Junketeering is RIDICULOUS...

As we go deeper into Colson Whitehead’s novel, John Henry Days, this concept of junketeering become more and more ridiculous and ill thought to me. First I would like to identify a formal, dictionary definition of this concept--

jun⋅ket 

·      noun

1.            a sweet, custardlike food of flavored milk curdled with rennet.

2.            a pleasure excursion, as a picnic or outing.

3.            a trip, as by an official or legislative committee, paid out of public funds and ostensibly to obtain information.

·      verb (used without object)

4.            to go on a junket.

·      verb (used with object)

5.            to entertain; feast; regale.

            After reading this definition of junket, it is completely clear to me as to why the characters in this novel are miserable. These junketeers do what they do because they believe it serves as an escape. They go to events that no one really cares about, they get free food, and they write articles about the events. Their job does not require or provide anyone with any motivation or any opportunity for self-improvement or pride for that matter. Miggs for example, lived an unhappy and unfulfilling life, and he used junketeering and stamp collecting as an escape, yet he is still miserable and depressed because his work provides him with nothing worth being satisfied. I can understand how free food and attending social events can be fun and harboring, but having it as a job and expecting it to be fulfilling is ridiculous. That’s like me saying that me going to the beach for vacation everyday of my life is going to never get old and it will always satisfy me. Paradise can only be paradise for so long once it becomes a commodity. J Sutter, the main character, wants to “[go] for the record”, meaning that he wants to go on a junket for more than 9 months without stopping and without break. It is clear and obvious that by looking at his fellow junketeers and their appalling and depressed nature that this is a horrible idea. These people have nothing in their lives that has value or no aspect of their personalities that anyone should want, and yet J thinks that this is a record worth breaking even when his fellow junketeers tell him that it is a horrible idea and when even they realize that their lives pretty much “suck” (excuse my lack of proper/formal vernacular) because of their jobs.

The Desperate Characters in John Henry Days

In Colson Whitehead’s novel, John Henry Days, there are a series of characters who thrive off of the success and opportunity presented by the legendary John Henry. Personally, I seem to find one of the characters to be quite intriguing and notable—Pamela Street. Many of the junketeers go to Talcott because they gain their success by making “content” out of the story and that is how they make their living, however Pamela Street is quite different than the junketeers. Pamela’s father was obsessed with the story of John Henry to such an extant that he was a horrible parent and that he would, by today’s standards, most likely be considered a “freak”. Her father had a gigantic collection of memorabilia dedicated to John Henry in a small apartment. No one would come to visit and see his memorabilia, yet he still insisted on gaining a massive collection of John Henry material. When her father passed away, Pamela stored away his entire collection, however Talcott, the city that is holding the commemoration of John Henry, is trying to gain the collection. Now the interesting thing about the situation is that Pamela feels as if she cannot give up the collection, regardless of the fact that she had a practically fatherless childhood. Her father was not a good parent, and yet she cannot let go of his memory. It seems as if Pamela does not fully understand how she is to deal with the death of her father even if giving up the collection is what most people would do, or at least what would be the right or sensible decision. There is another interesting character that is somewhat similar to Pamela—Alphonse Miggs. Alphonse also suffers a life in which he is extremely distant from his family, particularly his wife. His life was so miserable that he found stamp collecting as a way to pass the time in his desperation, and yet he still strives to find something meaningful because nothing in his life, even his stamp collecting, has sufficed thus far. It seems as if many of the characters, especially the junketeers are just people who have lived in misery and only wish to find something meaningful and Whitehead uses them to brighten up the characteristics of the main characer, J..

The Lynching in "Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man"

            In James Weldon Johnson’s novel, Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, the lynching of a black man black man by a crowd of people. At the time of the execution, the people had originally decided to hang him, but they ultimately decided to burn him alive instead. When the burning took place, the Ex-Colored Man describes the horrifying situation – “Some of the crowd yelled and cheered, others seemed appalled at what they had done, and there were those who turned away sickened at the sight. I was fixed to the spot where I stood, powerless to take my eyes from what I did not want to see.” In this scene, he truly sees the racism in society and the characteristics of lynching that make it such a powerful aspect of southern culture. He is in such disbelief and shock that he is actually incapable of moving and taking his eyes from the sight, even though it is something that he does not want to ever witness.

