omg emily isn't asian...

I know that this topic might be a little unusual, but I can't help but express my shock when I realized that Grady's wife in the film is not Korean. In the film, Emily is only mentioned a handful of times, and she is more than often just referred to as "Grady's wife." I don't know if its was just me, but I was almost looking forward to seeing Emily and her side of the family, and was actually kind of disappointed when Grady picked up the picture frame and stared at a caucasian women.

I think that it just confused me a little, because Emily never makes an appearance in the film, so why couldn't they just insert a picture of a Korean women in the frame? Before the scene, I thought that the film did a really good job sticking to the plot line of the book. However, Emily's ethnicity and family life was mentioned quite a bit in the novel, and I just wished it were shown in the film. I actually think that if it were shown in the film as well, it would allow the audience to witness a different side of Grady Tripper.

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For this blog, I want to respond to two things, the first is Sonia’s blog post on Kiki and second, I want to respond to the movie, The Wonder Boys. In her blog post, Sonia mentions that Kiki is the “blackest” character while Levi tries too hard to be “urban”. Both Kiki and Levi lives in Wellington and interacts with “white” and “intellectual” people. Well, let me start-off by saying that I agree with the comment that Levi tries to be “urban”. But I think there is a purpose in his action. I think his purpose is trying to find his identity in Wellington. I think being biracial and living in a place like Wellington, Levis is confused of his identity and confused about how he should act. He is confused whether he should act “white” or he should act more “black”. Since he lives in this “white” town and is more “black” than most people. He tries to act “black” as that is what the town expects him to act. Thus, this brings me to my point of how should a “black” person act? What defines “black” or “blackest” character? Is being less polish black or urban characteristics or is that simply what the society thinks as characteristics of people from the “black” race? To me, I do not think Kiki is the “blackest” character. In fact, I do not see her as a character with race. I see Kiki as a strong woman who tries to maintain a family that is falling apart for many reasons. I see Kiki as a strong woman who tries hard to overcome the crisis of her husband cheating on her with someone she knows. She uses the word “brother” or might portrays to be acting “black” is because we, as a society, have a stenotype of how a black person should act and Kiki is simply conforming to the readers’ preconceive notion. I said this because in some ways I think her actions of trying to be “black” intentional rather than natural. I also think Zadie Smith put that in the novel to convey the shallow, and underlying racist nature of human being. This is then related to Jorden’s post. I completely agree with her. However, I don't think it is Smith that is trying to judge or use one size fits all system. I think she is criticizing the readers that are doing that. My second objective is to comment on the movie. I want to say that I think they should include Emily in the video rather than just show her in the picture. Putting Emily in the movie will allow many female viewers to be more sympathetic of her in a way. Emily, similar to Kiki, has to go through a hardship of facing her husband cheating on her with his colleague. I think showing her would give the emotion and recognition she deserves. If that makes sense at all.

Kiki's & Howard's fight

I think Zadie Smith does an excellent job creating her characters. Each character really has a lot of depth and becomes an actual person in the reader's mind. The characters are made fully human and even have little quirks, etc. that are totally irrelevant to the plot-line of the novel, but Smith includes them to make the characters more realistic.

The fight that Kiki and Howard have in the kitchen (I believe it's the kitchen) I found to be very, very realistic. I felt almost as if I was actually there, or more accurately as if I was one of the kids (since Zora and Levi are in the house at the time) overhearing every word said, flinching at Kiki's contemptuous intonations and flinching with every shout.

The dialogue between them fits perfectly with the characters that Smith has previously decided them to be. Kiki's personality shows through with the way she stresses her words (a fair amount of the words Kiki says in this section are in italics) and Howard's personality and position are clearly shown in the way he speaks to Kiki (especially with his wording). Howard is in a precarious situation; he is clearly in the wrong for cheating, Kiki is both furious with him and heart-broken, and he, himself, is angry because he does seem to want the marriage to continue but he does not want to be ridiculed any longer. To Howard, the affair happened a long time ago, it was a brief thing and then it was over. In his opinion, Kiki should be over it by now and it shouldn't be seen as that big of a deal.

In reality, though, Kiki only very recently found out that Howard was lying when he confessed about the one-night stand with a stranger (note that Howard only "confessed" after Kiki found a condom in his jacket pocket). Kiki had actually begun to come to terms with the idea that her husband had made a simple mistake with a stranger. But as it turns out, she can put a real face on that person. The fact that Howard cheated with a friend of theirs, a friend so utterly dislike Kiki, is extremely, unavoidably painful for Kiki. Howard does not at all seem to appreciate what she is going through and in my opinion I don't believe he has even tried to understand her position.

