Lady in Pink

To me, it’s really obvious that children are crucial parts of our society (and all societies) and that since they can’t defend themselves or vote in favor of their interests, someone needs to do that for them.  This isn’t a new or revolutionary thought on my part in any way.  I started thinking about this today because I was looking into Stand for Children, a grassroots non-profit that has had success acting in the interest of children (particularly for education) in Massachusetts, Tennessee, and Oregon.  They’re jump starting a branch in Washington state, which is where I found them (idealist.org).  There are organizations like this of varying sizes, and one of the most prominent national groups is the Children’s Defense Fund, which has a really wonderful website and a massive amount of information available.  If you’re interested at all I’d really recommend it. 

Today I spent a while reading through the CDF Action Counsel’s ‘Congressional Scorecard’ for 2007, which is linked below.  As much as I had an idea of some of the idiotic decisions that are made, this scorecard really put things into basic terms to explain what was being presented in various bills, propositions, votes, etc. and how these issues affect children (they aren’t always directly labeled as children’s issues, but general things such as raising the minimum wage, for example, has obvious and drastic impacts on the quality of life for children and youth).  It also gives a "grade" for each state and representative (and each presidential candidate) and a breakdown of how each individual voted.

If I wasn’t sure of how I felt on the candidates before now, this definitely helped things along: Clinton-70% (the percentage is basically how much the individual voted in favor of children, according to the views of CDF); Obama-60%; McCain-10% (nice!).

Beyond these ’scores’, the stats for the votes on the individual issues were sometimes really shocking/disturbing:

The Senate and the House voted to extend health coverage to over 3 million uninsured children through SCHIP…awesome! BUT, the funds for this would have to come from an approximately 60¢ increase in the federal tax on cigarettes…yeah…Bush vetoed it.

Other issues don’t even get the chance to be vetoed…for the vote to Increase Funding for Education for Children with Disabilities, not one Republican voted in support of the issue in the Senate (and it was rejected overall 35-58 with 36 Dems and two Independents in favor).  Why? That’s not really stated in the document, but the funds for this increase would have come from taxing the richest Americans…hmm…

Ok, I get it. You ‘made’ your money and saved it and whatever…but these are children.  Children with disabilities no less.  Granted, I’m not the most politically-informed in all issues and I don’t really understand every consideration that goes into making these decisions.  I’m sure there are other specific things that you’ve got to keep in mind when voting.  But, how can you consistently (90% of the time, in McCain’s case) reject votes that benefit children? 

In many cases, rejecting these votes is extremely detrimental to the status of citizens in general, not just children.  But children don’t have a voice, they don’t have a way to stand up and say what they want and need.  Parents, teachers, any kind of authority figures are quick to say that children don’t know what’s best for them, that adults know better and are looking out for their best interests…are these the same adults that are voting for politicians that don’t want to raise minimum wage or vote for amendments that protect children from unsafe medications?  It’s a damn good thing that organizations like Stand for Children and the Children’s Defense Fund have people willing to work overtime for not enough pay, for no recognition, completely for the children. 

This is all very clearly tied to national issues and problems, and these votes that take place on the local, state and national levels reflect the definitions of democracy and community that are supported in America.  For me, the argument is not so ‘patriotic’ or tied just to the country…children are children everywhere.  Children have absolutely no part in the prejudices, grudges and battles of political leaders around the world.  Even more than  civilian casualties of war, youth casualties of global ignorance and apathy are truly tragedies of the innocent. The DREAM Act (which would support education for the children of immigrants and allow them citizenship if they completed high school and attend college or join the military) wasn’t even allowed to go to a vote.  When immigrant issues, tensions and fears keep children from any amount of education, I just think this is completely ridiculous.

In my mind, the politics are secondary…these are children.  If a community can’t keep its children safe, protected and valued as one of the most (if not simply the most) important parts of its growth and persistence, what does that say about the rest of the values of the society? 

