November 2, 2016 - 00:02
re: the book of salt:
i finished it this morning
...i liked it.
TBoS comes "full circle" in the way it's told -- not focusing so much on a distinct storyline or conflict as much as on the gradual revealing of a character. i ended up with a lot of questions about the ending of the book, because so much of it was so vague. and yet, i'm thinking back to the chinese folk stories i read at my grandma's house when i was really little, and remembering that i always had a similar feeling after those... the feeling that things are left unfinished and that the rest of the story is up to you to fill in.
maybe it's a cultural thing? i'm interested in how the way we tell stories (this seems to be a consistent theme in my posts) is influenced by the culture we bring. it's as if there are different things valued in the storytelling, different focus points. i don't know.
re: class today:
i know we've had this same conversation before... but at the same time, i think it's getting closer?
that is, i know *i* was closer to saying what i wanted to say in this class. i can't speak for everyone.
but i'm very much still processing. maybe more to come later?
some final (random) thoughts:
something i feel like we haven't really talked about in this 360 is class -- specifically, how it intersects with race to affect identities and experiences.
particularly when looking at binh (he's an immigrant from vietnam and a live-in cook who started his independent life as a kitchen boy on freighters)
and thinking back to norris square (we mentioned gentrification, did we not?)
and even going back to getting mother's body (the need for money is the drive for, well, a lot of the book)
i feel as if we haven't discussed the ways that class and race interact with and affect one another,
and i don't know why,
but it seems awfully important to me.