The Nightingales of Troy

Welcome to The Nightingales of Troy...


BLOG ONE WEDNESDAY JUNE 1ST-ARYANA
First Week Team Leader Blogger Question for Discussion is
,“Time is one of the book’s large themes. ‘And though my children were sleeping the sleep of the just, I half believed my unvoiced thoughts would reach them across that room full of twentieth-century light,’ Mamie thinks at the end of the first story. What do her thoughts suggest about time?”
(remember we have a week to respond, but be courteous to your team leader's prompt address of the question)

BLOG 2 WEDNESDAY JUNE 8TH-TANYA
Week 2 Team Leader Blogger Question for Discussion is,
“Alice Fulton has called the past ‘the ultimate foreign country.’ The Nightingales of Troy covers a century with remarkable attention to detail. It’s full of fascinating period objects and artifacts, from cosmetics to medical equipment. How do these cultural objects and markers deepen your sense of the past?”

Meeting Wednesday, June 16th from 4-6ish in room CC3345. We will do the book vote around 5:30 pm. Those of you who cannot make it to the book vote can vote via email. I will send you packets of the selections and then you can email me back with your picks. Let me know if you are interested!



Friday, February 25, 2011

The last words from the orange

Hey pretty! Thanks Victoria for the lovely upgrade! Perfect theme! I was wondering about the all-caps styled font though, because it is really hard for me to read. Unless it's just on my end, or just me.

My last thoughts on Tropic of Orange before we move on.....
Overall, I disliked the book. Surprise, yes. But what is quite nice is discussing and theorizing about the book makes it a lot more fun to read. The overall move and pace of the book was a frenzy, and I enjoyed very much the separation of character chapters, but something about it just didn't pull me in.
But, in between the hard to decipher metaphors and references to things I don't understand (I'm sure there are many inside jokes), I found bits of gold in every section.
I still was enamored with Emi, because what a fun truth she spoke. In books, I have found few interesting, sporadic characters like her.
I was extremely interested in the chapter with the sushi-maker and the discussion about cultural diversity being bullshit, as someone else noted. Her need to offend was extremely humorous, because in American culture, it seems that everything has to be sugar-coated. What she said was, I felt, the truth, but if you say it in a blunt and honest way, anyone will downplay it or be shocked. I met a lady one time from another country, I believe from one in Africa. She talked about how shocking it was when she got here, because everyone lies!! Everyone white lies about everything. You cannot criticize people, you cannot be honest, and it was stressful for her to adjust to. She was not used to not be able to say what she was thinking without being perceived as aggressive.
What humors me is on the opposite end, I have a friend from Japan who has been living here for a little while, and he would tell me about how open people here are. That he was surprised how people talk and smile at strangers, that people talk about politics and can be open with people of a higher-up status.
I think it's very interesting thinking about cultures and their social etiquette.
Also, the very nature of the US to compensate for guilt, for the guilt of their race or the need to defend their multiculturalism.
It's a fun subject, because I'm a sincere believer of color-blindness. If there are no true differences between us beyond the potential culture, if race doesn't define us, it is no different than a hair-color. Fun thought, a passion. Male and female, black and white, asian and hispanic, it's fun to think of a world melded together with no predetermined expectations for each.
But that's a related and unrelated tangent. I think I enjoy that in books we can see the brutally honest characters we rarely meet in real life.

I think one could puzzle all the metaphors in this book for years. Why oranges? Why cocaine? Why tropic of cancer? What does it mean? What does it mean?

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