When choosing my book for the AP Comp summer work, I didn't expect to like it or want to read it more than I normally would. So, with that mindset, I just picked a book, more or less based on the title, and chose "The Liars' Club", a memoir by Mary Karr. The result was a book that I have immensely enjoyed, with its quirks, its turns, and its overall good storytelling.
One of the first things I noticed about the book was how much it felt like another book that I've read. It sounded vaguely like an adult version of "To Kill a Mockingbird". Karr is Scout, her sister Jem, her Grandma is Mrs. Dubose, and the parents show characteristics of Atticus. It's not just the people that are similar, it feels like it, with the descriptions of each small character, the way each little quirk is put in ink, it just feels very simple, but very effective.
It's also to the author's credit that she doesn't shy away from subjects like rape, death, cancer, etc., in a way that almost just shrugs and grunts indifference. What's interesting about this is that it isn't facing such situations with a brave face, but it is accepting that such things are just a part of life, and maybe even not really caring.
Karr's most distinguishing characteristic is her love for her father. She is constantly devoted to him, especially when she has to stay with her mother, her sister, and her stepfather. By writing constantly to him, by imagining him with her, and by the happiness she expressed by going back to him, there's no questioning that the daughter and father relationship in the book is a strong one, and is definitely the main focus of the memoir.
Monday, August 25, 2014
Friday, August 15, 2014
The Great Lawsuit Response
If one thinks about the events starting Women's Liberation, (voting rights, social equality, etc.) one might come to the conclusion that this started in the 1910's to the 1920's. I am such a person, and thus was surprised when reading this article from 1843.
This excerpt from Margaret Fuller's "The Great Lawsuit" was, I might say, difficult to read. It was not quite as poetically understandable as Shakespeare, but wasn't in the mindset of a modern or contemporary example. It was something that was absolutely necessary to reread to comprehend.
Once my "modernized" brain got itself around the excerpt, I think I understand what Fuller meant. While I felt like she rather beat around the bush, (as you can see me doing so here also) her main point was quite clear. She saw a world in which it is possible to break down every barrier of sexism possible, and in doing so, people will live in harmony.
Now I want you to understand. I am all for women getting equal rights, especially with voting, equal pay and treatment in the workplace and in society. But I must disagree that the scenario that Fuller sees as possible is possible. I believe that women and men should be equal, but I understand that today's, and indeed, any day's, society will not allow that. Today, and for much of the years past, has leaned more in the favor of men. Women are disrespected daily, and for all the disgust that is thrown at sexual abuse, rape, murder, etc., such atrocities keep occurring.
However, for all I know, we could be living in a world dominated by women in a few years, or maybe a few centuries. Men would be sexually abused, raped, and murdered, much for the same reasons women are today. Now I don't want people to mistake that I don't know that both happen today, and I don't think it will stop into the future. But the pendulum of equality is a constant change from one side to the other. There are several pendulums for each social, religious, economic, or governmental issues, and each pendulum has its own time to keep. But however fast the pendulums swing, they never stay at the middle for long, and they never will.
I do not believe in a utopian society. The closest that we, imperfect beings as we are, can obtain would be a dystopian society, a world akin to that of "The Hunger Games" or "The Giver". For every Martin Luther King Jr., there will be an Adolf Hitler. For every Malcolm X, there will be an Osama Bin Laden. People assume that if you do one little thing you can make everyone happy. But there is no way out of it. There will always be a person that is offended by what you say. Thus, what is the point of dreaming of a utopian society, what point is there of political correctness, if there will always be a person to undermine such efforts? And even if people claim that no one is being persecuted or discriminated because of their beliefs, their skin color, their sex, their creed, there will always be someone to beg to differ with them.
While I agree that women and men should live equally, I disagree that they can live equally, and neither can anyone else, for that matter. Human beings will continue to look for Utopia, a way to live in peace. But doing small little tasks, or large, monumental tasks, in the name of equality is insignificant when put up against the stubbornness and resolute pigheadedness that is human nature.
(I say all these words fully believing them. You are free to respond in kind. If you are uncomfortable responding to this post in the comment section below, you are free to do so in person. But please be civilized. I may give my opinions, but I have also taken considerable time and effort to think them through. I do my best to control my emotions, however futile they may be in the end. I am not a pessimist, nor am I a cynic, for the most part. I see myself as a realist. And maybe you see me as an egotist. You probably are right.)
This excerpt from Margaret Fuller's "The Great Lawsuit" was, I might say, difficult to read. It was not quite as poetically understandable as Shakespeare, but wasn't in the mindset of a modern or contemporary example. It was something that was absolutely necessary to reread to comprehend.
Once my "modernized" brain got itself around the excerpt, I think I understand what Fuller meant. While I felt like she rather beat around the bush, (as you can see me doing so here also) her main point was quite clear. She saw a world in which it is possible to break down every barrier of sexism possible, and in doing so, people will live in harmony.
Now I want you to understand. I am all for women getting equal rights, especially with voting, equal pay and treatment in the workplace and in society. But I must disagree that the scenario that Fuller sees as possible is possible. I believe that women and men should be equal, but I understand that today's, and indeed, any day's, society will not allow that. Today, and for much of the years past, has leaned more in the favor of men. Women are disrespected daily, and for all the disgust that is thrown at sexual abuse, rape, murder, etc., such atrocities keep occurring.
However, for all I know, we could be living in a world dominated by women in a few years, or maybe a few centuries. Men would be sexually abused, raped, and murdered, much for the same reasons women are today. Now I don't want people to mistake that I don't know that both happen today, and I don't think it will stop into the future. But the pendulum of equality is a constant change from one side to the other. There are several pendulums for each social, religious, economic, or governmental issues, and each pendulum has its own time to keep. But however fast the pendulums swing, they never stay at the middle for long, and they never will.
I do not believe in a utopian society. The closest that we, imperfect beings as we are, can obtain would be a dystopian society, a world akin to that of "The Hunger Games" or "The Giver". For every Martin Luther King Jr., there will be an Adolf Hitler. For every Malcolm X, there will be an Osama Bin Laden. People assume that if you do one little thing you can make everyone happy. But there is no way out of it. There will always be a person that is offended by what you say. Thus, what is the point of dreaming of a utopian society, what point is there of political correctness, if there will always be a person to undermine such efforts? And even if people claim that no one is being persecuted or discriminated because of their beliefs, their skin color, their sex, their creed, there will always be someone to beg to differ with them.
While I agree that women and men should live equally, I disagree that they can live equally, and neither can anyone else, for that matter. Human beings will continue to look for Utopia, a way to live in peace. But doing small little tasks, or large, monumental tasks, in the name of equality is insignificant when put up against the stubbornness and resolute pigheadedness that is human nature.
(I say all these words fully believing them. You are free to respond in kind. If you are uncomfortable responding to this post in the comment section below, you are free to do so in person. But please be civilized. I may give my opinions, but I have also taken considerable time and effort to think them through. I do my best to control my emotions, however futile they may be in the end. I am not a pessimist, nor am I a cynic, for the most part. I see myself as a realist. And maybe you see me as an egotist. You probably are right.)
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