Bad Boys

We often hear that some strong and independent women are attracted to or fall in love with bad boys. Erica Jong, in the new introduction to her Fear of Flying, believed by Henry Miller to be the female version of his own Tropic of Cancer, gives a reason for that experience. Jong thinks that the bad boy puts the woman in touch with the adventurous part of herself, unlocking the rebel in the self. He breaks her heart but opens her mind. I believe that this argument can also be applied to describing men's experience of being with bad girls.

Humor in Children's Language

Two three-year old girls have just met each other in their daycare.

Lorraine: What's your name?
Girl: Ashley.
Lorraine: Hi, Ugly.
Girl: No, it's Ashley.
Lorraine: Oh, hi, ugly Ashley.

Witnessing suffering

One of this year's Oscar nominee is Dan Krauss's documentary film "The Death of Kevin Carter." The film is about the life, work, and suicide of Kevin Carter, who won a Pulitzer Prize in 1994 with his photograph that captured a starving Sudanese girl being collapsed on a desert plain and stalked by a vulture. Carter committed suicide only weeks after he received his honor. According to the director of the film, it was Carter's own conscience and morality that haunted him. He could not survive the psychological dilemma between being a witness and a savior. The film director believes that "in the starving child, [Carter] saw Africa's suffering; in the preying vulture, he saw his own face." Today, more than a decade later, aren't we all still witnessing all kinds of suffering from many corners of our own world?

I just had the opportunity to see that starving girl image. According to some writing about the political and social conditions out of which the image emerged, such kind of suffering of children was not only caused by famine, but was also directly related to ethnic discrimination, oil exploitation, and social injustice. It happened in Africa, but was in many ways connected to a large number of rich and oil consuming nations.

The photograph and some information about the Kevin Carter film can be found on the following websites.

http://www.huaren.com/UnitedNations/photo-1.htm

http://www.kevincarterfilm.com/synopsis.html

Screen, War, and Emotion

Despite the nonstop frontline coverage, the demonstrative speeches of the leaders from both sides, and the global condemnations delivered by protesters and UN ambassadors of many countries, the current war between Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah guerrilla group makes no sense. Because people in those two countries are losing lives, loved ones, and homes. Mothers are losing their children. Fired missils have turned community space with blocks of buildings utterly into ruins. All because of human ignorance and intolerance. Some may argue that life has always been this way in that region. There was never real peace. But, do people there need more wars to perpetuate that hostility and misery? Isn't true that violence breeds violence?

Why are we touched by the images of civilians caught up in the war? The power of the television screen makes us caught up ourselves. Our senses are connected to the image, sound, and motion of the screen. In perceiving, we are no longer the subjects nor they the objects for our gaze. We become participants in the conflict. On screen, war zones of Beirut, Haifa, Hermel switch back and forth in front of our eyes, and time and history of the Israel-Lebanon clash are explained in spacial terms. It is the nature of constant motion in the television image that moves us viscerally and emotionally. As Kaha Waite writes, "The dynamization of space and spatialization of time capture and transport the viewer, creating a sense of motion that is kinesthetic, visceral, felt. The term motion is related to emotion." She also draws on the work of Erwin Panofsky, who studies the medium of motion pictures, arguing that the movies have the power to communicate psychological experiences by directly transmitting the content to the screen, replacing the eye of the viewer for the consciousness of the character. Similar to the movies, then, television images also have the "emotional quality of that kinesthetic motion," and this motion substitutes our eyes for the experience and consciousness of the people who are now fleeing their homes and living on the verge of their fatal destinies.

Philosophy, Science, and Social Research

"If a great theory cannot be tested, it is philosophy, not science." -- The Elegant Universe

Does this statement imply the importance of the burden of proof in Social Sciences research? Since Communication Studies falls under the disciplinary umbrella of Social Sciences, must our argument be judged on its convincing power to its readers? If the argument is made based on philosophical approaches, must the conclusion still be valued based on its scientific validity?

