R.Y.S. Perez's Blog

One Day in December -- Book Review

*I received One Day in December for free at 2018 BookExpo America (BEA). I did not receive it in return for a review, I simply received it as a guest to BEA, I chose to read and review it of my own accord.*One Day in December by Josie Silver is an romance all about missing your chance at love at first sight. After missing the chance to meet him after their love-at-first-sight encounter, Laurie meets Jack a year later -- as her best friend Sarah’s boyfriend. The novel follows their story for ten years as they try to find their fate, love, an happiness in their lives during the unexplainable turns that life takes. The novel is an easy to read romance from the dual perspectives of Laurie and Jack, the markers are clear and the dates attached as well - even the voice of the perspectives are distinct - making the jump between a job well done.There is a cast of characters, the main tripod being Laurie, Sarah, and Jack. There are others, like the Aussie, Luke, the posh Oscar, and intense Lucille. Some of the themes are, of course, what it means to be meant-to-be, what to do about that, and friendships. This book is very much all about knowing that you are meant-to-be and the ride of your life with that knowledge. Silver seems to present the very idea that when you are in that meant-to-be relationship, not only will you know. Silver has more to say on those ideas -- but those will only be found in the spoiler-filled review.The story grabs you as soon as you start the first page, the grumpy beginning of the Christmas season in 2008. That moment where their eyes first meet stays with the reader as much as it does Laurie and Jack - it’s a mythical moment that truly feels real and lasting. It’s the dream that we all wish for in the wake of all those rom-coms, after all. For the first half of the book, however, it is not the love pushed back that keeps the reader’s interest but the friendship between Laurie and her best friend Sarah. The book is dense with glimpses into their lives for ten years, and true to life, much happens. The story propels us forward, and there are almost no pauses of the propelling plot. Despite its length, it is a fast read. The book does not dwell in as much drama as some would think - especially if anyone is a fan of modern soaps. There are pressures and tension that are throughout the book, but because of the source of them they do not hit as hard as they may have intended because we do not get to see those parts of their lives often enough in this format. There is a lot more to be said on other parts of the story that didn’t quite land in the spoiler section.In the end, however, One Day in December is a great read for those in search of a longer fluff read and in wanting for their favorite romance movie on the page. It is an entertaining read for those that are only interested in that sort of novel. Anyone who is looking for more depth into that would be left wanting.Spoilers SectionWhile it is true that Silver certain believes in this novel that one will capital ‘k’ Know when they have found the one they are meant-to-be with, it is also clear that she also believes that they will end up together. Perhaps, that is in part the nature of the genre, perhaps that is how she feels it will be, and it is my own fault for reading this book at the wrong time in my own life when I am not as hopeful as she. But, the ending did make for the perfect cliche rom-com ending, and perhaps that is all that we needed for a read that is only meant to be fluffy, and not at all a life preserver or critique of such relationships.I must say, of the great things in this novel, the distinct voices of the two narrators of the novel was excellently done. With Laurie’s self conscious monologue and Jack’s foul mouth, we can tell that these two have very different voices - and these voices sound wholly their own and like real people. There were scenes that just seemed oh so real; the early twenties drunkard holiday parties, the struggle with integrating a spouse into one’s family, and the deep seeded desire to hold on to a relationship that isn’t enough because you love them just enough for it to rip your heart out.One of my biggest critiques of One Day in December comes from the characters.First, there was Sarah. From the beginning, Sarah was this mythical being. She was, to be frank, a perfect being - an unrealistic being. Albeit, she is being described by her best friend throughout the novel - and her boyfriend/ex - but she just seems like an impossible character. She’s