Vision Trip!

 

The oasis during the 3 years of desert in Korean Minjok Leadership Academy. I’ve heard this phrase a few times from 16^th and 17^th wavers while describing the vision trip. All of 18^th wavers were looking forward to vision trip, and enjoyed it with friends. Although the start of my vision trip was delayed due to the disconcerting experience of my entrance into US being denied, I could thankfully enjoy the trip in Europe instead of US. Visiting Europe for the second time, I could feel difference in European environment. 

 

 

Jungfrau

Interlaken

Vatican

We visited several countries such as France, Switzerland and Italy. More specifically, we enjoyed the beautiful cities of Paris, Versailles, Interlaken and Rome. In Paris, I visited Musée d’Orsay which itself was already a piece of art. The Chateau de Versailles was decorated with gold and mirror, showing the ultimate splendidness with the huge garden. Interlaken was a picturesque village. Below the Jungfrau, the top of Europe, every house looked like one in the story. As the train went up the mountain, the color of land gradually changed from green to white. Looking down on the world, there were only the sky and the mountain. In Vatican, detailed the Sistine Chapel Ceiling portrayed the effort of Michelangelo. Marbles of beautiful colors, statues with elaborate description of muscles, beard and clothes which I couldn’t believe to be made in ancient times, astonishing architecture technique also surprised me. In Rome, no square contained a fountain without exquisite decoration.

 

After visiting various cities, I felt one thing in common. The cities didn’t build new buildings, but were still using old ones. In Paris, antique houses built in 19^th century or before stood along the street with elaborately decorated windows and balconies. They were not merely tourist sites, but actually being used. For example, Musée du Louvre and Musée d'Orsay are old buildings being reused. Each was originally a palace, and a train station before. These buildings went through several different purposes, their structure and interior being slightly altered. The hotel we slept at in Interlaken has existed since 1960. Its exterior hasn’t changed much since then, and was forming a perfect harmony with the stream next to it. In Rome, filled with great monuments such as  Colosseum and Pantheon, I could see many buildings from medieval or modern ages.

Old buildings in cities reminded me of what guide teacher said. He said, ‘People here would prefer inconvenience if they were to abandon old things just because they are feeling inconvenient using them.’ For instance, using European hotels, I found the elevator being so small that 5 people at most could use. He said that Europeans had to install elevators in narrow spaces between the staircases or at the corner of the building without destroying the pre-existing buildings. They could have built a new big hotel with updated facilities, but didn’t. They preferred traditional ones. That was what I was in envy of them.

 



Foro Romano

I was quite disappointed and sad that Korea is not like them. Of course, considering the several background, it is hard for Korea to sustain old buildings built many centuries ago. We had experienced 36 years of Japanese illegal occupation and many wars we had to go through in Korean peninsula between the continent and islands, so it may be hard to expect the monumental buildings to be reused. However, I couldn’t stop envying Paris, Interlaken, and Rome filled with monumental buildings being familiar and closer to people.




Making a choice between convenience and tradition is the matter of point of view and what I wrote above is merely a personal feeling during the vision trip. However, I think their attitudes of respecting tradition and making it absorbed in daily lives truly deserve admiration. I just hope in someday, we can also get closer and familiar to our monuments.

Things in Language, Things in Us(Reflection of 'The Body Ritual among the Nacirema')

Things in Language, Things in Us.

 

When I first met the Nacirema, I was astonished by their primitive and cruel culture. Sympathy toward the patients in latipso made me grimace. Jabbing equipment into an exposed nerve, gouging out the large sections of one or more teeth were thought to be rare in modern days and unfamiliar to me. However, I soon found out that we may be the patients at latipso of another tribe, Nareok, obsessed with dental cleanness, suffering from the depreciation of human body and the lookism prevalent throughout the society.

I was astounded to find out the Nacirema actually portrayed the life of American. There was a huge difference between reading the article before knowing that the Nacirema are imaginary and after. However, I found one thing in common in both cases of reading this article for the first time, and after realizing this was faked; Language played a significant role in both cases. In this reflection, I will briefly mention the first case, and primarily focus on the second case.

While reading ‘the body ritual among the Nacirema’ for the first time, not knowing I was being tricked, I was interested at that the medicine men uses ancient, secret language so that only themselves and herbalists can know what’s written. I thought this could be the factor of normal Nacirema’s inability to resist their eccentric culture. According to the article, the patients are forced to blindly follow whatever medicine men say. They keep ‘magical potion’ even though they don’t know what function it serves. In latipso, they receive all kinds of treatment despite the psychological shock and discomfort. In short, the medicine men possess ultimate power in Nacirema society. I expected ancient language veiled in secrecy to be the key of their power. They use restricted communication to basically prevent crowd from approaching their power and social status. Normal Nacirema have nothing more than just to follow what they are assigned to do because they don’t know what’s going on, which made them impossible to even cast doubt about it..

When I read the article for the second time, I also felt that the language played an important role. The writer, Horace Miner’s idea was undoubtedly creative to use words such as ‘Nacirema’, ‘latipso’ and ‘holy-mouth-men’ instead of ‘American’, ‘hospital’, and ‘dentist’ to give the reader a completely different image. He also used ‘ritual’, ’magical’ several times, generating an image of ancient, primitive tribe relying on unrealistic world, and specific terms like ‘sadism’, ‘harsh’, ‘lacerating’, ‘gums bleeding’, making the reader feel aversion and disgust. Lastly, Miner criticizes the reality and gives new image of terms by setting a different meaning. For example, ‘latipso’, wordplay of hospital, is described as ‘temple’, and it is said that ‘that is where you go to die.’ He used this term, implicitly criticized and humiliated of American culture. Using new terms along with new definition exposed the inconvenient truth. He is describing the culture of Americans in 1950s, but his writing style and the use of language created an aversion and new image. By selecting such terms, the writer could satirize the lookism and obsession of Americans in 1950s, making the article an interesting and impressive piece.

