Wendy Faris: Nalo Hopkinson

      In "The Glass Bottle Trick" the most obvious evidence of "irreducible magic" would be the ending, and climax of the story when Beatrice discovers her husbands dead ex-wives locked in the spare bedroom. It is revealed that their spirits had been locked in bottles that were placed in a tree out front of the house. The spirits end up seeking revenge for being locked away, and come back to haunt the home. The idea that these spirits exist is a "irreducible magic" as there is no law in the universe that could possibly explain this.
      I was curious about the idea of post-modern connection with magical realism, as what I have understood about post-modernism is the idea of breaking traditional barriers, and other characteristics such as the lack of focus on a main character, and a focus on a consumer based society. I did not look at post-modernism as a typically "magical" experience. I would be interested to learn about this connection of magic and post-modern thought.

Dessa Rose: Part 2

     I found this reading to be very interesting, and I liked that it had many twists and turns. It was at times hard to comprehend when Dessa would speak, but I think that it was meant to be like that. She was meant to be a character who couldn't speak or write very well at all. It at first is a sad loss when Dess loses Kaine, because I think that she kind of loses a part of who she is. However, I love how strong of a character that she is throughout this book. She keeps moving on when she loses him and I appreciate that in the writing because nowadays if girls go for five minute without getting a text from their boyfriends, they have a coronary. Imagine being a slave and losing the one you love because your master hit him over the head with a shovel.
     I think this book is both a sad and loving story of life through the eyes of a slave. It is meant to show people what is was like for this woman and others like her to not have any rights at all. I found tons of similarities in this book and the essay "The Legacy Of Slavery" by Angela Davis. It is true that the slaves had absolutely no rights at all. Women were raped and chained up and beaten to death. It is sad that this has happened in the past just because of their skin color. I think that this book shows a great example of how people can get over racism and become civil human beings. That's what the relationship between Dessa and Rufel symbolizes to me.

Rose: Literacy

             I found the setup of the narrators in the novel "Dessa Rose" interesting. On one hand, told in the first person is Dessa's story, in which she is an authentic African American woman, that has a hard time with literacy, and cannot read or write. Her voice in the story, is a voice that strains to be heard, and never really gets her point across, as a slave. Yet, the Williams sets her up next to Nehemia, who is not only white and literate, but compiling information to write on. He uses his langauge and skills of langauge to force her into answering his questions. Though, Dessa has a casual expressiveness, even if her vocabulary is not as "refined" as Nehemia's. Lastly is added Ms. Rufel's addition which displays the view of a white woman, though so is not so typical as she is harboring slaves to help set them free.
              Another interesting aspect about he story is that in the beginning based on the prologue, one would assume that the story would be about love, and passion between a man and woman (Dessa and Kaine), but eventually it becomes about a woman and woman (Dessa and Rufel), getting over their prejudices and learning to respect one another. The women seem to bond over both being opressed by the "man" or even "white man", and there seem to be many signs of this throughout the novel. Although Dessa is opressed to her breaking point in many ways, such as he violence upon the slave owner, which leads to her punishment of death, she was also opressed in what seem to be other ways as well. When discussing the lashings from whips on the insides of her legs it seems as though she was "symbolically raped", which is often considered for women the most violent thing that one can imagine.
           I felt that the novel surprised me in a lot of ways, and took some turns that I wouldn't have seen coming, but that made sense when they did. I liked the three characters that formed opposite, but also similar discussions of many of the same issues.

Dessa Rose

  While reading the first part of Dessa Rose, I found the story of Dessa and Kaine to be both romantic and sad at the same time. In the prologue, it is easy to see how comfortable Dessa feels about him and how happy that they are together. I thought as I was reading it that this story might turn out to be a romance, until further reading to learn that Kaine was soon killed by Master Steele because he beat him over the head with a shovel.

  We then learn that Dessa is sentenced to death as soon as her baby is born because she took part in a slave rebellion. This mad me upset as well, because this is when Nehemiah comes into play. He is a journalist who wants to hear Dessa's story, but if he would have asked me I would have spat in his face. His excuse is that he baby will one day hear the true story if she tells him what happened, but let's think about this...will that really happen?

Antelope Wife: Birth Cord

I think everyone has faith, at least in something and by no means do I mean this in a religious way. I have faith in many things, people, animals, and objects. However in my life I have never really had faith in an object so much that I believe it could change things. The opening of section three is about faith in a sewed together birth cord and once the child loses this object the child herself is lost and that is why she runs away. The cord has magical powers linked to the child. Yes it was once linked to the child and mother, but it's powers come from faith. Kind of like a wedding band. However unlike a wedding band, in my opinion, the band doesn't change people people choose to change. In our story the people change because they lose an object not because they seem to have a choice.

The Antelope Wife: Post 3

     I think that this book is full of anger, rejection and compassion. I think that This book has an underlying message tat gives the readers hope. In the beginning, Scranton did not get the girl that he wanted, but he found love in the long run. His wife also granted him with a son, Augustus. Even if things do not go your way, everything happens for a reason.
       This book takes the reader through multiple periods of time throughout Roy's life. I think that Roy is a good person, he just has a hard time trying to deal with some of the events that have happened in his life. I think that is why he keeps going back and thinking on the woman that he murdered.

The Antelope Wife

     After reading the part about puppy soup, I have to admit that I was startled. For some reason it reminded me of the white dog that the mother kills in one of our previous readings, again I don't know why, it just did. This reading shows me how much of a difference in diets between an Indian and I. I would never eat a dog, unless I was literally dying of starvation, and I'm still not sure then if I could force myself to do it.
     Although I found this part of the book to be a bit gruesome and sad, I liked that there was sort of a happy ending to the dog. I think that when the grandpa made the grandma give the dog to the little girl it showed that they are still people with emotions. Yes they have different eating habits, different traditions, and different beliefs. However, underneath it all are they really that different?