#but that's part of analysis at least according to my english teachers

[fluffywhump]

Clicked on a booktuber I occasionally keep on a bg noise, since she was talking about why Tender is the Flesh "is bad actually," and I went, "Sure, I'll listen." Disagreed at first with booktuber's premise, but after googling "Agustina Bazterrica vegan" I saw booktuber is actually right; Bazterrica is vegan and was inspired to write the book after seeing animal carcasses in the window of a butcher's shop and went "But what if they were human? We're flesh, just as animals are"

I have no reading comprehension apparently lol but that's not surprising to me

[astrognossienne]

scandalous star: gary cooper -an analysis

“I don’t like to see exaggerated airs and exploding egos in people who are already established. No player ever rises to prominence solely on talent. They’re molded by forces other than themselves. They should remember this – and at least twice a week drop to their knees and thank Providence for elevating them from cow ranches, dime store ribbon counters and bookkeeping desks. ” - Gary Cooper

He didn’t say much, but when he did, it carried a lot of weight. He was the archetypal hero of the Old West; the quintessential masculine ideal of the stoic and “strong silent type” that most Taurus men are. But for famously laconic Gary Cooper, his good looks and earnest, haunted eyes for decades made him the quintessential lonely American of motion pictures.He was a more equanimous, human protagonist versus boisterous, bigger-than-life Hollywood supermen. He was renowned for his quiet, understated acting style and his individualistic, emotionally restrained, but at times intense screen persona, which was particularly well suited to the many Westerns he made. He was a man’s man...as well as a ladies’ man. Cooper became a hero to many, even as he developed a reputation as one of the most notorious philanderers in Hollywood. Privately a debonair ladykiller with a taste for high society, he crafted an image as just the opposite from his prototype cowboy image he materfully portrayed on the silver screen. He was insatiable, before and during his marriage. How did he reconcile his moral righteousness onscreen (Taurus sun) with his philandering offscreen (Sagittarius moon)? That was the work of the fixers, gossip magazines, and the studio system at large, which ensured that Cooper was never caught, never denounced, and held up as a paragon of American values.

Gary Cooper, according to astrotheme, was a Taurus sun and Sagittarius moon. He was born Frank James Cooper in Helena, Montana, the second son of an English farmer from Bedfordshire, who later became an American lawyer and judge, Charles Henry Cooper (1865-1946), and Kent-born Alice (née Brazier) Cooper (1873-1967). As a child, he met a freed slave woman named Mary Fields, otherwise known as Stagecoach Mary, and so awed by her was she that he later wrote an account of his memories of her in Ebony magazine. His mother hoped for their two sons to receive a better education than that available in Montana and arranged for the boys to attend Dunstable Grammar School in Bedfordshire, England between 1910 and 1913. Upon the outbreak of World War I, Cooper’s mother brought her sons home and enrolled them in a Bozeman, Montana, high school. Upon graduation, he eventually matriculated at Grinnell College in Grinnell, IA, where he attempted to nurture a passion for drawing - until a serious car accident ended his college days in the summer of 1920. He would recover from his severely injured hip through an odd but painful therapy, horseback riding.

When his father retired from the bench and moved his mother to Los Angeles, Cooper gave up agriculture classes to try his hand as a Hollywood extra. Cooper played an extra in a handful of silent films before arriving on the set of The Winning of Barbara Worth in 1926. The actor cast as the second male lead didn’t show, and someone shoved Cooper into the part. He appeared with Clara Bow (who soon became one of his conquests) in her star-making film It, but it was his appearance in another Bow vehicle Wings, released later that same year, truly launched his career. He plays a World War I flying cadet, and although his screentime was still relatively short, there was one scene — an extended close-up shot, the light streaming in from outside — in which he looked gorgeous. In 1929, he filmed The Wolf Song with Lupe Vélez. He soon had an affair with Velez, who purportedly claimed that Cooper “has the biggest organ in Hollywood but not the ass to push it in well.” For more on their relationship, read my star analysis on Lupe.

Cooper filmed The Virginian — his first real “talkie,” and the film was a major hit and cemented the foundation of Cooper’s image. His ability to project elements of his own personality onto the characters he portrayed, to appear natural and authentic in his roles, and to underplay and deliver restrained performances calibrated for the camera and the screen helped make him a cinematic success, often lauded by those he worked with. However, his good looks and charisma made him a success with women, whether he worked with them or not. Over the next few years, Cooper was paired with the most gorgeous and promising female stars in Hollywood —with Carole Lombard in I Take This Woman (whom he slept with), Claudette Colbert in His Woman (whom he allegedly slept with), Marlene Dietrich in Morocco and Desire (who he famously slept with more than once), and Joan Blondell in Make Me a Star (who he allegedly slept with). In 1932, Cooper and his Paramount “rival,” Cary Grant, were cast against Tallulah Bankhead in Devil and the Deep (1932). Like Lupe Velez, Bankhead was a loose cannon, with most famous quote being:

“The only reason I went to Hollywood was to fuck that divine Gary Cooper.”

Amidst all his public and private action, Cooper began courting Veronica “Rocky” Balfe, a starlet who went by the stage name of Sandra Shaw. She was also best known as the blonde dropped by King Kong. The two were wed in late 1933. Balfe retired from the screen to become a wife and mother, with her giving birth to their only child, Maria, in 1937. Cooper portrayed a new type of hero—a champion of the common man—in films like Mr. Deeds Goes To Washington and 1941′s Sergeant York (which won him his first of two Best Actor Oscars). Cooper met Ernest Hemingway at Sun Valley in October 1940 and they were friends for the rest of his life. He co-starred with Ingrid Bergman (with whom he had a year-long affair with) in a the film adaptation of Hemingway’s For Whom the Bell Tolls. He kept starring in more films and bedding his female co-stars until he got more than he bargained for when he made The Fountainhead. Naturally, the 47-year-old Cooper had an affair with his co-star, the 21-year-old Patricia Neal. However, this time things got crazy: Neal wound up pregnant with Cooper’s child. He insisted she have an abortion. When Cooper’s long-suffering wife found out about the relationship, she sent a telegram demanding he end it. This didn’t work; he also confessed that he was in love with Neal, and continued to see her. Cooper and his wife legally separated in May of 1951. Cooper’s daughter Maria, by then in her early teens, famously spat on Neal in public. Neal later claimed that Cooper hit her after she went on a date with Kirk Douglas. Neal ended their relationship in late December 1951. Amid all this drama, Cooper starred in what is now regarded as his defining role: the beleaguered sheriff in High Noon, which won him his second Best Actor Oscar. In later life, he became involved in a relationship with the costume designer Irene, and was, according to Irene, "the only man she ever loved".

Maybe all his previous actions had an affect on him because Cooper converted to Catholicism in 1958, and reconciled with his wife and daughter. Also, he began starring in films that centered around searching for redemption, such as Friendly Persuasion (1956) and Man of the West (1958). In 1960, Cooper fell ill with prostate cancer, which quickly spread to his colon, lungs, and bones; he died of it shortly after his 60th birthday in 1961. A year after his death, Irene committed suicide by jumping from the 11th floor of the Knickerbocker Hotel, after telling Doris Day of her grief over Cooper's death. Regardless of his philandering, regardless of the arduous work of his studio’s publicity departments, there was something plaintive, almost childlike, maybe even innocent about Cooper, so he can easily be forgiven his sins. He acted out what mattered to millions of people, and that act made him a star beyond measure.

Next, I’ll focus on his former paramour Lupe Velez’s arch nemesis. A woman who happened to be wife of MGM art director Cedric Gibbons (Gary Cooper’s wife Rocky’s uncle). She was another pioneer of Mexican cinema who was arguably the first Latina to successfully crossover to Anglo audiences: Leo Dolores del Río.

Stats

birthdate: May 7, 1901

major planets:

Sun: Taurus

Moon: Sagittarius

Rising: Taurus

Mercury: Taurus

Venus: Taurus

Mars: Leo

Midheaven: Aquarius

Jupiter: Capricorn

Saturn: Capricorn

Uranus: Sagittarius

Neptune: Gemini

Pluto: Gemini

Overall personality snapshot: He was torn between an instinct to roam free and a determination to find security and make a solid, lasting contribution to the world. As he repeatedly changed horses in search of both ultimate certainties and high-spirited adventure at the same time, he could find himself deeply divided and uncertain. He sought to earth the fire from heaven and put it to work, but he found all too often that it would not let him rest. In his search for stability and security, he became a farmer and was immediately confronted with the changing seasons. He embraced the solid certainties of geology and are hit by an earthquake. He liked to feel the solid earth move. He sought certitude and permanence, yet his endless inquiries constantly confounded yesterday’s certainties. When he got his own uncertainties together (by accepting he wanted the best of both the changing and the unchanging worlds), he could have been a brilliant teacher, conversationalist, counselor, entertainer, wit, creative artist or entrepreneur – in fact he could have been anything he wanted. Once focused, he could be a human dynamo, and wonderfully humorous, witty and entertaining with it. As he discovered, his quest for solid material certainties did not make a happy bedfellow for his yearning for excitement and larger religious and spiritual understanding. In one way or another, be it through philosophy and the spiritual quest or through writing, music or art, he needed to put together and formulate a total vision of the universe which is based on unassailable facts yet satisfying to his idealism.

Constantly seeking, he was a natural agnostic, applying the criteria of science to counter woolly speculations, yet at the same time highly skeptical of the limited and statistical pronouncements of unthinking science. The danger, if he did not marry these elements within him, is that he would swing from one to the other and undermine the virtues of both. A restless changing of jobs, careers, partners, visions or aspirations left him drunk with his own spinning. When he deliberately tried to remain sober and commonsensical, it seemed to make matters worse for there was something of the gambler in him. This all-or-nothing streak can temporarily overcome your natural caution and enable you to burn your bridges (though you will usually ensure there is something tucked away for a rainy day). He felt an impulsive need to do things on a grand scale, to live with commitment, to feast on the world, and to understand what it was to be alive in all possible ways. He seemed to be called both to explore the reaches of the imagination and to build secure foundations. He brought far-reaching visions into manifestation, and these visions injected his conservative desire for stability and security with flair and colour. His vision of tomorrow and the larger world gave spice to any project he undertook. He saw endless possibilities and wanted to make them real. In this he could be the natural entrepreneur who saw economic opportunities at every turn, an inspiring counselor and teacher, and a stimulating companion whatever he did.

His well-shaped body displayed a warm attractiveness and ripeness. In his later years, he may have needed to watch the tendency to gain weight too easily. His strong broad shoulders supported a very large neck size. His most outstanding feature was his eyes and his gentle smile and voice. He was big-boned. He enjoyed dressing well, preferring soft colours. He was practical, steady and patient, but he could  be inflexible in his views. One thing he did have was plenty of common sense and good powers of concentration, although he tended to think that purely abstract thought was a waste of time. His thought processes weren’t as quick as others, but his decisions were made with a lot of thought behind them. He also had the welcome ability to bring people together. He needed to be able to show his originality and independence in any job for complete satisfaction. His work should also satisfy his scientific bent and humanitarian leanings. He needed scope for his inventiveness, because he was able to bring a fresh view to any job. Ideally, his work should permit him to express the idealistic side to him character and allow him to help as many people as possible. He could be extremely efficient in the way that he tried to get maximum result out of minimum effort. He didn’t like extravagance and waste. He was a thoughtful and resourceful person, who was well-informed on many subjects. Success came gradually and as a result of hard work. Success and growth, for him, were expressed by material and financial achievements, bringing status and prestige.Worldly success was well within his reach, because he possessed all the necessary talents to gain power, influence and status. He was practical, determined and patient. When there were hitches in his plans, he simply worked around them. He knew where he was heading to, and had already figured out the best way to use his talents to reach his goals.

Although he could be fairly pessimistic about life in general, it didn’t put him off aiming for the top. He could be very single-minded about reaching his goals, and was prepared to put his career interests above his personal happiness. He was extremely aware of his own worth. He was prepared to work beyond the call of duty. His strong sense of ambition gave him a certain rigidity, arrogance and selfishness in the eyes of others. He belonged to a generation with fiery enthusiasm for new and innovative ideas and concepts. Rejecting the past and its mistakes, he sought new ideals and people to believe in. As a member of this generation, he felt restless and adventurous, and was attracted towards foreign people, places and cultures. As a member of the Gemini Neptune generation, his restless mind pushed him to explore new intellectual fields. He loved communication and the occult and was likely also fascinated by metaphysical phenomena and astrology. As a Gemini Plutonian, he was mentally restless and willing to examine and change old doctrines, ideas and ways of thinking. As a member of this generation, he showed an enormous amount of mental vitality, originality and perception. Traditional customs and taboos were examined and rejected for newer and more original ways of doing things. As opportunities with education expanded, he questioned more and learned more. As a member of this generation, having more than one occupation at a time would not have been unusual to him.

Love/sex life: His sexuality was a wonderful combination of sensuality and basic laziness. He let himself be carried along by his pleasure-seeking instincts, greeting every new experience with fresh eagerness and then slowly draining from that encounter all the joy it has to offer. This passive, easy-going approach to sex not only made for good technique, it also conceals the egocentric strength and stubbornness that was at the core of his erotic nature. People don’t realize that beneath all that luxurious hedonism he was always the person in control. He was a conservative lover for whom appearances were always important. There may have been occasions when his sensuality lured him into indiscretions but he was quick to cover his tracks and hide the evidence. The quiet practicality of his sexual nature served as a handy antidote for his Martian braggadocio. He knew that he was the best there is but he was willing to sit back and let the world find out the good news on its own. In his youth Cooper was endorsed by several female “experts” of the time (such as Clara Bow, Marlene Dietrich and Tallulah Bankhead) as Hollywood’s sexiest man. His soft spoken and manly sex appeal projected just as well on the screen. After marrying at age 32, Cooper’s sex life became somewhat more sedate though he never lost his ability to attract women.

minor asteroids and points:

North Node: Scorpio

Lilith: Scorpio

Vertex: Libra

Fortune: Capricorn

East Point: Taurus

His North Node in Scorpio dictated that he needed to be careful not to let the more emotional side of his personality overwhelm him. Instead, he should have set out to consciously develop his more practical abilities. His Lilith in Scorpio ensured that he was dangerously attracted to those women who seduced and conquered on a daily basis; who liked life intense and was judged for her sexuality and general vibe and learned early on how to deflect moral judgments. His type of women may have been tried in the court of public opinion but no way were they going to show up for the sentencing. His Vertex in Libra, 6th house dictated that he llonged for a union of souls that was based on a model of pure peace and justice. Images come to mind of a mythical life on Venus, the planet of love, where there is never a discordant beat between lovers, but rather, continual harmony even if played in the minor chords. Physical lust was certainly a necessary aspect of two beings eternally intertwined, but the platonic component far outweighed it in importance for him. He had an attitude of duty, obligation and sacrifice when it came to heartfelt interactions. The negative side was the tendency to become hypochondriacal or martyristic to get the love he so desperately wanted. There was a need for others to appreciate the sincerity of his intentions, to the daily tasks he executed in a conscientious and caring way and for others to know that his actions, no matter how routine they may seem, were based on devoted love. His Part of Fortune in Capricorn and Part of Spirit in Cancer dictated that his destiny lay in creating practical and long-lasting achievements. Success came through hard work, determination, responsibility and perseverance. Fulfillment came from observing his progress through life and seeing it take a form and structure that will outlive him. His soul’s purpose guided him towards building security in his life, both emotional and material. He felt spiritual connections and the spark of the divine within his home and family. East Point in Taurus dictated that he was more likely to identify with the need for pleasure (including the potential of liking himself) and comfort.  

elemental dominance:

earth

fire

He was a practical, reliable man and could provide structure and protection. He was oriented toward practical experience and thought in terms of doing rather than thinking, feeling, or imagining. Could be materialistic, unimaginative, and resistant to change. But at his best, he provided the practical resources, analysis, and leadership to make dreams come true. He was dynamic and passionate, with strong leadership ability. He generated enormous warmth and vibrancy. He was exciting to be around, because he was genuinely enthusiastic and usually friendly. However, he could either be harnessed into helpful energy or flame up and cause destruction. Ultimately, he chose the latter. Confident and opinionated, he was fond of declarative statements such as “I will do this” or “It’s this way.” When out of control—usually because he was bored, or hadn’t been acknowledged—he was bossy, demanding, and even tyrannical. But at his best, his confidence and vision inspired others to conquer new territory in the world, in society, and in themselves.

modality dominance:

fixed

He liked the challenge of managing existing routines with ever more efficiency, rather than starting new enterprises or finding new ways of doing things. He likely had trouble delegating duties and had a very hard time seeing other points of view; he tried to implement the human need to create stability and order in the wake of change.

house dominants:

12th

9th

8th

He had great interest in the unconscious, and indulged in a lot of hidden and secret affairs. His life was defined by seclusion and escapism. He had a certain mysticism and hidden sensitivity, as well as an intense need for privacy. Traveling, whether physically across the globe, on a mental plane or expanding through study was a major theme in his life. He was not only concerned with learning facts, but also wanted to understand the connections formed between them and the philosophies and concepts they stood for. His conscience, as well as foreign travel, people and places was also of paramount importance in his life. He loved the totality of the human experience and embraced the whole cycle of human life, including birth, sex and death. His darker side, and the complexes and emotions that he preferred to keep hidden, even from himself was a theme throughout his life. His ability to undergo deep personal transformations and spiritual regeneration was also highlighted.

planet dominants:

Venus

Saturn

Sun

He was romantic, attractive and valued beauty, had an artistic instinct, and was sociable. He had an easy ability to create close personal relationships, for better or worse, and to form business partnerships. He believed in the fact that lessons in life were sometimes harsh, that structure and foundation was a great issue in his life, and he had to be taught through through experience what he needed in order to grow. He paid attention to limitations he had and had to learn the rules of the game in this physical reality. He tended to have a practical, prudent outlook. He also likely held rigid beliefs. He had vitality and creativity, as well as a strong ego and was authoritarian and powerful. He likely had strong leadership qualities, he definitely knew who he was, and he had tremendous will. He met challenges and believed in expanding his life.

sign dominants:

Taurus

Sagittarius

Capricorn

His stubbornness and determination kept his around for the long haul on any project or endeavour. He was incredibly patient, singular in his pursuit of goals, and determined to attain what he wanted. Although he lacked versatility, he compensated for it by enduring whatever he had to in order to get what he wanted. He enjoyed being surrounded by nice things. He liked fine art and music, and may have had considerable musical ability. He also had a talent for working with his hands—gardening, woodworking, and sculpting. He sought the truth, expressed it as he saw it—and didn’t care if anyone else agreed with him. He saw the large picture of any issue and couldn’t be bothered with the mundane details. He was always outspoken and likely couldn’t understand why other people weren’t as candid. After all, what was there to hide? He loved his freedom and chafed at any restrictions. He was a serious-minded person who often seemed aloof and tightly in control of his emotions and her personal domain. Even as a youngster, there was a mature air about him, as if he was born with a profound core that few outsiders ever see. He was easily impressed by outward signs of success, but was interested less in money than in the power that money represents. He was a true worker—industrious, efficient, and disciplined. His innate common sense gave her the ability to plan ahead and to work out practical ways of approaching goals. More often than not, he succeeded at whatever he set out to do. He possessed a quiet dignity that was unmistakable.

