Presentation Comments, part II

I really liked all of Group 6's essay ideas. The David Sedaris book that they decided to read sounded hilarious, but it sounded as if they managed to get a lot of good ideas from the text. I really liked Owen's idea of talking about finding truth in memoirs. I thought he brought up a lot of good points about how people would think that memoirs would be a perfect place to find the truth of someone's life because they wrote it, but in fact, they twist and alter the truth sometimes to get the desired effect.
I can't remember whose idea this was, or maybe it was everyone, but the quote about David being the brother he's always been after his sister telling him a story that she didn't want repeated was a good quote, and I like how different people and theses managed to incorporate that quote into their papers to further their argument. It shows the versatility of the book, and the abilities of the people writing the papers =) Good job guys!

Presentation Comments

I really liked Joanne's thesis about the formula for a best-selling novel, because its something we, as English majors, see all the time reading books, but never really consciously think about. I loved the first sentence she gave us as an example of "the hook;" I know it made me want to read the book! I also liked how Joanne talked about how James Patterson is an amazing author, but we would never learn about him in an English class because academia says he is not literature. Alas. I suffer the same way trying to explain to people that Stephen King is an amazing example of intellectual literature, but people always write him off because he writes horror novels. I think that Joanne's paper will be extremely interesting, because it's not normally something we think about consciously.

I also liked Chris' idea for his paper from the same group. He talked about the postcards as a type of art form, and the postcard killers weren't crazy or insane; they just wanted their art to be known. I thought this was a neat way to look at the book, because I feel like most people would look at the killers as if they were completely insane. Chris' spin on the book, however, seems to take them out of a negative light, and makes them human, rather than the psycho animals many people would make them out to be. Also, art has never been my strong suit, but it interests me, so it would be interesting to see how Chris transforms the postcards into an art form in his paper.

Annotated Bibliography and Proposal

I've always been interested in the topic of sexual orientation, and after reading this book and all of my sources, I discovered that my view of sexual orientation was not as clear-cut as I thought. I have gay friends here at school, and they've told me that they have always known their sexual orientation, so naturally (perhaps naively) I assumed that differences in sexual orientation were more of a biological phenomena rather than a choice one makes. In focusing on the way Allison and Will struggle with their questions of their own sexuality (i.e. Allison questions whether or not she is a lesbian by dating Dana, even though Dana used to be a man, or Will questioning if he might be gay because Dana was once a man) and also Dana's apparent confusion while he was still a man, I want to focus on the notion that the definitions of sexual orientation are not as clear within the book as perhaps society makes them out to be. I've looked at texts which seek to define sexual orientation in relation to gender, and texts that have tried to delve into the psychological aspects of being gay or lesbian. In Allison and Will's case within the book, they make the case that being gay or lesbian is something that can be chosen or changed. My research is leaning more on the psychological aspect of sexual orientations, but within that research, I've found real-life accounts which I feel validate my claims. 


Annotated Bibliography 


Black, Daniel. Perfect Peace. New York: St. Martin's, 2010. Print.


This is a fictitious story about a little southern girl who, on her 8th birthday, learns that she was actually born a boy, and now has to learn how to become one. She is the youngest of 7, with six brothers, and her mother really wanted a girl, so when the seventh child was born a boy, the mother raised the child as a girl out of her desperation for a girl. The story talks about Perfect/Paul's transition from being a girl to manhood, and how he learns to forget about his girl self. This book delves into the age-old argument of sex vs. gender, and creates a commentary on how gender is socially constructed, and how sexual orientation can be constructed as well. I will use this text to show that sexual orientation isn't as clear-cut as society sometimes makes it out to be. There are passages in which Perfect and her best friend, Eva Mae, have intimate relations with each other, and then again when Perfect is Paul, but there seems to be no change in enjoyment on Paul's part. Passages such as these will help construct my argument. 


Rudacille, Deborah. The Riddle of Gender. New York: Pantheon Books, 2005. Print.

Deborah Rudacille talks about gender issues from both scientific and human perspectives. She focuses on the transsexual perspective throughout the book, which was greatly beneficial toward my research. The book is made up of several interviews with prominant transsexuals throughout the book, which portrays the human aspect of people who don't fit into the "normal" male/female social norms. I plan on using two chapters for my research; the fourth chapter, "Men and Women, Boys and Girls" which is a interview with Chelsea Goodwin and Rusty Mae Moore, Ph.D; and the sixth chapter, "Childhood, Interrupted," an interview with Dana Bayer, M.D. In both of these chapters, I will be able to convey the human element into my argument, and dissect what it means to be a transsexual and how that affects sexual orientation. 

