Vivienne Kim - Week 4 - Prompt

The breakdown of a character in a forever story that doesn’t end – in case you’re wondering, that’s life. Cruel, mad, and unpredictably beautiful in all the greatest ways. Too complicated to put on a page, flickering facets reflecting off different people and constantly changing. The core, though, remains the same.

– Unless poison blooms like a vengeful rose, or if this is a fairy tale, a poisoned apple used as a deliberate weapon of murder –

A play of example -

The brother sees her as a confidant, a partner in crime. But she’s retired, he’s starting to realize. Her steps are becoming thunderous and known, honesty sharp instead of rolling with lies. So he retreats into his shell, private while he puts on a show for others. The cheerful clown, loud and boisterously irritating. The girl, though, knows. It’s an uncomfortable thought.

The father (Abba) depends on the daughter’s existence. His son is nothing he wants or expects (old-fashioned to the end, chess and disinterest in sports deeming the son derogatorily as a ‘nerd’) and the daughter understands. Understands, but doesn’t approve or agree. She’s the peacekeeper, harsh in criticism and no longer cowering. There’s a rift between both males and she shares exasperated looks with her mother in the tense car.

He does know his daughter. But he worries and worries that she’ll trip off a cliff into rebellion hell, drugs and isolation becoming her best friends. He compares her too much to other good daughters, though to be fair, she can be quite oblivious at times. (But still, it’s a silly notion. She has no interest and is too obscenely stubborn to ever bend. Another fault, because it means she is only capable of breaking.)

The Umma (Mother) is... complicated.

Astonishingly, she says she loves her daughter even if she did go past the point of redemption, damn propriety and expectations to hell. But expectations are still placed, and they are too different from each other. She loves her Umma, admires her for the competency she lacks and the devotion that constantly surprises her. (She sometimes feels she doesn’t deserve it. She vows to love her own children just as much as her Umma did.)

But as stated, they’re different. Her Umma is flighty, uncompromising, and can be cruel to others she deems as not important. She sees the world as give or take, every interaction deliberate and equally profitable on both sides. Their point of caring has always differentiated from each other.

“You care too much.” Umma sounds frustrated and concerned. “People aren’t kind to those who are kind.”

“I know.” The daughter responds. She’s been betrayed too many times to not. The cracks in her pillars of understanding people reflect it, along with her inclination to be alone even if it’s not actually what she wants. It’s easier to be the one leaving instead of being left behind.

People have price tags tailing them, auctioned off to whoever has the highest bid (or the greatest need). But all that’s foregone when the object of desire have their own voice and choices. Sometimes people forget, wrapped up in their own little worlds thinking others orbit around them.

Diamonds mirror tiny little reflections of the other diamonds looking on. Blindness is a given. Human nature is just the same, fissures of cracks revealing the damage such carelessness can break.

We are not diamonds. We are priceless.

Jennifer Dyke week 4 analysis

• The themes in the reading I am specifically responding to is the feeling of passion in both the manifesto regarding discomfort and in translation. The manifesto serves the purpose of explaining ideology -why one might feel in this way as well as mission statements in a sense because they outline a new way of thinking, feeling, or responding that is contrary to some type of established rule set. 
• The process I used to formulate my response was to pick a topic I was passionate about, gather all the knowledge contained in my mind (from classes, reading, discussing) and address particular grievances I had. I also wanted to be empowering, not just listing grievances with no solution or positive outcome.
• I chose this process because it has been quite successful in examples the discomfort essay gave (like Lorde). I think you have to be really passionate to write a manifesto. The limitations include that sometimes passion can lead to unintentional biases. I also believe that if the reader of a manifesto can't relate on some level to your topic, the passion can be misread as complaining or whining. 
• The choices I made in my writing was to be very abstract with the examples given in the ideology. The tone is dark and I think it comes across as quite radical or emotional. I made these choices because I wanted the reader to connect with me on a personal level and try to experience what gender is to me.
• Through this response I worked on writing my emotion, which is not something I do often. I feel as though this writing cannot be perfected, it's raw and unperfect, something I have to get comfortable with,

Zoë Siegel - Week 4 Analysis

 I noticed when reading Cecilia Vicuna’s poetry that there was a focus on animals.

