A moment that stood out in bell hook's, "In Our Glory: Photography and Black Life":
The image in this snapshot has lingered in my mind's eye for years. It has lingered there to remind [me] of the power of snapshots, of the image. As I slowly work on a book of essays titled Art on My Mind, I think about the place of art in black life, connections between the social construction of black identity, the impact of raceand class, and the presence in black life of an inarticulate but ever-present visual aesthetic governing our relationship to images, to the process of image making. I return to the snapshot as a starting point to consider the place of the visual in black life--the importance of photography (81).This passage stands out to me because it marks the place in the essay where hooks connects her discussion of her personal story of her father's photograph with larger issues of the role of photography in black life. She breaks down the barriers between the personal and the theoretical, personal writing and academic writing. This is the point that I got even more interested in what she had to say. I think she really hits the nail on the head when she says two paragraphs later: "The history of black liberation movements in the United States could be characterized as a struggle over images as much as it has also been a struggle for rights, for equal access" (81).
I guess I like the directness of her writing and the willingness to take risks and advocate for a position with no apologies.
20 comments:
"...At the seam where body joins culture, every construction of the body begins and ends. On the efforts of cultures to hide that seam, every oppression depends. Jim, my brother, has no legs. Jim has wheels. Jim has both wheels and legs. Jim has neither wheels nor legs. All this is true. "
This passage stands out to me because it's not the type of introduction that you see often. The author grabs the audiences' attention without the use of persuasion; which i find very unique and effective. The author grabs the attention of the audience with strong language and his uncharacteristically comparison of the body and culture. This opening paragraph is the keystone for vividness throughout the passage; it allows the author to easily transition into the second paragraph and begin the passage as he already has the attention of the audience.
"Family photographs are supposed to show not so much that we were once there, as how we once were: to evoke memories which might have little or nothing to do with what is actually in the picture. The photograph is a prop, a prompt, a pre-text: it sets the scene for recollection. But if a photograph is somewhat contingent in the process of memory-production, what is the status of the memories actually produced."
I like this passage very much,for the reason that I can relate to what she is saying. When she says that "Family photographs are supposed to show not so much that we were once there, as how we once were..." it really touches home for me because in old photographs my family seemed very close, the photographs show how it ONCE was, as Annette Kuhn says. Also if you need to see a photo to make up memories ("But if a photograph is somewhat contingent in the process of memory-production, what is the status of the memories actually produced.") then the memories formed weren't special enough for you to remember. That's why I chose the passage from Annette Kuhns Remembrance.
"Photograph of My Parents"
When I open it, the smell of china flies out, a thousand-year-old bat flying heavy-headed out of the Chinesecaverns where bats are as white as dust, a smell that comes from long ago, far back in the brain.
I chose this passage because it reminded me of my sister who always relates something to smelling like Puerto Rico. To her it is either sun tan lotion or perfume. She gets so excited when she smells them and she says " Oh my gosh Mando doesn't this smell just like the beaches and sweet air of Puerto Rico. Of course to me the things smell just what they are lotion or perfume but I go along with it. So that is why I picked this passage and also I thought it was a coincident she is also living in China right now.
Simply that a photograph can be material for interpretation-evidence, in that sense: to be solved, like a riddle; read and decoded, like clues left behind at the scence of a crime. Evidence of this sort, though, can conceal, even as it purports to reveal, what it is evidence of. A photograph can certainly throw you off the scent. You will get nowhere for instance, by taking a magnifying glass to it to get a closer look: you will see only patches of light and dark, an unreadable mesh of grains. The image yields nothing to that sort of scrutiny, it simply disappears"
This passage stands out to me because I think it is a very true statement. Photographs are not always meant to have a meaning to everyone who looks at them. The only people who truly know what the picture really means are the people involved in it. They lived it, they know the emotions and the situations going on. What you're reading into it could be completely wrong. I also like the ending of this paragraph when she talks about trying to look at a photo through a magnifying glass and getting nowhere. I think that's true. You can't perfectly analyze something you know nothing about, at least with the true meaning of a photo. Photos are peoples memories and no one else can get a true "reading" of someone else's memories
I couldn't resist. After reading Connie May Fowler's essay again, I was taken up by the following passage:
"A society knows itself most clearly not through the allegedly neutral news media or government propaganda or historical records but through the biased eyes of the artist, the writer. When that vision is tempered by heaven and hell, by an honesty of the intellect and gut, it allows the reader and viewer to safely enter worlds of brutal truth, confrontation and redemption" (106).
I love this passage because of it's commitment to truth and a questioning of how we normally think of truth. I also love the image of a vision being tempered by "heaven and hell" and "intellect and gut." A refusal to erase the pain and the body from her memories.
I paragragh 14 of The Visible Cripple, Jeffreys write " we understood that if our disabilities were framed, our disabilities would frame us, and we wanted to exclude them so we wouldn't vanish behind them." This sentence stuck out the most to me beacuse at this point I thought about other people with disabilities and how they felt on a daily bases. tho they have something different about them, it shouldnt take over their identy but make them unique from the others.
After reading the three stories the one I enjoyed the most was The Visible Cripple (Scars and Other Disfiguring Displays Included) by Mark Jeffreys although it was sad. The part I liked the most was the last couple sentences of the first paragraph.
"...At the seam where body joins culture, every construction of the body begins and ends. On the efforts of cultures to hide that seam, every oppression depends. Jim, my brother, has no legs. Jim has wheels. Jim has both wheels and legs. Jim has neither wheels nor legs. All this is true."
These few sentences really caught my attention and I was very interested on what the author had to say because I did not understand what he ment when I first read it. How can someone have legs and wheels and not have them all at the same time? I got confused but this made me want to continue reading. As I read on I understood what he meant by this. He had a wheel chair but also had fake legs that his parents encouraged him to learn to walk with. This was a significant part because this is what the whole story is about.
