Blog Post

Chapter 6:

Joe is in Antarctica, enlisted in the navy as a manager radio operator. Joe has been flying, because his pilot died during a 5 day journey between bases.
Why does Chabon shift points of views?

Bruna: He is writing during world war 2 and wanted duel perspectives

Toast: symbolic, joe is not touched with reality any more

Sarah Jane: Joe has a lot of hatred towards Germans

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Quote

Joe tries to land the plane and crashes it and limps out of the plane, and decides that he does not want to kill the Germans. As he attempts to throw his gun, “The American Raised the Gun up across his chest as if to fire in the sky..... the Geologist..... misinterpreted the situation ….. the American had been in the act of tossing the pistol aside.”(pg.464) Mecklenburg is a non violent person who is high on medicine trying to stay awake, preparing for the man (Joe) who was going to kill him. Mecklenburg tackles Joe by mistake and accidentally gets shot.

David: people often act before they think about something

Sarah Jane: following orders, indoctrinated

Toast: Sound of gone gets lost

Mr. Neal: Nothingness, irony Joe in reality kills a German and its not cinematic, but a wrestling match between a Scientist and Artist

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How does Chabon make the last scene very sad?

Joe: hurt ankle, shot in shoulder, and treading through rugged terrain

German: shot, dead weight

Joe is determined to save the German who he just shot.

Jake: “The shock and fragrance of life, steaming red life”- visually riveting, trail of blood

Toast: Mecklenburg’s death is more tragic than the deaths of him family because he did it with his own hands

Courtney: Joe wants to desperately wants to change the situation

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What does Ice represent?

Jake: Vengeance, Hatred
Sarah: Joe has been in a spiritual Antartica while in New York
Mr.Neal: Lack of connection, solitude

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Antarctic expedition, Joe comes across an abandoned hut and sees, a frozen penguin, berries, radio, morphine

Pg. 467-468
“Although the man’s parachute was far beyond his reach. the man was smiling, and pouring a cup of tea.”
-similar to picture Thomas drew
-moving on from family
-needs to return to his own son
-high on morphine
-closure
-forces the reader to compare both Joe’s
-hits reality and understands life

Poorest super hero was Radioman who can travel through radio waves. The Gold key represents when you care about other people and less about yourself and parallels Joe’s situation. Connection between chapter 6 and 7 to the beginning of the book.

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He must learn to think before acting, I personally accuse by brother automatically before assessing the situation.

The next scribe post is Amanda

Brutality Etc.

p. 384

Eleanor Roosevelt
-Joe does not understand that he can't just call up ER
-Rosa and Joe believe that if it wasn't for them, boat wouldn't have been blown up and Thomas would still be alive


Is Joe trying to commit suicide with underwater trick after Thomas' death
-Most likely a suicide attempt
-Irony that Thomas almost died in Joe's first underwater escape, and now he actually dies
-Joe is ashamed that he didn't finish the trick and angry that he was saved

p. 402
Gay party at Love's house gets crashed by cops
-Heterosexual police find a way to break up gay party
-2 G men are predatory gay and force Sammy to perform fellatio by threatening him with imprisonment
-Sammy is hugely ashamed

p. 407/ p. 408
Graphic sexual description
-Used as a metaphor for the intimate relationship between Tracy Bacon and Sammy
-Reminds Tracy of his childhood, and they act childlike
-They then proceed to "get it on like 'Brokeback Mountain'" which is the much more mature form of their relationship
-They then become intimate in the peaceful sense

p. 415
Why does Chabon make the gay rape description so graphic?
-Uses shock value to show blunt, brutal reality of situation
-Huge difference between Tracy/ Sammy love scene and rape scene
-Sammy comes to the conclusion that he is a near-whore and chooses to leave Bacon

p. 421
Rosa chooses to not tell Joe that she's pregnant, then he joins the Navy and she loses the chance
-Night he finds out about Thomas' death
-Sammy convinces her that they should marry so they won't have to kill the baby
-Sammy takes on the role of an undercover superhero for the first time in his life

p. 339
Chabon foreshadows the breaking of the so-called "brotherhood" of Sammy and Joe
-Uses magic as a metaphor for how it's truly fake, no matter the appearance


Analysis:
In this section, Michael Chabon uses dramatic, exaggerated, and at times utterly brutal language to forge the blatant discrepancies between love and hate. Chabon spares no detail when describing events and images, even if they make the reader cringe in disgust. This ultimately has the effect of causing the reader to deeply consider what they are reading and compare and contrast it to other sections of the book.

