Of my guilt - I am about one chapter deep thus far. The past two weeks have been busier than expected. However, this weekend I will schedule time to get this done. I write here today to show that I will contribute in any way I can, however limited it is. I think this whole thing is a fantatic idea.
Of Dylan's guilt - I will be flabbergasted if 'white guilt' is not a major theme of this book given its subject matter. Very early on I think the author discussed two possible "insoluble lozenge[s]"of guilt that he swallowed. Possible Guilt lozenge #1 comes in his backyard where he steps on a cat, his parents put it down, and he sort of allows his parents to believe that he did not understand what happened or at least that he forgot what happened. Possible Guilt lozenge #2 comes when he wishes that the white girls on skates had asked him to play rather than the black girl his mother set him up with. Dylan notes the distinction between to two guilts while speaking of the 2nd, "It wasn't like the dead kitten: this time no one would judge whether Dylan had understood in the first place, whether he had forgotten after. Only himself. It was between Dylan and himself to consider forever whether to grasp that he'd felt a yearning preference already then..."
To me, the cat squishing was both harder and easier because of the source of judgment - the parents. With the cat, you have plausible deniability - "i didn't know, it was an accident" but at the same time the effects were tangible and immediate. With the thought, you have no one to judge you so in that sense you are insulated. However, you have no excuses to give yourself and the burden is yours to decide "whether to grasp" the implications of your thoughts.
What do you guys make of the significance of these two events? Given its placement at the forefront of the novel, it's certainly significant. I will be interested in seeing how these two types of guilt emerge as the story develops. Hopefully then, I will have something more poignant to say then, "look at this distinction."
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3 comments:
Ben- awesome thoughts on guilt thus far. I hadn't pinned down that idea, and it makes so much sense in retrospect. I have about 80 more pages to go, and so I don't know how the author leaves Dylan, but I believe that "white guilt" plays a major part of his development and what he becomes. He creates a persona that is constantly trying to escape from this alien world of Brooklyn into which he has been thrown. And every time he seems to get out and free himself, he realizes that he never left.
I enjoy the effects that comic books have on his life and his thoughts. It is interesting to know some of the history of comic books in the '70s. They were just becoming a sort of "vintage", "hip", "teenage" icon. When they really emerged in the '30s with the creation of Superman (significant to the title of the book), they were widely read by kids and adults alike. They were commonly used as a means of propaganda, especially during the war. After WWII, there were even congressional hearings that tried to ban comic books for the detrimental effect they were believed to have on children. This isn't a history lesson, and I don't have a major point to make, other than it is understandable that Dylan would cling to comics as being illustrative of how he could escape. It is also interesting that Superman and Spiderman never actually "win", not unlike Dylan, who never actually "defeats" Brooklyn, but is brought back time after time only to face a new villain.
Good luck this weekend, Ben, and others who haven't finished up.
Now I am really pissed off because I am in chapter 4 and I am having a hard time following the book. I thought maybe we were all having the same dilemma but then I read the post by Ben and I don't understand most of it either? So now I am realizing a little bit more why I went to UVSC and my friends went to Stanford, Georgetown, Iowa, UCLA, BYU, Utah, and Texas! Either way, I'm finishing it before the month is over and I will try to focus more while reading.
I do enjoy how intelligent it really is as a book though. Easy to see why Cameron loved it.
The "white guilt" concept is especially interesting. I didn't even think about that after the first chapter. Maybe I'm biased, and let me know if I am, but I sort of felt like Dylan got screwed for being white. He grew up a black kid, but didn't have the skin color to vindicate him. He was just as disadvantaged as any of the other kids he grew up with, maybe more so being that he was the minority.
How do you guys feel about race and racism? I'm looking for opinions from those of you outside of Utah on this one. Lately I have been amazed at how little color has mattered to me. I used to think it was a bigger deal. I cringe when I think that there are people in the world that wouldn't vote for Obama simply because he's half black. Do people really think like that? Really? Skin color has nothing to do with the "content of their character."
This book actually opened my mind to the fact that we all grow up with a lot of the same fears and aspirations. We're all scared of not getting picked by the team captain in a neighborhood game, or of not being accepted by the other kids at school, or sometimes how our parents are going to keep a roof over our head or stick together through rough times. I said it before, excepting the drug and divorce aspects this book puts forth, this book could be written about anyone (of any race for that matter). I guess I'm trying to convey something profound, and I don't feel like I'm getting it out well. This book to me is evidence that we are divided more by our social situations than the color of our skin. Black Mingus and white Dylan have more in common with each other than a white Frank and white Dylan or a black Jamal Griffen (only black guy I know) and a black Mingus.
I'll stop rambling now.
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