According to Jamaica Kincaid history is a collection of fact and details that are real, true, and precise. History is where everything began and it is in your past no matter what. To Kincaid, anyone can tell the story of history it just depends on where they want to begin their story and who is telling it. It does matter who is telling the story because they can choose a different story or a story that may start in a different place as the next person’s story. Landscape, naming, and history are all drawn together in some form. History describes the landscape and the area so that the reader can successfully imagine the scene or the action that is being described to them. Naming is connected to history because when a person does something of great significance, they name something after themselves or the people around them name something after that person. It keeps history alive and well when something as old and important as it was in the beginning is still around for everyone to see. It keeps history interesting when things are named as well like Christopher Columbus’s ships, The Santa Maria, The Nina, and the Pinta, instead of just the three ships. “One day, while looking at the things that laybefore me at my feet, I was having the argument with myself over the names I should use when referring to the things that lay before me at my feet. These things are plants.” Kincaid makes the point that everything has a name and it has a name for a reason. Someone named it that and that is it. Everything is connected somehow within history. History can’t be told by just one person. It is a collection of facts and details that are interpreted differently be each person. When someone hears my history and my story they may or may not be able to relate to it. Sure there is the concrete history of the world like Christopher Columbus sailing the sea in 1492 to find the New World but that history is only a portion of my history. My story is different just like the next person’s. I may not be able to compare my history and my story to theirs but I learned that everyone has a different life and comes from a different background.
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Adopted Town
My understanding of adopted town is that Melissa Holbrook Pierson moved to Hoboken, New Jersey. I feel like just like any new adjustment, I don’t think she liked the change. At the beginning she seems to really detest the area. She had absolutely nothing good to say about Hoboken. She says that it is a “misused back alley of some other, better place.” I feel like she really hates it until I read more. Although I have a hard time understanding her and her writing I feel as though she starts to like it. I feel like she starts to warm up to Hoboken and that it isn’t as bad as she thought it would be.
Salem Massachusetts and Salem State University are like my adopted town. It is a new home and a chance to expand my horizons. I think like any new place, including Melissa Holbrook Pierson’s new Hoboken home, it takes time to adjust. It is hard to just walk in and not think about what you just left. It is almost impossible. I think that MHP refers to it as an adopted town because it’s not her original home just like Salem is not my original home. It takes time to adjust but it can prove as a good thing. MHP became more accepting of her new home. She began to see the good things about it. I’ve become adjusted to Salem State University and I’ve started to see the positive things it can do for me. I’ve warmed up to my adopted town like she warmed up to Hoboken, New Jersey.
The PLace and Memory Project
I chose an article about the war in Afghanistan. It relates to our class because for the Afghan people it is change that our military is in their country. It is change on our end because our troops are being sent over to these conflict countries. The article has said that when a base was hit there was enemy fire and that just goes to show that conflict can change countries and how the people live. The have to live in fear and danger. The article says how the unit is working with the Afghan people to connect with their government. It made me think about how this war affects not only the families here who's loved ones are fighting this war but the families over there who are losing their homes.
I picked this article because I have had loved ones go to war. My brother, Lance Corporal in the Marine Corp., was stationed in Iraq for 8 months. I have loved ones going to Afghanistan in the next coming year so the war has always been an interest to me. I've heard stories about how peoples homes and villages are ruined in a second because of this conflict. The war is a big part of our lives right now and i think it is a perfect example of progress hitting home.
This article connects to our class learnings because it shows how in one moment a person's home is their place to go to after a long day or a place of comfort but then it can all be taken away. Unlike Melissa Holbrook Pierson's progress which took place over time this is an example of a dramatic change but it does how progress affects home. I think this is a very good example of progress.
http://afghanistan.blogs.cnn.com/2010/10/14/for-these-soldiers-winning-over-afghans-is-a-slow-slog/
I picked this article because I have had loved ones go to war. My brother, Lance Corporal in the Marine Corp., was stationed in Iraq for 8 months. I have loved ones going to Afghanistan in the next coming year so the war has always been an interest to me. I've heard stories about how peoples homes and villages are ruined in a second because of this conflict. The war is a big part of our lives right now and i think it is a perfect example of progress hitting home.
This article connects to our class learnings because it shows how in one moment a person's home is their place to go to after a long day or a place of comfort but then it can all be taken away. Unlike Melissa Holbrook Pierson's progress which took place over time this is an example of a dramatic change but it does how progress affects home. I think this is a very good example of progress.
http://afghanistan.blogs.cnn.com/2010/10/14/for-these-soldiers-winning-over-afghans-is-a-slow-slog/
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
"Why is Nostalgia Such a Bad Thing" - Interview with Melissa Holbrook Pierson
MPH: ..."And I think—Look, we’re physical objects, we think of ourselves as these kind of free-floating brains, but the brain is such a little part. It’s way smaller than we like to think. We think we’re these important human beings. We’re not animals or anything. But what did we come out of? What are we made out of? We’re made of the same stuff as out there… In the end I operate from a belief, however unspoken, that I’m just a normal Joe. I’m not any one thing, I can’t be held to any one subject. I never could. I had to leave graduate school."
i believe that what she is trying to say is that we aren't all we make ourselves seem. We are animals that have come from the earth and evolved but we forget that. We seem to think we are some sort of species that just appeared but the fact is that we had to come from somewhere and we evolved from other species over time. She is trying to say that she is no more important than the next person and that we can't compare ourselves to others because we are all different.
