New Moon Write Up

Before going in to see New Moon, I had my opinion, my stance on Bella. I’ve read the series; she falls in love, if you can call it that, with a vampire, he leaves her for her own good, and then she crumples into a ball and cries for around three hundred pages hurting everyone around her. I know exactly what to write for this entry.

Obviously, Bella is a feminist’s worse nightmare. She has no will to live after Edward leaves her, and without some man (Jacob and his pack, Edward, etc) to come save her, she wouldn’t even have lived to her eighteenth birthday. Bella epitomizes everything feminists despise; she is a helpless girl that needs a man to protect her and even to keep her functioning. And, just as obvious, I dislike Bella’s character. I’m not sure if this is a feminist side of me, but I just want her to be able to live by herself for herself. Weak women irritate me. I do not mean that women have to be just like men, doing all the things men do. I just wished girls would stop believing themselves nothing without their men to give them reasons to live. That is just ridiculous. Bella is fitting right into that gender role, and thus, I do not care for her.

However, as I was cringing (at Bella and Kristen Stewart’s “acting”), I realized Bella has somehow received some power over the men who help her. Edward is willing to kill himself for a mere fragile human girl if she no longer exists, and Jacob continues to hurt inside and help her despite the fact that she breaks his heart. She falls down and they both come running, vying to help her up, battling for her attention. It’s actually very scary that such an incompetent girl with no strength mentally or physically to hold her own in the world, hooks two very capable, strong and kind young men into doing her every bidding WHILE being a helpless damsel in distress and pining after Edward.

So, as much as I hate to even imagine, girls’ weaknesses somehow charm some guys and give themselves female power. However, Bella’s defenseless hurt baby animal pull does not come close to her insane inability to shut down without Edward. Bella is silly; she is a horrible perfect gender typer.

This is How it Went Down...

I have an idea for my final project. Before Ms. Falk stopped speaking I had an idea. However, I am not sure how workable or feasiable it is. Unfortunately, my timing is horrible because Ms. Falk was talking with Chaplain Leatherman during the brainstorming period during which I hoped to check with her on my idea. They continued talking during the five minute interval I hoped to at least set up an appointment to talk about my idea. In fact, I had to interrupt them (which I finally figured out was concerning her malfunctioning printer) to schedule an appointment. Thus, I will not brainstorm during this blog because I 1) have an idea 2) have had it during class time, a time in which I should have had the opportunity to solidify it.

My theme is love vs lust. I am going to focus on why women choose the man they lust for over the man they love or who love them (kinda like why the bad boy over the good one). It is a look on books (GWAPE and LWFC show this trend), media (Twilight is the first example I thought of), and society (America's standards have shifted). I want to focus on the "why" from the angle: what made this change? women? women's standards? men? etc. DONE.

My Mr. Nate Chinen Rxn

SO, first, I was impressed with Mr. Chinen's chapel speech because it was 1) funny/informal/nice typical non ancient Iolani alum plus 2) informative, deep, and slightly poetic? The "listen" part was very deep; I agree listening gets one a long way in life. Plus, I wish more people were more respectful in chapel so hopefully THEY were listening.

Next, I'm just a little saddened at our unusual lack of discussion in class. I love our class discussions because our class tends to bring all these different deep insightful ideas that clash and mesh to form new ideas, etc., but today, we were all tired and lazy from the mix of extended and first thing in the morning (?) I suppose. Plus, I will admit, I was a little intimidated by Mr. Chinen's pro-critic status... I didn't really want to sound stupid as he already has his professional NY Times worthy opinion (not that my opinion isn't just as important but you know...)

However, I am not of deep thought, and as our class warmed up to him, I learned a lot about the tricky media and just listening to songs in general. I am victim to the if it's catchy I don't really care what it's saying illness, but I wonder now what exactly I'm promoting/supporting. From now on, I hope to judge a little harder and pick my tunes a little more carefully.

I am also thankful for Mr. Chinen's presentation because I learned more about the Hollywood news I barely pay attention to. I am also left with a lot of unanswered questions especially about domestic violence, but I will continue to keep my eyes and ears open as well as my mind to eventually grasp the whole picture. In fact, I just read on the internet (not 10 minutes ago) Rihanna's coming out with the Chris Brown abuse story. I'm glad she sees how her decision keeps women moving in the wrong direction rights wise. I will try to continue to support her, and I hope Chris Brown learns you cannot mess with a woman and hope to cover it up with some cutsey songs without some hardcore humbling involved.

Overall, I am going to pay more attention to the music I listen to as well as the world around me, media and world wide. I would also like to keep gathering knowledge on domestic violence because I have been close to some cases and would like to continue formulating the whole picture before judging. Thanks to Mr. Chinen for some eye opening info and some new ideas to mull around in my head!

The Analysis of Pygmalion and Galatea

This is a painting of Pygmalion and Galatea. Since I was in British Literature last year, I wanted to look further into this story. Pygmaliona and Galatea is a Roman myth about a sculptor, Pygmalion, who was disgusted by women after, I can only suppose, having too much run ins with the wrong kind makes a perfect, virginal woman sculpture and falls in love with it. He names it Galatea (well, actually, a Frenchman named her Galatea after the Greek myth about the nereid who fell in love with a human man and turns into a goddess), and he prays to Aphrodite to make her real. Aphrodite makes her real, and the two live happily ever after.

If only it could really happen. I actually was looking at the Greek painting of The Triumph of Galatea by Raphael when I remembered this story. It is typically masculine becuase there are no "perfect women" in the world. Men's ideals of a perfect woman is just nonexistant, especially in their terms. I wish the story went on to describe all the actions of Galatea such as if she obeyed his every command, cleaned, cooked, had beautiful baby boys for Pygmalion, etc. The thought of a man creating a "perfect woman" both tickles and irritates me. It's symbolic to me that no one is perfect, but I wish she never came to life because it would have been better as a satire on how men chase after the ideal woman in vain.

