The Notebooks of a Chile Verde Smmuggler-174-end

“You’ve got exactly seven hours and seven minutes to change the fate of the world”

Here Herrera is still mocking American culture and its game as he did with his own game show. How they image in the most impossible things because it is the most entertaining to us. They ask the weirdest questions and have the weirdest results. No one can really change the fate of the world but because like to believe that so they tell them they can, and soon after everyone will forget it happened.

“I confess, I buried the chiles from Food City, three blocks from Huerta Street- it was a father thing”

Here Herrera finally tells us the real meaning of the title of the book, why he smuggles chiles even though it isn’t illegal. It represents his heritage as a Chicano and that it is passed down to him. This is his way of showing how he must smuggle himself into the country as a Chicano and to hide it a bit in order to fit in.

The Notebooks of a Chile Verde Smmuggler- 151-174

"Of course chicken don't talk- this was the first piece of common knowledge that had to be discarded."

This quote is referring to a family that owned a chicken farm. The son went to Stanford and got a B.A. and changed the family business to corporate business. This quote brings some humor into the situation I think. He is talking about how the son went of to college and learned to much, that know he much teach his family. First thing is that he must change what they have known forever. They have always been a small family raising chickens, but know they have to change and learn about corporate America. They have to drop what they thought. They thought chickens don't talk, but there son has taught them different, they do talk, and it all seems crazy to them

“A TV game show (a mix of Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune, somewhere in the Post-Macho Southwest, slouching through the twenty-first century).”

This is Herrera description of American culture television. And its macho status that comes form it. How both the Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy have to do with winning. Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy both are games were you wager money, he wages other things that have to do with mexican and american culture. He is making fun of these american games.

The Notebooks of a Chile Verde Smmuggler- 131-151

“A writer with maids. Not in my book, buddy. Never in my book. My mother was a maid in El Paso, Texas, long enough. Are writers maids, now? Who do we cook for carnal , carnala?”

Herrera got his inspiration writing from his mother, who wasn’t well of at all. He doesn’t think that writers are people that live with maids, the ones that do it for the money and fame, but rather the ones who write from the soul and not through popularity. They write from their past. But he also contradicts himself. Does that mean that all writers now have to be poor to have troubles to write about? Or can some writers not have troubles and be well off? Does someone’s past tell weather or not they are a writer? It shouldn’t.

“I am that paper, I am those words now, that ink burns pyres in every cell.”

Herrera has become his writing. He writes everything he knows and has known. What comes into his mind goes on paper. What makes him who he is all written out. So there for what he is, is on the paper. The ink burns into every cell and he will for ever be on that paper, and that paper will represent him.

The Notebooks of a Chile Verde Smmuggler- 106-130

“Perhaps the notion of being American is off center- there is no center, I guess that’s the thing.”

Here Herrera is writing a letter to Victor, his Chicano activist friend. He is talking about how America doesn’t really have a backbone. No set ground that everyone has in common. There is no center where everyone meets on a common basis. Everyone talks about America being so great and the land of the free, but there is no real sense of community with everyone so different and no center to meet on.

“Ain’t nothing better, than pulling over- after the pizca in Fresno, on the way to the next one in Delano.”

Here Herrera is driving in California and loves the aspect of pulling over and just letting go. That in California its so nice you can pull over on a drive and just watch and feel free. He is on the road so he has no obligations, he is just driving and has pulled over for a break to relax and just breathe the Californian air.

The Notebooks of a Chile Verde Smmuggler- 81-105

"Fifteen years later at another institution in a much smaller room at Zapata lounge, a Chicano dorm: no special lights, just an expensive mike." (83)

He is describing a typical Chicano club. The lights are dim and they don't focus on the looks of the singer or speaker but rather what they are saying. They aren't these fancy club with shinning lights and people shouting, its quieter and they just relax more. But at the end of the page he says "but, who listens?" He thinks it as changed. Those lounges are no longer the same people less people because everyone has left for the other American "institutions"

"the earth that moans from pollution, quakes from its own tectonic blast? The earth divided? The earth abandoned, the earth reclaimed through armed struggle, through one more war? Power through ledges, thru words, thru flesh.” (97)

In this poem he touches on political, war, environmental, and racial issues. In this quote he talks about the earth, and what we have done to it. How we have made it moan because of our pollution and how our war as split it up and fought for it with flesh and blood. And how we over look that as we just go along with it. The earth struggles as we tare it apart.

