Final Paper, book, A Wild Sheep Chase by Haruki Murakami

There were a series of ten pages (a few more actually, but for this assignment, I kept it to ten) that I would like to talk about starting with page 71. This page was about the metaphysical aspects of life. It tried to link the past with the present and how they can correlate with each other. Yet it also draws on bleakness on how this face-off leads to no where. I like this in part because I see a lot of truth to this. Do we as individuals learn from our past? Not all of us, obviously, but I would like to think most of us do and try to adapt that learning into our life.

On page 79, it reminded me of one of my earlier blogs and my concern about this book being a living dream. There were phrases on dreams being symbolic and having metaphors. This again, touches on interpretations and trying to figure out what is going on around us.

To page 94, I want to talk about time. In most dreams, time seems to not be a factor or stands still. There was a phrase that caught my eye about how time is really a big continuous cloth and how habitually we are when it comes to acting out on time. We are very much programmed when it come to how we live and how we let time get to us. This can mean, for example, being late for school or to not being where you want to be in life. Time can be a very scary thing.

When I came to page 114, the main character, Boku was questioning his own detachment to the world. He was becoming self aware that the world would go on without him and he was trying to deal with this feeling. He compared it to the tortoise and the elephant and their own lack of awareness of each other. I thought this was an interesting comparison with two very different animals. The difference can be considered a class thing with the haves and the have not’s where one seems to be more powerful and the other not so much.

To page 127, this is where my favorite character entered, the Strange Man. The shrewdness, I thought, when he came to Boku with these words: “Now people can be generally classified into two groups: the mediocre realists and the mediocre dreamers. You clearly belong to the latter. Your fate is and will always be the fate of a dreamer.” Boku took notice of this statement and I did too. I was, at the time of reading this, still struggling with the notion of this book being a dream-state of mind type. Are we in a dream ourselves?

When I came to page 133, the Strange Man talks about Marxism and here is where I understand his political views and how he felt Marxism was very mediocre because it lacks the sense of one person or group being superior to another. I take it that he felt that this was supposed to be. He seemed to believe that there had to be a superior being, not God, but someone who could lead the masses or a rank of file if you will, that should be on a higher level than others. Personally, that seemed to be a bit cut off on other people’s feeling and how they can contribute and not allowing them to grow, but to keep them down for the greater good of this so called superior group or person.

To page 178 thru 179 of the book, Boku’s discussion with the religious chauffer about the name of Boku’s cat. This struck me because this was maybe the best example of how alone Boku really was in life. He had been thru two women already that he barely cares to remember, on his third currently and then the only constant in his life is his cat. The same cat he has not even given a thought about naming. He goes thru life like he is the center of the universe and with that thinking; he can not grow because he can not learn from himself.

The final pages I want to talk about are pages 346 and 348, the final meeting between Boku and The Strange Man. Here is where we find out why Boku was chosen for the assignment and why he was needed. The Strange Man was very calculated to this point and very cold I may add. He explained how Boku and the way he went thru life made him a perfect target for this. Boku has been going thru life without emotions, or lack expressing them anyway. To draw out the sheep, the Strange Man needed a blank slate so the sheep would have no fear into being interested enough to come out of hiding, but not so much as to enter Boku’s body. In a way, this is a very sad commentary on Boku, which in part is why he cried in the end. He realizes how empty he is, soulless even. I would like to end on a happy note for him. As he pulled out and heard the explosions, he realized that he may be mediocre, but he was content. That though, could be sad in a case of not growing from this or not, which the class was not sure. This concludes step three.

