red like roses

Monty Oum

This past week, I found myself (yet again, for the first time since December) without a laptop. As most of my hobbies have to do with my laptop, this unfortunately left me with not very much to do in regard to my passions.

That’s why I thought I would challenge myself to look up what I could about one of my passions with only my phone. This proved difficult, but I decided to look into the fantastic creator Monty Oum. I was first introduced to Monty Oum’s work a few years ago when a friend pointed me towards Red vs. Blue, a web series that Oum did most of the actions scenes for in later seasons. With animation skills that are frankly amazing, he’s provided expertise on a number of projects, including some of the action scenes from Afro Samurai. He was actually hired by game designers because of his work in fan videos over the years, and is considered a pretty big authority when it comes to web-based series.

In addition to this, Monty is genuinely a pretty great guy. He makes most of his character designs with lots of pockets so that cosplayers won’t be out of luck when it comes to storing their wallets or phones (a pretty big issue for cosplayers). While American, he says that he is “Cambodian, Vietnamese, Chinese, and Japanese”, making him a pretty diserve Asian-American. While I don’t think he does very much in the way of activism, he’s certainly a wonderful example of Asian-Americans influencing popular culture. Red vs. Blue and a newer project of his, RWBY, are both insanely popular. Additionally, he does the voice acting for one of the only obviously Asian characters in RWBY, Lie Ren.

red like roses

Monty Oum

This past week, I found myself (yet again, for the first time since December) without a laptop. As most of my hobbies have to do with my laptop, this unfortunately left me with not very much to do in regard to my passions.

That’s why I thought I would challenge myself to look up what I could about one of my passions with only my phone. This proved difficult, but I decided to look into the fantastic creator Monty Oum. I was first introduced to Monty Oum’s work a few years ago when a friend pointed me towards Red vs. Blue, a web series that Oum did most of the actions scenes for in later seasons. With animation skills that are frankly amazing, he’s provided expertise on a number of projects, including some of the action scenes from Afro Samurai. He was actually hired by game designers because of his work in fan videos over the years, and is considered a pretty big authority when it comes to web-based series.

In addition to this, Monty is genuinely a pretty great guy. He makes most of his character designs with lots of pockets so that cosplayers won’t be out of luck when it comes to storing their wallets or phones (a pretty big issue for cosplayers). While American, he says that he is “Cambodian, Vietnamese, Chinese, and Japanese”, making him a pretty diserve Asian-American. While I don’t think he does very much in the way of activism, he’s certainly a wonderful example of Asian-Americans influencing popular culture. Red vs. Blue and a newer project of his, RWBY, are both insanely popular. Additionally, he does the voice acting for one of the only obviously Asian characters in RWBY, Lie Ren.

A Tale For the Time Being 204-304

Communication

Communication is a huge theme in this book. The communication between Nao to Ruth is the whole idea of A Tale For the Time Being. This book is able to communicate two characters of two didn’t times and bring them together by a diary and a Hello Kity lunch box. The author demonstrates how we don’t necessarily have to be in the same time being to communicate to another human and to care for them.

In small groups we were talking about the different communications that we have today like texting, emailing, Skype, Facebook, and Twitter. We are reminded by this book that a simple letter is able to tell you so much about a person. You are able smell their smell, and see how they write. Texting we aren’t able to so. We get mad when someone doesn’t text us back right away or doesn’t respond but when a letter you were able to wait for it and be patient. Communication has changed. Today all we want is quick and fast.

p.s.

A Tale for the Time Being

As A Tale for the Time Being starts out, we are introduced to the young and friendly Nao, a girl who writes to us – and to Ruth, of course – from at least two years back in time, when she and her family are at their lowest possible point.

As the story progresses, we learn how to be time beings, if only for the time being, and we learn that we have always been a time being, right alongside Nao.

But Nao’s time is limited – that’s much of what the first portion of the book seems to be about in my eyes. Nao and her limited time, even if Nao herself is the one limiting it. There’s a line early on in the book that sets the framework for the entirety of her chapters.

