The new and the old

"I was reminded of how uncomfortable the new can make you feel" Lucy pg. 4. I think this is so true. The biggest situation I can remember is going into college. I was so excited to leave high school, to make new friends, to be in the marching band, but I hadn't really given much thought to the idea of being uncomfortable. Then the day came that I was fully immersed into college life. It was the first day of band camp and I knew NO ONE.

Going into band I was incredibly insured that I would be able to start over fresh. I could become anyone or anything that I wanted to be. I was no longer going to have to play up the role that I had become from elementary school to high school. I could be the "cool" kid now...Then I walked into the band building and I was petrified. I knew NO ONE and it was no longer a nice thing. The new was horrifying and I just wanted to go back to high school band where I knew everyone and they knew me. It was then that I, like Lucy, was reminded of how uncomfortable the new can make you feel.

Unresolved?

I've been walking around the past few days mulling over in my head a major idea that we talked about in class. The idea that Lahiri's short story was unresolved. Although I feel that everyone's arguments as to why Lahiri's story was unresolved were valid, I never felt that way until I went into class. I thought the ending was nearly perfect and that there was an amazing resolution at the end. I felt like the whole story was an observation of Sanjeev's feelings for Twinkle. He was trying to sort out why exactly he married her and in the end he realized that although she did so many things that irritated him he loved her for them.

"It was the same pang he used to feel before they were married, when he would hang up the phone after one of their conversations, or when he would drive back from the airport, wondering which ascending plane in the sky was hers"

I loved the story to say the least. It might be my romantization of love and marriage, but I think that Sanjeev and Twinkle's relationship is perfect. Although they often got on eachothers nerves, at the end of the day they realized that there was nobody else better for them.

Do Opposites Attract?

Sanjeeve and Twinkle in This Blessed House seem to be exact opposites. Sanjeev seems to be the business man that has everything together and wants to put up a front to show the rest of the world that him and his family are just like the rest of America. Twinkle, on the other hand, is very free-spirited. She doesn't seem to let things get her down and she is always on the go but not in the most productive manner.

I believe that opposites can attract, and they do. I don't think that polar opposites will form a lasting relationship. A good relationship must be formed on some similiarities but I feel that some difference will make a relationship work.

When I thought about this couple, Sanjeev and Twinkle, I was quickly reminded of another beloved "opposites attract" couple...Lucy and Ricky. It seemed that almost everything Lucy did Ricky hated but at the end of each episode they were always together.

I Love Lucy - Lucy Plays Cupid
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Behind the Veil

I attended a lecture at the Student Diversity Leadership Conference this past week. Professor Qazi introduced to the group very interesting points about the stereotypes that the West and Western culture have put on women of the Middle East. In the West it has seemed that the idea of the veil and head covering has become synonymous with the words of oppression and lack of woman's rights. Instead Qazi showed that for many women the veil shows their religious devotion and is in no way a political way of oppression. One of the most interesting things that she showed was a series of pictures in which we had to guess what the people were doing. In this picture she cropped it so that just the heads were showing. Not one person would have guessed that it was a group of women in a soccer league playing. She also explained that many muslim countries are far ahead in women's rights in that they have already had a woman head political leader. Qazi's lecture was very informative and broke many social stereotypes that I had formed in my head about the muslim culture and women oppression. As she talked I was also reminded of a book that I read last semester by Shirin Ebadi called Iran Awakening.

Play vs. Movie vs. Written Play Vs. Movie

I was thinking about the question that our professor posed to us last class. What do you think the purest form of Shakespeare is/was? After thinking about it for awhile I realized that at this point in time I don't think that it is really possible to get a "pure" form of anything Shakespeare. I feel that the only time in which Shakespeare could have been pure and acted out in the way that he wanted it would be the first time the plays were every acted out with Shakespeare as the director. Only then would he be able to make sure that each actor was in his place and each line was said the way that he wanted.

After thinking about this I thought of my favorite recreation of Romeo and Juliet by Shakespeare. Romeo + Juliet with Leonardo DiCapprio, I felt, shed a humorous light on the play. It infused the language of Shakespeare with an odd assortment of present day artillery and dress. It also is most likely the farthest in Shakespeare's mind of what he wanted his play to become.

I feel that Shakespeare's intentions aren't as clear cut in moves such as Romeo + Juliet and O because the directors get so caught up in trying to make the movie and the plot more modern that they may confuse what Shakespeare was trying to say or twisting it in ways that, although it makes it less confusing for the audience, does not show the underlying stories of Shakespeare's plays.

Displacement

A couple of classes ago we were posed with the question: What is displacement?

In going about answering this question I came to the conclusion that there are two types of displacement, physical and emotional. A person or a thing can be displaced. Like water is displaced from a container when something heavy is placed in it. A person is displaced when their home is no longer there for them. The biggest example that I could think of was Hurricane Katrina. Many people in the New Orleans area were displaced from their homes and forced to move to other areas.

After discussing displacement I realized that people can be emotionally displaced, too. Trying to come up with an example I thought of myself. After my dad died I think that I emotionally displaced myself. Which brings about the other point, that displacement can be a voluntary action. I went about my life shortly after my dad's death thinking that no one could relate to me and that I was the only one with those issues.

Am I really okay?

I just watched Girl Interrupted last night. I had previously read the book so I knew the basics for the movie but I was still shocked as to what happened in the movie. Towards the end of the movie I was reminded of a movie that I watched in my AP Psych class last year called The Snake Pit. In this movie the protagonist, Virginia, is put into a psych ward much like Susanna was in Girl Interrupted. The scene that reminded me the most of Snake Pit was when Susanna had to go in front of the board and petition her case to leave. In Snake Pit Virginia has recovered but in the board interview her anxiety is revealed and causes the board to think that she is still not completely recovered. This is a lot like Girl Interrupted in which Susanna goes to her board meeting and the board began to question what her plans were for after she left the hospital. During this exchange I feel that the director did a good job of showing the anxiety that Susanna must have felt in the constant questioning of the who, what, where, and why.