George Takei and Sulu

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Star Trek has become a integral piece of American popular culture, especially in regards to science fiction. Because it’s such a long running television show with multiple spin-offs, movies, and remakes, it has a well-established place in the cannon of science fiction. It’s fascinating to examine the portrayal of race in world of Star Trek. Despite a mostly white cast, the show is well-known for engaging with social issues, including issues of racism. The show is notable for airing television’s first ever interracial kiss during its third season in 1968.

For the purposes of this post, I decided to take a look at George Takei and the character of Sulu. The Starship Enterprise is supposed to be a metaphor for “spaceship Earth”, and Sulu is intended to be a pan-asian character, essentially representing all of Asia. The name Sulu is intentionally detached from common Asian surnames because of their connotations with specific nationalities. Star Trek fell prey to many of the flaws of multiculturalism, including representing a mostly white future with token POC characters, and yet, it was still one of the most progressive shows on television at the time.  During the 1960s, Sulu was one of the few Asian characters on television, and certainly the character least prone to relying on racist stereotypes. In interviews Takei describes how lucky he was to have landed the role of an Asian character that wasn’t perpetuating stereotypes, “ I knew this character was a breakthrough role, certainly for me as an individual actor but also for the image of an Asian character: no accent, a member of the elite leadership team. I was supposed to be the best helmsman in the Starfleet, No. 1 graduate in the Starfleet Academy. At that time there was the horrible stereotype about Asians being bad drivers. I was the best driver in the galaxy! So many young Asian Americans came up to me then—and still do today, although they’re not that young anymore—to tell me that seeing me on their television screen made them feel so proud.” (Source)

Growing up in LA, Takei and his family were interned in a Japanese American concentration camp during WWII. Takei has gone on to become an outspoken advocate for both the Asian American community and the LGBTQ community. In 2012 he created and starred in a musical about Japanese American internment called Allegiance.
In the video below, Takei talks about his experience with internment:

Click here to view the embedded video.

 

“I went to school behind those barbed wire fences. And we started every morning with the pledged of allegience to the flag. I mean, i could see the barbed wire fences and the sentry towers and machine guns right outside the schoolhouse window as we recited the words, ‘with liberty and justice for all’ ”  – George Takei on Japanese internment

 Takei was one of the few prominent Asian Americans to lobby for reparations for interned Americans whose property and goods were taken away when they were put in the camps. 

Week 8, Thursday. Ozeki, pages 204 – 304

Nature (animals/environment) as symbols and emotions. 

Nature is a complex Time Being. Animals, plants, soil, and water all hold their own memories and histories. All around our bodies are other breathing and living beings. At times they seem to exclude us from their world, such as the whales leaving Whaletown or the wolves taking a temporary leave. Sometimes they seem to communicate with us, such as Chibi, the temple cat, who comforts Nao with her company or the Jungle Crow who warns with caws while perched above. And sometimes, they coexist complexly, like the constant rhythm of a wave or the inevitable PNW rain storms. But like the rock with inscribed “Do not build beyond this point”, we have come to learn from nature’s memories and find symbolism through them.

“How had she become a woman who worried about wolves and cougars eating her husband?”  The influence of environment is blatant in this book. his phrase specifically reminded me how fearful people are of “the wild” but how complacent they have become within man-made structures. Compared to life in New York city, are the worries of cougars and wolves truly gone? Think of what you often hear an attractive older woman called: a cougar. And the phrase “wolf in sheep’s clothing” portrays something that appears to be innocent but is really filled with malicious intent. Is the path she created any different than it would be, surrounded by constant stream of people who all mirrored the ferocity of nature?

Similarly, the constant cycles of life and death are like the cycles of moon and tide. The sea and its magic is a constant theme throughout the book. The water is what brings Nao’s story to Ruth, ultimately giving it life. The sea is the divider between California and Japan as well as Canada and Japan; a boundary of communication and culture. The sea’s tide is in direct connection to the cycles of the moon; on page 291 Nao cries for the first time (in response to the fighting insects) and it is her own inner ocean and her own influenced cycles that move her.

The synchronicity and coincidences created by nature’s magic (the Jungle crow arriving the time of the diary and then leaving once it is finished) is also an apparent theme. The tension between Oliver and Ruth during Pesto’s absence is uncomfortable and heavy but once Ruth finds answers Oliver finds Pesto. The crow warns us for what is ahead and the wolves stand for the worst possible outcome.

Zombie Obsession Post 6: Gender Roles/Sexism?

