Weslamar's blog

Several weeks ago I had an epiphany that has been effecting me ever since and giving my life direction and meaning. In order to describe the magnitude of this moment of realization I’ve got to give some personal history.

When I was a kid I was really wild and uncontainable but extremely gifted. I was the first child of my parents and the first grandchild of my mom’s grandparents. They were the ones that told me I knew I was gifted. They’re grew up as pseudo-beatniks in college and were really open-minded. As a result they encouraged me to be creative and sent me to hippie kindergarten were I didn’t learn how to read or the importance of hard work. This conflicted with the puritan values of my dad’s side of the family and as a result I was fucked for life.

Anyway when I was a kid the earliest thing I remembered wanting to be was an actor. I loved an attention and got it. I was also a good looking child winning several second place ribbons at child beauty contests.

This didn’t last long as I realized acting was not the future. The future was being a pilot. I always loved modes of transportation and I thought it would be fun to wear a uniform. But, this didn’t last either. I realized I’m prone to being “out of it” and could easily space out when flying and that wouldn’t be good.

So now I had no future. But, then came the inspiring Bush years. I knew I had to go into business or law and become a politician just like G. W. I became very informed by watching Fox News and reading Ann Coulter.

Alas, this wasn’t to last either. Around 14 I started hanging out with the left wingers and rebels, at first just to convert them to the Reaganism, but in the end I gave in and became one. After that I was a cool kid living life on the edge. I started hanging out with the wrong crowd and making poor choices with my body. I stopped working-out and lost ma’ hard pecs.

Now I didn’t know what I wanted to be. So I thought I would work hard so I could get into a good college. Harvard. But, I had lost all my gifts! So I just did I bunch of stuff and studied a lot. I became Class President (despite loosing my good looks). And I ran cross country. I also started to think about the injustice occurring in the world and especially in Palestine after the Gaza war last year. But, I didn’t take any action in anything I wanted to do. I decided the only way to get what I wanted was to go back to my roots. A hippie school. So I decided to come to Gallatin at NYU.

But, getting in didn’t change my confusion until a couple weeks ago…

My friend Mary-Jane (name change not in NYU Facebook network) and I had been obsessed with an Arabic class for weeks and I knew it was gonna change my life. So on this night…

I was stark naked on my bed reading The Sheltering Sky when I a knock came on the door and I put some pants on but left the shirt off.

It was Mary-Jane.

“Wes,” she said disapprovingly at the site of my toplessness and I closed the door and put it on.

Reopening the door. “What’s up? Want to study Arabic?”

“Wes, I found the perfect program for you at gaamiiat al-kahira (the University of Cairo.)

“Is it in being a shitty dude, cuz I don’t need to go to school for it.”

“Wes! No. It’s in refugee studies. You know how you love psychology and traveling and Arabic.”

“That’s right I do! Oh my God it’s perfect! And I can work in Palestine! My life is figured out nothing can go wrong!”

Ever since my life has changed. I’ve enjoyed everything so much more and I know what I want to do with my academic freedom that I love here at Gallatin.

“All it takes is an epiphany yo,” I told Mary-Jane.

The Journey Yo

The plot Journey of Ibn Fattouma centers on a character searching for an epiphany of the improvements to make in his the society he has become disillusioned with.  Fattouma knows of the Golden Age of Islam and seeks knowledge that he can bring back to combat the corruption he sees in his homeland.  Consulting with his teacher (and soon to be stepfather), a wise Sufi, Ibn decides to journey in search of the land of Gebel where perfected society exists. 

     I instantly thought of this book in relation to epiphanies because the entire story is based on Fattouma looking for a great moment of realization and in the end it is up to the reader to interpret what way this manifest.  In a way the novel instilled in me an idea of the world that creates the alienation and pain that causes us to search for the meaning of it all in art and specifically in novels.  By presenting a piece of reality that we can relate too and find comfort in the fact that many others have felt the same way we do.  There doesn’t have to be a lesson or a purpose just a feeling.  I think Ibn Fattouma captures an all encompassing theme of travel and the class for that matter, of wandering through the world looking for answers but just finding people that think and feel like we do just in a different way.  In a world torn by war, poverty, and hate there is a lot of comfort in just that simple fact. 

     As for the epiphany in Ibn Fattouma I don’t think there was no explicit one.  The realization of the struggle that people have gone through over time trying to perfect their worlds is implied.  But, in the end it was the journey that served as the epiphany not the destination.  In essence all epiphanies are just realizations that we encounter on the journey of life.     

