Sadie: good job of bringing in the Brechin. But now try to bring in a little bit more of your own stuff.
In just quickly looking at www.goldengatebridge.org, for example, I notice that the layout of the page is quite interesting. the biggest thing on the page is a giant shopping cart urging people to buy transit tickets (great gift ideas) for their loved ones (presumably for christmas).
There's a prominent note on the page about the barrier being built, and right below that a scientific study of "recent trends in Bridge Traffic and Transit"
How do suicide and traffic go together? Why those two "trend reports side by side" that hasn't been fully explored yet, although you can build off of the readings we've had.
Within the traffic report, itself, you can see the statistics being paired with someone trying to make an argument about public transit...or at least wanting to appear to. The trope of environmentalism comes up quite a bit--you may want to think about why that is and where the particular highly scientific way in which there "moral" quesitons are cast takes us...
There's a ton there, so don't just stick to the articles that we've read. Use them, of course, but also build on what you see that's new
This is a great detailed reading of this passage. I really like how you've set up this opposition between "knoweldge" (I don't know whether you can fall off a mountain" and what someone can learn as a truth of their own.
In your reading of the verbs you can just be a little bit more clear.
"The way the sentence is structured with the use of “skipped and jumped and danced” causes the reader to imagine Ray doing all of these actions one right after the other."
Ex. Keroack's discussion of his "new" identity is shown as one of personal growth. This emphasis on on movement and change in identity is a recurring trope in beat generation writing. That emphasis represents ....
You'll have to see how it is different too from Trip Master Monkey, which looks in partly back to tradition, partly to the stage, to build up an identity.
This is a lovely, well organized reading of the passage you've picked out. Great point here:
"The tension between Ray Smith and his brother-in-law lies deeply in their societal values, not in their specific concerns for Bob."
And you've nicely developed your point.
I think that you can easily include an additional paragraph discussing the fact that Ray Smith ends up giving in about the actual dog. That was pretty surprising for me. Ray's wiliingness to leave the dog goes along with your theis statement above, but I think there may be more develop, too, in a close reading of that decision. Is it the case, as it seems in Addie's reading, that the Beats were willing to just see changing the ways in which they thought about things as doing all that was needed... (i.e. in the end Smith didn't really free the dog)
and what do you make of that. Was it something that could be justified by the times? or should we blow all of those changes in thinking off as merely an early verison of political correctness?
This is a really great essay topic that could lead to some very interesting conclusions. Your reading of this passage lends well to your thesis. This particular scene in the book is an important moment of growth for Ray. Separated from wine, societal pressures, and doubt, he is able to learn new truths about himself. You draw attention to the jubilant diction, which is significant.
You might also want to explore the mountain's centrality to the Buddhist ideology, both as a metaphor and a symbol. There is some great T'ang dynasty poetry dealing with mountains (for which Whittman Ah Sing has great respect).
As Eireene wrote, I like how you set up knowledge versus belief. Ray doesn't know whether or not you can fall off a mountain, but he doesn't think so. This will be a topic in Tripmaster Monkey, as well. I think your reading of The Dharma Bums is very effective.
Aaron, I think your ideas are very cool regarding Whitman and Ginsberg. The idea that you immediately are ready to make statement really shows that you have a greater grasp of the subject matter than maybe you think you do without having researched much. I think you are right that Ginsberg and Whitman despite being such different people would probably have a lot of similarities in their opinions.
I think the imperialism/white spread idea is one definitely worth expanding upon. Even though it seems like you think it's a stretch if you can make it fit I say do it, because really, what is literary analysis if not stretching truths to fit all truths.
Stacy/Dharma Bums: Ray’s conflict with his brother-in-law
Your reading of this part of the novel is extremely interesting and engaging. I am also working with Dharma Bums for my final paper and am discussing the idea of self-reflection and identity seen throughout the work. The differences between Ray and his brother-in-law are very apparent and your analysis further implies this.