The Notebooks of a Chile Verde Smmuggler- 55-80

"Things Religion Makes Me Do

Sit back, cross my legs, and cry." (61)

He writes a list of "things religion makes him do" and none of it is very good. The last one alone makes it sound like he doesn't like religion and the things it does to people. Some of it is very weird and not what you would think, but he is trying to portray that religion can make people do weird things because they believe it is ok in God's eyes. That even though strange, it has a purpose.

"I was invited to give a commencement rap a few weeks ago for the English Department at San Jose State University. A women asked me what writers influenced me, who did I read? I said, my mother. Lucha Quintana. Have you heard of that writer? The women's neck twisted. No, she wanted to know "what writers!" She wanted to ask the usual worn phrase. Ginsberg, Artaud, Nervo, Lorca, Neruda, Popa, HIkmet, Rodnati, Walker. These are the shadows-I should have told her." (69)

Here you can tell that he doesn't do what people expect of him, and he knows it, but still does it. He sticks to what is close to him and his heritage. He was inspired by his mom, not some well-known writer that everyone reads. He doesn't like that everyone does that, they all read the same group and expect that professors and everyone to be impressed by that. He sticks to his past and what’s close to him to make his writing more personal.

The Notebooks of a Chile Verde Smmuggler- 30-55

"A sad-eyed blond women drives a flashy red-orange Audi thru the chasm of a basement parking lot underneath.."

This represent the typical American person that that is unhappy with their wealth and situation. Everyone always seems unhappy with their lives even though they have the nice cars and accessories. She is driving a nice car, but has a car ticket and is clearly sad and stressed. This flashy car is not what can make her happy.

"As Chicano artists, we have always pulled out our images, landscapes and symbols from the gut to the page, from the bile to the open forum; historias terribles of our people, our time; historical suffering in vitro" (43)

He is distribing how Chincanos find their artist drive from there sufferings. Thier past isn't pretty but that is how they do art and it doesn't have to be pretty to mean something. They find their troubled pass what makes them and that is what they use to drive them.

The Notebooks of a Chile Verde Smmuggler- 1-29

"You keep on telling me that Chicanos are authentic Americans, that this is the first lesson." (18)

Here the author is talking to Victor, who is a Chicano activist. This book focuses on various views, not the typical views on life. There is also a lot of Chicano activism and showing how they are just as much a part of America as say the typical white American person. They fought hard to be there and deserve it just as much and they are the true Americans for their effort and pride.

"I drop my burdens.
As I walk, I drop my burdens.
As I walk, I melt with the snow" (8)

While a lot of the notes in the book are about Chicanos activism and American idealism, the author throws in times where he just realizes, he steps back from the stressful life of American culture and being active in it and "drops all his burdens." He sits and doesn't move and melts as spring comes like the snow melts. HE drops all the problems of living in America and just melts down.

First Paragraph of Final Paper

In Jack Kerouac’s The Dharma Bums and in Annie Dillard’s Seeing, they experience spiritual content in nature and try to escape the fast pace materialistic culture that is so prevalent in the country today. They find stress and unhappiness in modern day culture and go to nature to escape this. They both are sending the message to look to nature find spiritual happiness and to revitalize yourself. Both Karouac and Dillard find spiritual value in the solitude of nature and encourage the reader to take a leave from society and observe nature closely to appreciate the restorative “gifts” that nature offers to the human spirit.

Interview

Subject: Reike Master

Person: Debbo

Question 1: How do you find time in the day to step out of culture and practice reike?

Question 2: How did you become a reike master?

Question 3: Do you believe you are a counter culturalist and why?

Question 4: Explain the basics of reike therapy and what it does to a patient?

Question 5: American culture today can cause many people stress how do you escape that with reike therapy?

Question 6: When did you first hear about reike?

Question 7: In what ways has it changed your life style?

Question 8: If you agree that is counter culture how do you think it is?

Question 9: Do you believe that people who get reike therapy experience some counter culture experience?

