Wonder Boys

At the end of both the film and the novel, the blowing away of Grady Tripp's story serves as a release from his baggage and burdens over the course of the story. The sudden elimination of Tripp's lifework, finally crystallizes his path and in the end brings clarity to a convoluted and confusing weekend. Tripp is able to follow his heart and move forward, while helping others along with their own paths, as each character seems to reach a final conclusion at the end with the help of the supporting characters.
Similar to Tripp, James Leer is held back by his own story, which he hides from everyone else for fear and criticism and must eventually be pulled out and pushed towards publishing. The publishing of Leer's novel serves to push him out of college, and away from the world academia that Chabon credits for holding back his own as well as Leer's genius. With help from Tripp and Crabtree Leer pushes the envelope and it is implied rewarded for his work, though one can never really know for sure.
As a result of Leer's book, Crabtree seems to motivate himself towards something better in his life, by looking out for Leer and Tripp, while advancing his own profession. Furthermore, Sara leaves her unhappy marriage and pursues Tripp as a result of his new change in heart and unique path. In the end Chabon uses the removal of Tripp's novel as a catalyst to push each individual character down a path that the reader can infer is the right direction.

Wonder Boys

I really enjoyed the film Wonder Boys. I thought the novel was entertaining, but Chabon’s descriptions dragged on unnecessarily. He wrote a very detailed novel, and it was well suited to the big screen. I was worried than the novel was too unrealistic to pull off effectively, but the characters were captivating, and the film actually had a stellar cast.

I also disagree with the assessment of the ending as dubious or out of place with the rest of the story. The story was about a hectic weekend. It was a series of out of control events that were the culmination of bad decisions, many of them made by Grady Tripp. The end of the story was the resolution. The characters in the novel, for their various reasons had wandered from their paths, and the narrative is centered on them finding their way back. If the characters had not finished the novel grounded in a new situation, there would have been no redemption. This would have reduced the story into something meaningless, and turned the characters into caricatures. Tripp is redeemed as a character when he literally and metaphorically lets go of the novel that was holding him back, and does the right thing for the mother of his child. The ending is especially interesting if you view Tripp as an analogue for Chabon himself, and the character’s resolution as Chabon subtextually allowing himself some redemption.

I also think the film contained a clear message about the role of the teacher. Professor Tripp helps his promising writer grad student James Leer become successful. It is important for the end of the story to reveal that the activities of the plot have not been pointless. Tripp's adventure with his student is important because it ultimately helps solve not only Leer's problems, but also Tripp's. That Tripp learns from the experience is an important statement about the relationship between student and teacher.

*LOST POST* RePosting my "Babes in Boyland" Entry that didn't appear

I thought I posted this for Babes in Boyland back in October, but it doesn't appear on the site so I'm posting it again.

Thoughts on Babes in Boyland:

In Babes In Boyland, Gina Barreca’s account of her days in male dominated Princeton, Barreca is sanguine about her ability to survive in the culture of male privilege and camaraderie. She says on page 4, “A bet, dare, and challenge is precisely what Dartmouth College was in 1975.” I believe her. Barreca didn’t fit into the acceptable categories at Dartmouth. She wasn’t a flawless beauty, and she wasn’t a boy, and she didn’t come from a privileged background. Instead, she had to deal with being herself, a girl from Brooklyn. I think she presents a version of herself that was very well equipped to deal with these hardships. She recalls countless instances where she was able to expose the foolish prejudice and sexism of the men who surrounded her. I found that her representation of men was almost universally negative. On the one hand she was put into an aggressive situation, so her reaction was somewhat natural. On the other hand, for better or for worse, there was no sense of distance from the events of her undergraduate years at Princeton. Even though the memoir was written years later, I did not feel as though Barreca had gained any perspective beyond straight resentment of the De Facto sexism of the day. Now that the wounds are not so fresh, and the errors of that time are widely acknowledged, I didn’t find the story that compelling.

I think that Barreca’s experiences as an undergrad had a far greater effect on her perspective as a professor than vice versa. She initially put a lot of emphasis on being an outsider to the academic world, the only girl in her whole family to have gone to college. She also implied than going to college alienated her from her old world, so she was doubly trapped. The whole thing worked because she told the story with an entertaining good humor.

I also was a bit put off by the episodic nature of the story. Because she jumped around so much, I didn’t feel like I was getting the full story. It seemed like she was leaving things out, only reporting the anecdotes that made her look like a “tough cookie,” and leaving out the rest. Overall, I felt that the story was entertaining, but it didn't make a significant impact in my understanding of male/female relations in the college experience.

Is Water the New Oil Lecture

The lecturer, Karen Piper, presented some very interesting facts that culminated into a very persuasive speech. Maybe the title should have been “Should Water be the New Oil” instead. Then at least there’s no pretense of objectivity. I felt that many of the choices she made were unfair persuasively and informatively.

The first segment of the lecture focused on giving listeners background on the big players in the water world. When focused on Suez Water, the largest private water company in the world, we learned about the slave labor used to build the Suez Canal, and an instance where they cut off water in apartheid South Africa to stop a black protest. We learned how Themes water dumps the most untreated wastewater into England’s rivers. Piper showed us how water companies have only grown, swallowed up smaller companies or mergered with other companies, and how most of these companies are linked to Iraq, colonialism, the IMF, and Hitler.

Nearly all of the graphs and figures used were label-less and caption-less. For quotes she would often say whose words they were and have the words on the slide but not their owner. Part of the ethos of presenting evidence is allowing the jurors to evaluate the evidence, but she flipped through graphs and other figures too fast for us to reach our own conclusions, accepting hers by default.

It’s evident Piper intended us to leave her lecture with a vengeance for big corporations and pity for the little man and the developing world. Some of the statements she made must have been things she only wanted us to receive and agree with without thinking about. For example, we were told, “more money flows out of the foreign countries into the world bank than into those countries from the world bank.” Yeah, damn that corrupt institution, taking back more money than it gives out---oh, wait, it’s a BANK, not a charity. That’s what everyone expects it to do. That’s what it was created for.

So far I’ve only showed the bad parts. Here’s a great quote from Thames Water CEO, Peter Spillet: “Clearly people do not understand the value of water and they expect it to fall from the sky and not cost anything.” One report showed that 30% of World Bank projects between 1990 and 2001 listed privatization of water as objectives. Water costs rose 400% in one month in Manilla. The worst cholera epidemic ever in South Africa occurred only 9 years ago when residents who couldn’t pay for water were forced to drink out of the river. When Argentina forced a water company to cease operation, they were sued for 1.7 billion dollars. According to Piper, 80% of California’s water goes to creating feed for the beef industry.

During the Q and A after the presentation, someone asked if there are any good water privatization projects. Piper replied, “Oh there are tons of them” and proceeded to list a few off the top of her head. Without prompting they would have never made it into the lecture. Overall I thought the invocation of Hitler effective and the facts informative. On a topic I generally agreed with, I wish it was presented more fairly.

