Joy Harjo and September 11th

Joy Harjo's "When the World as We Knew It Ended"

A look at the September 11th poem

As we all noted in class Harjo's line "two towers rose up from the east island of commerce and touched the sky" immediately translated to a line about the Twin Towers. The "east island of commerce" is New York City. I thought that describing the terrorist attack as a dragon was an interesting choice. Oil and fear and the plane; the buildings being "eaten whole". 

Ironically, dragons are originally associated with water. Wells, rains and rivers. They are said to be wiser than humans and representative of the primal forces of nature, religion and the universe. The association of dragons being destructive and capturing princesses, reigning fire down on villages and innocent townsfolk derives from humans adaptations and stories. It is interesting that the fear, wide spread hatred and hatred of dragons comes from humans themselves. It is fear that so often drives us to reckless or dangerous acts. Fear can lead to tragedy. 

"We saw it / from the kitchen window over the sink / as we made coffee, cooked rice and /potatoes,

enough for an army./ We saw it all, as we changed diapers and fed the babies." I was nine on September 11th 2001. We were listening to our 8:30 math lesson in 4th grade when my teacher answered the phone call on the class corded phone by the door. She grew very serious and after hanging up stood at the front of the classroom and told us that the World Trade Center had been hit by a plane. Anyone I've ever asked remembers where they were or what they were doing. It just had that kind of impact. The only other occasion where I've heard people recall with such clarity is the Kennedy assassination. 

Overall I liked how Harjo's post ended on a slightly positive note. That life goes on. We go on.

HOUSE OF DAWN: DISCUSSION THREE!

Discussion 3 for HMOD

Samantha Kin, Shilo Foppes, Dulcinea Lord

• Did you prefer Ben's narration to Abel's?
• After reading the book would you like to watch the movie to see how it compares?
•  How does Francisco's death tie in with the importance of words and storytelling?
•  Do we think Abel's life got better/will get better?
•  Can we connect any characters/concepts with other texts we've read this semester?
•  What is the symbolism of dawn?

Quotes

[...] House made of male rain, House made of dark mist, House made of female rain [...] 

• Why do you think that the rain is called both female and male?

"In the only way possible, perhaps, [Father Olguin] had come to terms with the town, and that, after all, had been his aim. To be sure, there was the matter of some old and final cleavage, of certain exclusion, the whole and subtle politics of estrangement, but that was easily put aside, and only now and then was it borne by a cold and sudden gust among his ordinary thoughts."  - p. 170

• What does this say about the theme of being an outsider?

Characters

Mesa and Larry Littlebird - House Of Dawn film, photograph by Peter Morse © 1970

• Do you think that Franciso impacted Abel's life more, less or equal to Ben?
• Do you think that Abel will ever return to sing House of Dawn with Ben?

Additional Questions

• After reading The Night Chanter, do you think that House Made Of Dawn is an appropriate title for the book and why?
• Do you think that Abel feels fully re-connected to the Walatowa by the end of the book?
• While the ending points out the importance of the House of Dawn song as the title of the other book do you believe that there is another title that could have been used of equal or more importance?

Running!

• Thoughts on the book coming full circle with the running?
• Abel is running until he cannot feel pain anymore. Do you think this is means he has died?
• If this run is running to be with spirits do you thinks a possible outcome he has died and is running to Franciso?

Pulitzer Prize (Pulitzer website)

For distinguished fiction published in book form during the year by an American author, preferably dealing with American life, Ten thousand dollars ($10,000).

• After finishing House Made Of Dawn do you believe it was worthy of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction?