Green, Jamison. "Look! No, Don't! The Visibility Dilemma for Transsexual Men." The Transgender Studies Reader. Ed. Susan Stryker and Stephen Whittle. New York: Routledge, 2006. Print.

Green, a FTM activist, wrote this article about the "visibility dilemma" that transsexual men have during their transition, something which Dana in Trans-sister Radio also had trouble with. Green writes about how transsexuals just want to be accepted by society as the gender they perceive themselves to be; but, on the other hand, if one exposes too much of a transsexual life to others, one could risk "undermining the achieved gender status," presenting a dilemma. How much does one reveal about oneself? I will connect Green's article to Dana's experience with transition in the novel.

Hale, Jacob. "Are Lesbian Women?" The Transgender Studies Reader. Ed. Susan Stryker and Stephen Whittle. New York: Routledge, 2006. Print.

Philosopher Jacob Hale challenges the notion that the term "woman" is a concrete, natural term. He argues that there are many complexities within determining any one person's gender. He argues that gender is something that needs to be "worked out" by an individual, and that no set definition of a gender exists. I will use this article to back up my argument that gender and sexual orientation are things that are not set in stone; that they are things that are constructed differently by everyone. 

Valentine, David. ""I Went to Bed With My Own Kind Once" The Erasure of Desire in the Name of Identity." The Transgender Studies Reader. Ed. Susan Stryker and Stephen Whittle. New York: Routledge, 2006. Print.

This article focuses on the fact that modern views of sexual orientation and contemporary distinctions between sexuality and gender do not account for the specifics of erotic desire and sexual practice. Valentine explains that since there is a "double binary" of homo/hetero and masculine/feminine, there is a "unintelligible structure" of desire and sexuality that most people do not understand. I will use this article to support my claims, and connect it to the "confusion" Allison, Dana, and Will all experience about their sexuality. 

 

Form: Superfabulous

What I liked about Molly Kennedy's "Superfabulous" was the fact that it was written in free verse. I think that expresses a freedom that formed poems cannot express. The lack of a traditional verse form mirrors the poem's point: that homosexuals should be accepted within our society. The poem is about the speaker hearing on the news that Superman was gay and there is some sort of public outcry. The speaker then points out that Superman is also an illegal alien, he has a bad influence on kids ("Superman shows preschoolers that, yes, sweetie,/it's ok to walk around with your underwear outside your pants"), and that he is a Jesus Christ figure, yet no one raises any question about any of those things, even though they are prevalent news topics in today's media.
This poem doesn't have a rhyme scheme, or any sort of stanza form, or any sort of meter. It is like the speaker is just telling us a story. What sticks out is the varying length of the stanzas and lines. Some stanzas are twelve lines long; others are just four, and there are single lines spread through the poem. This forces us to read the shorter lines of the poem. When the speaker is talk about how she "can blame the Human Torch/for making me into a pyrotechnic" she immediately replies with a short, 3-line stanza: "No. You're right./I was playing with lighters and WD-40/before I even knew who the Fantastic Four were." This forces the reader to realize that superheroes didn't influence the speaker to play with lighters. The speaker subtly uses this example to prove her point; that not all little kids are influenced by what superheroes do, so gay Superman isn't necessarily going to turn little kids gay. The last eight lines of the poem are a perfect example:
     If Superman were gay,
     Superman would be supergay.
     Superman would be fabulous.
     Superman would be Superfabulous.
     Superman would walk up to Lex Luthor with jazz hands,
     Slap him across the face and go,

     World domination? I don't think so, honey!


     And the world would be a better place for it.

The point of these lines are clear: being gay isn't a bad thing. The author uses stereotypical gay mannerisms in this passage to prove her point; her use of the word 'fabulous,' the fact that Superman would use jazz hands and slap the bad guy instead of punch him, and that Superman used the word 'honey.' The reader can almost hear Superman say the italicized sentence in their head, because we have those stereotypes in our heads as well, but the author justifies it at the end by saying "the world would be a better place for it." This final sentence, in separating it from the rest of the poem, gets gently forced into the reader's mind.

