Postmodern Eyes

When I started this class, I wasn't really sure what to expect. I knew it would be hard, mainly cause Mitchell was teaching it but I also knew it would be rewarding. At the beginning of this course, we discussed how author's morph history into their narratives and how they make it make sense and interesting. I feel like some books we've read throughout the semester did this really well while others just totally confused the reader. Libra  was the one book that I didn't like. The history embedded into it was hard to keep up with and took copious amounts of rereading to figure out who was who. There were some people who had codes name (Leon) which messed with my brain and understanding of the book. Obviously we haven't finished it so maybe towards the end, the book comes together as a whole. If it didn't, Libra  would be the most annoying and distracting book I've ever read. The amount of stuff the author crams into a single page is crazy and definitely took...

A few days ago in class we talked at length about history and the relationship between studying historical facts and the emotional implications of those facts. There were discussions on how one should study history, whether investing emotionally in the history is the right way to study the past or not. While studying history at that depth might become mentally detrimental later on, I think it's an important thing to do, for everyone, to understand the lives of others. Octavia Butler does a wonderful job of fully immersing her main character Dana into her ancestral past. Dana comes out of her experience without an arm and (probably) PTSD as a result of visiting her past. While this is pretty severe, I feel as if Dana now really understands what her past had to go through to survive. The way Dana handles herself throughout the book is a testament to how she accepts her fate yet finds a way to fight back. While she is a slave, she still treats Rufus as a human is meant to be treated...

Kindred by Octavia E. Butler provides an exclusive and in depth look into the lives of slaves during the Ante Bellum South. What I find interesting about this book is the way Butler encapsulates the spit image of slavery from the dialogue down to the smells and textures. For me, this is the trade of a good historical novel, one that can bring to life the horrors of the past by enveloping the reader in every possible sense. One scene Butler does an amazing job of bringing to life is the scene in The Fire where she hides in the bushes while some white people beat up Alice's mom and dad. While this scene is so gruesome by itself, Butler adds descriptions of the beating of the man tied to the tree. "The man's body convulsed, but the only sound he made was a gasp. He took several more blows with no outcry, but I could hear his breathing, hard and quick." (page 36). These two sentences capitalize mostly on sound and while there is no dialogue added, the description is eno...

Slaughterhouse-Five  by Kurt Vonnegut is definitely my favorite novel that we've read so far. Unlike the other novels, Slaughterhouse-Five  seems more believable and real. It's way easier to follow and understand (or maybe that's just because we're reading it right after Mumbo Jumbo ). It's gut wrenching and crazy even if I'm unable to relate to anything that's happening. While I'm sitting there thinking about how messed up all the characters are in the book, there seems to be a certain phrase popping up all the time after the worst scenarios I've ever read about. "So it goes" It seems after every time a person dies, Vonnegut uses the phrase. I've noticed it doesn't really matter how the person dies, whether in war or of natural causes, they're all treated the same. This keeps in line with Billy Pilgrim's "whatever" or nonchalant attitude. The phrase could also reflect Tralfamadorian idea that even though a perso...

One of the best things about Mumbo Jumbo  by Ishmael Reed is the way Reed leaves the book so open ended. He intentionally uses weird grammar and syntax yet having no way to explain what they mean or what they imply. Reed brings up characters with no real meaning then leave us hanging by giving us no explanation as to why he put them in there. The characters' names are very weird and yet again, Reed offers no explanation as to why. I'm here to offer some solutions and test some theories out! It almost seems as if Reed picks out really weird names in his book. There were multiple points in a reading where I stopped to pick up my phone and google something. To my amazement, every single thing I googled was true. On page 156, Reed references a man named Hepplewhite who made furniture. Sure enough, there actually was a man named Hepplewhite who made cabinets and he even has a wikipedia page. On that same page, I also fact checked Lackawanna New York and Countee Cullen. I'm not...