This section shows how Ray’s lifestyle is much more easygoing compared to his brother-in-law’s. Even though the brother replies “it doesn’t bother me,” if he was tied to a chain like a dog, it definitely would bother him. Since Ray understands that dogs should not be chained further implies the freedom he has and wants. The incorporation of capitalism and consumerism further applies to the beat generation that Kerouac is a huge part of as it is a theme present throughout all the authors’ works.
Referring to your comment about the untraditional values Ray’s family thinks he has also relates to Ray’s family not wanting him to sleep on the porch. The tone of the narrator makes it seem that the family almost insists he sleeps inside, but he goes with his own traditions and sleeps outside. This further shows the different values Ray and his family have but Ray will always go with what he believes in.
But isn't there something funny about making smoky bear into a buddah?
He's a little bit goofy looking, but he's not the first symbol that would come to mind.
And what is the history of Smoky the Bear. You're going to have to go into that and see how this symbol, not created by Snyder got transformed in this mantra...
There's the biographical angle of Snyder working as a fire lookout for many years, but there's something subconscious (or extra-textual) going on here too in the play of symbols.
ps. sorry for making that word up. "extra-textual" it sounded so good but, of course, I mean intertextual.
These are really good quotes to pick out, and I'd like you to really examine something the things that are in qutoes inside the passage that you've got there.
Why would graffitti artists use words like "strike back" (military-sounding words) and "instant dialogue" advertizing sounding words--at least to my ear.
Do you hear them that way? What would happen if you did?
You've got a hard job because this territory has been covered somewhat often in our times.
but see what you can do to open up this passage.
Why a distinction between beautiful and grotesque rather than just beautiful and ugly.
the phrasing "obscene undergarments" is funny if you pull it out..
Why the phrase like "hell or high water" where did that phrase come from? How about "come and get it?"
“I just don’t understand why women want bodies like this. The grotesqueness of them and they try so very hard to get these bodies, moving hell and high water with dieting, operations, injections, obscene undergarments to arrive at one of these damn things and then if they try everything and still can’t get one, the dumb cunts fake it. Well, here’s one they can have for free. Come and get it, you bitches.” p. 66
I think the idea of a zombie story is something that could really work well with the kinds of people we've been studying.
The whole survival horror genre tends to focus more on the human survivors and how they react to their situation rather than on the actual monsters. Like in the Romero movies, the 'normal' people usually end up killing each other through their own selfishness and petty squabbling.
Go with whatever works for you, but the idea of a how San Franciscans would react to a zombie attack is a pretty intriguing one.
I really like your project idea. I had never really thought about the impact of geological locations in regard to graffiti, and I think this is a topic that can really offer a lot of very interesting information.
In addition, I really like the quotation you chose. Many people look past the political significance of graffiti and merely dismiss it as art, or for some people, and eye sore. I think that this art form carries much political weight and is something worth examining more closely.
It will be interesting to see the progression of your project!
Addie/The Dharma Bums, Tripmaster Mokey, and Identity
I really liked your analysis and wanted to share a few passages that it made me think of: Ray discovers the importance of thinking positively and remember that the pressures of life are imagined again while he is at his mother's house for winter. Stating, "And I realized that this was the truth Rosie knew now, and all the dead, my dead father and dead brother and dead uncles and cousins and aunts, the truth that is realizable in a dead man's bones and is beyond the Tree of Buddha as well as the Cross of Jesus. Believe that the world is an ethereal flower, and ye live," Ray finds a deeper spirituality, through combining both his Christian and Buddhist influences, in the vitality and beauty of life—of a simple life(137). I believe that this passage also displays a very defining moment for Ray Smith, as he had been feeling "tremendously depressed" before this moment of enlightenment. Although, as you already mentioned, this is not his first epiphany, it seems that both Ray and Japhy waver at times in their beliefs, most likely because of how they differ so greatly from mainstream beliefs and traditions. It is not easy to always know you are right when others tell you (through actions, words, glares...etc.) that you are wrong. It can diminish your spirit, your hopes, and your dreams to be so overrun and underappreciated by society. Earlier in the novel, Ray gives us another glimpse at this pariah depression, "I felt rather sad, in fact, real sad, like the night before in that horrible fog wire-fence country in industrial L.A., when in fact I'd cried a little. After all a homeless man has reason to cry, everything in the world is pointed against him" (122). Despite his deep beliefs in the imagined pressures of life, the "void" as he so often describes it, Ray is still depressed by the fact that so many others do not think the way he does. I am thrilled you are comparing this with Tripmaster Monkey, because I think this idea of alienation greatly coincides with both characters' search for self and identity and meaning. I hope that those passage assist you in developing your project. Also, I really like how you focused on Kerouac's use of "skipped and jumped and danced." Kerouac's verbs vitalize his writing, while his use of long sentences and multiple conjunctions add a Biblical feeling to his narrative. Both of which I think can be tied into Ray's identity. Also, I think it is key that both of the aforementioned enlightenment scenes occurred when he was away from the restricting bonds of society.