CDF Action Counsel: 2007 Congressional Scorecard

"Women are dingbats! Get it? Ha. Ha. Ha."

So, the Washington Post ran this essay by Charlotte Allen…most of the reactions I had are wonderfully put by Katha Pollitt in her response, so I won’t repeat them. There are also some interesting related links in there that include Allen’s responses to reader questions and things like that…

I consider myself to have a great sense of humor and to really support differing opinions and the creative expression of these opinions…but Allen’s piece doesn’t come off as funny at all to me, and while I couldn’t really vocalize why…Pollitt did a pretty decent job of it.  For me, the bottom line in terms of gender, race, sexuality–whatever kind of group you may be a part of–is that some stereotypes may seem confirmed by specific individuals but using this ‘proof’ as a reason to stand behind those stereotypes, make them crucial to your understanding of that group, and then make judgements and enforce restrictions based on that understanding is unfair, limiting and really dangerous…even if you are open-minded, accepting and completely positive in your personal interactions with people, the reinforcement and support of the stereotypes in this way just keeps them alive in society’s understanding and interaction with people.

In her response interview article thing, she says "I wouldn’t quite use the word "ironic," but yes, I meant to be funny but with a serious point–that women want to be taken seriously but quite often don’t act serious. Also, that women and men really are different." First, obviously we’re different…anyone who has ever interacted with someone of the opposite gender knows that…we don’t need her essay to tell us that.  Second, women want to be taken seriously, but don’t act serious?  Allen wanted to be taken seriously (with the serious point behind her essay), but did it in a way that she claims to be funny…the essay was taken seriously, but probably not in the way expected…

Yes, we don’t hear a lot of argument when men are made fun of in women’s magazines, web sites, etc., and there is a hint of hypocrisy in the extreme feminist outcry to anything negative geared towards women.  However, maybe the better solution is to attempt to gain a better understanding of both men and women (and their interaction) and try to get away from these demeaning jokes from either side.  "Well, we make fun of men all the time" is, in my mind, not a good enough excuse for Allen’s unfounded, blanket statements of stupidity.

A lot of things have changed for this semester (my CDC ‘internship’, less Scholars meetings, classes only TR, job search, apartment packing), and I’m still adjusting to things that changed last semester (the gym routine, free weekends, no Matt, no Hicania in my office).  So, I realized that I need some new routines.

1-Job search, Chai tea, & This American Life.  Andrea introduced me to Chai tea which not only makes me feel sophisticated and fancy, but gives me a reason to use my wide variety of mugs, AND is delicious.  Tonight I drank tea, caught up on like 3 episodes of TAL, and browsed new job posting on about 80 web sites.  I am ridiculously relaxed and excited at the same time…there are finally jobs I’m interested in/possibly qualified for, and unlike every other time I’ve looked at listings, I’m not ready to curl up in the corner and sob about it.  Is it the tea? Is it the NPR? Is it the fact that I had CDC training today and feel like I’m actually on the way to doing some active job searching?  WHO KNOWS.  But any way, chai is delicious, superintendents are nuts (TAL #346), and Santana is being sweet and cuddly like you’d never imagine. 

On that note:

2-Blogging about the adorableness of my baby puppy. (More writing in general).

Gorgeous, right?  Andrew brought his digital camera home from school and after I got back from Queens with Matt, my adorable little brother presented me with a series of absolutely wonderful photos of Santana.  I think this one looks like a professional portrait or something.  I have no idea how he got her to cooperate and sit still for so long.  I usually get a camera full of puppy nose when I try.  I might be turning into one of those grossly in love puppy-moms…Matt and I started a puppy baby book for Santana last week.  I took her to a groomer (just for a bath and nail trimming!) and she got her scraggly fur trimmed (I will admit, that made me a little sad…I love that she’s a scruffy pup) and a girly, flowered bandana, which I have left on for the past three days.  She might be completely spoiled…but she makes me feel better and smile even when I am feeling depressed, sick, lonely, whatever.  She is the sweetest, cuddliest puppy ever and just loves to play, be close, and pay attention to every move you make.  It is one of the best gifts I’ve ever gotten (UK graduation gift from Veronica) and right up there with the important parts of my life.  She loves Matt, Matt loves her, she loves bacon, I love bacon, she loves running around in giant circles, Freckles loves slowly following her around.  Done and done.

