Tripmaster Monkey

Wittman Ah Sing is a man who seems to be at odds with his own identity. In Wittman's own views of the world, a kind of uncertainty about who he is and where he fits in is constantly lurking below the surface. Though Wittman is an extremely human character, complete with flaws, secret desires, and constant regret of the past, he is constantly isolating himself from his fellow human beings. In his initial interaction with Nanci, Wittman takes her to City Lights and hopes that she will notice the paper in the corner that proves his talent and success. Wittman is constantly imagining a different past, present, and future for himself (essentially a different identity), which shows just how alienated he is by his own identity. On the one hand, Wittman feels a strong relationship to San Francisco's Chinese and Asian community, even making comments about all of the situations in which he sees racism against Asian Americans (especially in SF), but on the other hand, Wittman seems to fit in very well in the white (especially white American) community. He frequently alludes to Kerouac and other Beat generation writers, as well as many Classical English poets, but notes the racism that appears not only in much of their writing, but also in the city of SF itself.
There is an interesting but slightly odd passage in the beginning of Tripmaster Monkey that seems almost as though Wittman was meant to say it, but for some reason, Nanci says it:
'"When I smell Mahn Gum Yow," said Nanci, saying "Ten Thousand Gold Pieces Oil" very prettily, high-noting "gum," "I remember being sick in bed with the t.v. on. I got to play treasure trove with the red tins. I liked having a collection of gold tigers-- they used to be raised, embossed-- they're flat now-- with emerald eyes and red tongues. I thought Tiger Balm was like Little Black Sambo's Tiger Butter. That in India the tigers chase around the palm tree until they churn into butter. And here they churn into ointment."'
There is an interesting relationship to consumerism in this passage, especially because it is a reminiscence of products used during Nanci's childhood that she clearly developed a strong memory bond to. There is also a theme of change in the speech, not only in that Nanci is now an adult, but also in the fact that the appearance of the product (Mahn Gum Yow) has changed. In meaning, the passage seems straightforward, but the srange aspect lies in that there doesn't seem to be any particualr reason for Nanci to make such a statement-- it sort of springs out of nowhere. This seems more like something Wittman would do, and in fact, does do, only about a page later in the story.
Question: Do you think that Wittman identifies strongly with Beat culture (does he actually want to have been a Beat???), or does he simply view it as a movement that took place in the same city that he lives in, free for critique or approval?

Outline for Final project: Topic B

Outline: Topic B
a) In choosing Topic B, I hope to explore why San Francisco is such an ideal setting for films from the thriller and film noir genre. Vertigo is one of my favorite movies, and I feel that much of the film's thrill and mystique comes from it being set in San Francisco. The city becomes, in some respects, its own character in many of the movies set there.
b) The same themes and tones that are common in thriller and film noir films can be found in the works of Allen Ginsberg (I.e. The idea of Moloch) and some of the essays in Reclaiming San Francisco. While reading the essay about the number of suicides on the Golden Gate Bridge, I couldn't help but think of the attempted suicide scene in “Vertigo” that takes place at the foot of the bridge. Many of the topics in discuss aspects of the city that are represented in the films that I want to discuss.
c) I would like to read some commentary on San Francisco film noir, especially on the films “Vertigo” and “The Maltese Falcon.” I would also like to find out more and develop some ideas about City Lights Bookstore, the Golden Gate Bridge, and Telegraph Hill, as they are all prominently featured in the films that I would like to focus on.
d) The thriller and film noir/ mystery genres find a unique setting in the city of San Francisco. The classic films Vertigo, The Maltese Falcon, and Born to Kill all use San Francisco as a unique backdrop to convey the darked, clouded, and mysterious nature of the film noir genre. More modern films such as The Darwin Awards, Interview with a Vampire, and Zodiac also show the mysterious and dangerous tone that the city seems to project.
e) I would like to address a couple of the more idealistic, or at least, brighter representations of the city found in films such as City Lights with Charlie Chaplin, for which City Lights Bookstore is named (I may address this in my footnotes...). I also want to make sure that I don't put too much focus on the plot of the movie, but more on how the plot interacts with and comments on the city itself.

