Tlilli Tlapalli: The Path of the Red and Black Ink

Summary: In Gloria Anzaldua's article, "Tlilli Tlapalli: The Path of the Red and Black Ink", she goes on to talk about how when she was a little girl, she had dealt with self imposed insomnia and would hide beneath the blankets as a child and would read stories. Her sister had begged that if she would not read stories to her, she would tell her mother and that is where she would begin to tell her stories and later on write them down and make the connection that writing co-existed within the night for her. She then goes on with the rest of the article to talk about Western Cultures and their writing styles because of the imagery they use within their work. Anzaldua says that "To write, to be a writer, I have to trust and believe in myself as a speaker, as a voice for the images. I have to believe that I can communicate with images and words and that I can do it well."(224) This says that she believes images are vital to create stories and other forms of work.

Synthesis: This article is like that of Sherman Alexie's article "The Joy of Reading and Writing" because each of the articles author's come from a Native American background and each of the author's explain their background and story within their articles. Both Anzaldua and Alexie make image connections with work where Alexie learned to read by using a Superman comic strip and Anzaldua used images to create her stories and thus began to write them on paper. When Anzaldua says "Picking out images from my soul's eye, fishing for the right words to recreate the images" (223), I go back to think on how this sentence ties with Alexie and how he learned to read because he had to use the images to understand what was going on inside of the comic.

Discussion Questions: Though I may not understand what the words have meant, my experience from reading this has changed for the fact that I don't understand what it meant. The words could have translated to something that was either important or could have some meaning to her article. I think that the words could have been something in her language that still had some contribution to imagery in words. The reason I believe she did that was to show how different cultures still use imagery in their texts and was showing this in that specific discourse community. Those passages show how she writes the way she does and this was a way of showing it to the audience reading this article.

Opinion: I thought that this article was beautifully written. Texts are more interesting in my perspective when you use your mind to create pictures. Stories are images in your head and I loved how she put that into the text of  her writing. Her metaphors were beautiful and I respected how she portrayed writing should be and how she uses it in her writing. On page 222 she writes, "When I create stories in my head, that is, allow the voices and scenes to be projected in the inner screen of my mind, I 'trance'". These projections just prove that she is a very strong writer and it can be seen very well in her article and that is why I thought this article was one of the better readings we had for this class.

VIEWPOINT The Laugh of the Medusa

This article was somewhat confusing to follow and odd in matters of what she was making comparisons with as well. On page 255, Cixous discusses about the two levels that cannot be separated in new surgent (liberating) writing and it's weird because I'm not sure what women writing about their bodies that are supposedly hidden and  is considered to be a "false woman" has to do with anything at all as well as her not being able to speak. I'm not sure if when she talks about women speaking that it's because a man refuses to let her speak because it's not another opinion of another man, either. How does a woman's sexual behavior come into context with writing? As well as what happens sexually as well? When writing through a persons body, how does that even work when it seems that she is just making references to submission to men, but how does a man supress her? In paragraph six and seven where she talks about masturbation is compared to the hidden writings of women, I felt that it was a little strange to write about, but I understand what she means on who they're both secretive and are assumed to not be discussed in writings or public. These are the main questions I have about this article.

Queer Rhetorical Agency: Questioning Narratives of Heteronormativity

Summary: In "Queer Rhetorical Agency: Questioning Narratives of Heteronormativity", by David Wallace and Jonathan Alexander, they attempt to explain how homosexual writings are different than other texts. They then compare Sedgwick's epistemology of the closet to Delpit and Gee's versions of new literacy studies.

Synthesis: This article is like that of Malinowitz's article "Queer Texts, Queer Contexts" because they both talk about the LGBT community and how people discriminate this group of individuals. Each of these articles talk about how discriminating against this certain group is wrong and that society needs to accept people that are the particular way they are.

Opinion: I loved how they discuss why it's wrong for society to discriminate against people just because of something that isn't considered normal. Whenever I read texts about people that are outside of the "norm", it just makes me feel that much more connected to people and it makes me feel that there are other people who want to stop discrimination and how they are trying to cease it from continuing on in our society today.

Depit & Smitherman

Summary
Delpit: In the article "The Politics of Teaching Literate Discourse", Lisa Delpit  attempts to talk about whether or not students can learn a dominant secondary discourse in classrooms. She goes on to talk about if teachers can actually teach students who are either poor or colored and if they can actually accomplish it. She says that students should be treated equally, no matter the circumstance. She refers and agrees with James Paul Gee in her article about how literacy is more than reading and writing.

Smitherman: In Geneva Smitherman's article "God Don't Never Change: Black English from a Black Perspective", she attempts to talk about the differences in the language used between blacks and whites. She attempts to argue how black people should be able to speak and use their language and shouldn't have to learn the white language. She says it's just as important for them to use their language as it is to use our language.

Synthesis: Both of these articles relate to that of Malinowitz's "Queer Texts, Queer Concepts" because she talks about the discrimination and the poor judgement given to them because of who they are. The two articles of Delpit and Smitherman each contain about the judgement of blacks towards their language and how the poor and colored people think that they can't be taught and are uneducated.

