Monday, May 4, 2009
Holder of the World
"In other words, at the age of thirty, Hanna was a pure product of her time and place, her marriage and her training, exposed to a range of experience that would be extreme even in today's world, but none of it, consciously, had sunk in or affected her outer behavior."
This was before she became Salem Bibi, but the author is saying that, no matter how many times her signified changed, she was always the same signifier - Hannah - on the outside. Now, when that signifier changed to Salem Bibi, she allowed that outer behavior to change as well because she was no longer tied down to White Town or Gabriel or the New Salem - she was a new person in a new space.
Monday, April 20, 2009
Tactics & Strategies
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Spaces
Instead, then, of thinking of places as areas with boundaries around, they can be imagined as articulated moments in networks of social relations and understandings, but where a large proportion of those relations, experiences, and understandings are constructed on a far larger scale than what we happen to define for that moment as the place itself, whether that be a street, or a region, or even continent. And this in turn allows a sense of place which is extroverted, which includes a consciousness of its links with the wider world, which integrates in a positive way the global and the local.
I like that Massey uses the word 'moment' because I find it so much more fitting than 'place' when talking about spaces. I started to think of my 'space' here on St. Ben's and then started to think of a "Bennie" in general. Why is it that so many people are proud to call themselves a Bennie if it just represents a college? This space that we exist in is more than just ... a physical space. The College of Saint Benedict, in logical terms, is an institution. A collection of buildings - made of cement, stone, wood, etc - inhabited by us students.
But a space, in Juffer's terms, is not entirely logical. Like Klein would say, it's the differences that construct the space. That is what makes a Benny proud of their name - differences. Our 'second campus' - St. John's - is part of that difference. Although someone from St. Ben's may rightfully feel like a part of St. John's, it's still different. St. Ben's is where they sleep, where they 'live', where they first met some of their closest friends. Those tiny differences help to make up their own "sphere" of what it means to be a Benny. Maybe it's the fact that they're proud of being "different", aka rivals, than St. Thomas. Or maybe their being different by being the first generation in their family to go to college.
Whatever it is, there are different spheres that connect to form the 'space' of being a Benny, different...differences... that either bring people together, or leave others to their own spaces. To each his or her own little moment in time that is constantly changing as the world constantly becomes different.
Friday, March 27, 2009
Gilmore Girls
Lorelai Gilmore and her daughter Rory have a slightly unrealistic relationship for most of the show - not all mothers and daughters get along that well - but I feel that Lorelai depicts the 'ideal' single mom.
Unlike some of the media mothers who recieve an enormous ammount of money that assists them in raising their children, Lorelai works her way to the top of the totem pole. She starts off as the maid of a hotel that she will spend the majority of her Rory's early years working at. She's able to save up enough to buy a house and becomes the manager of that very hotel she had been cleaning in the beginning. This is a much more realistic (although not always attainable) goal for single mothers today who don't recieve the majority of someone's money in their will. Gilmore Girls does a good job of showing the organizing that Juffer talks about in Single Mother. Although she does receive help from her extremely rich parents with Rory's schooling, she still insists on being self sufficient with her home and her bills.
Another thing we talked about in class was the support of a community. Lorelai and Rory have exactly that. Stars Hollow is a very small town and they have all known - and helped raise - Rory since birth. With their help, Lorelai is able to balance being a mom and also being able to have relationships (there are a few men on the show that become steady boyfriends).
Overall, Loralei is a self sufficient, independant woman who, with the help of her community, has figured out the juggling act of being a single mom. I think Jane Juffer would be proud.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Not So Innocent
Rich Poor
Scandalous Proper
Betrayal Loyalty
Secrets Openness (?)
Fake Real
Now, if we look at "The Age of Innocence" vs. Gossip Girl we get this:
Rich Rich
Scandalous Scandalous
Betrayal Betrayal
Secrets Secrets
Fake Fake
Hmm... not very good oppositions. The problem I do see, however, is that in these binary oppositions the rich are always associated with scandal, betrayal, and dangerous secrets while the poor get off as always being the good, loyal, and proper people. However, rich is seen as "postive" in today's world while poor would be "negative." This seems a little messed up to me. In both Gossip Girl and "The Age of Innocence" the rich society is all about putting up a front of being everything they're portrayed as not being (loyal, proper, honest, ect.). And this is where I get stuck. Apparently this front the rich are putting on in both 'texts' is exactly how the poor are portrayed. Like we said with the J-Lo song: the rich are "protesting" a little to much how good of people they are. But what's lacking then? A conscious? The ability to think of others besides just themselves? I think perhaps it's an absense of reality. They put up a front in the story because they're actors, they're above the "real world" that the poor are experiencing every day.
I hope that that made some sense...please comment on this because I think I changed my mind about 10 times when writing this!
Thursday, March 12, 2009
No Free Will
Being determined is a scary thought, but if you think about it, every action has a reaction, even if that reaction is formed by our unconscious. Where do our likes and dislikes come from? We don't determine them ourselves when we're born. We can't tell ourselves that rap music is our soul music when in fact it makes us want to kill ourselves. Is there a gene that determines whether or not we like rap music? Not one that I've heard of so far.
So where does this come from? If not our conscious, and not our genealogy, isn't it possible that it is part of our unconsciousness's logic? I'm not sure if we'll ever know, but it seems like a good enough explanation to me! We don't consciously remember every single thing that's happened to us during our life time - it's not all in our working memory. But maybe it's still in our unconcsious. Choosing to go to St. Ben's, although I'm still not sure what the deciding factor was, could have been because of other choices I've made in the past and the effect that they had on me. Even if I didn't think about that when making my college choice, perhaps my unconscious was for me. Kind of scary, huh? Thinking that a different part of us is determining what choices we'll make in the future?
Just something to think about...