IOC #1 Link

 https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B7HzPakM3xK2aE9oek40V3J1MFE

Things Fell Apart in the Sargasso Sea

Note: This was supposed to be done over the summer holiday.

Things Fell apart in the Sargasso Sea

One of the summer readings was the Wide Sargasso Sea, by Jean Rhys. Now, you are probably wondering about the odd title. Well it is a reference to the purpose of the texts. In the classic, Jane Eyre, by the famous Bronte, the wife of the “honorable” Mr. Rochester is portrayed as a raving monster who is determined to kill. It was believed, by the noble Jean Rhys, that the culture presented by the lunatic was one of barbarians, not the one she had desired to join as a child. She, much like the would-be offspring of Mr. Rochester and Mrs. Mason, was part Creole part English. She learned the customs of a land she had never visited, while being taught of the world around, she learned a language not used by the general population. She experienced an ambiguity of being both a participant and an observer.

Thus, when she saw the demonization of the Creole women, she decided to defend the culture she had experienced and revealed at. She experienced many such dualities as a child. Of being white, but not from Europe or England. Of being a native of the West Indies, but not black, as the majority of the population was. Of being a women in a time of turbulence for women with a voice. She was able to channel the frustrations of the inconsistences of her life, as well as the indefinite pleasures, into her writing. Particularly the personal narrative, the representation of her inner most conflict, in Wide Sargasso Sea.

In essence, the book follows the life of Antoinette Mason, the third generation after the freeing of the slaves, from a family of slaves owners. As such her life is very insecure, and eventually the natives burn down her home, killing her “special” brother in the process. After this her mother goes insane, and the young women is left to eh care of her stepfather, who finds her a suitable marriage with the wealthy Rochester Family. Through her own desire for affection, after the hardships of her life, she ends up destroying her marriage and is forcibly moved to England where she is imprisoned until the events of Jane Eyre.

But, in the end, Jean Rhys is attempting to fight the demonization of her culture, much as Chinua Achebe does in Things Fall Apart.

Munro's Place in History

It is a worthy premise to mention the role of the study of literature. Literature contains all of the wisdom of the past, all of the original stories, all the smiles and tears of millennium. So asking what the purpose and benefits are is a borderline useless question. As well as being able to enjoy the things that kept thousands entertained without electricity, add the facts that it allows you to see literally into the past and through the eyes of other, and contain the wisdom of generations, to see your answer.
Women's literature is a small category amongst millions, a pebble on a rocky beach. It is literature about women, for women, and mostly by women, though that has some exceptions. And no, I cannot define it better than that because, to be honest, I have little exposure to it. But what I have seen is something akin to a passionate debate against many for things one should have by default. Almost like fighting your brother so you can sleep on YOUR bed. We should have achieved equality in experience and every other ring long ago, so the fact that this genre needs to exist to this day is shameful. But there is value in studying it. It is an important chronicle of the adversities faced by half the population for centuries, it is one of the many ways people become aware of the problems around them every day, and it informs of a shadow within our society that one might not otherwise see. So it is very valuable a course of study, though it may be better if it's content was ancient history.
Alice Munro, a critically acclaimed writer since before I was born, has penciled more masterpieces than can be counted and has won the highest honor achievable for short stories something like three times now. But what is it that made her work such a hit? What made her a voice to feminism despite claiming not to be? It was the very fact that she did not identify as a feminist, and that she, like so few other women, had managed to make her voice heard, that gave her the brand she has made on history. She wrote only of her experiences, and crafted beautifully evolving characters for each story she wrote. It was only circumstance that made her experiences into the things feminists sought. That chance fact is perhaps the only reason that the feminist movement made it so far at the time. Her work made leaps in bounds in the direction of equality, and I have thoroughly enjoyed her short stories, or at least the ones I have read. She, through the characters on the farm in Boys and Girls, informed me of a struggle I could not have even imagined.

IOC Best Song Lyrics, Land of Confusion

A link the the official music video below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkpzl_IX2r0

Heavy metal, as scream filled and loud as it may be, is very rarely without meaning. Land of Confusion, originally by Genesis, is no exception. Its every word is saturated with imagery, repetition, and hyperbole. The end result is a fantastic sounding piece of satire. The dramatic style, the changing literary tone, and the brutally honest content of the song Land of Confusion, modern version by Disturbed, achieves the call to action set out by the lyrics themselves.