beautiful, daring, “just the right kind of confident and insecure,” and completely kind. Her one “mistake” of the novel is that she does not show up to Laurie’s wedding after she finds out that she had been in love with Jack and kissed during their relationship - something that wouldn’t be all too unwarranted in real life. Perhaps, there is another flaw that is written of her - the possible cheating on Jack with Luke - but judging by how Silver truly tries to write the desperation that nothing happened and she was faithful the way Silver had written her up to that point would make the reader truly believe that there was nothing going on. This mythical status of Sarah was supposed to make Laurie seem paler in comparison, but there were no real flaws outside of falling in love with Jack that seemed to come about in Laurie’s character either…Except, there was one glaring difference between all the character’s and Laurie: everyone but her seemed to grow up. While we can see Sarah growing up as she moves on to live on her own, grows in her career and becomes more sophisticated; witness Jack mature as he works through the aftermath of pulling himself up after the grief from his accident, his changing viewpoints on relationships, and even maturing through his own career; we do not witness any true growth from Laurie. All of Laurie’s growth seems to stem out of simply coping. Her growth in Thailand was about moving on from Jack, but she let herself get whirlwind into something right away once more. Her growth after each of her father’s health crises seem to be able pulling herself together and yet leaning on other people. Most of all, all of Laurie’s growth for most of the novel seemed to stem immediately to her job. “Look how much Laurie grew! She’s following her dream finally!” Silver seemed to say a quarter way through. “Look how much Laurie grew, she’s writing for adults!” Silver tried to argue at the end of the novel. But in all honesty, Laurie didn’t seem to grow much at all. She was finally becoming happy with herself again, learning how to love her life, when the final whirlwind brought her right back into Jack’s arms. There is only one decision that stood as a true testament of Laurie’s growth: her decision to end her marriage with Oscar. It was a grown-up, realistic decision, one that was inevitable for a relationship that they had especially because it was, in truth, so short.Oscar, out of all the characters, had received the short end of the stick for the cast of characters. From the beginning I did not understand why a relationship had flourished outside of Thailand between Laurie and Oscar. Their entire relationship seemed based around sex, including back in the UK. He was written as though he genuinely loved Laurie - or at least we are supposed to believe that - but there were no scenes that were not physical that told us that. Instead, we are simply meant to believe that by how often he proposed and their small banter. Their conflict in marriage was a real one though, and that was honestly the strongest moment for Oscar than any other part of the novel.Again, perhaps I am reading this book at the wrong time in my own life, but I felt like the tagline of “A love story about what happens after you meet - or don’t meet - the one,” had opened up doors to a far more meaningful story than a simple fluff novel. Perhaps reaching each other in the end in a less rom-com, more real way, would have been better. But for myself, the strongest moments of writing where not the sections of romance, but the use of that romance to pull on the heartstrings when it wasn’t enough. When Laurie tells the comatosed Jack that she told a young boy how painful it is to let someone go, how there isn’t only one person in the world for us, and how you can move on… That moment hit harder than any other. Just the same, the strongest moment for Sarah was when she explains to Laurie why she and Jack broke up, explaining, “...our entire relationship has been a million tiny compromises, his and mine, so our differences weren’t big enough to pull us apart. It’s been a constant effort, and I don’t know if love should feel that way, you know? I don’t mean making an effort for each other… I mean making an effort to be someone ever so slightly different from who you are” (Silver, 237). The strongest moment in the novel? When Jack and Sarah arrive, despite it all, to support Laurie during her father’s death.This book was entertaining, but it was not meaningful. It was simple fluff that is fun to read with a page-turning romance and drama. It could have been so much more.

