Week 6

        For this week's assignment I spent some time reading through Hitting Budapest by NoViolet Bulawayo. In hitting Budapest I found the environment quite interesting. Some things weren't explained fully, but in all it gave a good sense of the surroundings. Paradise is a run down lower class area, while Budapest is a quiet well endowed city. Budapest is laden with nice houses and streets, and trees hanging with ripe fruit. It is a dreamy contrast to the town of paradise that the children come from, as if it is in a postcard.

      The children themselves essentially represent this environment. They are poor and hungry, and most of all they want change. Some children dream of it, having faith in one thing or another that they believe will change their stars in the long run. Yet there are also characters like Bastard who is tired of the place, but is resigned to the fate of most of the people who live there. It seems to me like the author wants you to think both parties are wrong.

     I believe that Bastard wants to be wrong. With a name like his, one can only wonder what his life has been so far. He has a very pessimistic outlook, but its clear that he only feels that way so he can protect himself and feel as though he is stronger than the others. He wants life to prove him wrong. Darling and Sbho however, are vivid dreamers. They hold onto anything they can that helps them believe things will change.

Through these different expressions in beliefs the author shows what paradise is really like through the characters. It can be downtrodden and seem hopeless, but there is always something there to encourage its people.

Reading from positions

   

       For my writing this week, I would like to discuss the two part short story "Planet of the Amazon Women" and apply a feminist criticism to the story. The main topic I would like to discuss is how male and female roles are defined in this short story. The answer to that is, most plainly, there aren't any.

If you were to discuss most literature and narrative works, you would probably assume off the bat a sort of standard set of roles for men and women. There are "feminine roles" that are primarily occupied by women and occasionally men like mothers, sisters, teachers. Similarly for men there are roles like fathers and leaders, and those too can be occupied by the opposite gender. One could assume then that in a world where men don't exist, male type roles would be carried over in females. This short story has so many successes because that is not the case.

In this world without men, there are no more "roles" for genders; In fact, with only one sex surviving on the planet, one could say gender disappears altogether. These roles are unnecessary because they are trivial. The women on Hippolyta express themselves through their religion, culture, or however they please. They don't have any need to represent masculinity, or even femininity. I think that at a standard level, this is how people are. No one really fits into these roles without being taught them, and the women on the planet certainly survive well enough without having to be more or less like any gender.

     
  For my discussion this week, I will talk on comparisons between Wes Anderson's "The Grand Budapest Hotel" and Stefan Zweig's "24 Hours in the Life of a Woman". Prior to this weeks readings, I had no experience at all with either of these two creators. Zweig's writing was older and very differently phrased from the passages I had been used to reading. In a similar way, I found Wes Anderson's films strikingly different from films that I regularly enjoy. In these cases different did not mean bad. I am not here today to discuss differences, however. In actuality, the two works that I experienced carried many similarities between them, though most of these were probably intentional. In his script writing, Wes Anderson speaks about how he drew a lot of inspiration from Zweig's work, so these comparisons are not completely unfounded.

The first similarity that stuck out to me between the two works was the fact that the narrator of these stories was for the most part unexpected. The old woman in 24 Hours, and Zero in Grand Budapest were not the conventional main characters and weren't particularly involved in the set up of the story. This kind of set up is very different from general storytelling and caught me off guard as a viewer. Another similarity that I felt drawn to was the fact that most of both stories, and most of the action involved, was told entirely through flashback. This is not completely unheard of in terms of storytelling, but it is certainly the most obvious comparison between the two.

Finally, the most compelling similarity between these two stories, for me, was the melancholy mood of it all. The narrators were very unexpected unusual characters with extremely compelling back stories to tell. They told their exciting tales which didn't resolve in the "perfect ending," but rather a realistic one that somehow still managed to be happy despite everything. This tone of the stories is what I found most inspiring.

I can see why Wes Anderson drew so much inspiration from Stefan Zweig. I now finding myself intrigued to write a similar story with inspiration from both of these creators.

The "True" Grit in True Grit

           
         I would like to focus my discussion of my thoughts on this book on the meaning of the title throughout the work.  The term "True Grit" is a description used often by characters within the book, especially by the narrator, the young Mattie Ross. In her search for someone with this rough and tough quality, Mattie uses the term most often to describe the Marshal Rooster Cogburn whom she hired to help avenge her father. In my own reading of the book, however, it seemed to me that each character seemed to show their own form of "True grit"- suggesting that despite the name, there may not be a true form.
        As is characteristic of westerns, most characters had there own strong form of determination and will. From the wild outlaws with their rebellion and determination to stand against the law despite their shortcomings in the robberies, To the stand-offish tale-telling LaBoeuf, who just wanted the reward for Tom Chaney's death. Even though Mattie may not recognize it herself at first, she herself has true grit. Despite her age and stature in society, Mattie refuses to stand down until she receives the justice she wants and on her terms. Her stubbornness and persistence against the difficult odds shown to her, even as she continues through life after their adventure, in the end, show her own true grit.
      I believe that as Mattie journeys through the book, she comes to see the true grit in many of the other characters, and eventually within herself. She learns of her own strength. Although she loses a lot and doesn't physically gain much she grows tremendously in this definition by the end of the book.