Year-End Statistical Survey of CMU Students

Institute for Research and Analysis Presentation
Rebecca Nathan and the IRA employed different approaches in their studies of college life, but they were trying to answer the same questions. While I was certainly interested in seeing what the data showed from their end of the year survey (their biggest survey which they conduct only every 4 years), I found myself evaluating which method of research yields a richer and more accurate portrait of college life. According to their presentation, the survey was constructed and conducted to answer certain questions. These are the ones I thought were important: How have students experienced growth in their own skills? How satisfied have they been with their academics? What on/off campus extra/co-curricular things do students participate in? To measure students academic and non-academic engagement. What are students’ opinions on university values—how well does the school teach/follow its values, does the student follow them? Nathan’s ethnography also answered many of these questions.

In her book she mentioned the moves she made to make her study morally and academically valid. The one that comes to mind is how she hid her true identity from the students, something which anthropologists by rule do not do even though I know I wouldn’t talk candidly to her knowing she was a teacher from my own school. In this presentation, they explained at length the pre-survey work that goes into clarifying and removing ambiguity from questions, choosing their survey sample and weighing the results to reflect the population as a whole. Lets get back to my evaluation: which method answers their questions better? Surveys have a lot of flaws that aren’t always apparent. Ten people can interpret a survey question or survey answers ten different ways. Allowing a sample to represent a larger population gets even more complicated when certain groups decline the survey more than others. This survey well represented the student body in race, citizenship, class year, but not on gender or college, forcing the surveyors to weigh their data so no groups are under represented. But so many such adjustments must sometimes be made to a sample that by the time you interpret the results, its hard to remember exactly who the results fairly represent. The high esteem we grant culturally to science and math (which carries on to graphs) makes it harder to question and therefore understand data presented on a graph. Take the Inconvenient Truth for example: it uses graphs to create a visual (emotional) reaction, not a logical one. Ethnography on the other hand is much fairer. It doesn’t require meddling and adjusting. Of course it isn’t free of bias, but the bias is all up front. Ethnography relies on anecdotal evidence which we know doesn’t necessarily extend to the greater population. When you recognize that Nathan is able to include certain interviews or quotations and omit others, an ethical fault of someone trying to write an expose, it doesn’t change the reliability of the data because anecdotal evidence doesn’t speak for everyone. But in the end, you know that the individual views expressed are real and valuable while an individual survey response is only valuable if lots of other people agree with it.

Specific results from the presentation: more women report (greater or a higher rate) of maturation than men. Women, minorities, US students say they engage in discussion more than men, majorities, international students, respectively. Students off all demographics report spending more time on classes and homework than social, sports, club activities, and report spending even less time with teachers outside of class. On weeknights, the average student gets 6-7 hours of sleep (a minority gets 4- on one extreme or 9+ on the other extreme hours). Over the weekend however, it is more typical for a student to get nine hours of sleep, 4- hours being the least common.

Back to my rant on surveys. This survey tells us a lot of whats (forgetting our methodology issue), but no whys. For example, why do women report maturing more over college than men? Do men think they started out very mature and therefore reported less, or do men recognize that they have not matured much? What is the reason for this gendered difference? Why do students of certain demographics engage in class discussion more than others? Surveyors can come up with hypotheses to answer these questions, but the survey itself can never answer these ‘why’ questions. In order to do so they put together focus groups to get more detailed answers. The ethnography allows researchers to gain a greater depth of understanding. Why do some international students feel isolated? Amercan sayings such as “see you later” or “how are you” are misleadingly friendly.

I think in the end, although Nathan may have had an agenda, within the constraints of who it actually represents, her book gives us a much deeper understanding of those people’s experience in college. With survey data it is hard to show who it actually represents, and it still only gets us half way to answering the more complicated things we really want to know about students.

Petitioning

The president of Scotch'n'Soda, Carnegie Mellon's student-run amateur theater association, sent an email out to the group's mailing list entitled "[Scotch'n'Soda]Your Help Needed". The email was not related to the group, though; it simply asked for any student interested in protesting Mayor Luke Ravenstahl's proposed tax, a 1% tuition tax on Pittsburgh students intended to fill a 15-million-dollar budget hole Luke had presumably noticed earlier. "This is where I ask you to come in," Scotch'n'Soda president Aaron Gross explained in his email. "I am personally appealing to you to lend a hand in this [protesting] process. Even if you can just give half an hour of your time next week to help gather signatures on a petition, you'll be making a measurable difference in Pittsburgh and in the lives of the students around you."

I decided to help in the effort on Wednesday, and offered my time from 3:30 pm until 4:00 pm; my last class ended at 3:20. When it came time to get the petition, I walked into the Student Activities in the UC. There, I signed out one of nine clipboards containing three or four petition sheets and a lot of little slips of paper detailing how to get involved past signing your name; these latter included information on which members of the legislature to sent letters and emails to, what addresses they might receive them at, and where to protest the tax further online.

For half an hour, I walked around the UC black chairs and upstairs rotunda area gathering signatures. Many people had already signed a petition, and several didn't want to, but the vast majority of the people I asked were enthusiastic to sign the petition. I ended up collecting around forty signatures, significantly less than I'd imagined, but I did have several good conversations with the other students. The petition had a box in which you could signify whether you'd be wiling to help out further by sending letters to senators and such, and another box asking if you'd like to collect petition signatures. While three out of the forty said "yes" to the former box, not a single one agreed to the latter prospect.

Two students asked if they could read the text of the petition. They wanted to know the specific wording it used and what it was about before appending their names to it. No other student bothered to read the petition; they all trusted me on what it stated, something both slightly comforting and slightly disconcerting.

One student, an Indian sophomore, asked me if he was allowed to sign the partition, not being a United States Citizen.

All in all, the experience was enlightening. I got to meet and have conversation with a fascinating diversity of students (although I did not approach any who were eating, deep in conversation, or on the phone) and to gather support for what I feel a worthy cause, or at least a fight against an unworthy cause. I hope I don't have want or occassion, after this tax falls through, to protest any other of Ravenstahl's proposals.

Wonder Boys

So far I like the book a little better than the movie, just because I enjoyed the narrative humor more as well as getting to know each of the characters on a little bit deeper level than the movie has thus far allowed me to get to know the characters. However, this post is about the movie, and there are a few things I'd like to say about it:

First, Tobey Maguire manages to pull off creepy really well. With bags under his eyes, fishbelly-white skin, and a strange intensity of look, Maguire makes me feel a little uncomfortable every time I look into the camera. I feel that's playing the role about how it should be played, though.

Michael Douglas, similarly, does a great pathetic. If I didn't recognize him (and campus) from my life thus far, I would have really mistaken him for somewhat pathetic. He seems a bit more lifelike than the Professor Tripp of the book, slightly less of a charicature.

The dead dog in the trunk and the tuba make a lot more sense when the character interactions are played out on the screen, however, and events that took away from the novel's credibility add to the frenzied humor of the movie.

Robert Downey, Junior plays Crabtree a bit differently than I'd pictured him well reading the novel, but it works.

Any movie will take liberties with a book's plot, and this movie is no exception, but the changes it made all felt necessary; the action and comedy wouldn't have been quite so fast-moving without changes here and there.