Diverse Shows With A White Audience - In The Heights

Minor spoilers are discussed in this post.I have a very special connection to Lin-Manuel Miranda’s first Broadway musical production In The Heights, from growing up in The Heights to being boricua and Argentinian. Not only was I amazed by going to see my first Broadway show when I was little, sitting in the mezzanine to see In The Heights made me immediately connect myself to Broadway because I saw myself on stage. There are many other reasons why I love the hip-hop Latin musical, but the main fact is that this love has made me desperate to see it as an adult once more. This was made a bit trickier though because In The Heights is no longer being performed on Broadway. Thankfully, due to Miranda’s new big hit - a little show you may have heard of, Hamilton - many productions want to get their hands on his first show to put on because they cannot do Hamilton until it is off Broadway. This is how I found myself attending In The Heights in the middle of Long Island, NY being produced by a white majority with an entirely white audience in an experience that left my insides twisted.If you don’t know, In The Heights is about “a hundred stories” of the people who live in the small corner of New York City called Washington Heights, a Latin community in upper Manhattan. The story’s main character is Usnavi, the bodega owner, who is a proud Dominican man who dreams of returning to his island, which he considers home more than the USA. The entire cast in encompassed with Latin characters, such as Nina, a second generation Latin character, with only one character who was written racially ambiguous, Benny. The characters are not the only explicitly Latin aspects of the show; the music has a very distinct Latin-American flare, Spanish words are unabashedly used throughout, and the specific Latin culture that is found in our communities is consistently mentioned.With all this attention to Latin culture, and being Latinidad myself, I was hyper-aware of my surroundings when I sat in my seat and noticed that there was only one other person of color in the small theater. Originally, I felt myself puff up with pride - the entire house was packed, only 3 seats left empty in the entire audience - and they all came out to see a show about Latin people. While I do want to say my connection to the show still had me weeping to myself nearly every single song, I was not unaware of the problems that were arising from the production.First, I will have to say I cannot say this for certain because I purposely did not get a playbill so I would not have confirmation, I am certain that the cast did not consist of mostly Latin performers. This problem I spotted as soon as I saw the entire entourage in the opening song. This already gave me complex feelings on how well the show would be, many of the accents were dropped, some Spanish words were said wrong, and some of the impact is lost immediately. There are two major problems for me when it came to the production of the show that cannot be overlooked. Going off of all the stage photographs from the original Broadway production, I noticed that all of the women’s clothing - even Nina’s at a certain point - are hyper-sexualized in this production. Their costumes were all short and cropped for each leading lady. The biggest insult? The fact that the very important instrument, the bongos, were left entirely out of the musical compositions. These things are already chipping away at some of the aspects of In The Heights, but that was not all. The most disheartening was the reactions from the audience.If you’ve seen Jordan Peele’s racially impacted horror film Get Out with different audiences, you’ll understand that watching with different groups changed how you view it. It all shows in the little things; what do they laugh at, what do they gasp at, what do they comment on, what do they walk away with.Many of the jokes that are culturally specific, of course, did not land. While I always barked out laughing at Usnavi’s insistence that he “won’t make any profit if the coffee isn’t light and sweet,” no one else in the audience saw any significance to the line. These dead jokes are to be expected when I’m the only Latinidad in the audience, but I am haunted by when they did choose to laugh. Whenever someone would exasperate a Spanish word, which is constant with the heatwave, there were chuckles. It happened over and over again, with many of the jokes. By the end of the show it gave me the aching feeling that they were not laughing with us in the humor of the show, they were laughing at Latin culture.There was a true testament to the difference between myself and the rest of the audience in the understanding of the show when I was the only one sniffling at Kevin’s solo Inútil, a heart-wrenching expression of his farmer father calling him useless and feeling useless when being unable to help his daughter. The first half of the show ends with the blackout that occurred just when the massive fight in the club happens (the scenes within the songs The Club and Blackout). During intermission, I overheard two men discussing what they thought thus far… “I thought it would be about growing up in Washington Heights, so of course it ends in a fight.” Hearing this made my face turn red, I wasn’t sure if I should shrink back or flare up with anger. The second man followed with his own declaration, “It’s just like West Side Story.” I returned to my seat feeling somehow ashamed. As usual, our diverse stories are all lumped together, and somehow still stereotyped. The audience wasn’t connecting with the culture of those people in the play, they weren’t trying to connect themselves with the characters, either.In the second half of the show, where Kevin and Benny are arguing, Kevin declares that the younger man is not a part of their culture, it was enlightening on a brutal truth of an issue very present in Latin culture. But in this setting, it seemed foul. It no longer felt like self-criticism. I even heard an audience member behind me whispering that “we were right about them.” The lesson doesn’t land or translate, instead it became reassurance of previous perceptions. Latin people were still them, we were still othered. While sitting there and listening to Usnavi say they were “just a corner full of foreigners” I realize that Latinidad people are not the only ones who think this. Here was an entire theater of people seeing this amazingly beautiful display of absolute pride and using it as amusement for themselves. Latin culture was being used as cheap amusement for a replacement for what they really wanted. This production didn’t seem like it was being put on to show a silenced culture, it was not about diversity. They didn’t set out to do this, and empathy certainly didn’t happen, either.The problem with having a diverse show on Broadway is the audience is almost never a mirror to that, even with Hamilton. While these shows are absolutely crucial to the people who are represented in them and building upon our culture, shows like In The Heights have always been a way to show our pride in our culture. Yet I did not leave that production with a sense of pride. Walking out of the theater, I left with the bitter taste of anger and shame, while everyone else left with the sense that they did the right thing by paying to see a show about the “other” people.