Good luck with your project, it sounds really fascinating to me.
I think this is the only idea I have read about that made me jealous for not thinking of it myself. This gives you an awesome reason to take a trip to san fran and visit some random as well as famous places and hunt down some street art. I would ask people around the sites things such as: How long it's been there, whether or not colors are symbolic, etc. Of course I'm assuming that you know nothing. Maybe you should even find out when someones going to create a new piece and venture with them, documenting it all. Maybe your a street artist :) Just some ideas. I think this project has lots of potential. I also think the more physical time you put into it by being in the city, talking to the locals, learning the underground and so forth, the better it will end up.
Dear Stacy, This is a really interesting analysis. I totally agree with you on the tension between Ray and his bro-in-law being caused by a difference in values. My personal bias has me agreeing with Ray, that animals should be let free; but I could see how the brother could feel threatened and maybe even a little mocked by Ray's attitude. He's pretty assertive (at least more than he usually is) in this scene. I'm particularly interested in your thoughts on the envy others experience when checking out the Beats. It could be that others yearn for Ray's freedom from responsibility but just can't figure out how to get there from where they are. But some are so complacent in their social privelage that they would never imagine doing something that the power-majority would disapprove of. This makes me think of SF: how many people, and in what positions, are problems such as homelessness and prostitution recognized but not concretely addressed? In other words, how does privelage and fear keep people from helping each other or working more tangibly toward equality and social justice in the city? How are or aren't these things a priority? Great work, Stacy!
Dear San Francisco/Eireene, I just wanted to say, for all of us who are still doing most of the commenting and posting, it's getting more difficult to find recent/current blogs to comment on! I think the last couple I've done have been on posts from 10/27 or thereabouts. I'm sure you're doing fine keeping track of all of our postings, I just wanted to acknowledge that the pickings are getting a little slim because I worry about whether you can find my comments! Thanks for all your work Eireene, and thanks to everyone else too!
I think your topic is a really interesting one that can go a lot of places. I think Brautigan is great candidate for discussion because, as you pointed as, he may have some misogynistic tendencies, but he then appears to have a "softer side" when he is refering to love.
I love how you bring up that you are taking the point of view from you being a woman. I think that brings a lot more material to debate because you can both symathize with Brautigan, and be aware of how the women who are being gawked at feel.
Snyder is deeply involved with Buddhist and Zen traditions. These traditions most closely focus on ideas regarding the cessation of suffering and the notion of “do no harm.” Snyder ties the traditions and precepts of Buddhism to environmental concerns and motivations. He freely adopts these traditions to form his own religious and environmental blending that can be observed in Kerouac’s “Dharma Bums.” I would suggest if you are looking for some more information on the Buddhist philosophies borrowed in The Smokey Bear Sutra to investigate the “Dhammapada” a Buddhist verse text that contains various philosophies divided sections focused on various Buddhist principles and ideals. The purpose of this text like the Smokey Bear Sutra is to provide a method for understanding and a reference for daily living for Buddhist practitioners.
To additionally consider the Smokey Bear reference in connection with Buddhist traditions, perhaps you could reference Buddhism’s close connection with and reverence for animals. The symbol itself granted is a bit silly but Snyder chose this imagery as his “Buddha” symbol and traditionally a Buddha can take any form at any time; animal, human, ghost, or god.