1. The Maltese Falcon:
-the archetypal film noir
-lots of mist (SF climate)
- inability to see clearly, darkness
-representations of the Pacific Rim
-SF as a safe haven for criminals/ people of “questionable morals”
2. Vertigo
-history of SF
-shows the thin idealistic veil thrown over the darker aspects of the city
-SF as a city that plays tricks on your mind
3.Born Killers
-another example of archetypal film noir
-SF as a place where criminals can live comfortably??
4. The Darwin Awards
-City Lights Bookstore
-a humorous representation of the dark and strange
-all the action of the film ends up stemming its action from SF
-home of a serial killer (safe haven for the strange/criminal)
5. Zodiac
-based on true events
-serial killer (again) using SF as his home
Interview with a Vampire
-again, links SF as a safe place for the truly strange and unnatural (this is the city in which Lestat can tell his story/bear his soul)
-connection to Lousiana (New Orleans) as a strange unnatural place with a distinctly European feel
-SF as its own world (contado)
general points:
-Films show SF as the catalyst for their action, city as its own character
-significance of the light, or lack thereof
-The Golden Gate Bridge
-an icon of SF
-SF always shown as a place that people come to not as a place that people naturally inhabit
-people strangely drawn to the city (unnatural feel)

Dharma Bums: Beatus habebo (I will have bliss)

In Dharma Bums, Ray's quest to discover some sort of religious definition and in that definition some measure of beatitude seems to be dominated by Ray's relationship to physical settings and his social interactions. Japhy's spirituality, however, seems o be defined within himself and has been discovered through Japhy's isolation form society, rather than Ray's practice of immersing himself in many societies and ideas.
Ray seems to regard San Francisco as his home and his final stop on his way to gaining a clearer view of religious definition and enlightenment. In an effort to find this definition and enlightenment, Ray takes journeys that can be equated with pilgrimages (especially his trips to mountains, which can represent a classic religious experience). Despite this quest for his "true" religion, Ray still faces a struggle between his more traditional Western values and the far more radical experiences he faces in the society he finds in San Francisco. This struggle seems to comment on the culture that surrounds Ray in San Francisco, which is at odds with his experiences during his journeys all over the continent and into the mountains. All of Ray's major religious experiences or encounters (as well as with the idea of beatitude itself) come to him when he is away from that which he considers to be his home, or at least hisresting place: San Francisco.
Dharma Bums is the only text we've read so far that shows the San Francisco Beat culture on a truly personal level. While all of the texts have been involved with or come out of the Beat era, Dharma Bums gives an insight into the social interactions from this era of San Francisco culture.

Question: Does Ray's involvement with Japhy seem to bring him closer to finding any kind of religiou identity? Can Ray's involvement with Japhy be considered in any way as the catalyst for the events in the book, or is Japhy's character simply coinciding with Ray's quest for religious identity and beatitude? What do you think of the relationship between Ray and Japhy overall?

Alcatraz is Not an Island.... or is it???

While watching "Alcatraz is Not an Island," I really enjoyed the sense of community and need for change that seemed to drive the occupants of the island. It seems that the island became its own little microcosm, engendering a community that, though founded on the grounds that change was needed, seemed to be based on a very old system of community. The main aspect of the story of the occupation of Alcatraz that really caught my attention was the emergence of the "leader" within the community. The competition for power that followed his departure showed a movement in the community towards just another hierarchy that had to be dominated over by one figure. The occupation of Alcatraz, though it was pioneered by a group hungry for change and intent on victory, ended with an almost stereotypical demise, and when I read about the Indian activist movements that followed on the PBS website, I wondered why one of the first attempts to remind American communities of the history and presence of Native Americans fell through so easily. The only conclusion that I could think of was that perhaps it was too soon for such a new community to attempt a statement so large. I also think that in the back of their minds, every person on that island was wondering when they would be stopped and sent home. On some level, a lot of the activists expected to be defeated, but that didn't change their desire for overall change. Alcatraz was an extremely important statement to the country, and because it was followed by such an abundance of activism, it seems that Alcatraz was only the prelude, it's main cause being to remind people that the Native American cultures still exists and still has power and meaning to those who are a member of it.
Question: Do you think the occupants of Alcatraz were more concentrated on obtaining the island itself, or were they more successful in a symbolistic sense?

