Final Reading Post

For my last reading post of the semester I decided to go back and talk about one of my favorite books from this semester. If you had asked at the beginning of the class to predict my favorite book of the course I would have immediately said The 50 Funniest American Writers. Surprisingly the excerpt we read from only joking may have been my favorite and judging from the final presentations I think the rest of the class enjoyed it as well.

The reading refreshed my memory of all the theories of humor we had learned earlier in the semester but in a much more painless and humorous manner than Morreall. The theories of humor were one of the most interesting aspects of the entire class and provided a great base for everything we would look at for the rest of the semester. It was just difficult to get remain interested in the topic while reading Morreall. Only Joking was amusing and informative, exactly what I expected from a book about humor.

Only Joking also reinforced one of the other main points I learned during the semester, that the quickest way to kill a joke is by explaining why it’s funny. The authors of Only Joking pointed this out several times and would even warn the reader before they were going to dissect a joke and inevitably kill its humor. Most of the jokes they dissected were actually pretty funny but after reading about the same joke for several pages I was over it. My favorite part of the book was the jokes located at the bottom of every page. They were almost all hilarious and best of all I did not have to read an obvious explanation of why they were funny. These rare moments in the readings where a joke was left untouched and allowed to speak for itself provided the most genuine humor. While Morreall was still educational, I think it was more entertaining to read about the theories of humor as explained by two comedians.

Final Conversation

                I met with my conversation partner Tiffany for the final time Wednesday in Union Grounds.  I wasn't sure where this particular conversation would go but I had a feeling finals and summer would come up in the conversation somewhere. I was a little worried that these last few conversations would be awkward and a bit repetitive after a whole semester of meeting and exploring most of topics.  Luckily this wasn't the case. For me, the later conversations with Tiffany were actually less awkward than the initial conversations because we knew more about each other and she seemed more comfortable and willing to share about her thoughts.

                Our conversation started out about how thankful we were to have finally reached the last day of classes for the semester. We had also both noticed the semester had gone especially after spring break.  Tiffany took one of her finals this week so besides her ESL classes she only has one final left and is already relieved that she is almost done with everything. I could tell she was very excited about getting back to China to finally see her family and friends. She said as soon as she gets back to China the first thing she is going to do is get some real Chinese food as soon as possible.  Her flight back to China leaves Sunday and her dorm is letting her stay a little bit later so she has a place to stay over the weekend.

We had touched on humor in Chinese culture earlier in the semester but I decided to ask Tiffany about it again to see if any of her opinions had changed since the beginning of the semester. She said that from her observations, humor seems to be pretty universal and the people in America laugh at the same things her friends would laugh at back in China. She cited funny TV shows and movies of examples of humorous thing that are similar in American and Chinese cultures.

After our brief discussion of humor , we started discussing the biggest adjustments we had to make for our first year of college and what we had learned in the past year. Tiffany said the biggest adjustment for her was the independence. In China is she ever had a problem or needed something done she could look to her parents for advice or to help but in college on the other side of the ocean she was really on her own. I agreed that this new found independence was a big change but a good one. Tiffany said that so far college has been a lot less stressful than high school in China was. She explained that in China there was constant pressure from her parents and teachers to do well on her tests and the school days lasted from 7 AM to 5 PM.  She has really enjoyed the more relaxed schedule and lower number of tests.  

After a whole semester of conversations I am glad I got to know Tiffany and I had the opportunity for this unique learning opportunity outside the classroom. It was an eye-opening experience to see how Chinese culture differs from American culture especially compared to what I had previously thought about China. I also have a greater understanding of the challenges that a foreign exchange student faces as they go through on a day to day basis as they not only receive a higher education, but adapt to an entirely new culture.

Mark Twain’s Advice for Finals Week

As finals week lies on the horizon and I already can feel the tension between studying and procrastination setting in, I decided to look to Mark Twain for wisdom on the upcoming week. After reading the wit and wisdom of Mark Twain I was sure he would have something to say about the next week.  Oddly enough Mark seemed to be on both sides of the issue. The first quote I came across that caught my attention was

“The secret of getting ahead is getting started.”

Just as I saw in my first round of reading Twain, he is right on the money with this one. Once I get started on studying or an assignment I usually find it is not that difficult and goes by quickly. Some days this is my attitude on studying and I can get quite a bit accomplished, but I can also put off studying for hours or even days if it does not seem urgent. As I was still pondering this piece of advice I found another quote that seemed to support the opposite opinion.

“Never put off till tomorrow what you can do the day after tomorrow.”