Kiki does not exactly take the high road, though, as evidenced by the nature of their fight. She openly takes stabs at Howard, criticizes him, and uses very vulgar language because she believes she has the right to belittle him due to all the pain he has caused her. Whether she has the right or not, Kiki is certainly able to take this route because Howard is in no position at all to object. He is thoroughly in the wrong for cheating and every move he makes, to Kiki, is fair-game for criticism. He is walking on eggshells which must be extremely frustrating for him, but Kiki keeps him there, almost as a form of retribution.

Personally, though, I don't blame Kiki. She is taking this whole situation very hard and she even weeps towards the end of the fight, in front of Howard, which I feel is very unlike Kiki. She also genuinely seems to feel that she failed to take everything into consideration when she married Howard (she keeps saying "I staked my life on you" (207)). She is not simply saying I wish I never married you, blah blah blah. She seems deeply hurt, genuinely betrayed, and completely let down by Howard's affair.

While the situation and this scene in particular is very sad, I think Smith does an excellent job of portraying the characters and making them interact very realistically.

Just saying.

I am now finished with On Beauty, and I must say that I loved it.

However, I loved it more in the beginning than I did at the end(I don’t want to spoil anything because I don’t think we are expected to be done with it yet so some of ya’ll may still be reading—therefore, this is going to be kind of vague).
In the beginning of On Beauty, Smith offers up for examination two very different families. At first I thought she was treating the two fairly, as in she was not judging either’s ideology, but I now feel that she tried really hard to make the Kipps family corrupt and hypocritical, and by doing so made the Belsey’s look superior.

Professor Newman asked us in class which family we felt more sympathetic to, or which family reminded us the most of our own family. I didn’t say anything because everybody was choosing the Belsey’s and I didn’t feel like being the odd one out or being judged or anything. But really, my family is way more like the appearance of the Kipps family at the beginning of the novel (not what they actually turned out to be). We are an African-American Christian family with certain morals and values that I guess would be considered conservative. I was not allowed to watch Pokémon, to read Harry Potter, or to watch PG-13 movies without permission until I was like 16. My parents maybe tried a little too hard to shelter me from the world, but they had great intentions and I am none the worse from it. Anywho, my point is that I was mildly annoyed by her portrayal. I am not(nor are any of my sisters) Victoria Kipps. My dad is not Monty Kipps. We are nothing like this family that is technically supposed to represent us.

I just honestly found myself kind of upset by the end—I feel like so much literature these days bashes and judges the religious and the conservatives for bashing and judging certain other groups. Doesn’t that kind of make the writers of these literature hypocrites? I mean, how can you be angry at one group for being narrow-minded and quick to judge when you yourself are narrow-minded about the group that they are in and maybe do not realize the whole story or the fact that not every Christian and not every conservative is the same? Just like for everything else, there are degrees of Christianity and of conservatism. There are radicals, but their beliefs are not necessarily the beliefs of the whole group.

Just saying.

I guess the counter-argument to this would be Carlene Kipps. She was genuine. But that’s one out of four—Smith couldn’t do any better than that?

Ha, okay, now that my rant is over, I really did love this novel. The story and the characters are real and vivid. My favorite character is Kiki for sure. There is something very warm and lovely about her—she’s the one character that I wouldn’t mind meeting if she were a real person. Well, I guess I wouldn’t mind meeting Jerome either, he just annoys me sometimes. Oh, and Carlene—okay, so she is one of three. I despise Howard, Monty, and Victoria. I have a strong dislike for Zora. Levi leaves me with neither a negative nor a positive impression.

The end was sort of disappointing, but I will wait for everybody to finish before I explain why.

Happy reading.

KIKI

I keep wondering about Kiki throughout the course of the novel. She is the “blackest “character in the novel. This does not refer to her skin color per se but to her actions and how others perceive her. Although Levi is considered the most “urban” character it does not seem to come naturally to him, he tries too hard and it really shows. Kiki does not try to act urban but her actions and words are less polished than other characters’. She makes a reference to being like a maid at the party that Howard and her were hosting, which makes people at the party feel awkward ( I would have too). She uses phrases like “brother” when addressing other African Americans, like the silver jewelry booth owner and talking of getting more “brothers” to come to the party when she speaks to Carl.

