What a great discussion of Tropic of Orange we had at the meeting yesterday! Thank you to all who showed up to chat: Tanya, Chris, Aryana, Alyssa, and Me. We each picked a character to discuss individual and from there the discussion took on a dimension of its own. Alyssa got Bobby, and good thing because he was her favorite character. He was strong, comfortable in his identity, and seeming to hold everything together at the end. Aryrana got Arcangel. What stood out the most was his building the wall around Gabriel's house with Rodriguez. Arcangel has a philosophical moment about Rodriguez's life while placing the bricks one by one into the wall as they represent different parts of this simple man. Chris got Gabriel, our main character (?). The observation was that he was the one character that was connected to the other seven characters in one way or another. He was lost in his identity and perhaps exploiting people close to him to regain a historical identity of what he thought he should be.Tanya got Raefela, which she started with, "Where do I begin..." What stood out most was her great transformation into the mythical serpent while her attacker took on the image of a jaguar (also the car he was driving). She put up a hell of a fight, waking up with black fur in her mouth, a pocket knife in one hand and a man's ear in the other. I got Manzanar. We were split in the group about what his outcome was but it was clear to all that he was indeed the conductor of the mayhem throughout the story. Did he help save his granddaughter Emi and return to a "normal" life or did he comfort his granddaughter in her dying hour and then return to be a transient once more? As a group we discusses Buzzworm and Emi since we were missing two members. Emi was a firecracker that spoke the truth with a sharp tongue and like Gabriel was not entirely comfortable or aware of her true identity. Buzzworm was the swizzle stick in the drink that was Orange. He was proud of who he was and was a product of his neighborhood. He spent his time trying to fix the problems with L.A. and by the end found out that it was time to start opening up himself.
I look forward to our next discussion and I really hope to see a blog from everyone once a week. Enjoy The Palace of Illusions and keep an eye out for any "realism" that you want to suggest. Email me with your ideas and I will put them into a ballot for the next meeting.
Saturday, February 26, 2011
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?
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?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)