The violence, brutality, and plot twists in On Such a Full Sea reminded me of Wyclef’s and T.I.’s verses on “Slow Down”. In the song they grapple with how to manuver their lives with caution in a state of instability. You can be betrayed at any time, even by those closest to you.
We cry for peace but we live for war (You know I got that chopper in the Chevy, what it is?) We ain’t start the wiretaps, down in Baltimore (But I’m still slangin bricks where I live)
Sometimes she love me, sometimes she love me not
(Doing ten, now my girl turning tricks at the crib) Bullet take out those eyes, when they in the city Chi’ (Lay it down ASAP or e’rybody getting killed) Evil lurks, in the heavenly disguise (Trying to get the root of all evil, ’bout a mill’)
I seen two birds, crash into two New York giants
(Bush still lying, he don’t never keep it real)
I wish Katrina spoke French at the Quarter to New Orleans
(Haha, what you’da told her daddy?)
I woulda spoke French back, seduced her stoned (okay)
Told her “Je t’aime!”, please don’t rain on my people~!
[Hook: Wyclef Jean] + (T.I.) Where’d the hope go? Where’d the hope go (I don’t know) I seen the whole world turn into a war zone (what?) Ain’t no love in the city keep your vest on (that right) Guns ‘n Roses, “Welcome to the Jungle”
On the flip side she shaking her back side (shake it for me)
That’s the only way tuition gon’ come right
He got a crush on Mary Jean
Unless you got five on she ain’t doing her thang
(Come on, you know you need to)
Slow down, young girl
Keep it real hon, got to keep it real hon Unless she slow down, somebody gon’ crash
As you walk through the Ag Quad and Arts Quad later today, you might wonder what the red dresses are all about. Red dresses have become a symbol for bringing awareness to the epidemic of missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls, and Two-Spirit in the U.S. and Canada. Native American and Indigenous Students at Cornell (NAISAC) have organized this installation of artist Jaime Black’s (Anishinaabe and Finnish) work.
As part of this project, NAISAC has brought Jaime Black to campus to talk about this disturbing issue and her work today (Monday, 10/21) from 5-7 PM in the Statler Auditorium.
At 6 PM on Wednesday, 10/23, Della Keahna Uran (White Earth Anishinaabe and Meskwaki) will dance on the Ag Quad, and Cleo Keahna Warrior (White Earth Anishinaabe and Meskwaki) will be singing for this event to close out the installation.
In my close reading for this week I argue that On Such a Full Sea is a commentary on the destructive impacts of capitalism. When I searched “anti capitalism song” into the Youtube search bar I found this odd gem. Enjoy!
I feel that this song could be an anthem for B-Mor as it emphasizes the value of living an average day-to-day life. I remember being annoyed with the lyrics when I first looked them over in high school because I felt that they were encouraging listeners to accept a boring life and to not dream big. I’ve included the English translation of the full song lyrics below.
The time when I was fed up with my monotonous life
I constantly wandered around searching for new inspiration
I could obtain any dream at anytime I wanted
I was filled with thoughts of confidence
However
Every time I live flowing and being swept by the wave of people
I encounter countless ways of life and
I begin creating my own meaning of happiness
Then I finally figured it out
The thing more important than a fantasy
An average day-to-day life is my most prized possession
Living a peaceful life is the meaning of happiness
WOAH
I pray that it will continue like this for longer than an eternity
I’ll make a wish to the stars
That it will always go on like this
No matter the person, feelings isn’t just one thing
It’s several intertwining thoughts that alternately continue to change
I feel the now, the present
As long as these feelings become our future
It’ll subtly start trembling…possibly
But the thing that must be important
Was the time I continued to accumulate
These feelings for myself
These thoughts will serve as the stepping stones of tomorrow
That’s why its the present that counts
The feeling of a moment that lasts a lifetime!
An average day-to-day life means everything to me
Living a casual life is the greatest present
WOAH
Someday this feeling will be erased but
I am certain of these feelings that I’m feeling
Today, recently
An average day-to-day life is my most prized possession
Living a peaceful life is the meaning of happiness
WOAH
I pray that it will continue like this for longer than an eternity
I’ll make a wish to the stars
That it will always go on like this
As I was looking for a video of the song, I realized that this is actually a cover of a 1999 song written and performed by a comedian, which makes me wonder if the lyrics are supposed to be a joke or social commentary. A video of the performance by the original artist, Okamura Takashi, is below:
I was torn between posting this song and “Wareta Ringo” by Taneda Risa, the ending song for the anime Shin Sekai Yori (From the New World), which is a dystopian story adopted from a novel of the same title. The title is actually inspired by the same Dvorak symphony (the New World Symphony) referenced in Dark Princess that I posted about while we were reading that novel. Like On Such a Full Sea, Shin Sekai Yori is also set in the future. It is focused on a highly regulated riverside town where people aren’t allowed to stray beyond the borders. The protagonist’s friend (who is also the love of her life) ends up leaving/going missing (as do other children), which is seen as normal part of their society. This reminded me of Reg going missing, and like Fan, the main characters then set out to find out the truth about their world, to the quiet shock of everyone else in the community. The show deals with topics such as what it means to be human, hierarchical societies, and one’s role and responsibilities within a community.