Two weeks ago I talked about Doctorow's usage of short and long sentences to captivate the audience in his book. Now we're reading Mumbo Jumbo by Ishmael Reed and once again, the author uses weird syntax. This time however it's much more different and apparent to the reader. While I discussed a reason why Doctorow uses long and short sentences to try to keep the reader focused, I don't have any really concrete ideas why Reed writes his book the way he does. The most obvious weird thing Reed uses is misspelled words. He exchanges words that look alike but have no common meaning, like policy and police. Honestly, I'm not really sure what his intention is with this but it does bring some good questions to mind when reading and discussing the book. For instance, on page 18, "He went into the police station and knocked the captain cold when he didn't come forward with policy protection." We discussed this in class, how "policy" doesn't reall...

While reading Ragtime, I've noticed that Doctorow uses a combination of very short and very long sentences. While the prose seems choppy and disconnected at times, it reflects what's going on in the plot and conveys emotions. For example, on page 51, there are two sentences that particularly stand out as being very short or very long. "It was an important event." Here Doctorow uses a punchy short sentence to deliver an important and powerful fact. The length reflects the fact making it seem more real and powerful. A sentence later, Doctorow uses a particularly long sentence. "Carefully Tateh explained that although he was unalterably opposed to Goldman, she being an anarchist and be a socialist, he had great respect for her personal courage and integrity; and that he had therefore agreed that some sort of temporary accord between the socialists and the anarchists was advisable, if only for the evening, because the funds raised for the occasion would go to sup...

When it comes to my swimsuits, I get super picky. I like comfortable swimsuits that are just one color, not a design. I've been swimming for over ten years and I feel as if I've come to a few realizations about what swimsuit brands are better than others. 1. Jolyns. Jolyn is a pretty expensive brand but you definitely get the bang out of your buck. I've had a jolyn for over three years and it has not faded or stretched out! They also have a wide variety of styles. For instance, they have different styles of the back end of your suit, the straps, the colors, and the design. While most brands don't have any variations of styles, Jolyn is the queen of cool, fun, and comfortable suits. Jolyn also sells really cute stickers, spandex, leggings, and sport bras.  2. Arena. Arena is another expensive brand but like Jolyn, they last forever, the color doesn't fade, and they're comfortable. They're about the same price as Jolyn's but it ranks under Jolyn bec...

Taper: single word capable of extreme happiness and excitement. Taper is something a swimmer dreams of. It's the point in the season where it's okay to goof off a little during practice and talk a lot to teammates with the excitement build up of an important meet. Characterized with a lot of start and turn work, it's physically easy but can be mentally challenging. For me, taper sucks. Physically, it's supposed to be easy. But no matter how slow I go during warm up or rest that day, I never feel too good in the water. I'm guessing that's because my muscles are taking their coveted chance to finally fully recover and regain strength/energy but it has it's negative side effects. While it might not be a big deal that I'm not going fast in the pool, it takes a toll on your mentality. It sucks to swim slow but it sucks even more to be swimming slower than you usually do even if you are "resting". As much as I tell myself not to care about my tim...

This is a short list of my favorite snacks: 1. Apples and peanut butter. This one is an all time favorite especially in the fall and winter seasons. My favorite apple is honeycrisp which tastes even better when thinly sliced and cold. I'm fairly lax about the type of peanut butter I eat but it's mostly been either Trader Joe's roasted peanut butter or Jif natural peanut butter. Although CU does not have a Trader Joe's, my mom always stocks up and buys 5 or 6 jars when we go to TJ. Out of all the peanut butter brands I've tried, the Trader Joe's one always tastes like real peanuts and is very smooth, perfectly dippable for apples. 2. Greek yogurt with fruit, granola, and honey. I'm aware this one is a staple in most households and isn't too surprising to appear on this list, but I've recently gotten very into it. I really enjoy greek yogurt by this brand that looks very Greek (I can't remember the name) mostly because it doesn't taste chal...