Read more about him under the cut.

Actor Gary Cooper was born on May 7, 1901, in Helena, Montana. Spanning from the silent film era to the early 1960s, Academy Award-winning actor Gary Cooper built much of his career by playing strong, manly, distinctly American roles. The son of English parents who had settled in Montana, he was educated in England for a time. He also studied at Grinnell College in Iowa before heading to Los Angeles to work as an illustrator. When he had a hard time finding a job, Cooper worked as a film extra and landed some small parts. After his appearance in

The Winning of Barbara Worth

(1926), a western, Cooper's career began to take off. He starred opposite silent movie star Clara Bow in Children of Divorce (1927). Cooper also earned praise as the ranch foreman in

The Virginian

(1929), one of his early films with sound. Throughout the 1930s, he turned in a number of strong performances in such films as A Farewell to Arms (1934) with Helen Hayes and Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936) directed by Frank Capra. Cooper received an Academy Award nomination for his work on the film. Cooper continued to excel on the big screen, tackling several real-life dramas. In Sergeant York (1941), the played a World War I hero and sharpshooter, which was based on the life story of Alvin York. Cooper earned a Best Actor Academy Award for his portrayal of York.

The next year, Cooper played one of baseball's greats, Lou Gehrig, in The Pride of the Yankees (1942). Again, he scored another Best Actor Academy Award nomination. Appearing in a film adaptation of Ernest Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls,  Cooper starred opposite Ingrid Bergman in a drama set during the Spanish Civil War. This role garnered him a third Academy Award nomination. In 1952, Cooper took on what is known considered his signature role as Will Kane in High Noon. He appeared as a lawman who must face a deadly foe without any help from his own townspeople. The film won four Academy Awards, including a Best Actor win for Cooper. In addition to his excellent on-screen performances, Cooper became  known for his alleged romances with several of his leading ladies, including Clara Bow and Patricia Neal. The affair with Neal, his co-star in 1949's The Fountainhead, reportedly occurred during his  marriage to socialite Veronica Balfe with whom he had a daughter. Their marriage seemed to survive the scandal. By the late 1950s, Cooper's health was in decline. He made a few more films, such as Man of the West (1958), before dying of cancer on May 13, 1961. (x)

[space--cadet-glow]

Theory: Vaati's Petty Little Plans

AKA, I couldn't think of a better title. Sorry. Anyway, this was something I was noticing pertaining to the manga version of "The Minish Cap". It's the half-conversation that Ezlo and Vaati have about Vaati's plan to steal the Light Force (I say "half conversation" because Ezlo basically mocks Vaati, then Vaati has one off-hand comment about Ezlo's mocking, and then it changes subject to the Great Fairy of Mayflies being corrupted).

I just wanted to see how the different translations I have differ. And if they did differ, how and possibly why. And an analysis on why each translation makes this conversation so heart-wrenching.

ENGLISH:

"Fool! I don't care about returning to normal!! But, I won't let you go unchecked! I'll see to it that your petty little plans are thwarted!"

""Petty little plans", you say? You always did underestimate me! Let me prove again how much better I am than you!"

So, Ezlo is much more concerned with stopping Vaati than he is returning to normal, which is honestly quite depressing. Ezlo also calls Vaati's plans "petty" and "little"-- "little" of which is quite consistently used in the English translation to insult Vaati (since being reminded that he's a Minish seems to be what ticks him off the most). But, Vaati's response to this is that Ezlo always "underestimated" him... Which is a bit odd, since he was just an apprentice. Ezlo didn't really have a reason to think that Vaati would be more powerful than a newcomer/beginner. So, Vaati's response seems like it came a bit out of nowhere (for how it was worded, that is). Which is even weirder considering that Vaati goes on to claim that he's "better" than Ezlo-- which, may I point out-- is technically not true, since Vaati is, ohhh... I don't know... USING THE HAT THAT EZLO MADE. HE'S NOT BETTER THAN EZLO BECAUSE HE'S USING EZLO'S MAGIC.

GERMAN:

"Freeing me from the curse is not even my wish! But we will stop you!! We will thwart your wicked plans!!"

"Wicked, you say?! You always did consider me a fool... But now, I will show my superiority!"

Oh, boy. Ezlo is a bit more dramatic here, claiming that his one "wish" is not to return to normal, but to stop Vaati. Ouch. He then calls Vaati's plans "wicked"-- not "petty" like English Ezlo did. This makes it seem like Ezlo really knew/realised that even the hat he created was capable of evil magic and not just "good" magic. And then, there's Vaati's response. According to him, Ezlo always treated him like he was a "fool". That is horrible, because Ezlo is supposed to be a TEACHER. What sort of teacher thinks his student is a "fool"? EZLO, YOU'RE THE ONE TEACHING HIM! He's not improving his magic because you're not giving him an opportunity to! Which segues right into Vaati's comment on "superiority". It's not that he's improved with the Magic Hat-- it's the fact that he's now using Ezlo's own creation against him. He's "superior" because of the hat-- and this line really makes it seem like Vaati has some insecurity issues. This is why I think this translation makes everything a bit more clear than the English version. The German version isn't trying to sugar-coat everything. Also, another thing that the German version did that breaks my heart: Vaati consistently refers to Ezlo as "Sie"-- the formal "you". And continues to do it even when trying to tell him off... As if he was too scared to switch to "du" to insult Ezlo right in his face. This sticks out like a sore thumb because he sasses the Royal Family by calling them "du" without hesitation... Which is really implying that, deep-down, Vaati is honestly kind of scared of Ezlo.

JAPANESE:

"First of all, I don't want to return to normal!! However, I can't leave you as-is! I'll put an end to your petty ambitions without fail!!"

"Petty ambitions... Are they? You always did think I was an idiot... Let me show you again. How I am better than you!!"

...Well, I can see where both English and German got their ideas. So, Ezlo again claims that he doesn't want to return to his Minish form, but then... We have something that was sort of impossible to translate. The word that Ezlo uses for "you"-- the one he refers to Vaati as-- is "kisama"... Which is an extremely rude and impolite way of saying "you". Basically, Ezlo is pretty furious at Vaati here. Like English, he calls Vaati's plans "petty"... And says that he's determined to stop them. BUT THEN, like German... Rather than "underestimating" Vaati... EZLO THINKS VAATI IS STUPID. Or, at least, that's what Vaati thinks Ezlo thinks about him. GOOD. LORD. And then the Japanese version does something that the German in-game translation did... Make Vaati sound uncertain by breaking up his sentences to make it seem like he paused-- as if he's unsure about himself. Notice the pause between "...show you again" and "how I am..."? That's what I mean. It's almost like Vaati choked when saying that. And that breaks my heart.

FRENCH:

"It doesn't matter to me if I return to my original appearance! On the other hand, I'll do everything to teach you a good lesson! Your insolence and your impudence have limits! You will pay dearly for your egoistic ambitions!"

"My egoistic ambitions? Master, you have always taken me for a nobody... Perhaps this time. I'll show you how much better I am than you!"

I have no words other than-- holy crap, French version... Stab me in the heart, why don't you? It's amazing how many liberties they took with the wordings... Yet somehow kept in-style with the story and somehow made it sound BETTER. Like seriously. This is a real tear-gusher. First, we have Ezlo reminding us that he's a teacher with practically making a pun on the word "lesson"... Then, he adds another comment saying that Vaati was "insolent" (disrespectful) and "impudent" (cocky and shameless). Big yikes. But then, he goes on to describe Vaati's plans as "egoistic"... NOT "egotistic". This is important because this implies that Vaati does (or Ezlo THINKS he does) have a very inflated ego and thinks he's oh-so high-and-mighty. Then, we get to a line that honestly tripped me up a bit. "Moins que rien" means "next-to-nothing"... But it's a bit idiomatic and the line could also mean anything from "Master, you have always thought lesser of me" to "Master, you have always taken me for less-than-nothing" or "Master, you have always taken me for next-to-nothing". No matter how you translate it, that line hurts. Also, another thing I just realised: there's a level of irony with Ezlo saying that the plans were "egoistic" (self-important) when Vaati claims that Ezlo thought he was a "nobody". Those words have complete opposite meanings! And note how he pauses on the last two lines again like in the Japanese version. A second's worth of hesitation. Ouch, my heart.

SPANISH:

"I don't mind not being able to be who I was again! But, I will not allow you to go about as you please. I will cut your ambitions at the root!"

"Cut my ambitions? You never believed I was capable of anything, right? I will show you now that I am far superior to you!"

Okay. Ezlo sort of lessens the stakes of his curse by saying that he "doesn't mind" being stuck in hat-form. But then, he uses what basically amounts to the Spanish equivalent of "nip it in the bud". So, he's saying that he'll put an end to Vaati's scheming before it even starts. ...Which is a bit odd considering that Vaati already has the Magic Hat, but... Then, we get another heart-wrenching reply from Vaati. "You never believed I was capable of anything, did you?" is another viable translation. And that's just depressing. Either way, it sounds like a cross between the French line "a nobody" and the English line "underestimate me". And then, like German, the word "superior" crops up. Spanish really seems like it took inspiration from every translation out there.

ITALIAN:

"Idiot! I don't care about turning back to normal! But, I won't let you wander unchecked! I'll make sure your stupid, petty plans are ruined!"

""Stupid, petty plans"... You say? Let me show you again how much better I am than you!"

...Can you tell that Italian translated off of the English version? And that it dropped probably the best line, the "underestimate"/"fool"/etc line? I really wonder why they did that. Although, I bet that's why they added in the "stupid" part before "petty plans". Maybe they did that so having Vaati claim that Ezlo thought he was stupid TWICE wouldn't happen. I don't know. This translation basically says what all the others did, with the addition of Ezlo repeatedly calling Vaati "stupid" in some fashion.

So, what does this all mean? This means that I am pretty much insane for having six copies of the same thing. BUT. I always had a motto pertaining to these translations.

If you want something different out of the manga translations of "The Minish Cap"... Go to English for cutesy fluff. Go to German for accuracy to the original Japanese. Go to Japanese to the most accurate version possible. Go to French for theatrics (both emotions and drama). Go to Spanish for sounding natural (ie, it really sounds like people just talking like we do). And skip the Italian manga entirely and go to the Italian GAME version, which is infinitely much better.

Every translation has its strengths. I just think Italian got the short end of the stick by translating off of the "kiddified" English version.

[helenfl92]

Yashahime meta/analysis

Will Kirinowa become a thing (part 1)?

So after watching the last episode of Yashahime I decided to write my own meta/analysis about who the main couple from Yashahime will be. And before antis will jump at my throat, I will say that I don’t condone pedophilia in any way, shape or form. But just like Sesshomaru and Rin, I think Kirinmaru and Towa will become a couple in the future or at the end of Yashahime (when Towa will be of age). Below I will explain why I think so. 1) Their first appearance:

So Towa first appears in episode 1 of the series and the first shot of her it's her back. Then in the next shot her face, it's obscured to the viewers, with a small point/circle of light on her right cheek, while her left cheek it's illuminated by the light. Also, she appears in a submissive position (kneeling and with her hands tied behind her back). As for Kirinmaru, the first shot of him (in episode 7) it's sitting on a chair like a throne. When his face, it's shown, the first thing it's shown, it's his mask which covers his face, with the exception of his left eye which it's like a black hole. In the last shot, his left eye, it's shown, with the left side of his face covered in shadow, while the right side (which represents his true self... more on that in part 2) it's illuminated by the moonlight. Also something to point that here, it's the fact that Kirinmaru made his official appearance during a night with a crescent moon. The crescent moon being the symbol of the dog demon clan. So when they are first introduced, they are in opposite position to each other. Also it’s a coincidence that Kirinmaru’s left eye was the only one shown through most of season one, while Towa’s left eye was the place where the silver pearl was and will start to glow when she used the power of the pearl? As opposite to Kirinmaru’s first shot of his left eye which seemed like a black hole. 2) The eye color:  So, according to the color wheel, the opposite color to green it's red. Kirinmaru does have green eyes while Towa does have red eyes. This is another element that puts them in contrast to each other. Coincidence or foreshadowing? 3) The chinese astrology: So, according to Chinese zodiac’s relationships, certain animal signs are highly compatible and harmonize well together, while others find it impossible to get along with each other no matter how hard they try. One of the incompatible pair it's the dragon and the dog. So in episode 5, when Myoga was talking about Kirinmaru, he appeared as being depicted as a dragon (in Myoga's flashback...which was more like a mural picture than an actual representation).   And as of the last episode of season 1, it was pretty confirmed that Kirinmaru's true form it's that of a dragon. 4) First meeting in the feudal era Their first meeting it’s rather peculiar, to say the least. So first of all I would like to bring up the fact that this is the first episode since he appeared in the series, that find Kirinmaru outside in the broad daylight, unlike the other episodes where he was seen in a dark room. So Towa and co. are chasing the last loser (sorry, I meant peril),Totetsu, who runs to seas to get help from his superior, Kirinmaru. Of course Kirinamru is not happy about the uninvited guests, so after he uses a psionic attack on his underling and threatens him, his underling makes himself scarce pretty fast. As soon as his underling it's out of the picture, his attention it's focused on the girls.

Well, and this is where it gets a little bit nonsensical, to say the least. Kirinmaru uses another psionic attack to knock down the girls from Takechiyo's back and Moroha still ask him who he is.  😑 I don't see the sense of this question since he attacked them. I mean it's pretty obviously at this point who he is. Well, after this moment that made no sense to me, whatsoever, Towa asks him about the dream butterfly (since in the last episode Konton told them that the dream butterfly was designated by Kirinmaru... and Towa took it at face value, no questions asked). Of course, Kirinmaru doesn't oblige with a reply, so Towa uses her best weapon for feudal era....talk-no-jutsu (because this helped her so much in the past 😒), trying to convince Kirinmaru return the dreams and the sleep to Setsuna.

So I think every watcher out there had this face when Towa used talk-no-jutsu on Kirinmaru. Followed by an argument between the girls where Setsuna and Moroha didn't want to engage Kirinmaru because there was no reward for them. Up to this point only Towa wanted to solve the matter of the dream butterfly. Kirinmaru, who, at some point had enough of their bullshit, challenge them to a fight (due to the prophecy), even if Towa it's reluctant to fight him (due to her pacifist nature). Moroha and Setsuna are taken out pretty easily, while Towa it's the last one to face him and manage to leave him with a souvenir, until she it's also defeated. I won’t enter in details regarding the fight between Sesshomaru and Kirinmaru because is not important (maybe only the final of their fight). What I found strange about this episode is that Kirinmaru mostly acts like a teacher rather than an enemy. During the fight, he comments on the girls's weaknesses and uses very weak attacks (compared to what he uses in episode 24). 5) Osamu Kirin

So because of the fact that Towa always got in fights, while in the modern era, she changed schools often. Osamu Kirin it's the goofball English teacher (and homeroom teacher) from the christian academy Saint Gabriel (Saint Gabriel it's a saint in both the orthodox and catholic religion and the both of them are religious christian minorities in Japan, so yeah....), the last school where Towa got enrolled before she left in the feudal era. Their encounters are pretty brief. The first time, when Towa arrives late at her classes, he keeps her after school and say something pretty strange to her: When in Rome, do as the romans do.  Meaning that if you are in an unfamiliar place, you should behave like how the people behave there. And the second time when he tells Towa to stop daydreaming and to focus in classes. The first one was an useful advice for Towa since she went to the feudal era and had problems adapting there. And also he was the only teacher who didn't call Towa's adoptive parents to talk to them about the fact that she was late in her first day at school due to getting into a fight. Pretty strange right?  🤔 Everything seems normal with this teacher up until to episode 23.