“Emma Goldman wrote an autobiography called Living My Life that Jiko is always trying to get me to read, but I haven’t gotten around to it yet because I’m too busy living my life or trying to figure out how not to.” (Ozeki, pg 69)

Though obvious that Nao wanted to write about the great-grandmother that she adored unconditionally, I believe the start of her tale was also a way that she was trying very hard not to live her own life. Instead she immersed herself in the life of Jiko Yasutani, who believed women could be strong and were mistreated, but still had a good heart of her own and compassion regardless of who or what you are. Jiko was unimaginably kind, and I believe that Nao wanted very much to be the kind of woman that her great-grandmother was, as opposed to the Nao Yasutani that was picked on regularly in school.  We see the dark side to Nao’s life immediately; Nao wants to be something, anything other than Nao, and it doesn’t take us long to understand why that might be the case. She becomes obsessed with the idea of suicide, largely in part at first because of her father. They say that having a relative attempt or commit suicide increases the risk of you yourself attempting it. (more info here)

In this way, Ruth is much the antithesis of Nao. Nao found comfort in the countryside, while Ruth felt more stifled; where Nao was uneasy because of the people who lived in the bigger area, Ruth found life in a big city relatively easy to deal with. From the start of the book, Ruth and Nao are set up as opposites Nao spends the majority of the book trying to find her place in the world, while Ruth already has her own. While their circumstances were significantly different and understandable in all regards, this is an important thing to keep in mind.

I felt further evidence revealed itself as the book went on, and while Nao’s life grew more chaotic, Ruth’s life began to make less and less sense as time went on.  She had dreams that seemed to influence Nao’s journal and her life, her memory began to act up. She began to have an existential crisis, wondering if perhaps she wasn’t real at all, and maybe Nao had just written her into existence.  By the end of the book this becomes even more of an issue when Nao (alongside her father) seems to choose life instead of death after the death of Jiko and finding the journal that belonged to Haruki #1. While Nao chooses life, Ruth becomes even more uncertain of her place in the world. She finds less and less comfort in her conversations with Oliver, to the point that he needs to tell her that she’s being irrational about her assumptions, and if she’s going to continue thinking about something so out there that she should at least be somewhat logical about it instead of basing it on information that doesn’t really exist.

Nao finally finds her place in the world, and in a way Ruth loses hers. Stability is replaced with instability, and stability is replaced with instability.

As for the ending, I think there are a few different things that Ruth could be. One of the first – and perhaps more logical – might be that her dreams and memory issues were in fact an unfortunately early onset of Alzheimer’s. This could account for a number of things, but I think in a world such as this, for time beings such as Ruth and Nao, that this explanation is a bit too simple.

In that way, I think the next best possibility would be that Ruth was, in essence, a time being. I think that what she was didn’t really matter a great deal, because she had all she needed to be a time being, even if her time was built in a different way than someone else’s might be. She could be a creation of Nao’s, but does it matter?

p.s.

A Tale for the Time Being

As A Tale for the Time Being starts out, we are introduced to the young and friendly Nao, a girl who writes to us – and to Ruth, of course – from at least two years back in time, when she and her family are at their lowest possible point.

As the story progresses, we learn how to be time beings, if only for the time being, and we learn that we have always been a time being, right alongside Nao.

But Nao’s time is limited – that’s much of what the first portion of the book seems to be about in my eyes. Nao and her limited time, even if Nao herself is the one limiting it. There’s a line early on in the book that sets the framework for the entirety of her chapters.

“Emma Goldman wrote an autobiography called Living My Life that Jiko is always trying to get me to read, but I haven’t gotten around to it yet because I’m too busy living my life or trying to figure out how not to.” (Ozeki, pg 69)

Though obvious that Nao wanted to write about the great-grandmother that she adored unconditionally, I believe the start of her tale was also a way that she was trying very hard not to live her own life. Instead she immersed herself in the life of Jiko Yasutani, who believed women could be strong and were mistreated, but still had a good heart of her own and compassion regardless of who or what you are. Jiko was unimaginably kind, and I believe that Nao wanted very much to be the kind of woman that her great-grandmother was, as opposed to the Nao Yasutani that was picked on regularly in school.  We see the dark side to Nao’s life immediately; Nao wants to be something, anything other than Nao, and it doesn’t take us long to understand why that might be the case. She becomes obsessed with the idea of suicide, largely in part at first because of her father. They say that having a relative attempt or commit suicide increases the risk of you yourself attempting it. (more info here)

In this way, Ruth is much the antithesis of Nao. Nao found comfort in the countryside, while Ruth felt more stifled; where Nao was uneasy because of the people who lived in the bigger area, Ruth found life in a big city relatively easy to deal with. From the start of the book, Ruth and Nao are set up as opposites Nao spends the majority of the book trying to find her place in the world, while Ruth already has her own. While their circumstances were significantly different and understandable in all regards, this is an important thing to keep in mind.