 

We wouldn’t have considered the same culture cruel if we used ‘Americans’, ‘hospital’, and ‘dentist’. But, since the small changes in language defined the image and ambience of the whole writing, I found myself trapped by reality disguised by the linguistic expression. Then I realized the same could happen in any case. When translating the traditional terms, little altering can cause huge misunderstandings, and I think nobody can judge the culture just by some article or references. Unless he or she goes to the field and examine the culture with their own eyes, they are easy to develop wrong and biased point of view affected by the writer of references. In fact, it is same for everything that we shouldn’t hasten judging the matters. After reading ‘The Body Ritual among the Nacirema’, I grew to be discreet on judging and deciding my point of view.

‘The Body Ritual among the Nacirema’ is the most unique writing I’ve ever read. Horace Miner made a success in effectively criticizing the lookism, obsession, and depreciation of human body by special terms and language. However, these are still prevalent and the Korean also show the same tendency. Now, we need to see things as they are. ‘They’ can be culture or ourselves. What’s important is accepting ‘just the way they are’.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjhCEhWiKXk

How does the Use of Genre & Writing Style support the Main Ideas in George Orwell’s ‘Why I write’?

131031 Kim Yesuel (Lillian Kim)

10V4

2013.05.03 (Fri)

 

How does the Use of Genre & Writing Style support the Main Ideas

in George Orwell’s ‘Why I write’?

 

George Orwell (1903-1950) is considered to be a very political writer. His essay, ‘Why I write’ deals with why he writes, and how he became to get such reasons. He says that he writes to expose some lies and facts and to fuse political purpose and artistic purpose into one. To effectively convey this message, he incorporates several genres such as personal narrative, poetry, autobiography in one piece of essay. Also, his writing style supports the main idea in ‘Why I write.’

George Orwell displays his personal narrative story in time order from when he was child to now. Time ordered explanation logically convinces readers why the author grew to emphasize on political purpose of writing. When he was callow, he focused on his own emotion feeling undermined, then started to describe things as they were. Then, his experience as police officer in Burma, and Spanish war (1936-1939) triggered him to be cognizant of how the writing can reveal inconvenient truth and political factors. In short, He was self-oriented, but got interested in things surrounding him from a person to war. He explains the historical situation and honestly reflects his mindset in time order, and the reader can follow the flow of essay easily. If he only described his current point of view, then the readers would get curious of why he became to get such view. By introducing the history of his point of view, the author successfully satisfied the reader. Also, explaining how the historical situation affected his point of view was efficient because it made the change of his mind sound more plausible and cogent. Lastly, the honest writing of how he was like and how he felt also made the reader show more approval to the essay.

The most unique part of ‘Why I write’ may be the poetry in the middle of essay. This doesn’t often happen, so drags the readers’ attention at the first sight. Then, by its condensed structure, the poetry effectively conveys his dilemma concerning political writing. In the poetry, it is said,‘But born, alas, in an evil time, I missed that pleasant haven’, ‘I dreamt I dwelt in marble hall, And woke to find it true; I wasn’t born for an age like this’. These phrases express his resentment and disappointment toward his life in such a chaotic world full of political events. Considering this is a poetry written when he was still dubious of including political purpose in his writing, it can be assumed that he feels so bad about getting influenced by social events. He could have focused on pure writing if he had not been born in that age, but born in ‘marble hall’, an ideal place. Therefore, he is frustrated by the reality. However, soon he finds out that true writing should include political factors, and what he must do is to combine political and artistic writings in one. If he included his flow of thought in normal sentences, then it couldn’t bring this much impression. By doing it in the condensed structure of poetry, it can have much more impact on readers, and make them to think of it deeper.

One of the main ideas of ‘Why I write’ is that George Orwell writes to fuse political and artistic purposes. At the end of the essay, he says ‘I lacked a political purpose that I wrote lifeless books and was betrayed into purple passages.’ Purple passages mean passages without meaning, full of decorative adjectives. This is far from an ideal writing George Orwell currently pursues. He wants a writing to be straightforward, not full of descriptive, decorative terms. That’s why he uses straightforward and clear terms at the second half of ‘Why I write’. However, we can find several purple expressions in the first half of the essay. For example, ‘outraging my true nature’, ‘a short story which was a ghastly failure’ and ‘I wanted to write enormous naturalistic novels’ are quite elaborate expressions. In these, ‘outraging’, ‘ghastly’, ‘enormous’ are not the words you often use in daily lives. But, George Orwell positioned all three of these in the first half of the essay, when he still remained to be artistic writer. This is a definite contrast in writing style between the first and the second half of the essay. George Orwell could convey the change in his point of view toward writing effectively by slightly changing his writing style throughout the essay.

 

 

George Orwell used several devices in his essay, ‘Why I write’ and those mentioned above are some. They support one of the main ideas of the essay. By giving personal narrative story in time order, inserting poetry, and changing the writing style slightly, he could much more effectively convey his message to the readers.

 

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