So in this episode, Osamu Kirin goes to the airport (I wonder why... though I may have an idea that I will bring up in part 2) where he met with Sota Higurashi and his daughter, Mei, who came to pick up Moe. After asking about Towa, Osamu Kirin asks about the grim comet out of nowhere. Sota asks him where it's the comet because he can't see it. So this leads to my theory: Osamu Kirin it's Kirinmaru in the modern era. The first hint would be their names which are similar. Then the fact that only Osamu Kirin can see the grim comet, but a normal person can’t. Lastly, in both English dubbed and Japanese version Osamu Kirin and Kirinmaru do have the same voice actor (also in Miraculous Ladybug, in English version Gabriel Agreste and Hawkmoth have the same voice actor or Vergil and Urizen from Devil May Cry 5 and in the first given example they were the same person). And I also believe that there, it's a telepathic connection between Osamu Kirin and Kirinmaru. Like Wolverine in X-Men: Days Of Future Past type of thing. Also, I believe, there it's a time loop (more on that in part 2). So I think this analysis/ meta t's pretty long already so I will stop here for now. The next points that I want to bring it up will appear in part 2. So, see you all in part 2. 😌

[curseofaphrodite]

i will start mentally preparing myself for that angsty fic, thx for the warning, i'm gonna cancel all my plans for that day so i can just sob along to taylor swift's songs

also, i have this habit of accidentally starting series (haha) so i need to finish that tasm fic, then finish part 5 (6? i can't remember) of my latest fic while praying that my tasm fic doesn't need a part 3

but that will be done when my stupid adorable cat decides that my lap/arms are not a comfortable enough bed cause rn i'm imobilised

it's a presentation for my lit class! i have to choose an author (i chose ionesco), read at least 700 pages worth of his work, then find a theme (i chose 'how ionesco shows the literary concept of the absurd in his work') and then analyse 3 excerpts according to 3 different axis of analysis, ig? it's hard to explain in english lmao, it's easier in french. then the whole presentation has to be done on friday during our last two periods (so i'll have the whole entire week to freak out) in front of 18 students + my smart as all fuck teacher

clearly, i'm fine

also i'm on season 5 of criminal minds and it's being very interesting so far👀 dr reid is- like, i know that i'm usually just like ✨women✨, but on this rare occasion, ✨men✨, more specifically ✨reid✨

also idk who that url belongs to but same

you're welcome.

thats a superhero power to be honest. i can NEVER finish series so i stick to oneshots. i go *screams* at schedules so thats not for me 😭 you deserve cookies.

show. me. the. cat. *hisses*

okay wow that sounds like a lot of work. im sure youll do AMAZING though. i believe in youuuu. yes im your personal cheerleader now.

AAA SPENCER REID IS LIKE HWJW. Especially Matthew too, tbh. Like he straight up walked out of a book. He's so nice and FUN and awkward I love him with my soul.

fun fact, i started reading self insert fanfics because of him so yeah, he's the reason my life is ruined.

[paperbackrevolution]

“Book People”: a response

I have been thinking about an essay I read on Jezebel for the last while. It fit in so nicely with something I have been mulling over for months: readers. I mean serious readers. The kind of people that track their reading, that keep up with the publishing industry, that can relate to bookish memes, that overthink how their bookshelf is organized, and that seek out like-minded readers to interact with on social media. This essay, by Joanna Mang, uses a phrase for these kinds of readers: ‘Book People’. Mang uses it in a derogatory manner, and I have heard it used as such before though in those cases I believe the phrase Book Snob would have been more fitting. For Mang, Book People, are not the good sort of reader, but I want to unpack that in a bit.

Mang’s article is titled “We Have to Save Books from the Book People”. I actually only found it through a response written at Book Riot by Tika Viteri (“Back-Talking the Tone Police: Book People are Not Your Enemy”). Essentially, after rereading Mang’s essay a half dozen times (to try and follow the meandering argument and to seek what the point was) I think Mang is arguing a few things: that classics should still be taught in high school and not argued about on twitter, that English teachers bear no responsibility to encourage reading, and that Book People are bad for liking books a whole lot and have a Secret Plot to keep the publishing industry running. What any of this has to do with the title of her article remains unclear.

Mang opens her essay by complaining about people complaining on twitter. Specifically, people that are complaining about the classics they had to read in high school. The Great Gatsby, The Scarlet Letter, and Catcher in the Rye are all mentioned. Even more specifically Mang is upset at the redundancy of these arguments, that they come up again and again. I mean she is definitely correct, because once someone talks about something no one else is allowed to talk about that thing ever again. Ever. Right? I doubt it is the same person rehashing this conversation daily, more likely Mang has stumbled across or perhaps actively searched out these conversations as they are being had by different people. I mean as far as I know there are more than a handful of people using twitter, right? And if it is the same person dredging up this conversation daily, I have a suggestion: unfollow them. Problem solved. But then if that had happened, we would not have this essay to unpack.

Mang seems upset that people on twitter say that they felt forced into reading books that they did not enjoy. According to Mang anyone that disliked these books did so because these books are classics that they just failed to understand. Mang mentions that with a good lesson plan anyone can like classics, but perhaps they did not have a good teacher with a good lesson plan or maybe it is because they just did not connect with the book. Not everyone must like classics simply because they are part of the canon. A book’s inclusion within the canon does not mean that it is necessarily enjoyable to read or study for every single person. It simply means that it was influential in some way. I can recognize and value the significance of a classic novel and still also dislike the reading experience.

I did find it ironic that these conversations on twitter are doing exactly what Mang says she encourages her students to do: “When I teach literature, my goal is to give students the tools and confidence they need to attack and write about texts, to “talk to” the text rather than receive it passively” (Mang 2021). On these twitter threads we have people reflecting back on books that they were required to read in school. But because they are engaging with these texts on twitter it cannot count as the same thing? I have come across some fascinating analysis on classic books on social media that would have made my English professors proud. I fail to see the problem here.

Mang then goes on to speak about the notion of whether certain books should or shouldn’t be taught in school to avoid “turning kids off” reading, since this is often an extension of those twitter conversations. This is something that people in education have been honing for years. A quick google search reveals many theories, pedagogies and lesson plans that can help encourage reading. Teachers and other education experts are out there exploring options to encourage reading in their students. Why though? Why do we want turn children in to readers? Mang suggests that Book People have an odious plot to save the book-as-object which I will unpack in a moment. But maybe it is actually because it increases empathy? Or because it builds vocabulary? Because it prevents cognitive decline as we age? Because it is a stress reducer? Might even make you live longer? Improves general knowledge? Improves writing skills? Aids sleep? Could even help prevent alzheimers? I think it could be at least one of those reasons, especially since most of these studies explain that these benefits do not come from reading those three books back in high school but as a sustained habit over a lifetime. Though Mang, an educator, also states in her article “It’s not an English teacher’s job to make students love reading; an English teacher’s job is to equip students to read and communicate” (Mang 2021). Which I think is certainly true, but (thankfully) many other educators are attempting to go beyond the pressure to yield good test results and are still trying to help their students become readers. Of course, as Mang does mention, the formation of a sustained reading habit is based on more than a single factor (Mang mentions “parental attitudes, family wealth, the student’s disposition and other sources of stimulation”). Why this should excuse English teachers from even trying to encourage reading is lost on me. Further I also wonder what the point there is in teaching students how to actively engage with books if they are not continuing to read outside of school? Why bother with English class at all if this is the case?

I am not here to say that schools should not teach classic literature or should not encourage students to engage with the canon, I am here, however, to say that we can also all go on to complain about it on the internet afterward. If someone does not find value in these conversations, then they are free to tune them out.

After talking about education and American schools’ reading lists, Mang finally gets to the part about Book People. Mang differentiates between readers and Book People stating:

“A reader is someone who is in the habit of reading. A Book Person has turned reading into an identity. A Book Person participates in book culture. Book People refer to themselves as “bookworms” and post Bookstagrams of their “stacks.” They tend towards language like “I love this so hard” or “this gave me all the feels” and enjoy gentle memes about buying more books than they can read and the travesty of dog-eared pages. They build Christmas trees out of books. They write reviews on Goodreads and read book blogs and use the hashtag #amreading when they are reading. They have TBR (to be read) lists and admit to DNFing (did not finish). They watch BookTube and BookTok. They love a stuffed shelf but don’t reject audiobooks and e-readers; to a Book Person, reading is reading is reading” (Mang 2021).

Let’s dig into this before we get to the conspiracy. Just because I am baffled by the snobby tone of this paragraph, and I do not understand what is wrong with any of this.

A Book Person has turned reading into an identity: Just as many people do with any hobby, they tend to entrench themselves within it. People who hike seriously can and have turned that into an identity, they’re hikers. But just about everyone can walk so hikers should then not make their hobby part of their identity? Sometimes people really, really enjoy something and it becomes a big part of their daily life. What is wrong with that?

A Book Person participates in book culture: A culture can form around a social group. So, if we have a hobby group, which is a kind of social group, it is not hard to imagine that eventually a culture would build up around it. So then, yes, people would then also participate in that culture.

Book People refer to themselves as “bookworms”: What I am most puzzled by are the quotation marks, as if this nickname is something strange and new. The first known use of the phrase bookworm dates back to the 1590s and is defined as “a person unusually devoted to reading and study”. Yeah, it is a little dorky, but many hobbyists across various hobbies have silly names for the people of their hobby. Star Trek fans call themselves Trekkies or Trekkers and apparently train enthusiasts call themselves railfans. It’s a hobby thing.

and post Bookstagrams of their “stacks”: As for this, I think this is an example of a fascinating development among readers. Robert A. Stebbins, a scholar of leisure activity and hobbies, has long denied that reading could be considered a ‘serious’ hobby or what he refers to as a Serious Leisure Pursuit (SLP). He has maintained that reading is a prime example of a casual pastime, and even explores his stance in more depth in the book The Committed Reader: Reading for Utility, Pleasure and Fulfillment in the Twenty-First Century. He argues that reading cannot be a SLP due to the solitary nature of reading and the lack of a social world. To Stebbins a social world is a social network group made up of hobbyists and others connected to that hobby. Social media has changed that, however, allowing serious readers to form a social world and also find ways to make the act of reading more social itself. Book clubs have always been an attempt by readers to make reading more social. But social media allows these attempts to get closer to the mark. Readers on twitter host reading sprints to encourage people to read together at the same time. Others host read-a-longs on various platforms such as instagram to encourage a more engaging version of a book club that invites readers to read the same book section by section. And some booktubers (Book People on youtube), host live videos that invite their subscribers to grab a book and read with them. I will digress here for now, but this is something I plan on exploring more on this blog in the future. Put simply, what Mang is disparaging here is actually evidence of reading achieving SLP status under Stebbins’ hobby model. This is simply an active social world of readers.

They tend towards language like “I love this so hard” or “this gave me all the feels”: This is simply how people tend to talk on the internet? Especially amongst fandom communities, of which there is huge overlap in bookish communities. This is hardly exclusive to Book People.

and enjoy gentle memes about buying more books than they can read: memes are things people share on the internet. I am failing to see the issue with this. Again, not something exclusive to book people. What I am starting to see here is that Mang seems to take issue with internet culture in general, more so than with Book People.

and the travesty of dog-eared pages: Only Book Snobs care if other people dog-ear their own books. I am using the phrase Book Snob to distinguish between avid readers and people that find the book-as-object almost sacred. There can be overlap, certainly, but not all Book People see books this way.

They build Christmas trees out of books: No books were harmed in the making of those christmas trees. Oh, is this where the title comes in? Are we saving books from becoming christmas trees? I promise it doesn’t hurt the books.

They write reviews on Goodreads: I am confused by what is wrong with this. Mang stated earlier in her article that and I quote again, “when I teach literature, my goal is to give students the tools and confidence they need to attack and write about texts, to “talk to” the text rather than receive it passively.” How is reviewing a book not doing exactly that? Not all reviews are as aggressive as an essay can be perhaps, but it is still an act of engaging with a text rather than simply consuming it. Further, many Book People likely either have access to or want access to ARCs (advanced reader copies) from publishers and part of that deal is writing an honest review in exchange for the free copy of the book. So that would be them holding up their end of that deal. I am uncertain if Mang takes issue with goodreads in particular or with writing reviews in general.

and read book blogs: People that are active within a hobby often seek out other like-minded individuals. And beyond that most book bloggers are reviewers. Meaning people may be seeking reviews of a book to help them curate their reading selection.

and use the hashtag #amreading when they are reading: another example of Mang’s dislike of internet culture. People use hashtags to help get their media piece to others that may enjoy it or find commonality with it. They are using this form of metadata as it was intended.

They have TBR (to be read) lists: I think non-serious readers have TBR lists as well, but I think they tend to be more unconscious in nature. For example, a non-serious reader may vaguely know that there are some classics that they want to get to, or maybe the latest hyped general fiction novel. Book People are hobbyists, and if we used Stebbins’ model, they are serious hobbyists. They take their chosen leisure pursuit seriously and as such it is on their mind a lot because they intend to spend a significant amount of time pursuing that activity. So, it seems only natural that they may want to organize the content that they want to consume. It appears to me that Mang is more upset that this hobby group has formed in-group vocabularies. This means that only people residing within the group will understand some of the words or phrases used. This is a natural progression of language. You need words to succinctly capture the meaning of something. In this case, many readers have lists of books they want to read, rather than saying all of that it gets shortened down to TBR.  

and admit to DNFing (did not finish): Are we saving books from not being fully read? Many of the books that Book People are reading are for enjoyment. If you are not enjoying something, why would you continue it? Do you watch the entirety of a season of a tv show that you are hating? No. Finish a snack that is making you want to vomit it back up? No. Same logic for books. To suggest you must complete a book simply because it is a book is more like Book Snob behaviour. This seems so common sense that I am again inclined to point to this as evidence of Mang’s distaste for in-group vocabularies more than the idea of not reading a book.

They watch BookTube and BookTok: This is further example of the community and social world that readers are setting up on the internet. People typically like making connections and further, making connections over something you share in common is natural. The internet made this easier, and social media has made it easier still. This is just evidence of readers seeking connections with other readers.  

They love a stuffed shelf but don’t reject audiobooks and e-readers; to a Book Person, reading is reading is reading: This line is fascinating. Because following this, Mang’s article takes a turn toward a conspiracy about how Book People are trying to save the book-as-object since ereaders have threatened the physical book. And yet here, as part of her definition of Book People, she disparages Book People for finding value in ebooks and audiobooks. Mang herself becomes the Book Snob here, rejecting other book formats. Ebooks are convenient, you can have access to hundreds of books from your chosen device (I like to use my phone personally not an ereader). And audiobooks are great for when you are performing another task such as chores or driving. Both formats also allow people with disabilities better access to books. Audiobooks are perfect for people with visual impairments or who struggle to read. And with ebooks the size of the font can be changed to allow the book to be turned in to a large print book as needed and can even allow the font to be changed into a dyslexic-friendly font. To suggest that ebooks or audiobooks are not real books or don’t count as books is just blatantly ableist.

Let’s get to the conspiracy now. Mang claims that reading became an identity and a culture in response to the decline of interest in reading. She also continues on to say that not only is reading threatened by other media and diversions, but that ebooks and audiobooks distract from physical books. And so with the book-as-object threatened by television and alternate book formats, physical books became more precious. She even goes as far as to say books are fetishized. And then Mang says, “This could be why those arguing that classic books alienate young readers suggest 21st Century titles as substitutions: if we want to keep the book alive, we have to read, and more to the point buy, the books being produced now” (Mang 2021).

So let’s make this clear. According to Mang, Book People are people who have made reading an identity and revel in book culture. And Mang also already said that Book People “love a stuffed shelf but don’t reject audiobooks and e-readers; to a Book Person, reading is reading is reading”. But then Mang changes her argument and says that all of this is about the physical book. So, the people that complain about classics they read in high school on twitter, some of which are Book People, are all actually attacking classic literature because it may turn children off reading which would be bad because that would mean that less people are reading books regularly which is bad because then it means that less people are buying books which is bad because the book-as-object is precious and must be protected and perpetuated.

