The Brief Wondrous Podcast II

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In episode II of,” The Brief Wondrous Podcast”, we discussed the literary lens of feminism towards,” The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Waos” by Junot Diaz. We compared and contrasted our society, to how the characters in the novel discusses about the presence of women, and how they view women as objects rather than humans.

We have also met a new character! In this podcast we will also be discussing about the new introduced character, Yunior who is Oscar’s roommate at Rutgers University.

https://www.wevideo.com/view/2921471529
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1pPc8bxDgu3CTk4pALo5g3ydaXAYBufbryoQBDovnTHo/edit?usp=sharing

No More Room In Hell

No more room in hell is a podcast dedicated to the book The Color Purple. I this episode we touch on the jarring relationship between the narrator and the main male figure of this novel. This book is not for those with a faint heart.

https://www.wevideo.com/view/2921594927

Kylie, Mehki, Naja

Lost

A Lost Podcast Logo
A Lost Podcast Logo

Today on the second episode of Lost we will be going through the Fifth night to the Sixth night. We will be using our Marxist lens to analyze White Tiger and India itself.

https://www.wevideo.com/view/2920157688

Leo

Ghatak, Maitreesh, et al. “Trends in Economic Inequality in India.” The India Forum, TheIndiaForum, 14 Nov. 2022, https://www.theindiaforum.in/economy/trends-economic-inequality-india#:~:text=For%20the%20most%20recent%20decade,over%20the%20past%2040%20years.

The article I read is about wealth inequality in India. It tracks it through time, starting in about 1990. Something interesting that came up in the article is that the wealth gap has continued to grow since then. The same appears to be true since about 1971. However, in other more recent studies, the opposite is shown. This article showed that the economic scene in India is very unclear, with different articles providing conflicting results. It provides some context for the kind of money and power that the Stork had compared to Balram and the rest of the poor population in India.

Owen

The Educational Fund to Stop Gun Violence. (2020, October 29). Assault Weapons and Large Capacity Magazines. https://efsgv.org/learn/policies/assault-weapons-and-large-capacity-magazines/Links to an external site.

This article gives me more insight into how Marxism is still relevant in India. The caste system in India is a prime example of capitalism and forcing the people in the lower hierarchy or caste into manual labor. In my book the White Tiger, the main character Balram comes from the Halwai caste which is known for only making sweets. But like Marxist once wrote an essay about how the caste system is impeding India’s progress, “the most decisive impediment to India’s progress and power”.

Sam

Yadav, Yogendra. “Revisioning India’s Future? Start with Marxism, without the Baggage.” ThePrint. ThePrint, March 4, 2022. https://theprint.in/opinion/revisioning-indias-future-start-with-marxism-without-the-baggage/856787/.

Yogendra Yadav talks about the rising class of educated Indians, specifically on their view of Marxism. Because of the USSR and China, it’s now only viewed as a radically left form of government commonly associated with Communism and the myriad of stereotypes that come along with it. He hopes to move towards a more positive view of marxism in India, stating, “On ground, Marxism offers us the ideal of equality, an ideal that shines all the more brightly as the world becomes more and more unequal. “ His goal is to employ the Marxist theory in India even with its negative connotations because of the possibilities it could hold for the mainly capitalist society. The issues he outlines are prevalent throughout the entirety of the White Tiger, allowing a reader who employs or understands Marxist ideals to view the true flaws in India’s society.

Tommy

Agarwal, Kabir, et al. “India’s Farmers’ Struggle against Modi’s Government Is Far from Over.” Jacobin, https://jacobin.com/2022/03/india-agriculture-development-narendra-modi-farmers-covid.

This article shows the underclassmen in India fighting against the current government and business people. It is similar to Belrums’ struggle against the landlord that he is forced to work. It also explains how media and Indian culture plays into the perpetual problem. This is similar to Belrum’s Chicken Coup Analogy.

TimeSkippers Podcast - Episode #2

Welcome to our 2nd Episode of Time Skippers!

