Last Straw

I can't do this anymore, I give up.

Untitled

Okay, so I've started and immersed in the book. It’s an eventful journey so far. I think she has a bit more humor in this book which makes it a little better. But I still see some similar pattern as I saw in the first book. At the end of the chapter, she goes into the future saying the character doesn’t know it yet but it will happen, and the character is “innocent” to the future and happy.

Other than that, she uses darker colors now for her paintings. It’s because of the subject she’s writing about, I don’t think she wanted to use bright colors when painting about wars and the hard times in her father’s life.

A New Beginning

So, I've started the second book, The Odyssey of a Manchurian, which, from what I've heard, is about her father's, Baba's journey, after WWII. To be honest, I've dreaded starting the book because we (the first book and I) didn't get along so well before.

However, I've started the second book and so far in, I don't hate it. Her style is still the same:
1. Lots of onomatopoeia (I can never spell that right)
2. Lots of metaphors
3. Three different stories in one chapter
4. Inserts herself ("I") to some part of the story
5. Has a storytelling-like tone
6. Switching third-person, first-person thoughts

Other than that, I find myself relating to some of the stories that she told which is interesting. However, even though I am relating to it, it's kind of boring since it's like "been there, done that" kind of thing for me.

Her story, or rather, Baba's story is interesting now that I'm only reading for content, not scrutinizing for details. Despite just reading and not really paying attention to her rhetorical strategies, I find myself noticing more strategies (if that makes any sense to you).

At some point, I question if it's really nonfiction, if Yang fabricated some details up to make the story goes smoother. I know that the best nonfiction is if it reads like fiction. However, the book is based on her father's stories after all, and it's a story nonetheless. But at some part, I feel as though Baba himself wouldn't know the details but Yang put that detail in the book. For example, what the monk did after Baba's mom put a garlic-thing-necklace on a statue's neck (they ate it). If he wasn't there, how would he know they ate it? Also, Yang has quotes that are in between quotation marks but I know that those are not exact quotes since a person wouldn't remember exactly what someone said.

Anyways, sorry for being on haitus for so long, like I said, I dreaded starting the second book. But now, I actually enjoy it because I know most of the stuff that she's talking about. I'll update frequently from now on.

Finally...

I would have updated my blog earlier but my internet was giving me a hard time, so here it is.

I must admit, I'm didn't do as much reading for the research as I wanted to but I did read other books. (This might be irrelevant, but...). One of which was Abarat, by Clive Barker and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Abarat and Baba are similar since the authors always include an illustration in the beginning of the chapter. In reading Abarat, I discover aspects about Baba that I didn't notice before, or I did but didn't pay much attention to it.

I got frustrated before because I thought the book was one continuous story (I read too many fiction). What Yang is actually doing is telling one story per chapter. Yay, problem solved, I'm actually enjoying the book now.



As for what techniques Yang uses, well, that's an easy answer. Tons and tons of figurative language. She takes detours instead of the straight road. For an example, she doesn't say:

He is sixty-year-old.

In Yang's language, it's:

"Old Guo, who had weathered over sixty winters, could not weather the betrayal of his son."

What I also noticed is that she chooses words that go with what is going on in the scene. In this case, "weather."

Another example:
"When the bottles [bombs] landed in their pigsties and flung their animals to swine heaven, knowledge exploded upon them."

"exploded" goes with the bombs.

Yang uses words that are related with each other in different context constantly throughout the book.

Yang also establishes a mellow tone that create a bed-time-story-telling voice. Even when the scene is morbid (a wolf killed a child), she makes it seem...unmorbid.


Anyways, Happy New Year (even though it's a little late)!

A Picture, One Thousand Words

I do agree that a picture is worth a thousand words.

However, first of all, I'm enjoying the book now that I'm not so focus in looking for rhetorical techniques. (Maybe it's also due to vacation approaching and there are no major witting assignments [yet]).

