to nature that must be overcome by the cut into abstraction that inaugurates civilization as men understand it (a set of abstract rules for assigning identities, appropriate social roles and the like that favor male power over women).
Men leave the mother's womb and get thrown into a world of expectations for men. So right off the bat, they are trained in a male-dominant world to stay male-dominant. They are made into haughty little robot shits by men.
matter is what makes women women, an identity and an experience of their own, forever apart from male power and male concepts
Women go through such a different process of life than men. Because they never experience it, they'll never fully understand the grief that comes with being a woman. They will always be separate from us because they can not relate
the direct link to material nature in women's bodies
Luce thought babies and periods make women more connected to nature and matter than men. Making babies is kind of a big deal
toward a deeper identification with a female "essence" or toward a departure from the way women had been made to be by patriarchy, the very thing radical feminists construed as essentially female.
radical = digging deeper into the "essence" of a woman and how she is different from men, but I think also wanting to be able to do what men do liberal = also wanting to do what men do, but wanting to get far away from how women had been defined by men, which is what the radicals still considered themselves; wanting to figure out all the things that a woman could be on her own terms
Gender, rather than be the sight line that allowed one to trace woman's banishment from an androcentric culture, might instead be a construct of culture, something written into the psyche by language
Gender's sole purpose was no longer to split between MEN and OTHER. Now it was being studied as a construct as a whole, and questioned about what it is, where it came from, what purpose it serves, etc
Banished from education and from public life, women writers had found refuge in literary forms despised by men, in diaries and letters and in sentimental fiction
This is actually a great point I had never thought about. They took up things that men didn't, and that men WOULDN'T. Doing this also meant that they might not get "caught" reconstructing the female character (as a character and as an actual person) until they were strong enough.
one concerned with the critique of misogynist stereotypes in male literature, the other devoted to the recovery of a lost tradition and to the long labor of historical reconstruction
The first stage being "Why are we like this? MEN" and the second stage being "Now how will we fix this? WOMEN." They took a second to all relate and understand why they were angry and what the problem was with the patriarchy, but then they started focusing more on themselves and what they had to do.
Or were history and social context so constitutive of all being that no thing called "woman" could be said to exist outside them? Was "woman" something to be escaped from or into?
Is this just questioning who is allowed to be a feminist? Is it saying that the women who wrote these feminist literary criticisms made claims that only women had these experiences with men? So now R & R are questioning who can be a feminist, just women or other straight and gay men?
the subject of feminism was women's experience under patriarchy
I feel like this is sad. Even when focusing more on themselves, all they really have to talk about is men and the way men treat them. That means that their whole lives revolved around the actions of men rather than their own.
An analysis of gender that "ignores" race, class, nationality, and sexuality is one that assumes a white, middle-class, heterosexual woman inclined toward motherhood as the subject of feminism
"Ignoring" race, class, etc. ("I don't see color") doesn't make you woke, it makes you ignorant and inconsiderate. Feminism means something different to every woman of every sector and it's important to be analyzed a plethora of different ways. That's the only way to ensure its success
What may be a struggle for a black lesbian woman greatly differs from the daily struggle encountered by a white heterosexual woman
but also, what may be a struggle for a BLACK lesbian woman also differs from that of a WHITE lesbian woman. both being lesbians doesn't make them equal
The unfortunate fact is that, though positive, pretending that you “don’t notice” color within race is actually ignorant and detrimental to progress.
tea. I said something like this in the last Student Theorist entry we read. not seeing color isn't woke, it's ignorant
because Lilith is aware of her value she is worth less in the eyes of both Adam and God, who are male.
The lyrics, "You don't know you're beautiful/That's what makes you beautiful" just popped into my head. Why is it attractive for women to be unaware of their worth? I need to go baptize myself.
LITERALLY demonized for her choices of leaving Adam and refusing to sleep with him
I'm confused about where these kinds of men get their sense of entitlement. Why couldn't they have been equals? What is it about human nature that makes men, apparently since the beginning of time when there were no societal structures, feel like they have to dominate their female counterpart?
answer with an “I know,” rather than a “thank you.”
I'm kind of split here. While I do believe that a lot of men chase after insecure girls and expect girls to reply to a compliment in a grand manner, I also believe that saying "I know" rather than "thank you" is a little rude...I can't lie. It's good to be self-validating and know that you've got it going on, I completely support that and strive for that in my own life. However, I feel like, whether it's a man or woman who compliments you, they paid attention and wanted you to know they noticed something extra you might have done today. If they went out of their way to try to make you feel good, I feel like it's not so hard to just say thank you. BUT I realize I'm only thinking about genuine compliments, not the compliments with sexual undertones or straight-up harassment. I'll stop now
The things we read or write can have hidden meanings in the work
the way we initially read and compose texts can be very telling of our conscious and unconscious mental processes. the conscious is obviously easier to recognize and sort out and change, because it's a perspective. the unconscious would probably go unnoticed by you forever
the unconscious being the deep dark web.
in a couple ways. A) it's hard to access, B) you don't know what is there, and C) you know that if you go there, you'll never be the same again