Contemporary Connections: House Made of Dawn and Veterans Suffering with PTSD

PTSD and Me: True Stories From Military Veterans:

http://gawker.com/ptsd-and-me-true-stories-from-military-veterans-1167107848

       PTSD, post-traumatic stress disorder, is a major issue in our society today because it is disorder that is misunderstood and isn misrepresented with a lack of empathy for those who suffer from PTSD. Not all veterans face PTSD in the same way because each person has separate and individual experiences. War veterans have their different ways of dealing and coping with their disability.
     A prevalent theme from the novel, “A House Made of Dawn,” is the hardships that veterans struggle with post-war. Veterans have a very difficult time adjusting and assimilating back to society. The main character, Abel deeply struggles with adjusting after being given many opportunities to assimilate to his new surroundings. The priest, John Big Bluff Tosamah lacks an understanding and lacks empathy toward Abel, because Tosamah has been able to adjust back into the new life, whereas Abel seems to throw it back into everyone’s faces who has tried to help him. Abel lacks an ability to adjust.  All people cope in different ways and deal with their problems in their own way, but Abel is intensely detached from the people and atmosphere around him. Abel cannot adjust as well as Tosamah; Abel becomes an alcoholic and becomes a dysfunctional human to his surrounding world.

      From this article, I found various perspectives of veterans dealing with PTSD. They have all struggled with adjusting into a new environment with different levels of pain and conflict. This article showed how people who go to war don’t always come back as the same person they were before. One of the veterans from this article said that, “All men who go to war die kid, anybody who comes back, well they came back cheated.”
      These people’s stories were relatable to Abel from, “House Made of Dawn.” From the article, a veteran from modern day struggled with drinking and drugs, similar to Abel. The veterans story was that, “after leaving the military, I spent almost a decade fucking, fighting, and having random emotionally erratic episodes and just chalking it up to drinking (I became a drunk) and partying (my family and friends noticed a marked difference in me, but were too worried to mention it to me (temper issues).” This example further demonstrates how some people cope in a negative ways and how many veterans can often suffer through various degrees of PTSD. The veteran from the article almost ruined his family life because of his drinking problem and it took him to get to the bottom to pick himself up for his wife and new born baby. 
      I hope that by the end of the book, that Abel can have some clarity and resolution as a character because his actions can at times be frustrating. The reality of PTSD is that not all people can find a happy ending, but hopefully Abel can fight through his struggles to find some sort of peace. Maybe Abel can open up to the people surrounding him who have tried to show him support and he can realize that he is not alone. 

House Made of Dawn part 2 Discussion Alex and Erin

House Made of Dawn

Written by N. Scott Momaday...

N. Scott Momaday

His most famous quotes

Feel free to share one that you like!

Part 2: The Priest of the Sun
The Communal Search for Identity Continues

Let’s get it out of the way…

Initial Impressions?

- Was this part a more enjoyable read?

- Were the flashbacks more coherent?

- Is Momaday making more sense?

Recurring themes?

- Power of language/speech.

- Nanapush and The Priest of the Sun ->Both exemplified the power of speech and storytelling.
- Others?

Abel’s Grandmother

-What is important about her relating to language and speech?

Her language is “confined to speech”

Important Text

1)

“It represents a very rich literature which, because it was never written down, was always but one generation from extinction. But for the same reason it was cherished and revered.”  (pg. 86)

2)

“Angela put her white hands to his body.
Abel put his hands to her white body.” (pg. 89)

This part is preceded by a powerful sentence at the end of a description of him suffering from alcoholism.
“His body, like his mind, had turned on him: it was his enemy.” (pg. 89)

Significance of the trial flashback?

• Power of language/speech?
• Universal terms - murder and death.
• Abel’s shoes?
• Significance?

Milly

Her first words

“No test is completely valid… Some are more valid than others”

-Thoughts?

What do we think about Milly?

Differences between Milly and Angela?

The Importance of Light and Fire
The next time the Priest of the Sun was going to conduct a prayer meeting.

• Is this scene how you traditionally think of a priest conducting a prayer meeting?
• What happens when the fire diminishes?
• Thoughts on any of the quotes? (Benally's?)

Differences between war flashback and drunken injured scene?

• How did Abel act at war?

I wish I knew Fat Josie

• Who was she to Abel?

Grandma dies and Abel heads back, in heading back a lot of memories are forefront.

• Predictions for the next part?