3-Monday Date Nite.  My partner GA last year was one of about…oh, maybe…five reasons I didn’t have a complete meltdown during my job between August 06 and May 07.  I was really afraid we wouldn’t see much of each other after we stopped working together…NOT SO.  We managed to have mostly weekly date nights on Tuesdays last semester that got slightly more sporadic later in the semester.  This semester we’re going with Mondays for early dinner, late movie.  The bonus is that she’s got class in the UDC between dinner and the movie, so I’m going to set that time aside for me to sit in the computer lab down there and get definite work done every week.  I think this will be super helpful and give me some regular scheduling where so much of the rest of my stuff this semester is super flexible and doesn’t commit me to specific hours for most of the time. 

4-Craftiness! A while ago, my aunt (ex-aunt-in-law?) bought me some scrapbooking stuff as a gift, and I have since been mildly interested in it.  Then this past October, Marinda invited me to a "Stampin’ Up!" party and I was completely hooked.  I am trying hard not to spend lots of money on it, because it can get expensive, but every once in a while I treat myself to a mini-splurge.  And during weeks when I’m particularly stressed, but not necessarily overly busy, I force myself to set aside an hour on a night in the middle of the week and stamp for a bit — it is SO relaxing for me, and then I get to have some concrete result of the relaxation.  I think it overall has a great effect on me, so I am going to make it a part of my weekly routine this semester to keep me on track and in the not-flipping-out range of existence.  Andrea and Kelly also taught me how to knit (well, almost), and that requires more patience to get something close to a feasible result, but it is still relaxing, and can be done with slightly less-focused concentration. So, YAY!  Plus, it all gives me an excuse to sit with some girls and relax and catch up. 

5-Puppy walks.  Yeah yeah, back to the puppy.  On top of a more regular gym routine, as the weather warms up, I want to get back into the habit of long walks to Rec. Park with Santana.  She loves the walk and the park, and I love to watch her explore and then get tired of walking and try to pull me up random steps into strangers’ houses to go home.  Really, the reason for wanting exercise in my routine is self-explanatory, but the need for adorable puppy fun is less obvious if you aren’t turning into a crazy dog lady like I am.

6-Reading for fun.  My two class (Modernism something or other & Masterpieces of the Novel) are a mix of books that look wonderful, and books I will trudge through.  I read a bunch of wonderful stuff since last semester, and my list of books to read keeps growing.  So, even if it’s slow, I’m going to build in time for reading non-school books.  Next on my list:

Invisible Monsters by Chuck Palahniuk Read more about this book…

The Tenth Circle: A Novel by Jodi Picoult Read more about this book…

I wrote a good portion of this between 6 and 7am in the Newark airport after a red-eye from Seattle…I’m sorry for any completely non-sensical points.

I just finished reading Wicked by Gregory Maguire.  It’s the basis for the popular Broadway musical, but apparently the musical is wildly different from the book.  I’d recommend the book to anyone…it is fun, serious, thoughtful, and really well written, in my opinion. 

Anyway, as I was reading, I got thinking about several other parallel novels/prequels/re-imaginings of classics that I’ve read… I tend to love them.  In the same way that I really enjoy seeing movie adaptations of books I like, even if the movie is horribly unsatisfying (Eragon and The Golden Compass are the two recent examples), and especially if it is satisfying and wonderful (it will be a sad day when there are no more Harry Potter movies on the way).  The earliest of these types of books that I ever encountered was “The True Story of the Three Little Pigs” by Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith, told by the Big Bad Wolf.  My aunt read this to me when I was younger (it was originally released in 1989, according to Wikipedia), and I completely fell in love with it.  This particular aunt is responsible for my love of Disney and for introducing me to Jodi Picoult. 

