American Born Chinese

  I'm interested in what the title had to do with the story. Perhaps it's supposed to convey that the monkey is a Chinese person born in America trying to make themselves more "American" to be accepted and included. The Scene where the monkey king was not allowed into the dinner party regardless of his status as a king or even a deity reminded me a lot of how many times African Americans, even notable and decorated and accomplished and educated ones were often kept out of different functions and institutions simply because of their race and the same thing goes for women especially in fields such as different parts of the church and, unfortunately, the sciences. I realize the story was fictional and therefore didn't need to abide by any laws of physics or nature or science, but if they were going to incorporate his abilities to grow and multiply and do all of those things, I'm sure that at the end of the story he would have been able to escape from under all of those rocks. I want to know if the moral of this story was about staying humble or if it was about staying true to who you are.
  I liked the conclusion that William Bradley came to which was that different writings do not always aim to accomplish the same task, even if they are written by the same author and especially when they are memoirs. I appreciate that he understands that reflecting on one's life, even in an artistic way such as in a graphic novel, doesn't necessitate for the account to be one of a sensationalized experience. I also appreciate that he doesn't feel the need to choose between the two pieces of work and rather can appreciate each for its own qualities that impressed him.

Native American Tales

The native American culture has always been one that I appreciated and found to be especially beautiful for its focus on and integration of the spirituality of all things in nature. The story about the grizzly bears explains some of the reason Native Americans would never kill a grizzly bear and I appreciate the respect for the animal which was also extended to the buffalo in the story about the four brothers who turned into rattlesnakes. I'm curious as to what about the grizzly bears actually made the people have enough respect for the animal in order for the story of the grizzly bears to even come about - why the grizzly bear was chosen to be the ancestor of all Native Americans. I suppose it may have been due to the location of the original storyteller and their proximity to and familiarity with grizzly bears and them being the animals which most resembled humans there. Perhaps if they had seen gorillas the story would have been about gorillas. It's interesting to read the story of the grizzly bears and compare it to other stories of creation because, by the title of the story, it isn't explicitly a story of creation but rather a story of when the bears began to walk on two feet. The foreword did say that oftentimes Native stories followed that pattern. It's also notable that this story doesn't account for solely something heavenly for the makeup of humans but also something earthly, unlike Christianity which sees earthliness and human nature as fallibilities and unclean or impure. The story about the arrowheads confused me at first because I thought Ground Squirrel was a ground squirrel but I think it may have been a person and I also did think it ended abruptly, same with the story of the quillwork girl and her seven brothers, because I expected there to be some type of retribution for Ground Squirrel being deceptive. I also thought there could have been a different reason used for Ground Squirrel feeling ill than because a bear sat on his lap and asked him to feed it.

Folklore - February 9, 2015

This reading was enlightening. I was one of the many people under the misconception that folklore referred to only things such as old wives' tales and superstitions which were untrue. It is interesting to see what an overarching theme folklore actually is and it is also somewhat confusing. There are many similarities and subtle distinctions between folklore, pop culture, and traditions. the differences between pop culture and folklore were easier for me to grasp than those between folklore and tradition. Ultimately, the easiest way for me to distinguish between pop culture and folklore is that folklore is usually something which carries the interest of a certain group and, although folklore can come out of pop culture, pop culture is usually produced or taken in by large groups.

Aesop's Fables and Clayton Essay

I enjoyed reading the fables more than I expected to. Although they were only a few sentences each, I realize that I kept trying to predict how the stories would end but the endings always surprised me and I actually found them to be great ways to get each of their intended lessons across. I also liked that each of the lessons were actually interesting lessons that were really relatable.

Regarding Clayton's essay, I initially felt surprised to learn how clear the authors of the fables made their messages to their intended audience. For the majority of the time I was reading this essay, I had interpreted the takeaway of the fables to be that people in positions of less power should refrain from "acting out" and survive by remaining as complacent as possible for their own good. I was surprised that the authors didn't try to make their messages a little more subtle and I found the messages to be a little depressing which actually made me think about how my experiences as an American in 2015 probably have something to do with me reacting in such a way. In ancient Greece, focus was more on the city and the success of the city while American stories are more apt to appeal towards the side of the "underdog" and the person who is not complacent and would "fight for a what's right." However, that's not to say that Greeks didn't care about standing up for what's right and, actually, towards the end of the essay Clayton writes that the fables were often used to highlight the contrast between the ability of humans to reason and the lack of ability in other animals to do so which would serve as incentive to prevent scenes like the happenings of the fables from happening in the citizens' lives. This hopefully meant that the messages may have actually not been for the people in positions of less power to stay silent but rather for the people who did hold more power to strive for justice and to use democracy in such a way that would be ideal for justice.