In step four, to respond to my ten pages, I needed to use a literary theorist that I thought would be good for my pages here. That choice is Frantz Fanon. I will try to point out the way people need to be more connected to grow and see what is going on. We can not continue in a dazed state and expect to grow just like Boku’s lack of growth showed. Looking at Fanon’s most famous book, The Wretched of the Earth, this book talks about how to deal with post-colonialism and what are some of the steps to be done. Now, why would I choose Fanon to compare the pages I chosen you might ask? Fanon talks about Marxism, which the book and its antagonist, The Strange Man pointed out from his point of view was a sense of mediocrity. He seemed to believe that there should be a higher group controlling things if not even a person. Fanon believed in a different interpretation of Marxism influenced by third world countries perspectives. He worried about colonialism and how the effects can have on those colonies. It’s like the comparison to the tortoise and the elephant. We have here two different groups of people, the ones who believe that colonization is a key in helping those they believe are not equal to or inferior, yet we have a group who might not need this help or if they do, what happens to their culture? In A Wild Sheep Chase, what I had gather from this book and the pages I’d chose are the facts that we must be able to wake up our own consciousness to discover and grow as people. If we continue to go about things with a sense of disconnection, then we fail to understand other’s plight and how we can help them correctly. I feel that Boku’s society was unchanged in part because of indifference. People tend to accept things as they are and move about like sheep. They are so busy with their own struggles and challenges that they do not have the time to stop and think as they should. We are at times, a slave to this. It seemed that the Strange Man wanted to be a leader and use the sheep entity to help him with that goal. If he had succeeded, would he have enough influence to change things? If so, would it have been for the best? Arrogance of one person or one country being able to judge what they can do to change things is very troublesome. Now with most postmodernism writing, this book, Sheep, was about conditions that exist in today’s society and how we may need to look at ourselves. When I think of this, I think about Fanon’s attempt to help change the way we think as well. We need to awaken and reconnect to the masses of all to better ourselves.

In a way, postmodernism is a protest to what is troubling society. There are many forms of this media. Music can be one. Many have protested on what they see, whether it slavery, or abolition, to women’s rights, to wars and racism. My favorite was a song done by the late great Marvin Gaye, titled, “What’s Going On”. This song was from the perspective of a Vietnam vet who came home and discovered how things have not change for the better since he left for war. Disrespected by people who could not understand why we fought in a war that was deemed wrong and seeing how we treated not only people but the world as far as pollution, police brutality, violence and so forth, it was a portrait on how we need to change our way of thinking. Murakami had many influences and Gaye was one of them. Murakami, like Gaye, Fanon, Bob Dylan and many others have tried to express what they see and awake the masses from their sleep or dream like state of mind to realize what needs to be done. In Boku’s moment in the cabin, he finally was awakening thru solitude. When he realize that he must act even if it was an unconscious thought or something place there thru his friend, the Rat, he acted and I believe that we must awaken to resolved the issues that goes on in the world. The best line or at least one of them in the book was this on page 348 when Boku realize what he had to do and why: “No matter how boring or mediocre it might be. This was my world.” This statement tells a lot about how one must act when they see something wrong, but there is a flip side to this. One must be careful not to act wrongly or it could have bad consequences like what Fanon thought and wrote in the chapter, “The Pitfalls of National Consciousness“. One more point, I know it is easy to say but harder to do. If you feel connected to something, then you feel compelled to due something. Uzodinma Iweala’s, Beast of No Nation, which I was torn to write about as well, touch on some of these aspects. Iweala also criticize those who help just for the fun or the popularity of it. I agree that can seem immoral and I think going back to Sheep, disconnected. This is the end of step four.

