So...recently I've been very excited about the weather changing (since that last post it hasn't rained a DROP!) to real winter and Christmas right around the corner, and I just want to shout it from the rooftops! We had that amazing Turkey dinner, and things have been picking up full speed since then. However, if you asked me to list the interesting things that have happened since then, you would get a bunch of mundane tiny events that just remind me of home (By home, I mean the one in the heart...the one that I am finally finding again over here. The real physical home can wait for a few weeks more).
I am pretty sure something mundane/interesting happened yesterday...OH! Yes, I gave a presentation on Alice's Restaurant, the song, yesterday after that crazy school post. The kids LOVED it. This crazy dude just saying a bunch of crap about some trash and something about Alice. They couldn't get enough of it and really cherished the sarcasm. So it got me asking myself: the idea of storytelling---do you guys think its an American thing? I was listening to an NPR broadcast about the newest Disney movie about Tiana, the New Orleans princess, with the 18 year old I tutor on Mondays. Her first comment was that the story was just so typical of Americans to talk about something as silly as the line outside the Disney store to buy merchandise for the new Black Disney princess. She asked me what consequence it has on American culture...why do Americans need to tell this story? Why do they STILL need to talk about race like that? It was so hard to explain, and it made me realize that "Erzaehlungen" or stories are part of who we are; it is how we understand ourselves and each other. Of course Germans like to talk too (I mean come on, Grimms' Tales...), and of course everyone has a history and a story to tell...it's human. But what about American stories make them so unique? The happy ending, to optimism, the sarcasm? The honesty? The song Alice's Restaurant is a giant, slightly annoying, 20 minute-long JOKE. The whole thing is an exaggeration, but it still speaks to so many peoples' true life stories. Just his everyday stuff keeps people listening to those few guitar measures over and OVER. It's funny ("Kill, Kill KILLLL"). It's serious (the draft, the arrest, the "criminal behavior"...). Above all it's life. It is an American life. And so this silly little NPR story is really about the many little girls who get to see a portrait of one of the many facets of American Life. We are understanding our country and our people through the day to day. A short trip to the mall that will inevitable change those little girls' lives forever because someone thought it was important enough to make their small steps a part of the great American culture.
So as I build my life over here, I hope to keep collecting my own small stories. My favorite place to do this is in my head, or into space as I talk to myself on my bike. I enjoy my anonymity over here for that reason specifically: it's OK if people think I'm a nutzo, because I'll be on the other side of an ocean soon enough. But the thought occurs to me often that my adventures here are not just mine to say creepily on my bike, but ones that can and should be told. They are important, not because I am important, but because telling of experiences can only foster wisdom in the teller and the tellee.
Speaking of the mundane, you know how like ever day in Winter you have to scrape ice off your windshield? Ok...now think about doing that but with a BIKE SEAT. I had FROST on my BIKE SEAT. Oh yeah, and I rode that baby home from the STUPID train station tonight. By the time I got home, both of my legs were completely numb. I am going to have to council with some Eskimos about how to stay warm.
One last thing I wanted to stay because its NUTS! The movie, American Beauty, is on the final exam for English students! Can you believe it! They have worksheets, tests, essays, analysis...all of this crap for one of the craziest American movies I can think of. Now here is where I would like your opinion...do you think this movie does a good job representing the American Dream? Do you see aspects of yourselves as Americans (if you are Americans...not sure what my reader population is), and, being completely honest, do you think this movie represents our society well? I look forward to your comments.
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I think American Beauty is that it is an exaggeration of our American dream, so it does have some very idealized examples of what the average American desires. I'm not sure it's the best representation, however, since the relationship of the couple and their daughter is so messed up from the very beginning - really, the only idyllic parts of the film are materialistic, at least from what I remember. To me, stories that represent the American dream are ones that are aspiring to achieve this ideal, or they have it all and let it fall apart. American Beauty never really had it all, did it? All the characters are just a charade, since they never really fit the context of what the American Dream is supposed to be.
ReplyDeleteWhoo, what a ramble. But I guess, then, this film does kind of fit into the American dream category. I can understand why it is up for serious analysis, but seriously: I really don't think it's appropriate for high school students, no matter what level of class they're in. I believe there are other "American dream" films that more accurately present what this means to us, but I can't think of any off the top of my head that were Oscar-nominated ones. (And I'm guessing the Oscar scale is how AP chooses its films deemed worthy of analysis, since it seems that Pulitzer prize novels are the equivalent. All the AP books I was suggested to analyze for Lit were P. winners.)
ANYWAY. You are so wise, Sadie! Also, the new banner is positively awesome. Makes me miss you and that face!
xoxo,
Claire
I agree...it may be a good film, but not appropriate in my mind. I would like them to learn more about immigration...families coming over from Europe and trying to make a living (successfully and not successfully). And it doesnt have to be a positive outlook either...I think something like Fast Food Nation, however gross and depressing it may be, gives a more honest look at life in the US.
ReplyDeleteI found American Beauty to be insulting. The vulgarity of it was unrealistic and not mainstream. I am very disappointed to hear that is being taught in German high schools.
ReplyDeleteI like what Claire said about the characters being a charade
something more appropriate and that appeals to a wider audience, something that takes the good with the bad in a positive way...The Truman Show? This movie would show the way people aspire to be an ideal but also bring in the celebrity aspect...and comedy. Similar points of study but with less nudity and language.