Sammy and Tracy's first kiss

4/19/11

• Rosa knew Sammy was Gay
• Joe knew but did not want to considerate
• Joe is selfish
• We never really know really who Tracy Bacon is. He is mysterious
• Mysterious origins in comics- power and greatness
• Mysterious origins in real life-  messy problems

p.352

• sammy works at observation deck in the night shift to be somewhat involved in the military
tone of moment of sammy and tracys first kiss:

• electricity- figuratively and literally
• on top of the world
• romantic
• naive
• surprising
• epic and cinematic- like super hero
• symbol for sparks
• homosexuality in the dark so secretive on top of the world. closeted at this time- night
• cigarette- gemstone of heat. make it precious just like the moment
• not threatening- warm and interesting like rosa and joe

p.353

• sparks last sentence
• manly and powerful
• movie its
• “hot” literally
• sparks symbolicly romance

p.380

middle paragraph to the end
tone:
on top of the world, closed off world
the motif of heat is there again- flame
optimistic- own world, future
natural- different intensity
fantasy vs. reality
undertone that they are in the dark

Scribe Post 4/13/11

To start class today, we began by looking for 3 paragraphs of regular plot, 3 paragraphs of style, and three moments that seem insignificant, but are actually quite important.

Here are the moments that the class came up with:

1. p. 287-288: Moment of plot: Letter received from Superman's comic book publisher accuses Kavalier and Clay of copyright infringment
2. p. 208: Moment of style: Descriptive moment talking about inter-twined paths and how it all fits into the story of K&C
3. p. 262:  Moment of desperation wanting brother back
4. p. 255: Sammy is struggling with sexuality when he feels pang of jealousy when seeing Joe and Rosa
5. p. 216: talking about escapist and its importance to K&C
6. p. 275:  Moment of plot:  Joe creates hero, Luna Moth because of his feelings for Rosa.
7. p. 253: Moment of plot:  Joe and Rosa share a moment with an instant connection.  They have their own made up dream language that only they can understand because of their connection.  
1. Sammy see this and also have this connection through language, and now Joe and Rosa have one now and Sammy and Joe's relationship
2. Right before the kiss, "moths scattered"
1. Moth = Death, decay
1. Foreshadowing the decay of the relationship between Sam and Joe
8. p. 178-179:  Moment of hyperbolic description when the Escapist is trapped.  Important line:  "His (Joe's) sense of bureaucracy, of being powerless to help or free his family..."
1. Joe has repeatedly tried to free his family from Prague by going to the consulate but is blocked by "red tape"

and the next scribe post is,  SJ

Figurative Language

4/22/11
- We began class by finding good examples of figurative language.
- "figurative language is language of comparison," - Mr. Neal
- Pg. 372, "Boyfriend...in the other."
- Words "boyfriend" and "moth" connect; they both are evolving, both have sense of entrapment, meaningful, sudden.
- We wrote in our writing journals about this quote and wrote our own analysis of it and shared with the class.
- We watched a short movie trailer for Kavalier and Clay and saw the delineation of one's perception of the novel.
- We did the same process of analysis for page 165, "There was a dank...knock them dead." This was followed by another writing entry in our writing journals.

Symbols in Parts I and II of Kavalier and Clay

What is the Golem Symbolic of?
The Golem serves as a saviour to Josef and Sam because it is the hopes of them becoming rich through creating a comic book. They both want money and despite the fact that they will use it for different reasons, their goals are pretty similar. Golem is an emblem of hope.

The Golden Key is symbolic of freedom. Freeing yourself from your bonds is the ability to make the thing that is hindering you (society, people, YOURSELF,etc.) less important. Being able to have closure on your problems and regard them as steppingstones rather than the “orange warning cones”.