Riiiiight. I believe Mang conflated Book People with Book Snobs partway through this essay. They are not one in the same and by Mang’s own definition, Book People see any format of book as worthwhile. Meanwhile a Book Snob would uphold the physical book-as-object as the supreme format. So saying that Book People are behind this conspiracy simply does not hold up under scrutiny. Not that this conspiracy should carry much weight at any rate.

But then Mang wipes that argument away, saying that Book People are not that practical. That actually their purpose in complaining about classics books on twitter is solely to revolutionize American schools’ text selection policy. Further Mang seems to think that people ranting about their least favourite classic novel on social media is all about putting pressure on teachers and public education to shape their students into model human beings. When in reality, sometimes one simply needs to whine about a bad book, even if it’s a classic.

At the end of all of this, I am left simply confused about this essay. Firstly the title: “We Have to Save to Save Books from the Book People”. What books are we saving from Book People and how exactly do we go about doing it? Are we saving classics? Or are we saving the current school reading list books? Or physical books? Or ebooks? Perhaps it is that books are somehow being ruined by those that worship that book-as-object? I propose that Mang just thought it sounded good, especially seeing as how it does little to pertain to the wandering argument of this essay.

Secondly, I am also confused about what exactly is the point of this essay. The three main conclusions reached at the end of it seem to be that 1) arguing about classics on twitter does not impact text selection policy in schools, 2) teachers bear no responsibility in encouraging their students to make reading a habit, and 3) that books are not sacred objects. So what?

While I disagree with Mang’s essay, I do still find value in some of the points she brings up, and in her definition of Book People. I have been casually curious about the leisure studies, and where committed readers fit within leisure studies, for the last couple of years. Mang may not understand what she sees before her, but she did see something. It is that insight that has finally spurred me to dig into the social world of committed readers, or as Mang calls them, Book People.

[omgbigfluffwriting]

When You’re Gone Chapter 1

[Gabriella's POV]

I never expected to have my childhood best friend be my Criminology Professor. It seems kind of weird but whatever. I don't exactly remember my childhood and early teen memories thanks to the car accident that nearly took my life in the year before my last at high school. I decided to go to college to earn my bachelor's degree in Criminal Justice at 30 and I was on my last year at age 34. That day I was determined to be early. When I was a child, according to my best friend Spencer Reid, he usually described me as a chicken with its head cut off due to my spacing out. He never meant it to be cruel, just a matter of fact. Criminology was my second class of the day, after English. Professor Clarke was supposed to be teaching it and nobody took it seriously... at least those who weren't studying Criminal Law like I was. However, when I walked into the classroom...I didn't see the middle-aged woman I knew to be Professor Clarke. Standing at the whiteboard was a tall, skinny man, with shoulder length messy brown hair wearing black slacks with a purple vest, lilac dress shirt and white tie. His converse shoes made him look younger than he was. Somehow, he seemed familiar. There were a few girls already present in the room. I took my seat next to a girl in blue named Ruby Darley. We introduced ourselves and Ruby whispered, "What do you want to bet that most of these girls are not studying Criminal Law?" "Hm, let me get back to you on that." I whispered back. "Wait, why do you ask?" I asked. "Wait until the professor turns around." Ruby said with a grin. I raised my eyebrow at her. By this time the classroom was full. The professor turned around and looked at all of us. He had large hazel eyes which looked brown, honey brown to be exact and looked like he should be a model, rather than a college professor. "Good morning, I am Dr. Spencer Reid and welcome to Criminology. Professor Clarke needed to step away, so I am covering for her this semester." He started handing out our copies of the class syllabus as he continued talking. His name tickled my memory but I'd had an accident in my junior year of high school that I almost died from so my childhood memories and early teen years were pretty fuzzy. When he got to me, he handed me the syllabus but his eyes narrowed. I raised my eyebrow at him, hoping I wasn't being rude. Apparently, I didn't have what he was looking for, because he continued to hand out syllabuses. "What was that about?" Ruby whispered to me. I shrugged as Doctor Reid went back to the front of the class. He took attendance and his voice was a little strange when he called out my name. "Present," I say as I doodle on my writing notebook. Dr. Reid thoughtfully nodded and wrote something down on his piece of paper. --- [Spencer's POV] After class, I wanted to call Gabby up and see why she didn't recognize me. But she slipped out before I had the chance. So I found myself contacting Garcia to do a search for the girl I loved. "You've reached the all-knowing BAU Oracle." Garcia said. "Hi Garcia do you have a moment?" I asked. I heard Garcia snort. "For you, 187, I have all the time in the world." Garcia joked. "What do you need Doc?" I take a deep breath. I hope that wherever she is, she's happy. "I need you to look up someone for me. Her name is Gabriella Chambers, born May 19th 1984." I heard Garcia's fingers type rapidly. "It says here that she's living in Washington D.C. right now and attending the university that you're teaching at, Boy Wonder." Garcia reported. "Her grades are impeccable. I'm not going to lie, I'm impressed,187." Garcia's voice sounded impressed with Gabby's grades. I was impressed myself since she had always struggled with Math during childhood. I nodded. Then, realizing she can’t see me: "Could you dig into her medical records? She should have recognized me today." I asked. Garcia made a noise of assent and typed even more. I was about to hang up when she said, "Oh my God. She was involved in a car accident her junior year of high school and nearly died. As a result, she has extreme retrograde amnesia and the doctors don't expect her childhood and early teen memories to return." I felt a rock fall to the pit of my stomach. So all the memories I shared with her were just gone, like they never happened? What about that pact we made when she was 7 and I was 10, if we were both over 30 and unwed that we'd marry each other? Did she truly not remember our first kiss when I was 16? "You're in love with her." Garcia cut into my reverie. "I'm sorry 187. I didn't think... well if you can't get her memories to return, there's always a blank slate you can start with." Tears fell down my face. I did not want to start afresh with her. Yet I may have to. I start putting away my things in order to get ready to leave when the door opened and Gabby walked in. She approached me cautiously, testing the waters. "I'm sorry, Dr. Reid, but you seem awfully familiar to me and I can't place meeting you anywhere." I could work with 'awfully familiar'! "Actually . . . we were childhood friends." I said and pulled the picture of us when she was 7 out of my messenger bag for proof. I was pushing her on a swing in the picture. "I don't remember." She said sadly and handed the picture of us back to me. "I was in an accident and have problems with my long term memories." I bit my lip. "Would you like to come back to my apartment with me? I have the letters you wrote me before we lost contact." I offered but she shook her head. "No, it's okay. I just wanted to know why you were so familiar." She said. "I'll see you tomorrow." And then she was gone. ---- [Gabby's POV] I rushed home. There was no way in hell that I'd known Dr. Reid during the period of time that I was missing... I dug out what I called my photography box. On the top was the very same picture that Dr. Reid had shown me. It must have been a favorite of mine. I was astonished to find a handful of pictures that contained the two of us and a bunch of letters tied with a length of ribbon. My mother had saved every letter he'd written me. The letters indicated that we were close, probably close enough to eventually fall in love with the other. I could see me doing that. Dr. Reid was attractive, definitely my type. I was so engrossed in the letters that if the knock on my door hadn't been as loud as it was, I would have missed it. "Coming." I set my almost finished bundle of Dr. Reid's letters on top of my bed and answered the door. Dr. Reid was standing on my doorstep. "I'm just a few doors down from you but . . . here." Dr. Reid handed me a second bundle that's tied with a baby blue ribbon. Mine was tied with a hot pink ribbon. "Okay I'll get these back..." I started. "Keep them. I have an eidetic memory, so I can recall them whenever I want. See you tomorrow." He started to walk away but I caught his arm in time. He turned to look at me. "I have the letters you wrote to me." I say. "You seem so... painfully different from when you wrote those letters. Tell me what happened?" He starts to consider it but then freezes. "It'll be best for you to remain my student. I'll see you tomorrow, Ms. Chambers." He said and yanked his arm from my grasp. I gasped at the unspoken consequence, that if I can't do that, then I should drop his class. "Why are you being so cold?" I call after him. He doesn't answer. --- [Spencer's POV] I had to blink back tears as I head back to my own apartment. It's best for her if I remain Dr. Spencer Reid in her eyes. She'll be safer when I return to the BAU after my reinstatement requirements are met. The moment I get into my apartment, I truly crumble to the floor and let go. It feels like I've lost the two women I have ever loved to tragic fates - Maeve because she was murdered and Gabby because of a car accident. Technically, I didn't lose Gabby, she was still alive but the amnesia was worse than death in my opinion. I wondered what had made her lose such a big amount of her long-term memories. I had been such an integral part of her childhood... It would be better to keep my distance and let her marry someone else who can keep her safe from the monsters I face on a daily basis. --- [Spencer's POV] The next morning I walked into the Criminology class to see that Gabby was the first student in the classroom, going over an assignment I had handed out yesterday for homework. She looked up and then looked back down at the paper. "Need help?" I asked her. She shook her head. I wandered over to her desk. The classroom was empty and I owed her an explanation about my behavior last night. "Look," I murmured. "Last night was a..." "Disaster seems like a good word for it," Gabby said, looking up sternly and giving me a pissed look. I sighed. "The thing is, I'm trying to protect you." She looked up at me with impatience. "Have you ever heard of the Behavioral Analysis Unit?" I asked, looking at her. "Who hasn't?" Gabby asked. "They're the nation's elite at criminal profiling." I nod. "I'm part of that unit. I've put countless criminals away who would love to hurt you to get to me. It's safer for you if we keep the relationship to that of teacher and student." I admitted, not for the first time. "Safer..." Gabby snorted. "Dr. Reid, I read all of your letters that you sent me before my accident last night. There's no way in hell that I'll believe you're capable of staying at a teacher/student relationship with me." The door opened and I returned to the front, clearly pissed off. Ruby Darley walked in as I faced the whiteboard to hide my expression, furiously writing. "Wow, Dr. Reid looks pissed. Did one of those girls proposition him?" I wanted to turn around and tell Ms. Darley I could hear her but considering the argument Gabby and I just had, it wasn't a good idea. "No, Dr. Reid's mad at me." I hear Gabby say as she opened her notebook. "You didn't!" Ms. Darley said in shock. "Quite frankly, I didn't have you pegged as one of the girls who would actually go and f**k a professor for the hell of it." "I didn't proposition him," Gabby says through her teeth. "It was over something else." I now turned around and said, "Ms. Darley, what occurred between Ms. Chambers and I is quite naturally between us. If she chooses to tell you, she may but please refrain from making comments like that." I resume my writing but still listened in. The girls changed the subject. "I can't believe that assignment Professor Callaghan gave us today for English," Ruby complained. "Well, we are reading Anne of Avonlea." I hear Gabby say with a snort. "I went through the papers my mom saved from my elementary school days." I wonder if she's saying this for my benefit... "There was this boy I had a crush on. I wrote him a letter based on the Anne books." "Did you ever give it to him?" Ruby asked. "No, I was too shy to give him the letter in that instance," Gabby says. I'd never thought of her being shy. "So what's going on between you and Dr. Reid?" I kind of wanted to know myself, so I listened. "Childhood friends and I don't remember him," Gabby answered a bit tersely. "He was acting like a jackass last night." I raised an eyebrow at her comment. "So would you?" Ruby asked. I wondered what Ruby was asking Gabby. Some sort of nonverbal exchange must've happened because I heard, "Hell no!" I turned around and raised an eyebrow at the two women. Ruby wrote something down and passed it to Gabby. "C'mon, he's clearly listening and I don't feel like explaining myself." She hissed. "It's a yes or no question, Gabby." Ruby said, giving her a look. "Drop *it* !" Gabby hissed again as I was just about to come over to their table to see what was written on the paper sitting between them like a high school teacher. "You're not getting out of answering." Ruby says as she puts the note away and the classroom fills.

[myncisworld-2point0]

[NOTE: This article is from 2014.]

According to some people, Mark Harmon is best known to his fans as Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs on CBS’s hit drama series NCIS. Those people are wrong, of course, because he’s always going to be Freddy Shoop, a summer school teacher in over his head in 1987’s appropriately-titled Summer School. Harmon turns the ripe, young age of 63 today, and it’s clearer than ever that this man is in possession of a map that leads to the Fountain of Youth, because Harmon ages with grace, am I right, ladies? In fact, while it’s no wonder why this actor was named People’s Sexiest Man Alive in 1986, it is rather shocking that he never received that accolade again, specifically in 1987, when the most important work of his career was released.

The coke-fueled era of the 1980s in Hollywood was filled with more high school movies about slackers and smartasses than anyone actually needed, especially when it came to featuring students who looked like they were older than the teachers. Summer School was always perhaps the most underrated of the decade’s tributes to slackademics (trademark pending) because what it lacked in the typical star power of, say, a John Hughes film, it more than made up for in creating arguably the most creative collection of “teenage” dipshits than any film of the genre. At the same time, it showed that Harmon, who was probably best known at the time for his role as the HIV-positive Dr. Robert Caldwell on St. Elsewhere, had a strong sense of comedy, while also confirming (along with her debut on Cheers that same year) that Kirstie Alley was much, much more than just a really attractive Vulcan.

Summer School isn’t just some cult classic that people love to mention whenever someone randomly asks, “Hey, whatever happened to Dean Cameron?” It was actually well-received at the box office, earning $36 million in theaters on what I assume was a budget of a few rolls of nickels and someone’s baseball card collection. Critics, however, were a little more mixed on this mindless comedy, as Roger Ebert gave it one-half star out of four, which sounds a lot better than one star out of eight, so you know what? I’ll take it.

Maybe in the movie business we could coin the term vaporfilm, for movies that zip right through our brains without hitting any memory molecules.

“Summer School” is a movie like that, a comedy so listless, leisurely and unspirited that it was an act of the will for me to care about it, even while I was watching it. This movie has no particular reason for being, other than to supply employment for people whose job possibilities will not be enhanced by it. (Via RogerEbert.com)

Here’s a tip for all of you aspiring film critics out there, courtesy of King Ebert – if you’re watching a movie with a title as lazy as Summer School, and the opening of the film features a school’s teachers trying to haul ass after the bell on the last day of the semester so they don’t get suckered into teaching the titular course, get up and walk out. Leave the movie for those of us who love to watch stupid movies and go to the next theater to watch and analyze La Bamba. Perhaps that’s why the fan reviews of Summer School on Netflix seem to be so glowing, as I only found three that were two stars or less. In fact, here’s the worst of them all:

Nothing but trash. Nothing worth seeing. Degenerate teens in bad need of harsh discipline. It’s depressing to think that so many young people actually enjoy this trash. This movie is immediately available from NF while so many more interesting ones languish in the ‘saved’ section, or in ‘short wait’, ‘long wait’, or ‘very long wait’ status. Just one more nail in the coffin of American culture, or lack thereof.

Thank God Armond White weighed in. The majority of people, myself included, fondly remember Summer School for what it is – a fun, stupid movie that was meant to make us laugh, while perhaps also rubbing our noses in the awesomeness of 80s California if we didn’t live there. But I’ll take this analysis one step further by laying out these 10 very important lessons that I took away from Summer School after watching it this morning, in paying tribute to Harmon, a man who was Kevin Costner before Kevin Costner was Kevin Costner.

Always put sunglasses on your dog.

Fact: 100% of movie posters that have dogs wearing sunglasses on them are movies that I’m willing to at least watch. The movie could be called This Dog Dies from Space AIDS, and I’d still be curious to see why that dog is wearing sunglasses.

Always have an escape plan.

When everybody else is hauling ass from the faculty parking lot at the last second, there’s no reason that you shouldn’t already be packed for your trip to Hawaii. I don’t like to point fingers, but Mr. Shoop’s girlfriend is clearly at fault here. All she had to do was pack the car for him, and he could have jumped in and taken off for the airport. Instead, Kim kicked her man while he was down and not only snatched her ticket to Hawaii from the pocket of his rad flowered shirt, but she also told him to drive her to the airport. I don’t mean to offend anyone who is overprotective of fictional characters, but I hope that Kim was eventually fed to the volcano gods.

Also, let’s consider this a lesson within a lesson – would you walk away from your teaching job right now if someone handed you a winning lottery ticket for $50,000? I say no. Just pass all of the morons while you spend the class time reading up on investment opportunities.

Never be afraid to encourage the creativity of your students.

https://youtu.be/-5Pku48YPFo

The true sign of a teacher’s efforts in a classroom is how far the students are willing to go to show others their appreciation of his work. In Shoop’s case, once he resigned because his students were greedy little pricks, those same students objected to a new teacher taking over the class by staging a gruesome and horrifying murder scene, complete with two of the students wielding chainsaws, declaring themselves psychopaths and thus taking credit for the violence. Of course, I can’t stress this enough, no high school students should ever think about trying to recreate this scene today.

On a side note, and I hate to nitpick true artistic masterpieces, if you’re going to have a severed hand pull a dude’s tongue out of his mouth and slap him with it, it’s really important that he not blink. Damn it, people, we need accuracy.

