Reading responses to "Shattering of Silence."

I think being mute has a more empathetic effect on the reader.  The reader would not have been as understanding and moved by the denoument of the novel if the main protagonist/heroine were not disabled.  Disability requires a special kind of empathy that not everyone, historically, has been able to provide.  Similarly, not everyone in the world has supported the Guerillas and rebels who want to have independence from colonial powers such as Portugal and Spain.  On page 138 of the kindle edition, Juan tells Faith that she can “…tell him you’re a deaf mute and that you can’t hear what we’re saying,” and this to some effect helps Faith survive the interrogation by Marcelo and his compatriots.  The plot of the story would be altered considerably were she able to speak, which occurs in the ending of the story.  This coincides with the semi-positive ending of the novel, since she’s able to make it to safety, but Juan dies in Prison.

In a more general sense, I believe that for Faith to be mute, it adds a musical element to the novel, kind of like John Cage’s silent piece for orchestra that lasts 4:31 seconds or so, in that the narrator does not always convey her thoughts because of a lot of what is missed if she were able to talk.  This instills the idea of repression into the reader’s mind in terms of gender (she being a woman) and also her being on the rebel side—the guerillas—by the PIDE and the soldiers.  

In “Imaginary Homelands,” Rushdie exclaims that his art and the art of the transnationalist is derived mostly from the past, of the things that one wants to return to out of longing.  Similarly, Karodia’s novel, Shattering of Silence, implements her yearnings and longings, because of the act of understanding one’s own life that takes reminiscing and delving into one’s memory somehow.  But regarding the broken mirror metaphor in the Rushdie’s essay, the Karodia’s novel is about the author’s broken mirrors of his own path.  Because isn’t she the one traveling in a plane back to Mozambique in the prologue in order to return to her homeland?  She has written a protagonist who’s white into her novel and so this character is symbolic of the fact that she’s coming from Western civilization and can only write from the perspective, perhaps, from her heroine, Faith, and as a mute.  It gives her more leeway as an artist to convey her concern for her country. 

Well the Portugueese-run PIDE has been the central enemy to the rebels, (to Faith and her friends), but the Portugueese culture is not painted in a negative light other than its oppressive qualities.  Music, on page 190, is a key example of this cross culture analogy throughout the semester, because Fado music, which I have previously unheard, is part of the universality of it.   We’re all human, music seems to say, and we all want to enjoy a dance; however, this rarely comes to play or existence when there are far more fundamental problems such as housing, finding foster parents, etc., that Faith has to endure.  The enculturation of the Mozambiquenpeople into Portuguese, and thus, European culture, is a question that’s up for debate.  While many of Faith’s friends are Mozambiquen (she’s the only white) and they hold similar positions as doctors, then doesn’t this mean that they’ve been assimilated and encultured by Portuguese culture—just not wholly.  Also, this assimilation process is largely with their consent, despite the fact that the Mozambiquens throughout the novel want independence from foreign control.

I thought Faith’s diction as largely dreamy and dreamlike.  She portrayed with a sort of matter-of-factness, attractive quality, that perhaps, the author envies in a real-life, white friend.  The fact that Faith sleeps with an Englishman, David, and then Juan, means she’s successful with men and understand her sexuality even though she states that she questions her sexuality, but ironically, immediately afterwords, sleeps with Juan and they have sex.  I suppose this portrayal of a white woman as being particularly positive and we don’t get to see her in her negative light.  We don’t get to see her negative qualities, instead, we get the perception of a white woman as what women are expected to be able to do.  

Furthermore, the portrayal of Faith as being supportive of the rebel cause in opposition to many higher-up in the power-food chain, like the Portuguese government, pushers her into theliberal limelight.  We see her as being for the underdog, the repressed, and the poor.  This is something that a PIDE supporter—a supporter of colonialism—would be unable to do.  If that were the case, the protagonist would obviously become an antagonist and the novel simply wouldn’t be the same.

The fact that these relationships don’t mature for Faith is evident of what white women do to men—they leave them in the dust without telling them where they went or who they’re with.  This is perhaps an overgeneralization and a derogatory remark, however, I have personal experience with this issue.  With Juan, he obviously cannot return to Faith because he’s dead—died from being in prison for a year.  With David, Faith leaves him for David essentially and doesn’t tell him where she’s going even though she misses him and thinks about him from time to time. 