Late last night, PBS aired the first part of the NOVA program "The Elegant Universe," which presents the concept of String Theory, one of the latest and most fascinating conceptions of the universe. According to Brian Greene, professor of physics and mathematics at Columbia University, String Theory proposes a startling idea that successfully unites the laws of the large—general relativity—and the laws of the small—quantum mechanics—breaking a theoretical deadlock that has frustrated and puzzled scientists for nearly a century.

Inspired by String Theory, Communication Studies scholar R. Schrag has written on Chord Theory (waiting to be published, I think). According to String Theory, Schrag says, "the building blocks of everything are infintesimally vibrating strings. If we acknowledge that a tiny vibrating string creates musics, then, at the center of everything lies music that comes together in chords of increasing complexity that ultimate compose the symphony of the universe. Understanding that composition process, the ways in which strings and notes come together to form chords is the objective of Chord Theory. Chord Theory provides significant new insight into those areas of quintessentially human composition: love, faith, truth and beauty."

Suffering and Compassion

"There is utterly no point of suffering if it weren't for compassion." This phrase was spoken by a soon-to-be-retired man who decided "to be there" for his wife after they found out that she was sick and had to go through an open-heart operation. Before the news of her illness, the couple was considering and even planning on living their separate lives, wife moves to Oregon, and husband remains in Illinois. But now the man cannot bring himself up to thinking that he would leave the wife at the point of her sickness. He thinks that time will tell whether it's a good decision.

Maybe this physical and medical open-heart operation can bring mythical and magical results, that is, through his compassionate devotion, love and harmony will revive between the couple. They will both embrace and cherish each other's company once again with newly opened minds and hearts.

Memory and Forgetting

Two interesting perspectives on the question of forgetting are observed by Paul Ricoeur in his Memory, History, Forgetting:

1. Plato provides a myth in which he links anamnnesis, Greek for recollection, "to a prenatal knowledge from which we are said to have been separated by a forgetting that happens when the life of the soul is infused into a body--described as a tomb--a forgetting from birth, which is held to make the search a relearning of what has been forgotton."

2. "For mediating memory, forgetting remains both a paradox and an enigma. A paradox: how can we speak of forgetting except in terms of the memory of forgetting? Otherwise, we would not know that we have forgotton. An enigma, because we do not know, in a phenomenological sense, whether forgetting is only an impediment to evoking and recovering the 'lost time,' or whether it results from the unavoidable wearing away 'by' time of the traces left in us by past events in the form of original affections."

Firework Spectacle

The three-hour waiting was worthwhile. The firework show above the river in the City Park started around 10 p.m. and lasted almost 30 minutes. I had never watched an entire firework program in such a close distance, nor had I been so focused and relaxed to enjoy a firework night.

Lorraine snuggled and fell asleep in my arms. She was still afraid to watch. Later when she told me that she'd rather watch fireworks during the day, I realized that it might be the darkness of the nightly sky, rather than the high lightness and shiny colors of fireworks, that was too overwhelming and engulfing for her young eyes to gaze.

At numerous moments, I thought the show was coming to an end. Repeatedly, I was delighted that I was wrong. At other points, I was stunned to see that some fireworks were able to display such intense brightness and radiance that would blind my eyes. I believed they were from the newest firework technologies. Finally, while the thundering firework sounds faded out, and the sky regained its color and peace, the viewing crowd on the ground jubilated with deep satisfaction. I thought the cheering and applause were well-deserved.

Devil and Match Point

On my birthday I picked two movies to see. The Devil Wears Prada began to show in theaters, and I invited Guo Li, a friend who has a figure of fashion models, to go with us to view this highly-promoted motion picture.

As expected, it is Meryl Streep's stunning portrayal of the demandingly-impossible boss of a New York fashion magazine that lights up the sparkles in the viewer's eyes, in spite of all the dazzling models, assistants, and party guests dressed in their designer clothes parading on the screen. Anne Hathaway, with her chic looks accented by stylish hairdos and couture outfits, shines in her new character that shows no sign of her just coming out of the Brokeback Mountain role of a Texan rodeo queen wearing cowboy hat and bleached-blonde hair.