In this episode, we are introduced to two characters’ stories which will be revised through the feminist lenses. Stay tuned as Diana, Abi, Katelyn, and Luccas discuss their opinions on religion, class, race, and feminism.

https://youtu.be/7ia4Zxp4mOw

Time Skippers
Time Skippers

Katelyn

“Popular Peasant Feminism: We Have a New World to Build in Our Hands.” Popular Peasant Feminism: We Have a New World to Build in Our Hands, 17 Mar. 2022, capiremov.org/en/analysis/popular-peasant-feminism.

Popular peasant feminism is a proposition that changes the reality of inequality in which we live. For rural women, this relationship with nature and Mother Earth is fundamental. Plays a major role in building food sovereignty through agroecology. In La Via Campesina, they are comprehending our history and realizing how it contributes to changing the reality of women in rural areas. They are working to fight violence, because in the rural world, day after day, violence escalates against women. This relates to our book because our book ties gender stereotypes and racism together in a village that they live in while they try to find their identity.

Abi

“Objectification towards Female Characters in Yaa Gyasi’s Homegoing.” Repository.unair.ac.id,

This article was an analysis of the Patriarchy that is present in the book and the tragedies that result from it. It provides additional insight into the book through the analysis of the patriarchy and how it affected the characters of the book. For example, Effia was objectified because of her beauty, and because of such objectification is sold (like a commodity) to the white man that she is forced into marrying. The insight that this source provides in the feminist lens also relates to their breakdown of the patriarchy like in this quote: “Meanwhile, in the story, male characters are seemingly being demanded not to be weak. Male characters in this story are portrayed as great if they involved in women slavery, rape, and even polygamous marriage.” This quote shows the conditions of the society that they live in that make life hard for the women.

Diana

Saungweme, Furaha Joy Sekai. A Critique of Africa’s Post-Colonial Freedoms Through a Feminist Lens: Challenging Patriarchy and Assessing the Gains, 7 July 2021.

While looking for articles to discuss in our book club, I stumbled upon a website that publishes articles. Specifically, the organization is in Africa, which ties in perfectly with the book we are reading. In their ‘About Us’, they state “supported and promoted the consolidation of democracy, human rights, gender justice, ecological justice and constructive dialogue in the Southern African region.” The article, it focuses on how colonization in Africa has affected and created the power struggles that currently affect several African women today. The article focuses on a specific lens that critics and also use a way to analyze the historic importance.

Luccas

Miller, Laura. “A Sprawling Epic of Africa and America.” The New Yorker, 23 May 2016, https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/05/30/yaa-gyasis-homegoing.

This article explained some parts of the book telling the reader how the book is a collection of stories from different family members and time periods as opposed to traditional stories which feature a main character and a time period. Through the feminist lens, the article says that “Unlike the Biblical transgression, however, the source of the curse that dogs an Asante woman’s descendants through seven generations defies pinpointing and straightforward assessments of blame; you might as well shun your own hand.” which suggests that women are to blame for everything that happened with the family which is not true. Things happened because of colonialism and corrupt leadership.

Slaughterhouse Five

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Welcome back to Slaughterhouse Four our podcast on Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut. This week we analyzed chapters 5 through 8 with an emphasis on the historical context at the time.

https://www.wevideo.com/view/2920216034

Annotated Bilbliography

Nick

Eddy, Melissa. “How Dresden Looked after a World War II Firestorm 75 Years Ago.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 13 Feb. 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/13/world/europe/dresden-germany-anniversary.html.

This article was about the way that the bombing is used in modern times to excuse blame from the germans and to say the Americans did horrible things too. The book focuses on the bombing itself which was perpetrated by the Americans and it describes it as a horrific event. However, the author of Slaughterhouse Five purposefully mentions the candles made out of concentration camp victims to make sure the reader still knows the atrocities that were committed by the Germans. I think that the article gives the current German opinion on the bombing which is important because it shows how the city has recovered and changed since the bombing.