Part of what makes Murakami’s Sputnik Sweetheart such a rich and provocative work is his allusions to other works of art. The references serve to give us better understanding of the work and can help fill in some of the blanks where Murakami’s ambiguities leave us puzzled.

One that stood out to me was this very strange reference to Alfred Hitchcock’s Spellbound, “He was remarkably handsome, his well-formed nose reminding you of Gregory Peck in Spellbound.” Having been an Alfred Hitchcock junkie for many years I instantly began to see the similarities between the film and the book. Without giving to much away the film is essential about a doctor at a mental institution who is very cold and removed (played by Ingrid Bergman) who suspects that a new doctor isn’t exactly who he says he is (played by Gregory Peck).

In an essay by Richard Abel entitled Notorious Perversion Par Excellence he describes the Spellbound as Hitchcock’s experiment with “expressionism and the blending of space and time”. Hitchcock later dismissed the film as “pseudo-psychology” but his experimentation with the concepts of reality still raise some interesting questions about the Sputnik Sweetheart. The idea of the novel existing on multiple levels and different realities is reflected in the film as well.

One way this is manifest is through the use of dreams in both works. Miu’s encounter with the Ferris wheel and her reminder of her father is a sequence that is ambiguous as to whether it exists in “reality” or in a dream world. The question of what is defined as reality is further blurred by this event. In much the same way the dream sequence in Spellbound seems to uncover something an unconscious world of Gregory Peck’s character. Even if the film doesn’t interest you the dream sequence with set design from Salvador Dali is well worth watching.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzxlbgPkxHE

Mao ZedongCentral to the themes of A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary Lover by Xiaolu Guo is alienation of the intellectual in society explored between the relationship between east and west. In an interview Xiaolu Guo she says she met the characters two main characters to be one person intellectual torn between to sets of ideals. Z leaves China in order to learn English to help her parent’s to promote their family’s shoe business. Part of understanding Chinese culture and the novel in a broader context is being familiar with the Chinese Cultural Revolution. I didn’t know much about this important era and China’s recent history, so I thought I’d research it for my next blog.

The Chinese Cultural revolution started as a result of what Mao Zedong, the head Communist Party of China, saw as a capitalist conspiracy within the cultural and intellectual aspects of Chinese society. At the time Mao was worshiped as the father of the first revolution and the rise of communism in China. During the Cultural Revolution Mao stressed China needed to destroy the old ways and ideologies and labeled many as “class enemies.” He used the Red Guard, and army of ideological soldiers, to go to universities and spread the teachings of Mao. They labeled writers, artists, and intellectuals whose ideas were against Mao as enemies and destroyed many works of literature and philosophy. Lasting from about 1967 to 1976 students studies were interrupted and as a result China lost a large amount of would be educated class.

Though the main character Z didn’t grow up during this time, she is largely a product of the national mentality that the revolution instilled. Her parents have here leave China in order to help the family business that has brought opportunity in a country where widespread poverty and political upheaval has changed things forever.

Before reading The Journey of Ibn Fattouma I had never read any work of Arab literature and doing so introduced me to entirely different writing style.  Indeed in western society great literature and art often overlooked and widely studied, while Arabs are portrayed overwhelmingly negative in America cinema and media.  For sometime time now I have been trying to learn more about this so often misrepresented culture.  Since the beginning of the semester I have been learning the Arabic language and aspects of the culture tied to it.  (I was excited to recognize that the name “Ibn” means son or boy in Arabic.)   In posting a blog on this book I have decided to research the history of Arabic literature and poetry in order to shed some light on the mystery that surrounds it. 

     The word for literature in Arabic is Al-Adab, which has another meaning that concerns having good etiquette and being cultured and refined.  Before the emergence of the Quran in the 7th very little literature exists.  The largest amounts of writings before the 20th century in the form of poetry and prose is often included it.  Two Arab philosophers   Ibn Tufail and Ibn al-Nafis pioneered the first philosophical novels that used fiction to illustrate their ideas. 

