(a paper I wrote for a critical theory and narrative course at HKU)

Jazz as Violence in Michael Harper’s Poetry:

 Creating Identity through Deconstruction and Reactions to Colonialism

 

 

            Specific cultural identities are difficult to define due to their dynamism.  To be true to a group of people, they must have a foothold in the past but also be free of it, defined by creative forces rather than a purely historical synthesis. And if this identity is repres...

Continue reading ...

So, this is an easy way to get out some book recommendations.  There's more that's being read or lent out at the moment, and much more back at my parents' house...but these shelves reflect some of my favorites. 



Continue reading ...

And I'm now reading: What is the what?  By Dave Eggars, Quiet: the Power of Introverts in a world that can't stop talking by Susan Cain, IQ84 by Haruki Murakami, and The Phenomenology of Modern Art by Paul Crowther...reviews to come. 

Continue reading ...

(screenshot from the film of Suzy waving a kiss at her young lover, Sam)

This is Suzy.  She is 'disturbed,' but also beautiful and resourceful.  In a runaway-camping expedition with her 12-year-old lover, Sam, she continues to don bright blue eyeshadow and her binoculars (her magic powers).  Her sincere, no frills personality and easy likeability despite her 'violent outburts' make me also want to bring out the blue eyeshadow daily.  Why not?

Anderson's latest film asks us, in the words of Fran...
Continue reading ...

En vieillissant les hommes pleurent, par Jean-Luc Seigle

• Nostalgique, metaphysique, belle
• A beautiful ontological perspective about the simplicity of love and family.
  

Le "concept" du 11 septembre, Dialogues a New York avec Giovanna Borradori: Jacques Derrida et Jurgen Habermas

• Interesting take on 9-11 from three perspectives.  The book is really about much more: terrorism, globalization, fear, national borders, 'events', deconstruction.  It is a helpful dialogue about thinking of one's place in t...

Continue reading ...