I felt further evidence revealed itself as the book went on, and while Nao’s life grew more chaotic, Ruth’s life began to make less and less sense as time went on.  She had dreams that seemed to influence Nao’s journal and her life, her memory began to act up. She began to have an existential crisis, wondering if perhaps she wasn’t real at all, and maybe Nao had just written her into existence.  By the end of the book this becomes even more of an issue when Nao (alongside her father) seems to choose life instead of death after the death of Jiko and finding the journal that belonged to Haruki #1. While Nao chooses life, Ruth becomes even more uncertain of her place in the world. She finds less and less comfort in her conversations with Oliver, to the point that he needs to tell her that she’s being irrational about her assumptions, and if she’s going to continue thinking about something so out there that she should at least be somewhat logical about it instead of basing it on information that doesn’t really exist.

Nao finally finds her place in the world, and in a way Ruth loses hers. Stability is replaced with instability, and stability is replaced with instability.

As for the ending, I think there are a few different things that Ruth could be. One of the first – and perhaps more logical – might be that her dreams and memory issues were in fact an unfortunately early onset of Alzheimer’s. This could account for a number of things, but I think in a world such as this, for time beings such as Ruth and Nao, that this explanation is a bit too simple.

In that way, I think the next best possibility would be that Ruth was, in essence, a time being. I think that what she was didn’t really matter a great deal, because she had all she needed to be a time being, even if her time was built in a different way than someone else’s might be. She could be a creation of Nao’s, but does it matter?

Mehndi

This week I was inspired by Indian culture, since we watched Mississippi Masala and My Name is Khan a few weeks ago. So an art that is from India that I found is Mehndi.

Mehndi is an Indian art of ‘painting elaborate designs on the skin with Henna.(http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/mehndi)

Henna is a plant, and the dye is made from the plant to make temporary tattoos on the skin. Mehndi was originally only used on women, but is now more common with men too. The most intricate designs are placed on the brides. Her and her close friends will get together a few days before the wedding and paint all kinds of beautiful designs mainly on the hands arms and feet. Mehndi is also sometimes placed on the fingernails.

Mehndi designs have meaning behind them. Some seen often are:

Birds: They are the messengers between heaven and Earth, They can also stand for freedom.
Flowers: Happiness
Mandala: The Universe
Paisleys: Fertility
Vines/Leaves: Longevity
Butterflies: Transformation
Lotus Blossom: Femininity , Sensuality, Beauty
Sun/Moon/Stars: Lasting love with your partner

The placing of the mehndi on the body is also important. On the palms, there are usually suns, mandalas, or flowers to represent offerings. On the back of the hand, you put designs that resemble defending or protecting. The feet are where the humans and earth meet, so they are a point of “divine contact”.
(http://www.hennaheaven.co.uk/section381901.html)

 

A Look at Time // Ozeki 305-End

“..I am a time being. Do you know what a time being is? Well, if you give me a moment, I will tell you. A time being is someone who lives in time, and that means you, and me, and every one of us who is, or was, or ever will be.”

A Tale For The Time Being. Its all in the title. While this novel focuses on the different ideas surrounding time, the title absolutely explores this idea as well; It has a dual meaning. First, its primary interpretation to the average reader with no idea of the context of the story would believe that it is “a story to to pass the time”. While this is accurate, the title’s secondary meaning is more along the lines of “a story for everyone”. The dual nature of the title is clarified in the first few pages of the novel, but it is relevant to not only the idea of time, but another concept that we studied this quarter known as “dual-consciousness”. The book itself even expresses this, with Nao’s American and Japanese backgrounds. While not particularly explored in the novel, I appreciated how this relates in an historical context, bringing it back to its relevance to the time theme.