​Without the epilogue, I would be left without a strong closure to the plot.  The ending would essentially beg the question, what happened to Faith?  Did she make it to England and did she meet up with Juan?  The ending’s open ended statement, “adious” that came from Faith also signifies a certain healing.  This healing is as if it comes from her dead parents in heaven, who wished her to leave that hellhole of a war-torn country and to go somewhere safe.  This part to the ending is symbolic of PTSD, perhaps, in that one can become healed under the right environment and circumstances.  Being mute is perhaps not entirely a mental handicap, rather, a mental mindset.  

The Position of the Reader in terms of AIs and Interpersonal Relationships in Neuromancer

Daniel Alexander Apatiga

The Position of the Reader in terms of AIs and Interpersonal Relationships

The reader is in a distant position away from the novel, mentally, throughout, because of the narrative's difficulty to be understood until later and sometimes, its tendency to be incomprehensible, to the reader, according to Booker and Huntington.  The novel is difficult to follow at times because of the medical, futuristic science that seems to be dictated in an urban dialect.   In addition, computer lingo is used often that only a computer-savvy person would understand, which has a de-familiarizing aspect to the reader when used in conjunction with Gibson’s writing style in the realm of sci-fi, such as: sheheyuans, jacking into the matrix, ROM, ice, and constructs.  But, the reader is brought closer in the end to the raw emotion of heartache, a subtle theme intertwined into the plot, which positions the reader in a vulnerable spot.  In Neuromancer, the position of the reader picks up a sense of unrequited love, in a way that raises goose bumps because Case and Molly were meant for each other.  However, they will never see each other again. 

The ending of Neuromancer puts the reader in a position of reminiscent contemplation of interpersonal tragedy, in terms of one’s own experiences and memory.  He/she begins to emphasize with his/her external, real-life human relationships, in general, which gives the novel a transcending aspect to the genre of Sci-Fi, making it something that is out of a Shakespearian play.  Case in Neuromancer shares a parallelism between other characters in similar works of fiction, which transcend the genre in terms of tragic effect, such as: Brave New World (the protagonist hangs himself when his love sleeps with too many men or does not return the same feeling to him), 1984 (relationships are impossible because of constant surveillance and strict guidelines by a totalitarian state, and Winston learns to accept the presence of big brother at the café, whoever big brother might be).  This tragic effect displaces the reader’s position on the interpersonal relationship in his/her reality/fantasy, however way you look at it, created from reading this book.  The Cold War, which is itself symbolic of the failure of interpersonal relationships, would have been an issue at the time this book was written, and so Asian diplomatic ties are brought up, and also, the Chinese ICE-breaker, so to speak, almost saves Case from Wintermute/Neuromancer, of whom is not interested in creating ties with China in the novel’s structure.   Some say the Cold War is a political theme in 1984 as well.  Regarding the goose bumps effect, however, created by the novel’s powerful ending, this has been created in earlier works of fiction such as Romeo and Juliet.  The deaths of the hero and heroine in Romeo and Juliet due to family lead to a similar heartache-effect in the position of the reader/audience. 

Neuromancer is set apart from other novels in its genre, hardcore, (arguably), science-fiction (not new world because of the “lack of romance”), because of this; the distant mind of the reader is rarely trying to make sense of the relationship between Case and Molly and Case's earlier love interest.  The reader is more focused on the constant bombardment of terms that are out of sync with the reader relating to future science than with the portrayal of interpersonal relationships.  The conflict between Wintermute and Case throughout the novel is met with constant strength from the relationship between Molly and Case, since Molly always seems to whip him into shape.  In the story, near the fusion event between Wintermute and Neuromancer which it shall be called, the motif of unrequited love returns, epically, because it seems as though Riviera and Molly have a child together.  That child is Neuromancer’s construct in the matrix.  Though how this this even makes sense is part of the nature of fiction—things do not necessarily have to add up. 

            The position of the reader is that he/she dislikes being heartbroken, and when the heartbreak moment comes and passes, it lasts like an illness.   This is something everyone can relate to, and is shared with Case’s experiences with Molly.  The fact that Case never sees Molly again is a tragedy, and also that he chooses to not be with Linda in the end, which is of less consequence, is sad too.  Throughout the novel, Molly is central to Case's life; we the readers get to know her strong personality and characteristics through her interactions with Case.  When Case comes to the realization that he won’t see her again, the position of the reader is left in the dark as to why and how, as it is throughout most of the novel. 