The Book:
Yang begins each chapter with a colorful and beautifully painted picture. It reflects what that chapter is about. Even though it is one picture, I can always go back to the picture at any point in the chapter and see her words reflected on the picture. That one picture can tell a whole story.
All of the paintings are filled with many bright colors. Because of the many bright colors, there is no one focus, the eyes wander all around the painting. That's exactly what Belle wants, she wants the reader to explore her entire painting and discover hidden treasures within them. As the eyes wander around the painting, a story begins to unravel.
Her text is just as interesting as her painting. It goes all over the place too, but somehow it's all connected. Like her painting, her words are also vivid due to the imagery that she uses. Her words are also loud like the bright colors because she uses a lot of onomatopoeia.
Even though she is lending her voice to retell the story of her father, I can also see her voice in the story.

One thing I notice is that each chapter is a story in itself. I believe that I was frustrated with the book before because I had a mindset that it was going to be a continuing smooth story and I didn't get what I was expecting. Now that I am in sync with the rhythm of the book, I am able to enjoy it more.

Complaints

Okay, this is not an official blog, I just want to dump my frustration, you don't have to read this.

So far, I've started/finished/watched four of Belle Yang's work....and guess what!?!?!? They are all like different versions of the same story, except maybe one is longer than the other. And that's not the worst part.

I'm lost.

What am I looking for? Rhetorical Techniques? The meaning of the story? I feel like the more my brain take it, the more confuse I get. AH!!!!!!!

I'm also lost in her book. She jumps around a lot. She talks about her father in one paragraph, jumps to the history of China that will happen and then falls back to her father when the things she said haven't happen yet. It's hard to give a summary for the annotated bibligraphy when there's like 10 stories in one chapter.
She uses a lot, and I mean ALOT of figurative language. It's okay at first, but it's really annoying after a while.

AND

She introduce a person's name once in the chapter, and then refers to them as he/she for a chunk of the section. I get so confused.

LASTLY

I think I'm doing this wrong since I'm so focused in finding rhetorical techniques that I find myself not paying attention to the story and if I pay attention to the story, I don't really notice the techniques. This goes back to what I should do for notes.


Hopefully, I won't be this frustrated when vacation arrives and I have a decent amount of leisure time to appreciate the books.


ah!!!

BUT

She does have good qualities but I'm too frustrated to name them. I will in the next blog.

A Documentary to [Really] Start the Journey

Before the documentary:
Last week, I began Yang's first nonfiction book: Baba: A Return to China Upon My Father's Shoulder. I got to about 17 pages but I didn't get immersed in the book as I hoped to. I decided to take a break.
I thought that researching Belle Yang beforehand would give me more footing before jumping back into the book. Also, we've been doing so much reading and annotating that I decided to watch a documentary.

After the documentary:
Wow...the documentary is exactly what I needed. It tells the story of Belle Yang by mimicking one of her children book: My Name is Hannah. Notice the similarity in the title.
The documentary has a little narration by some random guy in the beginning to give us background details. From there onward, the narration is either quotes from Yang's book or her own voice.
I found a connection with Belle Yang. I understand her story of difficulties in America. By hearing her words spoken through her fluent-but-accented English makes them mean so much more than just me reading the words for myself. I am excited to continue on where she left on in her quotes from Baba.

The documentary also touched upon China's history. I was enlightened. In all of the history classes I have taken so far, none goes deep into China's (or Asia's for that matter) history. Last April, I took a trip to China and visited Tiananmen Square. I just regarded it as some historical place to take a picture of. Now I whack myself on the head for not knowing better, for not knowing the blood bath that had taken place there.
The documentary left me with a lot to think about because of what Yang said. One of which about how illegal immigrants deserve to stay in the United States. Formerlly, I had no opinion on the matter but now, that might change (I am easily persuaded, can't you tell?).

In hearing her struggles in being an immigrants, I recall my own family's struggle. In hearing her father's story of the past, I hear my own parents and grandfather's story of their life, the difficulties that they faced.