Leslie Marmon Silko: Beautiful woman with many stories to shareValentino Achak Deng is a truly inspiration for million readers who are intrigue by his story. Personally, I am amaze by the meaning behind his name Valentino. Previously known as Achak, Father Matong gave Achak a new baptize name, which is Valentino. The name Valentino was derived from St. Valentino who was able to restore the sight of a blind girl. Father Matong purposely gave Achak his new name in hopes of “enlighten” the greater society about their plight. Father Matong says, “I think you will have the power to make people see … and someday you will find your own jailer’s daughter, and to her you will bring light” (287).
Valentino indeed “bring light” to his readers. Touched upon so many lives and increase awareness about Sudanese/ Lost boys’ difficulties in Sudan to greater audiences. In the Preface, Valentino said, “I wanted to reach out to others to help them understand Sudan’s place in our global economy”. In away, one can see the resemblance of St. Valentino in Achak Deng’s personality. St. Valentino and Valentino Achak are very selfless, always put others’ need first before their personal need. He is able to rebuild and donate to Marial Bai building schools for the children from the book’s proceeds. In the eyes of many people, Valentino is a truly inspiration, he is a hero.
Click here to show some support and follow Valentino Achak Deng's FACEBOOK page.
It's interesting how Eggers weaves this story. Achak has these different encounters with all kinds of people that could be somewhat construed as parables. Like any "epic" quest this story takes on characters that appear just when Achak is destitute or lacking faith. This is not to say that the characters he meets, like say the "round-bellied man" restores or lessens his faith. But, faith, God, religion and humanity all come into question. As when "God was taking the weak from the group" on page 198. And on page 199, Achak "realized" that God still wanted the Sudanese, as a people to survive. Therefore, "Only the smartest and strongest of us can make it there." An acrid desert climate, a battle versus humanity's enemy, (itself) for the sake of survival of humanity, and questions to answers that man must answer as well as a boy who must find the answers for himself.
For instance, in his encounter with the "round-bellied man" who's camouflage was superior: it blended perfectly into the landscape." The man's "admission" of "a ghost from nowhere" has "angelic" implications, page 204. The man "fixes" his leg, feeds him nuts and water, pages 201-203. He instead poses the question back to Achak, (page205) and does not answer the troubling question based on the "What." The man’s appearance takes on mysticism and prolongs the story's riddle of the What. I feel, that the manner in which the man "appeared" and "disappeared" left me puzzled, like an unexplained spirit’s call. And like Achak, left me hoping for an answer to a very cryptic question.
Later, the boys approach the tree a few days away from Ethiopia and meet with soldiers from a unit of the army called The Fist, page 215. Achak see’s how worn these soldiers look and is not comforted by them. “The Fist, which to me sounded very capable. But then the men were starving, dying.” Achak goes on to say how the dead Fist soldier troubled “more than any death of any boy along the way.” Meaning, how can a boy survive if a Fist soldier cannot? Is God really taking the weak and letting the strong survive? Is anyone going to survive?
Achak is surrounded by as many questions as predators. All he has is the group. It seems his faith is losing the grip on him he so desperately needs to survive. Just as William K had re-entered his life, Achak stated: “I felt it was God giving me this gift of William K after taking away Deng.” Achak had decided not speak again after Deng’s death, page 156. Almost accepting his fate because he had no answer to this calamity and that he would be next.
Then, Achak’s childhood friend William K dies and he sits next to the dead body while holding his hand, page 217. “I no longer had any faith in our journey or in our guides.” Achak continues that it seemed logical that the insurmountable “walk up the mountain” would continue. The infinite journey would only end when the boys were all dead.”
The epic journey continues to a promised land of salvation yet with no end in sight. Maybe this land does not exist? And in almost a martyr-like fashion Egger writes from Achak’s lips: “I could not cry; there was not the water in my body to spare.” It sounds so dismal yet with religious connotations. God has not given of his body to save my body yet I venture on to an empty promise of unseen salvation.
I'm just going to start this post by stating the fact that I'm not really an informed global citizen of the world system in which we live in today (although I realize that it's something that is very important.) In fact, I'm lucky if I can catch snipits of the Metro on my way to work and see what's going on in New York City so when it comes to current events that are happening, I'm often times completely ignorant of what's going on. Reading 'What is the What,' has definitely been an experience for me and as I read about what Mr. Deng and his fellow countrymen have gone through, it has certainly been a very educational and emotional read. I'm very grateful that this 'gift' was written as an attempt to reach out to inform us of these tragic events that have happened because it creates an awareness that is essential when making foreign policy and decisions regarding how Americans interact with other states in the world system. As awareness causes public opinion, this can be used as a powerful force in affecting the policies adapted by governments on various levels, from the lowest of municipal government up to the highest of federal government policies and that's why having this awareness is so important. The problem with public opinion weighing so heavily on the decisions of leaders, especially in foreign policy making, is that its citizens are generally ignorant of all the important issues they needs to understand before making a rational decision. I think that 'What is the What' is a valiant attempt at raising this awareness for all those who had suffered and their plight as they struggled to stay alive and piece back together their lives that had been destroyed by all the conflict in Sudan.