Wonder Boys (Film)

I was extremely impressed with the accuracy and attention of the film to date. So far, it has captured Tripp's vicarious lifestyle, along with his clear insecurities. When I read the novel I felt he was more attached to Emily than the film showed, but almost everything else was how I imagined it. In most films based on novels, most small details are cut out, and the film simply becomes a plot summary of the novel. However, the director has kept most of the details, something readers of the novel definitely appreciate.
From the first reference to Tripp's writing, I felt the tension that came with his writing of the second novel. The interraction between James and Grady in the car about James' talk with Crabtree shows Grady's sentiment that he is not the only person banking on this novel's success. Similar to the novel, we see how little things continue to pile up and weigh down on Grady- the unfinished novel, the dead dog, the stolen coat, his injured ankle, and his affair with Sara. The same way all these little things irritate the reader with every passing page, I was becoming more and more frustrated with his inability to solve any of these problems, and willingness to just let them pile up.
The characters are portrayed very accurately- Grady's passiveness is very clear, from his conversation with Sara to his struggles with the novel. Crabtree is far more interesting of a character in the movie than in the novel, maybe because I find Robert Downey Jr. very funny, and I struggled to picture a transvestite while reading (I'm not too familiar with them). I guess I struggled to fully understand Crabtree's sexual insecurities, and the movie made this clearer. James Leer's character is also very accurate- his "quirky" thought process is well portrayed, as well as his brilliance and utter stupidity.
Over the next hour+ of the film, I hope the storyline follows the novel as closely, while making some of the difficult scenes clearer. I am interested to see how the director references the dead dog and Grady's injured ankle among the main problems that arise. I am particularly looking forward to the conclusion, as to see the director's stance on why Grady took the fall- in reading I missed Grady tell James it was better for him to take the fall because he has tenure. I still think Grady took all the blame because he sympathized with Leer and wanted to make sure he did not follow down the same path; however, James becomes Crabtree's new way back to fame, so is he really helping? Hopefully the film helps me better understand the conclusion.

Like Eric, I thought the ending to Wonder Boys to be a bit strange. I did not the ending was any more unrealistic than the end of the book, and it's hard to expect a believable ending to a book that really has no limits on its exaggeration. What seemed off to me was the pace of the ending. The entire book is fast-paced and full of crazy adventures, and to end so suddenly seems a shame. It would have been more true to the book had Walter accidentally killed Q with the bat, and Sara ran off with Crabtree, or something. But to have it all simply end with a few book deals and a marriage is entirely out of spirit with the rest of the novel.

Unlike a normal book, there wasn't much of a follow-up to the climax of the story. IT peaked and then ended, with nothing in between. Perhaps, though, it's good that the book ended with so little action. I can't imagine ever reaching the end if Chabon kept a constant plot pace. If that were the case, the book would probably suffer from the same problems as Grady Tripp's own book.

Anyway, enough about just the book. Much to my surprise, the movie is extremely accurate. For a book with so much action, they did a very impressive job of keeping content in. I was unable to notice major differences in the plot, and just a few minor details (the gun was only supposed to fire one shot, if I remember correctly, and the first sentence of James' book was different in the movie). These are really trivial issues though, and don't change the quality of the movie in any way.

Whenever I watch a movie after I read the book, I find myself constantly waiting for the next sequence. In most movies, I'm disappointed when the sequence doesn't show, or differs entirely from how I remember it. The fact that I haven't experienced this yet is a testament to the accuracy of the movie. From Vernon Hardapple sitting on the car to the mention of the biography in James' book-bag, they seem to have kept a good sense of even minute details. I only hope the rest of the movie keeps with this pattern.

a dubious ending, at best

James’ parents are the most unique characters in the entire novel. Though they are minor characters, and the last to be introduced, they are the only ones that have a sense of mystery around them. Either I missed it, or Chabon neglected to resolve the parent/grandparent issue. I had a hard time picturing James’ real room, but the fact that he apparently lied to Crabtree and Grady doesn’t reflect on the identity of his parents. It seemed Grady decided to jailbreak James out of his free loving philosophy than any realization about James’ parents. Chabon chooses to give readers the truth about Vernon/Walker, and provides rich characterizations for Emily’s family, so why does he obscure the truth about James’ family? Does Chabon want me to imagine two beneficent but out of touch parents or the con artists from Annie coming to kidnap James?

I am very glad Walker made another appearance in the plot. I had seen enough of the midnight sickness, Grady’s life reflecting the book he’s writing. Though each individual mishap retained its appeal, this broader idea that Chabon seems to be pushing gets boring after a while. While Grady recognizes his doppelganger a few times, Vernon, as a character created by Grady is almost a doppelganger himself. Instead of the boring professional living in and becoming absorbed in his own work, his work starts coming to life around him. Within Chabon’s realistic world (forget the intolerable dog, tuba and snake) Walker becomes a very surrealist presence. Thankfully only one character from Grady’s mind comes to life and tries to kill him—this isn’t Jumanji-so the variation on the theme that he provides doesn’t devolve into cliché or an entirely different story.

The book should have ended on page 360—after Q’s line about Capra. The tuba shouldn’t be the last bit of luggage he’s carrying around. He never even opens the case. How does he know it’s a tuba and not bricks? And he didn’t even kill the tuba; in fact it was given to him. So while it could be a symbol of the wild things that happen to him through his friendship with Crabtree, that’s not as interesting as the dumb things, he does by himself. Sara should have never offered him a lift. I find it much more interesting with her future unresolved, especially when it is so hastily done. I absolutely hated the tense shift and epilogue feel of the last three pages. Finishing the book, dealing with the impossibility of most of it, was almost burdensome, and there was no reward in reading the happily ever after bit at the end. How are we supposed to believe that Grady gives up pot, alcohol, Hannah, and women in general just for a baby? What sort of paternal instinct could Grady possibly have been harboring that failed to stop him from falling in love with his female students and shamelessly corrupting his male students, but suddenly arises when he has a son? Walter made a pretty convincing argument for dismissing Grady, so how does being married to the dean outweigh his terrible history, letting him teach again? Though he was an alleged mess for a year, Grady gets his life back on track in the narrative space of a few sentences. Given this almost effortless change, aided by Chabon’s incredibly optimistic view of human nature, what is the point of the entire story when apparently it would be easy for him to transform into a decent person. His entire development seemed to suggest such a transformation was impossible.

eric

The Ending To a Splendidly Hectic Novel: Wonder Boys

The section begins with Grady reading "The Love Parade”, James’s book. Intense feelings begin to arise within Grady after reading it. He says, “In my heart I knew, I was jealous of the kid: of his talent, although I had talent of my own; of his youth and energy; but mostly of his simply having finished a book. For all its flaws he could be proud of it” (250). This quote touches on a major theme in Wonder Boys, the theme of “longing for the past.” Sometimes individuals deeply cherish there past and remember all memories and long for something better, even if some past moments are not the best time in his or her life. Grady’s inability to complete the novel is a reflection of his connection with his youth. He cannot end the romance with “Wonder Boys” because it is all Grady has left. At the end of the novel, his real life romance is in shambles, his car is gone, his affair comes to light, and he stands a chance at losing his job. His unfinished novel is the only thing he really owns, his intellectual property.

