Spring Break Posting Pt. 1
God Bless: Happy Palm Sunday and a big "thank you" to Tony Robles
Feeling: :-I
Happy Spring Break, everybody! i hope you all have a great one, and that i don't catch any of you on Girls Gone Wild.
With that said, watch as i wring my creative reserves for an English post. Well, you know the tank's running low when you have to talk about two books to write one post. This week, let's take a gander at America Is In the Heart and American Son.
1. They're both very violent novels. In America Is In the Heart, i think Bulosan employed violence as a means to shake his audience, to shock, to reveal the dark underbelly of the American dream. On the other hand, i'm not sure what role violence plays in American Son. Both novels eventually numbed me to gore and the graphic--a feat that only Fear Factor has achieved. But i think that is a perspective shared by the characters in both novels--they are (almost) all indifferent to violence because it is a primary component of the worlds in which they live.
2. i'm skeptical about the conclusions of both novels. Bulosan ends America Is In the Heart lauding the virtues of an America that he has not experienced. So much of the book records Bulosan's struggle to survive in a cold and unwelcoming United States. Thus, the optimism he expresses in the closing chapter of his novel comes off a little, uh, out of nowhere. Okay wait, i take that back. it doesn't come outta nowhere. it comes out of left field. Or maybe that's his point--America beat him down, withered him to his deathbed, but he can remain positive because he has constructed for himself the architecture of an America he designed in his heart. For Bulosan, America is so much more than the prostitutes and the labor fields and the murders and the injustices.
And about American Son...well, yeah. That book just needs an ending. Roley, what happened, dude? Why didn't you finish the book? Did deadline sneak up on ya? Did your pen run out of ink? Your laptop out of juice? As Tomas would say, i was muy disappointed. i'm still trying to figure out what the point of that novel was.
3. Both novels portray Filipinos and/or Filipino-Americans negatively. Bulosan's semi-autobiography is brimming with prostitutes and pool halls and pandemonium and alliteration. (just kidding on that last one). The manongs are hypersexualized and morally suspect. i'm still not sure why Bulosan would portray Filipinos negatively, especially if he was writing for a white audience. It seems counter to his cause. The Filipinos in Roley's novel, meanwhile, are just as violent and prone to organized crime. i do not think that the characters in American Son are particularly affable. i'm not moved to cheer for any of them, and, excuse my language, i downright dislike some of them. What was the point of portraying Filipinos as Roley does--as ethnically homeless delinquents?
And with that, i leave you all. Have a most morphenomenal spring break!
kenneth ronquillo
retired power ranger
varsity musical chairs team captain, '98
Feeling: :-I
Happy Spring Break, everybody! i hope you all have a great one, and that i don't catch any of you on Girls Gone Wild.
With that said, watch as i wring my creative reserves for an English post. Well, you know the tank's running low when you have to talk about two books to write one post. This week, let's take a gander at America Is In the Heart and American Son.
1. They're both very violent novels. In America Is In the Heart, i think Bulosan employed violence as a means to shake his audience, to shock, to reveal the dark underbelly of the American dream. On the other hand, i'm not sure what role violence plays in American Son. Both novels eventually numbed me to gore and the graphic--a feat that only Fear Factor has achieved. But i think that is a perspective shared by the characters in both novels--they are (almost) all indifferent to violence because it is a primary component of the worlds in which they live.
2. i'm skeptical about the conclusions of both novels. Bulosan ends America Is In the Heart lauding the virtues of an America that he has not experienced. So much of the book records Bulosan's struggle to survive in a cold and unwelcoming United States. Thus, the optimism he expresses in the closing chapter of his novel comes off a little, uh, out of nowhere. Okay wait, i take that back. it doesn't come outta nowhere. it comes out of left field. Or maybe that's his point--America beat him down, withered him to his deathbed, but he can remain positive because he has constructed for himself the architecture of an America he designed in his heart. For Bulosan, America is so much more than the prostitutes and the labor fields and the murders and the injustices.
And about American Son...well, yeah. That book just needs an ending. Roley, what happened, dude? Why didn't you finish the book? Did deadline sneak up on ya? Did your pen run out of ink? Your laptop out of juice? As Tomas would say, i was muy disappointed. i'm still trying to figure out what the point of that novel was.
3. Both novels portray Filipinos and/or Filipino-Americans negatively. Bulosan's semi-autobiography is brimming with prostitutes and pool halls and pandemonium and alliteration. (just kidding on that last one). The manongs are hypersexualized and morally suspect. i'm still not sure why Bulosan would portray Filipinos negatively, especially if he was writing for a white audience. It seems counter to his cause. The Filipinos in Roley's novel, meanwhile, are just as violent and prone to organized crime. i do not think that the characters in American Son are particularly affable. i'm not moved to cheer for any of them, and, excuse my language, i downright dislike some of them. What was the point of portraying Filipinos as Roley does--as ethnically homeless delinquents?
And with that, i leave you all. Have a most morphenomenal spring break!
kenneth ronquillo
retired power ranger
varsity musical chairs team captain, '98
posted by The Kenneth @ 10:26 PM
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