      Of course the most well known of all Arab literature are the One Thousand and One Nights which has shaped many of the ideas western society has about Arab culture.  The magic carpets, camels, and exotic dancers have all been ingrained in the western conscious for years even though many of the stories come for other places in the Middle East outside the Arab world.  Regardless, the influence of One Thousand and One Nights is massive across all genres all over the world.  Having a greater understanding of Arabic literature can help us in western society to realize the similarities we have with a people that at times seem very different from

Cohen's five categories as seen through literature

     In A Phenomenology of Tourist Experiences by Erik Cohen, travelers are categorized according to their relation to finding an absolute reality that Cohen refers to as the centre.  It is the location of the centre by the tourist that constitutes an authentic experience and thus brings meaning to one life.  For the purpose of this essay I will focus on the five forms of tourist experiences Cohen exhibits by focusing on how they are exemplified in several of the novels we have read thus far.  It is important to note that many of the examples overlap in regards to the various modes but that some exemplify some more then others. 

     The tourist in the “recreation mode” is exemplified by the archetype of the pleasure seeker who is leaving his home to “reinforce adherence to the centre.”  In other words this type of tourist travels not to question their fundamental values or culture, but to have a carefree experience they can brag about.  Many supporting characters in the novels read have included these characters.  In the Sun Also Rises a favorite restaurant in Paris that Jake and his friends is overcrowded with American tourists and is therefore tainted by the inauthentic.  The annoying and shallow mother and son in The Sheltering Sky epitomize the tourist in search of only the superficial. 

      Cohen characterizes the tourist in the “diversionary mode” as being lacking centre and seeking meaningless pleasure.  The main characters in On the Road with their unrestrained need for movement and unrestrained experimentation exemplify some of the characteristics of this mode.  This leads into the “experimental mode,” that encompasses the sampling of different cultures while remaining an outsider.  When Sal experiences profound desire to be African American at the jazz bar one sees an example of sampling different cultures.

     Another mode related to finding the authentic through others is that of the “experiential.”  The belief is that by relating to the lives of other one can live vicariously through those that live more genuine lives.  In The Sun Also Rises Jake idolizes the genuine bullfighter that faces danger head on in a way that exemplifies raw masculinity, opposed to the humiliating experience of trench warfare he experienced. 

       Finally there is the tourist that is in existential mode in which they have traded in their native culture and adopted that of what they see as more authentic.  This mode may sometimes be referred to affectionately as “going native.”  In Heart of Darkness, Kurtz’s alienation from modern society turns him to a primal existence in which he enslaves the Cogan natives.  Kurtz demonstrates an extreme example of an individual rejecting everything from their society and taking on a different form. 

       The five types of tourist experiences Cohen are difficult to attach solely to respective characters, but many aspects of each mode can be seen through out our readings.  

McEwan's descriptions of Venice serve as a setting for the psychological journey of the characters

The novella the Comfort of Strangers becomes all the more disturbing because of the way that Ian McEwan use of vivid imagery.  Straight from the beginning McEwan takes us into a world suspense and darkness.  McEwan builds the strange relationship between Colin and Mary as “if they were one person,” in way that builds a tension in the reader.  Before anything disturbing has happened an edgy sinister mood is sent as the characters wander along the streets of the city that might be Venice.  McEwan wastes no word describing and setting the mood throughout the novella which is the key to what makes the story so haunting and disturbing.  When Robert is introduced to the characters lives the reader becomes very puzzled at the strange behavior of the man.  When Colin and Mary meet Caroline, Robert’s wife, the conversations about women build a mood of anxiety. 

      The location and notion of travel in the novella is very important and the colorful prose helps to stress this.  The descriptions of Mary and Colin wandering through the streets of Venice reflected the inner struggle of their detached relationship.  Winding down the labyrinth streets not knowing what lies ahead for them when they as they await meeting Robert.  McEwan continues to create a very subtle tension until the very end when everything falls apart…

A cameraThe lone camera on the beach at the end of the Death in Venice calls into question many ideas about the role of images associated with experience in the novella. Aschenbach travels to Venice to escape the rigid and uninspired life he lives presently in Germany, where his fame as made him a little more then a member of the aristocracy and not an artist. Through the whole novella we see the events through the eyes of Auschenbach, as his life becomes a dreamlike spiral towards his imminent death. Our perceptions of Tadzio are shaped through the unrestrained passion of Auschenbach. As the ailing author looses the Apollonian rational mind he has had throughout his life and begins to succumb to his repressed Dionysian passions we are ultimately struck by the fundamental struggle of the artist’s life. The intersection between intellect and beauty and the way they shape art culminate in the death of the artist.