I wonder how Kiki must feel in her surroundings in Wellington. She is married to a white British professor and seems to be surrounded by white and intellectual people who are also professors at the university. She, herself is not a professor and I think that she does not always know how to speak to Howard’s colleagues on the same intellectual level and makes herself look more stupid than she really is.
Although there have been references made about her physical appearance like for example that she “carries her weight well” and that she is an attractive woman, Zora has said that her mother is over three hundred pounds and Carl made a sly reference to Kiki’s massive weight gain over the years when he said that he had “married a thin black woman.”With such conflicting views on her physical appearance I am having a very hard time picturing Kiki as “attractively curving.” Although I do not think that this is the sole reason for why Kiki feels awkward in her current social situation, I do think that it is a contributing factor. She is an overweight black woman who can not converse with the other professors on the same intellectual level. She is the odd one out in the group.

Also, Kiki’s friendship with Carlene is hard to pin point. Although both are the wives of men who are technically supposed to be enemies of each, they seem to get along. This in itself is not too uncommon, however; the women’s personalities differ so much. I guess that Kiki is in a venerable place because of Howard’s cheating but I still do not think that the friendship can be so easily explained. Carlene is flaky and unassertive while Kiki is abrupt and untactful. It seems like a weird combination. Carlene moves between topics when in conversation without rhyme or reason and does not seem to be “all there (or maybe it is just me).” At first Kiki finds this behavior odd but soon makes peace with it. This friendship would never work outside a novel. Other than companionship, the two women share nothing (maybe overbearing husbands).

I will try to better understand Kiki over the course of the novel but it is difficult.

Sometimes being too smart stops you from being a human being

The ending of Zadie Smith's On Beauty illustrates that sometimes being a genius stops a person from actually being a decent human being. The culmination of the stroy indicates the entire meaning of the novel which is that love, decency and truthfulness do not walk hand in hand with education. People who live lives of the educated do not necessarily mean that they are good people. Also maturity does not come along with being and genius and it is something earned and worked on instead of just having it as age increases. This is illustrated the most when Howard Belsey convereses with his father and even then refuses to be the adult he should be but instead shows how fallible and and defiant he is to maturing and patience. He is not able to realize the significance of his relationship and refuses to put aside his egotistic intellectualism leading to another fault and will enable him to sleep with Victoria Kipps. Therefore Smith's message of intellectuality does not always lead to a good person is passed along to the reader.

Claire vs. Zora and some thoughts on body image

So one of the things that really struck me while reading this part of the book is the different ways that Claire and Zora think about college. Claire sort of has this disdain for the factual knowledge that people apparently go to college to learn, even in her own domain of writing. She doesn't particularly enjoy teaching and I think she is wondering how she got to where she is now. She hates university politics. When Jack threatens to take away her ability to teach non-Wellingtons she sort of considers what her teaching would be like if she were not allowed to foster talent the way she does now. I think her perspective on college as a place to find who you are is evidenced by her willingness to put forth this opportunity to whoever strikes her as a writer.

Zora, on the other hand, as a very no-nonsense approach to college which is kind of in line with the college culture here at CMU. She is always looking for whatever she can do in college that will propel her towards whatever her ultimate goal is, which includes grad school and probably going on to be a professor like her father. She is intensely political when it comes to her education. She is not really enjoying herself at college and she isn't exploring any possibilities for herself outside of the course she thinks that she has to take. She is all about facts and theories, and Claire seems to think that she doesn't have a creative bone in her body.

Another issue that I thought was interesting is Kiki's weight and body image more generally. The issue is brought up when Kiki and howard have that big argument about the affair, and then later, when we start seeing certain scenes from Claire's perspective we see this sort of disdain for overweight people. Kiki also talks about the looks that she gets when she eats in public, and how they had kept her from eating out more often before. Claire thinks about Zora's gaining weight as moving in the same direction as Kiki, and she silently approves of the girls' sparse dinner choices. Kiki also is concerned about Zora, and we learn about her disapproval of makeup and woman's magazines. I feel like this discourse in the novel about body image is important because it raises the question of what it actually means for a woman like Kiki to feel beautiful versus what this means for a woman like Claire. Howard made the comment that men gravitate toward beauty and that is what brought him to Claire, while Levi disapproves of this substitution, and Carl says big girls need love too, so the opinions of the male characters in this debate are mixed. Carlene also comments on Kiki's weight, but she seems neither to approve nor disapprove, and I think she does say that Kiki bears herself in a way that makes her beautiful. Zora has a pretty clear disapproval of Kiki's size and I think it goes along with the fact that she sides with her father. Smith doesn't give us any clear indications of where she stands on the whole body image issue, but I think it ties in directly with what she is trying to say about race and what it means to be black. She is also making a statement about what it means for a woman to be bautiful.