This is a good point about the personal blog posts getting a bit slim.
What I'm doing in terms of keeping track of comments is that I'm just counting up the number of comments that you make and whether the time stamp appears to be eggregiously late. But I'll notice that you made one during week 1 or 2 by the time stamp regardless of whether it's on someone's early or just recent post.
In other words it's fine to roam around a little in terms of commenting,
BUT
everyone, keep up with your blog posts, please! I've been roaming around and commenting less as midterms and class meetings take up more time, but as you can see from the technology I'll see everything when I sit down with the participation grade.
I also wanted to note that due to some technical convention only about 19 followers are showing up on that main page in the follwer's box, but that you can easiliy reach anyone's blog from the community post pages by clicking on their picture and name at the top of the posts.
Maybe you've figure that all out by now, but it took me a little while to understand it.
Hope all is well.
& please don't forget to ask for help as you need it. You're kind of on your own now as for the main part of researching--because this is college and we trust you to do great stuff
--but also we trust you to ask for help as you find exciting things and run into exciting problems.
That really is what I'm here for much more than worrying over your attendence and such. And hopefully it's what you're here for too.
Okay, enough pep talk and sermonizing. Go out and do your great research, please!
I’m really interested in your acessment of the relationship that whites have with the environmental movement. Although Native American people are considered more in touch with nature due to their acestry, it’s important to acknowledge that they are really no more qualified to have an impact on the environmental movement than any other nationality. Some of the most environmentally conscious and nature loving people I know are as white as chalk. I think it’s equally strange that Snyder would be so supportive of white people taking a backseat to Native Americans considering his own environmental history. If anyone should understand it’s not a race issue, you’d think it would be him.
This sounds like a great topic to explore in light of the course materials. I would highly recommend reading Aldous Huxley’s, The Doors of Perception. I think it would really add to the research for your project as this book (written in 1954) really sparked the rediscovery of psychedelics nationwide. It actually inspired Jim Morrison to name his band “The Doors” and he quoted Huxley often. Here is a quote taken from the book itself that I’m always intrigued by: “The man who comes back through the Door in the Wall will never be quite the same as the man who went out. He will be wiser but less sure, happier but less self-satisfied, humbler in acknowledging his ignorance yet better equipped to understand the relationship of words to things, of systematic reasoning to the unfathomable mystery which it tries, forever vainly, to comprehend.” Seriously, read this! It’s amazing!
You’re insight about Whitman and Ginsberg is great. I like how you plan to expand your analysis in their relationship with Buddhism.
When you say, “I want to discover whether or not these two uphold existing prejudices directed at the East (their orientalism) and how they differ and relate in this respect,” I think you can delve into Said’s concept of Orientalism and maybe even bring in a little Franz Fanon as Rob mentioned in lecture. Even though they are very similar, I think Ginsberg and Whitman are very different, just as you mention.
Really good analysis here Stacy, it definitely points to some key aspects of Ray's lifestyle as opposed to his Brother-in-laws' lifestyle. I feel that Ray is very threating to the traditional way of living so many of his friends and family members are used to, and they don't really know how to react to him beyond getting upset about rather trivial things. His brother-in-law clearly saw that Ray meant no harm to the dog, but the fact that Ray was including the dog in his progressive lifestyle bothered him to no end. Just as Ray is unable to convince his family to join him in his life away from the traditional boundaries of domesticity and consumerism, his brother-in-law has no way of convincing Ray to rejoin them in these ways of life, and therefore feels threatened by him.
I love paper topics that expose the unpleasant accounts of everyday life, especially topics that remain truthful and don’t sugar coat anything. Make sure you use that one Ferlinghetti poem we read in the beginning of the quarter that discusses the view instead of the circumstances or why the person was actually on the bridge. Though obvious, the poem skips over important information more than info that it does state.
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32 comments:
Sadie/Golden Gate
Sadie: good job of bringing in the Brechin. But now try to bring in a little bit more of your own stuff.
In just quickly looking at www.goldengatebridge.org, for example, I notice that the layout of the page is quite interesting. the biggest thing on the page is a giant shopping cart urging people to buy transit tickets (great gift ideas) for their loved ones (presumably for christmas).