However, he even loses that:

“Crabtree, as it turned out, had managed to prevent exactly seven pages from blowing out of the car. They were all impressed with the watermark of his Vibram soles, or pebbled like the surface of a basketball with a relief of asphalt; part of one page had been torn away. Two thousand six hundred and four pages--seven years of my life!—abandoned in the alley behind Kravnik’s Sporting Goods, with a run down Ford and three quarters of a dead snake. I shuffled through the remains, numb, wondering, a busted shareholder in the aftermath of a crash, clutching the sheaf of ink and rag paper that only an hour ago before had been all my fortune”(324).

Now, this scene was difficult to read, visualizing the remnants of James’s life fly away, away. However, there is hope left! The lucky number seven: seven days in a week (seven days of creation) and the seven colors in the color spectrum (ROY G BIV) can all be seen as signs for an optimistic future. This story is a coming of a middle-age story. Who says professor are wise and still don’t need to go through life changing experiences??

Essentially, through this hilariously witty narrative, what Chabon wishes for readers to take from his book is that sometimes “life sucks.” However, he conveys that having dreamed and failed is a more admirable to “suck” have thrown in the towel when the "going gets tough." He therefore sets Grady as a tragic hero in every sense of the word. In the end, Grady is profoundly wise and can finally put the puzzles of his life together.

It is also funny to take note of Chabon’s complex male relationships, and the coming of age of middle-aged men, which the author interprets as the shrugging off of youthful expectations of oneself for the acceptance of adult responsibility and relationship. It is an interesting side note that Chabon, also doesn’t shy away from gay, bisexual or ambiguous characters, something May Sarton did not do in Faithful are the Wounds.

Realistic Exaggeration

Wonder boys differs from nearly every other novel I've read simply for it's pure exaggeration. I've read strange fiction and completely realistic fiction, but Chabon seems to write precisely in the middle of the two genres. Each event in the novel could realistically happen, but the juxtaposition of all the events renders them all unlikely, bordering on completely unrealistic. Even the details bordered on insane -- a two-thousand page manuscript with no end in sight? Multiple characters with multiple wives? A failing author sleeping with his boss's wife? While some books require exaggeration, and I can't imagine myself enjoying a book with none, Chabon takes it to a whole new level.

If Wonder Boys were any normal plot-driven novel, it might have one major event. Perhaps the main character would kill a blind dog, or steal an expensive jacket, or have one night of drug-induced fervor. But I cannot remember reading a book that is essentially full of major events. I felt, almost always, the climax would be on the next page of the book. Of course, it never came, and that climactic feeling remained for that page, and the next, and the next..

Although I haven't yet seen the movie, I can picture it as a perfect Seth Rogen / Paul Rudd / Judd Apatow comedy. I see a resemblance with The Hangover, in which the characters are strung along in a completely improbable sequence of events -- robbing Mike Tyson of his tiger, marrying a stripper, being slipped "rufies" in their drunken haze. I realize that the movie most likely will not resemble The Hangover in any way, but I can hope for an eventual remake.

In the string of major events, I see a parallel to Grady Tripp's own book. From the descriptions in Wonder Boys, it seems to be full of whatever crazy idea pops into Grady's brain. However, while the fictional Wonder Boys suffers from this conglomeration of ideas, the real book does not. It left me wondering what would happen next simply because the events were so extraordinary. The faint glimpse of possibility of each event was what kept me reading, hoping that (for Grady's sake) things would settle down and resemble real life: slower, more manageable.

I think my favorite scene in the book is the traditional Jewish celebration with Emily's family. Something about a tired Jewish family dealing with the rambunctious younger generation makes for an interesting story. Irv and Irene were easily the most interesting characters in the book, and the easiest to get attached to. While I should probably be concerned with Grady's failing marriage, the real reason that it was so disappointing is that he'll lose his connection with her parents.

Grady as the typical novelist

Not having ever been a novelist myself, i cannot say for sure that my claim that Grady is a typical novelist can be made. However, especially towards the end of the book, i felt a sense of familiarity, not only with Grady's character but his position in life as well. In the beginning of the story, he starts by introducing the "midnight disease" that seems to claim most writers as they become consumed by their work. In the midst of his midlife crisis, during which his wife leaves him, his mistress becomes pregnant, and his pot addiction takes over his every conscious thought, Grady loses his writing "mojo" that started him as a writer. Grady does not suffer from the typical midnight disease, but instead suffers from the inescapable snares of his own faults. For seven years, his mammoth novel, Wonder Boys seems to have no end in sight and everyone seems to be on Grady's back for it.

Yet, when the manuscript of Wonder Boys becomes lost forever, Grady seems to snap out of a spell that the book had placed on him. Slowly, he starts to recompose his life. He marries his lover Sara, has a son, finds a new job, and claims his title as a writer once again. When he had once placed so much hope on Wonder Boys, thinking that it would save his job and perhaps his marriage, and propel him into his former glory again, he faces reality when his novel is ruined and scattered by the winds of fate.

Starting over, Grady knows that this time, things will be different. While Grady has admitted to himself that he had never expected his former marriages to last, by marrying his lover, and the mother of his only child, Grady seems to have finally tamed himself and in a way, found what he had been looking for.

Grady now is settled, writes at a more progressive pace, and truly dedicates himself to his writing. The turn of events that brought him to this place seems to have been a less-advertised form of a novelist's disease. Although Grady only knew and spoke of "the midnight disease", he himself suffered from a period of writer's block and desperation which seems to be common with most writers, until they reach an enlightening epiphany. Like Fitzgerald and Chabon himself, Grady had to endure a period of time during which he was constantly frustrated with himself and could not find satisfaction in his writing. Grady's journey to becoming a true genius author involved a reformation of his very desires, which he found by losing all his former ones.