I know for me, most of the time this thought will cross my mind before the first Twain quote and studying will often get pushed back. It is reassuring to see that even Mark Twain valued the practicality of procrastination. Ultimately studying over the next week will be a mix of these two strategies, starting early on all the urgent studying and saving everything else for the day after tomorrow….or maybe the day after that.

The last quote Mark Twain quote I found to get me through finals week was a convenient piece of advice for our final paper in LitCiv,

“Substitute 'd**n' every time you're inclined to write 'very'; your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be.”

I don’t know that I would recommend this exact strategy but it’s apparent Twain likes the four letter word that doesn’t exist just as much as Professor Williams.

What's funny?? Kmart Commercial

I realize I already have all my "what's funny" posts are done for the semester but I still had to post this one. I don't have to explain this one too much, the humor in this commercial is pretty straightforward. The obvious play on words here is "shipping your pants" which is repeated many times throughout the commercial. The clever use of words here reminds me a lot of the kinds of things we read all semester in Anguished English, except in this case it is done on purpose for the sake of humor.But enough with the analyzing, enjoy the commercial.

Conversation 6

           I was able to meet with my ESL partner Tiffany again yesterday afternoon at Union Grounds during a short break between classes. Our conversation began again with a few brief remarks on the ridiculous weather which seems to be a different extreme every time we meet. This particular day it was ridiculously cold and had caught us off guard. After that our conversation shifted to our hectic schedules for the end of the year and the impending doom that is finals week.

Tiffany is only taking two classes but has finals for her ESL classes as well. The finals for these classes are a lot longer and have writing, speaking, and listening sections on them, which did not sound like a good time to me.  My finals week is nothing out of the ordinary, five finals in four days each worth twenty or thirty percent of my grade. Tiffany asked me if I had any test or projects during the last of week of classes. I thought for a moment and said “Yep, one in every single class,” as I was just realizing this fact myself.  Most of them were more on the enjoyable side so I wasn’t really complaining. Tiffany had a project due that week for her Survey of Music class but it was just a report on her favorite music so she was looking forward to it. She wanted to know what sorts of projects I had to do for engineering so I explained that right now we are building bridges out of magnetic sticks to see whose can hold the most weight. After that the conversation shifted to the different majors at TCU and Tiffany’s plan for the next year.

Tiffany isn’t completely sure yet but thinks she wants to be a business major. She explained that she still has quite a bit of time to decide because she has a lot of core classes she still needs to take and next semester she will still be taking several ESL classes. She was already nervous for the possible interview she would have to do to get into the business school down the road. A brief discussion about possible electives for the fall turned the conversation to the subject of religion. Tiffany was particularly nervous about this elective because she didn’t belong to a particular religion and imagined a class about religion in America would be quite different from what she had been exposed to in China because most people there she knew were Buddhists. I assured her you didn’t have to be an overly religious person to do well in a religion elective and that world religions might be a good choice for her. She had several questions about Christianity and wanted to know how often I had to go to church which I was glad to answer. She had gone to church with several of her American friends one week and said her favorite part of the experience was all the music even though she wasn’t sure what was going on the rest of the time.  My brother plays piano in Church so as terrible as it sounds I have been sick of “Church music” from an early age because he was constantly practicing in our house. Our conversation on religion helped me to realize how important TCU’s core requirements can be in exposing every student to a diverse set of subjects that they otherwise might not have taken. I glanced at the clock and it was already time for my next class so we both left and agreed to try and meet at least once more before the summer.

Mark Twain

The Wit and Wisdom of Mark Twain was not what I expected it to be but I enjoyed it anyway. The book is structured as a dictionary of quotes arranged alphabetically by topic. The book includes topics relating to nearly every aspect of life so you are almost guaranteed to find something that interests you. After reading through many of the quotes you can really get a sense of the sharp wit and satire Mark Twain is known for. Each quote isn’t exactly what you might expect it to be which offers a cognitive shift and they are almost all clever in their own way. Here are a few of my favorite quotes from the book so far:

“Circumstances make man, not man circumstances.”

“Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.”

Each of these quotes offers Twain’s perspective on certain parts of life. They each point out a truth about the human condition that we ourselves often overlook or are unable to see. The first quote is about how people are often a product of their experiences in life and I have also found this to be true.  Each struggle or success has an impact on that person, their character, and how they will choose to live the rest of their life. The second quote involves thinking for yourself and not being afraid to question the status quo. Often times it is easy to just go along with what everyone else says or thinks but is important to step back and ask yourself if you really feel the same way.

I also picked out a few quotes that offer more of a cognitive shift:

“Never waste a lie; you never know when you might need it.”

