So I don\u2019t think anything that I am going to say in the week\u2019s post is something that we all haven’t thought about already. As it was pointed out in our last class, the momentum of the conversations has dwindled. The purpose of this blog post is to try to illuminate and put words behind what we are feeling in class to give reason to this \u201cdwindle,\u201d while trying to incorporate what the class readings have to do with it. Please don\u2019t mistake this blog post for putting words in your mouth or thoughts in your head. I am writing this based on my observations and my own opinions. I am aware that our blog posts are meant to reflect Noir but I also think that the health of our conversations is something that should be addressed to keep this class fun and stimulate ideas that can contribute to this study.
This idea right here, trying to contribute to something greater, has to do with the problem. We are placing pressure on ourselves to say something so new, so fresh, and so niche to sound smart. I don\u2019t think its to prove to others that we are brilliant students, but to prove to ourselves that we are capable of keeping up just fine. If we don\u2019t have a new cool idea to share we choose to stay quiet because we were wired to believe that is the only thing that defines our worth as scholars. We shouldn\u2019t have to have this worry just like \u201cTrick Baby\u201d doesn\u2019t need to have a designated purpose. It is enough that we are trying to understand a world that is so different from ours today no matter how explicit. Just like it is enough for \u201cTrick Baby\u201d to just want to be proof of people\u2019s existence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I am a 2nd year English major so my experience in studying literature doesn\u2019t compare to the seniors in the class pr our wonderful only grad student; however, I think it is fair for me to say that every single one of us, no matter the major and especially when we were in high school, has had our academic career built by studying white man\u2019s literature. And this has had an effect on how we view every single thing we consume. We are trying to find what makes \u201cTrick Baby\u201d or \u201cSweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song\u201d literary canon. When we forget that literary canon, as defined by a quick google search, is \u201cthe body of high culture literature, music, philosophy, and works of art that is highly valued in the West: works that have achieved the status of classics.\u201d It is not fair for us to view these books and compare them to classics when classics were made by people that had different experiences than these characters and authors of the books we are reading. We grasp onto themes like nostalgia, descent into darkness, and femme fatale to define everything that we read and will continue to read for this class. The problem is that these themes don\u2019t include everything and I can see how that is a reason for our struggle in communicating. However, I don\u2019t think these are all the reasons for our silence.
The themes mentioned previously can\u2019t answer everything that this field of study has to offer but when trying to broaden this idea of Noir our ability to understand it brings the question of: how do we rewire our brains to appreciate these books for what they are? I think we all have an idea of how to answer this question but since the content that we have read is so explicit we feel like we can\u2019t add anything, and if we do add anything we are afraid that this thought will be challenged and we are unable to defend our opinions. This lack of defense or justification scares us into silence. We are the generation that was raised believing we are the \u201cgifted and talented\u201d and that our worth relies on our brains so when challenged sends us into a spiral of doubt, fear, and anger. The culture that we are brought up in has made us overly cautious of what we say and I am not saying that is a bad thing but I know for me as someone that can\u2019t relate to the characters, I fear that I may say something that is insensitive and ignorant which contributes to the feeling of I have no place to say something. I know that I am not the only one who feels this. I don\u2019t have a full solution to these problems and I may be leaving something out that is crucial to solving this, so please share your own ideas in the comments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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So I don\u2019t think anything that I am going to say in the week\u2019s post is something that we all haven’t thought about already. As it was pointed out in our last class, the momentum of the conversations has dwindled. The purpose of this blog post is to try to illuminate and put words behind … Continue reading “Awkward Silence\u2026”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4362,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/blacknoir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/blacknoir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/blacknoir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/blacknoir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4362"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/blacknoir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=236"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/blacknoir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":237,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/blacknoir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236\/revisions\/237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/blacknoir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/blacknoir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/blacknoir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}