“TAH they go like that.” It seemed to me as though the language of the birds was being ultratranslated in a discomfortable way. On page 306, Cecilia said: “imagine the worth /    of the whole / net / as a new / net worth.” She also spoke of “walkers on a dry sea / on a deep blue sea” and the “dark oily sea.” I began to think of Animal Rights, and what makes us different from them. Is a big part of it language? I thought of how we live in a time where we have such a focus on human rights, as we should, but we often leave out other creatures. It is a major pattern in racism where a target race is diminished as “animalistic.” But who ever said that to be less human is to be less? Speciesism is a term that has been coined to illustrate this issue. Cecilia’s lines about the net worth, and about the dry ocean made me think of overfishing and how we will live in a world with a fishless ocean by 2048. If the ocean dies, so will humans. My favorite oceanographer, the badass Sylvia Earle often says “No blue, no green.” She points out how humans suck the sea dry of resources and pollute it because it is so vast that it seems impossible there is anything we can do to affect it. Except that is well within our power. We are changing our planet so drastically that our generation will likely face wars over resources and extinction within our lifetime. We already are warring this over oil. But I am talking about clean water and food. I am talking about how irrational it is to burn down your own house.

The poems from Theresa Hak Kyung Cha also talked about “rainbow kerosene stain floating on rain puddles” and how “i went fishing i had a tackle a line a hook i caught one. it was jumping. i tried to take it off i tore its mouth it flaps it feels something it bleeds i can’t do it.” I thought some more about clean water and taking what is not ours to take. I started to think about animals as food, and how most of us are only complicit in the killing of animals for food out of habit, misinformation, and because of distance from the actual death involved. I thought of what the world might be like if we could hear the language of the animals we dominated. I decided to ultratranslate a common language of pain and fear to evoke an emotional response. I also chose to underline how irrational and unintelligent much of human behavior is in order to engage people’s pragmatic sides. I used a discomfortable subject matter, and when ultratranslating for chickens, I used a lack of spaces to reflect the lack of space factory farmed animals have and to create a frantic energy. I tried to do this similarly to how Theresa Hak Kyung Cha left out capitalization when describing her encounter with the fish. As a vegan I often try really hard to not offend people with my opinions or make people feel like my ideology has been “stuffed down their throats” because I don’t want to be forceful or make them feel defensive. It was very refreshing to be given permission to make people discomfortable with something they should probably feel ethically and rationally uncomfortable about out of a sense of self-preservation.

Zoë Siegel - Week 4 Response

A Manifesto for Earthlings

• We as humans recognize that we are not necessarily smart because we are smart. We renounce our connection with the earth. We burn coal. We are warpigs. We slaughter pigscowschickensturkeysfishmiscellaneous. We are war. We burn the forests. We raze mountains for highways. We burn the tent cities and erect malls and plazas. We burn it all. We commit genocide. Dolphins commit genocide. It is always the “intelligent” species that commit genocide, and destroy. We recognize that humans leave a trail of debris, where most other species leave only footprints.

• MOOOO MOOO mooo mooooo MOOOO my child MOO has been taken MOOO my boy for veal MOOO my girl to be like me. MOOO they cannot drink from me so the pale arms can have more. My udders hurt. There is pus. There is blood. The two arms plunge themselves inside me against my will and impregnate me again. MOOOOOO I am pregnant. My child is gone. My milk is pumped until my udders swell with pus and blood. I am raped. I am pregnant. My child is gone. My milk is pumped until my udders swell with pus and blood. I am raped. I am pregnant. My child is gone. My milk is pumped until my udders swell with pus and blood. I am raped. I am pregnant. My child is gone. My milk is pumped until my udders swell with pus and blood. I exist for five hellish years, for this is no life. I stop producing milk. I am slaughtered. One last MOOO. Part of this complete breakfast. We as cows recognize that we are not necessarily smart.

• ScratchthewallthewallthewallyourfeathersmyfeatherswheredoIendwheredoyoubegin??? Where? Scratchthefloorfloorfloorthecagethecagethebarsarecoldtheyaresocold. MybeakyourbeakmybeakonyourfeathersisrippingthemrippingthemSQUAWKwhere isthedoorwhereisthelightwhereismybeak? Mybeakhasbeentakenbythetwoarmsthey arecomingforyourbeaksoyoucantbitemyfeathersmyfeathers.Thetwoarmsarmsthey comewiththeredflowersohot. Itissohotandmybeakisnowshortandwearestillbleeding. Weaschickenrecognizethatwe arenotnecessarilysmart.