Michael

Luckhurst, Toby. “Dresden: The World War Two Bombing 75 Years On.” BBC News, BBC, 13 Feb. 2020, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-51448486.

The article talks about the Dresden bombing itself, how it was not really a unique bombing and that there were several other ones the same or worse. What does make it stand out is the “fire”bombing part. Winds were sucked out by the great flames killing over 20 thousand, and reducing the city to almost ashes. A few thousand tons of bombs were dropped, by about a thousand planes from the British royal air force and the US Air Force. This provides context for what we’ll be talking about, as well as what the book is about. We’ll be able to make a great case connecting the lens we chose to the book, by showing how the authors experience and the way he writes the book, only strengthens and improves not only the insanity and ferocity of the bombing itself.

Samson

Peter Rowe Feb. 7, 2015 11 AM PT. “Dresden: 70 Years Later, Fiery WWII Debate Still Hits Home.” Tribune, The San Diego Union-Tribune, 7 Feb. 2015, https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/lifestyle/people/sdut-dresden-70-fiery-debate-2015feb07-story.html.

The article takes us through a firsthand account of someone who lived through the war and their thoughts on it. Also some historical context and some reasons for the bombing and some explanations about what the bombing was used for strategically. It also criticized the bombing as not effective by comparing it to some similar more modern events. Finally it shows us how some people at the time from the US were sympathetic towards the survivors of the bombing of dresden like the author and the experience she shows us.

The Bluest Eye

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Screenshot 2023-01-10 8.54.46 PM

Welcome back to The Bluest Clues podcast, inspired by the book The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison. Featured in this second episode are B-Band’s very own Jalen Bowman-Whitaker, Michael Rojas-Sandoval, Rylee McMillan, Sarahi Franco-Morales, and Tahlia Nguyen. In this episode, we explore the novel through a feminist lens and go through the topics of power dynamics, masculinity vs. femininity, and gender roles, just to name a few. Listen to learn more!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lmuaHZSFejhypPZJ-D1HpX6wHRUs8N2n/view?usp=sharing

Annotated Bibliographies:

Sarahi: “The history of beauty pageants reveals the limits of Black representation” article speaks on large beauty pageants in America and how the beauty standards have centered on “whiteness” for a very long time. The impact the media have had on the image of beauty is powerful. When a race is continuously excluded from beauty pageants it roots racism in our society. Women of color have historically been excluded, teaching young girls they don’t belong in the media’s definition of beautiful. As we see in The Bluest Eyes these young girls are already wishing they had blue eyes, because they believe that will make the superior and “beautiful” — a sick mindset that is instilled in young girls when they don’t see representation.

Jalen: The article “Feeling Ambivalent about Motherhood is Normal” highlights the obstacles and challenges that mothers can face during their pregnancies. From anxiety and medication to postpartum depression and suicidal thoughts, it reveals to the readers what the dark side of becoming a mother can be like. In the Bluest Eye, we are made aware of the relationship that Pecola has with her family, especially her mother. It makes us question their relationship, but more so question how this affects Pecola as she’s growing and going through her teenage years. She lacks ultimate guidance from her mother, which leaves her feeling empty, hopeless, and self-conscious in a lot of ways.

Rylee: In 1912 the Heterodoxy club was formed for the unusual and proudly unruly women. It consisted of mostly college-educated women, which was a rarity in the early 1900s. A few of the members of the group were married, some in scandalous relations, and others in same-sex unions. These women were known for their uniqueness among society with their “short haircuts and flowing batik-print tunics.” A historian and author named Joanna Scutts wrote a book about this group called “HotBed: Bohemian Greenwich Village and the Secret Club that Sparked Modern Feminism.” The article speaks about how Scutts individually went over each of the group’s most popular members and depicted their leading character traits. Ending her book off with a brief comparison of their life back then, to our life now and how women and feminists continue to fight for the rights they deserve.

