Lecture Notes Weeks 8-10

Lecture notes through Gajelonia & Hemmings are here.

Point Break. Sweded!

As authentic an end to a Literature of Hawaii class as The Descendants or the new Hawaii 5-0.  Thanks for all the hard work, it's been a pleasure teaching this material and working with all of you.  Stay stoked, and in the words of Juliana Spahr - "fuck you, aloha, i love you" . . .

Grrl Fo' Realz

My favorite poem in Thirteen Ways of Looking at TheBus is “DearGod: A Prayer in Six Parts.” The language used is a combination of pidgin and textspeak, resulting in a playful and comical tone--and when the content gets heavy, the language results in something honest. I absolutely love this idea of a Hawaiian girl texting God; a girl’s innermost wishes being sent to God in a way that’s intimate to her. It’s as if the speaker could be texting her best friend and telling her the news about Carissa--”I faking hate / her! God, I thought she wuz my fren. I saw / her yesterday making out wit John Boy”--and it’s very exciting (to me) to think of her relationship with God as such (13). Is she texting God as she rides on TheBus? To me, most definitely. I don’t see this poem being a critique on the young, technology driven generation, but rather an honest portrait of a teenaged girl. A simple reading could criticize the speaker as being shallow and vapid, pointing to her trivial concerns--and I would attribute that to the cultural attempts of the dominant patriarchal western culture to trivialize anything that a teenage girl likes/wants/desires. Whether or not Gizelle Gajelonia agrees with me, I feel like this poem is (or could be used as) a celebration of The Teenage Girl, and not a condemnation of it.

This poem is very much reminiscent of Saturday Night at the Palhala Theater, especially in the scenes of daily life it portrays; young Hawaiians of different races fighting, abusive men, and peers bullying their friends. And the fact that it is one of the few poems that does not reference a canonical poem further distances it from the dominant tropes and aligns itself with the Hawaiian, woman author of Saturday Night. In parts IV and V, we learn the speaker’s father is an abusive drug addict who beat her mother, and that her mother is dead. It’s honest, and tragic, and it gives me all the more reason to root for her in part I when she prays, “Oh yeah, / plz bless Ikaika he steh numba 52, God. / Ho he soooo sexy fo’ realz. But he get / girlfriend u know soooo uglee her! . . . I hope dey break up and den / I hope Ikaika numba 52 gon ask me out / fo’ go eat Jack in the Crack one day” (12).

"Thirteen Ways of Looking At The Bus" and it's representation of Race

A Bus Oh MyGod

It was interesting to me how easily this poem was able to convey the image of class and racism. "Filipinos/ are really/ hardworking./ Like the cleaner/ of/ hotel,/ nurse,/ nursing assistant/ cleaner of urine./" (17) She begins by mention Filipinos specifically, singling them out, then saying that they are hardworking, and good at cleaning. She throw's in a few higher class jobs, then end again on a low class position, "cleaner of urine," which ultimately summarizes her stereotype thought process. Not only does she point out other people on the bus, but also reverts the attention back to her, and what she is not because of the things she doesn't have. Throughout the poem, the idea of who she is seems to be void of an answer. She is a Hawaiian, is she not?
Again, to touch on my previous blog about the new generation of Hawaiian, this is another example. Culture's have fused, and it is becoming difficult to tell which attributes belong to which culture. While race, however, still remains a very prevalent dispute and one that is easy to identify. To me this poem captured the important of race in a culture, and how it has always been an issue of nativism, but now it has become as issue of racism. Then again, is it the race that she is pointing out on the bus? Or is she pointing out the hardworking culture of that particular race.
-Kaeliann Hulett

The New Generation of Hawaiians?

    The Descendants offered me quite a different view of Hawaii than all of the other books we have read in class. The common theme of self-realization kept itself alive throughout the novel, however it was a different source of realization than the rest of the "Hawaiian Literature" we have read so far. Comparing it to Well Then There Now, it becomes easier to grasp the difference between the two types of realization that present themselves to us. While Well Then There Now faces the issues of the Continents influences, and the new world that Western Civilizations have brought upon the Hawaiian culture. The Descendants, however, seemed to focus more on influences in general, and not focusing on the Western Civilization's influence, but rather the materialistic influence of the world. It is easy enough to connect materialistic influences with that of the Western Civilization, however, one cannot easily say that it is the Western Civilization that is responsible for such influences. The idea of Hawaii as an innocent land, unaware of materialistic possession, is an ignorant thought. Like all other culture's, Hawaii has been created through a mixing of cultures, and it is through that mixing of cultures, which are different than ours, that we perceive the notion of Hawaii as innocent, because they did not base their culture on success and power of money and possessions. They based it on the land.
    The land has lost almost all value in the novel. It has been represented as a dull, dry, and an aesthetically appalling landscare. The speaker Matt, who is supposed a descendant of Hawaii, tells us what he sees and it is from a very disconnected point of view. It is as though there is no love for his land, he doesn't even seem to feel bad about the condition of the island; an opposite concern of ancient Hawaiians As Matt points out all of the old family houses and farms, he mentions that they drive by like many times before, and they are now museums and landmarks. I found it very interested that he didn't take his family into these places, or stop at them more often. Neither did he tell the entire history of the places, and most importantly, they were maintained only as tourist attractions. I thought that, had Matt been a true Hawaiian, he would have still been utilizing those pieces of land for his family, rather than them being made into revenue sources. Not only that, but I thought that he would have at least had more of a story or connection to let the reader know about these places. Not too much longer into the story, Matt tell's about graffiti on the rocks telling people to go home. Another great example of how the respect for the land has faded in the new generation of Hawaiian's.  Something else I connected to the changing generation was how some people were changing their names to simple Americanized names rather than their birth-given Hawaiian names, which would be difficult to pronounce and spell, making them stand-out.
     All of this was making me wonder, is the Hawaiian culture changing? Or are other culture's snuffing out, diminishing and taking over, the Hawaiian culture  Culture's change, they do not stay the same forever. This is how culture's are made, by a hybridity of people's beliefs, logic, and way of living.
Take Joannie for example. She is still loyal to the Hawaiian people, yet she has been a victim of materialism, and has fallen to the new generation of Hawaiian culture. It is becoming difficult to distinguish between those that have been influenced and affected by both cultures, and those who have assumed the "new generation culture", or if there is even a new generation culture?!
-Kaeliann Hulett

Local Hawaiian Business's: Waialua Soda Works

       I found it very interesting to read some of the local Hawaiian takes on a local Hawaiian product that is being made with it's own resources at hand. I also found it interesting that a small business is trying to make claims that they are not for the money, while that seems to be all that the company is working towards. I originally found this bottle of Waialua Soda Works soda in my boyfriends grandparent's house. He was told that this soda can no longer be bought, the original soda that is. The story he was told was that Waialua Soda Works was bought out by Pepsi. This seems to be a common misconception, because Pepsi did not buy Waialua Soda Works, they helped fund it and wanted a piece of the action, that is sure! So, I was wondering why my boyfriend, and all other Hawaiians he knows, believe that Pepsi owns Waialua Soda Works. It seems as though the concept was created over the dispute of selling the land's products over seas as a mass product, which essentially represents Hawaii as a market place and is exploiting itself.