• We as Earthlings, recognize that we are all connected. We feel love for our kin, and we feel loss for those we love. Pain and love are the two common tongues of us all. We as Earthlings, strive to do the least amount of harm. We as Earthlings, no longer set ourselves apart as human. We no longer renounce our connection with the Earth, and this is why we set ourselves together with all creatures. No longer will we dehumanize those of our species and no longer will we de-dignify those of other species. No longer will we deanimalize ourselves. No longer will we think to be less human is to be less.

• We as Earthlings “Imagine the worth of the whole net as a new net worth.” See that blue and green spinning planet? That’s the World Bank. That is where the assets are. See those green plants poking from the ground and trees? That is your currency. That is where your health is.

• We as Earthlings reclaim our connection with the Earth. We burn nothing. We will no longer slaughter anycreature. We will be peace. We will replant the forest. We will climb mountains to stare into the infinite blue dome above. We will pitch more tents and erect more International Parks. We will burn nothing. We will not commit genocide. We recognize it is the intelligent Earthling who does not commit genocide, who does not destroy. We recognize that Earthlings include all beings who leave only footprints. We as humans have decided we would like to leave footprints. We as humans have decided we would like to be Earthlings.

Jennifer Dyke week 4 response

My Feminist Manifesto

To better understand the world from a “women’s” perspective

To uncover that I am not alone in the feelings that stem from my gendered oppression, many other women feel the exact same way

To have control over our bodies and their reproductive uses

To feel that our work is in fact valuable, for it can be compared to the work of Jesus. It is us who nourish your babies, tend to your elderly, and feed poor and care for sick

There is no word in West African languages for “boy” and “girl” but rather prefixes for anatomically male child, and anatomically female child. Gendered-ness has been socially constructed by the conquerors of the West as they felt superior and wanted all good things for masculine bodies

To practice our own religions or no religion at all if we so choose. Women are created as moral beings by your maker, possessing the same talents and abilities. Start telling the truth of scripture. We hear nothing of Sarah or Ruth’s heroism, only of original sin from Eve. Christianity is forced down our throats because we are expected to “good Christian” women. The religion of the oppressor, imprinted on colored bodies, female bodies, everybody

To reject the coercive process of gendering bodies. We don’t have to fit in every single, tiny, compartmentalized conception of “female-ness” that your small mind creates. There are many ways of “doing gender” that do not include restrictive braziers that you forced upon our bosoms or the blisters from wearing silhouette shoes

Our tight clothing, short skirts, low cut blouses are not for your amusement. They are for our comfort and enjoyment. They are not an invitation to peek at our breasts or glance at our asses. It is not an invitation for a sexual encounter or arousal

We will not stay home for fear of your rape-culture. We will walk down the street with our heads held high. We will not be secluded in gendered spaces or cat called by strange men in fancy cars. We will not be confined to a life of domesticity like our mothers and our mother’s mothers

No longer can you tell us what to make of ourselves. It worked in the past but then we were disjointed, now together we stand united in sisterhood. Stop pushing us out of your spaces. We will come roaring in and we will be great! We will be doctors and lawyers and senators and surgeons and teachers and even Jesus. We will teach our daughters and our daughter’s daughters not to accept anything less

Sisters rise up! You are not second class citizens. You are the offspring of greatness. The sword you wield is now more pointed than ever before. You have warrior’s blood running through your veins of the Amazonian’s. You can make The Republic a reality. And you will not stop until all is accomplished or you drop dead trying. For you are woman and you are made of everything great

4TH WEEK

 The Antena manifestos were written in regard to writing.  The collaborators at Antena were extremely upset with how English was historically warped for agendas, how frivolous the language was, and how dominating language can be. Written down were ideas that could be considered revolutionary, but wanting language to integral in fighting for justice and liberation seems normal to me. I particularly enjoyed reading The Mundane Afrofuturist Manifesto. Martine Syms wanted new work be relatable and believable. I first was upset with his “no mulattoes” point for many reasons though I completely understand why Syms would make that a point. I believe that these are written in lieu of a convention. In the case of Antena, some difficulty could arise in trying to assemble Oxford, MLA, Chicago, and the many other governing bodies of the English language to do away with all of the current rules for something revolutionary. Manifestos are published so whoever is reading knows exactly what someone’s goals are.