As I was preparing to search for an article to finish step five, I came across an issues that has that has been going on more surprisingly than one might think, WMD or weapons of mass destruction. With a new administration coming to the White House, I saw an article where Vice President-elect, Joe Biden talks to reporters about how WMD is still an issue and that there is a report that states if we do not stop this soon, there is a real threat of terrorists using such weapons by 2013. He’s quoted in saying, “We’re not doing all we can to prevent the world’s most lethal weapons from winding up in the hands of terrorists.” This report, details of which leaked out before its release on Wednesday, was mandated by Congress last year in line with recommendations by an earlier commission on the September 11 attacks by al Qaeda militants in 2001. It warned that "unless the world community acts decisively and with great urgency, it is more likely than not that a weapon of mass destruction will be used in a terrorist attack somewhere in the world by the end of 2013. “ The attack was more likely to be biological than nuclear, it said. A source involved with the report said the attack could be as small as a single anthrax-tainted letter. The report recommended steps that included tightening supervision of U.S. biological laboratories, strengthening international nuclear nonproliferation agreements and discouraging financial incentives for civilian nuclear power. It also called for a threat of "direct action" to back up diplomacy aimed at stopping Iran and North Korea from developing a nuclear arsenal. But the report drew skepticism from at least one potential member of the Obama administration. "It's time to retire the fear card," said Democrat Jane Harman, head of a Homeland Security subcommittee on intelligence and terrorism risk in the House of Representatives. Harman, seen as a potential pick by Obama for a top intelligence post, said Congress had already taken significant steps. Commission member Henry Sokolski, a former senior Defense Department nonproliferation official, wrote in an "additional views" paper on the commission's website that he feared the report gave too little attention to preventing more countries from acquiring nuclear weapons, which he called the most significant near-term danger. Now, this is very concerning because I thought WMD was something we could all agree on, but apparently that is not the case. As I read this, I think about a few things. First, I think about time. We think because we might not have found something like WMD, we are ok and let’s move on. Hearing this, makes me feel like time has not really move in that we still are dealing with this. Yet, maybe if you do nothing or not enough, then things continue like a dream where it will not stop until you wake up and do something. In this case, if we do nothing, we could see a devastating effect on our society. The frightening thing about this is how we are supposed to treat this threat seriously because it can affect us. Now, imagine how we treat something that does not directly affect us, like say Darfur? Are we so busy about other issues or better yet, unattached that we do not see the world going on without us noticing it? The more I think about it, it is scary to think that people who are paid for our protection are too busy and unattached to the situation that they are arguing with themselves to try to find a common ground. When Boku acted in a sense of urgency to do something, we must do that too. The other problem is apathy. Can people do something when they have apathy about things they see? Boku went thru his life detached but why? That was my real question in Sheep, why? Was it Murakami’s statement that we do only when it’s necessary? History has shown this to be true. My hope is that with a new administration, things will change. I guess I have the “Audacity to Hope”. This is the end of my term paper.

Bibliography: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20081204/pl_nm/us_usa_security_obama_biden
A Wild Sheep Chase, by Haruki Murakami
The Wretched of the Earth, by Frantz Fanon
Beast of No Nation, Uzodinma Iweala
What’s Going On, by Marvin Gaye
The Audacity of Hope, by Barack Obama

Beast of No Nation by Uzodinma Iweala

I have not finish this book yet, but I thought I talk about what I have learned from reading it. Iweala's disturbing tale of Agu, this young boy, it seems who came across an army that was not his choosing to join up to fight this war against an enemy I have yet came across. Agu's journey, if you will, is one of hopelessness. He is a boy who had nothing due to this war and in a country where there is only a few options to survive, leave or fight, he had no choice. Again, I go back to 100 Years and I see a pattern of violence and how it can destroy a country and a community. What I gather from the reading thus far, is a sense of madness, not from isolation like in Sheep or 100 Years, but from war. Agu was not wanting to kill, but was force to and once he did kill, he became accustomed to it. He was brainwashed by all he had seen and without anyone to tell him otherwise, he kept on doing what he had to to survive. The only authority figure he had was one who wish the fighting to continue, the Commandant. There is a lot more I want to touch on, but that will have to be without a post since this is the last one. One note, nationalism, is this war for country or for greed? Is there a reason other than survival to fight? Is that how it is today in Africa with Darfur? This problem needs to be address to stop the cycle. Iweala's "Beast" shines a light into this violent nd disturbing reality in Africa. I look forward to finishing this book to help me know more about how this happens and why, if possible.

The Complete Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi, conclusion

I did not want to combine the two post into one, so I'm first will talk about Persepolis and then Beast in the last post.