“Waialua Soda Works is like a vacation in a bottle, people want to go to Hawaii,” said Greg Stroh. “What sets Waialua Soda Works apart from every one else is the Hawaiian ingredients and the spot on packaging. I’m looking forward to helping Waialua Soda Works overcome some of battles I’ve experienced through the years, and I want to help this brand grow.”  -Hawaii Magazine

About Waialua Soda Works
Founded in 2003 by Waialua residents Karen and Jason Campbell, Waialua Soda Works’ recipes are inspired by the elements familiar to the Hawaiian Islands. Reviving a local soda bottling tradition that goes back more than 100 years, the company uses only clear glass bottles, pure cane sugar, and natural flavors to make its sodas. The products feature local ingredients such as Maui Brand natural white cane sugar, Big Island vanilla, and honey from Kauai. Waialua Soda Works is owned and operated from a warehouse in the historic town of Waialua, located on the famous North Shore of Oahu.

Waialua Soda Works is available in a 12 oz glass bottle and in 6 unique flavors: Lilikoi, Mango, Pineapple, Root Beer, Vanilla Cream, and Kona Red. Waialua Soda Works is currently available at over 1000 retail locations on the mainland in CA, AZ, NV, OR, & TX: Whole Foods Market Southern Pacific Region, Bristol Farms, BevMo, HEB, Central Market, Cost Plus World Market – Nationwide, and is available at every major grocery chain in Hawaii including Costco & Target.

"We've received funding from an equity capital firm out of Honolulu, which is good because it stays in the islands," said Jason Campbell, who, with his wife, Karen, established Waialua Soda Works in 2003. Campbell did not disclose the dollar figure.


The local investors are led by Tradewind Capital Group Inc., whose officers include some minority investors in the Honolulu Star-Advertiser -- but it's not as if they tipped us off to this story. They didn't.


"They (the local investors) did not purchase us," Campbell said, but a new company, North Shore Beverage Co. Ltd., was formed to reflect the investment.


The Waialua Soda that is sold in Hawaii is made by the Campbells in Waialua using natural, local ingredients. They ship those ingredients to a mainland bottler for mainland sales.

Kona Red, the newest flavor, is made from antioxidant-rich coffee cherries, using the fruit -- not the bean, from whence coffee is produced.


Waialua Soda Works' new financial heft will enable it to increase production and expand sales and distribution channels, Campbell said. The goal is to "saturate Hawaii and then do a heavy focus on the West Coast, in particular from Seattle down to San Diego," with a concentration on "Los Angeles beach cities."


It was important to find investors locally, but not just people with deep pockets, Campbell said. "They're successful business people and know quite a bit much more than we do." For the mom-and-pop soda-pop makers, the investment represents "not only money, but smart money."

Bottles must be imported, just as they were a century ago in that heyday of Hawaii bottling. Glass remains the company's biggest expense.

The soda wholesales for $1 a bottle; 35 cents of that is the cost of the bottle. A pallet of 4,300 bottles costs just under $900, but shipping from the Oregon factory is another $600, plus $100 an hour for a forklift driver to make the delivery.


"It's probably the most expensive soda to make in the United States," Jason says.

It would be more economical to do the bottling on the mainland, Karen acknowledges. "That's the first question people ask: Do you really make it here, or do you make it in California and ship it here?"
But the company's identity is tied up in the soda being Hawaii-made. "That's why we kind of bite the bullet on the cost."

These sodas-in-glass are boutique products similar to microbrews among beers. A number of mainland bottlers, particularly in the Pacific Northwest, have proven their appeal to a higher-end niche market willing to pay $2 or more per bottle retail for something classier than Coke. Think Henry Weinhard's Rootbeer.

"As long as people are willing to pay that price," Jason says, "I can make it here."
The Campbells based their business in Waialua "because we love the feel of this town," Karen says. Plus, the old sugar mill, the town's principal landmark, is good karma -- sugar being the main ingredient in sodas.

"Run by local people, for the Hawaiian market. If you have to drink soda, buy from Waialua Soda, not the local Pepsi or Coke bottlers." -Anonymous Blogger

"Well, transplanted mainlanders. And hopefully their reach will extend beyond the islands." -Anonymous Blogger
"I am soured on pepsi:
When they had that big corporate convention, and paid the strolling bones their exhorbitant fee to perform, (when they also had their aloha stadium concert, which i was happy to attend, 5 rows from da stage, even...) on Hawaii island, pepsi painted their corporate colors and logo on lava rock that stretched along the road or path to the site. -Booo. auwe. and hope they are kahuna'ed." -Anonymous Blogger


"Then I say everybody who lives in Hawai'i who comes to read HT should go out and support this company. THIS is the kind of company Hawai'i needs...located in Hawai'i, run by local people, for the Hawaiian market. If you have to drink soda, buy from Waialua Soda, not the local Pepsi or Coke bottlers. And keep buying their product until (or if) they get bought out by one of the majors. That, unfortunately, is the fate of most small successful companies." -Anonymous Blogger


-Kaeliann Hulett

Sources MORE! and more

Blue Crush

Hey guys--

After completing this course, I'm wondering what you guys think of the movie "Blue Crush"? Do you feel like it accurately depicts Hawaii and Hawaiian culture? I do (for the most part). Although Anne-Marie has grown up in Hawaii...she isn't always accepted by true Hawaiian locals. However, at times...she's accepted like a full-blood Hawaiian (such as being given full access to "secret surf spots"). Her pro football player boyfriend represents the typical tourists...taking surf lessons, staying in a nice hotel, attending lavish luaus, etc. What are your thoughts? I feel like it pretty fairly depicts a lot of Hawaiian culture. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAyG60RPv-k

YEAR OF THE RAM.