There's a prominent note on the page about the barrier being built, and right below that a scientific study of "recent trends in Bridge Traffic and Transit"
How do suicide and traffic go together? Why those two "trend reports side by side" that hasn't been fully explored yet, although you can build off of the readings we've had.
Within the traffic report, itself, you can see the statistics being paired with someone trying to make an argument about public transit...or at least wanting to appear to. The trope of environmentalism comes up quite a bit--you may want to think about why that is and where the particular highly scientific way in which there "moral" quesitons are cast takes us...
There's a ton there, so don't just stick to the articles that we've read. Use them, of course, but also build on what you see that's new
Addie
This is a great detailed reading of this passage. I really like how you've set up this opposition between "knoweldge" (I don't know whether you can fall off a mountain" and what someone can learn as a truth of their own.
In your reading of the verbs you can just be a little bit more clear.
"The way the sentence is structured with the use of “skipped and jumped and danced” causes the reader to imagine Ray doing all of these actions one right after the other."
Ex. Keroack's discussion of his "new" identity is shown as one of personal growth. This emphasis on on movement and change in identity is a recurring trope in beat generation writing. That emphasis represents ....
You'll have to see how it is different too from Trip Master Monkey, which looks in partly back to tradition, partly to the stage, to build up an identity.
Stacy
This is a lovely, well organized reading of the passage you've picked out. Great point here:
"The tension between Ray Smith and his brother-in-law lies deeply in their societal values, not in their specific concerns for Bob."
And you've nicely developed your point.
I think that you can easily include an additional paragraph discussing the fact that Ray Smith ends up giving in about the actual dog. That was pretty surprising for me. Ray's wiliingness to leave the dog goes along with your theis statement above, but I think there may be more develop, too, in a close reading of that decision. Is it the case, as it seems in Addie's reading, that the Beats were willing to just see changing the ways in which they thought about things as doing all that was needed...
(i.e. in the end Smith didn't really free the dog)
and what do you make of that. Was it something that could be justified by the times? or should we blow all of those changes in thinking off as merely an early verison of political correctness?
Addie/Dharma Bums vs. Tripmaster Monkey
This is a really great essay topic that could lead to some very interesting conclusions. Your reading of this passage lends well to your thesis. This particular scene in the book is an important moment of growth for Ray. Separated from wine, societal pressures, and doubt, he is able to learn new truths about himself. You draw attention to the jubilant diction, which is significant.
You might also want to explore the mountain's centrality to the Buddhist ideology, both as a metaphor and a symbol. There is some great T'ang dynasty poetry dealing with mountains (for which Whittman Ah Sing has great respect).
As Eireene wrote, I like how you set up knowledge versus belief. Ray doesn't know whether or not you can fall off a mountain, but he doesn't think so. This will be a topic in Tripmaster Monkey, as well. I think your reading of The Dharma Bums is very effective.
Aaron, I think your ideas are very cool regarding Whitman and Ginsberg. The idea that you immediately are ready to make statement really shows that you have a greater grasp of the subject matter than maybe you think you do without having researched much. I think you are right that Ginsberg and Whitman despite being such different people would probably have a lot of similarities in their opinions.
I think the imperialism/white spread idea is one definitely worth expanding upon. Even though it seems like you think it's a stretch if you can make it fit I say do it, because really, what is literary analysis if not stretching truths to fit all truths.
Stacy/Dharma Bums: Ray’s conflict with his brother-in-law
Your reading of this part of the novel is extremely interesting and engaging. I am also working with Dharma Bums for my final paper and am discussing the idea of self-reflection and identity seen throughout the work. The differences between Ray and his brother-in-law are very apparent and your analysis further implies this.
This section shows how Ray’s lifestyle is much more easygoing compared to his brother-in-law’s. Even though the brother replies “it doesn’t bother me,” if he was tied to a chain like a dog, it definitely would bother him. Since Ray understands that dogs should not be chained further implies the freedom he has and wants. The incorporation of capitalism and consumerism further applies to the beat generation that Kerouac is a huge part of as it is a theme present throughout all the authors’ works.