            I think that this scene is extremely important in that it seems to help the Ex-Colored Man decide how he wants to live his life. Before the lynching, his ambitious and dreams were focused around the pride of his African American culture by writing music. Unfortunately, after the lynching, he decides to just give that up and just live his life in convenience as a white man. While he decides to live his life this way, it is also important to understand that he does not necessarily declare that he is either white or black. The narrator mentions, “I argued that to forsake one's race to better one's condition was no less worthy an action than to forsake one's country for the same purpose. I finally made up my mind that I would neither disclaim the black race nor claim the white race.” Personally, I don’t necessarily admire how he gives up and does not stand by his culture, but I do admire the fact that he realizes to abandon it entirely is a dishonorable action. In a way though, by the end of the novel I feel like he has abandoned it by marrying a white woman, raising a family, and owning a somewhat successful business. I am happy that she accepts him when he tells her about his problems, because that seems to be one of the only forms of acceptance that he experiences, but at the same time I still don’t really know if I respect his decisions based off of his fear of being black—which I guess is pretty easy for me to say considering I am not an African American (so I haven’t really made up my mind when it comes to how I personally feel about his decisions). 

Sonya's Passion

The main character of Anzia Yezierbska’s novel, Salome of the Tenements, is a beautiful woman who uses her capabilities and physical characteristics to get what she wants. Sonya comes from the ghetto and she works for a small newspaper company. While Sonya does not have much going for her when it comes to economic status or class, she is very intelligent, charming, and beautiful. She is, in a sense, similar to Evelyn Nesbit in E.L. Doctorow’s Ragtime, considering they both use their beauty to gain rank or to advance in a world dominated by men. You could say that Emma Goldman probably would not have many good things to say about Sonya.

While using beauty and charm are typically characteristics of dishonest and deceitful person, it is difficult for me to be too critical of Sonya. Like we mentioned in class, if this was a situation similar to that in the movie Wedding Crashers, a movie where similar tactics are employed, but done so by men, this story could have potentially have been criticized in a different way. Because Sonya is a woman, people would look at her as a gold digger, but they wouldn’t look at her story as one that has potential for romance and comedy as they most likely would have if she had been a man.

I really like the ending of the novel in that unlike the beginning, it expresses the romanticism of the novel and the passionate characteristics of Sonya, making it difficult for people to criticize her. Sonya ends up leaving Manning and turns her back on the rich and powerful people in society. She wants to make clothes that poor people in the lower class can gain access to. She could have stayed with Manning, and kept her connections among the upper class. This would have led her to great success and economic stability but she does not do that, which I see as a very admirable quality.

Science is the New God

I missed last weeks post and I really wanted to talk about Blade Runner so I'm going to talk about that this week. 

Blade Runner presents us with an extremely frightening look at the future. The movie shows a post-apocalyptic world where society is controlled and determined by scientists. These scientists all play a vital role in the society and in science. In this world, the sun is darkened and acid rain falls regularly. Replicants with 4-year life spans and adjusted/determined memories are placed on another world to do slave labor. Roy and a few other replicants escape the colony in search of meaning and life and they fight the people that created them.

In this world, the most powerful men are the scientists. They created the Tyrell corporation and they colonize other planets. Tyrell, the leader is given a god-like statute and his company’s motto is “more human than human”. Tyrell also refers to Roy as his “prodigal son”. In Blade Runner, science has replaced god as the highest authority in the world.  The Tyrell corporation creates a new sense of theology which states that technology and science is the work of Gods, which supports the idea that Tyrell is either a sort of God himself or some sort of prophet.

In this world, science has become completely become integrated and mixed into consumer society. The scientists are the ones that provide all the services and products in society. The combination of the extremely powerful consumer society and this newly empowered scientific power have shown to be an extremely destructive and dark mechanism.

Bartleby vs. Society

In Herman Melville’s short story, “Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Short Story of Wallstreet”, we can see a message that perhaps is not even recognized by the narrator of the story. Bartleby represents a man that has disassociated himself from him job and from the expectations of the society around him. Bartleby used to work in the “dead letters” office of the place in which he worked – burning letters. The narrator describes this job as a job meant for “dead men”. Here we can already see the pointlessness and troublesome aspects of his life, which his job does nothing but reinforces. Eventually Bartleby lives in the streets and just gives up on his poor excuse of a job, similar to Peter, the main character in the film Office Space. The other members of society look at Bartleby and thinks that something should be done. This is what I find troublesome as a reader. The members in society believe that Bartleby should be contributing to society and that he should be arrested for failing to do so. This event in the story does not show a problem with Bartleby, but rather a problem with the other members of society.