The fact that the mere existence of Neuromancer as Riviera’s child goes against the grain of the entire novel, though it’s in the position of the reader, to consider it as a possibility, given the dystopic world, subconsciously at least.  The reader’s arrogant position that AI are bad when they’re too powerful/intelligent, is turned on its head in the end, too, because of what or who Neuromancer/Wintermute becomes.  But even if it isn’t Riviera and Molly’s child, who are concealing this fact from Case throughout, Neuromancer chooses a face, in the matrix, intelligently since it’s stated that he can basically foresee the future.  An alternative explanation for this phenomena in the book can be that he is foreshadowing Riviera and Molly getting together, though I’m uncertain of this.  Either way, the implications are tremendous, causing the reader’s arrogant, negative position about AI to be rewritten.   And also, either way, questions about the matrix’s symbolic meanings are raised in terms of the reader’s position, which I will attempt to answer shortly.  The reader’s position has been that Wintermute is an evil AI that wants to kill off Case’s team, and has succeeded in doing so.  However, when Riviera’s intentions to seduce Molly become clearer, this shifts the position of the reader to take a stance against him although he was an ally before he backstabbed Case. 

From a different angle of the same issue, the position of the reader before he/she has read the novel is that science is supposed to provide solutions to common human problems.   But science, in this dystopic novel, reduces the characters' humanity and desire for friendship into a make-believe fantasy land—the matrix—that Case can withdraw to.  In this future that is anti-Utopian, because, according to Huntington, “the hacker and the game player, far from disavowing technology, [glorifies] it and [uses] it to compensate for the overwhelming power of the world symbolized by multinational corporations” (Huntington, page 140).  But not everyone in the novel is shown to visit the matrix, and not everyone wants to, which is why I disagree with Huntington’s assessment. The matrix is not necessary for a civilization to survive, but the novel reminds the reader of what the Matrix movie trilogy later spelled out when machines controlled the fate of humanity and sucked the energy out in little womb-like apparatuses.  If you can have everything you want in the matrix, as Neuromancer tried to persuade Case to stay in his fantasy world, why then, didn’t Case take the opportunity if it feels real though it's not?  Clearly technology isn’t so damaging to the human psyche that humans can’t see what is and isn’t good for them.  If you can have everything you want, why not take it if it feels real though it's not?  Indeed, the reader adopts the position that technology shouldn't be too time consuming.

The reader adopts the position that technology needs to be life freeing, which it is not in Neuromancer.  And according to Booker, “the future of capitalism would be dominated by Japan,” and thus, our technological ego would be hurt, which he seems to take grave concern over, would be over.  (I disagree with his thesis argument).  The anti-Utopian future according to Booker, in the end, is reduced somewhat, because the matrix will take over the world and put humans into little womb-like apparatuses, assuming the sequels to Gibson’s trilogy are anything like the Matrix trilogy films.  Then, the concern for Japan becoming a world power, seems to me unfounded, because Japan is a democracy; although the stigma of Japan being an Axis power during WWII could still be a concern of the essay by Booker.  To the reader, the position in terms of contemporary issues seems to be that of a warming towards Asian cultures, and the friendly overtones between Linda and Case.  The ninjas, the ninja weapons, and the matrix, are all suggesting the story wants the reader to not shy away from Japanese, Asian cultures.  But the matrix is symbolic of present day issues relating to escapism and distractions that everyone seems to do and use, aka: tablets, smart phones, fancy electronics, video games, and even computers.  All this time that is spent on playing video games, or jacking into the matrix for that matter, could be better spent making human relationships.   Politically, the novel seems to take an anti-technology position, and thus, the reader absorbs its position.

