"Overheard" Conversation

“I hate feminists. All they do is jabber about how men are worthless and that men oppress all women around them. I wish she wasn’t such a cranky old lady!” a few words have been edited for the sanctity of this paper. Can you guess where I overheard this? No? Well it was two boys in the 4^th floor boy’s bathroom in Gruening at lunchtime. Both boys were young, sounded very immature, and somewhat stupid. That is the description of both boys to the tee, I never saw the boys so I cannot speculate as to how the looked.

New context

            Two women are walking around in their work wearing nice suits and their hair is all done up. They smell of rich perfume and walk with their heads held high. Both women have sparkling reputations for being top-notch bankers as well as good coworkers. Today there is a sexual harassment seminar; it is annually company mandated.

            The men dread this day as they usually get picked on more then the women for simply being men. The women who run the seminars never seem to help this by starring only at the men in the seminars when they speak. In addition, spouses and significant others of the workers are invited to participate in the seminar to ensure a fuller experience for the employees.

This year the leader of the seminar is a 60-year-old women who, as rumors say, divorced her husband because he said she couldn’t do his job for a day. Keep in mind that she was a psychologist before deciding to run sexual harassment seminars. Also, the husband was a trained military official with specialties in explosives. So yes, she most likely could not have done his job for a day. Anyhow, as the rumor goes she got upset and this kicked off a fight, which led to their divorce. Crazy rumor right?

            So the two women, Tanya and Kate, walk into the seminar and are instantly greeted by the leader, Sadie. Sadie tells them that they are strong and intelligent women with no need to take flak from anyone. Tanya and Kate proceed to say thank you and move on to their seats in the ballroom where the seminar would be conducted.

            As the seminar begins, the two women notice that almost all the men from the company had brought along their spouses. The spouses varied in dress greatly; some wearing expensive work outfits, others wearing simpler homely clothing, and even some that were dressed more “manly” than their husbands.

            As the seminar came to a break for lunch, the two women walked to the lobby for refreshments where they overheard a group of the wives discussing the seminar. One said, “I hate it when some women think that just because we choose to be house wives that we are weak and somehow need empowerment.” Another said, “I hate feminists. All they do is jabber about how men are worthless and that men oppress all women around them. I wish she wasn’t such a cranky old lady!”  The rest of the women agreed in the group,

            Tanya and Kate talked amongst themselves and had never thought of it that way. They had always been the “strong” women who are in the workplace and never even thought of being a stay-at-home-mother. They depended on themselves and not men for finances, but never thought about how rewarding being a stay-at-home-mother could be.

            Context is quite important. As you can see I changed the meaning from a pissed off man to a stay-at-home-mother who dislikes women who look down upon her for not working. These contexts are quite different and change the meaning of what was said. People should be concerned with context because the right statement taken out of context can make someone look like a racist, a sexist, or even completely stupid.

Going Native Response

            Relating to cultures other then the culture you’re born into is something that is quite common. All people will experience this in various ways throughout their life.  For instance, lets say you relate to inner city living more than living in a rural town where you have lived for most of your life, this is “Going Native.” Francine Prose wrote and essay titled Going Native that describes situations in her life where she related more to other cultures than the one she was born into. She also describes how a group of American Indian children consider them selves’ member of the Wu-Tang-Clan, a group of Black Americans. This attribute of the human mind is one that is a mystery to traditional cultures, yet prevalent in cultures that value innovation and individuality.

            Americans consider themselves to be “American”, but also many times take more pride in their ethnic or racial origins. My grandfather considers himself a true American, but at the same time is proud to be of full Slavic descent. This pride in heritage is what draws people to travel to other countries and experience culture. Prose speaks of how she related to Indian culture and refers to India as her true home, although she did not permanently live there or dress in the native clothing.

This is a perfect example of pride in culture in two ways. She took pride in her new found relation with India, but did not relate to the clothing traditions because white people do not look attractive in Saris.

Prose speaks of going native in both good and bad ways. Going native lets a person understand cultural relativity in the deepest meaning of the term. However, going native also means letting go of parts of your own culture. An example of this would be marriage. If an American man was to move to India and marry a child bride it would be ok by Indian standards, but by American standards it is illegal and considered Statuary Rap most likely. Cultures have extremely different values and draw people in all sorts of different ways that only that individual whom is drawn to it can explain.

Going Native has an aim at possibly the world as an audience. This essay is more likely aimed at people who have less of a deep tradition because these are the people who seek to find a culture they relate to. However, this essay is also aimed at people who have deep traditions in the exact reverse way. One who has lived a life a tradition may love a life of individuality away from community so that person could make their own way and their own claim to fame instead of following family occupations.