The first issue is that the story takes place within the United States. If any members chooses to disassociate themselves from a job, especially one that does nothing to enhance or promote that individuals worth as a human being and member of society, then they have every right do so at their own discretion. The fact that society wants to have Bartleby arrested is absolutely ridiculous in that it defies the “American” believe that everyone has a choice and that people are free to make their own decisions when it comes to their jobs and work. Here, we also see the second problem – that Americans have this absolutely fallacious belief that everyone in our society has a choice. The majority of people in this country do not choose their jobs. When it comes down to either not surviving or working the most minimal paying and most likely tedious job that only satisfies the elite who do less for more pay -- that is not a legitimate choice. Also, the members in society seem to believe that everyone is capable of working, or that everyone has access to a job and all they need to do is work hard and never quit. Capitalism works because it depends on the fact that there is a significant number of people who are unemployed and a significant number of people who fill the roles of those who work tremendous amounts for little pay. People are in these situations because the market demands it and because the people who control the market make sure that they remain in these abusive conditions. People like Bartleby are around not because they are lazy, or because they never felt the need to contribute to society, but because the system has failed them and will always continue to do so. Bartleby is doing something that most people never do, he is living his life for himself rather than some society that believes that work and economic success lead to happiness and a system that completely diminishes his self worth.

The Terminator 2: Judgment Day

One of the first things I notice about the movie Terminator 2: Judgment Day, is the dark and rugged setting of the majority of places in which the movie takes place. It seems to set the stage for that apocalyptic nuclear explosion in which machines destroy mankind in that it seems that humans have differentiated themselves with each other and their surroundings. A world where emotionless creations become creators seems to eliminate or in this case “terminate” the need for creators bound by the restrictions and limitations of emotions. A world without emotions is a world without aesthetics, ergo this dark and rugged setting seems to be quite appropriate for the movie.

There is a lot of similarities between the character of the Terminator and the deterioration of human as a means of exploitation and capital that many of the authors that we have studied have described. The first time we see the Terminator, is when he appears fully naked in the current time period after traveling from the future.  This suggests that society in the future is devoid of humility and perhaps other emotional or human qualities. The Terminator represents everything that an employer would want in an employee, in that he is completely indifferent to his orders and he does as he is told. This only suggests that the world in the future is one where skill and work are no longer related when it comes to human jobs. The society must be completely dependent on a specific purpose – work.

In fact, the futuristic society described in the movie is controlled by machines, meaning the bosses are machines that are also indifferent to their roles. A world where every object or person is indifferent to its role is a world without purpose at all. An apocalypse or nuclear explosion really makes no difference in a world without emotion or meaning, which is why Sarah and John Conner need to make sure it doesn’t reach that point. 

Father's Exclusion - Ragtime by E.L. Doctorow

            In E.L. Doctorow’s novel Ragtime, the character, Father, represents one of the most metaphorical roles in the story. Father is a representation of many upper middle class, traditional members of American society in the era in which Ragtime takes places. After his return from the Arctic, he feels completed isolated and excluded from his family. His son had matured greatly and his wife had developed a strong sense of independence by taking over the families economic and business affairs. We see Father’s lack of belonging when he looks at himself in the new mirror in the bathroom. He sees a lonely man without place and self—and this depresses him. Father was born into an upper class family and attended Harvard University, helping him become very successful in a fireworks company.

            We see a sense of Father’s exclusion when he attends a baseball game with his son. He notices there are many foreign players. This is much different than the baseball games he saw when he attended Harvard, which is what he compares these new games to. He bases many of his assumption and views off of stereotypes and we see a sort of bitterness towards change and progressiveness. This helps explain why he hates Coalhouse Walker. Coalhouse represents change and something that is not considered “normal” by traditional American standards. He challenges the assumptions of white people, leading people, like Father, perplexed as to how they should communicate or deal with him. This also represents the resentful attitude that most Americans had towards the mass influx of immigrants at this time. He is somewhat incapable of dealing with or adapting to these changes in society and is emotionally disturbed by his loss of identity within the family.  In many ways, Father is similar to an immigrant. He has nearly no sense of self and belonging and he constantly struggles to adapt this new lifestyle.

Emma Goldman's Role in Ragtime

            As I read E.L. Doctorow’s Ragtime, my first and immediate excitement was due to Emma Goldman presence in the novel. Emma Goldman, one of my personal heroes, plays a crucial role is pointing out the flaws in the lifestyles in many people’s lives, specifically Evelyn Nesbit. Historically known as an anarchist and avid social and political activist, it was ideal for Doctorow to use a woman such Goldman to point out the flaws of an upper class woman.

