Can We get a Nut Cracker for this Nuttiness?

Okay, so this post I'm writing about how nutty the section Requiem For A Leg was. It was absolutely ridiculous. These people are in court over a leg! I seriously had to check a few times to actually make sure I was reading the right thing and that it was for real. Some of the questions that were asked were crazy like, "Do you think you could identify your father's leg if the moccasin and legging on the leg as you now see it were not there?" Seriously? It's a leg! Also, not only are they fighting over a Native American leg, one of the lawyers is a Native American who is missing an arm! Now that's just overkill. The only explanation I could think of for this craziness was written on the back of the book: "Native people will love The Light People, partly for its own sake, partly because it will drive Eurocentric scholars crazy trying to figure out what it is." Perhaps that's what's happening here, I'm a eurocentric and I'm going insane trying to make sense of it.

It's Called Common Sense

I began last Wednesday fully intending to go to class. However, that was before I saw the day’s paper and its front page title of, "UC Regents vote to increase fees 32 percent today." I had no idea that the percentage of the proposed fee increase was so high! I was so shocked that I spent a goodly amount of time just staring at the title before I could even begin reading the article! Like the majority of my fellow UC students, I am not made of money and I'm struggling to pay my tuition as it is; if they increase fees by another third I'm going to have to start seriously considering whether or not I can afford to continue going to college.

Everyone is saying that the economy is hard right now and that it is affecting everyone, including the university. I understand that, but when I look around on campus I have to wonder if the university understands it too. We have all been aware of the economic situation for a long while and I, along with my friends and neighbors, have tightened my belt accordingly. In contrast, the university has chosen to expand the law school and begin renovations of the MU. If the university is being affected in the same way that we are why doesn't it react like every other person out there faced with money troubles and adapt its spending habits?

I was under the impression that a place of higher learning would be run by people with an education, you know - people with critical thinking skills and an understanding of cause and effect? Apparently I was wrong. Instead of making plans for how to survive on less, funds are simply cut and the students and faculty are left to flounder as they attempt do more with less. And at the same time hugely expensive and completely unnecessary projects like the MU renovations are taken on. It just doesn’t make sense.

For God's sake University of California, be thrifty! Think like us. Before you purchase something truly consider whether or not you really need it. If you find that you do: think! Do you really need it right now? Or can you wait? Make due with what you have: sure that brand new backpack has been calling you but if your old one can still carry books - use it. If the seam splits - sew it up. And if the zipper pops open? Fiddle with it until it works again - it's easy, I do it all the time.

We AIM Not to Please and We Shall Remain

"We AIM Not to Please" was an interesting insight to a rebellious young Indian's experiences. While reading I felt as if I was almost there; I began to relate to the members of AIM, I felt outraged when they did, and I began understand why they did the things they did. What really brought it home for me was the fact that the events that we read about in "We AIM Not to Please" were mentioned in "We Shall Remain". It made it so much more real for me.
In my opinion, the two connecting stories were supported and enhanced by each other. "We Shall Remain" gave us the documentary view of things while "We AIM Not to Please" gave us a view of what it was like to actually be a part of one of AIM's campaigns.
I'm actually really glad that I watched/read the two of them because it gave me a new point of view that I hadn't considered before.

Yay! Character development! Wait... isn't it kind'a late?

One thing I noticed about GGTL was that the last scene added way more character development and depth to the play than the rest of the scenes put together. The happy-go-lucky mass produced play personalities are gone and the characters become more tangible and realistic as they finally turn and acknowledge the more unfortunate and unpleasant sides of life that they seem to have been oblivious to or glossing over for the majority of the play.

Laurey is no longer the careless, narcissistic, chore-avoiding child she once was and actually cares and is concerned for another human being. She is worried about Curly, and instead of pretending to be unaffected by his peril and going to brush her hair like she would have done in the past she shows her fear and worry while she visibly grieves.

Aunt Eller gets more of a back story and fills out; becoming a much more round character. She doesn't become more dynamic, however, because she doesn't really change; instead she stays the same, we simply have more information of how she got the way she is. Laurey's parent's deaths, which before were little more than just a blip of character exposition, are infused with emotion and made so much more solid and real when Aunt Eller emphasizes the fact that it wasn't just Laurey's parents who died to her, it was her brother and his wife. When we learn the cruel fate of her husband we cease to think of her as a bitter old maid and instead see her as a lonely, still grieving old widow who is emotionally fortified by necessity. With that we realize that the two women are very similar and in Aunt Eller we may very possibly see the future Laurey.

Foreshadowing Galore!

Here I am with a hot plate of long overdue post featuring scenes one and two of Oklahoma! er.. I mean Green Grow the Lilacs. These first two scenes practically tell you everything you need to know about the play in a nutshell. We are familiarized and presented with the play's setting, most of the characters are introduced, and the content of pretty much the rest of the play is either hinted at or set up. This is what we literary types like to call foreshadowing Ooooh!

As was mentioned in class and expertly described by Ms. Caison, this is just like a romantic comedy; within the first five minutes of the movie you know who is going to get together with whom, how it's going to happen, and that just before the end there will be a horrible revelation that will threaten to tear them apart but ultimately doesn't. In the case of GGTL, after just two scenes I already know that Curly and Laurey will get together, Jeeter is one creepy creepy lurky man who is Curly's less-than-worthy rival for Laurey's affections, there will be a scene set at a party in the very near future, and the climax will most likely involve some sort of violent act that Jeeter will very likely initiate and there is a good probability that it will involve fire.

Tune in next time to see if any of my predictions come true!
(Also look forward to an upcoming comment where I'll explain the origins of some of my incites, but for now I've got to get back to a paper!)

First Post

This is my first blog and it's titled 'Why oh why must I blog?' because I, its reluctant maker, had had no intention whatsoever to ever make a blog; its birth was forced, its entries will be a chore, and it will most likely be resented for the whole of its existence. This Oliver Twist of a blog is not really wanted and will probably be kicked to the curb at the first opportunity that arises.
I am not a person usually filled with such emotion but I enjoy my privacy, I absolutely and totally detest ANY website that REQUIRES my phone number, I have never wanted my personal thoughts on display, and I most certainly have never wanted anyone's (especially not a stranger's) opinion on them.
Now that you know that each and every word in this blog is full of love and cheer, lets move on to why it exists. I am a student enrolled in an Intro to Native American Literature class and one of my assignments is to write a weekly blog that goes over some of the pieces that I read for class. The class is enjoyable, blogging is not, I would like to make it absolutely clear that the above statements are in no way intended to be disrespectful to the instructor of the class: I am simply voicing my frustration over the amount of times in my adult life that I am forced to surrender personal information to the void that is the internet.
This assignment reminds me of the poem On the Amtrak from Boston to New York City. Just as the woman on the train started a conversation with the narrator in order to be friendly, social, and nice - my professor did the same with a blogging assignment. Both the boy and I were less than pleased.