This whole piece is hauntingly real. The tourist fantasy is tackled by images by football players and dissected by museum directors. There are also images of bombs going off and comparisons to Vietnam and America. I also find it interesting that there was a question of whether to refer to the year as the year of the ram or as a sheep. The two animals are in the same species but what’s the significance of Cliffords use of the Chinese Astrology? The poem speaks of globalization within Hawaii and dwells on the tourist industry of Hawaii seemingly dismissive attitude towards negative issues that stem from colonization and continue to plague humanity.

Upon doing some further research the year of Ram is characteristic of followers, creative, charming, auspiciousness, and appealing while some of negative aspects are indulgent, irresponsible, disorganized and careless. While the people of born in 1991 do not have much to do with this reading of Cliffords Year of the Ram it does delocalize the idea of Hawaii and show how the state of Hawaii is contained within the context of the world but Clifford warns in his comparisons that Hawaii tourism industry might lead to an implosion of the island.    

THE DESCENDANTS

Dealing with the Descendants, there’s a lot to be said. The main issue I have with some other critiques of Hemming’s story is that people expect too much out of it. They expect a story that revolves around one idea of Hawaii, a more “Native” idea of Hawaii, one that’s unkempt and cursed with over reaching Haoles that sucked their land dry but the picture Hemmings paints is the other side of the story. Hemmings modern day story shows how the lives of missionary descendants are not ideal either and paradise for them is just as much of a struggle for them as it is for other lower class Hawaiians. Not matter what side of the Aloha rainbow you’re on there’s no escaping misfortune. One of my favorite lines of the novel exemplifies how Matt’s character has to deal with living with reality in paradise, “I bet in big cities you can walk down the street scowling and no one will ask you what’s wrong or encourage you to smile, but everyone here has the attitude that we’re lucky to live in Hawaii; paradise reigns supreme. I think paradise can go fuck itself.” (Hemmings 5)  I actually really like the novel. I think the family dynamics are quite particular to Hawaii, although I can’t speak with too much authority I find that while some of these issues, such as infidelity, manipulation, and parenting are universal, while the subplots make the context of Hawaii seem more real.

The issue of the land and parenting seem out of Matt’s grasp mentally. Leaving him at a loss for what to say and do. This idea of loss is quite prevalent throughout the book and even stems as far back to his native ancestors who had to deal with the loss of their cultural identity, their land and their race but it's only after we've lost everything that we're free to do anything. Although Hemmings moves past the past and creates an universal image of the Hawaiian family she does manage to create a new paradigm for looking at paradise, one thats more based in reality than fantasy.  

J. LONDON

Upon reading Jack London’s account of surf-riding, I find it surprising in the introduction to his literature, that “In Hawai‘i, London’s fame gave a boost to Ford as he helped found the first organization to preserve surfriding, the Outrigger Canoe Club (1908)” I wonder why there wasn’t such an establishment that was created by the Hawaiian peoples? For individuals tied so closely to their culture and heritage they don’t seem to stand up for their beliefs and values. Maybe because its in their culture to be open and accommodating they are taken advantage of and exploited. Theres an obvious spot light on the idea of Waikiki as a paradise and surfriding as a past time of the gods. This romantized view of hawaii, isn’t so bad. Hawaii is indeed a paradise I suppose the trouble is that when these stories reached the masses, it opened up a painfully real account of exotism and escape, leaving out any mention of Hawaiian custom, the people, their value system, or any kind of close up on the native habits besides surfing. This kind of negligence adds to the dispossession of the lands and properties from the native Hawaiians.

London’s record of his first attempts at surfing at wildly controlling, “Get in and wrestle with the sea; wing your heels with the skill and power that reside in you; bit the sea’s breakers, master them, and ride upon their backs as a king should.” This man vs nature interpretation I see through the text puts man in a dominant position over nature, which is an idea that can be extrapolated through London’s view of surf-riding. Contrary to this twisted and confused philosophy originally surf riding was seen by the Hawaiians as a means of spiritually connecting to the land and the water and not as a sport to be “tackled”. Sadly the tourist boom in Hawaii says otherwise and these accounts promote London’s view of surfing as a sport of kings, instead of as an application of respect and appreciation towards the land and ocean.  

GARY PAK VALLEY OF THE DEAD AIR

The story attempts to acknowledge with subtle impressions the tests and will of the various protagonists of Hawaii through a challenging stench left after the passing of a native man. The disenfranchised descendants of native Hawaiians have a repressed history— along with the plantation workers and various ethnic victims of racial violence but in this story we read about locals coming into their own as Hawaiian individuals through coming to terms with the death of Hookano and the stench that lingers in his wake.

Pak uses interesting imagery like phallic symbolism in the land through the misshapen potatoes growing on a nearby farm. This symbolism can be interpreted in a variety of ways.  As we can also see in the disturbed nature of the sex and fertility of the island how the stench, ie the death of a native, is effecting the land. Residents aren’t making love and the farms aren’t growing adequately sized produce. It seems that the haoles forceful taking of the land is a emasculating. Deprived of their native roles the people of Hawaii are effectively weaker. The land and water breath of the life or lack thereof of its inhabitants.   

The locals speak in Pidgin, which helps the reader understand their non native mentalities while the narrator relays the story in American english. In order to re-establish the sense of harmony the locals propagate hawaiian traditions and the enactment leads to resolution through appreciation of the land and the former owner of the land, Hookano.   

da wäwae outta ke kalipa

In Lois-Ann Yamanaka’s raw modern vocality of Hawaiian pidgin she pronounces a dimension of post-colonization engendered with poetic details of street smarts, tough lessons and female heart. In an interview with Caroline Wright from IS magazine, she highlights several nuances that have affected her work as a writer. One in particular is her relation with her grandmother. She does not mention much besides her current caretaking routine of the elderly woman but in a follow up question she does divulge that since her grandmother’s conversion from Kanya to Christianity, she got raised as a “foot washing baptist”. In relation to a close reading from SNATPT, I choose to focus on the poem, “The Foot”, a component of the Blame in Parts series. As the reader moves through the poem they feel subjected to accusations of slipper tampering and leaving their toe jam in the inappropriately borrowed slippers, “And if I catch/the asshole/who using my/rubber slippers/and making me/catch their toe jams/I going broke their ass. (Yamanaka, SNATPT, pg. 69)

Accordingly so, Robert Frost said “Poetry is what get’s lost in translation” So what is Yamanaka’s “foot” saying?  I intend to look at this poetic translation through the lens of colonialism.