When you walk down the hallways of Uni, you tend to notice that a lot of the lockers have bright and colorful posters on them. If you look closer, you can see the posters have inspirational quotes or memes for whatever sport that person is in. To me, those posters are what makes being on a high school team feel like an actual team. It's weird to say that getting posters from someone you don't know makes your team feel like an actual team but I have my reasons. Before joining the swim team, I didn't know much about "having a team" or "team chemistry". I swam (and still do) with Heat and I love the people on it but it doesn't feel like a team. I train by myself a lot and travel to meets by myself usually without a coach. Going to a meet alone doesn't sound too awful until you get there and you're surrounded by teams who wear the same jacket, have coaches, cheer for each other, and get super excited when their teammates do well. I just didn...

Yesterday at practice, my team sang happy birthday to me for my unbirthday. However, the song they sang came with a twist. They sang "Nutella" over and over again to the tune of happy birthday. It was then and there that I realized I have an addiction. I am an avid consumer of Nutella. Ever since I can remember, I'd always spread Nutella on bread, bagels, muffins, cookies, bananas, apples, etc. This one time I put it on pie. Pie and Nutella do not mix, but I did it anyway and it even made the pie taste better. I never thought of my addiction to Nutella to be a negative thing. Yes, I consume 3x the normal amount a person eats in their entire lifetime but is that a bad thing? I will admit Nutella isn't a healthy spread, or even close to being healthy. This one time I got into Justin's Hazelnut Spread, which kind of tastes like Nutella but is much better for you. After a few weeks of eating the same jar (few weeks of the SAME jar, what? I'm ashamed of myself)...

During the summer, I was dreading to begin senior year. The thought of stepping foot inside Uni made me cringe, trying to brace myself for the oncoming stress of school, social life, sleep, and swimming. Now that I'm decently into senior year, I can assure you that I'm somewhat trying to cherish my last year with my friends and team. But recently, just like Kylie Jenner said once, I started to realize stuff that I didn't before. To start off, I can't believe I'll be done with high school. It's so crazy that I'm already a senior when it felt like only yesterday that I was starting subbie year. The first day of senior year was such a weird day. I had practice in the morning like usual, but only this time my mom got up before me to wish me luck on my last day and give me an extra hug. I remember standing there hugging her back thinking "This is kinda weird mom stop getting so emotional.". Now it's five/six weeks into school and I'm the one a...

A lot of people think my sister Gabi and I are the same. They say we have the same looks, the same expressions, the same reactions, and basically everything the same. Nothing gets more on our nerves than getting mixed up, especially when our parents do it. A very small part of me understands why people get us mixed up. We look about the same height and we both swam, hence the broad shoulders and somewhat muscular bodies. But other than that, I cannot nor do not understand why people mix us up. I agree that we have our similarities but those similarities aren't obvious to people who don't know us that well. We look absolutely nothing alike. I have my father's nose while Gabi has my mother's nose. She also has a nose ring, whereas I would probably never get a nose ring. Her eyes are smaller and her face more square like. Mine are big and I have a long face characterized with a large nose. She also has very nice teeth that I'm super jealous of. I never had braces w...

I don't know why I like swimming. I really don't. Swimming seriously sucks. You can't breathe when you want to (wtf is up with that), it's way too much cardio, you have to wake up way too early, your hair is always wet and damaged, you're constantly hungry, you're exhausted 99% of the time, everything smells like chlorine, you fall asleep during dinner (true story), you have to buy SO much lotion, the water usually tastes gross, it's SO EXPENSIVE, it's SO TIME CONSUMING, dryland/weights are so hard, and the list goes on. There's so many complaints and reasons of why not to do it, I could probably convince Michael Phelps to quit during his prime. But when people ask me why I do it, I go completely blank. Why do I do it? There's always a point in your workout or practice where you just stop trying as hard as you did on the last effort. Maybe because you're just too tired or out of breath to go equally hard on the next one. But that moment, wh...

