Gang Related

Gang Related is one of the top songs on American rapper Logic’s (aka Sir Robert Bryson Hall II) album Under Pressure. It is a powerful piece written in the perspective of his brother, attempting to subvert the glorification of violence common in hip hop by writing about the criminal activities (especially gang activity) that surrounded him as a child.

This is one of the most empathetic and hence heart-wrenching songs I’ve listened to. Similarly to a lot of literature designed to evoke a sense of undiscovered empathy, Logic chose to write the song from the point of someone experiencing hardship, and in this case, such gang violence and hardships primarily brought on due to economic conditions is experienced by so many yet not understood by many more.

Right from the beginning of the song, Logic comes out saying “Livin’ life like this, Gotta paint a picture when I write like this”, displaying his desire to bring about an empathetic mood through his ability to “paint a picture” of the actual life he grew up in.

This empathy is furthered by the fact that this is being told with reference to Bobby (Logic) as a baby among all this “hysteria”, surrounded by drugs and criminals. Because babies are associated with innocence, the listener is made to feel sympathetic towards Logic or those in a similar situation. In the song, Logic ensures to inform the listeners that this kind of life isn’t in fact a hobby or preference, but something forced on people by ‘the system’. This is emphasized through stating “If I sell a brick [of drugs] I can buy a house; if they find the key they might lock me up; but I take the chance cause I need that s**t and don’t give a f**k”, indicating the need for this lifestyle in order to stay economically afloat; Logic also focuses on the desire to escape when it is said “Hope my little brother make it out, every night what I pray about… Got a son on the way, but I cling to the streets even though I want to run away”, and Logic did in fact escape while many others aren’t quite as lucky.

This song can be used as an anthem of gang life and the struggles of escaping such a life and poverty. Logic’s ability to empathize with his brother and other people experiencing similar issues allows the audience to also empathize as he truly does paint a picture.

Logic's Gang Related

David Foster Walice Munro

Alice Munro is an award-winning Canadian writer responsible for the creation of a collection of short stories which have captured the attention of the world. Her international neighbor David Foster Wallace is a man of many works, be it novels, short stories or essays. One such essay is ‘This is Water’, where Wallace puts forward his theory about a higher education and what it can offer students.

One of the greatest praises of Munro’s stories comes due to the author’s ability to create a story out of ordinary situations or everyday life. Taking a look at one of the stories ‘The Moons of Jupiter’, Munro follows a character as she faces the struggles of a dying father and distant children; this is perhaps a situation which has been experienced by so many, as opposed to a UFO boarding or even a professional sporting career which are experienced by so few or none. Not only does this allow readers to gain empathy for something which many go through, but also displays the author’s ability to create so much out of something which would be considered by many as ordinary.

Already, we can see a clear link between Wallace’s theory and Munro’s stories. Wallace spends a great deal of his renowned essay focusing on a supermarket situation and the empathy that can be evoked if you open your mind to others’ lives and struggles. If it happened to be the woman from Munro’s story in the supermarket, and she was acting slightly out-of-line, someone who adopted Wallace’s theory and could consciously chose how to perceive others would be able to understand her problems or thought process without having to speak to her, thus achieving greater perspective of the world and of the people who are more than just obstacles (as Wallace extensively focuses on in the essay) than someone who finds themselves unnecessarily frustrated at the fact that the universe doesn’t centre itself around him or her. In such a situation, what is going on – or the plot – is secondary to the meaning which can be extracted, similarly seen in Munro’s publications where there is little actual plot or climax which would be expected in fictional writing. Both of these authors choose to derive as much meaning as possible out of something so ordinary, solidifying their positions as the world’s leading writers.

This is furthered by the employment of an omniscient narrator in most of Alice Munro’s stories which intends to make sense of the world beyond the perspective of a protagonist, creating extensive literary depth; such a depth is striven for in David Foster Wallace’s ‘This is Water’, with both writers hoping to see and share with their readers the beauty that can be found in the little things in life. 

Holiday Ramblings #2 - The Squozen One

Over the past 6 weeks, I have addictively watched and listened to well over 100 hours of mindless conversation between renowned Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant and Karl ‘round-headed buffoon’ Pilkington. The group’s unrivalled chemistry on their multiple productions has delivered great moments, but due to the fact that they spent their first few years of togetherness on XFM Radio, they were limited in the language they could use as indicated by the frequently uttered, “Can we say that?”, often followed up by, “I don’t think so.”

This got me thinking about the way in which people are offended by language I don’t consider offensive. In the show, there are countless instances which could easily be considered offensive (generally not malicious) towards groups such as disabled people, homosexuals, and the Chinese without any kind of swearing and often without any remark of, “Can we say that?” This fascinates me in that Ricky Gervais and those above him see little wrong with direct offenses towards certain groups, passing it simply as funny (and it is), yet it is offensive to utter the F-word without directing it at anyone in dissent (such as after dropping a brick on your foot). What is it about certain words that offend people without any malicious intent? If I slipped the S-word into an anecdote in replacement of ‘stuff’, why would it offend anyone? Could they actually provide a valid answer regarding why they’re offended?

I Googled why this group of words is considered offensive, and most people agreed that we created the offensiveness because the words themselves don’t have a whole lot behind them, but rather offense is subjective. In this case, why do radio stations decide what their audience finds offensive? Arghhh this interest of mine is evoking more questions than it’s answering. I’m baffled.