Being a male teacher in California in 1987 was probably terrifying.

https://youtu.be/farC0cWkpvc

Between Summer School and Revenge of the Nerds II: Nerds in Paradise, 1987 was a huge year for Courtney Thorne-Smith. Hell, both movies came out in the same week in July, when she was just 19 years old and poised to become the next big things in terms of girls that all teen boys wanted to marry. Unfortunately, her movie career never really panned out, as the last live action role she had on the big screen was as Natalie in the Carrot Top hot fart Chairman of the Board. Her TV career was obviously a lot better, but that’s neither here nor there. Having her play a lovelorn surf goddess crushing on Shoop probably lured a lot of guys to the teaching profession, only to have them learn the hard way that prison sucks.

Additionally, there was the foreign exchange student Anna-Maria Mazarelli, who would grow up to win our hearts as Alotta Fagina. Was it standard procedure for foreign exchange students to be shoved into remedial English classes upon arrival? Sure.

It’s important to support fine arts programs.

https://youtu.be/u0kF24ceZMI

When I write about how hilarious it was how Hollywood tried to make us buy that some actors were teenagers when they were clearly at least a decade older, Ken Olandt is really Exhibit A. The guy who played Larry, the sleeping student by day and male stripper by night, was actually 29 when he was portraying a 17-year old, which is pretty hard to pass when very few teenage boys A) look like that and B) are hired to shake their dongs in strip clubs. Still, glaring age gaps and statutory and employment laws aside, it was nice to see that Shoop was so cool about Larry’s awesome after-school job. That is until he was busted by his mom and presumably spent the next decade in therapy.

It’s not lying if the company ripped you off in the first place.

The first time that I ever saw Summer School, I was convinced that the part about writing letters to companies to get free stuff would work every time. I spent a lot of time trying to write letters to the companies that made my favorite toys, so I could convince them that the action figures and especially the vehicles that I couldn’t afford had been broken. But then I realized that I might be called on my BS, and guys in suits might show up to my home demanding to see the broken toys, and then I’d be screwed and sent off to prison for lying. Ultimately, owning Krang’s fortress wasn’t worth a life spent in prison making license plates, which is how TV and movies taught me that license plates were made.

Jail in California looks very scary.

I still don’t know what the guy with the mustache is doing with his hand, but it’s really scary and I don’t want to ever have someone do that to me, so I’ve chosen to lead a life on the straight and narrow. Thank you, Summer School, for teaching us that jail is filled with scary perverts who want to do bad things to shirtless men on roller skates.

No matter the risk, steal your boss’s girlfriend.

https://youtu.be/B7ZTNm5o780

Vice Principal Gills was a pretty big bite in the ass, so we had to cheer for Shoop in pursuit of Robin Bishop, because Shoop was the coolest and his girlfriend had only recently taken off for Hawaii without him. Sure, Robin was kind of stuck up because she questioned the legitimacy of taking students to something as awesome as a petting zoo, which produced adorable moments like this:

And she also wore a denim shirt tucked into a different shade of denim skirt, because it was the 80s, but she had a good heart and she just wanted what was best for all students, even if it meant agreeing to a date with Shoop to get there. Also, Gills looked like a total goober-douche, and there’s no reason he should have been with Robin.

Education can be a compromise.

https://youtu.be/LzdoMQL_jR8

Is Alan Eakien one of the most underrated teen nerds of cinema? I say yes. That kid may have been dumber than rocks compared to his genius brothers, but he negotiated circles around Shoop. In exchange for a slightly-above-half-assed effort from less than half of the original class roster*, Shoop’s couch was set on fire, his goldfish murdered and car wrecked, bookending that whole going to jail for the two D-bags thing. Things could have been considerably worse, too, because Robin could have tried to get him banned from teaching for the rest of his life for allowing a female student to live with him.

But ultimately Shoop sacrificed so much for the sake of helping a few of his students learn some lessons about life, since they didn’t all pass their exams. Is he a good teacher for that or was he just an idiot being taken advantage of by other idiots? Especially idiots who looked like this:

Being an idiot isn’t all that bad, so long as you’re not a total idiot.

https://youtu.be/8fvhchY0UmY

Hey, in the end, some of those kids passed their exams, and the most important of them all was Pam, because that meant she could move on and not try to make it so Shoop returned to jail. This guy went from being just a run-of-the-mill bro’s bro gym teacher to making an impact in the lives of some kids who looked like they were grown adults. Sure, he couldn’t even talk a 17-year old out of stripping, and he allowed some of his students to treat the foreign exchange student like a sex model, but Freddy Shoop probably learned more than anyone.

Also, he totally stole the douchebag Vice Principal’s girlfriend, and Wonder Mutt found Bobby again in the end, so this really was a movie with a beautiful and happy ending.

[austinsirkin]

“The Blue Door Symbolizes Sadness”: Lies Your English Teach Told You

It seems to have become a point of shared American culture that Gen-X’ers and Millennials hate how they were taught literature in high school. Nearly everyone from those generations has the memory of sitting in English class, listening to their teacher explain how something in a book meant something that seemed ridiculous, especially if said teacher was explaining that some minor detail, such as the color of a door, was a part of an elaborate plan by the author to express something incredibly subtle. As a result, many of those students came to feel that literary analysis was stupid, and honestly, I can’t blame them. However, today I’m going to explain why literary analysis is important, and why you’re right to hate the way it was taught to you in high school.

Who Were Your English Teachers?

I’m going to go ahead and throw high school English teachers under the bus, metaphorically speaking. I apologize in advance if you’re a high school English teacher and are reading this (I love you, you’re under-appreciated, and you do important work), but nevertheless it has to be done.

I’m not currently aware of the education levels of high school teachers around the country at the moment, but back in the 80′s, 90′s, and 00′s, the vast majority of high school teachers, especially in English, did not have post-graduate educations. The only requirements to teach in high school were to have either a Bachelor’s degree in the field you wanted to teach, or a Bachelor’s degree in education. In some places you didn’t even necessarily need that, and you could just get a certification. I say this not to diminish teachers themselves, but because it’s important to bear in mind when considering what these teachers said in their classes that they were not experts in these fields. Most of the time, they were teaching from a primer of sorts, which effectively told them what to say. These were the “teacher versions” of the textbooks you had in high school, which came with footnotes containing not just solutions to problems or answers to questions, but general knowledge that would be useful for a teacher to know.

So really, the people who wrote those books that your teachers used are the ones responsible for this whole mess. In that sense, it’s not your teacher’s fault, and you shouldn’t hold it against them; if we’d required advanced degrees in order for someone to be a high school teacher, there’d be teacher shortages all over the country. At least, that was the case a decade or two ago.

While I don’t know exactly who was responsible for writing all of those textbooks, my best guess is that whoever it was, they wrote them a long time ago. I mean, after all, it’s not like Shakespeare’s works have changed in the last few hundred years, right? Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Scarlet Letter” is still going to be “The Scarlet Letter” a hundred years from now. Right?

Well, not exactly. And that brings us to my second point.

Living in the Past

While specific works don’t change over time (with some notable exceptions including translations and multiple published versions), our understanding of them certainly does. For example, if you’d asked someone to analyze “Romeo and Juliet” in 1597, I guarantee you that their analysis would be markedly different from our analysis today; it’s well known that his plays were seen as common entertainment of the time, rather than high-brow performances for the educated only.

This is important to note, because the field of literature analysis and criticism is a constantly-evolving, changing environment, and what’s most relevant to this article is the idea of “author intent”. This is what lots of us learned in high school, and hated; the idea that by picking apart certain details of a given work, we could discern the intent of the author, where we assumed that every detail was consciously chosen to represent something. For example, as in the name of this article, that the author intended for a blue door to symbolize sadness. Or for a green light to symbolize greed.

The problem with this was that as anyone who has ever written anything knows, sometimes you just choose things arbitrarily*. Note the asterisk there, as we’ll come back to this later.

As a result, the idea of considering author intent was largely abandoned by literary scholars in the 1960′s, so the fact that it was still being taught to high school classes as late as the 00′s (and maybe even still today, but I’m out of touch with high school educations of the 10′s) is not just ridiculous, but rather deplorable. It did a disservice to multiple generations of students, and turned them off to something that’s a precious skill of tremendous importance: reading. Reading critically, specifically.

If you hated the idea of being told what the author thought, or what something symbolized in a book in high school, you were probably right, and your teacher was wrong. As the 20th century went on and the field of psychology developed, literary scholars came to realize that not all decisions in a book were conscious choices by the author. However, that doesn’t mean that those choices have no significance whatsoever. Remember that asterisk up above when I said that things were chosen arbitrarily? Well, we’ve come to understand that when it comes to a creative work, nothing is truly arbitrary, as the human subconscious is full of all sorts of weird things just waiting to get out. So if, for example, you’re writing a story and choose to use a blue door, that may not necessarily mean that you consciously intended for it to represent sadness. Instead, perhaps the scene in question reminded you of an experience you had as a child, where there was a blue door, and you drew upon that as you wrote. If someone were to ask you, “Why did you make this door blue?” you’d likely respond, “I don’t know. It doesn’t really mean anything,” but the reality is that it DOES mean something, it just wasn’t an intentional choice. The author made a correlation in their own subconscious that informed their work, and we may never be able to know exactly why that choice was made.

Thus, the deeper we delve into the idea that the author doesn’t necessarily consciously control every element of their work, the more we undermine the idea of the author as an expert of their own work. That’s why in modern literary analysis, scholars will explicitly ignore things that an author says about their own work (in most cases), and why we don’t usually ask authors questions like “what does this mean?” anymore.

That’s because there’s been a larger paradigm shift in our understanding of literature; we’ve shifted from using literature to explore the one specific person who wrote it to instead using literature to explore humanity. That is, to explore everyone who isn’t the author. And as every reader of a given text has a unique set of experiences and associations, there are huge numbers of possible readings of any single given work.

Often, scholars will perform a reading of a work according to a given critical framework, such as a feminist reading, where they read the text for feminist themes, or a Marxist reading, where they read the text for classist themes. But these themes all exist separately and together all at once, and there’s no longer any misapprehension that we’ve “solved” a text, and have come up with the single, unchanging meaning of the work. That’s because the things that are important about a given work aren’t the things that the author intended to put in it, but the things that the readers took away from it.

What’s It All For, Though?

Thanks, I’m glad you asked! Seriously, though, what’s the point of studying literature from 1597 or 1895 or whatever? You probably thought something like, “I understand why we should read these things in order to understand the greater context of the works of today, but why do we need to analyze them? It seems like a waste of time, and like it doesn’t accomplish anything.”

Well, I can see why you’d feel that way. Performing a poststructuralist analysis of a novel from the 1800′s, for example, may not seem like it accomplishes much. No one is going to use that analysis to stop people going hungry, or create peace in the world. Then again, neither will most work done in America.

What literary analysis does, though, is provide insights into humanity itself, and our search for meaning, not just of our own lives, but of the human condition. Learning it in high school helps guide students toward critical, self-evaluative thinking in a way that no other class does. When there’s no “right” answer, students need to be able to evaluate a text, identify correlative elements, and create an argument around them. That’s a valuable skill on its own.

What’s even more exciting is that as you progress in literary criticism, you come to understand that a “text” is more than just a book. A video game can be a text. A TV show. Even a billboard. Or a chair. Anything created by humans is something that can be analyzed and interpreted. So literary criticism is sort of a middle ground between philosophy and anthropology; it studies things that humans have made, and asks the question, “What does this mean?”

If you don’t care what things mean, and how the things surrounding you in your life fit together into a framework that helps explain who we are, where we are, and where we’re going, then cool. You don’t have to, and that’s fine. But that’s what literary analysis is for, and maybe now you understand why people want to do it. I hope, too, that you can forgive your English teacher for lying to you; they likely didn’t know they were doing it, and they were probably just trying to do their best to help you learn and grow as a person.

Also, you can abandon your dreams of going back in time to ask an author what they meant in the hopes of proving your teacher wrong. You can now prove them wrong without going anywhere at all!

[gordonwilliamsweb]

For Kurdish Americans in Nashville, a Beloved Leader’s Death Prompts Vaccine Push

On a sloppy spring day in mid-March, hundreds of Kurdish Americans gathered in a field outside Nashville, Tennessee, under a sea of black umbrellas. Some of the men carried a stretcher to an open grave, where a yellow backhoe waited.

This story is part of a partnership that includes WPLN, NPR and KHN. It can be republished for free.

In accordance with Muslim tradition, the body of Imad Doski — a prominent community leader — was buried within 24 hours of his death. He was another casualty of covid-19.

“It hit people. They saw it happen to one of them,” said Faiza Rashid, a nurse practitioner at the Amed Family Clinic, the Kurdish-run medical practice in town. “It hit home.”

Doski’s death just six weeks ago became a wake-up call for many in Nashville’s Kurdish community — the largest in the U.S. The community has been growing and thriving since a wave of Kurdish refugees started arriving 30 years ago, fleeing Saddam Hussein and the Gulf War.

Doski was part of that early wave of immigrants, and he helped start the Salahadeen Center, which serves as a mosque, religious school and community center for Nashville-area Kurds.

Doski’s untimely death — he was in his mid-50s and relatively healthy — persuaded many Kurds to be more open to the idea of vaccination, according to Rashid. After his death, the Salahadeen Center worked with the city health department to schedule on-site vaccination events.

Questions About Vaccination During Ramadan

Immigrants were expected to have more vaccine hesitancy than most Americans.

But as Kurdish residents in Nashville have started to come around, new questions emerge. A top concern is how the vaccine interacts with the religious obligations of the month of Ramadan, which runs through mid-May.

Many Muslims are careful not to break their daily sunrise-to-sunset fast, and some interpret that as refraining from anything that enters the body. The local imam weighed in, saying the vaccine does not count as nutrition. Other Muslim leaders around the world have also found ways to make an exception for the vaccine.

There’s also concern that if the post-vaccination side effects become fairly severe, such as a fever, Muslims might have to break their fast to hydrate. This is typically allowed when someone gets sick during Ramadan, but the whole day has to be made up later in the year.

Nurse practitioner Redor Abdullah said he’s been telling Muslims who hold more conservative interpretations not to risk waiting on the vaccine, even for a few more weeks.

“I would recommend you get it and make up your fast another day,” he said. “It’s better than getting the virus.”

Some Refugees Have Had Traumatic Experiences With Health Care

Nashville’s public health department has had to lean on health care workers in the Kurdish community because it doesn’t have Kurdish workers of its own.

At the Salahadeen Center vaccination events, the people giving the shots are mostly white and English-speaking, with one standout exception: Sumaya Muhamed, a pre-med college student who is Kurdish American. She’s been trained to give covid shots because she also works part time at a pharmacy.

“About 70% of the people who go to Salahadeen are just Kurdish-speaking, so they would all be at my table, because nobody else knew how to help them,” she said.

Their need for cultural assistance goes beyond practical questions about safety. Muhamed explains that many of them are sorting through past trauma related to time spent in refugee camps, and the medical care they received there.

Most of the older Kurds in the Nashville area arrived in the U.S. as refugees, after years spent waiting in various refugee camps. While there, vaccinations were not a choice. And they weren’t always seen as safe. Muhamed said many developed infections.

“I don’t blame them,” Muhamed said of first-generation arrivals. “I would be asking the same thing if I went through that too.”

Speaking Kurdish and Being Patient Can Help

Her own mother, Suad Abdulla, has been among the hesitant, or at least those who have been slow to get a covid shot. These days, Abdulla works as an English-language instructor in Nashville’s public schools, but as a child she lived in refugee camps in Turkey and has scars from vaccinations on both arms.

“They were not switching syringes [between patients]. They were just putting it over the fire to sanitize it and use[d] the same needle to inject us with the vaccinations,” she said.

At this point, it’s not a question for Abdulla of whether covid is a serious threat. She knows it is: Her uncle spent weeks in the hospital with a severe case.

Still, she felt reluctant to get the vaccine and concerned that there could be long-term side effects that aren’t yet known.

“We want to be fully knowledgeable with what we are putting in our body,” she said. “We want solid data to give us evidence that this will work and won’t cause adverse effects that are worse than the virus itself.”

And yet, daughter Sumaya, with her pre-med knowledge and her pharmacy work experience, kept talking to her about it, explaining how the vaccines work and emphasizing how effective they’re proving to be.

It took a while to convince her — many weeks after teachers first became eligible to get their vaccine in Tennessee. “But eventually she gave in, thankfully,” Muhamed said.

Half-kidding, her mother said she would take the vaccine on one condition — that her daughter give it to her. So Muhamed saw her opening and, at a recent Salahadeen Center event, gave her mom the first dose before she could change her mind.

This story is part of a partnership that includes WPLN, NPR and KHN.

KHN (Kaiser Health News) is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues. Together with Policy Analysis and Polling, KHN is one of the three major operating programs at KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation). KFF is an endowed nonprofit organization providing information on health issues to the nation.

USE OUR CONTENT

This story can be republished for free (details).

For Kurdish Americans in Nashville, a Beloved Leader’s Death Prompts Vaccine Push published first on https://nootropicspowdersupplier.tumblr.com/

[stephenmccull]

For Kurdish Americans in Nashville, a Beloved Leader’s Death Prompts Vaccine Push

On a sloppy spring day in mid-March, hundreds of Kurdish Americans gathered in a field outside Nashville, Tennessee, under a sea of black umbrellas. Some of the men carried a stretcher to an open grave, where a yellow backhoe waited.