Reading & Interview with Anthony Hearte

Dear Jacob

Jacob Thompson is a 7 year old boy with cancer at the Main Medical Center in Portland. His last wish was for people to send him their homemade Christmas cards. I sent him one, but it took a few tries...Dear Jacob,As someone who loves words, I have to admit, I’m not good with them sometimes…Dear Jacob,I hope you get all the toys you wished for at Christmas…Dear Jacob,What are people supposed to tell a dying little boy in a Christmas card when no one is sure he’ll make it to Christmas?Dear Jacob,Do toys matter to you? Do these cards?Dear Jacob,My sister is making you a Christmas card, I have to tell you, that’s special, because she isn’t willing to send anyone a letter. So, I hope at least that tells you - you are making people move. And you’ll get glitter all over yourself, too, I’m sure. Drive everyone crazy with it.Dear Jacob,I can’t keep track of how many drafts I’ve written, but I can tell you they are all really bad. I hope you’ll forgive me. I’ve been sitting here thinking about what I’m going to write to you, and I’m not even sure what it should be. I’m sitting here writing to you certain that nothing I say will matter in the end - and I suppose it shouldn’t either. In the end, what I hope matters is everything that you said.Dear Jacob,I keep seeing my sisters in you, though I’ve never seen what you look like. But I’m sure you look a like them - you’re full of joy, and mischievous snickers. There are probably a few jokes that only you laugh at so hard that you can’t breathe, while everyone else doesn’t get it. Most of all, I keep picturing you full of life. Maybe that is what makes it so hard.Dear Jacob,These drafts keep getting longer, at least I know I’m going in the right direction. No one will ever ask you - I will never send this - but maybe you just need to say it: Are you scared?Dear Jacob,For one, I have to say, it takes a special person to appreciate handwritten, homemade Christmas cards. I’m glad you are one of them. There are so many things that come with them; the love, the joy, the memories. You now carry hundreds of your own memories of love, joy, and family - life - and hundreds more. And in sending our cards to you, you have have become a part of ours.Dear Jacob,I think it’s obvious that I’m forgetting that you’re seven years old, but judging by how I keep crying, I’m not. I think what makes it hurt the most is that I want this to mean so much while I know it will mean so very little at all. What matters to you now, Jacob? I hope that these cards give you bits of whatever it is. I hope they bring you snow, or lights, or color, or decorations, or the feeling of Christmas. I hope you have a little Christmas that is worthy of being your last.Dear Jacob,You are a special person to love handmade Christmas cards. They are little pieces of everyone’s Christmas. My favorite thing about Christmas was it was the time of year where it felt like everyone loved each other - the world loved each other. Well, there a lot of people making sure they show you that Christmas love.Dear Jacob,I’ve sent you my Christmas card a week ago, but I can’t stop thinking about you. I keep wondering if you got it. I keep wondering if you liked it. I keep hoping that it made you smile. I keep hoping that it made it on time.Dear Jacob.Merry Christmas.Jacob Thompson celebrated Christmas on November 12, 2017. He passed away a week later.