“Always obey you parents, when they are present”

Again this is solid life advice except this time it comes with a bonus cognitive shift. With the first quote, most readers are expecting Twain to denounce being dishonest but instead he acknowledges how useful lies can be. In the second quote, the reader is used to hearing “always obey your parents” and by adding “when they are present” Twain says out loud what we usually think in the back of our mind when we are told to obey our parents.

The last quote I chose involves what we have been studying all semester:

“Humor is mankind’s greatest gift.”

From what we have learned this semester, I would agree with Mark on this one. Humor keeps life interesting and enjoyable and perhaps no one knew this more than Mark Twain.

What's Funny? Uncle Drew

For my next what’s funny I decided to pick a Pepsi Max advertisement from last year with Kyrie Irving. The series of advertisements is named after the character Kyrie Irving plays in the commercials, Uncle Drew. For the video, Irving is dressed up and wearing makeup that make him look like a sixty year old man instead of an NBA all-star point guard. Uncle Drew then goes to a park to watch his “nephew” and his friends play a pick-up game of basketball. When one of the players gets hurt, the nephew says Uncle Drew can still play and invited him out on the court. It’s obvious the nephew knows what’s going on and the person who got “hurt” probably does too but all of the other players really think Uncle Drew is an old man. At first Uncle Drew can barely get up and down the court and his shots are nowhere close to going in. By the end of the video Uncle Drew is crossing over defenders, draining threes, and throwing alley-oops to himself of the backboard.

The humor in this video lies in the fact that the other players have no idea who Uncle Drew really is. Initially they’re entertained by how bad he is and that he is actually trying to play at that age. Their reactions slowly change and they are beyond confused about what is going on. Another aspect that makes this video funny is the incongruity between Uncle Drew’s age ad his basketball skill. Ordinarily we would expect an old man to not be athletic so we are amused when we see Uncle Drew dunking.  

One key to the video is how well Irving pulls of his role. He walks and talks just like we would expect a person that age to and he really makes the whole video believable and hilarious.

Conversation 5

I took advantage of our time off this afternoon to catch up with my conversation partner Tiffany at the BLUU. One of the first things we discussed was the bombing at the Boston Marathon Monday. Much like Vonnegut in Slaughterhouse V, we both agreed it was a senseless and tragic act. I was curious if similar incidents happened as often in China as they seem to in the United States so we discussed similar incidents in China. Tiffany remembered a bombing that had happened last time she was home in China in which one girl was killed, but it had happened far away from the region where she lived. She said these types of tragedies happen in China but they seem to be much more frequently in America. She mentioned the shootings in Aurora, Colorado and Newtown, Connecticut as examples of other horrific incidents that had taken place since she has been in America. It is sad to think that these things seem to happen more often in America than many other places around the world.

After talking about this difference for a while, we agreed one reason for the difference is the different types of cultures in China and the U.S. China is known as a collectivist culture and places a greater emphasis on family and group well-being than individual needs and desires, unlike the U.S. which is a more individualistic culture. Even though this isn’t true for every person in either country it could mean that most people in China are less likely to try to strike out at society.

After that our conversation turned towards the nature of politics and government in China. Even though both of her parents work for the government Tiffany does not take much of an interest in the Chinese government but was still able to explain the basic structure and state of things. She explained that China is divided up into provinces much like the U.S. is divided into states and each province has their own government. However, the provincial governments have much less power than state governments here, for example they cannot make their own laws. Another major difference is that four of the largest cities in China are not in a province, but are considered part of the federal government much like Washington D.C. Tiffany couldn’t remember all four of the cities but knew Beijing and Shanghai were two of them.  Tiffany said the voting age in China is eighteen just like the United States, but the drinking age is also eighteen which many visitors to China enjoy. We both laughed and agreed the drinking age didn’t seem to stop too many people in the United States.   

Final Juha Reading

I've reached the end of my journey through Juha and I have to say it was one my favorite books we read this semester. I admit some of the other readings were boring at times but Tales of Juha was a very easy read and enjoyable. I found the last section to be very similar to the first two but it had a few distinctions. As the book switched chapters the stories shifted from being primarily about wives and donkeys to judges and thieves (but still with a good dose of donkeys).  The chapters again showed the many sides of Juha as he portrayed cowardice, and wisdom among other qualities. I thought several of the stories in the Justice and Generosity chapter were very clever, even though they were not that funny. The story about the baker’s coins was especially clever but the story about the man whose cloak got stolen was a bit ridiculous. I don’t think any thief would be stupid enough to just let go of the cloak when Juha said “You, the thief  give the cloak back to its owner.”

My favorite story from this section and maybe from the entire book was on page 142-143. A prince thinks he has written a wondrous poem but Juha is not impressed like everyone else. As a punishment the prince sends Juha to the stable for a month. Juha comes back from the stable and the prince is reading his latest poem so Juha leaves. The prince asks Juha where he is going and he replies “to the stable.” Obviously Juha doesn't like the second poem either and knows the usual punishment for such an offense.

