This was a t-shirt from one of various booths that specialized in printed designs– They sold out during the first day!

This was the business card from Retro Pop Namu– one of the many artists who had a booth open all weekend. This was one of the highlights among the vendor tables.

Though not necessarily within the Asian/American themes, I was excited to come home with some quite excellent books– mainly this one that features an issue I searched for long and hard; The Amazing Spiderman issue #144

Marvel has been publishing several collections of their most popular heroes and themes for several years now… I finally discovered them during the convention.

The next Emerald City Comic Con is will be the last weekend of March, 2015. Hope to see you there!

]]> http://blogs.evergreen.edu/popculture14/emerald-city-comiccon-2014/feed/ 0 http://blogs.evergreen.edu/classylady/theme-four-some-place/ http://blogs.evergreen.edu/classylady/theme-four-some-place/#comments Tue, 01 Apr 2014 06:57:38 +0000 http://blogs.evergreen.edu/classylady/?p=130 Like most things in this book there is the obvious, upfront meaning and the much deeper, questioning, challenging meaning of place. In the physical sense there is Japan, Canada, America, islands, forests, cities and buildings. And at first you’re reading and that’s all they are, places, settings. But then you start to realize the similarities in the settings for Nao and Ruth, the similar realizations that they have depending where they are. For example both Nao and Ruth long for America because that’s where they both felt the most alive. Then they move to an island for people they love and have sad things happen that make them question why they had to move, but at the end of the story they’re happy with where they are.

Then there’s this mental place that most of the characters experience and is further emphasized with physical places. Ozeki uses this to showcase that mental states are places too. You have Nao, Haruki #2, and Nao’s mother living in a small, rundown apartment when they all are feeling depressed/being affected by others depression, but Nao and Haruki #2 do better once they go visit Jiko and Nao’s mother seems to thrive at her workplace. Ruth’s mother, Masako who had Alzheimer’s, loved the free store at the junk which was described as having odds and ends of lost items, but things worth keeping it kind of speaks to the mental place of Masako then.

Now if you paid attention during history class, or I should say if you went to a somewhat decent/privileged enough school system that went into the continued horrifying facts of treatment towards African Americans after Emancipation, you’d probably already see the similarities. But in case you were like me and had a wandering mind here’s a re-cap. African slaves were brought over to work for the new white inhabitants of the United States of America mainly for plantation work. Once emancipated though African American’s weren’t allowed to live in the same communities as whites. Lastly the scene with Kinnu getting harassed, well that happened all the time post-slavery.

Why is this shared history so important? Well it shows that there is a connectedness with people across the world because they have shared in a similar experience. Demetrius tells Mina that they are kind the same because she’s and Indian who hasn’t been to India and he’s a African who hasn’t been to Africa. There’s power to being able to identify similarly to people different than you because it’s validating.

To take this unity a bit further, Even with India being a part of Asia, I’d say that this history is also shared with the Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Philippina/o labor workers on the west coast.

While both films talked about combining different Martial Arts to perfect their style, in “The Black Kung fu Experience” there was more than just that being mixed. I forget the name and couldn’t find it in my notes, but the one guy who had the snake and the staff? Well he also incorporated African drums/dance into his teachings, which was very beautiful to watch. I feel that the message here is that you should be open to learning so you can take what’s good to make something even better.  This program has been looking at combining differences and the outcomes from that, all of which have been amazing.

In this chapter, Diaz talks about the meanings of words and their origins. The chapter looks at the globalization of words which leads to multiple meanings. The chapter puts an emphasis on “Pappy” which is father, and shows a sense of patriarchy because it’s the father in charge of a family. It also referrers to “Colonel Sanders and black men fishing the Missouri River” (pp.104). Now talking about the globalization of the word, Jennifer Lopez’s new song “I Luh Ya Papi” is very interesting, especially with the music video. First of all the song is using Papi as a term of endearment, secondly the music video is aiming to be objectifying men like/instead of women (I don’t agree that it did that completely though), which is going against the patriarchal sense of the word. Things to think about.

My second talking point is on passing privilege. In the sense of race, what does it mean to be passing? Is it solely based on your appearance versus biological parents? What if you are a mixed, you look white, and while you are aware of where your non-white family is from and some of their traditions you know it’s been washed out by trying to assimilate? What if you weren’t white appearing in the same scenario?

As a whole though I find passing to be a powerful thing, it’s almost like a superpower. It lets people break and stretch stereotypes and question societal norms.

 Although Nao’s Feelings of Isolation are central to the novel, the reader senses isolation in Ruth as well. Is there a way in which Nao and Ruth form two halves of the same character? Why do you think Ruth feels that Nao’s Diary was written specifically for her?

Isn’t that one of Nao’s goals, to make Ruth (or anyone who found the diary) feel like it was written for her? Then again, when you can relate to a character on an emotional level this tends to happen.

Nao and Ruth could be two halves of the same whole. Nao does more things impulsively, while Ruth plans out her actions. Both of them let their emotions lead their lives most of the time, taken from what they feel is comfortable, forced to adapt. They however handle these similar situations very differently. Nao tries to escape her isolation by finding her happiness away from school and home, Ruth escapes through either writing or trying to find out more information about Nao and her family. It probably doesn’t help that Ruth may see herself in Nao, going through similar struggles when she was younger. Both of them ended up being more connected to one another than they first expected. It’s amazing how much a book can change a person’s life.

What does it mean to be a time-being?

Am I a time-being? I do not know. There are times where I feel that I do not want to be constricted to time, so I don’t look at any of the clocks around me. Though I know that time and I will always be connected. I do not try to stop time, just like I do not let time try to stop me.  I exist in with time, in time. But is time a being itself? I think I’m getting ahead of myself here.

Calling it a document seems to belittle what Nao’s diary is. It makes the journal seem like something that should just be filed away and looked at when research deems it necessary, nothing more. Which feels so wrong…

There is always a benefit of telling your own story for yourself and for others; to educate, to look back, to grow. Self reflection it a skill that can be difficult for people, because it is through this that we must be honest with not only ourselves but our pasts and the choices we have made as individuals. It can be worth it, it’s just up to what you want to tell with your story.

Personally, I could write about a lot; seeing that I’m a low income first generation college student who is a female of color. I have enough struggles to write my own novel. However, I don’t want to only write about all of the pain and misery I have had to struggle through to get to where I am. I admit that all of this is important but it’s not all that my life is about. I would write about my mother, and how she is an amazing individual who knows that she can make mistakes. I would write about my friends, who have sometime been there for me more than my actual family members. I would write about how my goals for the future have changed so much over the years. I would write about cosplay, conventions, music. And use quotes that have touched me at one point or another in my life. Lastly, I would write about my three muses; the moon, stars, and rain. I would be as with what I write about as I am to myself about the events I’m recollecting.

There are only two risks I can see happening with telling your own story. The first, is that no one can connect with it. That it touches no one, doesn’t inspire, that it’s just another “document”. The second risk is an obvious one, you are putting your truth in the public eye. Which can cause certain things to happen depending on the content of your story. But hopefully, the benefits outweigh the risks and you will grow from telling your story.