2016 SUPERNATURAL TV RULES

-        Characters can only be revived once, twice if the character is played by Angela Bassett

- If you have a show that has a plethora of elements, like True Blood, explore as many of those elements as you can, but not at the expense of the plot.

-        No unnecessary profane language (stop writing curses in just for views)

-        IF THERE IS CLEAR SEXUAL TENSION BETWEEN TWO FEMALE CHARACTERS LET THEM BE AN ITEM (cough cough @ XMen Evolution)

-        Get some black YA from the Bronx, from Harlem, From NOLA, (black america has MANY parts)

-        Have gay romance plots that matter

-        IF YOU’RE GONNA HIRE POC (YOU BETTA) RESPECT THEM AND TELL THEM FILMING DATES AHEAD OF TIME

-        HIRE TRANS ACTORS

-        Stop casting a lot of extra-handsome actors.

-        Don’t throw in a love story if it’s not essential

-        STOP COVERING TITITES. SHOW THEM

-        SHOW PENISES TOO

-        It’s OK to address social issues in metaphors and in real dialogue

-        ONLY FLASHBACK WHEN IT’S NECESSARY (NONE OF THIS BS LIKE ARROW)

-        [If y’all kill uncle ben one more time imma do it my damn self ]

-        @execs STOP BEING AFRAID OF WHAT WHITE VIEWERS THINK. GO AHEAD AND CAST FOR MILES MORALES AND VAL ZOD AND MANY MORE BLACK SUPERHERO LEADS

-        Set a story in Jamaica or Brazil, a place americans are not all too familiar with

-        HIRE NATIVE ACTORS

-        HIRE ASIAN ACTORS

-        HIRE DARK SKINNED ASIAN ACTORS

-        STOP MAKING ARABIC SOUND LIKE THE CHARACTERS ARE HEXING EACHOTHER

-        GET ODELL BECKHAM JR ON THE TV

-        If you have a CW budget rather than a CBS budget then act like it.

-         @ Flash, I need y’all to get Senator Knowles on screen. K? thanks. Bye.
- have all the sexual innuendos as you want! 

Sydney Powell-week 4 response

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,   

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

里分出两条路黄色的树林， 很遗憾我不能同时去 和去涉足，长我站在 而据我可以看着下移 到它在丛林深处。 然后把其他的，这样才公平， 而也许更声称， 因为它是草地，并希望磨损; 虽然作为该传球有 曾经真的穿他们差不多的， 而这两者同样早晨躺在 在叶无一步踩出了一条黑色。 哦，我不停的另一天！ 但我知道路径上的方式如何导致， 我怀疑我是否应该回来。 我将轻声叹息将往事回顾 某处多少年后： 里分出两条路木，和I- 我把一个又人迹罕至， 这使得所有的差异。

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
I am sorry I can not go at the same time
And one traveler, long I stood
As far as I can look down
To it in the depths of the jungle.

And then the other, so it is only fair,
And perhaps more claims,
Because it is the grass, and want to wear;
Although as the ball has
Ever really wear them almost,

Both of which lay in the same morning
In leaves no step had trodden a black.
Oh, I kept another day!
But I know how to lead the way on the path,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I whispered a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-
I put one after another off the beaten track,
This makes all the difference.