The last chapter was primarily a critique of tyrants with most of the stories  centered around the tyrannical figure Tamerlane. This type of criticism also showed up when I researched Arab humor earlier in the semester. The Arab world is dealing with these types of leaders today and uses humor to deal with their situation just as they did centuries ago with stories in the last chapter of Juha. In one of these stories Juha is asked who is more important the sultan or the farmer. Juha explains that the farmer is more important because without him the sultan would starve. This particular story isn't all that humorous but instead has a more political message about different roles in society.

Overall Juha was a fun character to read about as he switched from scholar, to judge, to thief  to fool, and every character in between.

Afternoon at the BLUU: Conversation #4

Thursday afternoon I stopped by the BLUU to grab some food before my afternoon classes. As I looked around the BLUU for a place to sit I noticed my conversation partner Tiffany sitting at one of the tables, and decided to see what she had been up to. We started off with a brief discussion about the food in the BLUU that day and in general. We were each getting tired of food in the BLUU and were looking forward to home cooked meals in a few months. Tiffany said she is still adjusting to American food and the fact that we have to put cheese on almost everything. I couldn’t help but agree as I finished eating my cheese quesadilla.

I asked Tiffany is there was anything else she was still adjusting to or if she was used to Texas now. Tiffany said she was still confused about Texas weather especially after the last week. I laughed and told her the recent weather was strange to me and I have lived here my whole life. I noticed Tiffany had a set of notecards with her at the table to study for something and asked what class it was for. She explained that she had a Psychology test at the end of the week and was trying to learn all of the vocabulary words.  She said learning the vocabulary was the most challenging part of the class and jokingly admitted the class would be difficult even if it was in Chinese. Tiffany said she also had a presentation coming up in one of her classes she was especially nervous about because it was her first public speaking assignment. I reassured her that public speaking just gets easier the more you do it.

After that our conversation turned to what our plans were for the upcoming summer. Tiffany couldn’t wait to get back to China and catch up with her family and friends. She said she talks to her parents around three times a week on Skype but was still excited to see them in person.  I realized then that I hadn’t called my parents in over a week and should probably get around to that. I told Tiffany I was looking forward to summer as well even though I would be taking classes for a majority of the time. Tiffany said she was going to try to take classes over the summer too but was still waiting to see if the courses would transfer.  At that point I realized I needed to leave for class so I told Tiffany good luck on her test and presentation and that we would pick the conversation back up next time we met.

Thoughts on Juha 1-41

I wasn’t sure what to expect when diving into this book but I found it to be a pleasant surprise.  The book started off with some background about the main character Juha which helped the following stories make a more sense. It was good to know that Juha could take on any number of roles or attitudes and should not be restricted to a single character.  If you didn’t know this some of the stories could confuse you. For instance in one story Juha has his donkey stolen and only a few stories later Juha is the one who is stealing donkeys.

I understood most of the stories and found them to be amusing. Each of them ended with some sort of cognitive shift as Juha acted in a way or said something that is contrary to what you would typically say or do. For instance, to keep his clothes from getting stolen he decides to swim in the river wearing all his clothes. Most of the stories also presented a certain principle or moral. The one that stood out to me was the story where Juha’s donkey was stolen and his neighbors blamed him for it. Juha responds that he will not blame himself and that it is the thief’s fault that his donkey was stolen. The message of this story is that there are some things that are out of our control so you cannot always blame yourself for what happens.

Several of the short stories in this chapter are similar to ones I have heard before except involving different characters and details, particularly the one about interpreting the same signs differently. This is a reminder of how humor is often universal and many of the same stories appear in different cultures but with slight variations.

One of my favorite parts about this series of stories was how many of them involved donkeys. Obviously, donkeys are not a common part of people’s lives today so I found them to be very amusing in the stories. Even though it might be a stereotype, I couldn’t help but think of a small dusty Arab town where everyone had a donkey tied up outside their house and everyone in town was constantly trying to steal other people’s donkeys. I’m interested to see how the book will progress.

Blind Man

Most of us have that one person in our life that can almost always make us laugh. For me that person is my older brother Steve.  Over Easter break, I had to take Steve to the eye doctor so I could drive after he had his eyes dilated. After the appointment he had to wear dark sunglasses to protect his eyes.  After coming back into the waiting room he jokingly looked around in the waiting room like he couldn't see me or anything. This wasn't laugh out loud funny but Steve was just getting started.