My Guest Appearance on JimNogPod

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MY Guest Appearance on JimNogPod

*Return soon for transcription*

Untitled

He was the color of tan skin untouched by winter's sun, but the blizzard lives on in his eyes.He uses the weed to get high because it's the only way for him to get up in the morning without her touch. Struggle is where he lives, where pain, weed and crack lives. Dreams sold in bulk on street corners only to be won like lottery tickets, one in a million.And he doesn't dare look down because hell is calling him back to silver chokeholds, and the shadows behind him are haunting him with the whispers of his regrets.You see, he reminds me of times when I would cried out for his floating arms to let go of me, while my heart begging for someone’s soul to hold me-Rock me,Love me,Take me back to the days when his eyes didn't know how to roll that paper and have it be the only way for his face to hold a smile.Trust me when I say the nightmares in my bed are calling now, while the dark clouds are following me. I realize the world is upside down.And we seem to have it all backwards. We learn to love on the outside before we learn to love the inside. We remember who we were before who we wanted to be. Searching for answers from an invisible man.All the while the distance between us keeps getting bigger while the world around us just keeps getting smaller.I want to tell you that I love you even as the ash falls. I love you with all my heart, and not my mouth. Yet you still urge for these words to brush past my lips and kiss the air with the breaths of my affections. But my voice won’t hold me back for I know he sees everything he wants to hear in my eyes.But these affections only lead to pain as my mother tells me and my father's stories teach me.And yes, even I sometimes wish that this time would be different. But then I remember-He was already gone when I first met him.If you would like to purchase my book of poetry you can do so here.

Bechdel Test in Literature

When looking back at an old story I had been working on a few years ago I noticed something very disturbing in my own writing: I had only one character that was a woman in the whole plot, and, even though she was the main character (MC), her entire being in the story was revolving around the men. That’s when I started using the Bechdel Test in my writing.It’d be hard pressed to find many people who do not know what what the Bechdel Test is these days, but it still happens. In fact, I’m more than sure the short topic is never brought up in certain places at all, but that’s for other reasons. So, before going into why writers should use the Bechdel Test in their reading and writing, the test should be explained first. The Bechdel Test is named after Alison Bechdel, whosecomic strip it first appeared in, and the basic function is to determine whether women have an active role in the work of fiction. It was originally started, and still maintained, as a test for movies, but there is no reason it cannot be extended into other forms. There are three rules:There must be two women in itWho talk to each otherAbout something other than a man.That’s it. That’s all there is to it. Really. Of course, there have been other additions to the rules since its spread, such as the two women must be named and their conversation must last at least 60 seconds, but I’m sticking to the basics here.But what does the Bechdel Test have to do with literature? Well, a lot actually. Especially in genres such a sci-fi and high fantasy, women tend to be very scarce and yet we still seem to overlook it simply because it is so easy to. So, using the Bechdel Test might be something we may want to start thinking about when we read or write to test ourselves in whether what we are reading is giving active roles to women and if it reflects real life at least in this very overly simplistic way.Yet, the Bechdel Test isn’t enough, and we need to recognize that as well. The Bechdel Test is very easily achieved - and that’s why it is so important to point out when a work doesn’t pass this very low standard. There are other things that should be accounted for when it comes to our women characters. Do they have their own story arc or purpose? Are they driven by more than a man? Do they matter to the plot, without using violence against women to propel it? In all, these are just examples in which the Bechdel Test isn’t enough to show that a work of fiction is “woman-friendly.” But that has never been the point of the Bechdel Test. It has always been about showing the way in which so many works of fiction still don’t even meet this minimum.The very first step in passing the Bechdel Test is having more than one character that is a woman. That should be easy enough, right? But just looking at a general US high school reading list says otherwise. As a reader I have grown so accustomed to adventure stories being from the male perspective, or romance stories needing to only have one female character to stay on track, that I didn’t realize that I was starting to do these things in my own writing. So, what did I do? I populated my story with women. Now, I can tell you of at least four female characters that hold their own in my latest Work In Progress (WIP). I’ve built an entire plot line for a book with solely female MCs. This doesn’t mean that my male characters have vanished to the background, in fact it feels entirely different. With more women the story feels like it can relate to the real world; characters react to each other more realistically, you see more honest interactions, and the plot is vivid with different storylines that don’t trivialize one gender or the other. There is a large challenge as a writer, especially when it comes to writing consciously and with diversity, to be aware of your own biases as you write.When thinking about why we made have trouble finding books that pass the Bechdel Test, we may want to turn an eye to publishing houses - especially The Big 5. BetaCandy wrote an article aboutfilms schools actively try to stop screenwriters from passing the Bechdel Test and after reading it I couldn’t help but wonder if our publishing houses are doing the same. We’ve seen disastrous and blatant ways large publishing houses like Harlequin Teen continue to perpetuate harmful ideas, so it feels almost too expecting for them to purposely choose their projects that would not pass the Bechdel Test for the same feigned reasons we hear about the moves; “because they won’t sell” or “they don’t want it.” It is these thoughts that lead me to believe that it really has to be in the writer’s hands to at least hold themselves to this simple standard. Just the same it is the reader’s job to call out these books. You should hold them accountable for what they did or didn’t do, and using the Bechdel Test is just one way small way to test them.In all, the Bechdel Test is not about saying a film is sexist - though it could very well be, or not - because the whole function is about something else entirely. The Bechdel Test, at its core, is a very modest and overly simplified ways of pointing out to each of us the ways it is so utterly common to leave out an entire portion of the human population. The test is used to point it out to us so that we can see it, and only then  are we able to start working towards something more. There are rare days where I realize even my day to day life doesn’t meet the Bechdel Test - but I want to make sure my writing does.