This essay inspires a great deal of confusion because of the difference of values that going native can provoke. One may change completely or hold certain values and morals from their birth culture. How somebody’s childhood is experienced is also a major factor in how that person will see other cultures. All in all, people belong to what ever culture they choose to be in and can not ever hurt to experience other traditions in order to better yourself.

Mark Doty Response

Souls On Ice Response

            Individuality is the cause of much attention in all cultures, as is groups of people. Mark Doty’s poem A Display of Mackerel speaks of a few conflicting values, individuality and unity beyond a doubt. This poem is a tale of dead Mackerel that he sees laying in a market, but its meaning runs much deeper then simply dead fish in a market.

            Mackerel, a fish of sparkling black beauty and substance. They represent what society could be for humans, or in contrast, what human society should not be like. This poem speaks of their beauty due to their sparkling scales, however this is also their down fall. Because they sparkle they are noticed and then are caught and killed as a group.

            “…They’re all exact expressions of one soul,” this quote states that all the Mackerel are the same, that they don’t have individual ambitions or to be an individual from the group. Doty also implies that they are selfless for staying with the school of fish that was caught and dying together, and that they appear to not care they are dead because they died together. This is a basic instinct of almost all animals on earth, unity. Humans especially appreciate and need to feel that they are part of a group. However, Doty says, “They prefer to be flashing participants.” So they do not a have a desire to stand apart from the group. This is quite similar to humans because most people would prefer to be part of a group because it is easier to slide by or be unnoticed that way. In all instances it is the individual that is noticed and scrutinized or praised.

            Lets say that a person sees a large Mackerel; one of spectacular size and gorgeousness, our instinct would be to catch it. In our culture it is near the same. When people see an individual that stands apart people want to “catch” that person in various ways. They may fall into that persons group to sparkle with that person, or they join another group. This other group may consist of criticizers and cynical peoples that belong together because they share similar values, like the sparkling Mackerel.

            In the end this poem reflects on humans as a whole. To an alien, if such a thing exists, would people appear to be different? Or would we all just appear to be hairless living creatures that “sparkle” in the same ways. In America we value individuality, but also we value selflessness. But opportunities to be selfless are rare and through those actions people distinguish them selves as individuals. As the first Mackerel is caught, he is selfless in his pursuit of food, for the bait, and then the rest follow to their death as a group.

            Should people be distinct in their own way? Or function as a giant unified group with no interest in gleaming in their own way? Or, is it individuality that gives us belonging to a group. These questions are what runs the world of teenagers and the world of adults, whether they admit it or not. Everyone has a mind that sparkles and that is the way that people belong. Belong to the overall group of humans.

Museum Response

            Rule of thirds, contrast, value, and emphasis are some of the principles of art, however, there is no principle of art that can go into the thought behind the photograph.  In this photo, entitled, “Waiting for the Ice,” taken by Thomas D. Manglesen, three polar bears are shown out of what most people assume to be their native environment. Polar bears are rarely displayed with out snow or ice, much less no snow or ice. This photo exemplifies the nature of the polar bear to be more then just a frigid beast, but also a land dweller that longs to be on the ice once more.

            Walking around the museum at UAF I found many interesting photographs, some were shown on the English courses blog. These photos intrigued me, but not to the extent that raw nature does. I believe that nature is art and although it may be interesting to set up a photo, nature will provide the most interesting and true pictures to be taken.

            The polar bears in this picture appear to be a sow and two cubs. This is important because that is the way that bears are raised, with out a father. It is also interesting that the mother is highlighted, whether by natural cloud cover or post editing, it adds a emphasis to the mother wandering apart from her cubs, yet still able to see her children. This photo gives a sense of family and sibling love as the two cubs wander the beach together.

            The bears walk by the beach as if they were yearning to see the snow return so that they may once more do as they always do, hunt on the frozen seas. The green in the picture adds a sense of incongruence to what most people assume of the Northern most part of America. People assume that not only the North, but also all of Alaska is a frozen wasteland. On the contrary, Alaska is a place of great summer beauty and green tundra’s that flaunt values of all sorts of colors.

            “Waiting for the Ice” gives me a feeling of home. I have never lived on the North Slope, but it is part of my homeland. Juneau was once my home and I came into contact with bears regularly there so I feel a certain connection to bears. Also, being out of your native environment is something I can relate to. Which is something that I’m sure the polar bears are feeling in this picture.

            Every piece of art has endless meanings as the famous saying “A picture is worth a thousand words” demonstrates. This picture represents family, love, home and displacement to me. These may seem somewhat contradicting, but that is because you may not be able to see it through my eyes.

Three Places

            All places posses both literal meanings and unseen subjective meanings. A person might see a bus and think that is what children take to school, where as another person might think of their childhood and perhaps a bad memory on a school bus. I have visited three different places within the last week, all of which have different obvious details accompanied by subjective feelings.