In the end the camera on the tripod appears as an out of place and memorable detail. Memorable because it seems disconnected from the characters of Auschenbach and Tadzio. Yet the camera brings to mind many ideas about the moment that it appears right before the death of Auschenbach. A camera freezes a moment in time forever the way it happens and gives us solid proof of what occurred. The significance of the camera in the narratives is almost proof that the dreamlike sequences of the novel have been real and that juxtaposes with of the wandering disassociated mind of Auschenbach. There seems to be a great deal of uncertainty of what the camera truly signifies, but that’s what gives the novella such strength. There are multiple layers of interpretation and meaning that never cause the reader to stop thinking.

Them BeatsOne day I came home to find my worn copy of On the Road missing from the sacred spot that it holds on my shelf. A week or so later my mom knocked on my door and handed me the book that she had borrowed. I asked her how she liked, it to which she replied, “It’s sad that some people have to live that way and make themselves believe their happy.”

On the Road has been viewed since it premier largely grouped into two separate categories. There is the idea of it being a sort of battle cry for young people to rebel against the institutions that are forcing them to conform and giving them a set view of happiness in the form of the American dream. And there is the view the novel is a depressing tail of confused youth looking for happiness and meaning in wrong places and living a life free of moral obligation and full of immediate gratifications. The divides between those that embrace the novel and those that denounce it, are often seen as a split between people in different stages of their life. Many of those in the later category of opinion are quick to denounce the Kerouac and those of his generation as amoral and view the entire book as a sad tale of unhappiness mistaken for happiness. They are quick to judge with their narrow view of the world and without the context and circumstances in which the book lives and inspires.

The genius of On the Road lies in the timeless struggle to find meaning and significance in a confusing and brutal world. In the wake of World War II concluded with the dropping of atomic bomb they dared to rebel against the values of a society with no regard for innocent human life. Rejecting America’s obsession with money and success, they look to the road to find an alternative, spiritual “American Dream.” They were outcasts to begin with and to fake it and pretend to be a part of society was not possible. Maybe they there is no happiness in substance use and constant thrill seeking, but what’s the point being happy if it means compromising the desires to live. On the Road was just a stage in the life of Kerouac; all his work has a different feel to it that reflects Kerouac’s own spiritual evolution. Indeed all the beats were constantly questioning their ideas and experimenting with the taboo in a way pervaded to their readers the importance standing up to authority. In subsequent decades the conservative values largely shift to the left as the inspired counterculture movements caused ground breaking changes in regards to rights for racial minorities and gay Americans. The beginning of the environmental movement can also be linked to the values of the Beats and those they inspired. On the Road encapsulates the values of a generation that refused to believe that middle class conformity was the key to happiness and lead a subsequent generations to question their values and always be looking for something better whatever that means.

Finding your own oasis

The concept of traveling in The Sheltered Sky takes on a whole new meaning to the romanticized notions of finding oneself and befriending the natives.  In fact the symbol of place is very warp in the novel and becomes a complex character of its own.  Early on in the novel travel takes on the vessel of abandoning one’s home and attaching a new meaning to it.  Port believes that “… [an] important difference between tourist and traveler is that the former accepts his own civilization without question; not so the traveler, who compares it with the others, and rejects those elements he finds not to his liking (6 Bowles).”  Port’s feeling about travel do not center upon have a genuine experience based on being immersed in a foreign culture; instead it is based on finding one’s own ‘civilization’ based on what one accepts and rejects from their experiences.  Indeed this concept seems to encapsulate the main themes of the novel as the inherent meaninglessness of life makes the journey all the more pointless.  Port has no quest or defined mission for why he what he is doing in North Africa; indeed he would have just as well of picked some other destination.   We see in Port the desire to reconnect with his wife, Kit, who seems to be drifting further and further away everyday.  In him we see the lost of identity that impart comes with moral confusion that comes in the aftermath of war. 

       What makes Shelter Sky a work of genius is the dimensions of and realism of the characters wandering as nomads through civilization.  The plot is not constructed for one character to overcome their afflictions and reach important realizations about society.  When Port dies more than half way through the story we see the realities of everyday life.  The characters are not their merely to convey lofty themes about life but to represent a certain reality that life holds for all of us.  There is a certain helplessness that comes with failing to connect with someone we think we love, and Bowles captures this reality by challenges the notion of symbolism in a novel.  The characters are symbolic in their own right, but not in a common cut and dry approach we often use to analyze literature. The novel is not a tragedy—in the Shakespearean sense—because there is no flaw in the characters that bring about their downfall; only hopelessness that comes from wandering in a world that doesn’t accept them.