Cult is Culture

May the force be with you.My name is Inigo Montoya, you killed my father, prepare to die…Live long and prosper.I aim to misbehave.Long live the king.There is something amazing about all of these quotes, isn’t there? I can assure that we have all heard them at least once in our lives - whether we knew where they were from or whether we were the ones saying them. But what do all of them have in common? They are all a part of the larger pop cult culture. Big stars have come out of cult culture, like Star Wars, Star Trek, The Princess Bride, Disney classics such as the Lion King, and even obscure, short lived series such Firefly. All of these started as cults, with obscure references, creation of their own culture, use of one liners and valued merch, keeping its dedicated fans enraptured for years and years to come. At NYC’s 2017 Book Con there was a panel - Cult Classic Throwdown: Science Fiction and Fantasy in Film, Lit, and Pop Cultureinvolving Zoraida Cordova, Sarah Beth Durst, Sasha Alsberg, Jenn Northington, S.A. Chakraborty, Jordanna Max Brodsky, Michael Johnston, Petra Mayer, Lindsay Cummings - that made me think about a few things about cult cultureTo understand this idea we first need to break down what we mean by cult culture. We may all be aware of the negative thought process of the word cult. After all, the phrase “don’t drink the kool-aid” arose from a very real phenomenon. We can easily define a cult as a group of people defined by their religious, spiritual, or philosophical beliefs, or its common interest in a particular personality, object or goal. If we go back and take a look at the tradition of cults, we know that it is meant to be small, secretive, and normally dealt with worship. This can be dangerous, as we so easily can see, when it comes to wrong and/or harmful ideas to yourself and others. But then we have cult culture in the nerd-dom/fandom domain. In this sense, that is where we can find some of the most positive uses of cults - the way you can “find your people.”In the same way the Monday night football opening tune brings together fans, a one-line reference can make people come together in absolute nerd-dom. The way May the Fourth practically demands all Star Wars fans to wear their shirts and make references. It helps us find each other. These fans are so dedicated and in love with the work that it becomes part of their life and culture. Cult classics create culture; they take ideas from it, create customs and gestures from it, and even builds its own behaviors and subgroups. Sometimes cults remain within their small domains, sometimes they explode into pop culture, spreading far and wide across the globe. Think Harry Potter. It doesn’t take away the fact that they had started from groups of dedicated people who live within the culture it created, so it is really in my opinion, that pop cult culture is still as authentic as it will ever be. For those who are deeply embedded into the culture it both replicates our already real everyday realities, while also creating everyday realities with the new culture it creates. Even today our pop cult culture creates new ones. We are the Harry Potter generation. We have The Hunger Games, just as Sasha Alsberg mentioned in aforementioned Book Con panel on Pop Cult Culture. We will keep creating more, and we won’t know which will remain until much later.But there is something that is becoming more and more blatantly obvious as time goes on when it comes to cult culture: Except for the blaring exceptions, cult culture tends to wash out all the voices of marginalized groups. From people of color (POC) to LGBTQ+ and many other marginalized people, cult culture seems to leave