Managing Risk in our Global Society

"C.R.E.A.M. get the money Here we here we go
dolla dolla bill y'all Check this s*it, yo!"
- Wu Tang Clan
I chose the quote because this lecture was about managing money, mainly how the United States has been unable to do so. I know almost nothing about money or the economy (I just have a couple bucks in my "secret stash"), so I hoped that this wouldn't be so far over my head that I couldn't learn anything...
The lecturer, a UPitt professor, argued that if the US can repair its economic health-care and educational core it may be able to sustain certain advantages in a globally competitive society. The speaker took an extremely strong stand against the current state of affairs, and given his evidence, it is hard to disagree. He believed that globalization has the potential to bring benefits to the developed and undeveloped world, but we must rework our current agenda for spending. He proposed re-investing into education and health-care, and creating a system that will someday be able to sustain itself. He was very critical of Americans for their lack of "economic literacy," our superfluous spending, and our inability to invest and save.
Before this lecture, I was aware the economy wasn't doing "too well." However, the speaker (probably a little biased and critical) shredded the US government for it's expense management policies, solution driven legislation, public education funding, and dependence on trading revenues. Currently, the G-20 makes up 80% of global wealth, the top 20% of Americans make up 84.7% of the nation's wealth, while the bottom 40% make up .2%. While more and more students are graduating from colleges, the gap between the graduates and non-graduates is becoming more and more insurmountable- tuition prices of both public and private universities were 3x more expensive than twenty years ago.These startling numbers show how drastic the differences are between the upper-middle classes and the lower class. I was aware of the huge class differences, but these statistics make it much more realistic.There is definitely potential for circles of poverty, as it is becoming increasingly difficult for the poor & uneducated to rise through the ranks. I don't think I'll ever fully understand this; I had the privilege of attending an independent high school and now a private university. No amount of empathy will allow us to understand the poverty of America's poorest members.
The lecturer was also extremely critical of the current health-care system. He listed several countries (US, Great Britain, Switzerland, and a few others), and pointed out that we spend significantly more per capita on health-care than these countries, but we still have the highest infant mortality rate of the group. Clearly, there are a significant number of changes that can be made to improve our nation.
I felt pretty bad about my uneducated, middle-class self by the end of this lecture. Well actually, I didn't even get to the end of the lecture. It was supposed to be an hour, and he had only begun to talk about healthcare at 90 minutes. So I never got to hear his resolution- he was far too busy pointing out the (many) flaws with our current system, who knows if he has any resolution (a few adults fell asleep- I can proudly say I did not!)

Aubrey's post

It seems to me that Grady surrounds himself that remind him being a child or a member of a family. Often times Grady points out James’ childishness and innocence. James is still learning things about the world and experiencing new and exciting things. While grady on the other hand is no longer innocent to the world, but had experienced many hardships throughout his life that have left him somewhat bitter. I believe that one of the reasons why Grady spends so much time with James is to remind himself of that innocence he once had. It might be possible that he is sick of his drug and alcohol use and relationships problems. Maybe spending a lot of time with James makes Grady feel young again. It also can cause Grady to rethink his life. What would he have done differently? Would he change what has happened to him so far in life? These are questions that cannot be definitely answered, but were possibly provoked through hanging out with James. Also, Grady had a strong attachment to Emily’s family. Even though he and Emily were having problems, her family still cared for him and he still cared for them. Grady had a strong connection with Irv. It is possible that the reason Grady was into drugs and alcohol was lack of a family, especially a father figure. Irv fulfilled this hole and helped Grady grow. The family’s loss of Sam is a very prominent issue within that family. Sam was the youngest son and at the Seder Meal, the youngest was supposed to perform the “Four Questions”. When Grady brought James to the Dinner, Irene asked James if he would do it since he was now the youngest person in the house. Of course, James agreed to it. This situation proves as another example of the need to fill voids where family belongs. Since it was around the time when Sam died, Emily’s family used James to fill the void that was there due to Sam being gone. Grady uses Emily’s family to fill that void. James uses Grady to fill that void. In reality, we all use others in order to fill up some hole in our life that is causing us unhappiness or instability. I believe that this act was prevalent in Wonder Boys. I agree that it is necessary and good to use those around you to make you feel comforted and good about yourself.

Wonder Boys 131 - 245

The second part of this novel seemed pretty uneventful, and very plot driven. However, one thing theme that seems to connect the first assignment's reading and the second is the idea of ephemeral emotions. I just found it very unsettling how Grady says "I'm a man who falls in love so easily, and with such a reckless lack of consideration for the consequences of my actions...I become, almost by definition, an adulterer" (33). This shows how Grady doesn't view love to be something that is permanent, but rather views love to be an emotion that is and always will be ephemeral. Beyond the idea of love, he further demonstrates how insincere feelings can be. When Sara tell him she doesn't want to keep the baby, Grady was "waiting to feel the sense of relief I [he] knew I [he] ought to be feeling" (82). This demonstrates how planned and inorganic Grady's emotions are. Through these two instances, Grady shows how his emotions (at least) are ephemeral. He doesn't plan to love unconditionally. He views his emotions to be, almost, mechanical. This idea is further developed in the second assignment's reading.

In the second assignment's reading, Grady does not only show how he views love and emotions to be ephemeral, but he also shows this through his words and lack of action. He doesn't place a gravity towards love. Similarly, he doesn't understand the severity or the weight of his words. This is shown when Sara and Grady both say "I hate you," but they are holding each other while saying this (154). When stating this, they both are expressing that they don't truly put worth or meaning behind their words. Grady tells Sara that he is going back to Kinship to meet Emily, and assures Sara that he will them Emily about them (157). However, his words are simply empty when he doesn't tell Emily about Sara. By doing so, it shows how Grady is simply about the words, and simply about satisfying problems instead of actually mending them. Grady just tells Sara he will tell Emily about them, yet doesn't. He just says this to provide comfort to Sara, almost a sense of security. However, he manages to even find ephemeral solutions...solutions that won't last forever.

Grady is someone I would not want to marry. He is a man who not of his word. He says one thing, and doesn't even intend to do it. He simply says what he needs to say to only satisfy a problem. He doesn't do much other than provide words. He even says to Sara, " 'I want to be with you' ... I was not in the least certain whether I meant what I said, nor just what the implication of this statement might be..." (156). When he says this, Grady just proves my point. He doesn't take anything seriously: love, marriage, words. He only says words he believes are words that person might want to here at the moment. He views love to be ephemeral, feelings as well...and because of this he only provides ephemeral solutions. (I know I have been using this word a lot, maybe it's because I strongly believe it's a motif of some sort).

A novel about writing a novel

I think it's very important we remember that Grady has been working on this novel for about seven years, so some of the "facts" seem more like verbal diarrhea. Between the Korean Jews, murdered dog, 9 foot long boas, and throwing tuba cases, the story lost a little credibility- I just don't know what to believe and what to discard. However, I do think Chabon's descriptions of the drugs, sex, and alcohol abuse are realistic- it brings a certain amount of equality to the student/professor relationship... Imagine playing drinking games with a teacher- I'd say that would be a rather informal relationship! This is a very blunt form of showing how students and faculty make up the same university community, and their actions do in fact affect each other. I was confused with the novel's ending- why Grady accepted blame for the coat and dog. I think Grady was looking for a chance to start over- falling over a balcony might not have been in his plan, but he clearly needed a change in scenery, and took the opportunity to help a student who was heading down a path similar to his own.

Is water the new oil?

Sounds interesting enough. However, I was very disappointed with the topic matter. The speaker was Karen Piper, a professor at University of Missouri - Columbia. The reason why I was disappointed was one, she wasn't engaging and two, she spent more time addressing corrupt companies instead of showing a solid parallelism between water and oil. I was expecting more of an organic informational session, instead it was a lot of reading off of a paper and slides. However, Professor Piper did have interesting things to say. Although she didn't spend much time connecting the two ideas of water and oil, she was extremely informative about the world and culture behind the scenes of water.