But aside, for now, from the political morals implied here, which are part of the complex structure of the novel, Neuromancer, the AI, Wintermute, becomes something too powerful, and the reader absorbs this position like a sponge.  Because there are many AI antagonists like in Asimov’s I, Robot series (not the sentient robot but the irrational AI that wants to take over the world at the military complex) or Arthur C. Clarke’s Hal computer that goes awry from 2001: A Space Odyssey, of which is a seeming intelligence that is beyond human control.  The reader’s positions himself in acceptance of all the arguments that Gibson has portrayed: 1) the fact that in the future, there will not be time for friendship, but there’ll be time for work; 2) the fact that in the future, there will be cramped living space with populations soaring; 3) in the future, women will give themselves freely to any attractive man without a second guilty thought; 4) the matrix will provide an escape into a simpler world that is better and more understandable; 5) in Gibson’s dystopic world, sex is meaningless unless one’s married; 5) life will be meaningless, because, in the world as portrayed in Neuromancer, the only mode of pleasure is sex and computers.  It sounds like heaven right?  The reader is not prepared for the dose of reality that Case encounters in the catastrophic end, however.  The novel doesn’t prepare the reader for the worst of the worst, much like the stylistic techniques used in Brave New World and 1984.  Indeed, Gibson employs a stylistic device to shock the transfixed reader. 

Sugar Cane Alley movie

Daniel Alexander Apatiga

                In the film, “Sugar Cane Alley,” Jose’s relationship with his grandmother develops throughout the film from that of a maternal-son relationship, to a grandmother-son relationship, as his grandmother gets older.  Their relationship, which begins in medias res, is a positive relationship that she enjoys cooking for him due to his youthful age and he enjoys playing with his friends.  Although, he does some bad things.  First, he sets the barn on fire and gets all his friends in trouble, presumedly since the scene is in elision.  At this point, his grandmother’s relationship with him deteriorates as he begins to see her as being too possessive perhaps of his time and controlling of him.  When he throws a dish across the dishes that his grandmother made him put out in the sun to dry, his grandmother gets angry, but she deserves it because she made him be late to class.  However, throwing a glass and breaking things is not mature and never solves problems.    

In Sugar Cane Alley, there are no teachers and students who are women, and women are working behind prison-looking bars, in outside appearance, and they do not have meaningful work.  Women are taken advantage because of their seeming weaker state than the bozo men, thieves subjugate them under.   The protagonist, Jose, and the other grown up teachers who help him, Carmen, and Moudouze, do not share their pillaging philosophy, which is why they support gender equality more so than I see other characters in the film.  Despite the fact that there are no women in the school system, the idea of a co-ed school might have been considered, culturally, as taboo, and so this separation of spheres is reinforced and women are portrayed for their homeliness and marriageability.  We do not get to see their intellectual side as much. 

                The film portrays discrimination in a subtle way because it rarely explicitly (though it does state) that there is disparity in economics and power between Creoles and pureblood whites.  The French seem to be the ones who can afford a car and it seems like they all have access to education, for the most part, though not as good as it is today.  Only one Creole, Jose, was able to pass the test to receive a scholarship, and so what about all the other kids who wanted an education?  They have no wealth or low income due to slavery, and so receiving an education was not allowed for them. 

                In Sugar Cane Alley and “So What are You Anyway, the concept of a hybrid or an individual of mixed heritage denigrates different meanings under different contexts.  The context of Sugar Cane Alley can be seen more through the economic disparities that are the remnants or ruins of a slavery system imposed by France.  In the United States, where the setting takes place in Hill’s short story, a married couple confronts a young lady with their negative baggage: racism, anti-bigotry, intolerance, unthoughtfulness, and inconsideration.  The entire discussion is about race for them, though they do not take into consideration what Amy wants to talk about.

                Jose’s character is different than Carmen’s because he’s younger, but also I think he’s getting an education because of his brilliance and giftedness.  Carmen, however, is well off because he appears to have his own home.  Carmen appears to have success with women that Jose does not yet understand, because he’s too young.  In terms of their relationship to Jose’s grandmother, they both share a positive, loving relationship with her. 

                The last line of the movie, “Tomorrow I will return to Fort de France, and I will take my Black Shack Alley with me,” spoken by Jose, seems to suggest that Jose had learned a lot from Moudouze, because that is exactly what Moudouze had taught him: that one day, blacks will return to Africa to reclaim their identity, much like in the “Cultural Diaspora” essay suggests to be true, which is a predicament that explored more fully in in Stuart Hall’s essay.  That was before his death; Jose wants to better understand cultural heritage and identity, too, being a gifted student.   In Rushdie’s “Imaginary Homeland” essay, Rushdie makes the claim that as a transnationalist, one must look into the past to “restore the past to myself” (Rushdie, page 10).   Likewise, Jose looks into his past to restore himself in the aforementioned sentence.  Since Jose wants to be a writer, Rushdie and Jose are both parallel with one another in terms of their interests to succeed.