As a kind of post script to my last post, I noticed that a lot of San Francisco landmarks are identified more for the legends and pop culture that they can be identified with rather than their history. It kind of makes me think of the modern nature of the city. Any thoughts?

Coit Tower

Coit tower is one of my favorite landmarks of San Francisco. Whenever I go there, I see it from almost anywhere in the city. According to the internet, and especially wikipedia.com (which by the way has great information about San Francisco!), Coit tower has been a major part of pop culture in San Francisco since it was built in 1933. The sad thing about a landmark like Coit tower is that it becomes so commonplace that it is often ignored as just a part of the same old San Francisco skyline. But when you start to look for it, a rich and interesting history is revealed. Alfred Hitchcock said that he used it in Vertigo as a phallic symbol. One legend says that the tower was built to resemble a fire hose nozzle because of it's benefactress's "affinity with firefighters." But in all the years that I have gone to San Francisco for one reason or another, I have never seen or heard very much about this famous San Francisco landmark, perhaps because it seems to symbolize something different to everyone, almost the same way that the city of San Francisco does to all that see it. The Coit tower, though, when taken in the context of the age of imperialism in the city, seems to take on a different meaning. The white art deco tower stands at the top of the city, at the summit of Telegraph Hill, which seems to be begging the tower to be an iconic symbol on the city skyline. San Francisco is to be the kind of city that has more landmarks than it knows what to do with, and all of them come from an age and symbolize that strange era when the city seemed to become it's own country. Seeing the images of Coit tower reminded of some of the ads that Brechin put in his book, again because of those images that invoke a feeling of San Francisco imperialism and individualism.
Discussion Question: Do you think that Brechin accurately portrays the individualistic nature of San Francisco as a city? What do you think of Brechin's portrayal of the city in general?

The Shenevertakesherwatchoff Poem

The Shenevertakesherwatchoff Poem
Because you always have a clock
strapped to your body, it's natural
that I should think of you as the
correct time:
with your long blond hair at 8:03,
and your pulse-lightening breasts at
11:17, and your rose-meow smile at 5:30,
I know I'm right.

Brautigan's poem "The Shenevertakesherwatchoff Poem" caught my eye as I skimmed through The Pill versus the Springhill Mining Disaster mainly because I often feel like the subject of the poem, as I'm sure most people in this crazy modern world of ours do. This poem comments on the state of our culture as one that has become a slave to time and perfection. Brautigan calls the woman in the poem "the correct time," which suggests the idea that not only is this woman the perfect member of modern society, always on time and always living up to the correct standards, but she embraces this fate of being essentially chained to her watch and therefore to her schedule.
The only describing characteristics of the woman in the poem is her "long blond hair," "pulse-lightening breasts," and "rose-meow smile." These descriptions convey a softer image of the modern woman, as well as an ideally feminine one. These soft images of femininity are juxtaposed against specific times, such as "8:03." The specific nature of these times puts further emphasis on the subject's devotion to time, as well as her desire to not waste a single second. After all, doing something at 8:03 exactly because there is another task to be done at 8:05 is a common occurence in the modern world, a world which Brautigan sees embodied in the woman who never takes her watch off.

Question for Week 4: The surreal nature of Brautigan's short story often seem cryptic and extremely strange. They are also often associated with nature and riddled with strange and vivid imagery. Does Brautigan's application of the surreal yet naturalistic (almost Kafkaesque) create a dream-like tone at all, or does it simply alienate in an attempt to confuse or shock the reader?