Concluding the book, I can relate my journey to Marjane a bit. Now I did not live in war-torn Iran but to have an upbringing where you were poor and grew up around trouble and having to reject stereotypes and not become a number is pretty hard itself. I can relate how Marjane tried to find herself when she left for Austria and tried to learn all she needed to become the person her family wanted her to be. They had very high expectations for her, which some people like myself have been thru. It can be tough to live up to those expectations and not drive yourself crazy. Her story took her to a foreign land where she met different people and tried many things she was not accustomed to. It changed her. Kind of like 100 years of Solitude, she brought back with her more confusion than she had when she left. The outside world, which was suppose to be better was not, at least not when it came to her journey to finding herself. This book reminded me a bit of Boku's own journey in Sheep Chase, where he was isolated a lot with his thoughts and feelings. Marji seemed to be at times, alone to her thoughts and trying to find what it is she was looking for. When she returned, she discovered that as much as she missed home(her family and friends, the culture and the food/tea, even the air) she realize how much she did not missed the rules of hierarchy. Take Fanon's point on cultural diversity and differences where he states, "In the guise of a pastness that is not necessarily a faithful sign of historical memory but a strategy of representing authority in terms of the archaic". We would need to redefine our thinking as the people in Iran had to. They were force to either bow to the hierarchy and do what they say about rules they did not agree with or try to live, unhappily with the new rules. Marjane and her friends, not to mention others that disagree with this old philosophy of traditionalist, fought when possible. The fight was more subtle because of the fear of prison of worse, but they tried. The problem was that living like this is only a way of living not whole. They were not really living and her parents knew this. The most terrible part about this for her is that she had to leave even though she did not want to, like many of the people that have left Iran. Their search for happiness continues, elsewhere.

The Complete Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi

The Complete Persepolis is a story that has been described as an autobiography. The term autobiography is a perspective done through the eyes of the writer. In this case, it's done by a person who wants to express her feelings about her country, Iran and explain how a country can be torn apart by differences of opinions. This is true with many countries including our own. Conflict is and probably will always be a part of our society. Satrapi takes us through her life and tries to show a perspective that we do not normally see here. There is a perception about Iran that has been very negative through out the world and I think she is trying to explain that there is not any real difference between Iran from most with the obvious exceptions.

We live in a society of labels and classes both here and in other parts of the world. To label this as an autobiography might not be accurate on its own. The viewpoints are not many, but one, our author. She takes us through her life and what she learned through out her life and it's interesting to see how much the girl change into a smart woman trying to still figure things out and keep her identity. These traits are universal and I think that for her to tell this story is good so as to see that Iran and the Middle East is not what we have been told completely. There is a sense of assimilation in culture with the younger people. Are they aware? Do they use this form to get through their lives? I wonder how one can condemn actions by the west and yet adapt their ways?

As for this book being a graphic novel? I think Satrapi might have intended this form to get to a certain group of readers, young readers. Young readers tend to be more susceptible to this genre and while this is not a children's book, young adults tend to read this genre and she might had hope to shape a new generation of readers about what is going on over there. I want to see how the author continues to grow in this book. I think my knowledge of the Middle East has grown a bit as well.

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez(fin)

Marquez's Solitude shows how solidarity can at times, not be best. The Buendia family came down in part, because of their desires. Choices were made that had consequences that revealed later were tragic. The Buendias were happy people(at times) and while warned (Jose Arcadia and Ursula), travel a path that went to a place of possible danger. In Solitude, was Marquez thinking that people who became colonialized became trap in a life predetermined if not by nature than by post colonialism? Was their fate predetermined before outside influence came in to play? While I'm not saying I approved of marring family members and having children by them, is there more a mythology of oneness here? Were we all related anyway and for us all to achieve oneness and for everyone to be true and caring for each other, that we must be one?

As for Frantz Fanon's views on anti-colonialism, there are things to think about. Change can be good, like our new president elect Barack Obama, but when change comes to third world countries where we think they are wrong about things and we tend to impose our will on them, to eventually ruin what was once a utopia to them and change it to something we think they should be. This is not what should be, but actually what we should be careful on. In Solitude, how outside influences helped Macondo turn a small community into a seemingly thriving society that eventually would resort back a bit to it's former self and then an end that was tragic tells you that the phrase: The grass is always greener on the other side, might just be a deeper truth. Was the moments the men(Col. Buendia, Aureliano Segundo and Aureliano) being in solitude, a realization of the outside world's influence and was this Marquez's way of telling the world to butt out of things that do not concern them? People always seemed to die after bringing something from outside Macondo. Maybe Aureliano figured it out too late, ignorance is bliss.