The painting depicts what men want I suppose. In the painting, there is a baby angel holding clothes around her to emphasize her innocence and pure angelic nature. At least, she is above him in both position and perhaps in purity, etc. The one thing that saves me from hating this story is that he is enthralled by her; she holds power over him!

The Real Little Red Riding Hood

Interesting... ok, well, a little mind blowing, but it makes sense. Most fairy tales, now that I think about it, do not really have morals or lessons to them, and in the end, seem really pointless and merely candy instead of food for thought.

I find it a little sad that our culture (if it's old enough to even exist) in America (and England I suppose) slowly dumbed down fairy tales until there were no substance left which led to safer minds or innocence untouched or what have you, but look at Americans today. The clothes industry alone is competing to see who'll buy the shortest shorts and the tailors, etc. all cheer because their clothes can be made with less and less care. Girls love tattered clothes, frayed ends, worn this and that. They want their shirts to be see through. Clothing companies must be having money fests just cutting back on cloth, thread, enough paint to actually screen a whole shirt because a little splotchy, faded, half unreadable pictures are in. Being seductive, scandalous, might I go as far to say as a little slutty is what most girls strive for. Like the lipstick, girls should want to be chased by wolves.

What I really loved about Ms. Magazine's article was the mentioning that tales like Little Red Riding Hood originated by women with strong leading heroines. The Little Red pulling out a magnum or at least tricking the wolf is more my style. It irritates me to no end to think men took their ideas of how women should be, and made it into "lessons" for girls to follow to be more submissive and good.

In a way, though it is shocking, I like these more realistic fairy tales because they have meaning to them. It is true that if you were pretty in that time in France you could easily be seduced and disgraced. However, I do wish there were some fairy tales (scarily realistic or not) teaching men lessons, too such as not to be wolves, etc. In a way, sexist sounding or not, some American girls might need to hear the French version, and all girls who think men are all powerful or that it's fine to just act loose because it's all about sex and money, etc. could hear one of the true original fairy tales straight from the source, women.

Trip Down Memory Lane

When I first read the prompt, my first thoughts went to the Disney princess fairy tales. However, on further inspection, I realize I did not really like any of them. Sleeping Beauty sleeps until the prince wakes her up (not to mention her dress is not that pretty), Snow White cleans for little men then takes an apple from a stranger, and Cinderella, though probably the most interesting due to the fairy godmother and the cute mice, cleans until someone realizes she is kind hearted and drop dead gorgeous and marries her (of course he's a prince).

My favorite children's stories are probably the short tales from those Japanese collections like The Sticky Pine, Momotaro, and the Jizou Statues. I suppose I like them because I love my Japanese culture, learning about it, being a part of it, etc. Plus, the stories have morals, the good guys win, and the bad guys lose, but with better reasons and rewards than Disney. However, it was probably the culture that got me into it; I was not that deep of a six year old. I also like Soup From a Stone because it was funny, and the soup actually sounded really good. My mother was also a very comical and realistic storyteller.

As I think about it, the one Disney fairy tale if it even counts, is Anastasia. I like the music, the plot, and the touch of magic. Bartok, the bat was hilarious, Anastasia is a strong heroine which I tend toward even now, and of course, it ends happily ever after.

I realize that even as a little kid, I like those three things: magic, music, and, in a way, history. After I outgrew Disney and the like, I went on to those Royal Diary books which were semi-fictional diaries of princesses throughout history from all sorts of different cultures.

My Rxn To LWFC

If this book ended midway through chapter 12, it would have been my dream school reading book! The language is cultural, but I could understand all of it unlike the pure dialect of the South or Shakespeare. The whole plot revolves around food (a big plus for me!) and a Korean soap opera worthy love triangle (super duper huge plus!). When I first picked up the novel, I wondered how a story could actually be formed from recipes. I remember thinking to myself that this would be a stilted book at best because how could that be the backbone, the foundation for a book? However, Esquivel not only proved me wrong but shoved my nose in it. I couldn’t imagine the significance food can have on a culture, or the different tangents one can take with it. It is like a whole new form of grammar or sentence structure I did not think possible! But, I did mention the twelfth chapter. I am and will always be a helpless, unrealistic, and definitely unreasonable romantic, and the ending killed me. John Brown, the “love” of Tita’s life, is left alone and yet still smiling on for Tita’s sake as she’s swept off into lust’s embrace a.k.a. Pedro. First, Pedro is a jerk. Not only does he use Rosaura to get to Tita, but then he expects somehow to love both of them (in different ways). Then, he gets mad when Tita finally has a chance for happiness, and lastly, even after he knows Tita turns John down, he has to get jealous and braggart-like when dancing at Esperanza and Alex’s wedding. The bad guy is not supposed to get the girl! To be honest, I did want Tita and Pedro together, but I don’t know why. It’s as if Esquivel makes us root for the two because the whole book is about them pining away for each other from across the hall. That’s drama; the real twitch in my conscience is that Pedro=lust and John=love, but Tita chooses lust over love, is happier in lust than love, and the “love” character is left out of luck with no wife of his own or anything. I wonder if Esquivel is trying to make a point about the true weighings of lust vs love. Overall, I love that this story is a romance (a non-literary, real romance with realistic ups and downs not including the magic) novel which automatically makes it wonderful, and on top of that, it had meaning, symbolism, a hint of the fantastic (!), and a (somewhat) happy ending.