GRADES

I will be in my office finishing grades from 9.30-3.30 pm tomorrow. Please stop by during those times if you'd like to discuss your grade before I turn it in. Thank you for everyone who has brought by papers and exams. It was a great class.

Reading for Thursday

Please read pages 1-44 in Fires in the Mirror for Thursday. 


For next Wednesday, finish the text.

Little Scarlet

  

Luis: Walter Mosley’s “Little Scarlet” refers to some

of the ideas we’ve discussed in class such as the scapegoat, and the role of emotions which are relevant to contemporary issues.  The protagonist of the story who goes by the name of Ezikiel Rawlins, otherwise known as Easy, experiences the emotional buildup of several feelings throughout the events which unfold. A devastating riot, the pursuit of a serial killer, doubt about his lovers faithfulness in the past, lust for a nubile youth by the name of Juanda, and the transformation of society with Easy in the front lines creating and experiencing those changes with his collaboration with the police.  Throughout the story, Easy manages to repress the intense feelings of anger, and passion by focusing on the case and not on his own internal struggles.  Consequently, the suppression of his anger attributes to its buildup, and the most subtle gesture is all that is needed to spark the emotional time-bomb.  While driving Jaunda to her home, Easy informs her of about Harold the primary suspect, and warns her to be careful and not to disclose the events that they’ve just discuss.  Easy tells her that Harold has been killing African-American women for years, and she asks ‘“Why didn’t somebody stop him?’”  Easy crudely responds ‘“Because nobody cares about black women bein’ killed… Nobody cares about you girl.  A man could cut your throat and throw you in the river and if a cop see you floatin’ by he wouldn’t even drag you in because he might get his shoes wet”’ (Mosley 209).  He also states, “I experienced a vicious satisfaction hurting Juanda like that.  It was wrong but I was angry” (209).  The overwhelming sensation of this “vicious satisfaction” from emotionally hurting someone provides the understanding for the outlet that is needed to project raw emotions such as anger to mitigate one’s own consumption by it.  One of the reasons why anger intensifies if not filtered through some medium is because the mind and body associates this emotion as unhealthy to some degree and like toxic waste, it must be expelled to allow for other sentiments to take its place.  Easy is aware that his response to Juanda was harsh as he states “it was wrong” but then justifies it with that fact that he was “angry.”  So Easy’s superego and moral consciousness are clearly active but overridden by the less rational component of the mind which coordinates emotional response.  It’s also interesting to note that the victim of Easy’s emotional discharge is a black woman which alludes to the idea of African-American women being an emotional repository  for men of black and white ethnicity.     

Katerina: Within Mosley’s book,( the page I can’t remember at the moment and might edit this post just to enter it in), it was mentioned that the women were placed up on meat hooks, preserved in that cold locker like room. It was almost as though they were trophies being presented in such a manner. Really makes me think, in a high moral thought process mind you, on what sort of sick, perverted person would do such a thing? Could if no one knew the whole story and just say an image of that one scene, there could be multiple reasons as to why. Be it that’s how they presented women in a morgue. Or maybe they’re just fake dolls.

Jose: In the story we come across a poem that Harold has writen on a wall with red lipstick. The poem reads "Dirty girls get mud in their eye, They eat maggots and die, Break brains bad things bad things, They all die down in my pantry" (Mosley 152). Harold is described as a homeless bum living in the streets but with the evidence of his writen poem we know that Harold is able to read, write and display complex thoughts in writen form. This now demonstrates that Harold is an intelegent man not just a common bum with no education. In 1965 many   African Americans did not read due to the economic class structure so to find a homelessman with an education could have been very rare. The fact that Nola was strangled to death then shot in the head after she was dead displays a sense that this murder was personal and emotional. Harold did not just commit a random murdur and Nola was not a random victim, she was chosen and what ever she did in her life affected Harold and she payed for it with her life. 

Estivel: We have discussed a lot of themes in Little Scarlet’s book and Easy Rawlings investigation about Nola’s death, but one of the topics I was most interested was Harold’s guilt. The poem found by Rawlings (Page 152). It said….