She introduced her topic by saying how many private companies promise something great. Each private company promises cleaner water for poor countries, and an abundant supply of clean water for poor countries. However, it was really interesting to hear the backgrounds of the private companies she focused on. The London on Tap was among the one she focused on. This particular company had a history of colonization. Because of such a background, it's not a surprise how this company is run. This company supplies most of England, but uses force as its tactics. An interesting fact was the all private water companies also are involved with waste, railroads, and changing it's name from country to country to avoid bad press.

The reason why private firms are so popular, is because private firms are able to get away with things public companies aren't able to. Also, water isn't seen as a valuable resource. This is where the idea of oil comes into play. Many companies build big dams to obtain more water. Many companies also dig into the earth to gain more water. By doing so, companies are saying that there isn't an efficient amount of clean water supply left in this world. Because of this, water becomes a scarce good like oil. In Bolivia, there is military protection on its water supply. The private companies almost exploit the poverty of poor nations. Private companies promise one thing, but say another. They claim that poor countries aren't willing to take their [companies'] water unless the people of the poor countries pay for it. Many private companies get away with such exploitation by being vague in their responses, retorting "it's complicated" or by focusing on success stories. One success story worth mention is when there was a small dam made in India. The citizens of India were able to maintain it themselves, providing clean water. However, private companies usually build big dams that are harder to maintain - which often lead to contaminated water that lead to disease.

Private companies, believe it or not, have been in the U.S. It hasn't been successful. In Atlanta, there was a fiasco (contamination in the water). This also happened in Milwaukee. The U.S. is very resistant to private companies. One thing that cannot be denied (beyond the idea of private companies exploited different countries or just trying to gain a profit) is that our water supply is running out. In the U.S., most of our water goes to agriculture. A lot of water is used to maintain the growth of rice. Many people, don't understand the severity of the scarcity of water. One company that Professor Piper brought up, which was actually a 'good' company, was Everest Water. Everest Water uses the atmosphere to collect water, to create clean water for a family. By doing so, this eliminated the reliance of the limited water in the ground. The problem is, China has accused this company for stealing its clouds.

This issue of water being scarce is not one that just reflect private companies. It also is a question of politics. Professor Piper believes an alternative to this crisis is by having the World Bank offer loans to public companies, rather than private companies. The World Bank had done this before, and she believe the World Bank should continue this. Also, another option would be to build smaller dams that are more manageable. I learned that this idea of water being a scarce good didn't just stop there, it had to do with poor countries being exploited by companies that say are doing something for the good of those people, and it also had to the with the intervention of politics.

Lecture Series: The Journey of Lance Jones

What intrigued me to attend this lecture was the title of Lance Jones' lecture "Passages, A life in tune: Moving with the music". Although i don't make music myself (i wish i had the talent), it is still a huge part of my life. I know there are so many people out there who claim they love music and it completes them and blah blah blah. I however, am obsessed with music. I used to be one of those music snobs who if you didn't listen to what i did, i couldn't stand you. I say used to be because now i broaden what i listen to and accept different styles of music outside of the punk realm. I definitely still hate radio music though and most commercial music is catchy garbage. Before i get off topic, this is what intrigued me to attend a lecture about the passage of Lance Jones' life.

Jones started off with a proclamation that his brain was "wired for music", that maybe all of our brains are. He made a reference to a book "This is your brain on music", which in the book it is stated that the human brain is hardwired to find meaning in music. He stated that at an early age he was consumed with music, he just couldn't get enough of it. I was the same way, so i completely related to him. He also mentioned that his grandmother had given him a book once called "Rock N Roll: The Devil's Diversion". A quote from the book was "Rock N Roll is a part of Satan's plan to achieve moral decay", this made me laugh. Another thing that Jones said was that in college he "forged friendships on how much they (people in general) knew musically". Although i'm not the snobby music elitist that i was, i have formed the best friendships with people that like the same music as me. Not only does music bridge a gap between us, it allows for a deeper connection. I have realized that a lot of my friends who have my same musical tastes also share a lot of my other believes. What Jones said made sense though and i don't think someone should go around asking for musical resumes but when you find someone who can connect with you in that way, its usually refreshing.

He told us about his "mentor", who was simply his friend's older brother whose name was Dave. After returning from Penn State, Jones went to work at Dave's record store called Exile off Main Street (based off the Rolling Stones album Exile on Main Street). This was around 1975 and Jones said "there was an incredible wealth of music hitting the record stores". He mentioned Queen, David Bowie, Fleetwood Mac, Pink Floyd, etc. who were all producing music that people couldn't get enough of. After this through 1978-1980, Jones went to work for the WEA label, which stood for Warner, Elektra, and Atlantic records. In 1983, he managed to take a "musical side trip" where one of the highlighted events was when he visited Jim Morrison's grave site in Paris. Then in 1985 he went to work for the Civic Arena, essentially being an organizer for shows put on there. The Civic Arena was a big deal to Jones, who mentioned that both the Beatles and Elvis had played there. In fact, in 1988 Micheal Jackson's Bad Tour played there 3 nights in a row and Jones played a part in meeting with Jackson's manager to make the show happen.

Then Jones went on to work at the Star Lake Amphitheater, now called the Post-Gazette Pavilion where he is currently the general manager. He talked about the Steve Miller Phenomenon where there was once a show of 26,154 people and where 6,000 tickets were sold in a matter of 3 hours (mentioning that the crowd was around 18-22 years old). In 1992, Ozzy Osborne played and then the creation of Ozzfest formed. There were many reunion shows that took place there like Steely Dan in '93, The Eagles in '94, Rusted Roots in '95, Fleetwood Mac in '97, etc. Closer to the year 2000 was the boy band/girl power era. I like how Jones mentioned that he knew to wear earplugs when bands like Ozzy, Korn, and Metallica played, but he was not prepared for the sound of girls screaming over boy bands on stage (which he said is the most painful sound ever). Jones then talked shortly on the consolidation of the live music business, in which all the live music venues were owned under one company, which created the rise of ticket prices.

I realized during this point that Jones' life was really like traveling down the history of music. He took us through the times of when classic rock was loved, then metal, then country, then boy bands. He also made an important statement about how before bands would only tour when they had a new album to promote. Now however it is reversed, where bands make their money not from album sales but from touring. Jones noted that technology and the internet is changing the music business, he's not sure what the change is yet, but he said it's coming fast. He ended saying that music always "had a pull on me, has always been my glue", which couldn't have stated his passion for music any clearer. As a music lover i tend to be drawn to the more private venues and typically see the bigger venues as just a place for money sucking souls. Hearing Jones talk about his passion opened my eyes a bit as to why some people get into the music business and it's nice to know that not everyone is a "sellout". My ending statements on this lecture come from the music lover himself, "Work hard, be open to all possible opportunities, and attack your goals with passion."