Thoughts on part 2 after our discussion?

Trickster Class Discussion

Trickster Class Discussion:

Janee Deck, Jodie White, Erik Rasmussen

Introduction to the book:

Our group loved the editor's note at the end of the book because he was considerate of a culture that wasn't his and he put a great effort at keeping the authenticity of each story. He didn't want to culturally appropriate the stories, which showed how he was not a selfish editor.

“The book is bigger than he is; the stories tell so much. The book is a representation of a group effort that brings people and cultures together for a bigger picture and bigger project”

Meaning of Animals:

 https://www.warpaths2peacepipes.com/native-american-culture/meaning-of-animals.htm

Significance of the "Trickster"

https://www.warpaths2peacepipes.com/native-american-culture/trickster.htm

Questions:

1. What was your favorite story? Why? Was it because of the morals it hints to...was it because it was creative and refreshing?
   
   
2. What is the significance of the stories as pertaining to Native American culture? What is the importance of keeping these stories authentic and retold?
   
   
3. Do you think having non-Native-American illustrators ruin or cloud the authenticity of these stories and does it help create a deeper appreciation and knowledge of the Native American culture by Western views? Why?
   
   
4. With the dilemma of cultural appropriation in our society, how do these stories help us create a more accurate image of Native American culture? What do you think we need to do as a society to be more fully aware of Native American culture, then and now?

A Look at the Night Sky

In Search of Darkness: An Interview with Paul Bogard

This is the link to the interview with Paul Bogard who wrote a book that deals with light pollution in our modern world and what possible effects it will have on our future night skies. 
It is a great read so please consider. I would love to hear what you think of it.

http://v-e-n-u-e.com/In-Search-of-Darkness-An-Interview-with-Paul-Bogard  

Contemporary Connections: Tracks and the Dakota Access Pipeline Project

Photo by Standing Rock Rising (Facebook page), taken Feb. 1st 2017

Facebook: "Veterans Return to Standing Rock" https://www.facebook.com/fusionmedianetwork/videos/1809456462413657

Published on Feb. 13th 2017

U.S. Army veteran John Plouff, U.S. Marine Corps veteran Jake Pogue, Texas Army National Guard veteran Roni Mathis, and U.S. Navy veteran Sean Sullivan share their experience thus far helping the Native Americans at Standing Rock, encouraging their fellow veterans to come out and help as well. Sullivan comments, ". . . is the same feeling that I feel whenever we're doing -- when I did good things in the military." Footage is shown of the veterans helping to transport water and other materials. Sullivan additionally comments, ". . . listen to First Nations and indigenous people because they have the knowledge on how to heal and go forward -- heal this country the right way, the good way."

In Tracks, Erdrich immediately captures us with a strong sense of despair. "We started dying before the snow, and like the snow, we continued to fall. It was surprising there were so many of us left to die" (p. 1). Opening with Nanapush's narrative, he says, "My girl, I saw the passing of times you will never know. I guided the last buffalo hunt. I saw the last bear shot. I trapped the last beaver with a pelt of more than two years' growth. I spoke aloud the words of the government treaty, and refused to sign the settlement papers that would take away our woods and lake. I axed the last birch that was older than I, and I saved the last Pillager" (p. 2). However, this chapter was set in the Winter of 1912. In addition to the weakened numbers of their people due to disease, Native Americans struggled with their relationship with the United States government - the Trail of Tears in 1830 forced Native Americans to disconnect with their ancestral homelands and relocate to another area. This relocation killed over four thousand en route. Struggles have not ceased since, with Native American lands now being smaller than ever and with the attempts to lead the Dakota Access Pipeline through sacred Native American land, despite is being illegal. Nanapush is a very wise character -- his experiences in dealing with the U.S. government provide an elder's input on just how much things have changed for them. It was almost as if he could foreshadow the persistence of the government's quest to gain land, but he didn't have the support of large crowds protesting and helping to protect his land. It makes me very interested to see how this all plays out, considering our (unfortunate) new leadership in office.