And the next Scribe is BRUNA!

Scribe Post April 2011

Notes on Kavaleir and Clay:

• What are you confused by:
• How does he get to new york?
• travel restrictions put on Jews, he only get to certain places Lithuania still offers travel passes to Jews, goes to japan, then to u.s because they accept people from japan--restrictions on Jews were gradual (curfew, can’t live certain places, walls on neighborhoods, ghettos, taking Jews out)
• Secret society-cabala came out of Prague---golem made out of river clay acts as protector of Jews. Germans were into cult and wanted to find it.
• To find it they acted as census people and asked what their names were and if they were Jewish---they would put star of David on peoples window.
• process of elimination, narrowed it down to 2 apartments P.44-5 “His face took...”---rips up the records of the Jews because he didn't want it to fall into the hands of the Germans
• Activity on figurative language:
• P.49(middle-third paragraph “A generation....”
• Thought apartment was empty, but it was a brothel. Kornblum knew the prostitutes. Stayed for the night. Ask the kids and they know where the window of the apartment is where no one has been seen. Being compared to a young, blank planet. Empty window-empty planet undiscovered, attraction--gravity. Kids have the knowledge, adults don’t. Intensity added to the window by comparing it to a planet.
• P.58 (second paragraph) “For some reason...”
• Description, gone back into parents apartment, dad has collection of oddities. Giant has tailored suit--needed it to put on golem because in Judaism no clothes on corpses. Labels have fathers name on them. Hyphens compared to stylized bolts of lightning. Writing fast hyphens can be curved, connects two words, lighting connection between ground and sky. His father is very important to him. Striking to him how they need to leave. They are in a shit storm. Reading the writing of a dead man--knows his family can die at any moment.

The danger in Prague forced Joe to escape his hometown and leave his family behind. According to wikipedia, 277,000 Jews were killed in Prague. 345,000 people in total. Joe could sense what was coming. Leaving your family behind in a brutal situation is a tough decision I know I wouldn't be able to make. Would you

Scribe Post: February 1

English Notes February 1, 2011

Final Discussions on K & C

-Sammy decides to leave; he is going to L.A. to pursue the lifestyle he wishes

-Joe tells Sammy can’t leave, because Joe just bought Empire Comics; Sammy responds he may be able to participate from afar

-Rosa crying while preparing sleeping arrangements—she has the opportunity to reclaim her lover but is losing her husband and good friend

-Sammy re-writes the card to say, “Kavalier and Clay.”

-In what ways does this resolve major conflicts and issues?

-Sammy is forgiving Joe and has welcomed him back into his life. He and Joe are a “brotherhood” once more.

-Card may also represent the golden key. Sammy sacrificed for Joe and is now going to claim his own life.

-Issues of Sammy’s sexuality are more clearly defined. Joe is aware of Sammy’s preferences and –in some ways- the Senate hearings were a relief for Sammy in terms of “coming out.”

-The end of the book brings more stability and clarity for Rosa and the other relationships—Sammy to Joe, Joe to Tommy, and Rosa to both men

-Parallel story: Mayflower sacrifices everything he owns for the freedom of another, Big Al… In the primary story, Sammy sacrifices a lot for Joe. He led the life Joe was supposed to lead for a while (husband to Rosa, father to Tommy).

-Golem goes from being light to heavy.

-What is Chabon trying to show with the change in weight?

-The Golem is now heavy with pain of loss, with souls of families.

-Golem was used for to protect Jews; millions of lives filled with suffering or loss are in box.

Maury The Decadent Lounge Lizard

Maury, the decadent lounge lizard:

“Decadence“,

the word crawled out of his mouth like a spider

Maury lit his two dollar cigar and struggled for a lighter in the pocket of his baby blue leisure suit

Tossed a cigarette stub that he incidentally found in between the cushions of the cheap red couch as he sunk in

“I prefer to say I have a general sense of exuberance for life ya'know?”

He tapped the ash of his cigar onto a cat that lay on the floor, which didn't even care to writhe – it sat stoically.