Similarities between Wonder Boys and This Side of Paradise

Wonder boys and This side of paradise have similarities in so many ways. Firstly, the authors of both books pay extreme attention on describing physical aspects of characters. I thought that I would not be able to read any other stories which the author offers such lengthy explanation about characters' physical aspects. However, in wonder boys, it is much easier to find parts where Chabon offers physical description of characters becuase focus of physical description is on various characters, not just Tripp. Secondly, the fact that main characters are impulsive and irrational is another similarity between two novels. Moreover, both main characters seem to be lost in their own world. For instance, Amory is not able to understand the people and enviornment around him rationally becuase he is too focussed on getting attention from everyone. Although he achieves fame by being an athelet and joining elite clubs, Amory is not able to find his own identity. Tripp seems to experience similar problems as well. For example, Tripp describes himself "I'm a man who falls in love so easily, and with such a reckless lack of consiferation for the consequences of my actions" (Chabon, Page 33). Even after 3 marriages, Tripp is still not able to limit himself from falling in love and making mistakes because he is irrational and impulsive. Moreover, Tripp has similar problem that Amory has; feeling disconnected from the world around him and confused about his own identity (Midnight disease). Although midnight disease is simple insomnia, I believe that midnight disease keeps Tripp from having genuine relatinoship with people around him. For instance, I think that Tripp is not too surprised with the fact that Sara is pregnanat. His suggestion to Sara that they both should divorce with their espouses, remarry, and have a baby makes me think that Tripp is irresponsible and immature as much as Amory is.

Wonder Boys

I like how Wonder Boys is written through the perspective of writer and professor Grady Tripp, and how Chabon, through Tripp, illustrates the tribulations of writing a story… through a story.
Tripp has been struggling with his book, Wonder Boys, for quite some time, and throughout his drunken and drugged escapades, we seem to catch a glimpse of the significance of this unfinished novel. Furthermore, Tripp himself seems… a bit trippy. He falls out of love just as quickly as he falls in love; he doesn’t know what he wants. In class, he left James Leer sulking in the back of the room, alone, but as the story goes on, we see that he cares for him. He doesn’t think of the consequences of his actions, and it takes him a long time to realize the painful truths of reality. 

James is a troubled, lost character, who I feel sorry for, and I hope that as the plot unfolds, he discovers more about himself. The fact that he is so hung up on the lives of celebrities - and that he stole Monroe's coat - seems to show that he seeks refuge in significant dates and events in Hollywood, because they distract him for what's real - from himself. Crabtree, on the other hand, embodies, in my opinion, those people who do things for ‘novelty’ of doing it –– he seems only in on things for the thrill of adventure.
I’m curious to see how Tripp tells Sara that Doctor Dee was shot, how she’ll react, and what will happen to the baby. Tripp himself seemed a bit indifferent at the fact that Sara was pregnant, but I think that it just takes him a while to accept frightening news into his conscious mind.
The book also talks about the ‘midnight disease,’ that plagues writers with a kind of ‘emotional insomnia,’ where you would feel disconnected from the world and develop a sense of envy and distance from everyone else. Quickly though, he describes, you begin to crave that feeling of apartness, until “one black day you woke to discover that you yourself had become the chief object of your own hostile gaze” (76). 

This reminds me of my English class last year, when we had a discussion where the proposition was brought up that the Humanities makes you more human; that reading, interpreting, analyzing, writing about universal truths, emotions and cognition, ultimately leads to you having a better grasp of your own mind and emotions. The ‘midnight disease,’ which Chabon describes as taking over writers and driving them to the brink of insanity, seems, at first glance, to illustrate otherwise. But maybe Chabon’s point is to show that writing has a significant effect on the intellectual and emotional aspects of the human mind; being a writer, as Chabon shows, does change the way you perceive the world.

Yoke 84- End

During the second part of the book, Emechata gets into the theme of her novel "Double Yoke". The relationship between Ete Kamba and Nko begins to strain when they start attending the same school. Nko is very lucky and privileged to attend Unical, but Ete on the other hand, feels reluctant to share the same feelings. Throughout the entire story, Ete Kamba is constantly battling his stereotypical thoughts for women in that they should stay in the households and tend to the family and follow the father's rules rather than pursue a higher education. Ete Kamba also feels threatened by Nko because she is at the same school as he is and he fears that she might become "just as smart" as he.
Nko is struggling emotionally because she feels reluctant to pursue a higher education if it means to stray Ete Kamba away from her. And at the same time she needs to get her degree in order to bring pride and accomplishment to her village and family. In a way Nko feels that she is in a Catch 22 because her choices are pursue a higher degree and earn a degree, or stay faithful to Ete Kamba and become the ordinary housewife. In this part of time Nko states that she wants the 'Double Yoke", meaning she wants the best of both worlds.
Professor Ikot plays a huge role in the novel. He is the key person that sucessfully destroys Nko's relationship with Ete Kamba, and at the same time, changes Ete Kamba's style of thinking toward's women. After taking advantage of Nko and taking her innocence, Ikot is savagely beaten up by Ete Kamba and his friends. In a way, Ete Kamba is doing justice and most readers would enjoy reading this part of the novel in that justice was served. But one must also have sympathy Nko, because she was forced to give up her innocence to a person that's in a position of power. One must look at the situation in another way because if Nko didn't give what the professor wanted, she could have easily been dismissed from school based on just her academic performance. It was tough reading this section because knowing how some students across the world are trapped and forced into doing unethical things in order to survive.
In the last parts of the novel the reader is taken back to the present with Ete Kamba and Prof. Bulewao. She calls him into her office to discuss his paper and asks him why he hasn't married Nko. At first Nko wildly refuses but Bulewao forces him to acknowledge the other side of the situation in that Nko was forced into losing her innocence and the lack of communication forced their relationship of the right track. By looking at it from a different angle, Ete Kamba realizes how wrong he has been on his ideals of women, and the author leaves the reader on a good not in that Ete Kamba leaves school to support his love during her darkest hours.

Double Yoke

I'll begin by stating the obvious. Double Yoke is almost synonymous to double standard. What I mean by this is this. Both genders of this Nigerian society have two standards to uphold. For women, they are obligated to be good wives or to become educated women. For men, they are taught to view women as beneath them or they can choose to become more aware of the individualistic characteristics that females too can have. The most impressionistic scene I got from this reading was the conversation between Nko and her mother. Nko first talks to herself, saying she "would work hard at her studies," then later being conflicted by asking herself "for what is a woman if after all her degrees and what have you, she is not married?" (92-93). She then turns to her mother for advice. She wants to become an "academician" but also an "obedient wife" (94). Her mother is the first person to bring up this idea of a double standard or double yoke. It's almost ironic how women need to make this decision in the Nigerian society. Just thinking about this logically, wouldn't a nation want all its people to succeed? It's hard to immerse myself into a world that says you can't do both. Speaking of irony, Professor Ikot just crosses the line. I believe he was the one who gave Nko an advantage to coming to this particular college. He did this to try to show Nko how special and how bright she really is. THEN, he says that women can't get ahead unless they basically do sexual favors. I don't understand what kind of message he is trying to convey to Nko. He seems like he wants Nko to appreciate her intelligence, and to truly grow intellectually. However, he then tells Nko that she can't get far without exploiting her gender. This plays a role in the double standard because it shows, in a concrete way, that women (in this culture) virtually can't have best of the both worlds. Women cannot become an academician without exploiting themselves. Women who become wives, give up their ability to think by becoming an obedient wife. Think about the word obedient. It's a word that's almost used for animals. This connotation almost expresses how women are only as valuable as an animal, not a person.