I believe that any language goes. This comes back to what I consider to be the primary topic of our studies: Language and Identity. The worst thing someone can do is feel restricted or feel like they can’t be him or herself, and I know for a fact that the way I speak or the way I speak is a huge part of my identity. This has been the most all-over-the-place blog post that I’ve conjured up, but it’s at times like the end of the holidays where you lack the ability to construct a structural idea, and sometimes it’s nice to reveal the ramblings of a madman. 

Holiday Ramblings #1 - Travelling Innit

When I walk into school in 39 hours and 16 minutes, I will great my friends with a friendly hello, a witty insult, a big hug – no, not a hug. Can’t be publicly displaying that affection can we? – followed by “What’d you get up to?” in which my friends will reply “Travelling innit.” or something of the same sense in their own way. It is a part of international life we have all become so accustomed to. The human traffic (not trafficking) which we all partake in allows us to flow freely between different countries, cultures and communities.

With that in mind, a simple Googling of the word ‘community’ provides you with ‘a group of people living in the same place or having a particular characteristic in common.’ That being said, it is indubitable that in my travelling to nations Germany, Belgium, Netherlands, England, and Australia in the span of two months has allowed me to infiltrate a plethora of communities (regional and beyond). That which I’d really like to touch on is the wondrous Australia, my home country.

When I was looking up the topics we’d covered in this course in my holiday stupor, I came across an explanation of ‘Language and Communities’, including the statement ‘one could argue that a community is defined by its use of language’, getting me thinking about the strange feeling I got just a few days earlier. I was walking down busy Adelaide streets following a trip to Coles for Australia-exclusive lollies (candy) and was amazed by something so simple: the fact that everyone chit-chatting on benches and bumping shoulders with me whilst talking into their ear whatchamacallit was speaking English. This is something I would’ve considered oh so ordinary three years ago but fascinates me today following my international studies.

Coming back to that statement, this swayed my opinions on the place I live today. I have always told my Aussie mates that the UAE lacks the community that in my experience, other nations have (e.g. Australia), and that it feels like a collection of individuals acting in their own interest as a result of the get-in-get-out nature of the place. Reading that statement, many people would affiliate it with the idea of a community being formed through the collection of people speaking the same language, however following my ‘enlightening’, I viewed the same statement with a different perspective, in that UAE is a special community not made up by people speaking the same language all the time, but rather individual cultures and associated languages coming together (and using the same language) to form a functioning economy and system, thus in my opinion creating a community. It is a community unique to UAE I think; I have never seen a community more intricate, but that is what makes it so beautiful. From now on, I won’t spout rubbish about the lack of a community, but focus on the crazy, crazy beauties of this strange, strange place. 

IOCoriolanus

Link to my practice IOC

Personal History Holds the Pencil

Thesis:

Chinua Achebe’s provision of a balanced view of both the Europeans and Igbos in Things Fall Apart is a corollary of the combination of his Christian upbringing and reverence for traditional Igbo life, using paradoxical characters from both cultures such as Okonkwo and Uchendu plus Mr. Brown and Reverend Smith to attain an unprejudiced audience interpretation.  

Topic Sentence 1:

Achebe’s characterization of Uchendu and Mr. Brown respectfully depicts some of the favorable attributes such as openness and wisdom of their respective cultures, providing an idyllic view of both civilizations in order to subvert the foreign view of Africans as primitive and evoke the notion of peaceful colonization.

Topic Sentence 2:

To juxtapose the aforementioned characters, Achebe depicts Okonkwo and Reverend James as possessing some of the antagonistic or unfavorable characteristics such as hypermasculinity and hostility that can be identified with individuals of their respective cultures, removing any idyllic dispositions and providing a realistic perspective based off his own experiences and beliefs.

Topic Sentence 3:

The ways in which the characters of Okonkwo, Uchendu, Mr. Brown and Reverend Smith interact with one another is representative of Achebe’s internal battle of cultures and perhaps problematic hybridity, cases such as Uchendu’s criticism of Okonkwo and Okonkwo’s confrontation with Mr. Smith ultimately allowing the author to create a desired holistic view of both civilizations and groups and how they interact.

Context of Interpretation

Things Fall Apart evokes salient significance of gender roles within the Igbo society presented, hence one’s context of interpretation, consisting of such components as culture, beliefs and time period, will engender differing personal understandings and perspectives of the way in which males and females are delineated.

• Outline of how the culture a reader resides within influences their understandings, perspectives and opinions formed
• The world consists of a myriad of differing cultures, each with their own paradigms, ideals and expectations; such aspects can influence entire demographics’ perspectives formed on the theme of gender roles between the text. 
• Cultural beliefs and values of gender roles differ internationally
• Customs, traditions and expectations and how they relate
• How religion affects views of gender roles within differing cultures

• Outline of how the personal beliefs a reader possesses influences their understandings, perspectives and opinions formed
• Although many personal beliefs would be derived through their respective culture, each individual is different from the next hence their interpretation of certain features and aspects of the novel would also differ.
• How personal views can affect views of gender roles
• How personal experience and the emotions as a result affect views of gender roles
• Personal expectations beyond those of the culture

• Outline of how the time period a reader resides within influences their understandings, perspectives and opinions formed
• People within alternate time periods would indubitably view certain material differently and hence form differing and perhaps opposing opinions and understandings, hence considering one’s place in time and the changes between time periods is significant due to general changes in values, beliefs, expectations etc.
• Highlighting differences between times since the book was written and further in the future and how these may affect the interpretation of gender roles
• Any changes in values, beliefs, expectations etc. and how the former would compare and contrast to the latter