The Responsibility of Intellectuals (293)

I am making my way through White Teeth. It's really good, the stories are interesting and they connect so well (a pre-cursor to Crash, perhaps?). I couldn't help but see similarities between this book and The Namesake, particularly here: "'Well,' said Joyce...'you look very exotic. Where are you from, if you don't mind me asking?' 'Willesden,' said Irie and Millat simultaneously. 'Yes, yes, of course, but where originally?'" (265) I don't know exactly where it is in The Namesake, but this is exactly what Gogol experiences at his birthday party with Gerald and Lydia. This form of exotifying and otherizing (xeno-izing?) is present in U.S. and England. So, yes, this is something that stuck out to me in this dense book. Happy reading, guys and see you next week!

Names in The Namesake

The Namesake had me as well thinking about names, particularly how somewhere in the transition between cultures something as simple as a name becomes complicated and frustrating.
The scene when Gogol is starting Kindergarten as Nikhil felt all too familiar. Mrs. Lapidus's insistence on understanding why he had two different names despite her brains obvious inability to wrap itself around the idea of names in a non U.S context is something that I've experienced many times. She frowns before saying,

"I'm not sure I follow you, Mr. Ganguli. Do you mean that Nikhil is a middle name? Or a nickname? Many of the children go by nicknames here. On this form there is a space..."

Abimbola is not my middle name despite the fact that it's sandwiched between names # 1 and #3 on my birth certificate. As well, Patricia is not my first name, even though it's name #1. And yet I have always had to explain my name in the context of first, middle and last name.What is it about schools that makes this structure so important?

White Teeth

I read the article by Jhumpa Lahiri that Angela posted, and this quotation struck me:
"I also entered a world my parents had little knowledge or control of: school, books, music, television, things that seeped in and became a fundamental aspect of who I am."
In White Teeth, there's a scene where Alsana and Samad burn Millat's Western pop culture artifacts (records, books, movies, whatnot) in response to Millat's blind embrace of the fatwa on Salman Rushdie. The quotation from Lahiri echoed that scene in a very poignant way--Millat's life reflected this seepage (so to speak) of Western pop culture, but his involvement in KEVIN (admittedly a version of Islam rooted firmly in Western tradition and political history) couldn't counter his bad boy styles despite his father's perpetual hope that he would embrace Islam. Just another example of hybrid cultures of immigrants and their children, prevalent in all of the books so far.
I loved White Teeth. Actually, I've loved all the books so far, though I'm about halfway through the Sherman Alexie book and I don't like it nearly as much. I hope everyone else is enjoying them as much as I am.

Natalie means christmas

So "The Namesake" has led me to think a lot about names recently, starting with the implications of naming things or people as a form of ownership (especially after Dmitri's "renaming" of Moushumi as Mouse because he couldn't pronounce her name, and that her second name comes from a man who represents a twisted form of independence from the predictability of her husband and marriage) or as a form of legacy. Both my sister and I have names that first belonged to another generation of Owens' or Pikes, names that hold significance beyond there literal meaning (if I had to live knowing my parents named me after a holiday I'd be upset). Moushumi's name; a force of nature. Ashima; without borders, a resident everywhere and nowhere. But Gogol is different from the start, and even when he changes it to Nikhil it becomes Americanized, shortened to Nick.

Some particulars I've also been ruminating over during this novel: 1. Food. I loved the way that food was so universally present in this novel, and how particular meals held significance and characterized so much about the moment. Some highlights: Gogol rebelling against his parents by eating with a fork, Ashima's pregnancy cravings and huge party preparations, the extreme food snobbery of Maxine's parents and friends. 2nd thing I've been thinking about: The way the loneliness or alienation of the Indian American characters is often shown in scenes where those character are the minority, and especially how that loneliness manifests in Gogol's relationships with white women. The relationship between Gogol and Moushumi contrasted to this idea, regardless of their commonality of childhood and national identity, because they were still too different to be happy together. These things steer me away from the oft-reviewed sentiment that Lahiri has "once again" captured THE Indian-American experience, THE struggles of first generation Americans. Third thing that kept coming up for me were the ideas brought up about gender and the expectations placed on women in each marriage and relationship. Like Emily, I also saw and enjoyed the film version of the Namesake, but upon reading the novel itself I was surprised by its brilliant focus on Ashima at the beginning and end of the novel. Her loneliness, resilience and priorities reveal so much about the differences between her and Gogol's lives and generations.

Hope you all are having a great break, happy reading! I'm having a hard time getting into White Teeth so far, how is everyone else doing?

Thoughts from Jhumpa Lahiri

This article is from 2006, but I found that she said some very interesting things, particularly towards the end, when she says she "always felt she lacked the authority her parents bring to being Indian." I wonder if the processes of exchange she describes in the article are somewhat present in the characters of the Namesake, both those born in America and those not.

The Namesake

I loved The Namesake. This is my second time reading it, but every word felt new and undiscovered. The book cover boils down the book's themes to: "the immigrant experience, the cash of cultures, the conflicts of assimilation, and most poignantly, the tangled ties between generations." I think the concept that unites these themes is liminality. Throughout the book, the this feeling of in-betweenness is manifest, both spatially and identity-wise (and obviously those are linked). I found some examples. The family upon returning from a trip to India: "Though the are home they are disconcerted by the space, by the uncompromising silence that surrounds them. They still feel somehow in transit, still discunnected from their lives, bound up in an alterate schedule, an intimacy only the four of them share" (87). The literal transition of space and travel leads to a liminal identity as well. This out-of-place-ness characterizes Gogol's experience as an Other and as an adolescent. "At times he feels as if he's cast himself in a play, acting the part of twins, indistinguishable to the naked eye yet fundamentally different." (105). This isn't exactly an example of liminality but I love this quote, finding it similar to DuBois's double consciousness. Additionally, I saw Mira Nair's film adaption of the book. It is different from Lahiri's text, focusing more on Ashima than Gogol, which is an interesting perspective as well. Happy reading guys!

A Year in Review? A Book in Review? A Brief and Wondrous Life in Review?

So, I finished the book on Christmas morning. At first I was confused as to who the narrator (and once I found out, who Yunior) really was, but by the end I was really engrossed in the family's story. But about Yunior, what does it mean that he calls himself "your Watcher" (329) when he is clearly implicit in the family's story, in Oscar's life, and makes references to sci-fi and LOTR that only a true nerd or someone close to a nerd would make? Does he have the right to call himself a Watcher?
I also remained intrigued by the mix of sci-fi and legend: "I know I've thrown a lot of fantasy and sci-fi in the mix but this is supposed to be a true account of the Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao." (285) Perhaps, in following with the review Bimbs posted, as the mythical genre of our time. A myth, in Wao's case, specifically influenced by centuries of Dominican history and culture, as well as the sci-fi, fantasy, pan-national mythology. I might be wrong about this as I don't know a ton about sci-fi. And does it matter if this book is a "true" account or not?
By the end, I really enjoyed the book and I am excitedly onto The Namesake. I hope you are having wonderful breaks.

Emily