 For the rest of the day everywhere he went he pretended to blind when other people were nearby. Several times he brushed against a pole or kicked a trashcan as he walked and other people were walking by. He had the most fun when we went out to lunch. He never looked in the direction of the waitress when he was talking to her and constantly pushed things on the table around while reaching for his fork. When it came time to order he simply pointed at me and said “I’ll have what he’s having” still staring straight ahead across the table.

The funniest part of the entire experience was the confusion on the waitress’s face. At first she really seemed to believe that Steve was blind but as time went on she looked more and more confused about what was really going on. The waitress lack of knowledge that Steve had perfectly functioning eyes is what made the situation funny but I don’t believe this is an example of the superiority theory. We didn't feel sorry for her or think we were better than her; she was just out of the loop on this one. I believe the humor in the situation was the incongruity between what was actually going on and what the waitress perceived.

Stockyards Souvenir Search

My quest to find meaning in life from things I could find at gift shops led me to the Stockyards last week. I browsed through several gift shops and antique stores searching for items that people like Billy's mother could use to make sense out of life.


The first item I stumbled upon was this lamp. This might not be considered a typical trinket or souvenir but the symbolism I found in it was the shape of the cowboy in its design. Images like this with a cowboy riding a wild horse have long been associated with Texas and life in this area. Although today we rarely ever see the stereotypical "cowboy" let alone anyone riding a horse, the image still represents ideals that people from this region value. Depending on who you are, this image could symbolize courage, fearlessness, freedom, or the general wild spirit associated with the old West.

Like Billy's mother, I also found a crucifix in my gift shop quest for meaning in life. This particular crucifix is attached to a box in which you could store things. The cross is probably the most recognizable symbol around the world. It is a universal symbol for Christianity and faith. A cross can also be symbolic for the burden a person must carry in their own life. People look to symbols like this crucifix during times of trial to find comfort. A person's faith or religion is often one of the most important aspects of their life. Just like Billy's mother, even if people are not overly religious or belong to a specific church, they look to the symbolism of the cross and believe hanging one in their house will help instill its meaning in their lives.

 My favorite find of the day was a winged pig I found outside an antique store. At first it seems difficult to find symbolism in such a strange object but this object has a connection to my own life. One of my best friends was given a pig just like this one (but in a different color) as a present for graduation. We laughed about how strange it was and after a while we decided to name the pig Terrence. We started taking Terrence everywhere we went over the next summer and introduced him to all our friends. By the end of the summer Terrence had become our unofficial mascot and was a necessary member at every social gathering. For us, Terrence had become a symbol for individuality and fun. He represented the new found freedom we had during the summer and were looking forward to as we approached college. The meaning you can apply to life from this winged pig is that your life is unique. Just as this is not your everyday souvenir, each person has their own personality and characteristics that separate them from others.

ESL Conversation: Spring Break and Giraffes

I was able to catch up with my conversation partner Tiffany again at the end of last week. We spent most of the time comparing what each of us had done for spring break and what we had been up to lately. Once again in this conversation I was able to see how well Tiffany has adapted to life in Texas and also how there are still a few small gaps in her vocabulary but she is able to work around them easily.

Tiffany was excited to tell me about a recent trip she had made with her friends to a wildlife park where you could feed the animals.  She didn’t know the names for some of the animals but it was easy to figure out what she was talking about.  A zebra, camel, and giraffe are all pretty distinct animals. This reminded me of when I had to learn the names of many animals in my high school Spanish class. We only scratched the surface and I can honestly say I would be lucky to remember half of them.  I know if I moved to China learning the names of every animal would not be very high on my list of priorities. I couldn’t help but feel like my life was a little boring when the most exciting thing I had done recently was eating BBQ with some friends.

My life didn’t seem quite as boring when we started discussing what we had done for spring break. Neither of us made the typical pilgrimage to a warm beach but had found something to do. I went back home to Muenster, Texas and spent half the week camping with my little brothers.  Tiffany had flown to Seattle with several of her friends and toured around the area, seeing the Space Needle and Pacific Ocean. Tiffany had also told me she flew to Chile to visit relatives over the Christmas break so I asked her how she felt about flying so much. I was surprised to learn that she actually doesn’t like flying at all. She wasn’t deathly afraid of flying, but after the extremely long flights she has made back and forth from China she is sick of it. I could count the number of times I’ve flown on one hand so it’s still an out of the ordinary experience for me.

My conversations with Tiffany have changed my perspective on foreign students in general. I had always thought they didn’t get out as much as normal students because I knew I wouldn’t be that outgoing if I was going to college overseas.  But obviously if these students are adventurous enough to go to college in another country, they will find more exciting things to do once they get there.

