Final Paper: Culture Clash and Depersonalization of Style in Orhan Pamuk’s My Name Is Red

Abstract

            This essay will cover an analysis about the theory of depersonalization presented in the novel. I’m going to use Eliot’s theory of depersonalization in art to explain the issue regarding culture clash between the West and the East which then lead to the clash of the miniaturists who are currently working on a secret book commissioned by the Sultan using the new style called Frankish style. One side refused to use the new western style for they want to keep the tradition and avoid blasphemy. The other side tempted to selectively absorb some value from western style that is called Frankish or Venetian style. However, Eliot argued that as one cannot escape from the past everytime he creates art in the present, one has to appreciate the tradition and his predecessor whose influence will always appear in his art. Depersonalization means the creator of art understands his tradition and also aware of the past.

Response 3: Cixous' Castration or Decapitation?

            The story of the decapitation of wives of the king for being disobedient to the order of Sun Tse shows that men do have power to shut the women’s mouth. In the story,  the wives were beheaded after refusing to follow Sun Tse’s instruction They kept on laughing instead of doing what they are told to so Sun Tse decided to decapitate them to shut them up. This shows that the decapitation takes women’s ability to speak. Sun Tse cut their heads thus they don’t have any power to speak anymore. Being decapitated means women lose their head, power, and identity, all at once. Decapitation is used for women instead of castration for the lack of phallus in their bodies. Phallus itself is the symbol of men’s masculinity and somehow it gives them power to ‘decapitate’ women. So the question is, can it work the other way? Can women castrate men? Cixous then mention about men’s anxiety of being castrated.

Response 2: Foucault's What is an Author?

First of all, I’d like to express my confusion into a question that is exactly the same as the title of this text I’m going to make a response of, what is an author? Different from Barthes’ The Death of the Author which said that the birth of the reader must be at the cost of the death of Author (and I wonder why the word Author is always written with capital ‘A’, does it have something to do with God?), Foucault provides a different point of view which I understand as possible relationship between the author and his works. But honestly I am still confused of this idea. Foucault gives an example of the difference between proper name and author’s name. He conveyed the idea of author’s name being more significant than proper name. If author’s name is really that important, does it mean the author defines his works? Or vice versa?

Response 1: Culler's Presupposition and Intertextuality

There are times when you read a book, you feel like you have read the book before. There are also times when you read a book, you find some words or terms you are not familiar with. What do you do? Have you ever tried reading another book with more detailed explanation about such terms? If you haven’t, then you should. Basically, this is what intertextuality is. When you are reading certain book, your mind will direct you to certain texts you have read before, that’s why you might feel like you have read certain sentences in the text you’re currently reading or you are quite familiar with the topic. As for the need for a more detailed explanation of certain terms in a book, reading another book might help you understand the terms better. In fact, a text has infinite intertextuality, meaning that the text can be related to any other texts. However, it is not possible to find the origin of certain text. There is no such thing as originality in intertextuality because as Culler have stated, “The study of intertextuality is not the investigation of sources and influences.”. It rather allows us to decide which texts we should read next

Survey of American Literature Final Essay

This is my essay for Survey of American Literature final task. It's an analysis about 2 poems by Langston Hughes, "I, Too" and "Theme for English B". I know this writing lacks in many ways for my vocabulary is very limited and I'm sometimes lost in tenses, but at least I tried. So, this is my writing. Happy reading. 

Pursuing Equality through Being One True Self

                Langston Hughes’ “I, Too” and “Theme for English B” are two poems published on 1940s (I, Too was published on 1945 and Theme for English B was published on 1949) when the civil rights movement was happening in America. Civil rights movement is a social movement against racial segregation and discrimination towards African Americans.[1] The African Americans struggled to gain the equality in American society. Many African Americans were discriminated from society for their colored skin, they were treated unequally in education, economic, and even before law. They were not able to even give their votes whereas giving a vote means you’re contributing to your country’s development. There was a rule on 1945, stating that only white men could vote in the Democratic primary.[2] For the segregation and discrimination were getting more serious and unbearable, some people started to voice their protest and make a movement. Hughes is one of many African Americans who contributed to civil rights movement. He wrote several books, plays, short stories, essays, and poems as forms of his critics against racism issue.[3] These two poems I’m going to analyze in this essay also contained racism issue where African Americans were seen as the inferior to the whites. They were treated differently in society. In “I, Too”, the writer was sent to the kitchen when the owner of the house had visitors. It shows the different class between the white and the African American. At that time, people only ate at dining table, those who ate in the kitchen were considered lower. This means that the whites didn’t consider the African Americans as equal with them. Meanwhile, in “Theme for English B”, the narrator is a student who was assigned to write a page for English B by his white teacher. It was said that he was the only African American in the class he attended. He wrote a “confession” about how it felt to be the only colored student in class, how he wanted them to see him as a “normal” person, a part of them. However, both narrators of the poems conveyed the same message. They wanted the whites to see them as a part of the society (by society I mean the whites). They didn’t see themselves as the inferiors. They looked on themselves as equal to the white and I found the narrative of the poems quite interesting. Therefore I decided to bring up this topic as the main topic of my essay, that the narrators tried to gain the equality through showing their true selves to the society