The other examples I can think of off the top of my head are Gertrude and Claudius by Updike, which is a “prequel” of sorts of Hamlet, and does a wonderful job of presenting the love between Gertrude and Claudius, and turning my favorite Shakespearean hero into something completely different.  Updike didn’t just pull from Shakespeare, but also used a few other historical sources, so it isn’t completely a revision or a parallel in the way that Wicked is.

Wide Sargasso Sea is more truly a prequel and parallel novel to Jane Eyre, another of my favorite works.  Drawing on the mad woman in the attic from Bronte’s original, Jean Rhys, the author of Wide Sargasso Sea, presents Bertha Mason’s past in the Caribbean.   What Wide Sargasso Sea achieves most blatantly of these examples is to take a classic work from a much earlier era, and transforms its story and characters in such a way that it becomes a popular text in a new theoretical discourse…in this case, the postcolonial theory that deals with race, identity, movement, assimilation, etc. All issues that are not strongly developed or considered in Victorian literature. 

All of these examples, to varying degrees, give the reader opportunities for more direct reflection than reading either the original or the parallel on its own.  Wicked, pulling not just from a novel, but from a wildly well-known film, does this constantly; “One never learns how the witch became wicked, or whether that was the right choice for her–is it ever the right choice?  Does the devil ever struggle to be good again, or if so is he not a devil?  It is at the very least a question of definitions” (231).  This portion of text is speaking directly about the Kumbric Witch, a legend within the story that is completely intertwined with the roots of Oz.  However, taken separately, in the context of the original Wizard of Oz, the quotation very clearly brings the reader to Elphaeba, the main character of Wicked and her future role as the ‘Wicked Witch of the West.’  At this point in the novel, the reader is meant to be at least partially sympathetic with the green-skinned Elphie and so tied to her story that this reflection on the definition, intention, and meaning of the witch and wickedness serves to remind where her life is headed, according to the original story we are so familiar with. 

One of my original questions/considerations while I was reading Wicked was how necessary a reading/viewing/understanding of the original is to a really satisfying reception of the parallel.  But the more I think about it, the more I think popular and really successful parallels are going to be pulled from already widely popular, possibly canonical works…works that the target audience will at least be able to recognize, with most readers quite familiar with the original.  I’m sure there are parallel novels directed towards very specific target groups, drawing on the niche market of the original to draw a smaller, but highly loyal group of readers.

As a reader familiar with the original, there is a tendency to draw comparison, to see how the parallel leaves out or changes things from the original.  Further, in the case of Wicked, a parallel of a work that was both a text and a film, which original is Maguire working from?  I have never read the Wizard of Oz, but this makes me want to…my urge is to find all the ways that Wicked speaks to the book that may be irrelevant to the film.  Now that I know the classic story from a second perspective, I want the third pretty badly, especially since the third, Baum’s novel, is the true ‘original’.

One of the things I thought Wicked did really wonderfully was to put both itself and the original in a frame of historical variation, allowing the reader to question a little bit of everything that is going on.  Towards the very end of Wicked, where you might be expecting the ‘happily ever after’ summary: “It may merely be apocryphal that when the Wizard saw the glass bottle he gasped, and clutched his heart.  The story is told in so many ways, depending on who is doing the telling, and what needs to be heard at the time.  It is a matter of history, however…” (406).  Again, the text speaks directly to a legend within the novel, while directing the reader’s attention back to the original.  This time, we see Wicked’s perspective; The Wizard of Oz is a part of the apocrypha surrounding this period in history, and Wicked is presenting the true, untainted perspective we have missed out on.  There is a great possibility that such a tone could be read as disloyal to a classic original, brushing a long-standing masterpiece off as myth and legend within the ‘truth’ of this new, parallel narrative.  However, if these arguments come up, it’s important to remember that the worlds of fiction (especially a world like Oz), are mythological from the start, and in the same way that allusions to classical mythology work endlessly throughout literature, The Wizard of Oz is upheld by Wicked, it’s relevance, importance, and the fact that it is completely embedded in our cultural mind are all honored and emphasized by the fact that Maguire was so powerfully inspired by the original.  Works that do not inspire and touch their readers (or viewers, in some cases) do not yield parallels, prequels, re-imaginings, remakes, whatever.  The presence of such parallels or revisions, even if the new work is not as successful as I believe Wicked to be, proves the importance of the original.  Even as years pass, we continue to think about the works that are most important to us.  Provoked by powerful literature and other media, writers pull from these strong cultural pools of shared knowledge, worlds, and characters, creating not only a new perspective on a beloved narrative, but also placing a distance between the original and the parallel.  This distance doesn’t push the original away to make room for the ‘truth’ of the newer narrative, but instead allows for a new view of the original in light of its receptions, development, historical and timeless relevance, and its relationship to the deep, general themes that tie it so strongly to readers. 

