American Born Chinese Response

When I began reading American Born Chinese, I saw a very common theme in the threads of the story. Each of the main characters is looking for his identity in some way. What was different about this book was the way that the story moved along. Because of its use of comics to relate the story, more was able to be communicated in a shorter time.

In the two scenes where Jin and Wei-Chan are being introduced to the class, we see a very similar experience. These scene are not only extremely similar to each other (by purpose), but they closely resemble situations that most people face at some time in life. The times when we are introduced by someone else who keeps screwing up information about us. The lack of facial features on Jin and Wei-Chan in the panel when they are up front of the class allows the reader to place himself into the situation and feel like the person who is in front of the class. The interjected corrections by the boys are heard as muttered because of the facial expression, mouth shape, and word bubbles that are used. The blank expressions on the classes faces is also very typical of a class like this.

Issues of Race, Gender, and Class

It is impossible for one to read any text without reading his/her worldview into it somewhat. Even something that is written from a different perspective than the individual's worldview. The person must know something about the subject being presented by the text. The way that the individual considers the subject is still servant to the original bias that the reader has. People are bias. That is the way it is. No matter how much they may say they are unbiased, everyone will still have a slant, no matter how small or seemingly irrelevant.

I believe that almost all of Peggy McIntosh's list of the "privileges of white people" can apply to any race. Both blacks and whites tend to congregate in groups of similar individuals. That is just the way things are and people tend to be. Also, things that in individual does, in most cases, reflect on only the individual, not the race as a whole.

Multimodality, Multisemiotics, and Multiliteracies

Multiliteracy is defined as the ability to absorb, understand, and interpret multiple types of media, such as images and motions. Multimodality is everywhere. Everything we encounter is a combination of sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch. McCloud uses multimodality in his work Understanding Comics. The words he writes are linguistic and somewhat audio when combined with the pictures. The pictoral portion of the comics offer the visual portion of the entire multimodal experience. The pictures also depict motion or gestures and offer a sense of space sometimes as well.

American Gothic

In the painting American Gothic, everything is slightly stretched upwards. Everything seems a little taller. This adds some degree of interest to what would be an otherwise boring piece due to the facial expressions (or lack thereof). The contrast of the people with the objects and scenery is interesting. The people are almost the only rounded objects. This gives them a more realistic feel, while the scenery remains distant and slightly foreboding due to the pointed shapes used.
What I find to be most interesting is that the pitchfork is in the center of the picture. Its long pointed shape in combination with its central position add tension to the picture. This tension may perhaps be used in combination with the direction the eyes are looking to direct the tension to the relationship between the two people.

Thoughts on First Half of Understanding Comics

Real literature is writing that speaks to people. Real literature can take many forms. Scott McCloud puts forward the idea that comics should be placed in the category of literature with other forms typically placed in that group.
I find comics very interesting. I think I might have a difficult time accepting a deep, serious idea from one, but for entertainment I quite enjoy them. I may have to discount my previous statement. I have read comics that offer small deep thoughts, which I will ponder, but for in depth I see comics as ineffective. I find they are also very useful for getting a simple point, concept, or skill across in an interesting, painless way. Because comics are often visually stimulating, they are more likely to be read.
Because McCloud uses comics as his medium for getting his point across, I found the book very easy to read. It was interesting and because his subject matter was not too deep the medium was very effective, especially since he could often demonstrate his points better through the pictures.

ROAD LESS TRAVELED

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth

Then took the other as just as fair
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear
Though as for that, the passing there
Had worn them really about the same

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet, knowing how way leads onto way
I doubted if I should ever come back

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence
Two roads diverged in a wood
And I took the one less traveled by
And that has made all the difference


Robert Frost

What is an American?

An American is anyone who is a citizen of the United States and devoted to his/her country. I would consider anyone who was born as a citizen of another country but became a citizen of the US as an American. Often times they are more devoted to their country than a naturally born citizen.
There also exists those who may be citizens but are not devoted to their country. I would have to question if they are really Americans. An American should be proud of his/her country.

Literary Theories

Deconstruction- This is a very interesting literary theory and method of thinking. By its very nature, it takes what is commonly believed to be true and through a series of steps tears apart the idea making it seem absurd. Even seemingly simple things such as walking from one place to another. (For example, to move to another spot by a straight line [the shortest distance between two points], one must first reach the halfway point. To reach this halfway point, one must first reach the halfway point of that. This continues on to infinity, preventing the idea that movement is possible.) So, deconstruction, when taken to its extreme, removes all possibility of anything.

New Criticism- This theory attempts to look at only the text. It removes the idea of an author's original intent and the response of the reader. It only considers the actual words on the page. This seems an incomplete way of looking at a text because it removes the author's original intent, which is very important to a text. Without an original intent, the text would never have been written, and it seems foolish to remove the authority of the very author of a text.
The reader's response is also important. The feelings and thoughts that are stirred up in a reader are the result of a text and are thus important to it. Without the response, a text is dead. Just ink on paper. Equivalent to a spot of ink leaked from a pen onto the paper.