Paper #2

Dharma Bums and Great Gatsby

Sandra Cisneros

“You live there? The way she said it made me feel like nothing. There. I lived there. I nodded./ I knew then I had to have a house. A real house. One I could point to. But this isn’t it.”

She grow up moving a lot from different apartment that were not very nice. With her parents always saying it would get better she hopes and dreams it will. It isn’t until someone else from outside the family puts in her brain that where she lives isn’t very nice that she feels the need to get out. She wants to get a real house and is determined to do so. But what is a real house? To her since she grew up with that dream, a real house is one with stair and many bed and bathrooms and a yard with trees.

“She likes looking at the walls, at how neatly their corners meet, the linoleum roses on the floor, the ceiling smooth as wedding cake.”

Sally grew up in a bad family where she never could really find home, because she disliked it so much, she didn’t feel comfortable there. She marries quickly to find a sense of comfort she never had. She is kept on a very tight leash in her marriage, but for her it is ok because she as the home she never had before that is clean and has what she likes. It is a false sense of security that she never had so she overcompensates for it.

Seeing- Annie Dillard

“The difference between the two ways of seeing is the difference between walking with and without a camera. When I walk with a camera, I walk from shot to shot, reading the light on a calibrated meter. When I walk without a camera, my own shutter opens, and the moment’s light prints on my own silver gut. When I see this second way I am above all an unscrupulous observer.”

Here Annie Dillard goes into more detail about what seeing really is. Its not just looking at something. Like throw a camera lens or a picture itself, but actually observing your surroundings. You have to be aware at all moments and focused on the now and not the future. She says that when she has her camera she focuses to much on that and not on what is really happening. But without her camera she acts like the camera and she is taking mental pictures of everything, not specific shots here and there.

“Darkness appalls and light dazzles; the scrap of visible light that doesn’t hurt my eyes hurts my brain. What I see sets me swaying.”

Annie Dillard spends a lot of time talking about darkness and lightness. Its not just what you see but what you don’t see. There are things in darkness as well as light. Here, even thought she spend time talking about nature and being outside, she seems to dislike the light in her eyes al the time. She enjoys the darkness as well and the emptiness of that isn’t so, in your face.

Seeing- Annie Dillard

“What you see is what you get…nature is very much a now-you-see-it, now-you-don’t affair.”

A lot of what Annie Dillard is trying to convey is that you have to look closely and keep your eyes open to see the good things in life. Everything is in detail. She talks about when she is little and she saw everything and how she misses that. Now she passes thing by and she is missing out on so much that nature can offer. She says late that nature is a free gift, but in order to see this free gift you have to watch closely because it can be there one second and gone the next.

“The lover can see, and the knowledgeable.”

Here she goes to visit her aunt and uncle who live on a ranch and have lived with horse forever. She tries to draw a horse and everyone criticize it. Her see is saying when you love something or know so much about it, you recognize the small details that no one else can see. When you are passionate about it you can pay attention to small details and find so much more than a first glance. There for the people who love and know, are the once who can see all.

The Dharma Bums

"And Suddenly I realized I was truly alone and had nothing to do but feed myself and rest and amuse myself, and nobody could criticize." (235)

Here towards the end of the book Ray is all alone. Japhy is gone and Ray has no one. He feels alone, but he likes it. He likes being free from others and their judgments. He is completely self reliant. Before this he is searching for freedom and finds it occasionally but now he has found complete freedom and aloneness.

"The vision of the freedom of eternity was mine forever" (243)

Here Ray is on Desolation Peak and he is looking out at sunset when he has this self satisfaction as he looks out into the world and can see freedom and he feels complete freedom and he can cherish it forever. He can looks out into the empty land and feels the freedom of eternity because there is so much to be had.

The Dharma Bums

“Life’s already shoved an iron foot down my mouth. But I don’t think that’s anything but a dream cooked up by some hysterical monks who didn’t understand Buddha’s peace…” (202)


Here Ray and Japhy are talking at the party and they decide to go off for a hike. This quote tells a lot about what ray thinks about life. He knows life is hard, but he thinks positively about it. He believes that the afterlife is peaceful and happy and that everyone goes to a good place, so life is hard but it is worth it.