Behind the glamorous scenes of the fashion world, The Devil Wears Prada, on a certain level, elucidates women's struggle bewteen career and family. Streep and Hathaway's roles provide two different choices, but, obviosuly, they are merely two answers to a complex question.

The second movie I saw was the DVD version of Match Point, a Woody Allen film I intended to see in theater but didn't. Through a tale that deals with emotion, lust, and wealth on the surface level but comments on the importance of random luck in life at its core, Allen surpasses those filmmakers who often provide moral solutions to such film plots and make sure the murderer gets punished. One such exemple that comes to mind is Consenting Adults, a thriller movie I recently saw on TV. Despite its refreshing plot at the beginning and the overall great acting of Kelvin Kline and Kelvin Spacey, the movie ended with boring and overly-redundant scenes of fistfights followed by triumph over killing the bad guy. In Match Point, however, what we get is not about what should happen in life based on any overarching moral order, but a plain phenomenon that we often feel guilty to admit its existence and importance. Allen opens a new window for us to look at the horizon of our life experiences and consequences.














Guo Li in California

Happy Birthday To Me

Mei and Ally joined us for my birthday dinner at Iowa River Power Company restaurant, a lovely dining spot with a breathtaking view of the Iowa River. The atmosphere, the food and the service were all impeccable.

After the meal, we decided to take a walk across the bridge that was just behind this brilliantly remodeled restaurant out of the old power company. Our post-dinner stroll traversing the river on the metal-and-wooden paneled bridge at the dusk was uncomparably relaxing. The experience was definately a serendipity for me because we live only five minutes away from this inspiring scenery. While walking, I paid more attention to Mei's elegant, silky floral-pattened dress, adorned with a thin, shiny belt, that revealed her gracefulness. And Ally, in her mini-skirt and with an exquisite purse on her shoulder, moved like a charming character out of TV dramas. We three ladies let our arms be joined, smiled and waved at Laurence's camera in front of us, and amused ourselves by thinking that we were walking a red carpet. We stopped for moments at the oval-shaped viewing points projecting from the bridge to look at the river running under. We also shared the space with some people who happened to be there simultaneously.

Leaving the river and bridge, we drove to Mei's place. It was my first time to visit her Iowa home, a cozy and convenient apartment. Mei and Ally thoughtfully prepared a white chocolate and apricot mousse cake, two bottles of wine, and a box of colorful cookies shaped in cars, watermelons, etc. I opened my presents. Mei gave me an image-story book authord by her superviser, Ann, and Ally got me a silver necklace with an amber pendant from Glassando, my favorite jewerly shop in the Old Capital Mall that has collections of Murano glass and amber jewerly. Raleigh and Lo-lin watched cartoon films on TV and munched on cookies while we grown-ups somehow were exchanging our experiences of tasting wine and having a common interest in picking blueberries. We also missed having Hsin-Yen, who is in Taiwan for the summer, with us. At the time to say good night and good bye, I borrowed Woody Allen's Match Point on DVD for my after midnight entertainment.

I immensely enjoyed celebrating this birthday in the company of family and friends. I was also touched by all the attention and birthday wishings I received from Mom and Dad, brother Sam, and some dear friends via telephone or e-mail. Of course, I wanted to mention the joy I felt from seeing Raleigh and Lo-lin's drawings as my presents, and from hearing Lo-lin's angelic singing of birthday songs. I was also thankful that earlier that afternoon Laurence accompanied me to a movie that he didn't really care for, and that he brought me cherries and blueberries and took many pictures of us with our lousy digital camera, and that he didn't let a fight happen between us.

The memories of my last birthday are still vivid. I was back home in Hong Kong and able to see my parents and brother. Sam graciously took us to a Shanghainese (Jiang-Zhe) restaurant for dinner. Now after this one that has just passed, I'm looking forward to having three happy birthdays in a row. Until then, make each day refreshing and fulfilling.