Referring to your comment about the untraditional values Ray’s family thinks he has also relates to Ray’s family not wanting him to sleep on the porch. The tone of the narrator makes it seem that the family almost insists he sleeps inside, but he goes with his own traditions and sleeps outside. This further shows the different values Ray and his family have but Ray will always go with what he believes in.
Sebastian
Great mantra noticing.
But isn't there something funny about making smoky bear into a buddah?
He's a little bit goofy looking, but he's not the first symbol that would come to mind.
And what is the history of Smoky the Bear. You're going to have to go into that and see how this symbol, not created by Snyder got transformed in this mantra...
There's the biographical angle of Snyder working as a fire lookout for many years, but there's something subconscious (or extra-textual) going on here too in the play of symbols.
ps. sorry for making that word up. "extra-textual" it sounded so good but, of course, I mean intertextual.
sarah/striking back & etc
These are really good quotes to pick out, and I'd like you to really examine something the things that are in qutoes inside the passage that you've got there.
Why would graffitti artists use words like "strike back" (military-sounding words) and "instant dialogue" advertizing sounding words--at least to my ear.
Do you hear them that way? What would happen if you did?
allison/women & bodies
You've got a hard job because this territory has been covered somewhat often in our times.
but see what you can do to open up this passage.
Why a distinction between beautiful and grotesque rather than just beautiful and ugly.
the phrasing "obscene undergarments" is funny if you pull it out..
Why the phrase like "hell or high water" where did that phrase come from? How about "come and get it?"
“I just don’t understand why women want bodies like this. The grotesqueness of them and they try so very hard to get these bodies, moving hell and high water with dieting, operations, injections, obscene undergarments to arrive at one of these damn things and then if they try everything and still can’t get one, the dumb cunts fake it. Well, here’s one they can have for free. Come and get it, you bitches.” p. 66
Superman (I'm sorry I forgot your actual name :/)
I think the idea of a zombie story is something that could really work well with the kinds of people we've been studying.
The whole survival horror genre tends to focus more on the human survivors and how they react to their situation rather than on the actual monsters. Like in the Romero movies, the 'normal' people usually end up killing each other through their own selfishness and petty squabbling.
Go with whatever works for you, but the idea of a how San Franciscans would react to a zombie attack is a pretty intriguing one.
Sarah/Street Art
I really like your project idea. I had never really thought about the impact of geological locations in regard to graffiti, and I think this is a topic that can really offer a lot of very interesting information.
In addition, I really like the quotation you chose. Many people look past the political significance of graffiti and merely dismiss it as art, or for some people, and eye sore. I think that this art form carries much political weight and is something worth examining more closely.
It will be interesting to see the progression of your project!
Addie/The Dharma Bums, Tripmaster Mokey, and Identity
I really liked your analysis and wanted to share a few passages that it made me think of:
Ray discovers the importance of thinking positively and remember that the pressures of life are imagined again while he is at his mother's house for winter. Stating, "And I realized that this was the truth Rosie knew now, and all the dead, my dead father and dead brother and dead uncles and cousins and aunts, the truth that is realizable in a dead man's bones and is beyond the Tree of Buddha as well as the Cross of Jesus. Believe that the world is an ethereal flower, and ye live," Ray finds a deeper spirituality, through combining both his Christian and Buddhist influences, in the vitality and beauty of life—of a simple life(137). I believe that this passage also displays a very defining moment for Ray Smith, as he had been feeling "tremendously depressed" before this moment of enlightenment. Although, as you already mentioned, this is not his first epiphany, it seems that both Ray and Japhy waver at times in their beliefs, most likely because of how they differ so greatly from mainstream beliefs and traditions. It is not easy to always know you are right when others tell you (through actions, words, glares...etc.) that you are wrong. It can diminish your spirit, your hopes, and your dreams to be so overrun and underappreciated by society.