            There is viewpoint of the Tanana Valley that our class visited on the UAF campus. It was a fairly nice viewpoint, especially since we were there during the sunrise. The place gave me a view of the city of Fairbanks and the mountain in the back round, followed by colors cast into the sky by the rising sun. Those were the obvious things. Then there was a feeling of insignificance because of the vastness of merely my hometown. A person does not realize how small he really is until he takes time to stand back from his own life and look at the world around him.

            Compared to the Wood Center, theses two places have little in common besides that fact that they are both located on UAF’s campus. However, they do have a few things in common. Some are the fact that both spots have been visited by generations of college students over the decades that UAF has been in use. Also, both spots are somewhat artistic. The Wood Center was designed in a odd shape for somewhat of an artistic feel, where as the look out point had the artistic view of the mountains and sunrise. Wood center offers a very different obvious view though. The Wood Center is warm for one and it is a place to meet in the winter for students, unlike the colder look out point. There is also a social atmosphere at the Wood Center, unlike the look out point where it is more of a lonesome, or small gathering area.

            The place I choose to visit separate from the class is also completely separate from these other two places. I choose to visit under water. While this may seem ununique or bland, it is a place of reflection and quietness. Ever since I was a baby I loved swimming or at least being in water. To be under water is refreshing and quite and depending on the water body, it can be calm. While the look out point may be calm as well, and the Wood Center can be too, under water is a more personal and introverted space. There is no noise plus if you close your eyes it is a place of uncertainty. The water may offer a warm feeling, such as the Wood Center, but water is different for everyone. Some hate it and others yet love it. The same could be said for the other two places, too.

            Places all have different meanings to individuals. Many people wont even choose to see the obvious sights, but only to see their subjective feelings on the place. And others may not choose to feel anything, but only to see the facts of that place. Each of these places offers unique sights and feelings.

            Not to sound corny, but “home” for me is where the heart is and at the moment Fairbanks is not home.

The Writer as Alaskan Response

            The paper The Writer as Alaskan provides a story of what all people should experience at some point in time in their lives. The experience is that of becoming new and finding yourself in ways that you have not seen before. The author found himself as a poet on a hill 70 miles out of Fairbanks, but all people can find themselves in different ways and different in places. The author also speaks of the importance of “place” and how that affects people in ways that they may not consciously notice. This paper explains that people should experience the process of reinventing themselves to better understand themselves and learn from the “places” that have made them who they are.

            My sophomore year in high school I moved to Juneau from Fairbanks where I had been born and raised. I was quite indifferent about the move, but upon reaching Juneau I realized that I knew no one except for my father and sister. My sister tried to help me make friends through her friends. This did not work seeing as my sister and I have very different values and choice in friends. However, this helped me to better understand myself and what qualities I choose in friends. I learned that I seek passion, independence, open mindedness, and above all else loyalty in friendship. I also learned that I value solidarity, education, common decency and self-motivation.  These qualities eventually led me to a small group of friends that are like myself in many ways. Learning about your own values and your own interests is by far the most important thing that a person can do with their life, because without first knowing that, you will wander aimlessly through life with no purpose.

            People need to uproot themselves to learn about themselves. I have traveled almost the entire United States as well as much of Mexico and the Gulf of Mexico. Traveling to different places has taught me that all people are different and that the differences between us are what creates “place”. There is a “place” between lovers and also in jails. Place is culture, and culture is place. Without one or the other people would not exist. People look to culture to see about their own past and tradition, but why not simply look to the “place” which that individual values the most. That place can tell you all you need to know about your culture. If your “place”  is one with happy memories and kindness, then that is the culture that you possess.

            “Place” is always and acting force on people whether they choose to see it or not. “Place” is the context of how a person is brought into this world. “Place” is the childhood that each person experiences. “Place” is when and how a person will leave this world, as well. No person can say that “place” has not influenced him or her at any point in time of his or her life. So, why not travel to experience “place” by others around the world to gain a greater knowledge of where your personal “place” is.

Introduction

Hello, my name is Tommy Vrabec. I am a freshmen year transfer student from University of Alaska Southeast. I am a Criminal Justice major and also interested in pursuing a minor in art. I was born and raised in Fairbanks, but at the age of 15 I moved to Juneau where I graduated from Juneau-Douglas High School one year early. I previously was planning on becoming a fire fighter. However, that plan fell through as I realized I have greater interests in the fields of criminal justice and art.

The piece of writing that has influenced me the most is The Art of War by Sun Tzu. This book has influenced me because, although about war, the advice provided throughout the book can be used in everyday life and the work place. This book was written over two thousand years ago and it is still looked at today by military and political leaders, as well as businessmen who seek to conquer or beat their enemies. I believe that this book is a great book to read or read exerts of it. There is much that can be learned from this book, especially since there is little detail in the words Sun Tzu uses, so that the advice can be applied to many aspects of life.