Women face a double standard, and so do men. (However, I am less sympathetic towards the men!) On the last page of this book, Miss Bulewao states, "The community burden of going home with the person we care for to bury her dead, and yet the burden of individualism - that nowing that we are happier in somebody's comapny, however tainted...Women do have to make these decisions too you know" (163). What she means by this is this. (This is my interpretation of course). The fact that Ete went back to the home village of Nko, shows how he is willing to serve Nko. When I say serve I mean, Ete is willing to be with Nko because he knows she needs him. She needs him to be her strength and support. The fact that Ete did this, to help (or serve) Nko, he sheds the image of men always needing to be superior. Ete's double yoke is that he either becomes someone who needs to help someone else, or to be 'individualistic' and not serve. What I mean by this is that he could have chosen not to have been there for Nko. This would imply he doesn't truly care for Nko that he wouldn't shed his pride to be there for Nko. Both female and males have this double yoke, but I honestly can't sympathize for the men.

Double Yoke Pg. 84-163

I agree with Tyler's analysis that Ete fails to reject the traditional societal prejudice towards women. His conflicting thoughts display a character that is willing to accept a new role for women in his life, but is held back by societal pressures. In general I sympathize with Ete's position, someone who wants to accept women as "independent and educated", but is ultimately too weak to break from the traditional path.
I was not at all surprised that Emecheta chose to leave the ending up to the reader, as it allows the reader to use his own society to predict what Ete will do. What I mean by this is that Emecheta allows the reader's societal views and good nature to predict what they want. Most Western readers will interpret the ending as Ete accepting or at least open to a new role for women, but more traditional societies will follow their own cultural beliefs that Ete will accept the cultural "norm" for women in Africa. For myself Emecheta leaves hope at the end of the novel that their is hope for change in societies similar to Ete. The modern culture has a profound effect on Ete's life by allowing him to challenge the longstanding societal norms, and in a sense is already successful even if Ete reverts back under societal pressure. The challenging of the traditional structure leaves hope that there will be further challenges in the future from other people, implying that change might not happen immediately but is inevitable. However, Emecheta implies that there is still a long way to go before everyone accepts the right for women to be treated equally to men, and to proceed one step further than Ete definitively did in truly treating women as equals.

My Thoughts on Double Yoke

The difficult struggle between tradition and progress is a theme that is very prevalent in world literature. I liked Double Yoke, a story of the literal double yoke of pursuing a western education in conjunction with living and being raised in a traditional society with a specific gender hierarchy. I appreciated how it captured through one character’s eyes, an issue that affects a whole section of Nigerian society and has parallels to difficulties faced worldwide. Ete Kamba has a contradiction in his very identity. He has a deep respect for women who do not command respect. He respects women like his mother, who he expects to have no pride or vanity, and to live only to serve their man and the other men around them. He also appreciates intelligence and independence, as we saw on the first page with his excitement towards the work of the female professor. These conflicting feelings seem to be the bulk of the novels issue. We learn that the set up of the society may be such that he cannot reconcile the dilemma in a way that will make him happy.

One of Ete Kamba’s friends sheds light on the exact nature of Kamba’s issue. He tells Ete that his problem is he “wants a wife and a girl friend in the same woman” (128). Any woman strong an independent enough to sustain an emotional sexual relationship is a woman who is not virtuous enough to be a wife. This is a frustrating catch. As the reader I wished to scream at Kamba that he and the males of Nigeria in general need to update the nature of their relationships with women to fit a more liberal educated world. At the end of the novel Kamba is given advice by

Miss Bulewao. He has too move on. The issue of virginity is no longer important to him, and he needs to focus on “individualism – that of knowing we are happier in somebody’s company” (163). Kamba does not really want to listen. It is against his nature to take advice from a woman. That is part of his problem. It is ingrained in his heritage. I am sympathetic to his struggle. Changing your beliefs often means admitting to yourself you’ve been wrong, which isn’t easy. We are given a glimmer of hope at the end of the novel. Perhaps Kamba will be able to change, and after everything that has happened between them, the relationship will succeed.

ULS Lecture- How Does the Financing of a University Work?

I too attended the How Does the Financing of a University Work lecture and learned some interesting facts about Carnegie Mellon's current money and budgetary decisions. Like Tae mentioned the step function was introduced as a model where current students, whom the University staff looks at as having a "social contract with", are expected to shoulder less of a burden of an increase in tuition then the incoming class. Regardless, of these unbalanced costs Ms. Moon showed graphics displaying relatively constant percentages of total revenues generated by individual categorical breakdowns. By this she mentioned that the percentage of total revenue generated per year for the University from tuition remained relatively constant at around 34-36% even though total revenue had almost doubled over the span of 10 years. While financial aid increases relative to the cost of tuition, only 20-30% of undergraduate costs are paid by financial aid, demonstrating that a constant increase of financial aid with tuition still falls far short of many peer institutions. Another interesting fact was the fact that the total cost of educating an undergraduate student at Carnegie Mellon is roughly $65,000 well short of the roughly $50,000 tuition collected by the school, leading to a net loss of $15,000 which the school must recover elsewhere. Ms. Moon also briefly discussed the role of endowments and how they encompass 5% of total revenues, compared to 40% at ivy league schools. She reiterated the point that since endowments are so low the school is less affected by a downturn in the economy, meaning that Carnegie Mellon only has to cut $16 million from their budget vs. $300 million for comparative schools.

ULS Lecture - How Does the Financing of a University Work?

The fact that I can not get financoal aid or scholarship from school made me curious about how CMU spends money and operates school programs. For that reason, Deborah Moon's lecture about how the financing of a University(CMU) work was very interesting topic for me. Firstly, Ms. Moon explained that increases in tution directly leads to the increase in the financial aids that CMU can offer for the needed studetns. Also, she inroduced CMU's unique system of collecting tution, 'Step Increase'. Step increase means that when CMU decides to increase the tuition rates, the rate of increase for the lower classmen is always higher than the rate of increase for the upperclassmen, regarding the social contract between school and the upperclassmen. Ms. Moon did not explicitly explain what those social contracts are, but I was suprised the fact that lower classmen have to pay higher tuition than the upperclassmen do. Another interesting fact was that the government funding that CMU recieves (Department of Defence) takes extremely important role in supporting entire school. Government funding is common for other Universities as well, mainly from Department of Education, etc. However, the funding that the Universities can receive from the Departments except Department of Defence has certain limit which does not allow flexibility. In contrast, the funding from the Department of Defence can be flexible based on the Universities' need. Therefore, it was interesting that CMU can get flexible and enough supports from the government agencies. However, the fact that support from endowment is extremely low bit depressing. Although CMU is one of the greatest schools in the nation, the fact that CMU can not depend too much on endowment like other Universities (IVY League Universities) made me think that CMU would need more advertising to increase awareness among alumni.