“Trails are like that: you’re floating along in a Shakespearean Arden paradise and except to see nymphs and fluteboys, then suddenly you’re struggling in a hot broiling sun of hell in dust and nettles and poison oak…just like life” (212)

This is another quote that tells us about what Ray sees life as. He sees it as a struggle, that when your young everything is so easy and beautiful. And before you know it you have grown up and life is one big struggle. Going back to the first quote you start off well and go throw a struggle and end up all good at the end.

First Paragraph

In Jack Kerouac’s The Dharma Bums, the main character, Ray Smith, leaves home to travel across the United States on a spiritual quest. While at home, Ray feels misunderstood and constrained by his family; his desire to find solace in nature is not valued by his family. Ray’s decision to live out of a backpack shows his intension to lead a unencumbered lifestyle. In the end, Ray finds his comfort in a shack that lets him be free from industrial America. Even starting at home, Ray from young age is on a search for totally freedom from societies restraints and criticisms.

Reike Master Notes

- Energy Healing
- Work to strengthen energy flow (aura) by Chi
- Chi is underlying force of what the world is made of
- A form of practice or faith healing
- Treatment of physical, emotional, mental and spiritual diseases
- Mikao Usui is the creator, from Japan
- Over one million U.S. adults have experiences Reiki treatments
- Rei means ‘spirit’, ‘soul’ or ‘ghost’ and ki means ‘energy’ or ‘life force’

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reiki

http://reiki.7gen.com/

The Dharma Bums

“Then I suddenly had the most tremendous feeling of the pitifulness of human beings, whatever they were, their faces, pained mouths, personalities, attempts to be gay, little petulance, feeling of loss, their dull and empty witticism so soon forgotten…” (199)

This is at the final goodbye party for Japhy before he moves to Japan. Everyone is drunk and signing and falling everywhere and acting ridiculous. Ray himself is also drunk but in silence by the fire he realizes that everything people do these days is worthless. That the lives they live are kind of pointless and they all live by a certain feeling. But when your drunk those feelings are lost and forgotten quickly.

“Japhy was sad and disappointed. ‘How do you expect to become a good bhiukku or even a Bodhisattva Mahasattva always getting Drunk like that?’” (190)

Japhy wants to take Ray to a lecture but Ray would rather walk around San Francisco and get drunk. This seems kind of opposite from the beginning. Japhy was usually the one letting go and not caring, where as Ray sat back and care more about what he did and how he appeared. In this case Japhy is hoping Ray will go to the lecture to talk to other writers to help his writing but Ray would rather walk around drunk.

The Dharma Bums

“but I didn’t go to a hotel, I had to watch my money now, and instead I just hauled my pack to my back and walked straight for the railroad yards to stretch my bag out somewhere behind the tracks. It was then that, that night, that I realized the dream that had made me want to buy the pack…. the most beautiful sleep of my life” (153)

Here Ray is in El Paso and doesn’t want to spend more money because he spent the money on the bus. He got the backpack so he doesn’t have to relay on staying places and can go where ever and sleep where ever and be free and not worry about it.. It is this night that he final realizes the power of this and freedom giving him the best sleep ever.


“In the morning I had to get the show on the road or never get to my protective shack in California.. “since it’s a dream already ended, then I’m already on California, then I’ve already decided to rest under that tree at noon.” (157-158)

Ray is still in El Paso and he is wishing he was already in California at Japhy’s shack where he feels comfortable. California has become his base and home, not where he is really from. He knows it well and find comfort there. With his tree and the shack. Neither of witch provide any physical protection but he calls them protective because he knows them and loves them and finds some routine and structure in them

The Dharma Bums

“But it wasn’t funny, I felt rather sad, in fact real sad, like the night before in that horrible fog wire-fence country in industrial L.A., when in fact I’d cried a little. After all a homeless man has reason to cry, everything in the world is pointed against him.” (122)

This quote clearly shows how Ray feels about America and industry. He couldn’t stand L.A. and you can tell that not only does he dislike it but he feels sad, that America has come to this, where towns are covered in smog from industries and where the world is against homeless people, and can’t help them. This give him a clear reason for why he does what he does in nature, to get away from that constant reminder of sadness.