Michael: This article has relevance to our podcast and conversation we’ve been having during class because it talks about how sexism fuels like a boys club. It puts these thoughts into the younger generation that they’re superior to the women when in reality it’s not like that. One quote in it is “If you do it, you’re all in.” This is peer pressuring them into doing something that’ll give them validation and power that only a man can give. But in reality it’s just a stupid club they made that excludes girls and makes them think they’re superior to them when in reality it isn’t. It relates to the book because in that time they still think men are superior to women and they do whatever they want to them without them talking back.

READ OR DIE

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Screenshot 2023-01-05 8.08.00 PM

In this episode, our hosts explore the next pages of “The Road.” Listen with us, as we take a look at the book through a different lens!

Fassler, Joe. “Cormac McCarthy’s The Road May Have the Scariest Passage in All of Literature.” The Atlantic, 14 May 2013, https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2013/05/cormac-mccarthys-i-the-road-i-may-have-the-scariest-passage-in-all-of-literature/275834/.

The article is basically about how people in horror know when something is going to be scary, and compares that logic to how the author writes the story. The writer of this article describes Cormac, the author, as someone who makes his story scary without all the violence. “ But he’ll also pull back. He’ll allow some violence to take place off stage, because he knows unseen acts can be as brutal and affecting as violence that’s shown—perhaps more so.” This article breaks down into a lot of detail about how the author of the Road writes in a way where he’s not telling everything at once. This provides context as to why we don’t see a lot of extra information from the characters.

Orlean, Susan. “The Family Issue.” The New Yorker, 17 July 2022, https://www.newyorker.com/family-issue-2022.

Looking through the historicist lens, the reader can see that Cormac McCarthy’s personal life and relationship with family reflect in his writing. The relationship with the father and son is different from being vulnerable. He has children and has been divorced. In the article, it talked about different aspects in life that affect one’s relationship, like drugs, general trauma, and communications.

White, Edmund, and Rudolfo Anaya. “Cormac McCarthy | Biography, Books, The Passenger, & Facts.” Encyclopedia Britannica, 9 December 2022, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Cormac-McCarthy

This article gives background information about the author. Knowing the background of the author explains a lot about why the author may or may have not done the things he does. For example, his lack of commitment to his partners in his life might lead him to write about something similar. Or maybe he wants a better relationship with his kid and uses this book to explain that thought process. Or, his religious preference can cause him to talk a lot about God in the book. This article also gives some insight into his other work, and the reader could make some comparisons to see if there are some common themes between them. 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Maw3k127Nn1uaQoYhkwnPPh327Q99F2G/view?usp=sharing

Friends Not Food Episode #2

On today’s episode, we are investigating author Yann Martel’s identity and how it did or didn’t influence his writing in “Life of Pi.” Listen here! (https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1EAULMISWyyXd6gAG2qBXqujNPMX06rwv?usp=sharing)

Bibliography

Conroy, Catherine. “Yann Martel Finds Jesus – in the Form of a Chimp.” The Irish Times, The Irish Times, 3 Mar. 2016, https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/yann-martel-finds-jesus-in-the-form-of-a-chimp-1.2555423#:~:text=Martel’s%20background%20is%20%E2%80%9Ccompletely%20secular,to%20explore%20the%20human%20condition.%E2%80%9D Links to an external site..

This interview with the author of Life of Pi, Yann Martel, told us about the author’s personal relationship with religion. The novel has many religious themes, the author’s note quoting a man saying he has “a story that will make you believe in God.” The interview states that Yann Martel himself isn’t religious, which gives us a lot to think about in terms of what he may or may not have gotten right in writing such a religious character. It may give us an explanation to some of the more religious scenes that feel very dramatized or inaccurate.

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Screen Shot 2023-01-05 at 12.18.26 PM

All booked

Welcome to All booked as Damola, Cole, and Giann tackle their newest series Things falls apart written by Chinua Achebe. This is part two of three of the discussion of the book.