Earlier in the novel, Ray gives us another glimpse at this pariah depression, "I felt rather sad, in fact, real sad, like the night before in that horrible fog wire-fence country in industrial L.A., when in fact I'd cried a little. After all a homeless man has reason to cry, everything in the world is pointed against him" (122). Despite his deep beliefs in the imagined pressures of life, the "void" as he so often describes it, Ray is still depressed by the fact that so many others do not think the way he does. I am thrilled you are comparing this with Tripmaster Monkey, because I think this idea of alienation greatly coincides with both characters' search for self and identity and meaning.
I hope that those passage assist you in developing your project. Also, I really like how you focused on Kerouac's use of "skipped and jumped and danced." Kerouac's verbs vitalize his writing, while his use of long sentences and multiple conjunctions add a Biblical feeling to his narrative. Both of which I think can be tied into Ray's identity. Also, I think it is key that both of the aforementioned enlightenment scenes occurred when he was away from the restricting bonds of society.
Good luck with your project, it sounds really fascinating to me.
Sarah/street art
I think this is the only idea I have read about that made me jealous for not thinking of it myself. This gives you an awesome reason to take a trip to san fran and visit some random as well as famous places and hunt down some street art. I would ask people around the sites things such as: How long it's been there, whether or not colors are symbolic, etc. Of course I'm assuming that you know nothing. Maybe you should even find out when someones going to create a new piece and venture with them, documenting it all. Maybe your a street artist :) Just some ideas. I think this project has lots of potential. I also think the more physical time you put into it by being in the city, talking to the locals, learning the underground and so forth, the better it will end up.
Stacy/Kerouac and his relationships
Dear Stacy,
This is a really interesting analysis. I totally agree with you on the tension between Ray and his bro-in-law being caused by a difference in values. My personal bias has me agreeing with Ray, that animals should be let free; but I could see how the brother could feel threatened and maybe even a little mocked by Ray's attitude. He's pretty assertive (at least more than he usually is) in this scene. I'm particularly interested in your thoughts on the envy others experience when checking out the Beats. It could be that others yearn for Ray's freedom from responsibility but just can't figure out how to get there from where they are. But some are so complacent in their social privelage that they would never imagine doing something that the power-majority would disapprove of. This makes me think of SF: how many people, and in what positions, are problems such as homelessness and prostitution recognized but not concretely addressed? In other words, how does privelage and fear keep people from helping each other or working more tangibly toward equality and social justice in the city? How are or aren't these things a priority? Great work, Stacy!
Dear San Francisco/Eireene,
I just wanted to say, for all of us who are still doing most of the commenting and posting, it's getting more difficult to find recent/current blogs to comment on! I think the last couple I've done have been on posts from 10/27 or thereabouts. I'm sure you're doing fine keeping track of all of our postings, I just wanted to acknowledge that the pickings are getting a little slim because I worry about whether you can find my comments!
Thanks for all your work Eireene, and thanks to everyone else too!
Allison/woman and Brautigan:
I think your topic is a really interesting one that can go a lot of places. I think Brautigan is great candidate for discussion because, as you pointed as, he may have some misogynistic tendencies, but he then appears to have a "softer side" when he is refering to love.
I love how you bring up that you are taking the point of view from you being a woman. I think that brings a lot more material to debate because you can both symathize with Brautigan, and be aware of how the women who are being gawked at feel.
Sebastian – Smokey Bear
Snyder is deeply involved with Buddhist and Zen traditions. These traditions most closely focus on ideas regarding the cessation of suffering and the notion of “do no harm.” Snyder ties the traditions and precepts of Buddhism to environmental concerns and motivations. He freely adopts these traditions to form his own religious and environmental blending that can be observed in Kerouac’s “Dharma Bums.” I would suggest if you are looking for some more information on the Buddhist philosophies borrowed in The Smokey Bear Sutra to investigate the “Dhammapada” a Buddhist verse text that contains various philosophies divided sections focused on various Buddhist principles and ideals. The purpose of this text like the Smokey Bear Sutra is to provide a method for understanding and a reference for daily living for Buddhist practitioners.
To additionally consider the Smokey Bear reference in connection with Buddhist traditions, perhaps you could reference Buddhism’s close connection with and reverence for animals. The symbol itself granted is a bit silly but Snyder chose this imagery as his “Buddha” symbol and traditionally a Buddha can take any form at any time; animal, human, ghost, or god.