For this posting I will be comparing the female gender roles from the Japanese zombie film Wild Zero and from the American zombie movie I am Legend. I decided to blog about the gender roles/sexism because right off the bat I noticed the female roles in Wild Zero were completely different than in in the film I am Legend. And not only were the women viewed differently, but also gay/transgender relationships  were as well. This is important to point out because the film could be a representation of what is acceptable or what is seen as good entertainment in Japan. So here’s a list of all the “different” gender role moments I noticed:

1. Tobio is first seen as a helpless woman. She’s so helpless that Ace the main character, who is also her love interest, starts to cry because he feels to weak to save her. “I can’t even save one girl!” Ace cries out while sitting next to her.

2. Tobio is really a man, completely changing the “helpless woman” dynamic. Ace is so disgusted by this fact he runs away leaving Tobio to fend for herself/himself (Ace nor Tobio never say what pronoun Tobio wants to be called) in a room full of zombies. “Anything but that!” Ace yells while practically gagging.

 (Ace getting a vision of Guitar Wolf telling him to be with Tobio)

3. In the end, Ace realizes he loves Tobio and goes back to save her/him. “Courage and rock ‘n’ roll: That’s what he taught me on that night. Love has no boundaries, nationalities, or genders. That’s what he said. And he was right. And me, from now on, I’ll be with Tobio. The two of us forever” – Ace.

Tobio and Ace 2 (Tobio and Ace kissing as the zombie alien ship explodes in the background)

4.  One of the films main women (name never mentioned) is both “sexy and strong.” That rarely happens in American films, no matter what genre!

Ok, so now we’re going to move on to I am Legend. There is only one main female character in the film and that is Anna.

 Anna (Anna talking to Robert right before he sacrifices himself for her and Ethan)

Not much to say about Anna… Yes, she’s not totally weak; she did save Robert, but we never see her actually fighting….not even one zombie. So the film is saying only a ”big strong man” can kill a zombie? One word; lame.

Final Thoughts:

If I were to only judge Japanese and American culture based off of Wild Zero and I am Legend, I would say that Japanese society is more accepting of “strong” women and gay/transgender relationships in films than American society is. I now wonder if other Japanese films are the same way or at least similar. My guess is probably not… but I will still look into it in the future.

(1st picture taken from: http://sinaphile.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/wild-zero1.jpg)

(2nd picture taken from: http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-JrA8f6NyLRw/TzVYTbv-7HI/AAAAAAAAEBw/6rGrWbqXE8Y/s1600/Screen+shot+2012-02-10+at+11.41.22+AM.png)

(3rd picture taken from: http://www.hotflick.net/flicks/2007_I_Am_Legend/007IAL_Alice_Braga_020.jpg)

Mississippi Masala

Someone in the class said that this movie was powerful because of the mixed relationships between African American and Indian American. I have to agree. In a lot of movies relationships contain same race relationships or a mixed relationship with a white woman/man. Throughout the movie it made us think about how these two race groups of brown skin should stick together but easily gave up on each other.

It was also said in class that their really wasn’t any violence. We often see in movies with minorities that I was sure that something bad was  going to happen. I thought something was going to happen to the brother because it seemed like he was caught in with the wrong groups, “always on the street corner.” It was actually relieving to see that violence didn’t have to take place to have a powerful movie.

A lot of points were talked about when we talked about the film. We talked about the dysfunctional relationships between same race couples to mixed race couples. Of course their was dysfunction between Demetrius and Mina because of their families not wanting them to be together but it wasn’t because of them not loving each other. It was shown that just because you are the same race doesn’t mean that you won’t have problems in your marriage.

Hybridity and Home in Mississippi Masala

Mississippi Masala is unique for centering non-white hybridity. Usually media portrays hybridity as mixed raced people with white ancestry. While a hybrid Indian-African identity may at one point have been possible, Idi Amin’s verdict that all Asians must leave Uganda shuts down the potential for hybrid African identity. Okelo’s remark that “Africa is for Africans. Black Africans” seems to only cement this sentiment. Jay and his family must flee Uganda, eventually ending up in America. Indian Ugandan diaspora in some ways reflects African American disapora, and Mira Nair draws on this analogy in the scene where Mina is eating with Demetrius’s family. Someone asks how Indians ended up in Uganda and Mina replies, “The British brought them there to build the railway”, a family member chimes in “like slaves!”. A transhistorical connection is made between slavery and indentured servitude, between American slavery, and British colonialism.