Ask in A Box: EXO-K

Well, it's kinda late for me to post this since it's been out for ages in youtube and they have concluded their promotion weeks ago lol but whatever, I have just finished my final exams on last Tuesday and I could have posted this earlier if I had not been so crazy for not having proper sleep for the last 4 days, so yeah I finally got my 15 hours of sleep last night and I feel grand today. That's why I'm writing this post now.
This post will pretty much cover 15 minutes Ask in A Box Interview, but you'll also find some videos here.
First of all, it's really hard to make screencaps of the videos. I don't want to ruin their handsome faces in my screencaps but you know, the pause button sometimes can make you look really.. errr.. ugly weird. The only member who can maintain his good look in every single screencaps I took is Kyungsoo. No, dude, it's not because he is my bias or he is flawlessly gorgeous. It's just because Kyungsoo doesn't blink as much as normal people do. He is always .jpg even in .mp4 because he barely makes any movements. Sehun too, he barely moves, but he blinks anyway. I once watched a video on youtube and checked the comment section. Someone say, "Kyungsoo blinked 8 times from the beginning till the end.". In a 5.43 video, he only blinked 8 times. No wonder his eyes are so big.

Do Kyungsoo, everyone.

Anyway, let's get started.

Chef Soo

I was literally screaming when this scene appeared on EXO's Firstbox. Chef Soo is the most adorable thing on earth I feel like vomitting rainbow all over my boarding house T~T

Squishy Kyungsoo

This is Kyungsoo telling me to cheer up.
But, no, Kyungsoo. You cheer up.

The Kertamandalans

Meet the Kertamandalans!
Yay! Akhirnya ada waktu buat bikin post ini. Agak telat sih ya, but it's okay.
Jadi, liburan kemarin saya tinggal selama sebulan di Desa Kertamandala, Kecamatan Panjalu, Kabupaten Ciamis. Kuliah kerja nyata sih namanya, tapi yaa, anggap aja liburan di desa kayak di FTV FTV gitu kali ya. Tapi disana juga ngga gabut sih. Kerjaan kita dari Senin sampai Jumat itu keliling-keliling ke setiap dusun, ceritanya sih mengamati potensi setiap dusun gitu. 2 minggu pertama kita tinggal di Dusun Kertabraya, letaknya diatas, jauh dari Kantor Desa (oh iya lupa, Desa Kertamandala itu semacam gunung, like, literally gunung), dan karena tempatnya terlalu jauh, 2 minggu terakhir kita pindah ke Dusun Reumalega, tempat Pak Kadesnya tinggal. Setelah bertahan selama 2 minggu di rumah yang kamar mandinya tiap hari bocor di Kertabraya, akhirnya kesabaran kita berbuah manis. Di Dusun Reumalega, kita (yang perempuan sih) dapat tempat tinggal yang.. how should I describe this.. umm.. sangat nyaman untuk ukuran tinggal di desa. With all the springbeds and the bathtub. And it's free. Praise the Lord.
Nah, kali ini saya mau ngenalin teman-teman KKN saya kemarin. Semuanya ada 18 orang. Laki-lakinya 7, perempuannya 11.
Soooo, here they are..

Letter to Juliet

Caution: This post is full of cheesiness I warn you.

My final task for Survey in English Literature: Elizabethan-Victorian Period. I could not think of anything easier than writing a letter to Juliet like in Letters to Juliet movie. I could not bear reading my own writing like wtf did I write. Anyway I just feel like sharing my writing here lol
This is a work of fiction.

Dear Juliet,

          Your love story has been known as one of the most tragic ones all over the world. For you have sacrificed everything for the sake of your love. So I am writing to you now cause I heard that many people sent you letters and they got replied. Well, I guess it is not a bad idea to share my story to you, for you have gone through the same thing and might be the one who understand. Here is my story..