April Fools

All the talk about April Fool’s day reminded me about a prank my friends decided to pull on me last year for April Fool’s. I got back to my car after track practice and found that someone had taken my radio. After believing it had been stolen for five seconds I noticed a note in my front seat. The note was a riddle that described a location somewhere in town and said I needed to go to that location for further instructions. This note lead to another, and another, and another….and so on.  In the end, I had to go on a 2 hour scavenger hunt all over town before finding my radio. After searching the city park, my school, and even a teacher’s backyard to find clues, I was finally led to my house where the radio was sitting in my room. I didn’t think the prank was that hilarious but I’ll admit I was impressed that they had gone to that much trouble. For me the funniest part of the prank was the irony that the radio was in my room the whole time while I was searching all over town and sneaking into teacher’s backyards. In the end it was just a harmless prank and gave me something to do for the night even if it wasn’t laugh out loud funny.

Laugh Lurking

I made a trip home for the Easter break to spend time with friends and family and took this as an opportunity to listen in and see what really made them laugh. Not surprisingly, after listening to my little brother’s talk for several minutes I found that they laugh at almost everything. There were constant references to their favorite funny tv shows or movies or slight mentions of an embarrassing moment about each other that came up constantly. To most people, the things they said would not be laugh out loud funny but I knew exactly what they were talking about when they referred to Tom trying to climb a tree or Mark falling through a wall.

                Later on I had the chance to observe my friend’s conversations and found they laughed almost constantly as well. They have never been the type of people to take things too seriously and their conversations were no exception. They did not laugh as much at each other but they still used laughter to keep the conversation moving and to let the other person know they had enjoyed what was said.  They laughed especially hard at any quote from Workaholics, which was the main topic of laughter for the night.

                Once I got back to campus I decided to spy on a more challenging set of people so I went to the library to observe a group of studying students. I’ll admit it was difficult to get close enough to a group of people and I felt like a bit of a stalker. I finally got close enough to a group who was working on a project due the next day.  I found that they used laughter quite often as well and in their case they were laughing at how ridiculous they felt the project was and how they had waited until the night before to complete it.

                 Observing these conversations over the weekend helped me realize just how much we use laughter in our everyday conversations. Without it, many conversations would be boring and awkward. It not only signals that we found something funny, it lets the other person know we are paying attention and interested in the conversation. This reminded me of the point made earlier in the semester that laughter is a social experience and that most of the time it is shared between two or ore people.

Final Thoughts on Slaughterhouse Five

Slaughterhouse Five was the first book not including textbooks that I have read cover to cover in quite a while. Although most of the time it seemed strange and jumped all over the place I couldn't put it down. Oddly enough I think that’s exactly what kept me reading. I was constantly wondering what was going to happen next or how the entire story would tie together at the end. So much of the appeal of the book for me was its unconvential sequence of events.

 I’ll admit I was a little disappointed when I reached the end of the book and still felt like it had made no conclusive ending. The bombing had happened but I was still waiting for a more obvious moral message from Vonnegut about the massacre.  One thing I enjoyed about the constant switching back and forth between events in Billy life was how it put life events into perspective. Billy was successful and wealthy by most people’s standards but his experiences in the war and on the planet Tralfamadore gave him a much different perspective on the rest of his life.

Another interesting theme in the story was the lack of free will. This was definitely illustrated through Billy. Throughout the entire story he just went along with whatever was happening to him and did what he was told whether he was being commanded by Germans or aliens. I would imagine this is how it feels to fight in a war, especially if you had been drafted into it against your will.

  For as strange as it is, Slaughterhouse Five does a great job of accomplishing what it sets out to do. Before I read the book I had never heard about the fire-bombing of Dresden and now I have; and I now believe the bombing was senseless just like the book was seemingly senseless.

Man vs Seal

For my first what’s funny of the semester, I chose a picture of Bear Grylls that I found amusing. Just in case you’re not familiar with Bear he is a survivalist expert on Discovery Channel’s  Man vs Wild. Most people also know that he takes a camera crew with him and a team of other survivalist experts with him who are never seen on camera. This causes a lot of people to label the show as fake but nonetheless I’m always intrigued and amused by the crazy things he does on the show. This picture shows a scene where Bear uses a seal carcass as a jacket. The picture also points out the ironic fact that Bear was already wearing a perfectly good jacket. One of the other things I think make this funny is the cognitive shift of him actually wearing a seal as a piece of clothing, definitely out of the ordinary.