This story is part of a partnership that includes WPLN, NPR and KHN. It can be republished for free.

In accordance with Muslim tradition, the body of Imad Doski — a prominent community leader — was buried within 24 hours of his death. He was another casualty of covid-19.

“It hit people. They saw it happen to one of them,” said Faiza Rashid, a nurse practitioner at the Amed Family Clinic, the Kurdish-run medical practice in town. “It hit home.”

Doski’s death just six weeks ago became a wake-up call for many in Nashville’s Kurdish community — the largest in the U.S. The community has been growing and thriving since a wave of Kurdish refugees started arriving 30 years ago, fleeing Saddam Hussein and the Gulf War.

Doski was part of that early wave of immigrants, and he helped start the Salahadeen Center, which serves as a mosque, religious school and community center for Nashville-area Kurds.

Doski’s untimely death — he was in his mid-50s and relatively healthy — persuaded many Kurds to be more open to the idea of vaccination, according to Rashid. After his death, the Salahadeen Center worked with the city health department to schedule on-site vaccination events.

Questions About Vaccination During Ramadan

Immigrants were expected to have more vaccine hesitancy than most Americans.

But as Kurdish residents in Nashville have started to come around, new questions emerge. A top concern is how the vaccine interacts with the religious obligations of the month of Ramadan, which runs through mid-May.

Many Muslims are careful not to break their daily sunrise-to-sunset fast, and some interpret that as refraining from anything that enters the body. The local imam weighed in, saying the vaccine does not count as nutrition. Other Muslim leaders around the world have also found ways to make an exception for the vaccine.

There’s also concern that if the post-vaccination side effects become fairly severe, such as a fever, Muslims might have to break their fast to hydrate. This is typically allowed when someone gets sick during Ramadan, but the whole day has to be made up later in the year.

Nurse practitioner Redor Abdullah said he’s been telling Muslims who hold more conservative interpretations not to risk waiting on the vaccine, even for a few more weeks.

“I would recommend you get it and make up your fast another day,” he said. “It’s better than getting the virus.”

Some Refugees Have Had Traumatic Experiences With Health Care

Nashville’s public health department has had to lean on health care workers in the Kurdish community because it doesn’t have Kurdish workers of its own.

At the Salahadeen Center vaccination events, the people giving the shots are mostly white and English-speaking, with one standout exception: Sumaya Muhamed, a pre-med college student who is Kurdish American. She’s been trained to give covid shots because she also works part time at a pharmacy.

“About 70% of the people who go to Salahadeen are just Kurdish-speaking, so they would all be at my table, because nobody else knew how to help them,” she said.

Their need for cultural assistance goes beyond practical questions about safety. Muhamed explains that many of them are sorting through past trauma related to time spent in refugee camps, and the medical care they received there.

Most of the older Kurds in the Nashville area arrived in the U.S. as refugees, after years spent waiting in various refugee camps. While there, vaccinations were not a choice. And they weren’t always seen as safe. Muhamed said many developed infections.

“I don’t blame them,” Muhamed said of first-generation arrivals. “I would be asking the same thing if I went through that too.”

Speaking Kurdish and Being Patient Can Help

Her own mother, Suad Abdulla, has been among the hesitant, or at least those who have been slow to get a covid shot. These days, Abdulla works as an English-language instructor in Nashville’s public schools, but as a child she lived in refugee camps in Turkey and has scars from vaccinations on both arms.

“They were not switching syringes [between patients]. They were just putting it over the fire to sanitize it and use[d] the same needle to inject us with the vaccinations,” she said.

At this point, it’s not a question for Abdulla of whether covid is a serious threat. She knows it is: Her uncle spent weeks in the hospital with a severe case.

Still, she felt reluctant to get the vaccine and concerned that there could be long-term side effects that aren’t yet known.

“We want to be fully knowledgeable with what we are putting in our body,” she said. “We want solid data to give us evidence that this will work and won’t cause adverse effects that are worse than the virus itself.”

And yet, daughter Sumaya, with her pre-med knowledge and her pharmacy work experience, kept talking to her about it, explaining how the vaccines work and emphasizing how effective they’re proving to be.

It took a while to convince her — many weeks after teachers first became eligible to get their vaccine in Tennessee. “But eventually she gave in, thankfully,” Muhamed said.

Half-kidding, her mother said she would take the vaccine on one condition — that her daughter give it to her. So Muhamed saw her opening and, at a recent Salahadeen Center event, gave her mom the first dose before she could change her mind.

This story is part of a partnership that includes WPLN, NPR and KHN.

KHN (Kaiser Health News) is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues. Together with Policy Analysis and Polling, KHN is one of the three major operating programs at KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation). KFF is an endowed nonprofit organization providing information on health issues to the nation.

USE OUR CONTENT

This story can be republished for free (details).

For Kurdish Americans in Nashville, a Beloved Leader’s Death Prompts Vaccine Push published first on https://smartdrinkingweb.weebly.com/

[actualmuslimwomen]

CHAPTER 4

ANALYSIS OF THE LIFE CONDITIONS AND ISSUES OF MUSLIM STUDENTS

    It must be rather hard for the students who are studying abroad to live away from their family while having to survive and be successful in their study at the same time. Pressures come from all directions and their success depends on how strong they are to overcome obstacles in their life. The stories of their life in Japan will be shown below.

4.1. Islam as a faith

    In the previous chapter, I have described two Japanese women who had converted to Islam and wore hijab as one of the ways of showing their faith. But, here in this chapter, I will point out two students who admitted that they did not wear the hijab despite of being a Muslim. The reasons are related to their interesting backgrounds. 

    Fadiya is a Bangladeshi and a born-Muslim. According to the Pew Research Center, Bangladesh is currently the fourth country in the world with the largest number of Muslims after India as the third ("Mapping the Global Muslim Population", Pew Research Center, www.pewforum.org/2009/10/07/mapping-the-global-muslim-population/. Accessed 28 December 2017). This means that Fadiya was born in a Muslim-majority country. Her family members are all Muslims and her mother habitually wears hijab, but Fadiya does not wear one. Fadiya argues that it is not mandatory to wear hijab for Muslim women in Bangladesh and there is no government's regulation for Muslim women to wear hijab, either. Fadiya continues her argument that it all depends on the individual and the family culture. Fadiya's mother always encouraged her to wear hijab, but she never actually said that it was a must for Fadiya to wear hijab. Because her mother never forced her, Fadiya decided not to wear hijab. Nevertheless, she still observes other Islamic law related to Muslim obligations such as performing prayer and fasting. 

    Iesha has a different story on her choice in Islam and, to be honest, it is quite a startling story. Iesha came from Turkey, which is considered as the eighth country in the world with the largest number of Muslims. But, even though Turkey is considered as a country with a large number of Muslims, not everyone practices the faith so well. That is also the case with Iesha's family. Iesha's mother does not wear hijab. She performs prayer but only sometimes practices fasting. Though Iesha's mother does not wear hijab, she knows that she ought not to wear clothes that are too vulgar, so she wears clothes that rather covers her body. Iesha followed her mother as a role model, by just wearing casual clothes and not wearing hijab. One of the other reasons Iesha decided not to wear hijab was that there are situations in Turkey that forces women in headscarves to wear wig or take off their headscarves completely. By wearing wigs, they comply with the state regulations and try to fit in with the definition of the Modern Turkish women, at least in appearance. In turn, they were given access to education and workplace (Kavakci, 2010: 96). So, instead of forcing herself to wear hijab, Iesha chose not to wear one at all.

    Now let us examine the cases of Eneng from Indonesia, Aishah from Malaysia and Tedha from Turkey. These girls were raised in an environment where they were taught the law of Islam well and their awareness of the duties as Muslim women was also grown. Although Aishah and Tedha did not clarify about how they decided to wear hijab at the beginning, they indicated that they already had worn hijab since they were younger (Tedha specifically told that she had started wearing hijab since she was fifteen years old). They were already used to wearing one and their behaviors did not change even after they came to live in Japan. Eneng told that she had started wearing hijab since her high school days. It was her mother who first encouraged her to wear one. Eneng's mother already wore hijab and she wanted her daughter to understand that it was about the time for her to wear hijab to fulfill one of the Islamic laws. 

    As far as I could understand, the reason for someone to decide something important is often due to a few simple keywords that came out of other people's statements or attitudes, especially those of parents. Fadiya interpreted her mother's statement and she decided not to wear hijab. Iesha saw her mother and thought of her mother as a role model and that made her not wear hijab just as her mother. This author too, decided to wear hijab because of my mother's statement. When my aunt decided that it was free for me to wear hijab or not during the wedding, to my surprise, my mother stated the otherwise. Since she wanted everyone to be uniformed whereas I was the only one who was not wearing hijab, she wanted me to wear hijab, too. It was only because of this kind of trifle matter shown by her attitude that I felt encouraged to make a big decision. 

    This section has shown some of the histories of the students regarding their religious faith. The students discussed above grew in an Islamic environment and they were all given the knowledge of Islamic law in their family. Despite of being so, they all have their own ways in practicing their faith. For them, Islam is fascinating yet complex religion and each individual chose the best way for them in practicing Islam in their daily life. How they live their daily life will be analyzed in the next section. 

4.2. Activities as a Muslim Student

    Since they came all the way to Japan, these Muslim students have also been involved in many activities in their daily life other than studying for the main purpose. For some of them, to have other activities else than just studying has really been precious, while not so for the others. 

    Iesha came to the University of Shizuoka as an Exchange Student and has been much involved in several other activities, inside or even outside of the campus. As a foreign student, Iesha participates in the International Friendship Community at the university. In that community, she would meet other foreign students too, and enjoy communication and sociality with the Japanese students. They sometimes hold events for international cultural exchange. Outside of the university, Iesha participated in many English Clubs. She often participates in international cultural exchange meetings after finding them out through Facebook. Iesha admits that she really enjoys this kind of events, because people would learn English and she would learn Japanese at the same time and both would learn each other's culture more deeply. Iesha also says that she is doing arubaito (part-time job) as an English conversation teacher. So, basically Iesha is involved in activities that she has always been interested in and she is really interested in meeting new people to exchange ideas. By the way, Aishah, Eneng and Tedha also participate in the same International Friendship Community because all of them are studying at the same university. Only Fadiya does not join this community because she only wishes to focus on studying according to her. In case that she is to participate in other activities, those are the kind of activities that she attends once or twice a month. She admits that she has an English Language Club to attend sometimes if her dormitory friends happen to gather. But, she spends most of her time at her research room.

    Let us go to the next case of Tedha. She participated in the Photography Club during the first semester of the University of Shizuoka, but it did not last long because she could not bear the heat of summer while they often had to go out to look for photo objects. Although it did not go well, Tedha kept trying to do other activities. She was actually doing arubaito as an English teacher, just like Iesha was. Tedha taught English to some Japanese people who were mostly employees and then taught them English through practical conversation. The English Conversation lessons are usually held at coffee shops, which the students had chosen. To correspond to these students’ activities, this author also had the experience of joining the activities of the International Friendship Community. The community had a schedule once a week for everyone to gather during the lunchtime. On Wednesday lunchtime, they would have small conversations among the foreign and the Japanese students. Before the lunchtime is over, the community's leader proposes a discussion and voting session for their next events. The events are various. It could be a field trip, cooking party and even Christmas party. This author only participated in some of the events that seemed interesting like the field trip, because it was necessary for me to go somewhere that seemed unreachable by myself. I quitted the IFC after the second semester set in because I was starting to be very busy with my classes.

    Different people might have had different attitudes. Eneng was in the same situation as this author, being busy in studying because Eneng and the author were both pursuing the Graduate Degree Program. Despite of her being busy, Eneng actually managed to participate in many activities inside and outside of the campus. She took part in the International Friendship Community too, although she only attended the big events without attending the weekly lunchtime gathering. Outside of the university, Eneng was engaged in two functions, namely, the Shizuoka Muslim Association, which was responsible for connecting the Muslim students at the University of Shizuoka and other Muslims who live especially in Shizuoka City, and Shinzen Taishi, which focused on introducing Indonesian cultures to the Japanese at schools. She also joined many study meetings with people from small and medium enterprises. Eneng who came for studying in Japan seemed to have taken a good chance in spreading her wings to get to know people better and get more knowledge. She considers that meeting people is precious for her, especially when she meets people that are admirable for her. Compared to the other students, Eneng was quite active in these organizational activities. Sometimes she would not only introduce Indonesian cultures, but also introduce Islam to the Japanese. She also often participates in events that the Shizuoka Muslim Association holds, such as in Ramadan. There is the breaking fasting event that gathers Muslims and any other Japanese who are interested from all over Shizuoka. This author attended this breaking fasting event once and it was pretty amazing with a great number of non-Muslim Japanese who were interested in and respecting the religious event by it themselves. 

    Other than participating in activities like those mentioned, Eneng also had arubaito. During her earlier years in the university, she was already doing arubaito in a hospital where she was mostly assisting the nurses to clean the surgery rooms after surgeries. But when she entered the second year of Graduate Degree Program, she had a different arubaito in a factory, packing pork meats into boxes. In Islam, it is not allowed to consume pork and any derivative of it. As mentioned in the Holy Quran, "He has only forbidden to you dead animals, blood, the flesh of swine, and that which has been dedicated to other than Allah. But whoever is forced [by necessity], neither desiring [it] nor transgressing [its limit], there is no sin upon him. Indeed, Allah is Forgiving and Merciful." (Al-Baqara: 173) Therefore, Eneng worked in a factory, packing meat, but she did not consume it, so it was still permissible. This author was also in the same situation as Eneng. I was working in a tonkatsuya restaurant (restaurant specialized in pork cutlets) and the main tasks were to cook and serve the pork cutlets. But, of course, the author had no single desire to consume pork and everyone in the restaurant understood my choice.

    To summarize, study is definitely the main reason these students came to Japan. Aside from studying, these students also participate in several community activities and services. As Muslims, even if they have to practice one of their duties according to the Islamic law in between their activities, they never stop doing their works. Practicing the religious faith and doing the secular activities can sometimes be contradictive, but there is always a solution to let both practices to be in accordance. These girls also try to balance their personal issues related to their faith. The next section will point those out. 

4.3. Personal Issues

    As the five students all came from a Muslim majority country, they would have had concerns before they came to Japan. Those concerns could be anything from how to get halal food, where to perform prayer and fasting, how to communicate with the local society, and even about experiencing of living alone.

    Aishah was quite eager to tell about her experience. After she graduated from the high school, she decided to take a chance of studying in Japan through scholarship. She then took the test and preparation lesson for the scholarship and then she was chosen. Aishah admitted that she had been concerned about many things before coming to Japan, because she had never experienced living abroad. She just imagined how the situation in Japan would be. She was also concerned about food and friends, because for the first time in her life she was going to live alone in Japan, away from her family. As a child who was still young and had been living with her family all of the time and suddenly had to stay separated from the family for four years, it was a big concern for Aishah. She was very careful in making preparations to go to Japan. Aishah said that she had brought food, medicines and her hijab collections to Japan. When Aishah arrived in Japan, half of the predictions that she made actually came true. She thought that it would be hard to get halal food in Japan and it turned out that the only place she could get halal product near her area was the Gyomu Supa (supermarket for business retail). Since then, she always bought halal chicken meat and other halal products that she could get there. She also brought medicines and vitamins from her home country because she was not sure whether the medicines in Japan were safe to be consumed or not. Aishah's first experience in living abroad had made her do something that she was not previously used to. That was cooking. Aishah told that she could not cook, but somehow her survival instinct worked and she had to prepare her own meal every day, especially since she was living by herself. In fact, she told that she would not mind eating chicken every day because that was the only halal meat that she could obtain and also because she did not like seafood.

    The other girls also had issues with halal food and each of them got different ways to solve their halal food issues. Fadiya explained that, although she sometimes went out eating noodles or vegetables, she also often cooked by herself at her dormitory. She also went to the Gyomu Supa to buy halal meat and some seasonings. Iesha and Tedha, who were living together as roommates, also often shopped at the Gyomu Supa. Meanwhile, Eneng had more options to shop for halal meat. She would sometimes shop at the Gyomu Supa too, but she also liked to buy halal meat from other Muslim women. From one of the women she knew at the Shizuoka Muslim Association, she could order halal beef, sausages, minced-meat, and even meat-balls. She only needed place an order through a private messenger and, when the products arrived, Eneng would pick up the ordered goods at the Musalla, the prayer room that functions as the official place for the Shizuoka Muslim Association. Looking at this, this author sometimes asked Eneng for her help to order meat for myself. Actually, if Eneng had not told me that ordering halal meat was this easy, I would probably have only shopped at the Gyomu Supa or just eaten fish and vegetables every day. So, it was quite helpful for the author, too. 