“Dirty girls get much in their eye

They eat maggots and die

Break brains bad things bad things

They all die down in my pantry”

It was evident that Harold killed Nola. Each of these words represent Nola’s shot in the eye, “eat maggots” (white man) and the deathly strangulation (break brains). The police targeted a white man as responsible for Nola’s death, but ironically, during such race riot, during such period of violence between two races, the main responsible was a homeless black man, a poor African man from the streets who knows how to write a poem and kills people (especially black women) without suspicion. Harold seems to have an interesting background throughout his life because he’s not illiterate. In some way, Harold punishes black women for being around with whites. Black and whites were segregated, riots and violence were in people’s blood, and Harold was attacking the enemy (whites) by killing black women who becomes the lover of the people who discriminate them. But “revenge” is the word that describes the actions against his own community. As we discussed in class, I believe it’s very true that sexual attraction, touches and the union of two lovers from different races and skin color had the power for revolution.

Ashley: I didn't get to write last week due to issues with my computer monitor so now I will write twice as much despite the fact that I won't get that credit. Last week in class we started discussing Little Scarlet, a detective novel by Walter Mosley,in which the protagonist Easy Rawlins is assigned to solve the murder of an African American female. The story takes place in the 1960s when the Watts riots occurred. We also were able to watch Heat Wave, a 1990 film that is also inspired by the Watts riots. The first thing I wanted to discuss was an excerpt from Little Scarlet on page 218. This scene is crucial because Easy isn't engaged in conversation with another character but explaining to the reader how manipulative the ghettos of Los Angeles were (much like the idea of Hollywood being a manipulative society in The Day of the Locust). This idea of a hopeful place to live out the American dream is also brought up in the film Heat Wave. Easy brings up this idea of a "new class of poverty" because of how aesthetically deceitful the slums were. He mentions that the African Americans have cars,houses,lawns and electricity: factors that weren't prevalent in poverty 100 years prior. This wasn't the poverty that Irish imminigrants faced in five points that was visually blatant in Jacob Riis' photography, this was/is a silent and systemic form of poverty. This was a way for the oppressors to brainwash the indifferent masses who were already becoming dumbed down by the media (another Day of the Locust correlation?)into believing that African Americans were getting along fine. This of course is still happening today on the same scale as it were back in the sixties. This is where I take what I got from the novels and film and bring it to a personal level. I am from Williamsburg,probably the second most expensive city to live in, which is now facing a massive amount of gentrification. I have experienced tons of situations with intolerant people in my own neighborhood as well as hearing about it from friends of mine. As a frequent visitor to my boyfriend's apartment in Williamsburg Houses (projects), I constantly have to face unecessary police cars parked in front of the children's playground that is located at the center of the buildings. This could be solely because of the socially demonized residents of the projects but it is also because of the four to five condominiums in a one block radius(I can't say I've only dealt with xenophobic behavior but It doesn't change my emotion toward the outcome of this change) .Many people and business owners have had to face evictions and local schools have had to be annexed or closed. There has been no help for our community and there is an awkward divide here. Things like this and the Occupy movement (which a friend from the projects was actively involved with) has made me see a great correlation between my neighborhood and Occupy and to what we have been studying in class. Things like this only come around in cycles and I do believe that we have been seeing on screen might come to life.

 I'm going to leave a music video this time named Hiipower by conscious Hip-Hop artist Kendrick Lamar. This video is chock full of footage from the civil rights movement and even has clips of riots and such. To me there is a correlation between the class work and the message/content of the song.

l your guns and play me, let's set it off

cause a riot, throw a molotov

somebody told me those pirates had got lost

case we been off them slave shipsot our own pyramids, 

write our own hieroglyphs

 Every day we fight the system

just to make our way, we been down for too long
But that's alright, we was built to be strong
cause it's our life
Every day we fight the system

Extra Credit: Event

CUNY Graduate Center
365 Fifth Avenue 

Fri Feb 10, 2012, 4:00 pm  |  English Lounge (Room 4406)

