Orientalism in and Speilberg's Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom Sept 25

Good afternoon!

Today for my blog, I would like to discuss Spielberg's Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Because I had seen this movie multiple times before, I found it quite interesting and enlightening to stop viewing this as entertainment, and start watching it from a judgemental, analytical view. Getting past the fact that this is in deed a "bad" movie, I do believe that according to Said's definition, it is the perfect example of an Orientalistic film. It carries many qualities and characteristics of Orientalism such as racism and genderism done by creator George Lucas that could be offensive to the specified party, generalizations and fantasy within the creation of the village, temple, and night club (carried in from the West), and multiple stereotypes among the characters including the creation of a blond female character in constant distress (always needing a man's help), Eastern countries /villages worshiping the Western countries / villages and its people, and over-emphasizing customs that may or may not be true. These are just some of the many qualities I noticed will watching the film as well as what was discussed in class.

Orientalism is a very broad category in literature in movies. I have never really heard of this concept until Tuesday's class and as I look back now, I realized that many other pieces of film and literature can be construed as Orientalistic. The other Indiana Jones movies are perfect examples of that as well as comedic movies such as Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker's Rush Hour movies. The include multiple stereotypes and cliques that create modernized orientalistic cinema. I am very excited to finish Arundhati Roy's The God of All Things and compare the Orientalism in the book and movie. I feel that the lack of visual may make the Orientalistic characteristics less obvious, but equally as important.

Death may in fact be the clue 9/18

Today, for my blog, I wanted to elaborate on what was discussed in this morning's class period. The topics of time, names, sheep, and cold were analyzed in many different ways. I definitely agreed with most peoples analyses, however, one of my favorite comparison's was the intertexual connection with the movie The Sixth Sense. I had thought while reading Wild Sheep Chase that Boku may indeed be dead and simply trying to exist through the stages of purgatory. However, I never put two and two together that he may indeed not know that he is dead (like Bruce Willis's character). It actually all makes complete sense to me (although I have not read the end of the book yet and I probably will be wrong). With that said, connecting all the odd ends together creates an interesting thriller of death, mourn, and acceptance. First of all, the odd conversation with the ex wife in the beginning of the story, who oddly waited for two days to see him, but did not actually want to be there when he returned home seemed unfinished. Plus, clearing out all memories of the couple seemed over the top as if she simply wanted to forget he ever existed. Although many relationships end in divorce, I do not know of a couple that goes to those lengths to eliminate even an inkling of connection. Another example, although broad, is Boku's lack of emotion towards everything. Once deceased, all emotion and feeling is eliminated, hence his odd personality. Finally, once up north, his lack of time could potentially symbolize his "crossing over" from purgatory where time continues, to heaven or hell where time stands still. Because he may have not accepted his fate yet could be an explanation for his physical need to turn the clock manually.
I know that this analysis is a bit out there, I just feel that this could be a unique, twisted end that Murakami was searching for in his interesting, deep writing style.

Wild Sheep chase Symbols. 3rd Blog

Good morning,

I apologize for the lateness; I had a family issue last night that sent me home. I understand that I cannot receive full credit or even credit at all; hopefully there is a way to make up the points in another assignment, an extra post, or even a paper to compensate. Sorry for the inconvenience of this late assignment, I will not let it happen again, I am sorry.

Class was rather interesting yesterday. I am still confused / pondering whether the sheep is an actual object or simply a metaphor for the unknown. I am very interested to complete the last few pages of this book to have my pondering questions answered. I did want this blog to fixate on my specific topic from class, the objects of Boku's affection: the slip, the whale penis, and the ear.
As discussed in class, I feel that the ear is a fetish. It has no emotion to it, not necessary attachments like a human attraction and / or a relationship, and as a result, I feel Boku is drawn to it. He never seems to actually be attracted to the "ear girl" emotionally as a relationship should be, but rather a more physical attraction. To Boku, sex is just sex, a person is just a person, but an ear has an odd meaning to him. He is totally detached from his emotions as well as the emotions of others. It is almost as if the hypothalamus within his brain was detached and rewired incorrectly.
The slip is a different story. It is a feminine symbol unlike any other. Unlike a bra or pair of underwear, a slip is more subtle, discreet, interesting to a man. Although Boku does not want to be married, the idea of a woman intrigues him. The slip is a symbol of the feminine connection he seems to long for. I believe that this is one of the reasons he became heated when realizing that there was no slip left behind for him after his wife moved out.
The whale penis is the most interesting of all three symbols. Severed from a whale and placed on display at the Aquarium, Boku admired that whale genitalia daily. Comparing him to the object, I feel that he has realized the uselessness of a severed penis as well as his feeling of uselessness in society. He discusses his “disheartening” sex life and realizes that although he and the whale are quite different, their similarities do shine through.
I will be very interested to get to class on Tuesday and hear and discuss other people’s thoughts further.

Salman Rushdie's Haroun 9/4/08 @ 10:00PM

Salman Rushdie's novel, Haroun Sea of Stories, is an interesting book of fiction stories promoting imagination. Rushdie uses many different outside sources within Haroun, helping to bring in a unique intertextual connection within the novel. These intertextual connections include films such as Star Wars and The Wizard of OZ as well as musical connections such as the Beatles. Although briefly touched upon in class, I wanted to take a moment and discuss a few intertextual connections that I noticed while reading Haroun Sea of Stories that were not discussed in class. First of all, the movie Wizard of OZ seems to have a deep connection within many different scenes. For example, the mini genie's that all look alike had a similar quality of the munchkins (Lollipop kids). The second example unmentioned in class is the initials OZ. Within the story, the discussion of the "Old Zone" came into play. I noticed a direct correlation with the words Old Zone and its initials OZ. The second intertextual connection that I noticed is a musical correlation between the characters Eggheads and Walrus and the famous Beatles hit, I am the Egghead, I am the Walrus (coo coo kachoo). Although the lyrics themselves are not very similar to the text itself, the language and characters greatly reflect each other.