 The song, Land of Confusion, calls for a young person’s revolution against oppressive governments, to distinguish themselves from the errors of past generations, and create a better place for all. This is made clear very early on, in the phrases, “I must’ve dreamed a thousand dreams Been haunted by a million screams But I can hear the marching feet They’re moving into the street.” Now where this takes place is unspecified. However, it is a safe assumption that this is done in order to emphasize the fact that justice should be universal. But the message goes even further. It implies that it is time for everyone to control their own fate and rebuild on the rubble of the old. These two ideas are seen at the end of the song in the last two stanzas. The first comes from the final stanza, “This is the world we live in And these are the names we’re given Stand up and let’s start showing Just where our live are going to.” The message of rebellion and rebuilding is grounded in the second to last stanza, in the phrases “Now this is the world we live in And these are the hands we’re given Use them and let’s start trying To make it a place worth fighting for” and “…these are the hands we’re given Use them and lets start trying To make it a place worth living in.” The audience is intended to be the oppressed and silent mass. Those who have experienced wrongs at the hands of another, with no repercussions for those in power.

Most of the themes of the song revolve around justice, overpopulation, and unjust control of humanity by oppressive government.  Overpopulation and the related human suffering is highlighted in the quote, “There’s too many men Too many people Making too many problems And not much love to go around Can’t you see it is a land of confusion.”   It deals with humanity’s population issues as well as the tendency humans have for causing trouble. The control of unjust autocratic government is revealed to be infirm by the stanza, “Ooh Superman where are you now When everything has gone wrong somehow The men of steel, the men of power Are losing control by the hour.” The theme of justice receives repetition and focus, “My generation will put it right We’re not just making promises That we know, we’ll never keep.”  In this, we see two things at work. One being the new active promise made to take care of each other and our world, and the second being the fact that the entire generation was given an obligation to do better.

The tone and mood are relatively simple. At the beginning of the song, the tone characterizes pain and conflict, speaking of the nightmares the man has seen, and the mention of marching feet, evoking an army moving through town. The mood at this point is rather outraged, the outrage is rooted in the lines, “They say the danger’s gone away But I can see the fire is still alight There burning into the night.” This seems to be an allusion to the lies dictatorships employ when censoring the media, such as what is done in North Korea. This phrase “There’s too many people Making too many problems And there’s not much love to go around” are repeated throughout to emphasize this tone. We see our first shift in tone in the fourth stanza. This is the first hint of the revolt to come. This stanza goes “This is the world we live in And these are the hands we are given Use them and lets start trying To make it a place worth living in.” The next greatest shift in the tone and mood comes in a later stanza, when they say “My generation will put it right We’re not just making promises That we know, we’ll never keep.” This is the first real powerful revolutionary statement made in the song. It expresses a need to become new and more than that which the past has wrought. It seeks a return to the paradise, the epitome of happiness described above, in which the protagonist is in the sun, and under the stars, with the person most dear laughing in his/her ear, and in their arms. Though this is proceeded by the stanza about the reality of the old humanity.  The final to stanzas call upon a sense of duty to create and protect that perfect world, it even goes so far as to mention specifically which generation will do it, making a promise we are almost sworn to keep.

The style is inflammatory. It seeks to rile the masses by presenting them the true injustice and the disgusting greed all around them, in the bluntest way possible. And it furthers this goal by including calls to action, and even some blame laid on people’s inaction, throughout. The way everything is laid out makes it seem as though it is also a revolution in the souls of people, one where the need for the common good clashes with one’s inherent self-interest. And it presents itself as the perfect struggle for freedom, almost like propaganda. It presents itself much as a real revolution would, in the best light possible, and in the hearts of all. Much, for example, as Lenin’s Bolshevik revolution and as the American Revolution did. But neither was perfect. And it is clear, despite the fact that it claims to be, it is not a perfect revolution. This is made clear when instead of seeing himself as the hero saving the day, the protagonist asks “Ooh Superman where are you now When everything has gone wrong somehow.”  The structure makes several great contributions as well. Mainly, the fact that the bleakest most honest stanzas are proceeded by calls to action as well as the most uplifting, hopeful things said. This is strategically done as the contrast makes it obvious that the solution is to fight, but making it seem more like the conclusion of the listener.

The literary devices used do an excellent job furthering these goals. The hyperboles used, such as “losing control by the hour” and, “Too many men, Too many people” are employed to emphasize the themes they are associated with. The repeated use of imagery, like “Ooh when the sun was shining Yes and the stars were bright through the night” and “Ooh Superman where are you now” created a far more personal feel, as the listeners were able to relate on a personal level to these things. The repetition of the main themes made them all the more clear to anyone. The best symbol came in the repetition of the sun and the stars, being the bright light in the darkness, much as the revolution appeared to be the light amongst the gloom of humanity’s failures.

In conclusion, Land of Confusion is a meaningful song. It was composed by Genesis and modernized by the highly skilled heavy metal band Disturbed. It emphasizes the need to be better than one’s self and one’s predecessors. The artists encourage us to crusade for equality and create a more perfect world. That is why I believe that Land of Confusion belongs in the archive of greatest lyrics of human history.