“And he had a nice home in Ohio with a wife, daughter, Christmas tree, two cars, garage, lawn, lawnmowers, but he couldn’t enjoy any of it because he really wasn’t free.” (129)

I like this quote because my paper is on freedom. To Ray being free is the most important thing. You could have anything and if you aren’t free you can’t enjoy any of it. If you don’t live and be free from restraint you can’t enjoy life for to the fullest.

Paper Topic

Freedom

The Dharma Bums

“…clean morning sun Japhy’s said. ‘You know, the earth is a fresh planet, why worry about anything?’” (106)

Japhy and Ray are shopping in a thrift store for new clothes and since they are so cheep they feel they can buy as much as they wont and it wont go to waste. This quote reminds me of the discussion in class about how both Japhy and Ray flip flop between ideas. They both seem like nature loving people that treat the earth well, but here they seem careless of the earths supply because of the good deal

“I was all outfitted for the Apocalypse indeed, no joke about that; if an atom bomb should have hit San Francisco that night all I’d have to do is hike on out of there..” (107)

After getting all of his supplies Ray is so happy that he has everything he could ever need in his backpack. He feels free and he is ready to go wonder wherever life takes him. If anything was to happen to him, he was set as long as he has his backpack. He isn’t quite free though, because his life is in the backpack and he is stuck to it.

Final Presentation

Raike Master

The Dharma Bums

“Up out of the orange glow of our fir you could see immense system of uncountable stars, either as individual blazers, or in low Venus droppers, or vast Milky Ways in commensurate with human understanding, all cold, blue, silver, but our food and our fire was pink and goodies” (73)

This line stood out to me because I like how Ray talks about the stars and what they really are, not saying the typically pretty stars in the sky. He brings in some mystery to it and put both the perspective that they were tiny compared to the universe but at the same time they were content because of there warm fire compared to the cold universe.

“‘The whole purpose of mountain climbing to me isn’t just to show off you can get to the top, it’s getting out to this wild country.’” (81)

Here Ray is talking about weather or not to climb another peak because heading back down. He is content with what he as already done and how far he as gone because he has gotten high enough to see the country. Even though he says this I don’t think he completely means it because he does have some competitive nature and does climb the last peak because Japhy is.

The Dharma Bums

“He was being very serious and leaderly and it pleased me more than anything else” (53)

Here they are about to hike and Japhy is getting prepared and is showing leadership. This shows Smith’s idealistic view of Japhy that he appreciates his leadership and taking care of the situation.

“But Japhy had on his fine big boots and his little green Swiss cap with feather, and looked elfin but rugged.” (54)

Ray is looking at Japhy and admiring his backpacking look. He himself doesn’t feel like he looks like a backpacker, but Japhy fits the perfect picture of a backpacker. This tells us that they think there is a typically look for backpackers and they have a desire to look like that.

The Dharma Bums

“shore, come on with us and we’ll all screw ya at ten thousand feet” and the way he said it was so funny and casual, and in fact serious, that the girl wasn’t shocked at all but somewhat pleased.” (27)

Japhy said this and it shows how he treats women. He believes that they are just sex objects but he has a way of controlling them and talking to them that they actually like him and fall for him. He has a way of saying things and his spirituality make them like him.

“Don’t you think it’s much more interesting just to be like Japhy and have girls and studies and good times and really be doing something, then all this silly sitting under trees?” (33)

Alvah says this to Ray showing how others in the book view him. They don’t really understand what Ray does and think it doesn’t have a purpose. Someone like Alvah would rather just live life and not worry about what will happen. They don’t know what Ray gets out of tree sitting.

The Dharma Bums

“ I was very devout in those days and was practicing my religious devotions almost to perfection” (5)

This is when Ray Smith is talking about his religious believes and when he was younger he was more devoted and he has lost it now that he is older. Now he is more cynical and hypocritical about life. He has changes from what he was as a younger boy.

“Happy. Just in my swim shorts, barefooted, wild-haired, in the red fire dark, singing, swigging wine, spitting, jumping, running- that’s the way to live.” (7)

This is the way that ray wants to live his life. After he moves to Santa Barbra this is how he lives and he loves it. He loves being free and having no worries. He finds happiness in relaxing and being free.