Opinion: Because of these articles each pertain to things that are going on in our life time, I enjoy it more in a sense that I can connect to it and it makes me feel better about the human race because maybe there is hope for others to defend one another and and are able to come together aside from differences. That's why I enjoyed these articles so far and love how it still carries into our time today.

Religious Teachings and Other Rantings

As  a child, I had enjoyed spending time with my friends. During the weekends was the best time for me to hang out with them. The lifestyles we lived, as I've grown to understand, were different. My weekends in the Reed house hold, were simple: sports, meals, and sleep. That was the basics of the weekends. My friends however, had a religious background and would go to church on Sundays. As a child, I didn't fully understand what it meant to go to church or to understand what was going on with the teachings and what exactly they meant. As a growing adult in today's society, I have seen some of the ways students and adults across the country view and the lack of respect that is given inside this one form of "union" between multiple people. Looking at the many countries around this world, you can see that they have either a certain religion they follow or there is some form of worship in that region. But when learning of what religion is the right one, how does one know which is true? So the conclusion I have come to as a young person is this: there is no real religion that is considered "right" and more importantly, there is no such thing as God. With religion, you see the negative in people. You find the flaws in human beings and you see the hypocrisy in most of them. I'm not saying that every single person that follows a certain religion follows into that discourse, but as a society, that is all you see in the media. How with a simple thought of someone being above you and another person claiming they are wrong is amazing to the point that it brings out blood shed. When looking through the information of different religions and how the stories go, the similarities are scary. Google could even pin point the exact similarities in the religion as well as find the scary realizations that people had dealt  with or followed. The belief that there is a God to rule over all of us seems to be the most ridiculous thought to be seeped into the brains of civilians. That some people believe that their religion is so special compared to that of another shows the judgement that is deemed as wrong in their belief systems. If God was a real being, then why would that God create the evil we have in this world? Why would a God make us suffer as individuals and allow us to die? When we die, we do not know the answer and to think that there is something beyond the world we are living in is ridiculous. Has no one ever questioned the recollection of child memories? Or before we were born? If we cannot recall where our spirit and souls were at the time, what makes them think there is something for after we are born and are living? If one were to think about the world without religion, the results would be scary to the point of how advanced we would be. Science is the most beautiful creation to ever come across man kind.  We as humans would  be even more advanced if we could set aside the petty wars that kill thousands upon thousands of people every year and get over this idea that we are the most intelligent beings in the known universe. I'm not saying aliens, but aliens could very well be real and if they were, then there is a very serious quote from the movie Transformers that Tyrese Gibson's character says, "If God made us in His image, who made them?" We seem to believe that there is alien intelligence out there, so it is only absurd to believe in a God that would have created this entire universe. This post does seem to be more of a rant or a questionable post in itself, but if human beings can look past the fact that we are absolutely nothing in this small world, then one day, maybe, we could go beyond the belief of a greater power, and better humanity. I learned that religion is just a hassle that will always tie into every conversation and to every thought that will create a chaotic mess in our world. To put it in the simplest of terms, the world needs to stop being ignorant.

Memoria is a Friend of Ours: On the Discourse of Color

Summary: In the article "Memoria is a Friend of Ours: On the Discourse of Color", Victor Villanueva attempts to explain the discourse communities of race. He explains that different races have different communities in the United States. He also explains that races are discourse communities because they are looked at the same way, but not because they have same goals. He goes on about how race effects people and he has sources in the article with people of a different ethnic background talking about their memories.

Synthesis: This article is like that of "Autism and Rhetoric" by Paul Heilker and Melanie Yergeau because each focus on a different ways to observe a specific discourse community. Each of the people in that particular discourse did not chose to be the way that they are. Each individual has a common interest, but not the same goals. Each articles also talk about how others view members of the discourses and how it effects them as well as people personally being effected by that matter.

Opinion: I found this to be an interesting article because being a person of a mixed background, I was able to read and understand how some of them felt. I really liked how there were poems in the article and it gave off that deeper connection. Personally, I was just able to somewhat connect on it.

Heilker & Yergeau

Summary: In the article "Autism and Rhetoric", Paul Heilker and Melanie Yergeau attempt to explain how Autism is considered a rhetoric and they try to further explain how the public should approach how to handle people that have it. They explain that rhetoric is how we see it as a role of communication in social interaction. In the end, they explain that autism is a way of being in this world through language.

Synthesis: "Queer Texts, Queer Contexts" by Malinowitz is extremely similar to this article because both of these texts contain individuals who are part of a discourse community that are current in today's time. This article focuses mainly on Autism where as Malinowitz focuses on the LGBT community and how each are to be considered discourses.

Opinion: This was a good article because autism is something we encounter in society today and not much is really known about how to handle people that have it. Taking in the knowledge that they gave to through this article helped me somewhat understand that  with time and understanding, one can begin to understand that person. I've noticed with one of my former school mates younger sibling that as I had grown to know him and spend time with him, I could understand the things he wanted and how to communicate with him. It was really awesome as I could still understand him even though there was some difficulty. This was the one article I could compare to something I did in the past and it brought it back to my memory again and I thought that was awesome.