Sunday, June 19, 2011

Midnight in Paris – an 8 out of 10 on the Jay Wolin Scale

I don’t know that it truly deserves such a high score, but timing and locale have a lot to do with it. Most of the movie fare I have seen recently has been super-hero movies or documentaries, so it was a pleasure to see an entertaining, intelligent and creative movie for a change. Plus of course I cannot resist the scenes of Paris. Ah Paris, the city of lights. I have fond memories of visiting this beautiful city. I loved just walking the streets and seeing the different neighborhoods, and walking along the Seine such as the protagonist in this movie does (as well as easily getting lost in the winding streets). The movie also imagined what it might be like to meet our artistic and literary heroes. It brought to bear the question of finding our own artistic integrity, and the juxtaposition of materialism/vanity versus artistic vision. But ultimately it is about having the courage to live fully in the present moment, and not living in the past. No super heroes necessary.

Thursday, June 16, 2011

Black Hawk - Book Review

Black Hawk.
An “Autobiography” from Penguin books, that indicates it is the closest of the various versions of this autobiography. One of my new friends from Iowa sent me a copy of the book, as Blackhawk was from that area. I had originally heard of Blackhawk from wondering where the name Black Hawk came from after watching the movie Black Hawk Down. I was never taught about him in history class in school. The lack of information about Native Americans in our education is another issue to write about it at another time. I put autobiography in quotes as of course his words were translated by Whites. There is no question in my mind that there were certain edits in the translation. So it is hard to tell what words and which stories are really his versus the translators. He is often overly complimentary about the American Military leaders, to the point of being deferential. And I also have to wonder how much of this was spoken by him as a way to burnish his image after his defeat. Although there is much that the he is honest about in his errors of tactics and judgment.

Most of what I have researched about Black Hawk portrayed him as a fierce warrior of the Sauk people. And in fact the Black Hawk War was the only war named after an individual. He and his group of people fought against the Americans in the War of 1812 as well. He chronicles both his victories and defeat. Yet in the book he is portrayed as often bewildered by the clash of cultures, merely trying to preserve his people’s way of life. I found it interesting that in his decision to continue the war (as opposed to the remainder of the tribe which capitulated early) he still had women and children with him. Certainly a different cultural phenomenon than what we are used to. As well I imagine as stated, his hope was to reclaim the land they had planted and lived on, and their ancestors were buried upon. But clearly, he did not anticipate the pragmatic challenge of fighting a war with the Americans. It also shows the lack of unity among the Native Americans and how the White Europeans took advantage of that.

I found it interesting how the Easterners were fascinated by him, and overtly friendly to him. He pointed to the fact that the people who lived in the mountains (along the train ride throughout the east) seemed to follow the Christian Golden Rule and the Settlers who had conquered his land did not. There have been many other books written about how Americans have idealized Native Americans (or their vision of what Native Americans are).

It was interesting to read his surprise as certain customs and tactics of the Whites. A reminder for ourselves when we engage other cultures, how strange we may appear to them and in turn to be respectful of differences in other cultures.

Ultimately though it is about the story of a defeated, conquered people overwhelmed by a superior force in numbers and technology and one man’s desperate attempt to maintain some dignity in the face of this, and his ultimate defeat, yet survival to tell his story.

So I look back and see I have written “it was interesting” numerous times. Although the pace of the book was stilted, clearly if you like history it is a good read to at least gain a partial perspective of how our settlement of this country looked from the perspective of one Native American.

And then of course I wondered, what in my life today, do I not see the full picture of. Are there forces in our culture that I just do not understand that will overwhelm and defeat me. Should we adapt to and combat the inevitable force, or accept defeat and be assimilated by it. Do we go off and live in our quiet little place and just shut out the rest of the world or do we rage against the world that has defeated us. The question is how do we adapt the superior force to change and to integrate a minority position. Do we create polarities and wait until enough people have been negatively impacted by the majority so that the minority becomes the majority or do we try to find a middle ground where both polarities are integrated, where we can hopefully find a better middle way for all. How can we unite our various fractured constituencies to unify to move forward towards a different vision of what America can be.