“Thats my cat, Cohiba Behike”

I grew uneasy and tried to express nonchalance

“He likes it” he croaked a laugh

“Cohiba is one exemplary animal – aint ya Cohi”

He said as he rubbed the ash into the cat's soft fur

There was an uncomfortable silence,

Maury sat up

“This hotel is run by my progeny you know”

he said brusquely

“The manager is my first, and the kid who cleans the pool is my godson”

I stared blankly,

“They are so goddamn effervescent, ya'know”

Maury let smoke slowly excape his lips and a tear rolled down his cheek

LOVE ;)

I had an affinity for blondes
Yet when I met you, I was captivated by your luscious brown locks
There was a deep, rich opulence in your eyes
A melancholy expression, as if you had given up on love
The effervescence drained out of you by too many heartbreaks
But there was a piercing, sagacious look in your eyes that shined through
I feel a surge of adrenaline pump through my veins when you’re near
The proximity of your lips is overwhelmingly
I have a voracious appetite for you
And although the phrase “I love you” is so very hackneyed
I don’t get tired of hearing you say you love me
And when you walk away, I smile with a cool nonchalance
Only to sit in the corner later, tears unable to give justice to the morose feeling in my chest
I could not supplant you with another love

The Crazy Lady

She was effervescent, but dispassionate to everyone she met
Every move she made was a surreptitious plan
that made the people surrounding her writhe
under her incidental effects
indefatigable under the strongest pressure
She was always dressed in prodigal clothes
even when she was left insolvent.
Then one day she was gone
and her decadent life left a massive hole in the earth
where the misanthropes gathered together
to finally make their progeny

Love

I knew there was something wrong from the morose look he had on his face
When I asked what was wrong he replied with a brusque answer “nothing”
He isn’t a dispassionate person or misanthrope for that matter

When we’re together its exuberance
Prodigal
We were coalesced together for a reason and it was exemplary
He decadenced me when I tried to figure out what was wrong
Something was wrong with that morose look he had on his face


He is brusque, I am courteous
I am exuberant; I greet everything with a smile
He is dispassionate; he greets everything with a grimace
I love him- does he love me?
He is a misanthrope; always pushing people away
And if he doesn’t try to, his moroseness will
He is stoic; he feels no pain, no discomfort
But I know that surreptitiously, he does
He is parsimonious; I am prodigal
I buy everything; he buys nothing
I will soon be insolvent
Why do I keep trying to buy his love?
He will never love me the way I love him
Life isn’t that simple
I just have to keep breathing, keep trying, keep going


The nonchalance of a womens hair
is the progeny of her father
yet she is stoic in the light of distress
while i writhe in the seat of a movie theatre
yet i was parsimonious so there is no popcorn
with the brusqueness of a goodbye
i am no longer dispassionate
yet indefatigable because while she is just one
there are many others, no reason to be a misanthrope
or to be morose
because i am the exemplay human
i have exuberance, I have progeny
and i am voracious
however, i am insolvent
but i am prodigal


Love

Your smile is nonchalant, indefatigable, and voracious.

All at once it hits me, like a sucker-punch to the kisser.

It sucks me in greedily, it never ends, only to gleam at me casually-as if I mean nothing.

I put on a stoic face, I act dispassionate.

But god, I’m writhing in my skin.

Every bone twists and cracks and splits.

It’s hipster and cliché and parsimonious how I act and feel when I’m without you.

And all I need is that one little smirk, slipped to me surreptitiously.

I’m insolvent when it comes you.

I’ll never cash-in, I’ll always be prodigal.

A poem about love

Two opposites on a morose night.
An awful night, their stoic nature gives them light
Their effervescence turns the fog into a the most beautiful time of day in Prague.
The opposites nonchalance is beautiful. Their is no decadence.
They show an exemplary exuberance just to be together.
They keep their love a surreptitious one.
That night goes on forever, the two are indefatigable. Together all night long.
It was a prodigal time for the two of them. Together for only a night.