 This is going to turn into a rambling mess of me talking about what I think of these books, but this is seriously one of the best reading lists I’ve ever had for a class, and would recommend any of these books to anyone even slightly interested…

Jhumpa Lahiri The Interpreter of Maladies

• A collection of short stories about various characters who are from India, in India, returning to India, etc. …It was a great start to the class because it has a bunch of perspectives that illuminate questions about maintaining connection with the old home land and why that connection is important, establishing a bond with a new place and the identity that comes along with that, building relationships within and between immigrants, communicating and understanding cultural differences and why this understanding is crucial.

Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie Half of a Yellow Sun

• Adichie’s most recent novel that follows a few different characters through the Biafran War in Nigeria.  The characters are all very different, and all very strongly tied together — Ugwu, a ‘country boy’ who is working in the house of Odenigbo, wants to be educated, and was really one of my favorite characters all semester; Olanna, Odenigbo’s lover/partner/wife who comes from an upper-class oil-controlling family, and has to learn to take on a maternal role in times when it is most needed and yet most difficult; and Richard, a white reporter from England who falls in love with Olanna’s sister Kainene and, at times, seems to have the strongest Biafran voice and at others is clearly the voice of the colonizer.
• I’m not sure if I can compare it to her other novel, Purple Hibiscus, which is also wonderful, because they just feel so different to me.
• Adichie came to BU this semester and although I couldn’t go, everyone who went said she was spectacular in so many ways.
• I read most of this on the plane to Seattle, and it helped the flight zoom by.  I’m usually not so easily distracted from over-analyzing every tiny sound the plane makes and convincing myself I’m about to plummet to a fiery death. Oh, the miracle of fictionalized accounts of civil turmoil! 

Shyam Selvadurai Funny Boy

• A collection of stories surrounding Arjie, a young boy in Sri Lanka trying to figure out where he stands in his family and his country.  I read it as a novel, because the stories (I think there are 8 of them?)tie together and really illustrate how a young person can struggle to negotiate within a country in the middle of cultural struggle (Arjie’s family is Tamil…and although I didn’t have a clue about political stuff in Sri Lanka, the novel makes a pretty clear presentation of it, without ‘teaching’ you about it) and still keep his individual identity central to his development.

Andrew McGahan The White Earth

• This was the book I did for the class presentation and my final paper, so I’m sort of sick of thinking about it, but I loved it.
• One of the blurbs on the book compares it to Great Expectations in Australia…which is interesting, but doesn’t follow through on every level, so I don’t like it. I like things to match up nicely and completely, and it just doesn’t happen.
• William watches his father burn in a farm accident, is completely disconnected from his mother.  They move to his distant uncle’s farm (John McIvor), Kuran Station, and William eventually learns he is being groomed to inherit the farm. You also get his uncle’s back-story and sympathize with him, although not quite as much as he would like, I’m sure…he’s sorta nuts (if you read Steinbeck’s To A God Unknown, which is also great…John is a lot like the main character in that novel).  We get introduced to a lot of political issues….mostly the controversy of Native Title legislation, which has to do with returning land to aboriginal people who were forced to leave how-ever-many generations ago. All through this, William is smelling rotting flesh constantly inside his head that no one else can smell and he is juggling at least 4 different perspectives on history, inheritance, and politics and has to figure out how to create his own understanding of the past.
• It’s great, complicated, tied into Diaspora in some random and unexpected ways, but really gets going about 100 pages in or so…so if you decide to read it, stick with it through the first few chapters…it eventually gets really good.