What I find particularly interesting is that prior to Hawaii’s colonization footwear was not as popular. During the adoption of these customs, their sense of modesty was awakened, while the art of living barefoot, that came with the surf riding culture, diminished. Coming to incorporate footwear into their daily regimen, Hawaiian peoples have unofficially adopted the slipper as their state footwear, as it is the most seen and worn shoe on the island, pushing the Hawaiian cultural aspect of comfortability through the perpetuation of this symbol in jewelry, tattoos, still lifes and sculptures. While rubber slippers are still in accord with the Hawaiian’s lifestyle choice of a balanced minimalist nature they can be considered a new paradigm of existence with which to view cross cultural colonization. Although the Hawaiian rubber slipper is a descendant of the Japanese Zori sandal, the iconic rubber slipper is a physical mediator of Hawaiian values, like practicality, thriftiness, humility and personal freedom inspite of the oppressively binding closed toe shoes of mainland western morally based ideals.

The significance of toe jam in the poem seems to signal a fragmented sense of selfishness, intrusion and criticism that is also conveyed in the two other poems under the heading “Blame in Parts”. Toe jam being the dead skin cells, sock fluff, surface dirt, sweat, skin oils and bacteria accumulated throughout the day which poor hygienic practices or certain feet-related medical conditions such as athlete's foot can make the appearance and odor of toe jam even more noticeable. The misappropriate instances of self-centeredness with explicit connections to manners, hygiene, and greed from the reading seem to culminate to a blame in whole with relation to social etiquette passed down by the early pioneering missionaries in Hawaii. The toe jam is like a micro version of the dispossession of Hawaiian cultures and the infringement of privacy leading to difficulties produced by imperialism's consumerist nature.

Spahr: Colonial Guilt and Feeling Better About It

Juliana Spahr’s poetry highlights the concepts and the issues of belonging and of owning in “Some of We and the Land that was Never Ours.” The speaker identifies and categorizes the subjects, “some of we,” into multiple categories in which those who worked the land, described by the speaker as “[s]ome of we wore the land,” “[s]ome of we carried the ground“ are distinct from those who were foreigners, “[s]ome of we were to settle. Some of we were to arrange.” For those who settle, the speaker asserts “the land was never ours . . . [n]ever to be owned” (12). These assertions are reminiscent of ancient Hawaiian culture, in which the Hawaiians did not have the same concept of ownership as modern Westerners. In this way, Spahr gives cultural authority to the Natives and aligns herself with them as an ally; her alignment with native Hawaiians is present in other poems in the book as well, such as the detail of the role of invasive species, which she portrays negatively in “Sonnets,” and an exploration of her colonial/white guilt in “Dole Street.” The poem “Some of We . . . “ acts as an introduction to her exploration in this sense--the foreigners claimed ownership of land that could not be owned, and that they definitely did not own, nor have any rights thereof until it was taken (a verb she uses in “Things of Each Possible Relation . . .”) by force.

Spahr explores white/colonial guilt in “Dole Street,” a poem named after the street on which she lived that was named after a white annexationist.  The poem begins with the story of the twin rain spirits who give the Hawaiians fresh water, which “eventually attracts foreigners who do not respect the water, who plant water lilies from afar in it, who build a church overlooking it,” reiterating the narrative of arrangement and change (45-6). A native Hawaiian story is used to illustrate the Native belief, deliberately setting it against the “taking” done by the foreigners, who end up destroying with their lack of respect. The speaker then announces, “I am a part of Dole Street’s swirl of connection whether I like it or not” and that “[a]s the stereotypical continental schoolteacher, I need to think about how to respect the water that is there, how to not suck it all up with my root system” (47, 49). She is guilty because she benefits from the colonialism that forced Western education onto the island, but she navigates through guilt by respecting natives and by asserting that she must be responsible and use her Western privilege to acknowledge the destructive and oppressive effects that colonialism had on Hawaii.

Adoption in the Queen's story

One thing I found interesting in Liliuokalani's story was the adoption of the children amongst the nobility. In Western society, most adoptions occur because the parents are unable to take care of the children for whatever reason. But, in the time of Liliuokalani, the noble families adopted each other's children, almost as if they were trading, in order to form a bond amongst the different groups. The adoptions were a lot like today's open adoptions, where the birth parents were able to contact their children. However, Liliuokalani stated that her adoptive parents were the parents that she acknowledged as her own. I thought that it was an interesting change of perspective, considering that most adopted children in today's society and the media are so interested in finding their birth parents. I like the idea of a more porous sense of family, and although it is very unconventional by today's standards, I think that the native Hawaiians were on to something because their society did seem to be a lot more peaceful than those that we're seeing today, but perhaps that was only because they were so isolated for so long from the bigger, more powerful societies.

Hawaii in The Descendants

     For my last blog post I have decided to discuss one of the questions for discussion in the back of The Descendants.

“What was unique about the Hawaiian setting of the book and how did it enhance or take away from the story?”

    My answer to this question is twofold. On the one hand Hawaii is very central and important to the inheritance plot of the novel. This part of the novel could not take place if the novel was set in a different locale. Issues of land, inheritance and ownership in the novel are very “Hawaiian”. This quote from the novel exemplifies this notion, “But now I find myself not working to give it up- the land, the lush relic of our tribe, the dead. The last Hawaiian – owned land will be lost and I will have something to do with it” (229-30). On the other hand, the second plot of the story could happen anywhere. Matt’s struggle to understand his daughters and try to bring his family together. The struggles of families are universal. 

