SPAN 3302
Sunday, April 15, 2007
The Purple House of Sandra Cisneros
In 1997, Sandra Cisneros bought a house on East Guenther Street, in the historic district of San Antonio.
She decided to repaint the house in "periwinkle purple” and originated a fight in the community. The community protested about her will of having a purple house in this historic neighborhood considering her choice of color to be “inappropriate”.
Cisneros argued in the local newspaper :
"The issue is bigger than my house. The issue is about historical inclusion. I want to paint my house a traditional color, but please give me a broader palette than surrey beige, sevres blue, hawthorn green, frontier days brown, and Plymouth Rock grey. . . . I thought I had painted my house a historic color. Purple is historic to us. It only goes back a thousand years or so to the pyramids. It is present in the Nahua codices, book of the Aztecs, as is turquoise, the color I used for my house trim; the former color signifying royalty, the latter, water and rain.
She finally won in court and kept her house painted in purple.
Cisneros appear as a rebel, either in her own writings but also in her real life. I don’t think she is really concern about that Aztec stuff, but I really think that she enjoys challenging the cultural bigotry of traditions and role models.
She decided to repaint the house in "periwinkle purple” and originated a fight in the community. The community protested about her will of having a purple house in this historic neighborhood considering her choice of color to be “inappropriate”.
Cisneros argued in the local newspaper :
"The issue is bigger than my house. The issue is about historical inclusion. I want to paint my house a traditional color, but please give me a broader palette than surrey beige, sevres blue, hawthorn green, frontier days brown, and Plymouth Rock grey. . . . I thought I had painted my house a historic color. Purple is historic to us. It only goes back a thousand years or so to the pyramids. It is present in the Nahua codices, book of the Aztecs, as is turquoise, the color I used for my house trim; the former color signifying royalty, the latter, water and rain.
She finally won in court and kept her house painted in purple.
Cisneros appear as a rebel, either in her own writings but also in her real life. I don’t think she is really concern about that Aztec stuff, but I really think that she enjoys challenging the cultural bigotry of traditions and role models.
Saturday, April 14, 2007
“He did not take his eyes from her” (78)
Billy’s quest for capturing a wolf is a quest of identity through somebody else (a she wolf). He needs to foreknow the wolves’ instincts in order to trap them. Hunting a wolf is thinking like a wolf. It is also becoming as savage as the one who’s being tracked. The savagery of the wolf being trapped in his trap is horrible, especially the details of his leg. That’s the turning point that makes Billy as savage as the wolf itself by starring at the scene.
This story does not depict good, but how evil needs to be a part of good. The evil and savagery of trapping a wolf is required in order to prevent them from killing cows. It’s like the ancient yin and yang concept. You need to internalize in someway the evil in order to makes good coming out of it. Billy does not want to kill the wolf and he knows he must make her believe that he wants to (81). That interaction is interesting. He needs to adopt and maintain violence and coercion in order to maintain his relationship with her.
This story does not depict good, but how evil needs to be a part of good. The evil and savagery of trapping a wolf is required in order to prevent them from killing cows. It’s like the ancient yin and yang concept. You need to internalize in someway the evil in order to makes good coming out of it. Billy does not want to kill the wolf and he knows he must make her believe that he wants to (81). That interaction is interesting. He needs to adopt and maintain violence and coercion in order to maintain his relationship with her.
Dance with the Wolves
The fascination and the fear of wolves are central in this book. The book begins with the same ongoing life: pasture, traps, cows, and wolves. But the wolves are what make Billy’s life unusual. They are the salt and the danger that makes the Billy’s life relevant. Wolves in this story are a constant challenge and myth to deal with. Myth exaggerates or idealizes the truth. Actually, men and wolves are complementary and different (p45). Men believe that the blood of the slain is innocent and with no consequences when wolves believe the opposite. The wolf knows what men do know. They are like supernatural creatures. Snow in the story tends to magnify everything. There is no scenery, just wolves, that Billy makes part of his world. Billy knows that trapping this wolf will make him become a man. But he knows also that in order to capture a wolf you also need to become, in some way, one of them. That is what creates the bond between the two.