Shauna Singh Baldwin What the Body Remembers

• A lot of people in class thought this was too heavy and not wonderful. I loved it.
• Roop, a Sikh girl, is married off to Sardarji, who is already married to Satya, who has failed to get pregnant.  There are so many issues going on, I’m not going to even begin with them.  But the main action of the story takes place during the partition of India and Pakistan.  Political, religious, gender, class issues all swirl around Roop while she is constantly returning to her personal questions and development, and it was a novel that I could barely put down.  While some of the other novels in the class had lighter tones and flew by quicker, I felt like the many ideas being pulled out of this novel made it so satisfying and delicious.

Kiran Desai The Inheritance of Loss

• This is one of the novels that people liked a lot…most of the class wrote about it for the final paper.  I really enjoyed it, although I didn’t think we did enough with it in class.  In Kalimpong, in the Himalayan Mountains, we have Sai, who is orphaned and living with her grandfather, who is so clearly and cripplingly westernized that it is hard to feel any compassion towards him, even after you know his back story.  They also live with the cook, whose son Biju is living in NY, moving from restaurant kitchen to restaurant kitchen trying to make any kind of living.  In Kalimpong, Sai falls in love with her tutor Gyan, and as political trouble tears at the area, their relationship is tested as well, and Desai does a really great job of putting the personal relationships between the many characters (including a lot of secondary characters) and the inter/intra-national issues and breaking of boundaries. 

Edwidge Danticat The Dew Breaker

• This novel/short-story collection/whatever was so stunning…I meant to sit down and read the 3 stories assigned for the first class section…I read the whole thing instead. There are three stories that fall at the beginning, middle, and end of the collection and they focus on the title character, the “Dew Breaker”…he is a brutal prison guard under Papa Doc in Haiti who eventually comes to America with his wife and they have a daughter named Ka, who is an artist.  The first story is the most recent of the three, when Ka learns the truth (or at least the beginning of the truth) about her father’s past…and it isn’t until the final story of the collection that we get to find out the rest of the information.  The 6 stories that make up the rest of the novel are tangentially related to the  Dew Breaker and to characters in other stories.  For example, the DB and his wife rent their basement out to three guys…one of these guys is the main character in a story, a secondary/absent character in another story…another one of the guys is the focus of a story that takes him back to Haiti, where the Dew Breaker appears in another really powerful way… it continues so that by the time you finish the novel you really want to go back and read it again to find every connection you can.

Helena María Viramontes Under the Feet of Jesus

• Something about this one felt disjointed from the rest of the reading list, but it was still really beautiful and a quick, enjoyable read.  In the novel, we follow a Mexican-American farm-working family as they try to survive in this clearly nomadic, constantly-threatened lifestyle.   They also cross paths with a pair of cousins, Alejo and Gumicendo.  Alejo and the oldest daughter from the family, Estrella, form a passionate bond, and when Alejo’s life is threatened, issues of relationships, family bonds, pesticide use, health care, immigrant life, poverty, and individual identity and freedom are highlighted in this really poetic language.  The group that did the presentation on this novel gave us bits of a phone interview that they did with Viramontes, and that was really one of the best parts of their presentation, because she has a LOT to say, and she’s not afraid to say it.  She is really well-informed and emphasizes the choices she made in the creation of her fiction in a way that helps you understand the novel on a completely new level…she also teaches a creative writing class at Cornell that has an amazing syllabus.

Anyway, read them…they’re spectacular