{"id":686,"date":"2023-02-06T23:50:56","date_gmt":"2023-02-07T03:50:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/blackandgreenatlantic\/?p=686"},"modified":"2023-02-12T20:51:40","modified_gmt":"2023-02-13T00:51:40","slug":"mixtures-and-blends-in-moon-and-the-mars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/blackandgreenatlantic\/2023\/02\/06\/mixtures-and-blends-in-moon-and-the-mars\/","title":{"rendered":"Mixtures and Blends in Moon and the Mars<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

While reading both the criticism and Moon and the Mars<\/em> this week, I kept thinking about what Joseph Roach calls the \u201cproject of whiteness.\u201d His idea is that inventing whiteness was an act of surrogacy, and the completion of that project required forgetting the \u201cmixtures, blends, and provisional antitypes necessary to its production\u201d (6). This is certainly reflected by the scant version of history taught in schools\u2014the public education system continues to invent whiteness (and America) by forgetting the mixtures and blends necessary to its production. Roach goes on to adopt performance as a way to glimpse through this forgetting; he believes we can remember history by looking at orature. However, I think that Moon and the Mars<\/em> is partially an attempt to remember the \u201cmixtures, blends, and provisional antitypes\u201d necessary to the production of whiteness. Though Moon and the Mars<\/em> cannot entirely be categorized as orature because it is a text, the highly vernacular nature of the narration is an element of orature. Moreover, the emphasis on learning as a key element of the text, which we discussed in class, suggests that Moon and the Mars<\/em> is trying to re-remember history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Theo herself is one of the mixtures\/blends that the project of whiteness often forgets. She is half-Black and half-Irish, which is a demographic entirely ignored in the American history that I was taught in school. By reframing history through Theo\u2019s perspective\u2014which Corthron does through the integration of the news into Theo\u2019s everyday life\u2014Corthron is remembering how a specific mixture\/blend existed in the production of whiteness. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Theo hears both her Irish family and her Black family\u2019s opinions on current events, and she finds an interpretation of her own through mixing those opinions. Sometimes, her families offer contradictory opinions\u2014Grammy Cahill condemns the House of Industry <\/em>and supports Tammany Hall while Mr. Samuel and Grammy Brooks condemn and support the opposite. Her Irish family warns her of the House of Industry\u2019s subjugation of Irish children, while her Black family cautions against the Democratic Tammany Hall (125-129). Theo, in attempting to reconcile these perspectives, is wary of both organizations. She leaves the House of Industry quickly: \u201cI run out before she can adopt me into Irish slavery! Or colored slavery! Either way, I\u2019m on the market!\u201d (131). Theo recognizes the blended nature of her identity, and her interpretation of history is informed by it. As the audience learns alongside Theo, we get a new framing of history that emphasizes the previously forgotten mixtures and blends.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While reading both the criticism and Moon and the Mars this week, I kept thinking about what Joseph Roach calls the \u201cproject of whiteness.\u201d His idea is that inventing whiteness was an act of surrogacy, and the completion of that project required forgetting the \u201cmixtures, blends, and provisional antitypes necessary to its production\u201d (6). This … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Mixtures and Blends in Moon and the Mars<\/em>“<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4450,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-686","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/blackandgreenatlantic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/686","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/blackandgreenatlantic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/blackandgreenatlantic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/blackandgreenatlantic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4450"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/blackandgreenatlantic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=686"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/blackandgreenatlantic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/686\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":721,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/blackandgreenatlantic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/686\/revisions\/721"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/blackandgreenatlantic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/blackandgreenatlantic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/blackandgreenatlantic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}