Sid

   Before I read the book, I saw the film and one of my recurring thoughts was my annoyance with Sid's character. He shows up out of nowhere, says the most obnoxious and often random things, and aside from helping Alex's character, he seemed to have no purpose whatsoever. When I began reading the book, I felt the same way about Sid until page 244, nearly the end of the book. This is where we get Sid's whole backstory. By this point we've already learned that Sid's father has died and his mother kicked him out. Initially when Sid mentions his father dying, I was surprised because I thought it wasn't in the film, and that would have meant leaving a critical point out. It makes more sense for Alex to have Sid around after learning that, because Sid knows what it's like to lose a parent. However, I believe the film actually does briefly touch on Sid's father's death, but obviously not enough to leave a lasting impression on the viewer. The film does, however, leave out the fact that Sid was kicked out and the reason behind that, which really irritates me.
   Sid really wasn't a lovable character in my eyes at first. He adds comic relief to the book and film, which seemed to be his purpose, which I thought was unnecessary in the film. The book adds a whole dimension to his character, giving him depth that I really wish had been in the film. It would shed light on his relationship with Alex and his purpose in the story. His relationship with others is also better in the book. Scottie is infatuated with him, always wanting to be around him, hear what he has to say, and take pictures of him for her scrapbook. Since we're seeing it from Matt's point of view, we also see everything he thinks about Sid. Matt's reactions to Sid were my reactions, being annoyed with him at first but at times appreciating some of the things he had to say, and then coming to like him and understand him better after learning his story. Sid was angry at his father just like Alex was angry at her mother, and Sid knows what it feels like to lose a parent while still being angry with them, whereas Alex has time to forgive her mother, and that's what Sid adds to the story. The fact that he knows it's better for Alex to use that time to forgive her mother and say goodbye because it will help her in the end.
   Surely there was room in the film to add at least a little of his story, or at least there would have been if they had cut down on all the unnecessary shots of the picturesque land and beaches in between scenes.

Year of the Ram

James Clifford's poem, "Year of the Ram: Honolulu, February 2, 1991" puts an emphasis on race. Each character who is introduced also has their race stated, and the second sentence in the poem goes through a list of the different types of ethnic food available in the Chinatown atrium, a list that goes on even further than what is present in the text. The text goes on to mention that the jazz ensemble of the University of Hawaii has an "all-Asian saxophone section," and the "black football players" and "white art-museum directors," and more. I feel that the reason for mentioning the ethnicities and colors of these groups is to display the variety of peoples that can be found in Honolulu. This poem makes Honolulu out to be a melting pot of cultures. But, at the same time, the poem is saying that Honolulu is not that kind of place. One of the later sentences begins, "Tonight, as the year 4688 gets underway..." which is the year on the lunar calendar in which this poem takes place. However, the mention of the year transports the reader to a future time when taken out of the context of the lunar new year. A large amount of people suspect that in the future, we will live in a post-race society, but this poem states otherwise. While these groups of people do live together, they continue to pay attention to the differences among them. The poem says:

This will not be Vietnam.

This will not be America.

These two lines set this Hawaiian society apart from all others. These two lines are statements by the author that neither ideals nor race relations will be a just enough cause to separate the different peoples nor cause conflict amongst them, as they continue to live their normal lives.

-David

One concept I really noticed in 13 Ways of Looking at TheBus is that Gajelonia really portrays tourists negatively. In one poem, AllBusiness, she discusses the consumerism that comes with tourism. The replacing of local shops with Nordstrom, Macy’s, Neiman Marcus – the assumption that comes with those stores; the assumption that locals can afford to shop there. She comments that “we no can afford da kine stores they get. Dass why only haoles and Japanee shop there, ‘caue they get money. But us, we lucky if we have enough to buy 5 bags of rice at Costco – ” (Gajelonia 10). Because of the tourism in Hawaii, those department stores try to profit from it. They don’t care if they’re displacing local stores and putting locals out of business – in fact, I bet that they would claim that they actually provide the locals with a lot of jobs. I bet that those stores claim that they help bolster Hawaii’s economy. The problem is addressed by Gajelonia. She describes the hiring of locals and the firing of them. She says that “Cannot just throw people lidat, know what I mean?” (Gajelonia 10). It gives the idea that those department stores hire locals to make themselves look good, to provide a sort of idealized image for the tourists who come and pay to buy goods in the department store. Because nothing is more convincing than a local person working behind the counter, really making the tourist feel like they’re in Hawaii…even if they are in a fancy department store that you can find in any mainland city. Gajelonia doesn’t understand the greed that comes from the department stores. She doesn’t understand why they’re in Hawaii because they aren’t needed; Gajelonia channels the inability to understand the purpose of the department stores into this poem. It is just one comment in a sea of comments regarding tourists.

-- Tanya Tsoi

Channel Surfing

The preponderance of episodic frames in television news coverage provides a distorted portrayal of "recurring issues as unrelated events," according to Iyengar. This "prevents the public from cumulating the evidence toward any logical, ultimate consequence." Moreover, the practice simplifies "complex issues to the level of anecdotal evidence" and "encourages reasoning by resemblance — people settle upon causes and treatments that 'fit' the observed problems."

            When I read James Clifford’s “Year of the Ram” I couldn’t help but feel like I watching the news, or flipping through Hawaiian cable television. Though at first, I didn’t realize how these quotes came together, a quick reread made me think somehow its episodic structure possibly encompasses the whole sphere of the constant reshaping Hawaii by outside forces. I quickly went to Google to see if mass media had shared my opinion on it at all. And alas, it did! I found this article by Scott London

            The poem is made up of bits and pieces of seemingly unrelated pieces of poetry, everyday observation, and quotes. And yet somehow, the whole premise of the poem describes Hawaii’s present cultural situation from inside and out. The poem begins describing a simple scene describing “The new Chinatown atrium.” In which one can find the fascinating cuisines of “Japanese, Thai, Korean, Hawaiian, Chinese, Italian, Mexican, Filipino, Singapore, Lulu international, U.S….” which gives a sense of what kind of people the islands population are made up of. Which is true, as Hawaii being part of the U.S. is now a land of immigration in this sense. Then in contrast, the poem later alludes to the infamous Operation Desert Storm in the repeating lines:

In a desert the tank is hit, explodes inside, sears the men’s faces, tears sharp pieces of metal into their bodies, and sends up plume of black smoke…

The line projects imagery that is starkly different from the Hawaii most people visualize. In fact it’s not even within the country.

            So how does the poem weave together these seemingly unrelated images? The episodic structure of the new is framed, according to Shanto Iyengar, so the public cannot “cumulate evidence to an ultimate consequence,” and thus issues are simplified. It is this exact framing that makes poem project the greater issues of America’s history with aggressive infiltration of foreign countries without having to in depth about what exactly is happening within each line of the poem.  So whether it is the observance of a simple strip mall with various international cuisines or quotes taken from the late President Bush himself, the episodic structure simplifies a history of colonization and its consequences.