MHP:"…. In the past three days I read things in three completely separate areas of thought about how if we can’t acknowledge something then we can’t change it. That’s the basis of psychotherapy. It must be brought into consciousness to do anything about it. If you choose to let it remain hidden you can’t do anything about it, and ultimately that’s not accepting responsibility. You know: I didn’t do it, therefore I can’t change it. I feel like all this stuff was almost dumped on people in the middle of the night. Every morning somebody wakes up and there’s been a sixteen-wheeler out back leaving things or changing things or bringing things or things have disappeared and the only thing you can do is go, “God, rats,” and that’s it. That’s what we’re given. I don’t know a single person—and it’s not just because I only know people like myself—I’ve never heard anybody say, you know, “I’m so happy that that farm is now a subdivision. That’s beautiful.”
In this quotation I think she is saying that if we acknowledge the past and what has happened we can do something to change it. If we just sit back and let the world change around us then we will never have a say in what happens and life will pass us by. In the end when she mentions about how the farm is changed into a subdivision, she makes it obvious that she doesn't like change just like in her book. I think that she says this in unison with the book about change and how you have to acknowledge the past to change what could happen in the future. She says that if you don't acknowledge it and you just sit around then you aren't taking responsibility which i agree with. You can make change if you try.
MHP: "How many times have you heard someone say they’ve gone back home and it’s changed or it’s gone? I mean, people weep over this. Is it sadness or is it nostalgia? Why is nostalgia such a bad thing? I mean, nostalgia is a longing to return. If you really loved where you came from, if, in essence, you really loved yourself—because that’s what created you—how can you not want that to exist? It’s like wanting your parents keep living. Is it nostalgia when you cry when your parents die? The bad kind of nostalgia is getting lost in it and never leaving. My point in writing about those three places was to say, “Aha, but guess what? I get nostalgic about every place.”"
I agree with her when she says that the place you came from in essence created you. You are who you are because of where you came from. Whether or not people choose to believe the place you grew up has an affect on who you are as a person so I agree with her on that.
Is nostalgia such a bad thing?
I believe that nostalgia isn't so bad. It keeps us remembering the things that made an impact on us. If we don't feel sadness when we think about something in our past that doesn't exist then clearly it didn't make that much of an impact on us. We remember from nostalgia. it is only human to feel sadness when we remember. I live in the same house that I have always lived in. I remember a pool we used to have in our backyard. We would spend many summer days in the pool, enjoying our childhood. My dad took down the pool and now it is just a large sand pit in the middle of our yard. When I look at that sand pit i feel great sadness because I remember all the great times I had in that pool and how we wont have anymore fun summer days in the backyard. It is sad because i think about all the memorable moments and the stories that went along with the pool and the sand pit is a stinging reminder that those are just memories and no longer a physical attachment. It is nostalgia when i think about how i can't change the fact that we no longer have a pool and how i wish i had it back.
i believe that what she is trying to say is that we aren't all we make ourselves seem. We are animals that have come from the earth and evolved but we forget that. We seem to think we are some sort of species that just appeared but the fact is that we had to come from somewhere and we evolved from other species over time. She is trying to say that she is no more important than the next person and that we can't compare ourselves to others because we are all different.
MHP:"…. In the past three days I read things in three completely separate areas of thought about how if we can’t acknowledge something then we can’t change it. That’s the basis of psychotherapy. It must be brought into consciousness to do anything about it. If you choose to let it remain hidden you can’t do anything about it, and ultimately that’s not accepting responsibility. You know: I didn’t do it, therefore I can’t change it. I feel like all this stuff was almost dumped on people in the middle of the night. Every morning somebody wakes up and there’s been a sixteen-wheeler out back leaving things or changing things or bringing things or things have disappeared and the only thing you can do is go, “God, rats,” and that’s it. That’s what we’re given. I don’t know a single person—and it’s not just because I only know people like myself—I’ve never heard anybody say, you know, “I’m so happy that that farm is now a subdivision. That’s beautiful.”
In this quotation I think she is saying that if we acknowledge the past and what has happened we can do something to change it. If we just sit back and let the world change around us then we will never have a say in what happens and life will pass us by. In the end when she mentions about how the farm is changed into a subdivision, she makes it obvious that she doesn't like change just like in her book. I think that she says this in unison with the book about change and how you have to acknowledge the past to change what could happen in the future. She says that if you don't acknowledge it and you just sit around then you aren't taking responsibility which i agree with. You can make change if you try.
MHP: "How many times have you heard someone say they’ve gone back home and it’s changed or it’s gone? I mean, people weep over this. Is it sadness or is it nostalgia? Why is nostalgia such a bad thing? I mean, nostalgia is a longing to return. If you really loved where you came from, if, in essence, you really loved yourself—because that’s what created you—how can you not want that to exist? It’s like wanting your parents keep living. Is it nostalgia when you cry when your parents die? The bad kind of nostalgia is getting lost in it and never leaving. My point in writing about those three places was to say, “Aha, but guess what? I get nostalgic about every place.”"
I agree with her when she says that the place you came from in essence created you. You are who you are because of where you came from. Whether or not people choose to believe the place you grew up has an affect on who you are as a person so I agree with her on that.
Is nostalgia such a bad thing?
I believe that nostalgia isn't so bad. It keeps us remembering the things that made an impact on us. If we don't feel sadness when we think about something in our past that doesn't exist then clearly it didn't make that much of an impact on us. We remember from nostalgia. it is only human to feel sadness when we remember. I live in the same house that I have always lived in. I remember a pool we used to have in our backyard. We would spend many summer days in the pool, enjoying our childhood. My dad took down the pool and now it is just a large sand pit in the middle of our yard. When I look at that sand pit i feel great sadness because I remember all the great times I had in that pool and how we wont have anymore fun summer days in the backyard. It is sad because i think about all the memorable moments and the stories that went along with the pool and the sand pit is a stinging reminder that those are just memories and no longer a physical attachment. It is nostalgia when i think about how i can't change the fact that we no longer have a pool and how i wish i had it back.
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