The film interrogates notions of home and homeland. “You just like us. We from Africa, but we never been there before either”. Where is home for people experiencing diaspora and displacement? Mississippi Masala doesn’t offer any easy answers, rather it presents the viewer with even more questions. Jay insists that Africa is his home, yet when he returns to Uganda it becomes clear that this is no longer true. His old house is in ruins, his best friend is dead. I think Okelo was much of what represented “home” to Jay and with that connection gone he realizes that his family are all that he has left.

Week 8, Tuesday. Ozeki, pages 111 – 203

Sight. 

When I first learned what foreshadowing was I looked for it everywhere. Anytime something peaked my interest in a story I immediately deemed it as foreshadowing and claimed I knew what was going to happen. Most of the time, I was wrong. (But to be fair, it was an eleven-year-old me up against an old, dead white guy hailed as Great. Funny… when considering my lifestyle interest of feminism, that sort of seems like foreshadowing in itself.)

The first time I was assigned to read Oedipus at Colonus, my teacher introduced it with a grin and said, “Keep your eyes open and really look for the themes.” I missed it. Later, when he assigned us The Crying of Lot 49 I frantically underlined any mention of sight or visibility with hopes to understand Oedipa’s connection to Oedipus. I think I concluded that she was looking for herself; searching for identity through possible global conspiracy.

When I began A Tale for the Time Being I fell into usual habits; looking for themes and trying to make connections. As Ruth looked for hints about what would happen I looked with her. I distrusted Nao’s writing and in doing so, connected it to post modern methods. (My final senior year paper in high school was on post modern themes: merry tricksters, intertextuality, nontraditional forms, distortion in time, fiction about fiction [meta-fiction], untrustworthy narrators, contains many POVs, kaleidoscopic narratives. I appropriately titled the paper M.I.N.D.F.U.C.K..) I understood Jiko’s lack of physical sight but clarity and wisdom though spirituality to be similar to Oedipus’ shift of lens. Nao’s writing as super power led me to believe that she was rewriting parts of her history so we would only know her as she hoped we would, hence the distrust. I connected so quickly to the post modern-themes that when I found something similar I connected the two. But in doing this, I began to miss things. My distrust of narrative seeped into my distrust of fantasy and I almost lost my own sight of the book.

Jiko shares spiritual vision similarities to post-gouge-Oedipus and Ruth may be like Oedipa, searching for answers through conspiracy, but they are no more than similarities. They are themselves their own contribution to the reader’s vision. Just as Nao finds importance during her summer with Jiko, her sight and might changing, I too find importance in allowing my sight to be changed.

 

 

Ozeki p. 305-403 (and appendices); Theme of Reality

“In the superimposed photograph, the tiger would appear to be a blur or smear. In a microscopic quantum universe, governed by the principle of superposition, the tiger is the smear” p. 414.

Like the tiger, reality is smeared in A Tale for the Time Being. What causes all of the characters reality’s to smear together? Is it because they are all somehow connected through fate, time travel, Ruth/Ruth’s world doesn’t exist, Harry’s Q-Mu, or maybe quantum mechanics? Well, let’s check out the evidence for each theory.

1. Fate:

Ruth finds Nao’s journal.  When Nao’s journal goes blank Ruth is in charge of Nao’s ending.

The Jungle Crow leads Oliver and Ruth to discover Pesto alive. If it weren’t for the Jungle Crow they would have never found Pesto and he would have died.

2. Time Travel:

Ruth travels through a dream to convince Harry not to kill himself and that Nao needs him. Ruth also inserts #1 Haruki’s letters into his box with the intention of Harry and Nao to read. All of this becomes true and really happens; according to Nao’s once again filled in and changed ending.

3. Ruth/ Ruth’s world doesn’t exist:

“I mean if she stops writing to us, then maybe we stop being too” p. 344

“His voice seemed farther away now. Was it her ears or the storm?” p. 344

4.  Harry’s Q-Mu:

“Maybe it’s possible that in one of those worlds, Haruki #2 figured out how to build his Q-Mu and get objects in that world to interact with this one. Maybe he’s figured out how to use quantum entanglement to make parallel worlds talk to one another and exchange information” p. 395 -Oliver to Ruth

5. Quantum mechanics:

Was pesto meant to die? Was there another world created/already existing world where Pesto died?