After reading all of the passages, I came to realize only one thing the very commitment I came to achieve was the stability of how much I understood where Mark Jeffery came from completly. His story was something that I haven't taken for granted. Living with a family member that was just like that, and understanding where I came and dealt with it was something I needed to focus and take into logically.
After reading the three passages i reall ejoyed Visible Cripple, it was very sad and made me tear up a little bit. The ending was very happy though and i didnt think it would end like that. I noticed that they talked about the wheelchair alot in this passage because it was a big symbolization of him not being able to walk, untill he got his prostedics. A passgae that stood out to me was the opening paragraph he say "Jim has wheels. Jim has both wheels and legs. Jim has neither wheels nor legs." i was consufed by this paragraph but it made me interested in the rest of the passage. The passage i did not like that much was Photograph of my parents i didnt really like all the detials and discription of her parents, but i understand how it helps to enhanse the purpose of what were learning about!
this is from "The Cisible Cripple (Scars and Other Disfiguring Displays Included)"
"Jim made constant requests, every birthday and Christmas and anytime in between, for action figures, macho dolls with guns and biceps and articulated limbs. When he got them, he pried off all their macho legs. Stripping the cmoflage pants, he figured out how the rubberband device concealed in the torso hooked up the swiveling hips, or he discovered that this particular doll had simpler joints that could be unscrewed or popped lose. Either way, he eventually pulled off the legs. He has since told me that he simply couldn't relate to the legs.
This passage caught my attention because it shows how Jim wasn't going to reform to what culture told him he should look like. I really respect his views and his aspirations of being himself no matter what. I feel as though everybody can take something out of this passage form confidence to strength.
"Always a daddy’s girl. I was not surprised that my sister V. became a lesbian, or that her lovers were always white women. Her worship of daddy and her passion for whiteness appeared to affirm a movement away from black womanhood, and of course, that image of the woman we did not want to become - our mother.”
This passage stands out to me because I have never seen an introduction quite like this one. It put out a couple main points right off the bat, which catches the attention of the audience. As soon as I read that I new I wanted to keep reading this story to find out what happens and what they start talking about next. She explains that she wants to know more about her father rather then her mother, but her sister makes it hard. Throughout the passage they look at the aspects of a simple photograph but in their eyes it’s not so simple. Its actually everything to her.
After reading all three of the short stories the story that stuck out to me the most was No Snapshots in the Attic A Granddaughters search for a Cherokee Past. The thing that stood out to me the most was how the narrator knew so much about her grandmothers past. This stood out to me because I compared the narrator to myself and I realized I only know somethings that happened in my grandmothers life. I was also able to connect with the narrator because my great grandmother was Caucasian and married a Native American. After hearing some stories about my grandmother I think I too would want to actually find out everything that happened in her life because from what i know it seems like she lived an interesting life.
After reading all three of the short stories the story that stuck out to me the most was No Snapshots in the Attic A Granddaughters search for a Cherokee Past. The thing that stood out to me the most was how the narrator knew so much about her grandmothers past. This stood out to me because I compared the narrator to myself and I realized I only know somethings that happened in my grandmothers life. I was also able to connect with the narrator because my great grandmother was Caucasian and married a Native American. After hearing some stories about my grandmother I think I too would want to actually find out everything that happened in her life because from what i know it seems like she lived an interesting life.
I also enjoyed Rememberance. The thing that stood out to me in Rememberance was how the author used imagery and symbolism to describe what was actually going on in the picture. When i first looked at the picture i thought it was just a picture of a little girl but i learned that her father took the picture after giving her a present.
After reading
"La Familia "it showed be different perspectives on how differnt children where rasied. There are some children whos dads run the house hold and whos moms run the house hold. I was rasied with my fater who was strict and always was down my back. He taught me right from wrong and how to deal with alot of problems. in the story it said that the elders eat before the children mine was the oppiste. i could relate to this story alot.
blau blah blek
An excerpt from " No Snaoshots in thre Attic"
For as anyone can remember, poverty has crawled all over the hearts of my family, contributing to a long tradition of premature deaths and a lifetime of stories stymied behind the mute lips of the dead. The survivors have been left without tangible signs that evoke the past: no phptographs or diaries, no wedding bands or wooden nickels.
After reading this first passage into the "No Snapshots in the Attic" I felt very drawn into what this story was actually going to talk about. I wanted to dive deeper into Connie May Fowler's essay to find out who these survivors were, and why was there a tradition of premature deaths. I was intigued to actually read on and find out the answers to these questions.
An excerpt from " No Snapshots in the Attic"
For as anyone can remember, poverty has crawled all over the hearts of my family, contributing to a long tradition of premature deaths and a lifetime of stories stymied behind the mute lips of the dead. The survivors have been left without tangible signs that evoke the past: no phptographs or diaries, no wedding bands or wooden nickels.
After reading this first passage into the "No Snapshots in the Attic" I felt very drawn into what this story was actually going to talk about. I wanted to dive deeper into Connie May Fowler's essay to find out who these survivors were, and why was there a tradition of premature deaths. I was intrigued to actually read on and find out the answers to these questions.
Rememberance in my family. Alot I must say to us a family album is the perfect thing because there is so much that is told through our pictures. My great-grandfather raised us off remebering where one came from so thats what our album would tell.
..."Jim, my brother, has no legs. Jim has wheels. Jim has wheels and legs. Jim has neither, wheels nor legs. All this is true...."pg.88.
What i got out of this is that Jim has has wheels to move aound when he does not have his protestic legs. Jim has protestic legs when he does not have his wheels. But at the end of the day Jim has neither because the wheels and the protestic legs are not real or "naturally" attached to him.
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