    Basically, trying to survive in Japan is easy, provided that information is passed on correctly. As an example, Fadiya told that there were other Bangladeshi students who were studying in Shizuoka and they were all connected through a social media. Through this social media, they were sharing information about obtaining halal food or simply just connecting with other Bangladeshi Muslims. Fadiya also told that she could not speak Japanese and therefore often asked her friends to translate and explain for her, so she still should buy the items that she needed even though she could not read the kanji. 

    Aishah also explained that she connected herself with other Malaysian students through an online application called Hangout. Aishah was affiliated with a Malaysian Muslim Community through this application. She got information on halal food and could chat with other Malaysian Muslims. Besides chatting with people online, Aishah also said that she sometimes saw some of her Malaysian friends in Shizuoka and they often hung out together by playing bowling, going to the beach, watching movies and many others. It was just because Aishah did not want to feel lonely. While Iesha and Tedha were relying on each other because they were roommates, Eneng was always asking for her senpai's (senior) advices before she got everything by herself. Remembering that she used to be unable to speak Japanese so well like now, she often asked her senpai to help her a lot in many things. She was blessed with good senpai, because her senpai taught her where to pray in public places, for example, by pointing to the fitting room or the stairs space near an emergency exit. Or her senpai would take her to the restaurants that were safe for Muslims to eat at in Shizuoka. 

    This author also had been in almost the same situation as these students. I relied on my senpai who was my colleague back in Indonesia and also she always taught me what was to be avoided and what was to be acquired. What I felt really important was when I experienced shopping and talking at the customer service or even answering a phone call or making a taxi order. It was precious to understand these know-hows and, of course, to practice relying on self. 

    Another personal issue that is important is probably for Eneng and Fadiya, because they are already married, whereas their husbands are away from them. If the other girls probably sometimes called their families and told how they missed the people at home, Eneng and Fadiya missed their husbands. Living separated from their husband is sometimes hard and it would be nice to have supports from them most of the time, but they have to hold themselves for now only by calling their partners whenever they have the time. Eneng probably has to wait until she graduates to see her husband again, but Fadiya had her husband once come to visit her in Shizuoka and that might have made her a little bit stronger than Eneng. 

    From the data presented above, it can be concluded that, in fulfilling their daily meals, these students need to get products that are allowed in the Islamic law. The needed goods are not always easy to get, but they try their best to acquire themselves. Since most of them are living alone, however, sometimes they miss their family members and need friends. They are all fighting their loneliness and difficulties to survive. In the next section, they will tell stories about some merits and demerits living in their home country and abroad. 

4.4. Home country versus abroad

    In this section, there are some interesting stories to be unfolded. Each of the students tells how it is different to live in Japan in comparison with their living experience in their home country.

    Aishah told her story about performing prayer. Unlike in Malaysia, it was not always easy to pray in public places in Japan. When Aishah went to the university, she would go to the International Meeting Room that was meant for foreign students to hang out with the Japanese students, and also performed her prayer there. But if Aishah went out of the campus, she would have to find a secluded place to pray, such as the fitting room at shopping malls, stairs space near emergency exits or even beside a car in a parking lot. If Aishah were not careful, she would have been told to leave or warned. But, that never happened. Anyway, in Malaysia, the prayer rooms were abundant and provided everywhere. Even if people go along the highway, they will see a rest area with prayer rooms, or even when people go to stations, they can easily find prayer rooms as well. In Indonesia, the prayer rooms were provided everywhere as long as people wish so. Even at schools, because the Islamic lesson is included in the curriculum, having a prayer room is a must. Even the Christian or Catholic Schools had their own chapel inside the school. For the girls who all came from Muslim countries, mosques must have been everywhere to be found, unlike in Shizuoka. 

    Speaking about prayer, the author found out that they all had different styles in performing prayer. The Turkish and the Malaysian students stated that, when they were performing prayer, they only needed to wear clean clothes or the clothes that they were wearing if they were traveling. For the Bangladeshi student, it did not matter whether she wore short-sleeved shirt but, as long as she covered her head using long scarf, she could already perform prayer. The Indonesian students present the most unique case of all. It was a characteristic for Indonesians to wear abaya or mukena (both were dresses for performing prayer) to pray. This probably was a tradition in order to be more careful in performing prayer, because it was meant to present oneself to Allah with a cleaner and holier outfit. Besides the prayer outfit, there were also differences in the hijabs that the students wore. Tedha and Aishah liked to wear hijab with no pattern and the colors were usually darker. Meanwhile, Eneng liked to wear hijab with patterns although sometimes she wore the plain ones. For Eneng, it was important to match her hijab with her outfit. This author was different from Eneng, although both came from the same country, and I like to wear no pattern hijab and very rarely wear hijab with patterns. Eneng and I both like to wear colorful hijab, although I prefer more dominant bright colors. Compared to Tedha and Aishah, those are totally different choices. 

    The next story comes from Iesha. As previously mentioned in 4.1. about her faith, actually in Turkey, many people only put Islam on their identity cards but do not practice Islam completely. Her father is one of the examples and that is probably why her knowledge about Islam is lacking. Above all, in Turkey, discrimination occurs frequently. Tedha agreed this statement, too. Tedha experienced being stared in the street with disturbing eyes, and they just seemed to be impolite for Tedha. Regardless of whether they are in a Muslim country or in their home country, they are still stared disturbingly. While they are in Japan, they would sometimes be stared, but those might be curious stares and eventually the staring people would approach them and greet them. But this might not work for all foreigners, because this author had some experiences where I was stared by kids, and they were looking at me with a worried face. A kid even jumped at once when he saw me walking into a shop wearing a cap and a mask. Then he ran toward his mother but his mother spoke nothing. Some people are not yet used to seeing people with hijab, but for parents, at least they could have told their children that women wearing hijab were not bad people.

    One of the best things that could happen to a Muslim when Ramadan already finishes is to enjoy the Eid-al Fitri. In Indonesia, it is called Lebaran, a festival to celebrate finishing Ramadan for a whole month. There is another celebration, Eid-al Adha, the moment to sacrifice animals to show the believers' faithfulness to Allah. In those two traditions, it is common that people pray together in a mosque and, after the prayer is finished, everyone would gather and have a meal together. In Japan, unless somebody had a wide space to accommodate a lot of people, it is impossible to hold this event. Another thing is about sacrificing animal. In Japan, it is not allowed to slaughter an animal at places other than what has been designated so by the authorities. In Indonesia, regarding the Eid-al Adha, digging a hole at someone's lawn by the owner's permission, of course, or at a mosque's lawn is common. It is the whole process from praying together, slaughtering the animal, preparing the meat and having a meal together up to giving away the meat to those who need it, that is called iman (devout). 

    Lastly, there is another story from Fadiya regarding a Bangladeshi acquaintance that had passed away in Shizuoka. The deceased was a woman, but during the burial ceremony, no women were allowed to come. Only men were allowed to perform the prayer for the deceased in front of the body and only the men were allowed to enter near the grave. Fadiya had her husband to attend this burial ceremony at that time. This burial ceremony tradition was totally different from the Indonesian tradition. In Indonesia, before burying the deceased body, both men and women would gather and pray in front of the body. After the family agreed on the time for burial, some men and women, including the family, would also come to the burial ceremony and give the last prayer. 

    With all of the differences in culture and tradition, it seems that there are many efforts done to adjust themselves with the Japanese society. The Muslim students mentioned in this section arrived in Japan with the history of their home countries on their back. Some had bitter experiences in their home country, but, on the other hand, they felt accepted warmly in Japan. Some even wished the tradition that they had back in their home country could be celebrated in Japan, too. Although some of these students experienced being prejudiced, those were considered as small obstacles, considering their success of survival in Japan. In summary, despite of Japan being a non-Muslim country, they mostly keep trust and hope in Japan as a country that can accept diversities.

[socialjusticeartshare]

Separated at the border, reunited, then separated again: For migrant families, another trauma

EL PROGRESO, Honduras — Thirty days after they were separated at the U.S.-Mexico border, held on opposite sides of the United States, Antonio and Maily were reunited at midnight in the parking lot of a South Texas detention center.

Antonio looked at his 7-year-old daughter and thought: “They are returning all of my happiness in a single moment.” 

Agents and social workers watched as they hugged. It was July 2018 — days after the Trump administration’s family separations policy was halted. The reunion seemed permanent, a bookend to the most controversial U.S. immigration directive in decades.

But six months later, they were separated again. Antonio went to a scheduled check-in at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in central California. He was handcuffed by ICE agents while Maily was in her second-grade class. They haven’t been together since.

A federal court ordered the government to reunite the thousands of families separated under President Donald Trump’s zero-tolerance policy. But many of those parents were released from detention without any legal status in the United States. They were back with their children, but immediately subject to deportation — and re-separation.

Separated from her 3-year-old at the border in 2018, a mother wonders if the U.S. election will bring a reunion

Antonio, a part-time mechanic, landed in Honduras alone on Jan. 16, 2019. He was not allowed to say goodbye to his daughter. Their second separation has so far lasted two years. Maily is now a fourth-grader in New Orleans.

“Separating us once was horrible enough,” he said between sobs at his home in rural Honduras. “Now it feels like I’ve died twice.” He spoke on the condition that his last name be withheld for fear of reprisals in Honduras.

Two and a half years after Trump ordered an end to family separations, immigration attorneys and advocates are growing increasingly concerned about re-separations. The policy of taking children from their parents at the border provoked global outrage, but far less attention has been paid to those families — or their legal cases — afterward.

Parents and children emerged from the zero-tolerance policy with separate immigration cases — often with pending removal orders and no attorneys. In hundreds of those cases, parents have been ordered deported while their children’s asylum or visa applications were being processed.

‘One separation was not enough’

The American Civil Liberties Union announced in November that it had been unable to locate 666 parents who were separated from their children at the border. Since then, attorneys have learned that some of them were re-separated and deported alone. In recent weeks, advocates have located more than a dozen re-separated parents in Central America.

“Even after families were reunited by the court, the Trump administration tried to re-separate them by deporting the parent,” said Lee Gelernt, the lead ACLU attorney on family separation. “Incredibly, one separation was not enough for the Trump administration.”

As the Biden administration prepares to launch a task force to potentially reunite hundreds of Central American families, cases such as Antonio’s are a reminder of the complicated legal path beyond reunification. It remains unclear what legal status the administration will offer to reunified families, and how it will protect them from deportation. There’s no guarantee that re-separated parents will be allowed to return to the United States.

Images of separated children in makeshift detention centers in 2018 prompted an outpouring of anger and activism. The Trump administration said it had separated at least 5,500 migrant children from their parents.

After Trump signed an executive order ending the policy, new images showed tearful reunions. It might have seemed as if the crisis had ended.

But hundreds of parents had been deported without their children; hundreds more were reunited but issued deportation orders that meant they could be re-separated at any moment. Often, parents were unaware of their removal orders, assuming that reunification implied a path to legal status. It did not.

“The government failed to give these parents basic information about their cases when they were released to be reunited with their children,” said Conchita Cruz, co-executive director of the Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project.

In an analysis of roughly 2,000 cases of parents and children separated at the border, about 13 percent currently have removal orders, according to the National Reunited Families Assistance Project, a legal cooperative. It’s unclear how many of them have already been deported.

‘I just don’t understand why they did this’

Weeks after Antonio was reunited with his daughter, an ICE agent put a GPS monitor around his ankle and directed him to check in at the agency’s office in Santa Maria, Calif., every 15 days. It was at one of those check-ins, he said, when an agent told him: You don’t have anything here. You’re going back to your country.

He asked if Maily could return with him to Honduras. He said he was told to give up custody to a relative in the United States or she would be put up for adoption.

The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to requests for comment.

Antonio, who had fled repeated threats of violence in Honduras, was put on a charter flight back to his country. On his return, he relocated to a new area, with his wife, Carolina, and another daughter. Their new home lay in a flood plain. When Hurricanes Iota and Eta blew through in November, it was destroyed. He shared a video that shows him up to his shoulders in water, searching for his possessions.

For a while, Maily stayed with an uncle in California. She would burst into tears without warning, often in her classroom. She explained to her teachers that she had been separated — twice — from her father. She is scheduled to begin therapy in the coming weeks.

“I just don’t understand why they did this,” Maily, now 10, said by phone.

Antonio and Maily speak on video calls a few nights a week. Antonio asks Maily how her English is progressing. Maily asks Antonio if he’s safe. Her first court date is scheduled for December 2022.

During their years apart, she had tried to come up with ideas of how to get her father back to the United States. Last month, in her latest effort to reunite the family, she scribbled a letter to then-President-elect Joe Biden.

“Congratulations on your new job as president,” she wrote in Spanish. “My reason for writing is to ask you to please help bring my dad and mom and sister to the United States. If you’re able to do this I’ll be the happiest girl in the world.”

She drew a picture of her family, a wide space between herself and everyone else.

Child welfare advocates warn of the trauma inflicted on children who have now been separated not once, but twice.

“Each time you do this you’re just multiplying by an exponent the level of terror,” said Ken Berrick, founder of Seneca Family of Agencies, which has been tasked with linking separated families to mental health providers. “When this is your only experience as a child it becomes a part of who you are — it has lifelong impacts.”

Panic at the sight of a police officer

Reunited families were released into legal peril for a range of reasons, each a reflection of an often Kafkaesque immigration system.

Parents were issued notices to appear in courts, but without dates; they unknowingly missed their hearings and were ordered removed in absentia. Some were never given notices to appear in court at all. Others were ordered deported while in detention, but then were inexplicably released and reunited with their children. For hundreds of reunited parents, deportation orders mean they can’t promise their children that they won’t be separated again.

These migrants were separated from their children — and aren’t sure they should be reunited

Henry, a 47-year-old Guatemalan man, was separated from his 7-year-old son, Brandon, in 2018. When they were reunited three months later, Henry already had a deportation order.

He says his son panics every time they see a police officer. A few months ago, when Henry had a scheduled check-in with ICE, his son called him frantically: Are they going to send you back to Guatemala?

“He’s always so scared that I’m going to be deported. But I told him, ‘No, they gave me another chance,’ ” Henry said. “Maybe the U.S. immigration officials want to watch me for a while, to see what kind of a person I am.”

Families have discussed what to do in the case of a re-separation. If a parent is deported, he or she can typically choose whether the child should return as well. But because of the conditions the families fled in Central America, those decisions are not straightforward.

“The fact that they don’t have any kind of security that they can remain here with their child — that they can be deported at any moment — it just adds to the extraordinary amount of trauma that families have gone through,” said Ann Garcia, a staff attorney with the Catholic Legal Immigration Network.

Article Source

[worldviewessay523]

write my research paper

About me

Top Research Paper Writing Service

Top Research Paper Writing Service Getting your paper done with our skilled writing service is easy, quick, and completely secure. Keep your viewers engaged from the very first second. I have by no means trusted a service so much; my author is the one one that understands me well and knows my writing style, so I will proceed working with him further. Nevertheless, though there are numerous freelancers whom yow will discover in Internet, you cannot be 100% positive that they'll write what you want and meet all of the deadlines. This is as a result of after we hire them, we offer them with training on formatting kinds and types of assignments. We also assign supervisors to them, who management their work through the first months of cooperation. We have editors and proofreaders in our workers prepared to help the newcomers with difficult assignments. When you fill in the type, submit an order, and make a cost, we get your directions and begin trying to find the most applicable match on your paper amongst our writers. The “ENL” category stands for our professional writers for whom English is a local language. This category costs an extra payment equal to 30% of the preliminary worth of your order, however it guarantees your paper shall be accomplished completely in terms of language and magnificence. Our basic category represents the “best obtainable.” It accommodates the most important a part of our employees. These writers are properly trained and had been employed according to the highest quality standards. All of our writers are properly skilled and are ready to deal with your assignment. Captivating PowerPoint presentations are throughout the mandate of our paper writing service. It is debatable and stuffed with concern task to evaluate what to be written in the paper and how to make related arguments to assist your claims. Specifically whenever you don't have any matter or path to put in writing, in such situations do my research papers is available in play and provide with all research paper related options. This is because each order is dealt with by a author above the educational stage of the paper as a result of they have gone via the system, and they know what is predicted. If you might be nonetheless unsure whether you may get advantages from our service then imagine the next. You may have at least every week or even months of free time that it is possible for you to to use more effectively. While your groupmates might be browsing libraries in search for the relevant supplies, you will be able to give attention to other disciplines that more attraction to you. Also, there shall be an opportunity to maintain a social life and spend time with family and associates and go to fascinating places. Therefore, it's better to contact a reliable service which may boast with critiques of glad prospects who already ordered the service of writing a analysis paper. Every paper we write is done from scratch, and is tailor-made to suit your wants. There isn't any means your project goes to be rehashed, as our writers never recycle or reuse the previously written materials. For your peace of mind, we’ll be glad to provide you with an in depth plagiarism report. Request it and get it collectively along with your purchase at no cost. What makes it hard to finish the analysis paper is that one has to study the topic in and out and be acquainted with the content. Paul has experience both as a proof-reader, post secondary teacher (analysis writing/MLA format) and a workers research paper author. His undergraduate work was in secondary schooling, Social Studies, with a strong emphasis on political science. He has additionally completed a Master's degree in History. over the writing process, direct communication along with your writer and order status monitoring in real time. Hello, my names is James and I wished to share my expertise of using Paperell. We use solely dependable sources for our writing, and we all the time choose them in accordance with your requirements. You could request our writers to make use of specific manuals, journals, or software program. In case you need to make use of particular sources, your professional may ask you to ship him or her such supplies. We don’t use essay banks, we don’t sell the papers previously written for other students, and we won’t promote your paper to anyone else. When the search is completed, you receive a link to your private account where you can contact your author. From there, you possibly can handle your orders and upload the required information about your paper. Please, reply the questions from your author as quick as attainable when they occur—especially when you a have a strict deadline. In other phrases, research papers are amongst our primary specialization as well as PhD dissertations, coursework, thesis assertion, essay papers and different types of content. If you might be nonetheless looking for a professional to “write my analysis paper”, our website is definitely the right place to visit and here is why. So, your paper is just yours and will not coincide with the works of different college students. When you fill in the order form, you will get a further choice and buy your writer’s samples. These are three pages from random papers beforehand written by the writer for different clients.