Annotated Bibliographies:

Getachew, Adom. “Colonialism Made the Modern World. Let’s Remake It.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 27 July 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/27/opinion/sunday/decolonization-statues.html.

Damola: What this article essentially covered was it talked about how Europe colonized most of Africa and what it means for society today. This article gave multiple examples of how colonization set the stage for most of the struggles we face today. How this relates to my book things fall apart because this book is set in recolonized Nigeria and the second half of the book covers the colonization process and how Okonwo witnesses it all. In my opinion, this heightens the reading experience because in the 1950s Nigeria was still colonized and in a way, Okonwo might be a manifestation of what he misses about his country.

Giann: What this covered was Colonisation back in the day and how it affects us today. The reason why it affects us today and our book is because it’s set pre colonized Africa. Also, the article talks about how the events affect us today and why it’s important. With this, we could look at the book through the same lens as how the author is looking at this event. How we can use this for the podcast by talking about how struggles people had to go through and compare with the boo.

Cole:

Raju, Reggie, and Auliya Badrudenn. “How Africa Is Overcoming ‘Knowledge Colonialism’.” The Jakarta Post, 27 Dec. 2022, https://www.thejakartapost.com/opinion/2022/12/27/how-africa-is-overcoming-knowledge-colonialism.html

This article covers how colonialism still exists in a different form in modern Africa. It covers a concept called “knowledge colonialism” where countries in Europe often dominate the science and academic world despite there being many academic breakthroughs from African countries. Many governments in Africa also struggle to fund these scientific expenditures that could improve the lives of Africans. This lack of academic investment leads to passed-down wealth gaps where people who are less fortunate are forced to remain uneducated causing major prejudice. There is also major discrimination against non-European scientists in the academic world where their research that is related to issues that affect those outside of Europe is viewed as nonessential. These factors create a world where Europeans are basically stealing knowledge and scientific advancement for the sake of remaining at the forefront of breakthroughs.

Harpo, who dis women!?

Host- Synai, Seyiram, Devin, Phoebe

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IMG-0613

This podcast will discuss The Color Purple by Alice Walker. We talk about the underline issues in the book. Using comparisons from the movie and real-life history. Talking about the triggers and how a young child is experiencing her life.

https://anchor.fm/sbh20/episodes/HARPO—WHO-DIS-WOMEN-e1t44r4

Toni Morrison Cut The Cheese

Toni Morrison writes about the ongoing experiences black girls and women endure due to living in a white man’s world. The main character, Pecola Breedlove, prays for the beauty of a white girl with blue eyes and yellow hair. In this episode, The Cheese Table digs into Pecola’s life challenges and the true meaning behind them.

Listen here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1iC9gmYoHpGj44DGDH29usbY9hbdpjhWy/view?usp=share_link

In the Eye of the Tiger

Hosts - Jet, Nick, Terrance, Sun-ra, & Nat

In Episode 1 of In the Eye of the Tiger we start discussing the book ” The White Tiger” by Aravind Adiga. In our discussion we talked about the Literary and Figurative components in the book. Listen as we dive deep into our Narrator past, revealing his trauma that feeds into his murderous tendencies…

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https://youtu.be/ojgvEEAZbAw

READ OR DIE

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Screenshot 2023-01-05 8.08.00 PM

Welcome to READ OR DIE Hosted by Samaiyah, Flora, Cindy, and Yahil, we read and review our new book The Road, by Cormac McCarthy. This is episode one of our three episodes on the book.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ILtOfzOj-byRzPmNUzg160dWFL8M8TVg/view?usp=sharing

Behind Closed Doors : Jonathan, Jennifer, Katrina, Lexi

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Behind Closed Doors is a talk through of the effecting touches, curiosity, and discoveries to the reality of Junot Diaz,” The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.” On this episode, we emphasized the important tragedy, and struggles affected by the Wao’s family that are realistic to some, towards the world.

https://www.wevideo.com/view/2915509936