Raymond Carver- Are These Acual Miles?

Quote 1:

“Toni has been two hours on her hair and face. Leo stands in the bedroom doorway and taps his lips with his knuckles, watching” (p.583)

This to me seems like a typical scene in the 1950’s like we have been talking about in class. Leo’s wife is spending hours on putting a front on, a mask, for the world because she has to play a certain character that night. Everything is an act that people put on but it is not who they are at home. Leo is waiting anxiously for her and it is clear just from this line that they don’t have the perfect relationship and that Leo has to watch Toni prepare for the outside.

Quote 2:

“Earnest Williams looks from across the street…Leo walked the women to the car, surprised Ernest Williams on the sidewalk with a newspaper in his hand…Ernest Williams started, then slapped the paper against his leg, hard.” (P.584)

Even though everyone puts on this front, people who watch closely, like Ernest, can see what really goes on in the family. Ernest sees the affair that Leo has and now looks past the fronts that they put on. You can tell in the story that he later looks down on them and can really see who they are.

John Updike- The Persistence of Desire

Quote 1:
“Clyde become so lonely watching his old street that when, with a sucking exclamation, the door from the vestibule opened, he looked up gratefully, certain that the person, this being his home town, would be a friend.”
Here Clyde is lonely in his home town. He is watching the streets were he grew up. He is so excited to here the door open because he is so lonely, he is hardly living a good life because he is so lonely yet you get the sense that he thinks he is better than most around him. He like others in the time is putting on a front and is acting in society and his hiding what is really going on.

Quote 2:
“He would wear eyebrow-style glasses, be a griper, have some not quite negotiable talent, like playing the clarinet or drawing political cartoons, and now be starting up a drab avenue of business… poor Janet, Clyde felt…”
I find this ironic because here Clyde is talking about his ex’s new husband. He is kind of talking down on him and making him see much better than him. He feel sorry for his ex for being with him. The ironic thing is Clyde may be looking down on him, but he is the one with Janet and is not lonely like Clyde. This proves that Clyde has this sense that he is much better, when really he is the lonesome one.

1950's Presentation

Architecture in the 1950s.

The Swimmer- John Cheever

Quote 1:
“The bartender served him but he served him rudely. His was a world in witch the caterers men kept the social score, and to be rebuffed by a part time bar keep meant that he had suffered some loss of social esteem. Or perhaps the man was new and uninformed.”

John Cheever here is telling the reader how Neddy lives in the world of glamour and high-class society, where the bartenders are of lower status and everyone looks up to people like Neddy and his friends. This is also the point when Neddy finally realizes that something must have happened because people who usually look up to him are now rude to him and he doesn’t quite understand it. But Neddy isn’t quite ready to face that something must have happened and he denies it by placing the blame on the bartender.

Quote 2:
“It was not a serviceable stroke for long distances but the domestication of swimming had saddled the sport with some customs and in his part of the world a crawl was customary.”

Here he was talking about how a swimming stroke is not convenient but it was everyone in America does so everyone is custom to doing it. He is implying how most American people all conform to what society does and that everyone does the same thing. What they do may not be best way of doing it but since everyone else does it you automatically becomes accustom to doing it.

The Death of Justina

Quote 1
“It seemed to me that men had honored one another with medals, statuary and cups for much less and that abstinence is a social matter. When I abstain from sin it is more often a fear of scandal than a private resolve to improve on the purity of my heart…” (542)

In this quote he is talking about how the actions he does, quitting drinking and smoking, is not for his own good and health but rather for his appearance. That in today society being abstinence is a social matter and so therefore he does it. He doesn’t care about the health of quitting but rather to stay out of scandal and to appear “good” in the eyes of others.

Quote 2

“I must pretend, I must, like an actor, study and improve on my pretension, to have nothing to do with his triumphs and I must bow my head gracefully in shame when we have both failed.”

Here, at work, he pretend when his boss tells him to pretend. He similar to the first quote does what looks good and not for his own satisfaction. He does what society is telling him to do and must act to do it.

Frances Deamer-Phillips

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