so many of them out as though they do not exist at all. Of course many of these cult classics are products of their time, even in modern day we are struggling to produce shows with minority and marginalized groups, so imagine products of times before now and how hard it would have been then. These marginalized groups never really got a say into what is popular; we are, as the phrase goes, in the margins. There are many things that come into play; power, money, and opportunity, but the idea comes down to if these characters and stories aren’t out there no one will fall in love with them, and if no one falls in love with them then no one will put them out there. This cycle leads to all sorts of problems in cult culture; like tokenism, misrepresentation, perpetuation of harmful stereotypes, and continuation of the very cycle. The isolation and exclusion of these marginalized groups in itself displays, continues, and creates taboos and stereotypes. This can be seen today in the way LGBTQ+ roles were excluded from media for so long all the way to how they are displayed in all forms of media today with limited ways of expressing what these roles are supposed to be like and look like that do not represent the community as a whole.It is probably worth mentioning how some of those cult fandoms that do include these marginalized groups burst at the seams even more than the rest. Star Trek is widely known as the home of the first Black lady of Sci Fi, Nichelle Nichols. The Rocky Horror Picture Show has Dr. Frank N. Furter, who sings the hit “Sweet Transvestite.” Even Star Wars has made its amazing update into the times by incorporating marginalized people with a female lead, Rey, and Black male ex-stormtrooper, Finn. These exceptions are so exceptionally popular, have aged well, and reflect the reality of the world where these people not only exist but have their own stories, roles, and personality in any story that is told.So, what’s the solution? Well, part of the solution stems from something we are already doing. Continuations and remakes happen all the time - whether we want them to or not, whether they stay true, whether they are as popular, they happen. Going back to Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015), I’m sure we can all say that it was widely popular, major grossing film, that not only stayed true to the culture but incorporated people of color and women. I would love to see that trend continue and go further. If we are going to be making these storylines and remakes anyways, it should be our responsibility to also tell these stories and incorporate marginalized groups both on screen, on the page, and in the people who help bring these works of art to life from writers to directors.There’s an even truer way to solve the problem of our current cult culture: create more. The more diverse our world becomes the more power marginalized groups have in what is popular. Our stories are not limited to being added to stories or be remakes of past characters; marginalized people have their own stories to tell. Part of our solution needs to be making these works and allowing them to become a part of our cult culture. By including these groups we are expanding our worldview, we are giving voice, and we are including culture of others. We must go out and look, keep our minds open to those that may not have the popular vote, return a bit to our roots of cultism and find the obscure and give it a chance. Share and love these works as unabashedly as we do with the others. Love them if you love them. To those artists in marginalized groups; create, create and create more. Cult is culture, and it’s about time our culture is as diverse as our world is.