Final Paper Proposal

What are the social and psychological impacts of transsexualism on the transsexual, the people close to them, and society as a whole?
 This isn't like a thesis....this is kinda what I want to focus on...I'm kinda thinking out loud.
I aim to focus on the socio-psychological impact Dana Stevens' decision to undergo a sex-change operation had on the characters of the book Trans-sister Radio, and if that is an accurate depiction of how it effects other parts of society. The townspeople of Bartlett were outraged by Dana's decision to undergo the operation, and were equally upset by the fact that Allison decided to stay with her. Allison's reputation as a teacher and as a member of the community were at stake throughout most of the book due to irate citizens. Allison and Carly begin to question their own sexualities, as does Will, who ends up living with Dana. Dana, throughout her whole life, struggled internally with her gender dysphoria, wondering if he was just gay, or if he truly was a woman trapped in a man's body. With research, I will look at other stories of real-life transsexuals and compare/contrast them with Trans-sister Radio. I will also explore research about transsexualism, to see if I can get a better understanding of the biological and psychological components, if any, that exist within the brain and mind of a transsexual. I'm not entirely sure of the question I want to ask.....but at least I know what I want to talk about!

Blog Musings

My blog postings have been decent over the semester...except for the fact that I've already had to take a blog holiday and I didn't really contribute on the last one because I hadn't read the book yet =/ I found that I really focus on the more direct aspects of what we are talking about. I look at the language of what we read, rather than imagery or symbolism. I guess that surprises me a little because normally I am good at discussing that stuff, but it hasn't really caught my attention as we've been reading. See, look. Right now I'm discussing what I've said rather than trying to delve into some deeper meaning behind what I've said. I've also noticed that my posts are not particularly long...which is something I should maybe fix.

My favorite post was the one about the paintings, which also surprised me, because I am not a artsy person. I actually do not see the point in most forms of art, so it surprised me that I was able to invest so much in the paintings we looked at. I also feel like this is my most intelligent post; I was able to get my point across while using good language and being clear. I would love to go back and be able to talk about those more.

I think blogging for this class is helping immensely because it's giving me an insight into what other people are thinking that I might not necessarily hear from in class. It's also a place for me to talk about things outside of class that I maybe didn't get to talk about in class. I like hearing from everyone else, and it gives me a different perspective on what we read or watch or look at in class.

Trans-sister Radio

I actually haven't started reading the book...sorry guys! It hasn't come in from Amazon yet...I'm still waiting on it. From what I remember from the back cover though, it sounds like a really interesting story. I think it would make an awesome movie! I feel like transgenderism is still a touchy subject in society, so for there to be a movie about it in such detail would really turn some heads and enlighten some people. I'm sorry I don't have more to offer...I'll get started on it as soon as it comes in!

Tyler

Fernando Botero

I picked the 6th painting to analyze. What drew me to this painting was the expression on the prisoner's face. Although we cannot see his eyes, the horrible drawing-down of his mouth expresses everything that he is feeling: pain, dejection, degradation, humiliation. Almost as striking and haunting is the single, blue-gloved hand that come in on the left hand side, holding the leashes of the dogs. It represents the "separation of self" we talking about in class today; the disjointment of the hand from the prisoner represents the complete stripping of humanity the soldiers in Abu Ghraib must've put themselves through in order to commit such atrocities.
The background of the painting is very dark, depicting stark iron bars against an "abyss" of darkness behind the prisoner with a solitary half-window in the background. The lightness of the skin of the prison, along with the brightness of the blood pouring from his many wounds, bring the prisoner into the foreground, forcing the viewer to examine everything about him. The prisoner is simultaneously being bitten on the right knee and clawed on the chest by two large, ferocious dogs, while a third dog seems ready to pounce. The prisoner is leaning forward into the dog clawing him in the chest, which seems to show just how helpless he is; he has no idea where he is; the only thing he knows is pain.
Paintings, especially these paintings, are meant to invoke certain reactions and feelings within its audience. The artist has the right to manipulate what he sees into a message he wants to get across; a photographer has to do so with what is physically in front of him. These paintings provide a more horrible image of the Abu Ghraib prison tortures because of their cartoonish features. The prisoners are depicted as almost comically overweight, and they are so almost to the point where you want to laugh, but then you remember what you are looking at, and the horror of what you see hits you twice as hard.