An Exciting Soap Opera

            I feel really terrible for saying this but at best, my initial reaction to The Descendants by Kaui Hart Hemmings, is my reaction to most soap operas, which more or less can be summarized like this: “how is that even possible in reality?” You’ve got your privileged characters, a man that rejects his fortune but has a prolific career as some doctor (or in this case lawyer), daughters that epitomize “beauty”, a foreigner housekeeper, a jaded wife, elitist institutions and of course…comas. You can’t have a soap opera without comas. Don’t get me wrong, I really tried hard to apply literature theories to this book but I just couldn’t stand it. And out of respect of people in my section who really do enjoy the genre of soap operas, I for one never understood them. But maybe this is just my reaction for sympathizing with the Hawaiian native cause through the course of our class.

            I didn’t get the vibe this was a pro-Hawaiian book. I got the vibe that there were internal family issues, but I really could not connect the themes in which we have been working with to this vague work. However, I did see a vague connection with Alexandra on the postcards with some issues of exoticisms. Joanie, (not the best of mothers I might add) says she lets Alexandra frolic in “dental floss bikinis” because “It’s what [she] [does]. And she wants [Alexandra] to respect what she [does]. ”(pg.15).  Maybe Joanie is a desensitized to this sort of exploitation, because it seems to be common in the world that they come from, but letting her young daughter pose for such postcard is an invitation for someone to vacation in some fantasized foreign exotic land where a apparently skinny tan beach babes run around half-naked all the time. This is especially concerning considering that they are in fact supposed to be “descendants” of native Hawaiians that lived off the land. With Alexandra’s photograph, I saw a succumbing of somebody’s own heritage to feed an external consumerism and colonialism. Though they are of mixed blood by now, their cultural history doesn’t seem to have clung well to them.

But because of my impression of this book, I didn’t really take that any further. I saw it as the only moment in the book where I felt like there could be some connection with everything else I was learning in this course. The rest of the book, like I said, read to me like a really bad soap opera with internal family issues rather than large metaphorical issues that related back to the Hawaiian culture. 

www.gohawaii.com

Hey guys --

Looking for some inspiration for another blog post, I decided to type in "Hawaii" in the Google search bar. The first selection in the search menu was www.gohawaii.com...Hawaii's tourism website. This website, like many U.S. state have, encourages travel and tourism to that particular state. Many of you have probably seen California's travel commercial that features celebrities (like Arnold Schwarzenegger) encouraging a visit to California. I don't know about you guys, but those commercials always seem unrealistic and romanticized. So when I began perusing www.gohawaii.com, I instantly rolled my eyes. While the changing images on the main page of the website offer beautiful images (like whales watching, canoeing, scouting out lava by boat, etc.) it all seems romanticized and unrealistic. While it's possible to do all these things in Hawaii, these sights and activities all cater to tourists and tourism. I doubt getting to know the "real Hawaii" includes taking surf lessons or canoeing with "locals" dressed up in authentic Hawaiian attire. If someone really wanted to get to know Hawaii, they would need more than  a 7 day vacation filled with fancy hotels and a packed itinerary. Getting to know Hawaii would probably include many things on listed on the website. On a side note the website is beautiful and put together really well. It draws the potential vacationer in to a place filled with promise, fruity drinks, snorkeling, romance and crystal clear waters. I wouldn't have see anything strange about this website if I hadn't taken this class. It's worth a look, see what you guys think!


http://www.gohawaii.com

Gidget

We have been talking a lot about movies and how they portray surf culture and beach boys. Professor Wilson has mentioned the movie “Gidget” but we never saw any clips. I decided to watch this movie (and a lot of others) to get a better idea of this. Gidget depicts beach boy culture as carefree, romantic and simultaneously lazy and socially unacceptable. 

Moondoggy, a young rich disillusioned boy has spent the summer surfing with Kahuna. He has decided to follow Kahuna on an “endless summer” working on a boat so they can get a ride to Peru in order to surf. However, Gidget is constantly reminding Kahuna and Moondoggy about the unrealistic expectations they have. She asks them how they are going to make money and where they are going to live and how they will ever settle down. Kahuna is in his 30’s and Gidget’s attitude toward his desire to live a life of surfing makes an impact on him. Made in 1959, this movie established the California beach bum surfer image. Gidget becomes a surfer but never gets caught up in the lifestyle. The movie ends with Moondoggy staying in California and going to school and giving his class pin to Gidget, solidifying their relationship and validating his decision to stay in California. Kahuna also gives up his dream of the “endless summer” and takes a job as a commercial pilot- becoming the adult society expects him to be.

Towards the end of “Gidget” all the teenagers have a luau on the beach. There are kids drinking and dancing. There are sexual encounters in huts, even one which made me suspicious that there was an orgy going on. Boys are chasing girls and girls are trying to get the boys to chase them. Keep in mind this film was made in 1959, this was very “unacceptable” and it was happening on a public beach. So, while on one hand surfing is shown as an exciting new sport. On the other, it is dangerous and distracts one from their responsibilities. “Gidget” established what could be called the surf movie formula and stereotypes of the beach boy as a lazy womanizer who only cares about surfing when in fact surfing is a sport which takes skill. For Native Hawaiians, surfing was a religious experience and established power for leaders. To depict surfing as a past time for lazy teenagers degrades the true spirit of surfing. This image reflects the missionary attitude toward surfing that we read about in Pacific Passages. I would also like to add that just the fact that they name one of the main characters "Kahuna" is insulting to Hawaiians. A kahuna was a religious leader as that is an aspect of surfing for Hawaiians. However, this Kahuna is "old" and ends up giving up surfing to be a pilot- flying though the air- about as far from the ocean as one can be. There does not seem to be a balance for these men, they are either surfer beach bums or productive members of society who do not surf. 