Sydney Powell-week 4 Analysis

When first reading the manifestos I didn't know how to react to the statements and the thoughts they were presenting. I enjoyed how each thought was bullet pointed so they became separate ideas but that actual writing left me confused. The statements seemed all the same since they used a lot of reception in the manifestos and I tend to skim the first time I was introduced to a reading so that process became  more difficult. The term “ultra translation” didn't make sense to me but parts around it did so I tried to piece together my own understanding of the word using context from the rest of the statements.After reading both manifestos I came to understand that my lack of understanding was ok and that  not knowing was not taking away from my understand but allowing me to feel the thoughts made the manifestos through my own personal experience of trying to decode it. A statement made by Antena in A Manifesto for Ultratranslations says “We are opposed to translation, as it seeks to stitch  innumerable disparate words and ideas and divides together as if they had always been fused” stood out to me cause it seemed very relevant at that point in the reading. The idea that writing and language that come to easy to use and leaves us with no curiosity is not what we want to shown, we want to struggle and discover new ideas or perspective from our lack of understanding. Something that is perfectly translated takes us the reader out of the equation and makes us feel very limited. Further Antena says in her other writing A Manifesto for Discomfortable writing that “we write discernible because we are probably wrong, yet compelled to learn. To learn from error” Which ties the ideas together and shows that we desire to make new learnings and feel a lack of purpose when given to us to easy.

The idea of using failure and and discomfort really tied me to my own personal experience of learning Chinese in high school.Everything I learned was new and complicated but my constant unknowing of Chinese and the Chinese culture made me more interested in continuing to learn. It was something I didn't understand, even when i left class knowing less then I entered with i still kept a consistent curiosity the entire time i was learning. I decided to use the limited Chinese that I still know and use it in my response to show the idea of discomfort and lack of translation pushing one's curiosity to try to understand for themselves.Since i haven't studied in a while and my brain takes some to process the translation that i tend to make my own understandings. Te Chinese writing system is also done through characters in oppose to an alphabet so the character themselves mean their own word which can add confusion when u recognize a few characters but don't understand the rest of the context so ur overall understanding of the statement is way off. I used google translate because I think it's a perfect form of trying to over translate words with a lack of understanding and getting new wrong ideas in the end. Because google translate does not fully understand the statement being made with characters in relation to each other the machine will divide each character and make up its own new meaning from that. I decided to use the Poem by Robert Frost A Road not Taken in my analysis because its well know poem that people have seen many times, but once you put it through google translate it becomes something new.

Munirat Martins Week 4 Analysis

I want my own writing to not only to be uplifting but inspiring. I want my writing to reflect different aspects of my life because that makes the writing more enjoyable and I believe readers will try to relate more to the writing because it sounds so real. I don't necessarily want my writing to challenge cultural norms because I am not here to offend but to enlighten individuals who view my writing. 

Defining My Writing

Its imperative for one to find something that not only tingles their mind but their soul. 

I write in order to tell my story and tell others how I've learned to grow and found self love.

I will use my writing to be an outlet for those who need something to ignite them and inspire them to be the best version of themselves.

It will create a domino affect.

The themes presenting the in reading I'm responding to include motivation and self reflection. I formulated my response by looking at the readings provided for this week and also googling other manifestos to try to understand the writing style used. I used those materials stated because I needed to understand the technique and find a pattern with the manifestos for my better understanding. The limitations presented with the writing is that I couldn't get a good grasp of writing a manifesto, I was not able to really have someone explain to me what the purpose of manifestos are which would have helped me understand them better and also write a better one. I am also more of a template following person so writing a manifesto had no boundaries which also created a limitation for me. I didn’t really make a “choice” I just wrote a manifesto to the best of my ability, I still don't understand how to write one. I learned that I see manifestos quite often but I just never knew that’s what they were. 

Joyce Van Drost Week 4 Analysis

After reading both manifestos, I really began to enjoy that style of writing. It made me want to create my own while presenting a message. One of the things that made me enjoy it were how it was broken up into easy to read little bullet points, but broken up in little topics that all related to one another. I liked how they were all definitive statements that showed confidence in the fact that it was telling. Each bullet point gave its own message and it at least made me think a little after each one was complete.

I wanted to carry over those elements when I wrote my own manifesto because I had enjoyed it so much in the work. I wrote about depression in my manifesto because I am currently learning about it in my Abnormal Psychology class and I find it to be very interesting. I feel that it is such a dynamic disorder in the sense that there are so many ways to get to being diagnosed as being depressed and also the different ways of treating all the different cases. I feel that because of the negative stigma that is placed on this disorder, most people decline to learn more about it because they never see themselves getting it or getting to a place in their lives where they can even come close to being depressed. I feel depression includes a lot of different discussions such as the effect of media and suicide, that I wanted to express in my writing the different questions a person could have about the disorder and what can actually lead up to it.