[anewhope4change-blog]

Problems Immigrants Face

“Remember, remember always, that all of us, and you and I especially, are descended from immigrants and revolutionists,” said by Franklin D. Roosevelt who was the 32nd president of the United States. Immigrants all over the world specially in the United States are the back bone of the economy. Immigration and racism are the problems of America for so long now. In every century, every era, every year they faced the problems and problems throughout their lives and the reason is people categories them all in one category. Like all immigrants are illegal here, or all immigrants from Muslim countries are terrorists, or all the colored people are dangerous. The reality is the problem are in the people’s mind.

“Everywhere immigrants have enriched and the fabric of American life,” said by John F. Kennedy. Immigrants who used to live in their home country and moved to United States specially for better future, better life, better education and for better opportunities or came here to be the part of American dream just like Langston Hughes mentioned in Let America Be America Again. They came here with the dream inside them that they will get the justice, freedom, and they can spend their lives according to their own desires. And the matter of the fact is, we should feel good and proud that they think our country has all those things which they are looking for. They are ready to accept the new culture, new tradition as well as new language for good. It’s not an easy thing to move to a new country and start your whole life from scratch again. If they are willing to do, we shouldn’t stop them. The problem is when they moved here after leaving everything behind, we should treat them good and fair with love and care. The companies, and schools they are applying to have to understand that maybe English isn’t their first language, or they are not white or black we should encourage them, motivate them, and work with them to get them successful. To being brown in this country is a problem and the reason is you feel disassociate from others. Just like Langston Hughes mentioned in his poem Mulatto. The look on the people faces, and the way they treat you, you can feel that they don’t think you are one of them. The brown people trying to find that who they actually are. Are they the part of the white group or the black community? As an American they have the right to follow their own religion believes, and we should give them an opportunity to live here because we all are immigrants as well. Oscar Handlin was an American historian said, “Once I thought to write a history of immigrants in America. Then I discovered that the immigrants were American History.” Do we know how many kids get bullied because of their traditional clothes and because of their mother tongue? Do we know how many times people lost their jobs because of racism? How many times even teachers treated immigrated kids differently? I am raising these questions because all these things happened with me or my family members. The thing which hurts more that if I am accepting this country as my second home, working hard, going college, paying taxes and then someone questions my loyalties. Some people are not that strong and after being moved here they left the states and went back to their home countries. They received the feelings that Americans are acting different and superior around them and America will never be their second home, just like Langston Hughes said, “(It never was America to me. )” in Let America be America Again, and this is because of racism. What kind of dream we are presenting them? We often talk about the American dream. But the question is do we actually remembered it? Do we even have a right to talk about? Do we still want to achieve that dream? This is the question every American should ask their selves. Does it mean we are still living at the time when Langston Hughes wrote the poem “Let America be America Again”? If it’s yes, then it means in all those years nothing changed, we are still at the same place where stronger can crush the weaker, where white is superior then others, where you couldn’t find equality, where hungry is still starving. It means we are not totally free yet, it means the time still has to come when we will follow the actual American dream and then we will make America great again. The answer is we are way far from it, just like Langston Hughes mentioned in Let America be America Again. It’s that far that we can’t even see it. Many times, our politicians said we will make America great again, but in actually they are spreading the hatred, confusion, and false hope. Government after a government, leader after a leader, talks about it but no one actually try to implement anything; because no one remembers it anymore.

How many times in social media we heard the term white supremacy? Sometimes it’s very shocking in the sense that this term still existed in this modern era. Every religion talks about humanity and peace, you can read the Quran or Bible, you can talk to the Priest or Imam, you can talk to Jew or Hindu, they will all tell you about this. Physically we are living in the 21st century but actually we are hundreds of years back. Prophet Muhammad (P.B.U.H) said, “A white has no superiority over a black nor a black has any superiority over white except by piety and good action.” Bible said, in James 2:4 that, “have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?” Discrimination is a disease which is spread out all over the world and no one knows how dangerous it could be. The biggest example is if some Muslim killed someone by any reason, he is called terrorist but if some white person kills someone, everyone tries to prove that he was not mentally stable. No one is trying to defend the Muslim who killed someone, he should be punished but at least your rules and law should be same for everyone.

I think we to stay hopeful and positive about the future just like the poem I, Too by Langston Hughes where in the beginning he told us that how people treats him because of his color or race and he feels bad about it. But in the next few lines he also said there will be a time when everything will be sort out, we as a nation treat everyone same, and the people who are racist will be ashamed. He is American too; and we as an immigrant has to believe in that and keep the right attitude just like Langston Hughes and he also said that, he has all those rights which others has and there will be a time when our society will be free with this problem.

In conclusion, I just want to say that every group has some good or bad people. Because of those few bad people you can’t say that this whole group is not good. We Americans should take a look in our society and wherever we see some kind of injustice we should raise our voice against it. We should treat each human being same without even knowing his faith, religion and race. If we take those steps, I am assuring you our next generations will definitely see the American dream becoming true in very short time. We also keep the poem I, TOO by Langston Hughes in our minds and stay positive just like Let America Be America Again. God Bless America.

Citations:

1.      Roosevelt, Franklin. “Quotes about Immigrants.” FDR Quotes about Immigrants, Quotes Hd.com, www.google.com/search?q=FDR+quotes+about+immigrants&safe=active&sxsrf=ACYBGNTJmmk5aDf_V7I4mBmVanPn2AHobA:1571340062332&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjK7fHxgaTlAhVjdt8KHVeXBNUQ_AUIEygC&biw=1440&bih=821#imgrc=GgOlKiX3TEnXlM:

2.       “James 2 - NIV Bible - My Brothers and Sisters, Believers in Our Glorious...” Bible Study Tools, www.biblestudytools.com/james/2.html.

3.       Khattak, Adnan A. “Prophet Muhammad's Last Sermon.” Prophet Muhammad's Last Sermon, www.introductiontoislam.org/prophetlastsermon.shtml.

4.       Reign, Ashley. “13 Quotes About Immigration That Will Remind You We're All Human.” Women.com, www.women.com/ashleyreign/lists/number-quotes-about-immigration-that-will-remind-you-were-all-human.

5.       “TOP 25 IMMIGRANTS QUOTES (of 860): A-Z Quotes.” A, www.azquotes.com/quotes/topics/immigrants.html.

6.       Hughes, Langston. “Let America Be America Again by Langston Hughes - Poems | Academy of American Poets.” Poets.org, Academy of American Poets, 1936, poets.org/poem/let-america-be-america-again.

7.       Spacey, Andrew. “Analysis of Poem ‘I,Too’ by Langston Hughes.” Owlcation, Owlcation, 5 Mar. 2019, owlcation.com/humanities/Analysis-of-Poem-I-Too-by-Langston-Hughes

8.        Hughes, Langston. “Mulatto.” Poem: Mulatto by Langston Hughes, www.poetrynook.com/poem/mulatto-0.

[perfectzablog]

Eight Ways To Teach Climate Change In Almost Any Classroom

NPR/IPSOS did a national poll recently and found that more than 8 in 10 teachers — and a similar majority of parents — support teaching kids about climate change.

But in reality, it’s not always happening: Fewer than half of K-12 teachers told us that they talk about climate change with their children or students. Again, parents were about the same.

The top reason that teachers gave in our poll for not covering climate change? 65% said, “It’s not related to the subjects I teach.”

Yet at the same time, we also heard from teachers and education organizations who are introducing the topic in subjects from social studies to math to English language arts, and at every grade level, from preschool on up.

Which raises the question: Where does climate change belong in the curriculum, anyway?

The “reality of human-caused climate change” is mentioned in at least 36 state standards, according to an analysis done for NPR Ed by Glenn Branch, the deputy director at the National Center for Science Education. But, it typically appears only briefly — and most likely just in earth science classes in middle and high school. And, Branch says, that doesn’t even mean that every student in those states learns about it: Only two states require students to take earth or environmental science classes to graduate high school.

Joseph Henderson teaches in the environmental studies department at Paul Smith’s College in upstate New York. He studies how climate change is taught in schools, and believes it needs to be taught across many subjects.

“For so long this has been seen as an issue that is solely within the domain of science,” he says. “There needs to be a greater engagement across disciplines, particularly looking at the social dimensions,” such as the displacement of populations by natural disasters.

At the same time, there’s a tension in pushing more educators to take this on. “I worry a lot about asking schools to solve yet another problem that society refuses to deal with.”

As a potential response to this criticism, the nonprofit Ten Strands follows an “incremental infusion” model in California. In other words, environmental literacy becomes part of subjects and activities that are already in the curriculum instead of, the organization says, “burdening educators” with another stand-alone and complex area to cover.

We also heard from teachers who say they are searching for more ideas and resources to take on the topic of climate change. So, here are some thoughts about how to broach the subject with students, no matter what subject you teach:

1. Do a lab.

Lab activities can be one of the most effective ways to show children how global warming works on an accessible scale.

Ellie Schaffer is a sixth-grader at Alice Deal Middle School in Washington, D.C. She’s done simulations on greenhouse effects in science class, using plastic wrap to trap the sun’s heat. And she’s used charcoal to see how black carbon from air pollution can speed the melting of ice.

These lessons have raised her awareness — and concern. “We’ve ignored climate change for a long time and now it’s getting to be, like, a real problem, so we’ve gotta do something.”

Many teachers we talked with mentioned NASA as a resource for labs and activities. The ones in this outline can be done with everyday materials like ice, tinfoil, plastic bottles, rubber, light bulbs and a thermometer.

On the Earth Science Week website, there’s a list of activities and lesson plans aligned with the Next Generation Science Standards. They range from simple to elaborate.

2. Show a movie.

Susan Fisher, a seventh-grade science teacher at South Woods Middle School in Syosset, N.Y., showed her students the 2016 documentary Before the Flood, featuring Leonardo diCaprio journeying to five continents and the Arctic to see the effects of climate change. “It is our intention to make our students engaged citizens,” Fisher says.

Before the Flood has an action page and an associated curriculum. Common Sense Media has a list of climate change-related movies for all ages.

The 2006 film An Inconvenient Truth and its 2017 sequel, An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth To Power have curricular materials created in partnership with the National Wildlife Federation.

3. Assign a novel.

Rebecca Meyer is an eighth-grade English language arts teacher at Bronx Park Middle School in New York City.

She assigned her students a 2013 novel by Mindy McGinnis called Not a Drop to Drink.

“As we read the novel, kids made connections between what is happening today and the novel,” Meyer says. “At the end of the unit, as a culminating project, students choose groups, researched current solutions for physical and economic water scarcity and created PSA videos using iMovie about the problem and how their solution could help to combat the issue.”

She described the unit as a success. “They were very engaged, they loved it,” she explains. “A lot of them shared this information with their families. When parents came in for parent-teacher conferences they mentioned their kids had been talking to them about conserving water.”

Not A Drop To Drink belongs to a subgenre of science fiction known as “cli-fi” (climate fiction) or sometimes eco-fiction. You can find lists of similar books at websites like Dragonfly.eco or at the Chicago Review of Books, which has a monthly Burning Worlds column about this kind of literature.

Looking for English topics for younger students? EL Education covers environmental topics, including water conservation and the impact of natural disasters, in its K-5 English language arts curriculum.

4. Do citizen science.

Terry Reed is the self-proclaimed “science guru” for seventh-graders at Prince David Kawananakoa Middle School in Honolulu. He’s also spent a year sailing the Caribbean, and on his way, he collected water samples on behalf of a group called Adventure Scientists, to be tested for microplastics (spoiler: even on remote, pristine beaches, all the samples had some).

He has assigned his students to collect water samples from beaches near their homes to submit for the same project. He also has them take pictures of cloud formations and measure temperatures, to see changes in weather patterns over time. “One thing I stress to them, that in the next few years, they become the voting public,” he says. “They need to be aware of the science.”

5. Assign a research project, multimedia presentation or speech.

Gay Collins teaches public speaking at Waterford High School in Waterford, Conn. She is interested in “civil discourse” as a tool for problem-solving, so she encourages her students “to shape their speeches around critical topics, like the use of plastics, minimalism, and other environmental issues.

6. Talk about your personal experience.

Pamela Tarango teaches third grade at the Downtown Elementary School in Bakersfield, Calif.. And she tells her students about how the weather has changed there in her lifetime, getting hotter and drier: “In our Central Valley California city of Bakersfield, there has been a change in the winter climate. I told them about how, when I was growing up in the 1970’s we often had several two and three-hour delays to school starting because of dense tule fog which affected visibility. We really never have those delays in the metropolitan area. It is only the outlying areas which still have two and three-hour dense fog delays, and they are rare even for the rural areas.”

(Although the Central Valley winter has indeed become hotter and drier due to climate change, recently a University of California, Berkeley study has attributed the reduction in tule fog specifically to declines in air pollution.)

7. Do a service project.

“I teach preschoolers and use the environment and our natural resources to highlight our everyday life,” says Mercy Peña-Alevizos, who teaches at Holy Trinity Academy in Phoenix. “I stress the importance of appreciation and eliminating waste. My students understand and have fantastic ideas. We recycle and pick up around our neighborhood.”

Environmental service projects can be simple, elaborate or just for fun. Check out the #trashtag challenge on social media, for example.

8. Start or work in a school garden.

Mairs Ryan teaches science at St. Gregory the Great Catholic School in San Diego. “The sixth-graders oversee the school garden, as well as, our vermin composting bin, christened the ‘Worm Hotel’. The garden is their lab and the students ‘live and learn’ soil carbon sequestration and regenerative agriculture. Our school’s compost bin is evidence that alternatives exist to methane-producing landfills. In looking for more solutions to reduce methane, students debate food reuse practices around the world.”

Check out ThePermacultureStudent.com for resources on building school gardens with rainwater capture and compost systems to regenerate the soil. There are local and regional resources like the Collective School Garden Network in California,and Growing Minds in North Carolina, which offers basic plans for a school garden as well as lesson plans that connect gardening to Common Core standards.

Here are some more resources

After the publication of our climate poll story on Monday we heard from people all over the country with dozens more resources for climate education.

Alliance for Climate Education has a multimedia resource called Our Climate Our Future, plus more resources for educators and several action programs for youth.

The American Association of Geographers has free online professional development resources for teachers.

American Reading Company sells an English Language Arts curriculum called ARCCore that includes climate change themes.

Biointeractive, created by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, has hundreds of free online education resources, including many on education and the environment, and offers professional development for teachers.

Climate Generation offers professional development for educators nationwide and a youth network in Minnesota.

CLEAN (Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network) has a collection of resources organized in part by the Next Generation Science Standard they are aligned with.

Global Oneness Project offers lesson plans that come with films and videos of climate impacts around the world.

Google offers free online environmental sustainability lesson plans for grades 5-8.

The Morningside Center for Teaching Social Responsibility has a group of 19 lessons for K-12.

“We believe that the social and emotional skills we help strengthen in young people and adults are sorely needed to combat the fear and avoidance we and students experience around climate change,” spokesperson Laura McClure told NPR.

The National Center for Science Education has free climate change lessons that focus on combating misinformation. They also have a “scientist in the classroom” program.

The National Science Teachers Association has a comprehensive curriculum.

The Paleontological Research Institution in Ithaca, NY has a book called the Teacher-Friendly Guide to Climate Change.

Ripple Effect “creates STEM curriculum” for K-6 “about real people and places impacted by climate change,” starting with New Orleans.

Ten Strands offers professional learning to educators in California in partnership with the state’s recycling authority and an outdoor-education program, among others.

Think Earth offers 9 environmental education units from preschool through middle school.

The Zinn Education Project (based on the work of Howard Zinn, the author of A People’s History Of The United States) has launched a group of 18 lessons aimed specifically at climate justice. Some are drawn from this book: A People’s Curriculum For The Earth: Teaching Climate Change And The Environmental Crisis.

Copyright 2019 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Eight Ways To Teach Climate Change In Almost Any Classroom published first on https://greatpricecourse.tumblr.com/