~Matina Tryforos

Nana on the Curb

In this Poem Gizelle Gajelonia takes Eric Chock’s Poem “Tutu on the Curb” which represents the disappearing Hawaiian culture. Gajelonia rewrites the poem to speak to the Filipino instead of the Hawaiian. This serves to show the displacement of the native Hawaiian in their home. Other racial groups have been introduced to Hawaii for labor purposes. This is important to Gajelonia’s poem because as she specifically speaks of the Filipino in Hawaii we know that the Diaspora of the Filipino almost overwhelm the Hawaiians now. The Hawaiian presence is dying out and the idea of he local and Hawaiian culture is changing. There are many layers to Gajelonia’s poem however I think that the displacement of the Hawaiian is the underlying point. She replaces the Hawaiian with the Filipino and describes the working condition of this grandmother that she says, “Pretty soon, she will be napukaw, meaning lost or disappeared. The same way that the hardworking grandmother will be napukaw so are the Hawaiians as other cultures come to the land and work the land. The disappearing land and grandmother connects Gajelonia’s version of this poem with Chock’s version. It brings the grandmother back and brings the presence back. Almost as a reminder of how this changed for the Hawaiians in a similar way that they will change for this grandmother. 

-Loren 

American Presence in Hawaii

In the “Dole Street” section of Juliana Spahr’s Well then there now, American presence is everywhere. Dole street was named after “Sanford B. Dole president of the Provisional Government (1893-1894) and the Republic of Hawaii (1895-1898) and governor of the Territory of Hawaii (1998-1903).” As an annexationist Dole did not believe that Native Hawaiians should be allowed to vote. He said, “I believe it is exceedingly necessary to keep out of politics this class of people, irresponsible people I mean.” His words on the very first page of this section set the tone of the American presence in this part of the book. There are many other places in this section in which American presence is evident. The commodification of surfing by Americans is especially evident in part two of this section when it is described that, “companies like Local Motion and Roxy that sell surf products especially like to use this trinity of girls.” The trinity being surfing, girls and Hawaii. From this very obvious presence of America and the legacy of commodifying just about everything we learn that the exploitation of Hawaiian culture is the money maker and tourist attraction that make money for the Americans. The commodification of this culture is the foundation of big surf companies. Spahr says, “These companies sell Hawaii as they sell surfing gear and accessories.” This passage especially shows us how everything in Hawaii even it’s natural beauty and resources are used to sell a brand and bring in tourism. Non-native plants brought by Americans have damaged some of the landscape and it seems that every move made by the Americans leaves evidence of their presence and continue to find something else in Hawaii to exploit. 

-Loren

We

     Juliana Spahr’s poem “Some of We and the Land That Was Never Ours” was almost meaningless to me the first time I read it. After reading it I was left with a vague general impression and a lot of questions. After reading the “Sonnets” I wish she had swapped their position in the book. 

In the poem “Some of We and the Land That Was Never Ours” “we” is broadly defined. Spahr writes, “We of all the small ones are.” However this is followed by “We are all. We are in this world”(11). This is vague and the defining of “we” gets broader with each line. For me “the small ones” indicates a minority, but what minority is not clear. She could be speaking about locals, natives or just Hawaiians in general as Hawaii itself is an incredibly small part of the world in comparison to other parts of the world or even just to other states of the Union. The next two lines (quoted above) broaden the “we.” Or at least lends itself to be interpreted in several ways which can alter, complicate and deepen the meaning of the poem. Later Spahr writes, “Some of we and the land that was never ours while we were the land’s.” Again this narrows down “we” and adds the complexity of colonialism and land issues that we have talked about in class. Still, this could be settlers in Hawaii, tourists, natives or more. 

When I look at the “Sonnets” the “we” is more clearly illuminated and helps lend an understanding to the other poem. The first line of “Sonnets” is “We arrived” later the speaker says, “ We arrived over the islands and we saw the green of them/ out the window” (19). The speaker tells us they are coming to Hawaii from another place. The amount of people is unspecified but at least now the reader is aware that the “we” consists of people coming into Hawaii from another land. This narrows the “we” down to tourists, settlers or foreigners in general. With that in mind you can go back to the previous poem and understand it according to that. In doing so a theme of Americanization and colonialism is revealed. Tracing what the “we” represents in different poems illuminates themes throughout all her poems which (for me) were more difficult to see when reading the “Some of We and the Land That Was Never Ours” on its own without the “Sonnets.”

~Matina Tryforos

Crawford and The Duke

Seven Weeks in Hawaii written by M. Leola Crawford gives us a short description of the tourist experience with surf riding as it became popularized in Hawaii with the tourist community. This short excerpt shows us the tourist experience as a romanticized experience in paradise. Crawford seemed to have taken a liking to “the Duke” Kahanamoku whose “fame as an Olympic swimmer allowed him to break down some racial barriers in the Islands and hold membership in both the Outrigger and Hui Nalu.” 

The relationship between Crawford and Kahanamoku was portrayed as a potentially romantic relationship in a time when interracial relationships were not the norm. It is also important to note that the beach boy lifestyle as mentioned in Pacific Passages that although the beach boys were “responsible for spreading the enthusiasm for surfriding throughout the first half of the twentieth century, most of them endured lives of poverty as second class citizens.” The life of a beach boy seemed glamorous despite having low pay and at times being treated as second class to the haole tourists. They “instructed, charmed, massaged, and rescued surfriding tourists in the waves.” Because Kahanamoku was not a professional beachboy but also an Olympic athlete and accepted by many haole groups the idea of the Duke with an American tourist girl was not so far fetched. In fact M. Leola Crawford wrote in “Seven Weeks in Hawaii” in 1917 about the time that she spent with the Duke. We see the playfulness of the potentially romantic relationship when Crawford says how she would love to learn to surf as long as she did not have to get wet. As a playful response from the Duke as described by Crawford, “this Duke was carrying me to shore ‘to keep the lady from getting wet’ as he said, and how he laughed and showed his pearly white teeth. I am quite fond of ‘the Duke’!”. After continuing to describe her experience with the Duke, the lomi-lomi massage and that “bidding the Duke aloha we painfully wended our way homeward. And, as before stated, we are now but limping shadows of our former selves!” Kahanamoku obviously made some sort of impact on Crawford and although we do not get to read about his experience of their time together as the reader we assume that this relationship had the potential to be romantic even if only for the short time they spent together. 