First Impressions of Slaughterhouse Five

            Ironically enough my brother had to read this same book over the summer for his sophomore English class. So when I sat down to begin reading it over the break I asked him if he could remember anything about the book. He said that the book was confusing, jumped from place to place, and that the main character gets captured by aliens. This wasn’t exactly what I was expected from a satirical anti-war book but it sounded intriguing so I jumped in. I was almost anxious to see if it made any more sense to me than it did to him. The first chapter was a bit confusing and I found myself constantly wondering when the actual story was going to begin. It seemed odd that the first chapter of the book was about writing the book, but the background helped set up the rest of the book.

            One of the first things I had to get used to when the story started was the main character Billy’s detachment from time. Vonnegut is able to use this throughout the story to contrast different situations in Billy’s life allowing the reader to put them in perspective. Such as when he is being showered in the prison camp and then travels through time to when his mother is bathing him as an infant. One of the most interesting times Vonnegut uses Billy’s detachment from time is when he is watching the documentary on World War II bomber pilots in reverse. When he is describing the factory workers who build the bombs, he says the workers carefully disassemble the bombs and the minerals hidden cleverly so that they “will never hurt anyone ever.”  I thought this line was funny because Vonnegut shows us just how ironic and ridiculous building a bomb is. In his own satirical way he is showing us we would be far safer if we never even took the materials to build a bomb out of the earth.

            The first several chapters did have some humor but most of it was a darker humor. The death of characters seemed to be treated as very unimportant. In one example the characters see smoke in the distance and Vonnegut says “There was a battle there. People were dying there. So it goes.” It is comical how serious events like this are understated in the book and nearly every death is followed by the statement “or so it goes.” I found myself laughing at this but almost felt bad for doing so. It will be interesting to see how Vonnegut uses this dark humor in the remainder of the book and how exactly the aliens will fit into the story.

Barry's Tips for Women

This week’s readings covered a wide range of topics from relationship advice, to vowel deployment, and finally the struggles of a fashionably challenged man. The most entertaining of the three was Barry’s Tips for Women: How to Have a Relationship with a Guy. This story was amusing and educational because although he exaggerated, much of what Barry said was spot on. It gave men and women a chance to laugh at themselves and take a look into the one place they will never truly understand, the mind of the opposite sex. Barry establishes a satirical tone for the story right from the start using cognitive shift when he says it’s easy to have a good relationship with a guy as long as that guy is a golden retriever.

He goes on to spell out the story a Roger and Elaine, a couple who has been dating for six months. As Barry narrates back and forth between the thoughts of Roger and Elaine, the readers see that Elaine is over analyzing every single word, action, gesture, and movement that Roger makes and Roger is off in his own world thinking about his car. Elaine goes home and talks to her friends for hours to further analyze the situation while Roger goes home and eats Doritos. During their conversation in the car, one of the funniest remarks made by Barry is when Roger is relieved to finally know the answer to one of Elaine’s questions.  I’ve had similar experiences talking to friends or a girlfriend where I was relieved to get even one of the questions “right” or understand what they’re even asking.

Barry is somewhat critical of men’s thoughts about relationships but not all men think the same way. Although it’s rare, I have known guys who completely overthink their relationship and analyze every single thing.  If both people in the relationship over analyze everything, things can get complicated and blown out of perspective very easily.  So in some cases it is good to have someone in the relationship that doesn't think too hard about it.

For me the most entertaining part of the story was the mental condition that causes men to fear commitment: “The fear that if you get attached to a woman, some unattached guy, somewhere, will be having more fun than you.” Once again this is not true for all guys, but for most guys that pretty much says it all. Even though they are far happier in the relationship than they would be if they weren't  they tend to think that the grass is always greener somewhere else. They feel like a kid trapped in school watching through the window as all the other kids get to go outside and play. Barry uses exaggerations like this throughout the story which make it entertaining and drive home the point that men and women think differently about relationships.

Vacation '58

John Hughes story of a disastrous family vacation was my favorite story so far from the semester. He was able to capture the irony of most family vacations almost perfectly. Even though vacations are meant to be a chance to relax and have a little fun, family vacations can often have the opposite effect. Many of the most memorable experiences of my childhood occurred on family vacations, both good and bad.  Hughes story started out relatable, as the Griswolds suffered several everyday setbacks. The car was having trouble, Mrs. Griswold might have left the oven on, and of course everyone was hungry or had to go to the bathroom. This average beginning sets up his readers nicely for the rest of the story. Just as they start to compare their own vacation nightmares to those in the story, things go ridiculously downhill in a hurry. Hughes employs exaggeration to really drive home the idea of a disaster vacation.