“(For one crazy moment, I thought that monograph I found online might even be yours, but it vanished before I could discover who wrote it)” p. 402- Ruth to Nao

“Well maybe that’s the wrong way to put it, but I’m thinking that if everything your looking for disappears maybe you should stop looking. Maybe you should focus on what’s tangible in the here and now” p. 232- Oliver to Ruth about Quantum element.

Conclusion:

So that’s a total of five theories as to why all the characters reality’s are smeared together. Do you think one theory is more arguable than another? Or maybe you’re thinking of another theory that is not listed….Wait, what if…. you’re reading this and then it just disappears? What would you say? What would you do or think? Would you think it has to be quantum mechanics? Or maybe there just simply is no answer at all…Oh, but there is always an answer to everything, even the seemingly impossible, some would say.

Week 8: Mississippi Masala

After watching Mississippi Masala and reading Lee’s analysis of the film I wanted to go look into interviews done by those in the film, I thought this would be a successful way to achieve a wider spectrum on the movie, since it would add the view of those involved to my own opinions and the opinions of Lee’s theory. But when I looked for interviews by either of the film’s stars, Sarita Choudhury and Denzel Washington, I found nothing for Mississippi Masala. The most relevant result I got was an interview with director Mira Nair. Below is an excerpt from the interview and the full transcript can be found here.

BG: In Masala there is an issue that I’ve never seen dealt with before, the issue of black and brown – the conflicts and situation. That is very fresh, and goes with you saying you wanted to make cinema that puts black and brown people at the centre.

MN: Well, Mississippi Masala grew out of being an Indian student at Harvard. When I arrived I was accessible to both white and black communities – a third-world sister to the black community and Kosher to the others – yet there were always these invisible lines. I felt that there was an interesting hierarchy where brown was between black and white. Even before Salaam Bombay!, I had wanted to tell this tale. That, along with the irony of Indian racism and the separatist nature of the Indian community in America … I began to read about the weird phenomenon of every southern motel being owned by an Indian, and many of them were exiles from East Africa after Amin had thrown them out.

There is this very cerebral concept: what was it like to be an African, but of Indian skin who believed India to be a spiritual home without ever having been there and to be living in Mississippi? An what if this world collided with that of black American who believed Africa to be their spiritual home, but had also never been there? It must collide through love, because we must sell tickets!

But where are the other interviews? How does a movie that deals with identity, racial and shade issues, and an interracial relationship with both people being people of color not have more press? I can find YouTube appreciation posts of the music, interviews by both Choudhury and Washington for other movies, and even the full movie but no review videos. I want to be surprised, but I’m not. Even though this film pushes the boundary of how racial identities are perceived by oneself and others while redefining the the portrayal of interracial/ cross-cultural couples it remains hidden under a multitude of other results. After this realization my spectrum did grow; the lack of exposure for alternative representation of this film makes the film itself even more important and necessary.

Islands

Click here to view the embedded video.

Words and film by Jude Wasserman

The words are a wave crashing over me. Riptides pulling us apart until we are two separate islands. In a year we will be almost strangers, and even now it is a struggle to imagine the softness of your lips, or the tug of our fingers entwined. Secrets crumble like fragile flowers pressed between pages of a book long ago discarded. Funny how the tide can sneak up on you, rising until it covers your ankles, your belly button, your throat. Saltwater burns, and eyes cloud until you can no longer recognize the space between particles.

“I’m going to go home tonight and this is it. It’ll be over”. 
This moment is captured crystalline in sickly sweet amber.

In my dreams you are still enchanted with me. I hold you while you shiver with cold sweat and fever. 
We met in a now outside of time, and so much of our love was islands colliding. When you are sick, you miss me, you miss your mother. And i understand how our connection is within and outside of now, and this too will be swept into the circuits and flows of cold seawater.

(Song is “Medicine” from A Stick and A Stone (astickandastone.com/)

Passages and Carceral Archipelagos

It felt fitting to me that Chico would mention carceral studies on Friday. I’ve been turning two ideas around in my head lately: Islands, and passages.

Foucault coined the term “carceral archipelago” to describe the expansive reach of state control over many aspects of people’s lives. After reading Ozeki, I’m seeing islands everywhere in my own life. Just like there are many kinds of incarceration, there are also many kinds of islands. Ruth and Nao are both geographically isolated on their individual islands, in many ways displaced from “home” (wherever/whatever that is). The diary acts as a bridge or passage between islands, physical and temporal. Passage as in text, as in rite of passage (Nao and Ruth’s), as in the passage of time, as in passing from one place to the next. The diary is also a passage to the reader, both Ruth and the person reading A Tale For The Time Being.