Time is also explored through Ruth’s reading of the diary. There was a particular part in the novel which brought to light the fact that the timelines of both of the characters don’t particularly coincide. Oliver and Ruth are having a conversation relating to an email that Ruth had sent to get information on Nao’s father, mentioning that it was urgent due to the girl’s suicidal thoughts. Oliver offhandedly says “Well, you’re not making a lot of sense. Its not like its happening right now, right?”(pg.312). This is the first moment in the novel that the time difference, about ten years, between Ruth reading the diary and Nao writing it is addressed. I found this to be interesting because, over the course of the novel, the reader may find themselves feeling much like Ruth, reading Nao’s words believing they are happening in the moment. The fact that it was addressed allowed for both Ruth and the reader to step back and realize that time essentially swallows up existence. Nao may have been dead the whole time Ruth was reading her diary, but that didn’t change Ruth’s resolve to find the girl, in the end. In a similar vein, I noticed very early in the novel that Nao’s journal had a distinct lack of dates, as typical journal entries do. I think this was a conscious choice by Ozeki, for the same reason’s stated above.

Historical representations of time were also explored. This is true in the case of Haruki #1′s letters, and similarly with the story of Jiko’s past. This, in my opinion, really sold the whole book for me. Not only was this a novel about a girl and her life, this was a story of how the past and the future meet. It is a complicated emotion for me to express, but this really reminded me of a lot of social issues surrounding technology in the world today. But I digress.

All in all, I found this book to be quite enlightening. It expressed so many things flawlessly, from life and death to identity to the big idea of TIME!

“I’m counting the moments.

One…

Two…

Three…

Four…

Hey, I know! Let’s count the moments together!”

 

Haruki #1 and Reading // Ozeki 204- 304

Reading in this novel has more layers than many fiction works I have ever had the pleasure of reading. The first, simple level of this resides in Nao. Specifically, during this section of the novel, we find Nao begins to read Haruki #1′s letters to Jiko.   I personally found these letters to be quite interesting. She not only has to translate them, but then she begins to read and understand Haruki’s struggle in the military. We find out that Haruki’s letters are disingenuous; he has a french diary that is later translated to hold his true thoughts and feeling. This way of reading the novel provided not one, not two, but three separate evolving opinions or the letters. Nao reads the letters, then Ruth, and then the reader proper, each with their own varying inputs on the letters.

The reader is then confronted with the fact that Nao’s entire point of view throughout the novel comes from a diary. Every word we read from Nao is also read by Ruth, and thus commented on in various ways. My favorite example of this is through the footnotes of Nao’s journal. I originally didn’t understand that the footnotes came from Ruth, until a particularly sassy one directed my attention to it.this offered the reader proper and Ruth to form a connection through Nao’s entries.

Finally, we are presented with Ruth and her varying degrees of understanding through the internet and Nao’s journal. It is expressed to the reader in such a way that they feel as thought Ruth is guiding them through this journey. I feel it’s important to differentiate between Ruth the character and Ruth the author, and I say my previous statement is related to both.

I found that Ruth Ozeki did a lovely job of using the theme of reading in her novel. It was by far a deeper, but also more enjoyable read for it.

Communication is Key //Ozeki 111-204

What defines communication? The Merriam-Webster dictionary relies on two separate definitions.

“: the act or process of using words, sounds, signs, or behaviors to express or exchange information or to express your ideas, thoughts, feelings, etc., to someone else

: a message that is given to someone : a letter, telephone call, etc.”

This novel is specifically linked with both of these. I’d first like to note that the latter definition describes this book almost in its entirety. A dairy, washed ashore to be read and deciphered by a woman unrelated to the original diary owner, twists itself into a tale of death, time and understanding. The whole diary is a message, a note to someone from a girl’s future. This is important to the reader; the author could have just written a story of two women, living their separate lives. So what was gained from portraying the novel this way? From what I could gather, this was used as a way to express a story which cannot be changed at the time of reading, which is crucial to the novel’s most prominent theme, time. These two themes piggy-back off of one another very frequently. While this is the most obvious form of communication used thus far in the novel, it is not even close to the only one.

There is many smaller, more frequently used forms of communication presented thus far. One example of this manifests itself early in the reading, after Nao had spent some time in Japan. In an eager attempt to retrace back to her american roots, she frequently messages her best friend from California, Kayla, via the internet and texting. Later she realizes that these roots are slowly disappearing around her as her life begins to change. This use of technology becomes crucial to Nao and some of her experiences. Another obvious example of this is when Nao’s funeral is posted online and sent to her. Nao and Old Jiko used texting to communicate with one another on some topics. In Ruth’s side of the world, while trying to decipher Nao’s cryptic journal, she looks many things up on the internet, which tended to become annotations for the reader.

In my opinion, this theme is incredibly important to the entirety of the novel, but is used more as a vessel for many deeper, thought-provoking themes to flourish.