The situations become worse and worse and so does Clark Griswolds ability to handle them. By the time they have reached California he has robbed a motel, left a relative for dead, and outrun the police. One of the funniest things about Clark’s behavior is the disconnect between his actions and his words. He continues to say positive things about the vacation and remark about how well everything is going even though his decisions become more violent and reckless as the story progresses. Some of my favorite parts of the story are the small glimpses of optimism Hughes puts into the story such as “a glorious desert sunset bathed the tow truck.” I was also particularly amused with the family’s visit to Joshua Tree National Park. Clark makes the family get out of the car and gives them the grand tour. He just says “See…that’s a Joshua tree” and they all get back in the car and continue down the road.

The exaggeration and action reaches a peak when Clark absolutely goes crazy and shoots Walt Disney. It had been foreshadowed at the beginning of the story but I was reluctant to believe it at the beginning. I think the superiority theory could also help explain why this story is so funny. First it makes us think of our own disaster vacations then proceeds to show us things could have been worse, a lot worse. We can now laugh at our own vacations because we are relieved they weren’t as bad as the cross country odyssey the Griswolds endured.

Conversation Round 2

I had my second meeting with my conversation partner today in the BLUU. This meeting lacked the uncertainty and awkwardness of our first meeting but it wasn't completely free of misunderstanding.  We began by comparing our hectic schedules during our first round of tests. Tiffany was relieved because she had taken her two tests the week before and was looking forward to a week of relative peace. I was just getting started and had three tests to go for the week. Tiffany explained that her workload now was lighter compared to what she had during high school in China. She said that High School was taken very seriously and she had to work on homework nearly every night. She also noted that high school sports were not a very big deal in China either. Growing up in Texas, the order of importance was almost the complete opposite in high school. Academics were almost a side note to athletics for a majority of the year.

Our conversation then shifted to sports and entertainment in general. I asked Tiffany, if there are any major sports in China that everyone goes to watch. She said people in China do not flock to major sporting events like they do in America. In China it is much more common to go to a concert or watch some other major entertainer. I began to wonder how Tiffany viewed sports here at TCU. She said she went to the first football game but had no idea what was going on because she did not know any of the rules for the game. I can understand how this could make a football game difficult to watch. While we were discussing these generally social subjects I decided to ask Tiffany briefly about humor in China. She did not go too in depth but said that one of the major forms of humor in modern China is in TV shows. The characters behave in a ridiculous manner or imitate some other well-known Chinese personality.  This is similar to some forms of humor in the United States. I am sure there are other forms of humor in China that we will discuss later.

This second conversation also had some minor misunderstandings similar to the first, most of the time regarding tenses. I asked Tiffany what she did last weekend and she replied that she had no plans for the upcoming weekend. She quickly realized she had mixed things up and told me she had gone out with her friends to eat crawfish. After a quick conversation about how delicious crawfish are we each departed for class and set up our next meeting. 

Conversation #1

On Monday I met with my conversation partner for the first time this semester. I wasn't sure what to expect and only knew I was looking for a girl named Tiffany Teng as I sat outside the BLUU scanning over every potential person. After about ten minutes of waiting I checked my phone and saw that she had just sent me an email saying she was at Union Grounds. After the initial confusion we met, shook hands, and began our first discussion.

I soon learned that Tiffany is nineteen years old and living on campus in Colby. It was a relief to realize my partner would be someone I had quite a bit in common with. This semester she is taking several classes for the IEP program as well as a Psychology and Survey of Music class. After this spring, she will enroll as a full-time freshman in the fall. Her English was hard to understand at first and I had to ask her to repeat a few words here and there. I also noticed more subtle differences in her vocabulary.  For instance instead of saying someone was sick she would say that they had illness.  Tiffany said that she began learning English in middle school but has really had to work on it since she moved last year.  Tiffany said that language was not a barrier for her in her everyday conversations but could be quite a challenge in her psychology class because of all the new abstract terms and vocabulary.

After getting the basics out of the way, we started to compare our hometowns and childhood. Tiffany’s family lives in a medium sized village in southeast China near Shanghai.  She said that the village is crowded but her family has a decent sized house because both of her parents are government officials. Even though she didn't grow up in a huge city, I pictured it as a much different environment than the small spread out Texas town I called home. We then started comparing our families and found even bigger differences.   Tiffany is an only child and explained how China’s one child policy had significantly affected families in China. This was also a sharp contrast to growing up in a family with nine children.  We continued talking about everything from daily life in China to Texas weather and food. I could tell she enjoyed living in Texas but missed several things about China. Our conversation ended and we agreed to meet again next week.

Overall, the conversation had its awkward moments but wasn't as bad as I thought it could have been. The conversation was a little one sided, with me doing most of the talking mainly in the form of questions. Even though you could tell English wasn't her first language, Tiffany could adapt very quickly and pick up new words just from things I had said. I didn't get a chance to ask her about Chinese humor but I’m sure it will come up by the end of the semester.