Vocab poem-Charlie Segar

Passed down to progeny,
Surrounded by an indefatigable exuberance,
Sailing is a past time.
A voracious desire to escape morose and spend time on the water runs in my family.
All five uncles coalesce to make an exemplary fleet.
Their inability to sit still makes them writhe with impatience,
itching for the opportunity to make a surreptitious escape to the water.

The Cat Lady

My neighbor next door is a morose misanthrope.
If you ring her doorbell, her icy, stoic nature will envelop you.
It seems as if there is no exuberance in her life.
However, there is one pleasure.
Her cats: her progeny.
She is the ultimate cat lady; dispassionate in everything else.
Although she is practically insolvent, she is never parsimonious when it comes to her cats.
When the cats play, she writhes on the floor with them.
She coalesces when they eat.
Some days I see her in the window wearing cat ears and a tail.
The cat lady is becoming a cat.

Love

Sometimes it is just fine
To shed the nonchalance
To drop the dispassionate stares
To evict the misanthropic tendency
Sometimes it is just fine
To love

Let yourself roll in it
Consume, with a voracious appetite
That which you love
Let yourself be indefatigable
Let you and your love coalesce
Into a new you

Do not be afraid to indulge
Decadence is not a crime in love
Those who are parsimonious have lost
Those who fear of insolvency in old age
A lack and drought of love
Having burned the jets for so long
Cannot make it far enough

And last of all
Do not simply love
But love deeply
Flaunt it
To be surreptitious
Is to be the one hushing the crowd
At a Stones concert

Cats

Let me be brusque with you

Cats are never incidental

That is true

Cats bring exemplary exuberance

But of course you already knew

My love for cats will never be indefatigable

Please do not argue

When having a morose day cats will make it go away

I have named mine Andrew

Cats are highly stoic creatures

Cats are the best here is a clue

Might as well call cats a prodigal gift

If you have a cat you won’t become insolvent

No need to worry about being voracious

There are plenty of cats to go around!

Scribe Post 1/19/11

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TemK6CF6lF0&feature=related

Yesterday, brave Beaver Country Day children trekked into the unknown. Some call it vast, some call it beautiful, others call it dangerous, but to Joe Kavalier it is simply Antarctica. In part 5 of Kavalier and Clay, Chabon decides to focus on Joe and his life in the Navy at a base in Antarctica. While Joe isn’t fighting arms to arms in Europe with Nazis, it seems as though he gets his chance. After a tragic carbon monoxide poisoning leaving only Joe and another solider, who goes by Johnny, it seems as though they will never get rescued. One long, cold, wintry day, Joe hears German over the radio. Immediately in his state of cabin fever he tells Johnny that he wants to go after the German, who ends up being a geologist. Johnny fixes up his sea plane and the two head off, midair Johnny dies of a bursting appendix. Joe seems to survive and continues on to clash with fantasy meeting reality. All Joe has ever wanted was to kill a German, and while the one he finds is a geologist no less, there is no stopping him. It is when the two meet that Chabon’s focal point changes to the German geologist, we find that the geologist is fond of Americans and is excited to be able and talk in German, “no less” to a young and educated man. A scuffle breaks out, which in short, Joe kills the German. As he drags the corpse through the tundra, it does not dawn on him until he has reached his destination, that he has murdered a man. In that moment, it breaks Joe’s heart to realize what he has done. Leaving his parents behind, Thomas dying, not saying goodbye to Rosa without knowing she was pregnant with his child had not broken his heart until then. The moment Joe struck the German’s head, reality met his fantasy world, the dream of punching Hilter, just like the Escapist does is suddenly not fulfilled. We then find Joe slowly drifting into depression and drug use. In the cabin that he used, tourists later find the picture of Houdini that Thomas drew for Joe, discarded. By leaving it behind, Joe has left go of his family just like he did when he burnt Rosa’s letters and pictures of their child, Thomas.

THE END

P.S. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mq4XILM4Etg
Alexys-wanna pick this up?

Scribe Post for Janurary 13,2011

Today in class we discussed Part IV The Golden Age of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. As a class we came to the conclusion that this chapter was the chapter where everything took a turn for the worst. Sammy was arrested for being gay. Rosa discovered she was pregnant and decided to get an abortion, Thomas’ ship sunk and Joe tried to kill himself.