Kate,
This is a good point about the personal blog posts getting a bit slim.
What I'm doing in terms of keeping track of comments is that I'm just counting up the number of comments that you make and whether the time stamp appears to be eggregiously late. But I'll notice that you made one during week 1 or 2 by the time stamp regardless of whether it's on someone's early or just recent post.
In other words it's fine to roam around a little in terms of commenting,
BUT
everyone, keep up with your blog posts, please!
I've been roaming around and commenting less as midterms and class meetings take up more time, but as you can see from the technology I'll see everything when I sit down with the participation grade.
I also wanted to note that due to some technical convention only about 19 followers are showing up on that main page in the follwer's box, but that you can easiliy reach anyone's blog from the community post pages by clicking on their picture and name at the top of the posts.
Maybe you've figure that all out by now, but it took me a little while to understand it.
Hope all is well.
& please don't forget to ask for help as you need it. You're kind of on your own now as for the main part of researching--because this is college and we trust you to do great stuff
--but also we trust you to ask for help as you find exciting things and run into exciting problems.
That really is what I'm here for much more than worrying over your attendence and such. And hopefully it's what you're here for too.
Okay, enough pep talk and sermonizing. Go out and do your great research, please!
Kate Ayers—
I’m really interested in your acessment of the relationship that whites have with the environmental movement. Although Native American people are considered more in touch with nature due to their acestry, it’s important to acknowledge that they are really no more qualified to have an impact on the environmental movement than any other nationality. Some of the most environmentally conscious and nature loving people I know are as white as chalk. I think it’s equally strange that Snyder would be so supportive of white people taking a backseat to Native Americans considering his own environmental history. If anyone should understand it’s not a race issue, you’d think it would be him.
Kelsey Cat McBride/Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test
This sounds like a great topic to explore in light of the course materials. I would highly recommend reading Aldous Huxley’s, The Doors of Perception. I think it would really add to the research for your project as this book (written in 1954) really sparked the rediscovery of psychedelics nationwide. It actually inspired Jim Morrison to name his band “The Doors” and he quoted Huxley often. Here is a quote taken from the book itself that I’m always intrigued by: “The man who comes back through the Door in the Wall will never be quite the same as the man who went out. He will be wiser but less sure, happier but less self-satisfied, humbler in acknowledging his ignorance yet better equipped to understand the relationship of words to things, of systematic reasoning to the unfathomable mystery which it tries, forever vainly, to comprehend.” Seriously, read this! It’s amazing!
Aaron,
You’re insight about Whitman and Ginsberg is great. I like how you plan to expand your analysis in their relationship with Buddhism.
When you say, “I want to discover whether or not these two uphold existing prejudices directed at the East (their orientalism) and how they differ and relate in this respect,” I think you can delve into Said’s concept of Orientalism and maybe even bring in a little Franz Fanon as Rob mentioned in lecture. Even though they are very similar, I think Ginsberg and Whitman are very different, just as you mention.
Stacy/ Ray vs. Brother-in-Law
Really good analysis here Stacy, it definitely points to some key aspects of Ray's lifestyle as opposed to his Brother-in-laws' lifestyle. I feel that Ray is very threating to the traditional way of living so many of his friends and family members are used to, and they don't really know how to react to him beyond getting upset about rather trivial things. His brother-in-law clearly saw that Ray meant no harm to the dog, but the fact that Ray was including the dog in his progressive lifestyle bothered him to no end. Just as Ray is unable to convince his family to join him in his life away from the traditional boundaries of domesticity and consumerism, his brother-in-law has no way of convincing Ray to rejoin them in these ways of life, and therefore feels threatened by him.
Sadie//Golden Gate Bridge
I love paper topics that expose the unpleasant accounts of everyday life, especially topics that remain truthful and don’t sugar coat anything. Make sure you use that one Ferlinghetti poem we read in the beginning of the quarter that discusses the view instead of the circumstances or why the person was actually on the bridge. Though obvious, the poem skips over important information more than info that it does state.
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