Michell Houellebecq has a palpable talent to alarm you. I use palpable because this strategy entails most things that are tangible that you can feel and touch. They are not all of a sexual nature either but involve other creatures. It is a kind of literary pestilence that he uses to disgust or attract the reader. At the same time the reader is forced to make a decision about what kind of writer Houellebecq is. Also, you are encouraged to dislike him by this same method of writing. The writing is in your face with a cake mixer full of shit. Either you like him or you don’t. But even if you don’t like him you are forced to laugh at some of the absurdity that he uses. Are they coming from him or the protagonist? Who can tell?
On page 50 he reveals how “It was just the right time for a cockroach to make an appearance in my life.” Then he proceeds to juxtapose their mating customs with ours. As if he has been studying them over time and simultaneously comparing us to cockroaches. In the next paragraph he “Pays homage to Oon and all Thai prostitutes.” His way of shocking and upsetting you but also keeping you interested because you have no idea what he’ll say next. On page 54 he talks about how farmers “Desperate violence” was displayed by “Gutting pigs” and “Dumping tons of slurry” in front of Palais Bourbon and Esplanade des Invalides. So it should not surprise us when he meets Valerie, the one girl he likes and calls her a “Slut.” On page 56, as if trying to confirm this he talks about Valerie’s lesbian tryst with Berenice at age fourteen.
I find it ironic that Houellebecq’s voice is one that does not allow you as a reader to “Relax” and “Take pleasure” in his words. Whether you enjoy his writing style or not, as the reader and having purchased the book you feel you are “Entitled” to said pleasure. And yet as you read you are kicked off balance and must be “On your guard” for the next expletive or “Pussy” that he’s about to spit out. Simultaneously ironic, is that people who patronize resorts or patronize countries that offer “Sexual tourism” in their repertoire feel they are entitled to satisfaction as well. This evidenced by the slogan used, page 256 “The right to pleasure.” Stating that the use of this phrase “The right” hits a nerve with western civilization and its foundation of hypocritical and democratic tenets. The other exploits the misfortune of one in the name of Hedonism and Republicanism.
I’ve been thinking about yesterday’s class and how we discussed the overall theme of globalization and its portrayal in Pattern Recognition in different ways but mainly through cyberspace. That theme is pretty obvious when you think about how so much of the communication in the book is through email or blogs. The footage is discussed on the blog, Cayce uses email to contact the maker of the footage etc. Because this was the central theme I liked how the last chapter of the book was called mail, you find out what is going on in everyone’s lives through emails. We find out that Cayce’s phobia is gone through the email with her therapist etc. This seemed a bit predictable but fitting that the theme was cyberspace.
Gibson also described things in a technology/cyberspace/digital way. On page 187 (paperback) Cayce is describing how Marina looks, “She looks like, Cayce decides, like a prop from one sequel or another of The Matrix; if her boobs were bigger she could get work on the covers of role-playing games for adolescent boys of any age whatever.” Also the character that Parkaboy and Darryl make up, Keiko, is digitalized, she’s a digitally made Japanese schoolgirl. These are just other ways Gibson tied in his theme of cyberspace.
While reading Pattern Recognition, the name of Bigend’s Blue Ant struck out at me. Although I didn’t know what a blue ant was at the time, it seemed like a peculiar name that Gibson deliberately chose. At the beginning of the novel on page 6, when Blue Ant is first introduced to the reader, Gibson’s description of this company as a, “Relatively tiny in terms of permanent staff, globally diluted, more post geographic than multinational, the agency has from the beginning billed itself as a high-speed, low drag life-form in an advertising ecology of lumbering herbivores. Or perhaps as some non-carbon-based life-form, entirely sprung from the smooth and ironic brow of its founder, Hubertus Bigend, a nominal Belgian who looks like Tom Cruise on a diet of virgins’ blood and truffled chocolates.” at first, sounded like an interesting stylistic writing approach that Gibson used in describing this company but when I ‘wiki-ed’ what a blue ant actually was, I realized that Gibson was in fact, literally describing was a blue ant was! The blue ant, as Wiki has defined, is actually a wasp that is about 1 inch in length, and is a wingless and ground dwelling parasite that hunts its prey (crickets) by paralyzing it then laying its eggs inside its victim (while it’s still alive) so that when the larva hatch, it has a source of food readily available. The contrasting images of Bigend’s Blue Ant and the blue ant are very clear. Both are described as small sized, both are situated in an ecology of lumbering herbivores in which they prey and both are described to have eerily emerged from a physical body with a suggested image of a gruesome devouring of its victims’ bodies.
-Haeji
