Utiopia Achieved

Jean Baudrillard wrote "Utopia Achieved" to explain America to Europeans; at that time, he felt that Europeans needed to become more like Americans to survive when Europe left communism. Both then and now, America was seen as the utopia of the world, the model for everyone else. Though other countries and peoples strive to be American and constantly hear about America, Americans do not know much about other countries. If Americans do not know about or understand the rest of the world, then they are not taking their responsibility as role model seriously. This was a good read for me, I actually found this stimulating and it was nice to read something that I have never really thought about before. For it being a fairly short read, I feel like I actually took something away from this

Panopticism

Foucault wrote “Panopticism”. This was not only a weird read, but also by far the most difficult. I found myself having to basically read line by line, then go back and read it again because it was so hard. While I got the basic understanding of the essay, the way it was written and some of his ideas were a little far fetched for me. I understand the idea of big brother and governments control over people, without really controlling them. The idea that you “might” be being watched is probably pretty valid, but he gets pretty out there.

Male Body

When Bordo starts her writing it seems that she is glad that men’s bodies are starting to be portrayed as objects and that they are not starting to be treated as women have been for decades. Then by the end of the article she says that everyone, males and females, are being too often exploited. I found that she had a convincible argument, one that even went all the way back to the Greeks. The pictures and they way she told the story made it an actually half decent read. Even though some of the content was maybe a little hard for me to read being a male, it was nice to finally read something where I felt like she was there just telling me her views and thoughts

Slave Girl

Harriet Jacobs essay “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl” was a long boring read in my mind. While I understand it was a story she told about her time as a slave in the south, the escape and ruinon in the north with her children. I know that the struggle must have been hard as a slave, and her perserverence and attitude to gain freedom should be applauded, but really, how many times do we have to relive the slavery era. We know it was bad, I also know it happened a long time ago. To me this was just another story. I don’t want to sound insensitive to what happened and her struggle, but this sounds just like every other story I have read about slavery.

Houdinis Box

In Adam Phillips “Houdinis Box” he basically breaks down Houdini for us. He doesn’t really tell us about the escapes that Houdini does, but why he did them. He goes on to tell us about Houdini’s need to not only escape something but to be the only person that does it. In the second part of the essay, its like he allows us in on a session where we get to listen to one of his patients talk about his need to escape something. I didn’t necessarily enjoy this read, but it was bearable. I tend to enjoy reading things that make you think a little. This was a good essay in that sense, I guess when you think about it, everybody is always trying to escape something.

Mothers Garden

In Alice Walkers “In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens” she writes of the black women’s struggle, with all the injustice and savagery they were subjected to. I actually liked this essay. Walker seemed to really speak from the heart, not really trying to impress or persuade anyone. She used other peoples work in here essay to help tell her story and prove her point. Not being too pushy, just telling a story. A lot of people walk around not knowing their true talents or what they should do in life, they just let society put them in their place.

Achievement of Desire

In the Achievement of Desire, Rodriguez dscribes his internal struggle and how he had to basically withdrawl his family to become educated. He comes from a prodomidently uneducated family and he guides us through his struggle to deal with his family and how he was determined to become that “educated man”. Rodriguez believes that this, however, is the price that must be made to break the mold of mediocrity and to become a part of that elite educated society that the “scholarship boy” wants so bad. Rodriguez uses a lot of personal stories in his essay, which I felt really worked for me. It made the essay easier to read for me, almost like he was in front of me telling me the story

Stranger in the Village

Baldwin wrote the essay during a writing retreat in a small village in Switzerland. In it, he wrote about what it was like to be a black man in a foreign land. The feelings of isolation and lack of acceptance he experienced provided him with insight about the European ignorance of the African Race and race relations in the United States before the Civil Rights era. I found this to be a really easy read. Nice and short, to the point and I think he speaks very clearly and states his observation and the point he is trying to make.

Wild Tongue

Anzaldua’s, How to Tame a Wild Tongue was obviously much easier to read than Entering into the Serpent. What I found interesting was her emphasis on how important language was to her culture. She talks about her experience of dealing with a teacher who was upset with her when she would speak in Spanish sometimes. She really seems to reflect about the power struggle that there is to find a happy medium for two cultures to co-exist. I did find myself having issues with this essay though. People want to move to this country so they can live a better life, yet some people want to say we discriminate against them and we don’t allow them or try to understand their heritage. I got an idea, go with the flow, and learn English. Learn to write it, read it and understand it. I’m not saying you can’t use whatever language or traditions you may hold, but if you are going to live here, learn how to communicate with the populous.

Enter the Serpent

I think Anzaldua makes her point very clearly about the difficulties of language barriers when she has parts of Spanish throughout her writing. However, I didn’t like the essay. I started to get annoyed because I couldn’t understand. When parts aren’t even in English I didn’t even try. She had whole poems in Spanish and I wasn’t going to even attempt them because the last time I took Spanish was in junior high school. I do have to say though that I think my struggle was to understand her point. Instead of trying to explain something to her readers, she made them feel it which seems to be more effective.I do like how she uses the example of the Mother of God and how she is known across three different cultures, but each has their own interpretation of her, and Anzaldua goes on to explain what she means in each. This to me just shows that there are-of course- different languages, but that doesn’t mean that we don’t identify with each other on some level.

Henry Adams

In the Education of Henry Adams he talks mainly about how his childhood educational experience was a waste and he learned the important things in life by self educating through friendships, experiences and reading. He talks about his privileged background and how he decided that was not what he wanted. He basically wanted to do things on his own, experience things on his own and not use his family name to make a name for himself. In a way, I can understand. I really don’t like school, can’t stand it. Even though I know it’s important and I take something away from it every day, I have always felt a need to do and experience things on my own. I don’t like to be taught, I like to learn on my own and teach myself. Even though this was not a very fun read, it was fairly easy and I was able to make it through it because in a way I can relate.

Balinese Cock Fighting

I would have to say this was the best out of the four essays. I say this because I found it somewhat easy to read while I also actually enjoyed some of what was written. I was very intrigued to learn some of the things about Balinese culture that I never knew before. When Geertz shows the comparison of the cock and its owner it really opened my eyes to the sense of pride the men take in there cocks. I was also surprised and a little disturbed to read about defecation and eating being regarded as disgusting only because it shows slight similarities to animal behavior, and that incest is basically better than bestiality. While neither are okay by most peoples books, its interesting to see that there is a better choice of the two.