“Wareta Ringo” is sung by the protagonist’s voice actress and is meant to be from the protagonist’s point of view. I feel that this point of view aligns fairly well with Fan’s given their similar situations. Here’s a translation of the lyrics:
Deep within my chest, I carry
A green apple that brings tears to my eyes.
Falling over, (even if I get hurt)
Pretending to be strong,
I glare at the restrictive sky.
I’m not going to just wait obediently
For destiny to ripen it.
Let a thousand winds (I struggle,)
Blow and blow. (I scream,)
I am (But even so,)
A soap bubble. (I believe.)
I stand and fight (I rise up)
In the face of (And come down,)
The unexpected storm, (But even so,)
A soap bubble. (I live on.)
The moment I burst,
I’ll release a rainbow.
Earnestly (in spite of the pain)
Water
The cracked seed of the dream;
Kick to pieces (while you tremble)
Your indecision;
And one day, take hold of the sky.
Do you really think I’ll just behave
And bloom in someone else’s flower bed?
Gazing (I’m about to fall,)
At the sun, (About to break,)
I am (But even so,)
A wild flower. (I won’t stop.)
Blooming (I’m being toyed with,)
On a cliff, (In disarray,)
A nameless (But even so,)
Wild flower. (I won’t lose.)
I want to be picked
While I’m beautiful.
(I’m not afraid.)
(That isn’t a lie.)
(But still…)
If the apple of my heart
Will split apart, let it be green.
Let a thousand winds (I struggle,)
Blow and blow. (I scream,)
I am (But even so,)
A soap bubble. (I believe.)
I stand and fight (I rise up)
In the face of (And come down,)
The unexpected storm, (But even so,)
A soap bubble. (I live on.)
The moment I burst,
I’ll release a rainbow.
With a fitting title for a common theme so far in this book, I believe Water by Dim Wilder is an interesting selection for this weeks reading. The futuristic beats as well as the mysterious sounding introduction, relate nicely to the time and place in the novel. The mysterious sounding introduction to this song in particular reminds me of the mystery behind Reg’s disappearance and also the mystery of Fan’s journey to find Reg. With the amount of chaos and plot twists in the book, you never know what’s going to happen next, very much like the song.
When I think about Asian dystopian futurism, I think of vaporwave. Vaporwave is a genre of music that incorporates cyberpunk, technoculture, consumer culture, dystopian futuristic themes with inspiration from the 80s and 90s. It relates to the perfectionism and consumerism we see in the book On Such a Full Sea.
Citing the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s 2015 exhibition, China: Through the Looking Glass, Anne Anlin Cheng espouses the conceptualization of a “theory of person thingness” through which Asian women can be de-objectified and regain the actuality of personhood (415). In order to expose us to the limits of our present understanding of how to read and engage the racialized body, Cheng argues that “yellow women,” as she refers to female Asian bodies, have been dislodged of their personhood and subsequently kept from it through exoticized object representations which have not only served to stand-in for the Asian body, but have also made the actual body represented no longer necessary as it has been accounted and answered for through the representation.
Cheng’s use of the China: Through the Looking Glass exhibit, a museum-curated fashion show implicating the Euro-Western gaze, serves her argument by instantiating the dehumanizing and object-centered/subject-dislodging process at the heart of her preoccupation. Cheng makes the claim that pottery, vases, china, porcelain, and ornately-patterned fabrics and material not only point to an Asia of delicate luxury, but have also come to represent Asian femininity and Euro-Western expectations of both luxury and femininity. These artifacts, and their metonymic use, are what Cheng describes as ornamentalism. However, as these stand-ins are recognized more and more, the bodies they represent rendered more ‘recognizable,’ at the same time, those very bodies are made less necessary. This animated expectation of personhood also empties “the yellow woman” of agency, meaning, and real personhood (415).
As compelling a claim as Cheng, a professor of English at Princeton, makes, her argument is also filled with dense, occasionally obtuse wording, which often disorients the reader. This disorientation dislodges the reader from the reading, in effect mirroring the ways in which the subject of her arguments is dislodged from—and even made alien to—herself. Synechdochized, imbricated, nachtraglichtkeit, are among the heavily-weighted terms which an average reader would stumble on. However, another word—one of utmost importance in understanding Cheng’s argument—is ontology. As ontology refers to the very nature of being, which is precisely what is at stake for Cheng in this article, it is a term of paramount importance for the reader to remain focused and clear about.
Despite these weighty terms, and not without its own problematics, however, Cheng’s “Ornamentalism,” a term intentionally evocative of Edward Said’s “orientalism,” grants a much-needed addition, if not entrée, into a discourse which brings objectifying and humanity-dislodging processes into clear relief and begs the reader to consider these processes for what they are. Before entering a “theory of personhood” which raises implicates the view and reception of the “yellow woman,” we are first shown how she has been dismembered, and the importance of restoring personhood finds its vitality in this very attendance, for which we are indebted to Cheng.
Work Cited:
Cheng, Anne Anlin. “Ornamentalism: A Feminist Theory for the Yellow Woman.” Critical Inquiry. Vol. 44, No. 3, February 2018. Pp. 415-46.