-Loren

Characterization in The Descendants

One of my favorite passages in the novel was the description of the nanny, Esther. While most authors I read prefer to use indirect characterization, the author used a more direct approach in describing Esther. When Esther is first shown, Matthew doesn't exactly explain what Esther was like before he started to become more involved in Scottie's life, he does describe how she is now that he is around more. At this point, we don't get a physical description, but we do know that she is the Mexican nanny. Matthew says Esther "has acquired quick retorts and smooth comic timing, so now she's the sassy Mexican maid, sitcom-ish and wise" (22). This passage stood out to me because it's not the type of description I'm used to seeing in literature. I liked that it set Esther up as a certain character type, and in doing so, related her to other media, through the use of the word "sitcom-ish." All in all, I enjoy Hemmings' approach to characterization and revealing background information. I like that she lets the story unfold, and as she does this, she doesn't leave the reader hanging on to mysteries because she blatantly tells us everything that the narrator knows, so that it is more like we know everything he knows, which allows him to come off as more of a reliable narrator, rather than the type of narrator who could save his secrets until the plot has unfolded a bit more.

Mr. King - The Descendants

In chapter 2 of the Descendants, Matthew is on his way to the store within the hospital when he bumps into the nurse, Joy. She repeatedly refers to Matthew as "Mr. King," which is an interesting play on his family's position of power. He is the descendant of a family that has had power and land for many generations, having missionary ancestors, one of which even married a Hawaiian princess. I believe that Hemmings chose this specific last name because it goes against Matt's feelings toward his heritage. He states that he does not use the money from his trust and instead lives off of the money he earns as an attorney. His family's affairs are public information, and he has many people watching to see what he decides, as he is his family's largest shareholder. In this sense, Matthew is a reluctant king, and the fact that he is in the public eye at this time can be paralleled with royalty from the past, when kings, especially in Europe, had greater power and were more prominent in societies throughout the world.

-David

A Critical Analysis of The Descendants

First of all, I really loved this writer's voice. She has a unique, clever way of saying some things that made me chuckle and reread them. I often found myself underlining more sentences that I enjoyed and appreciated than were relevant to the class. However, I found more instances in which her statements and ignorant comparisons made me uncomfortable and I quickly began to doubt whether or not her writing reflected a white elitist view of Hawaii and if she really was "one of them."

I had a problem with the way Hawaii was initially depicted through the description of The Club, the suburban residential areas, and the tourist saturated beaches and streets. The author attaches a mildly sarcastic tone to these descriptions but shamelessly centers her story around the lives of a rich, educated, white family with numerous connections and privileges. There are a few sentences thrown in that allow the reader to question this issue, like on page 80 Mike asks Scottie "What kind of Hawaiian are you?" This touches upon an important theme in the book, making readers think about the various cultures and racial identities constantly mixing in the basin that is the Hawaiian islands. Whenever certain awkward phrases were used like, "They're like missionaries" or "It also makes me feel like some kind of colonist to have Esther around," It made me want to throw the book across the room. If you are a rich white male living in Hawaii, there is no acceptable way to reference the presence of your pidgin speaking nanny as colonialism. There were also times when Mike would make comparisons like, "I'm like lava, slowly approaching and altering foundations forever," or touch upon his wife's hula group and their practice sessions in the living room. The writer continues to ignorantly weave a web similar to every Mid-West tourist's ideology as they step off the plane and expect hula dancers to give them lei's and Mai Tai's.

The presences of pidgin in this novel is immediately given a negative light and is quickly shut down with an educated English rebuttal. On page 19, Mike argues with Esther, the pidgin speaking nanny, about the harm of lard in Scotties diet and whether or not fat is good or bad. She states, "Is good fat. She so skinny. This good fat," and Mike follows by shutting her down. However, the information he provides on healthy foods and the medical recommendations for preventative measures is only shown as thoughts in his head, which allows the reader to believe that his white literate views are obviously correct and the nanny's opinions are horribly wrong because she hasn't "read the blogs." When Scottie chooses the meal containing lard, over the meal of vegetables, it shows the difference between Scottie relating to a culture that eats lard and speaks pidgin and the rest of the women in her family who represent the skinny exotic models plastered across all commercial postcards and Hawaiian vacation advertisements.

- Jessica St. Martin

Similes in The Descendants

Kaui Hart Hemmings makes use of many similes in her novel, The Descendants. I'm only going to do a few because my ebook apparently erased 50% of my notes. Anywho, in chapter 24 Scottie is rifling through her mother's jewelry and Matt is quoted for thinking "Fake pearls and real pearls. Fake diamonds and real diamonds. Intertwined necklaces glint in the photo." Matthew is comparing himself and Brian Speers to Joanie's jewelry, the real man in her life and the one she has replaced. Later on in Chapter 31 Matt's cousin Hugh whistles in a manner reminiscent of cartoon characters going off a cliff. This perfectly summarizes what Matt's going through at the moment when he realizes his wife was going to leave him for Brian Speers who, through connections with Don Holitzer, was going to retail a significant amount of land in Hawaii. There's nothing like feeling perfectly helpless, knowing you can't do anything about what's happened and what's going to happen. At the end of the novel, Matt say "though the art of wayfinding has been lost to me, I try to steer us to share in as straight a line as possible." This is a poetic way for saying that despite his recent heartbreaking experiences and past performance as a father, he will do everything he can to set things right.

Kulu ka waimaka wwe ‘opu

Tori Howard

            One crucial Hawaiian legend that surfaces in Hemming’s novel The Descendants is the Hawaiian views of rain on or near the death of a loved one. First, taking the traditional value of the message, “The Hawaiians say when rain fell at the time of a person’s death or funeral, Kulu ka waimaka wwe ‘opu, which means ‘the tears fall: the clouds weep.’ The gods mingle their tears of affection with those who weep in sympathy and aloha,” (41) the reader can understand that as the Earth mourns a loss, the heavens and nature gain from that loss. As gruesome as it sounds, the dead body of a human becomes a meal to all kinds of creatures, sustaining life even in its loss, showing the inherent cyclic nature of life and therefore nature itself.

            Looking at this phrase, “the tears fall: the clouds weep” I can’t help but be remembered about how rainy weddings are supposed to promise longetvity of the marriage. More specifically, Sposa bognata, sposa fortunate, which means “wet bride, lucky bride.” The story comes full circle for me, as Matt and his daughters Alex and Scottie realize that their lives will be better without their mother; while they weep in her passing, yet the heavens seem to remind the family in their own way: “it has been unusually cold all around the island these past few days, with hard rain, near black clouds—the most perfect weather for now” (272). Matt never elaborates on what he means by “now”: the time of the year, the passing of his wife, the storm that he brought upon so many people. Although at this point, while he never directly references the gods again after the original explanation of the story, the reader understands that he is implying this connection.