I've always been pretty into food and the idea of flavors. It seems like a weird thing to be fascinated with but the more I travel and taste different flavors around the world, the bigger this hobby or mere interest becomes. I'm guessing this interest started when I was young. My family is Croatian and we are continuously surrounded by European/Balkan food at home and place a heavy emphasis on eating real food, not junk or heavily processed. Somewhere along the way, I became interested in eating food for the flavors, not just for the purpose of eating to feel full. My dad probably cultivated this out of me. He's always on his phone looking up cool places to eat, ordering the strangest of seafood, and encouraging me to taste different flavors. Whatever I don't eat or deem too weird, my dad finishes it off shaking his head at me for being too "boring". The memory that always comes to mind when I think of strange food would be when I was 8. My family was in Bei...

As the school year comes to a close, so does Sag Harbor . As one of my favorite books we’ve read this past semester, Sag Harbor I think exhibited some big coming of age landmarks that some other books didn’t. Starting the book, Benji is excited for the summer and all the things he’s going to do. At the end of the book, Benji takes a few moments to reflect on the past summer. In those moments, I think, really reflect Benji’s age. While he reflects, he talks about getting his braces off, kissing a girl, and getting his first job. Those might be superficial to some people, but I think that around high school age, those moments define your life. Benji now has the status of not being completely innocent which could definitely help him get more girls during high school. I feel like in the long run it won’t matter but for now getting girls can elevate his status a lot. I think a true coming of age moment is Benji getting his braces off. Since braces are physical and can be seen by a...

Yesterday (April 21) we had a brief discussion over the end of BlackSwanGreen , specifically how Jason feels about the move and how Julia helps him deal with it. Coming from a personal standpoint, I wanted to say how well Jason is dealing with this. Jason was me a few months ago, after my parents broke the news that we would be moving to Texas from Illinois (granted, this was move was a little bit bigger than Jason’s move and came at a terrible time for my family). But while reading the last chapter of BlackSwanGreen , I could completely relate to Jason’s feelings 100%. In a way, the last chapter of BlackSwanGreen mirrors my life. First, Jason will be living with his mom only and has the opportunity to visit his dad. Although my parents are getting divorced, I will be living with only my mom for a year and will have the opportunity to visit my dad during breaks and extended weekends. Secondly, Jason and I both have an older sister who can relate to what we are going through and o...

Unlike Housekeeping where emotion and the overall plot was a little boring for me, BlackSwanGreen is the complete opposite. One of the reasons why I like BlackSwanGreen by David Mitchell is Jason’s use of syntax for expression of emotions and sounds. Although the book does have a pretty jam packed plot that keeps me engaged and anticipating the next page, the syntax and language just heightens the overall experience of reading the book. For example, Dean’d gone yahoooo ooo oooooing down Ali Baba’s Helter Skelter ahead of me. Just as I got my mat ready fireworks erupted in the sky over toward Wellan. Guy Fawkes Night’s not till tomorrow, but they can’t wait in Welland. Stalks climbed, then popblossomed into slow-slow- slow … motion Michaelmas daisies. Raining-silvers, purples, phoenix golds. Chunkly booms arrived a second late … boom … boom… Fireworkpetals fell away and faded to ash. Only five or six big ones went off, but what beauts they were. (page 251) Within just this ...

Strangely enough, I seem to have drawn a connection between Jason’s dad and Jason himself. This connection, which I briefly mentioned in class, is almost like a Star Wars father/son relationship. We first get a glimpse of something Star Wars like with the dad’s chair, “Dad’s swivelly chair’s a lot like the Millennium Falcon’s laser tower.” (page 4). From just that line, something clicked in me to equate Jason’s dad and Jason with Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker. The first line of connection I drew between the two father/son relationships was the way Jason defies his father by going into his office to sit on the Millennium Falcon chair. The Millennium Falcon is a sign in Star Wars of the good side. For Jason to defy his dad (Darth Vader) almost seems like Jason is defying his dad to become part of the good side (Millenium Falcon) whereas his dad (Darth Vader) is on the Sith/bad side. Another way Jason’s dad reminds me of Darth Vader is the authoritative style of Jason’s dad. Jason’s dad...