Reflections on Harkness Table Talk

1 - Made a fair number of points.  Talked a lot, but seemed to be having back-and-forths as well, so I think I was listening and paying attention

2 - Did an ok job policing myself, spoke 4 times - not more than anyone else, 3 or 4 way tie for most points.  Don't remember my eye contact/attention that day.

3 - Spoke a lot.  Definetly too much, but all of the lines seem to be back-and-forth conversations, so I think I was listening as well.

4 - Shikar seemed to make more points, but I still dominated the conversation a little bit too much.  Not sure of how well I listened that day.

5 - Spoke way too much.  A lot of points seem to be clustered around me.  Should've let more people speak.  I think there was a good amount of back-and-forth conversation and that I was listening and paying attention that day, but not 100% sure.

6- Made quite a few points, but not drastically more than any other highly involved person. I feel I probably had a good balance of listening and paying attention and speaking

7- Spoke a lot, but made the same number of points as Ms. Tally and Shikar, less than Sophia, and only a few more than Jordan.  Again, I think I did well policing myself and not dominating the conversation too much.  Can't remember if I did a good job listening or not.

Overall in the class, I think that I may be talking a little bit too much, but have done an ok job policing myself and not over-contributing, especially compared to last year.  I think I've done a decent job when it comes to listening to others, but can't easily reflect based on the trackers. I typically do have a problem with eye contact, and I don't believe it's something I've been good about so far this year and is something that I should work on.

Last Time I Felt Like Tambu

Ironically, (after our class discussion today) the last time I felt like Tambu was over this past summer after my return from Peru.  Just like how we discussed (and downed) in class, I went to Peru, and camped on top of a 13,000 ft mountain for two weeks to build houses.  While the program I was doing this project through is known as being slightly posh and being very comfortable, this trip was an exception.  Although called ‘The Sacred Valley Project’, as I said above, we weren’t in comfortable huts in a valley with running water and electricity as the name of the project and experiences of previous year’s alumni implied – we were 7,000 feet higher.  In tents.  With snow.

Like Tambu, over two weeks, I started to become accustomed to working in the snow in the T-Shirts and light sweaters I had brought, the grossly high altitude, and the very different living conditions (meals consisted of near soley potatoes for example) than I was used to.

And like Tambu, I experienced the same rush of (relief?  relaxation?  happiness?) upon returning/coming into a developed society.   Even though I had grown up and spent my entire life around such things as showers, clean tap water, foods other than potatoes, coming back to them, they seemed almost foreign.  And wonderful. 

TED TALK Reflection

In general, it is hard to not take interest in a TED Talk.  All of them are incredibly informative.  However I found this TED Talk particularly interesting.  Not because of any new things that I learned (of which there were many) but because of how obvious and right everything that Chimamanda Adiche said was.  Unlike other speakers who fight a battle against stereotyping, Adiche doesn't deny where our views come from.  What she does do, which truly just 'strikes a chord' in how perfectly accurate it is, is acknowledge that while stereotypes are rooted in truth, there is always more to the story.  When Adiche talks about her trip to Mexico, she admits how easily she fell into the single-story trap that America lays when it comes to Mexicans and Mexican immigrants, and how inaccurate a view one can gain from a single viewpoint.  I know that I laughed with Adiche when she brought up how surprised her roommate was that she didn't know tribal african music and was more interested in Mariah Carey and Jay-Z.  But looking back - I would likely have made the same mistake.  After hearing Adiche speak, it seems so obvious how skewed and perverted our viewpoints are of places that we know only from our societies own biased view on those places.  Initially, I was very disappointed in myself for not fully realizing this earlier, as I have been lucky enough to travel to many different places, including sub-saharan africa.  But like Adiche said, when I went there, my focus wasn't on how similar they were to me and the society I am used to, but how different.  I never thought about what kinds of music people there liked to listen to - what interests we may have had in common. While I did talk to and get to know some of the people there, and see some similarities, with the 'single story' I had been fed for my entire life about what Africa was like, I was far more focused on the differences of the people there and the similarities to to the story than the uniqueness of each individual person and their situation.
Magnifying my disappointment in myself is the fact that I'm jewish.  And the fact that there have been many times when I have traveled where people don't realize until I tell them or they see my last name.  I don't wear a yamacha, and I (tend to) shave my beard.  I'm definetly not scrawny and nerdy.  I don't fit that 'single story'

Impact of the cover

Cover 2 - the black and red face/writing with white background

I can't count how many times I've been told "don't judge a book by its cover".  However each of the different covers for Achebe's 'Things Fall Apart' add individual meaning, or confirm a suspicion in one way or another.