[8]What Do Keywords Do?
    Links:
      8. http://centerforthehumanities.org/events/What-Do-Keywords-Do

Lecture: Bruce Burgett, Glenn Hendler

  The _Oxford English Dictionary_ defines "keywords" as words that are of
  "great importance or significance." In the digital universe, keywords
  organize vast quantities of complex information. These words are nodal
  points in many of today's most dynamic and vexed discussions of political
  and social life, both inside and outside of the academy. Drawing on their
  experience editing _Keywords for American Cultural Studies_, _Bruce Burgett
  _(Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences, University of Washington) and _Glenn
  Hendler_ (English and American Studies, Fordham University) will discuss the
  critical and creative potential of keywords to catalyze interdisciplinary
  conversation. This a public program connected to “[9]Revolutionizing
  American Studies.” For further information on this and other Seminars in the
  Humanities, see http://centerforthehumanities.org/seminars.
    Links:
      9. http://centerforthehumanities.org/seminars/revolutionizing-american-studies

  _Co-sponsored by the Revolutionizing American Studies Seminar and the PhD
  Program in English_

Model Close-Reading: Assignment One

NOTICE: the presence of a topic sentence (with room for improvement, given the content of the paragraph); the citation and explanation of key phrases and words from the text (with half-correct MLA citation: a good effort); and gestures at connections and critical thinking to conclude. This is an above-average paragraph.

We might wish for an explanation of the "their" in the opening sentence, and analysis at the conclusion that goes further than class discussion. 

It was the wanting to defend their community that justified their actions. In fact, many embraced the executions of African-Americans and celebrated them in a parade like fashion. This was the case for Henry Smith, who was executed in a similar style. “Arriving here at 10 o’clock the train was met by a surging mass of humanity 10,000 strong. The negro was placed upon his throne, and, followed by an immense crowd, was escorted through the city so that all might see the most inhuman monster known in current history.” (Wells, p. 90) The text mentions the word “monster” which many affiliate with evil. White southerners would use this word to describe African-Americans for their advantage. It allowed them to disguise their actions in terms of their own victimization. Therefore, many white southerners did not believe what they were doing was wrong. “Curiosity seekers have carried away already all that was left of the memorable event, even a piece of charcoal.” (Wells, p. 91) The crowd gives off a sporting event feel by illustrating the crowds’ willingness to cling on to artifacts for memorabilia; similar to a fan at a baseball game who hopes to catch a ball. I feel this literature piece is more detailed and illustrates a lynching on a grander scale in comparison to a silent film.

Model Opening Paragraph: Assignment One

NOTICE: opening scene, transition to texts under discussion, specific thesis statement.

Perhaps Jube never had the guarantee of living out his life to its entirety and even less one with out the possibility of being mistreated by his fellow man.  Still, the fate that he was dealt with was depicted by Paul Lawrence Dunbar’s short story The Lynching of Jube Benson was lawless, humiliating and brute. Begging for his life and questioning his own likelihood in the murder for which he was accused, had spared him no mercy.  He was quickly taken by a crazed mob led by a local doctor and friend no less, hung before a crowd moments before his brother Ben and a friend brought the actual culprit to the anxious and grotesquely motivated crowd. The written accounts of the unjust murder of Jube Benson were extensively more graphic than that of any visually violent scene. The film Within Our Gates portrays an equally vile crime, a sexual assault attempt. The visual advantage of this medium may be limited only by the scenes provided in the film. A written chronicle of either of these crimes in my opinion has the greater advantage at arousing an emotional response from perceiver as they are hindered not by the imagination of a film director.  Written literature of violence can be extensively more vivid by illustrating the emotion with unique detailed accuracy.

Blog Assignment FIVE: Mosley's Little Scarlet

Please select one of the themes we've been discussing in class and explore it in a close-reading of a passage from the text. Your blog should go further than class discussion, and focus on explaining what scenes, images, words, and actions mean. Strike to make connections between the passage and larger issues we've discussed in class.

Please note that all the powerpoints are now available on the course's blackboard site.