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabo Marquez

It's noted that Garcia Marquez's grandmother was the inspiration of this book, 100 Years, and it shows that the world Marquez saw through his own and sometimes his grandmother's eyes was one of violence, corruption, passion, greed and sorrow. This world or place is one that seemed to have a unending cycle that started with their version of Adam and Eve(Ursula and Jose Arcadia Buendia).

Marquez uses magical realism to describe his world and in part to entertain, but in part to show a sense of his belief that if we get caught in a cycle of violence, corruption, etc that we tend to lose our selves and follow a path that we can not find ourselves out of. A labyrinth is a journey that one takes to find thy self. As I read 100, I see starting with Jose Arcadia Buendia, that he chose a path that started this trend to disaster. Ursula, his wife, warned him about the prospects of children in their marriage and he refuse to believe what would happen. Thinking that she meant their kids would become mutant-like was not the real problem, but how they would grow up and affect their world around them was. Each member of the Buendia family had choices that came with consequences that mostly ended up ruining the family.

Like regular life itself, this book touches on the real problems facing our world (violence, poverty, greed, war, family values, etc) and maybe Marquez was critiquing what he saw in a very unusual way. Going back to the labyrinth example, we all have a journey that we have to go on to find ourselves. Take for example, A Wild Sheep Chase, by Murakami, we read how Boku went on his own spiritual journey and how his own isolation of his feelings cost him a lot if not everything. In One Hundred Years , a spiritual journey critique on life and the aspects on how it can affect certain people is why I see this book being very important to read. I'm learning more and trying to relate it to my own journey in life. I think this book is very thought provoking in how our society is and what we might need to do to change things. I do not think this is a "solitude" experience or problem. As for this labyrinth, the choices made or not made are not mysterious to figure out. Once you find yourself, you can go back out again. The simple part is the choice to go in or not. The hard part is to figure out who you are and why you are. That can help guide you out. I'm looking forward to finishing this book very much.

OMT, I think the Castro connection is not that important or at least not in a negative way. I believe that American propaganda has put some of us in the boat that socialism and Castro is evil. I do not see it being that simple. I'm glad that you steered away from that in class. Its like the current political news, oh Obama is a socialist, that means he is evil! Wow. Sorry, I got off the subject there.

100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Sorry about the time, I have been busy.

As I have delve into this book, with all of the prestige of this being a winner of the Nobel Prize, I can see why. This a a complicated book which touches on a lot of different aspects of a culture very foreign to most Americans. Magic realism is very evident in this book. Using magic realism to tell a story is a way to explain what your beliefs and tell a story that can reflect on what the author sees and experiences. Some of the over the top like experiences in this book about the Buendia family is intriguing. Lets start with Jose Arcadia Buendia, the patriach of this family. Here is a man that did care about the potential consequences of his actions by marrying and having children with his own cousin. They bore children that have went on to live very different lives and this affected the community they live in. Marquez own personal experiences are brought to this book and some elements of magic realism can be found in different ways. For example; a town that did not grow old or died, as this was Marquez's way of explain a paradise-like state for this small community. How about the ghost of Prudencio? Buendia's violent reaction to a simple joke was so overblown that was Marquez trying to tell his readers how violence was simply a way of life? Or how easy one can become violent? Our society today is unfortunately very violent and to not be able to respond peacefully, one can have things come back on them. As for Jose Arcadia Buendia, he and his wife, Ursula, became haunted by Aguilar's ghost. This ghost would not rest until justice was done, maybe? I found it ironic, a common theme to post modern writing, that this ghost came back to haunt Buendia until his death. He saw how that night helped started trouble. I personally, can not understand the meaning of the flowers that came down the night of Buendia's death. What was the meaning? Was it a symbol for peace that was not found by Jose Arcadia Buendia? His going mad was a sign as well maybe of regret. Maybe he knew that he should have not follow the path he took? What I'm taking right now is this: one must be careful about there actions as they can have a domino affect that can cause a lot of problems. I do believe that while the town of Macondo was living a bit in solitude, government's involvement was something that help turn things bad in part because of the parties(liberals/conservatives). Interesting how these parties represent a country torn by them, similar to another country, us. I see Marquez's commentary, but I'm interested in more and what else or where else he is going.