Hokum Readings (10/29)

In my opinion, Hokum is the most difficult thing we've read this year. Yes Morreal was a little dry and somewhat organized, but it was fairly easy to understand. Hokum is written in a way that I often have to read    over and over again until I understand anything. However, once I finally understand fully what's going on, I find myself intrigued in the stories.

The story that I want to discuss is "The City of Refuge" by Rudolph Fisher. I often feel confused about why these stories are considered African-American humor. "The City of Refuge" never really made me laugh, or amused. I would say that it made me kind of angry the way that Mouse Uggam took advantage of Gillis. He had Gillis run his drug business by convincing him he was just selling French medicine. Gillis is ignorant of everything going on, and ends up taking the fall for the drugs at the end. I'm not really sure if the story is supposed to be amusing or humorous because I found it more sad. However, there is a lot of incongruity in the story. Almost all the incongruity is based off of the King Solomon Gillis' lack of intelligence. One would expect him to easily figure out he's being set up, but he has no idea. Another example of incongruity is Gillis' amazement with Harlem. He feels it's the best place on Earth, the 'city of refuge', but really it is not a place to live. 

Though I felt like there are incongruous parts in this reading and in other Hokum readings, I definitely don't consider it 'funny.' This is probably due to a few reasons. First is that most of these stories are from the early to mid 1900's. The dated time period makes it very hard to relate to any of these stories. Another reason is that I am a 19 year old white male. I've gone through over 13 years of schooling teaching me about the horrors of slavery and injustices against African-Americans. When reading many of these stories that appear to encourage certain stereotypes about African-Americans, I don't chuckle or smile. Usually I just find it pretty racist because of today's culture. 

3rd Meeting with Ricardo

           Ricardo and I met for the third time the other day, for a short lunch at Market Square. It was a short lunch because Ricardo needed to head over to the airport for his trip to Vegas. At this point, he let me know that once he returned from Vegas in a week or so, he would go directly to the airport and back to Brazil. I had no idea Ricardo was to return to Brazil so soon. This was definitely a big communication error on my part. Once I realized I wouldn't be able to meet with Ricardo again, I asked him a few questions about his thoughts on humor.
             Ricardo said Brazilian humor, in his opinion, consists of a lot sarcasm. He finds short, clever jokes and sayings in the middle of a conversation the funniest. I told him we usually call that a dry sense of humor. He didn't elaborate much more on the sarcasm, so I asked him what he thought of American humor. He says he finds some TV shows funny like The Office. Ricardo doesn't like the physical humor in America. When a guy goes up to another guy and hits him, he doesn't laugh. I told Ricardo this often called slapstick humor. That was really the extent of our humor conversation because he needed to catch a plane to Vegas. I wished him good luck on his gambling and to have a safe return to Brazil. Though we only conversed three times, I always enjoyed the conversations.
               Now, hopefully I'll get a new conversation partner to meet with for the rest of the semester...

Another meeting with Ricardo

                 Ricardo and I met again at Market Square this past Thursday. It had been a while since we last met, so we caught up for a bit. Ricardo had been busy the past few weeks with classes, and then he traveled to Austin with his brother. His brother traveled to Austin from Brazil for business, and decided to stay in Texas until Ricardo returns to Brazil in November.

                While his brother is here, Ricardo has some big plans. In a few weeks, they’re going to Vegas for the national rodeo. Ricardo has traveled all across the United States for rodeos. He actually listed off about 15 or more major cities in the country that he has visited. Ricardo’s cousin is a professional calf roper, so he often travels with him to the major rodeos around the country. It surprised me that he’s been to more exciting cities in the United States than me, and I’ve lived here all my life. He’s definitely not a stranger to the culture.

                The conversation about all the places Ricardo has visited brought up the topic about major cultural differences between Brazil and the United States. Ricardo said that the most confusing thing in the US is the federalist government. The different between state and national government definitely confused him because he’s traveled to so many different states in the country. To him, it’s so odd that specific laws vary in different parts of the country. In Brazil, no matter where he is, there is only one set of laws. This intrigued me a lot because I never had really thought about laws changing across state borders.

                Ricardo brought up some other big cultural differences between Brazil and the United States. In Brazil, soccer is the only really popular sport that everything else takes a back seat to. This is obviously different compared to all the variety we have here. Law wise, Ricardo liked that most people can get a driver’s license at age 16 here. In Brazil, one must be 18 to drive. Another major difference exists between laws regarding alcohol. Ricardo told me how he could go to a night club in Brazil and see tiny 14 and 15 year old boys and girls intoxicated, but here it is a lot stricter. Before speaking to Ricardo, I never realized how many small laws and things could make a country seem so foreign. 

Family Vacations

            John Hughes' "Vacation 58" was one of the funnier stories I've read so far this year. What I liked most about it was the nonchalant manor that the young narrator talked about a chaotic event. Throughout the story, crazy, over the top events happen to the narrator and his family, and the fact that the narrator is a young boy makes the events seem like no big deal. For example, when Clarke (the father) is driving through Illinois late at night, the narrator states, "Dad drove up on the side-walk and ran over a bike and some toys. Mom accused him of being asleep at the wheel, but he said he was just unfamiliar with traffic signs (263). The somewhat flattened voice that the narrator states the chaotic events makes it very humorous. It is a form of incongruity because one would expect the narrator to freak out when his dad recklessly drive, but he just casually tells the story and moves on.
           This same exact patterns happens again and again in the story, except the car ride keeps on getting more chaotic. Highway patrol pulls over the station wagon, and it turns out that they were dragging the dog at 60+ miles per hour for half a mile. They drove the station wagon off a four foot cliff. They get robbed by the gas station attendant that towed their car. The dad robbed the hotel, runs from the police, get attacked by Indians, and eventually the events climaxed with Clarke shooting Walt Disney. Every single one of these chaotic events is told in a flat tone from the young narrator who doesn't really understand the severity of the situation. The difference between the chaos of the events, and the nonchalant way the events are told is an example of incongruity in this story.
          Another thing I liked about this story was the underlying suburban, Midwest stereotype. I'm from Omaha, Nebraska, which is essentially in the center of the continental US. To drive anywhere fairly exciting, it's either an expensive flight or a long road trip. With a family of six, flying was rarely an option so for almost all vacations we would pack up the suburban and try to stand each other for usually over eight hours. The beginning of "Vacation 58" is pretty much an exaggerated version of what happens before each of my family vacations. My dad will be super meticulous about packing the car just right, making sure to include his golf clubs. We always plan at leaving around 8:00 or so in the morning, but rarely make it out before 9:30. For my family at least, vacations always seem like a great idea but always result in tears, blood, and a lot of stress. I feel like Hughes captured this situation perfectly. The family was so excited to go on a great vacation to Disney Land, but it turns out to be fairly destructive. Granted the family in the story went through a little more chaos, I was still able to relate to the fundamental situation.