Monday, April 9, 2007
Avant Garde
Eisenstein’s Avant Garde:
In an interview that I recently read, David Linx said that there was no avant garde in Cuba among the artists. David Linx is one of the major Jazz singers in Europe. Born in Belgium, he recorded a CD at the age of 20 with lyrics written by the famous writer James Baldwin. Cuba trapped his art into social realism, just as Stalin trapped Eisenstein’s innovative techniques in the box of propaganda. In his movie about Zapata, the end exemplifies the most unusual things put together in one shot: the mourning dance to mock death in front of a gigantic Ferris wheel!!!
To expand what I said in class, I would say that Spaghetti Westerns exemplified the same things. In Sergio Leone’s trilogy with Clint Eastwood or in the Sabata series the final duel between the hero and the villain is the place of avant-gardism. There is always an old man (with no teeth) laughing like crazy in the midst of the most solemn silence.
There can be a man with a mandolin, playing the same happy notes over and over again just before the duel: just as if music was necessary. In some cases the guitar is also a gun.
That contrast is directly inspired by Eisenstein.
Flies are flying on the screen with a horrible sound; sweat is a detail that is magnified, just as the look of watcher’s eyes at a close range. Everything is magnified. These magnified shots aim at giving more impact to ordinary scenes by putting the viewer in the place of a child that sees everything too large.
In an interview that I recently read, David Linx said that there was no avant garde in Cuba among the artists. David Linx is one of the major Jazz singers in Europe. Born in Belgium, he recorded a CD at the age of 20 with lyrics written by the famous writer James Baldwin. Cuba trapped his art into social realism, just as Stalin trapped Eisenstein’s innovative techniques in the box of propaganda. In his movie about Zapata, the end exemplifies the most unusual things put together in one shot: the mourning dance to mock death in front of a gigantic Ferris wheel!!!
To expand what I said in class, I would say that Spaghetti Westerns exemplified the same things. In Sergio Leone’s trilogy with Clint Eastwood or in the Sabata series the final duel between the hero and the villain is the place of avant-gardism. There is always an old man (with no teeth) laughing like crazy in the midst of the most solemn silence.
There can be a man with a mandolin, playing the same happy notes over and over again just before the duel: just as if music was necessary. In some cases the guitar is also a gun.
That contrast is directly inspired by Eisenstein.
Flies are flying on the screen with a horrible sound; sweat is a detail that is magnified, just as the look of watcher’s eyes at a close range. Everything is magnified. These magnified shots aim at giving more impact to ordinary scenes by putting the viewer in the place of a child that sees everything too large.
The Marlboro Lungs :
The Marlboro man on the tops of the Minnesotan hills typifies a classic American stereotype. The Marlboro Man typifies the cowboy from the west: very masculine and virile with that lonesome temperament that makes him smoke while ridding on his horse.
The end and real life of the Marlboro men impersonators are quite interesting and seem to be a defiance of the Marlboro cowboy cliché: cancer and homosexuality. According to Cisneros’ friend, the Marlboro man is no longer a myth; he was even in some pornographic films before Marlboro discovered him.
In Cisneros’ story, we see the lover entering the American dream with a lover who seems to typify a role model that makes her being accepted as a Chicano in the American west.
The best way of being part of the American identity is probably to embrace its myths, its role models like the Marlboro man. The cowboy in this story is not merely a cowboy, but is all the Marlboro billboards. Just as Cisnero fantasizes (fantasme) and add lies about her lover, her quest of identity defines her through the American myth of the Marlboro man.
The end and real life of the Marlboro men impersonators are quite interesting and seem to be a defiance of the Marlboro cowboy cliché: cancer and homosexuality. According to Cisneros’ friend, the Marlboro man is no longer a myth; he was even in some pornographic films before Marlboro discovered him.
In Cisneros’ story, we see the lover entering the American dream with a lover who seems to typify a role model that makes her being accepted as a Chicano in the American west.
The best way of being part of the American identity is probably to embrace its myths, its role models like the Marlboro man. The cowboy in this story is not merely a cowboy, but is all the Marlboro billboards. Just as Cisnero fantasizes (fantasme) and add lies about her lover, her quest of identity defines her through the American myth of the Marlboro man.