BLOG HOLIDAY

Hey everyone,
This week I'm taking my blog holiday...just letting you guys know.
Have a good week!
Tyler

The Boondocks

Did you guys notice the difference in dialect between Granddad, Huey, and Riley and the New Orleaneans? You could hardly understand what Uncle Jericho and the rest of his family were saying, especially the oldest kid with the fro. It was interesting to see, because I am not black, therefore, I don't see the cultural differences between black people. There are definitely cultural differences that I see between white people, however, and that is one of my frames. My color and ethnicity determines what I see in people. In being exposed to just one example of the differences between two ethnicities other than my own, I am forced to broaden my horizons. For example, us white folk here in the North have preconceived notions about people in the South; that they are farmers and maybe not as intellectual as we are. The episode of the Boondocks we watched exposed us to the same type of difference that perhaps black people in the North have about black people from the South. It all comes down to frames. Each character represented a different frame people might view black people through: Riley was the stereotypical gangster; Huey was the activist; Granddad was the old curmudgeoney sarcastic black grandpa; Uncle Jericho was the laborer from the South; his mom was the Jesus-loving old black grandma. I feel like all these thoughts are just rushing around in my head and I can't figure out how to make them words...do you guys agree...or even get what I'm trying to say?

God, strippers and civil unrest

I was attracted to the two columns titled "God and Strippers" and "Civil Unrest." Chris Rose talked about a "return to normalcy" in both of these columns, but what struck me about them is that the signs of normalcy talked about were both negative aspects of life, so to speak: strippers and unrest within the community. Stripping for a living is widely regarded as a socially unacceptable way to make a living for women, and the sort of civil unrest described in Rose's column only sets the community back. In "Civil Unrest," the residents in the author's community were taking their smelly, dirty refrigerators and dumping them on the sidewalk after the cleaning crew had finally come through and straightened up the street. The other residents get angry, and some of them get revenge by bringing the fridges back to their respective owners and even blocking their driveways with them. At the end of the column on page 104, Rose says this:

                Now, I know what a lot of you are thinking: There are people in this town who lost everything. Their loved ones, their homes, their jobs, their pets, their precious photos and memories. And their refrigerators...You're thinking: You people didn't have the right to survive this storm...Maybe you're right...But consider this...Maybe this signals a return to normalcy, Maybe this is even a healthy sign of the human spirit.

I really liked this quote because it got me thinking. While I've been reading this book, I've been thinking that signs pointing toward normalcy for New Orleans would be the trash and debris being all gone, electricity starting to work again, people moving back. Those are signs of normalcy, but they don't encompass the human spirit. Humans have a nasty side too. Cleaning would've brought aesthetics back to New Orleans, but not the humanity. A combination of the good (people sweeping their front porches instead of cleaning crews pulling branches out of broken windows) and the ugly (fighting with one another over a smelly fridge) brings the humanity back.

In the other article, "God and Strippers," there is a similar quote on page 28. Rose says: "...a strip club opened up on Bourbon Street...and if that isn't one small step toward normalcy...then I don't know what is." Again, something that is considered in a negative light by society is bringing hope back to New Orleans and for the author. Debauchery and sin offer a signal of hope for the author, which is a kind of difficult image to comprehend, but I can chalk that down to frames. I was born and raised in New Hampshire, almost an entirely different world from New Orleans. There are no strip joints where I live. If one opened in my town, it would probably be a signal for despair, because I have been raised to stay away from places like those. It is a difficult image for me to comprehend that a strip joint can invoke that kind of hope in the author. 

These two examples of seemingly hopeless things causing hope to be instilled in the author is what drew me to both of them. Because I cannot experience something quite like this, it is interesting to think about. 

Hey! again

Hey everyone! This is Tyler Hixson and I'm from Hancock, NH. I went to high school at Conval (maybe you've heard of it but most likely you havent) and am now studying English Literature here at UNH. The reason I called this blog what I called it is that I feel in order to be a successful writer, one needs to constantly tap into the human psyche and know what their readers are thinking. In order to be a successful lit. student, one often has to tap into the author's mind and try and extract meaning from something superficially meaningless. I really like this blog idea/book group thing, so hopefully this will be a good semester!