In class, we've talked a lot about whether Okonkwo is 'good' or 'bad'.  What his intentions are.  His goals.  His sentiments for his family.  And while we seemed to have come closer to a conclusion on these issues now that we're nearing the end of the book, many of these issues are still at least somewhat unclear.

The second cover, I believe, gives a unique, author/educated illustrator's view on the subject.  The mix of both black and red - two colors that seem intimidating and evil by themselves, give one immediate perspective that Okonkwo is 'all bad'.  However, the fact that these colors alternate - that they are mixed equally amongst the things on the cover (the different parts of the face and the text)  I believe represents how Okonkwo is a mix of both 'good and evil' and neither one part is entirely dominant.  Stretching it, the placement of the text and images on a white background, and that the face is split up into multiple, clear cut sections may imply that something/ numerous things MADE Okonkwo that way (i.e. how he was raised/growing up around his father) and that while he may seem bad on the outside, the white background symbolizes the good that is underneath the rough exterior.

Okonkwo's Relationships with his children

As we have talked about in class, the quality of Okonkwo's relationships with his various children is not very cut and dry/simple, and the selected parts of the story that we obtain through reading the book often raise questions about how good these relationships are.  Based on what we had learned prior to the last reading, it seemed like Okonkwo's daughter, Enzima, was his favorite child.  However, when the priestess, Chielo, comes to Okonkwo's house and demands that she be taken away, Okonkwo's reaction - if it can even be called that - is severely repressed.  Although he does argue with the priestess that his daughter is not well enough to make any kind of a journey after just recovering from an illness, he does give in, and seems to flip his opinion on the matter, later asking his wife "Why do you stand there as though she had been kidnapped".  Looking back a day after reading the passage, I can see why he may have done this to seem more manly and strong, but his sudden change of heart in this situation is still somewhat confusing.  A few pages later, the situation is made even more confusing when his wife, after silently following the priestess and her daughter all through the night on their journey, turns around and finds Okonkwo behind her?  Again, while his exact feelings may be hard to determine, the fact that Okonkwo hiked through the night, broke clan tradition, and put himself at great personal risk to make sure his child was safe leads me to conclude that no matter what he says or does daily, Okonkwo must have a deeper love for at least some of his children

Parent/Child Theme

Throughout the opening chapters of "Things Fall Apart", Achebe tries to make clear a number of important themes vital to understanding the book.  Perhaps the most obvious and important of these themes that Achebe is trying to stress is that of the parent/child relationship.
In the opening chapters of the book, the narrator, Okonkwo, describes his childhood and his father - known in his village for being a lazy, failed musician with many debts.  From early childhood Okonkwo despised his father's management of money and failure to even try to make something of his life.  As he despised his fathers way of life, Okonkwo works exceptionally hard, even as a child, to become successful and make something of him self.
tl;dr - Okonkwo has severe issues with his father
Unfortunately for his family later in life, these issues, particularly Okonkwo's desire for 'manliness' are often expressed quite violently, and tend to be taken out on them.  (Example - the large number of physical beatings Okonkwo dishes out to his wives and children for the smallest of mistakes)  However, Achebe does also try to stress that Okonkwo, no matter how despicable he may seem to the reader at times, and however cruel he may be, does have some essence of kindness in him, and does love his children even if that love is often shown through a lens distorted by his own poor upbringing.
One of the best examples I found of this was at the beginning of chapter 7, on pages 49 and 50, where Okonkwo has a 'fatherly moment' with his son(s)  (Ikemefuma = (s) ).  In this moment, Okonkwo talks about how proud he is of his sons and the development of their manliness, and tells them local folk stories.  While this is all well and good, there is one line in this that stands out in the passage -  "No matter how prosperous a man was, if he was unable to rule his women and children (and especially his women) he was not really a man" - Achebe, 50.
While this is not the only place in the book that this belief is implied, it is here that one must come to realize that likely due to his poor relationship with his father, his beliefs on how children should grow up severely askew.  While at the time parents did expect more discipline and respect than parents of today, as made clear by the villagers opinion, to rule ones children, and to expect the things that Okonkwo did, were not quite normal, even in that setting.

On page 21, when Okonkwo first visits Nwakabie to ask for yam seeds, he is told by Nwakabie that his generation, exception of him, has grown soft and lazy.  Okonkwo takes this view to heart, and at numerous points in the book, tries to disprove the theory with his own children.  While not a hypocrite, Okonkwo does have much higher standards than the average Umofia parent (example when he tells his children they should already know how to plant yams b/c he was at their age) which must put a