While analyzing these events we not only discussed them in their entirety but the symbols that are encompassed in these significant events. For example Sammy while with Bacon at Love’s “Gay Men Weekend” not only ran into Ruth Ebling (Carl Ebling’s sister) but he was arrested for being gay. Not only was Sammy arrested he was sexually violated being forced to have oral sex with one of the policemen so he himself would not be arrested. This event made Sammy feel violated forcing him to break off his relationship with Tracy Bacon.

To go back to Carl, Carl Ebling possibly better known as The Saboteur is a villain in life and in Kavalier and Clay’s comic book. Carl Ebling is the person who bombed one of the places where Joe was performing for a barmitzvah. No one would have ever guessed Carl Ebling was a crazy villain waiting for the perfect chance to see revenge on Joe the Escapist. Knowing this we come upon the challenging question of what’s reality and what’s illusion? Mr.Neal brought up the great point that in comic books we know who the villains are, whether they be in costumes or not, in life we do not have that choice. It is not always obvious as to who is the villain and who is the nice guy.

The chapter continues to get worse. When Joe found out his brother Thomas, who had been on his way to New York for months drown in the ship “Ark of Marie”, Joe realized that he could not no longer live in invisible chains, he could not thrive off of illusion through battling crime and history in comic books.Joe’s suicide represented him officially giving up and putting forth no more effort for anyone.

Imo you're the scribeee! :)

Surrealist Poem

Surrealist Poem

Tic.

Toc.

Tic.

Toc.

The sound of my clock goes

Tic.

Toc.

My war torn heart is too messed up and isolated.

Incubated.

Immaculated.

Emulated by my peers because I know how to love.

I’m perspiring because I can’t think of anything that will suffice.

I’m trying to fill a void with cement that wont bond.

All the while we spend our cries

On fickle faces,

On empty gazes.

We can't mistake our places.

And in case you forgot,

Truth sees the last of it.

So don’t wade through all the bullshit.

Tears conceal the empty signs that don’t fit.

Grow louder.

Grow stronger

You can’t wait any longer

But you’ll always be a small boy.

Ticking.

Tocking.

But as the lines go on,

So does my mind.

So does my body.

Inside my head there’s a

Tic.

Toc.

Telling me I haven’t got long.

I haven’t got long to sing my song.

But my mind goes on.

I wonder about the clocks and how monotonous and repetitive their jobs are.

Tic.

Toc.

However I envy their drive

I envy their perfect time.

I envy their realism because whether not you may realize it,

It all breaks down to

Tic.

Toc.

God Dam Italian Looking Spaniards

Hello there

I'm just sitting right here, bodiless, staring into the air

Do you see my eyes? Are you scared?

Where am I? I'm not here nor there

I am nothing but a figment of your imagination

I am a conundrum yet an oxymoron in the brain of a moron

Just look at my hair!

I am Italian, a classic moustache

Yet I am Spanish, and art is my past

Look into me, and you will see a rash

You must keep itching because the pain feels like a blast

Dig Deep, for I am nothing, no reality here

Blue sky, blue water

Look over your shoulder and you will be staring at your peer

But I follow you, while you let me

Because this is deep, this shit is heavy

Egg Sun

Sun set onto inessential water left to our broken sun heart
These boys quietly work patching what we have left
So that one day the soul of our sun can return to its heart for protection from the cold
The eight of them work outside in toward the torn center that fell apart apart.
They don’t realize how little time they have before the flash of green light shines with the sun fall
Hundreds of birds hover above trying to figure out what they have left and where to go
I still sit and watch satisfied with what we all have left.
That the water will always flow and the sun will return.

The man sails his ship
over the waves of the sea
The speck of land in the distance being his only source of hope
The waves crash
The wind blows
and the man drives, determined to succeed

But as he nears the shore,
After all these days of fighting,
he realizes.

His life is the ocean.
His ship and the sea are a part of him as much as his flesh and blood.
And as he steps on to shore,
the ground feels alien.

Because he is the ocean
He is a vessel meant for exploration
And he can not live on land.
And he will never leave the ocean again.