Goldman fulfills her label as a “lion” and “rebel women” when she criticizes Evelyn for living a life of lies that focuses on the satisfaction of men and a capitalist society. Goldman states that Evelyn is a “creature of capitalism” and calls Evelyn’s beauty “false, cold, and useless.” We also see this powerfully feminist perspective when Goldman tells Evelyn that she should not wear a tight and uncomfortable corset. We must also take into account that Evelyn did not originally come from an upper class background. Goldman notices this and states that not only does Evelyn live to satisfy men, but she uses her sexual power to gain rank and rise as a capitalist. She states this at a social meeting in front of others, which leads to Tateh looking at her with disdain. However, while Goldman constantly condemns Evelyn, she also uses a sort of appeal with Evelyn by stating that they are not completely different in that they have both gone through the experience of having their men in prison.

Goldman and perhaps Doctorow believe that women should not live their lives in a manner that satisfies that sexual appeal of men, but that they should live in the manner that nature intends. Not only is Goldman a feminist, she is also an anarchist. Doctorow’s utilization of Emma Goldman is not just intended to criticize the patriarchal characteristics of the time, but also the hypocrisy of capitalist principles in the society. 

Critique of Hank's True Character - A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur's Court

The main character in Mark Twain’s A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, Hank, is a pragmatic and opportunistic Northerner who has a relevantly strong sense of right and wrong. As the most intelligent and responsible person in the time period in which he unexplainably falls into, he takes it upon himself to alter a medieval society into a sort of “people’s community”.

While Hank seems to have good intentions, there seems to be some sort of discreet flaw in the manner in which he implements his revolutionary ideals.  One of his first discrepancies is his critical perspective of the Church and their methods of control over the people. He criticizes the fact that many people in power have not earned their roles in power but essentially neither has he. He luckily fell into a world where he happened to be the most intelligent person.

As an opportunist he had to invent reasons as to why he should have power. He justified his authority through his belief that he had a better understanding of the medieval people than they did themselves. While his assumption may not be wrong, he essentially gains power in the same way that the Church does. Like the Church, he states that his influence is what will benefit the society the most. The issue is not whether or not he is wrong in his belief, but it is that he criticizes a modus operandi that he utilizes himself.

One of the more disturbing parts in the novel is when Hank essentially enslaved a hermit to do five years of work. His reasoning being that working is what the hermit did his entire life and that Hank was putting his work to better use. He took advantage of the fact that the hermit knew no better than to just work without pay, and Hank said that he would never force him to work. While that may be the case, essentially the hermit knew no better and was crudely manipulated by Hank. This event along with Hank’s unwillingness to put a stop to slavery when he saw Pilgrims mercilessly beating their slaves leads me to believe in whether or not he is true in his democratic or humane ideals. I feel that if he implemented his ultimate goal of a capitalist society, wage slavery would most definitely be a problem if it promotes technological advancement.

Engineers and the New South Creed: The Formation and Early Development of Georgia Tech

As I read this interesting paper by James E. Brittain and Robert C. McMath Jr., my immediate reaction was in response to the disturbing elitism behind the formation of Georgia Tech. The “new south creed” referring to the economic, social, and moral adaptation of the south to northern progress in the aftermath of the Civil War, was intended to let the south rise up to the industrial capacity of the north. In my view, the elite class in the south could find no better way to do this than to create a specialized working class via a “shop culture” school. Robert H. Thurston clearly defines the ideal method of achieving this goal by establishing the importance of manual labor and defining the distinctions between two classes – “those brilliant of intellect” and those of “constructive faculty”.
The elite “believed” that this new system would bridge the gap between classes whereas I disagree completely. Personally, I see Thurston and others intending to avoid the traditional “school culture” by implementing a “shop culture” method in which they could avoid the dangers of an educated working class. The statement that “the heads are in Athens and the hands are in Atlanta” implies that those going to Athens are to be the bosses and those going to Atlanta are meant to be the workers, or proletariat if you will. This specialized working class can increase economic efficiency and income for the elite while they do less labor for more money.
I personally believe that those establishing Georgia Tech really did not have the best interests of Georgians at heart, but rather their own interests. Fortunately for them, with their success came an apparent success of the community as a whole. In my view, this is bold of the elite in that they are raising the standards of the community as a whole, thus raising the expectation of the workers. In the eyes of the elite, this could possibly lead to an unwanted sort of “class consciousness” of the working class that could lead problems in that workers will wonder why they are not as successful and why the “if you work hard it will pay off mentality” has not yet presented itself. The elite made smart decision to focus on a “shop” school, which most certainly played a role in inhibiting this realization.