To Please Their Men

Growing up women are taught to aspire to marriage and care for the family above all things. This has been what women were taught for ages, and it has been in everything from how they play to the roles they are expected to play when they become of age. Despite some rebellion, many women in literature continue this classic role of being a woman; doing everything they can to make the men in their lives happy. Both Georgiana, from Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Birthmark,” and Eveline, from James Joyce’s “Eveline” from “The Dubliners,” fall into this pattern.In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Birthmark” Georgiana is introduced as the wife of the mad scientist Dr. Alymer, she is described as the most beautiful woman with the one thing that makes her imperfect being the flaming red birthmark in the shape of a hand that rests across her face and goes down to her heart. As time passes the more impassioned Dr. Alymer becomes until he convinces his wife to do a mortal experiment to remove the blemish. Even though he was warned, Alymer presses the experiment onto Georgiana, who was happy with her birthmark - not despite it.Georgiana did not want to remove her birthmark, even making remarks with the knowledge that removing it would cost her life, and yet she made the decision to go through with the experiment willingly to please her husband. At the beginning of the story Georgiana’s birthmark is described as “some fairy at her birth hour had laid her tiny hands upon the infant’s cheek” (Hawthorne 305). It was something she never brought up with her husband, it was not something that she thought much of, and this in itself was an act of rebellion to be happy with herself. Not long after they were married though, Dr. Alymer began to have fantasies both waking and in slumber about her birthmark, obsessing over it and its removal. Enraptured with his obsession, desire, and guilt, Dr. Alymer seems to lose all love for his wife - if he ever did - and cannot look at her the same. During a time where women were defined by their husband and seen of little value to those who owned their hand, the realization that her husband would convulse at the sight of her was enough to have Georgiana beg her husband to remove it at any cost (Hawthorne 309). It is this very notion, the understand that the removal of her birthmark above all things would sate his obsession and please him most, that drives Georgiana to hysterics. She begins to plead for him to remove it, her hatred of the thing growing more and more from that very moment due to the way her husband sees it. Georgiana’s role as a woman, to please her husband, had cost her the ultimate price when she died after Alymer successfully removed her birthmark.Some women have far more rebellion in them than others however. James Joyce’s “Eveline” introduces the namesake, a young Irish woman who is trapped within the roles of a woman to take care of her drunkard father; out of sheer duty and sense of guilt. Eveline recounts moments of abuse with her father, as well as the role her mother had in her staying. She even makes mention of her brother Harry, who, as a male member of the family, was under no responsibility to stay and take care of his family and was, in fact, expected to move away and make a life of his own. Eveline’s rebellion to her role as a woman was personified in Frank, her Irish sailor beau. Eveline had made plans to run away and elope with Frank and move to Argentina with him and leave her whole life behind. She had written letters to both her father and brother and had even met Frank at the dock when Joyce’s recurring theme of paralysis kept her on the shore, chained to her life as a woman in Ireland and in her family.“Eveline” begins with her reminiscing about the people who have passed away in her life. From the man down the way from her home to her mother and brother, Eveline is haunted by the ghosts of her family. As a woman she is meant to be the caretaker of the house, and therefore equally of her family. The obligation she has as a woman is made obvious by Joyce when he mentions the promise that Eveline had made to her mother to keep the family together (Joyce 324). Eveline’s role is in stark contrast with her brother Harry who she comments was “always down somewhere in the country” and “gave what [money] he could” (Joyce 323). More than life and love, Eveline expresses her deepest desire to live, and for her the opportunity came with Frank’s plan to sail away to a new life. This rebellion did not last, unfortunately, and she would not see her life well lived, for when she prays to God to “show her what was her duty” - a very particular wording that goes against what she had been planning to do, done intentionally by Joyce - she is all but paralyzed by a drowning combination of fear, guilt, and liability. It is Joyce choice of words that make the reader completely understand that this was not something that was for the better nor something she was happy with. In his last paragraph he writes “She set her white face to him, passive, like a helpless animal” (Joyce 325). It was her life and freedom that Eveline gave up to keep her family - all living members being men - happy.In literature the role of a woman comes at a price and this price can be wages, freedom, and even their very lives. It is obvious that the roles in which they play, paired with the men in their lives, is the path that lead to the hopeless and merciless paths of Georgiana and Eveline. Many critics would claim that it was the authors themselves being cruel to their female characters, but it can be a far bigger discussion if the focus were to shift on the roles of women were expected to play in society and literature. The real question is would we see a difference in the roles of women in literature today?This was an essay written for Eng 113 for Prof Denbo, in March of 2016