An Indian's Looking-Glass for the White Man

An Indian's Looking-Glass for the White Man by William Apess

"And I would ask: Could there by a more efficient way to distress and murder them by inches than the way they have taken?(1053)" Apess talks about how White man has robbed so much and yet hide being the color of ones skin.The crux of his argument is that the white man cannot hide behind his religion since the teachings were from a jewish man who is most certianly not white.

To phrase it in the words of another, "His extraordinary essay "An Indian's Looking-Glass for the White Man" (1833) is a powerful indictment of what Apess called color prejudice and what would today be called racism." From NovelGuide.com

At the time many were proudly calling America a Christian nation, which would set it apart from other nations. But being set apart will draw more attention and if that nations actions do not match their teachings it will be infuriating towards those who suffer at their hands. This is where Apess is coming from, he's writing from the view point of someone who's looking in at America and asking why does this happen. "By what you read, you may learn how deep your principles are. I should say they were skin-deep (1057)," deliberately making a pun and a point, Apess asserts that without the pretext of religion white men are no different than anyone else; guilty of their crimes. Apess ends with beseeching the reader to act on their beliefs and so this in an attempt to mend the fence as it were.

Rip Van Winkle

"To be a Rip van Winkle, is to awake suddenly to profound changes in one's surroundings. This may be due to physical absence or to absence of mind." from Wikipedia.

The idea of escaping and seeking freedom is not the part of the Rip Van Winkle story most focus on. Instead the focus is on the shock of awaking in a new era and being totally lost and alone, a relic of the past.

In researching this link I've found a Twilight Zone episode fallowing the idea called "The Rip Van Winkle Caper" (link at the bottom) which does justice to the story. What the Twilight Zone episode does well is that it takes the idea of needing to escape and flee and adds in a gold heist and technology. Being more about character interaction and about the human condition, along with being a TV show, the episode does not go into the deeper questions that the story raises.
Also I found a claymation version of the story, however, this version is very different from the story even though it uses most of the characters. I do not have the words to describe all the things wrong with the animated version except the one thing it does right: it looks good (also crazy).

The one thing that is missing in most in these retellings is the dog, since "Rip's sole domestic adherent was his dog Wolf. (956)." So why leave out his only friend?
One more comic book for this post, then the video links.
Link



Watch 24. The Twilight Zone - The Rip Van Winkle Caper in Entertainment | View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

Claymation Rip Van Winkle Part 1


Part 2


Part 3


Part 4

Henry David Thoreau

Here's a video of his impact. Thoreau has taken Emerson's ability to make powerful one line quotes and in Resistance To Civil Government he express his ideas in the same powerful one-liners.

"Moreover, any man more right than his neighbors, constitutes a majority of one (1863)." Is one of my favorite lines because it connects so well with what Emerson says in Self Reliance: The majority is wrong.

Thoreau's argument can best be summed up through the quote, "I came into this world, not chiefly to make this a good place to live in, but to live in it, be it good or bad (1836)." which means that the most important part of life is living it. In context he is arguing with the idea of petitions and how long they take to go through. And how we must reach a point where immediate action is needed.

"Thoreau was right when he said, "We want great peasants more than great heroes." from Janey Canunk In The West. But he, like Emerson, like Loewen, warns against heroification of those who take action.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

In true sense of Self Reliance I will speak my own mind on Emerson and not stand on the shoulders of others. If Emerson were a video game system he would have been a Colecovision.

What is one of those? It's a



That's right two phones with a stick attacthed. Released in 1982 it has 14 buttons in an age where everyone else has 1! "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines (1168). The idea is that this system provided enough expandability to accompany almost any game's idea for how they wanted to play.

In life he was adhead of his time with thinking. Because, he always studied he was able to sysnthize many ideas into one. Much like the Colecovision, Emerson was ahead of his time but both were immensely popular in their ages.

The only hard part is control, or rather how to control this amount of buttons or ideas. The Retroist laments, "The siren song of amazing graphics is hard to resist, but if your system is difficult to use, you will lose your audience." What to do with ideas that aren't easily boiled down into what you want them to be, is the same problem people have with a 14-button controller: When everyone is used to one way of doing things (the easy 1-button way) changing ideas and hand positioning will be hard.

Harriet Jacobs, Incidents in the life of a Slave Girl

"...but the condition of a slave confuses all principles of morality, and, in fact, renders the practice of them impossible (1817)>" - Harriet Jacobs Incidents in the life of a Slave Girl.

The story that Jacobs relates is one of herself trying to evade a tyrannical master's sexual advances and her keeping her purity. And the fear and hardship of living in the floor boards under a shack. Then finally having escaped to be hunted and trying to come to terms with being sold. Initially she is resentful of being bought, but once she understands how much freedom she gained through the sale.

This is a piazza,

Yes a Roman one, but still the idea is that she is cramped into a desolate shack near the edge of a grander and more open, or free, area. Jacobs uses a lot more imagery to display her meanings and purpose whereas Douglass uses direct words to the matter. The exceptions are when Jacobs steps out of the story to talk directly to the reader. This story is really similar in its manner of appeal to that of Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin. The question that this story answers for the modern reader is; Was slavery that bad? Of course it was and still is a great evil, but hte debate rages on.

     I was going to make a sepreate blog post for this but since I might not have time I'll list the arguement I found while researching. It is an internet forum arguement over how bad (or good) slavery was in the 1800's in Amercia. Some Claimed that by being enslaved they were given food and taken care of instead of living in Africa whose living conditions were awful. Please ignore the stupidity of the last statement for a moment, this was the best response (not linked because of pictures, read to the bottom of that person's post), 

"To the Op: I see you have a point there. Unlike the many enraged people here, who I dare to say have no basis whatsoever in mind other than their feelings to disagree, I have a question for you. No, it is more like a proposal.

I offer you a good life. I will take good care of you. Nothing is going to happen, three foods every day, and a roof over you with a bed, not the best bed, but you can sleep there I assure you. All you have to do in return is become my slave; you know work eighteen hours a day, do whatever work I say...actually do whatever I say without talking-back or even look at me with bad-eyes. What kind of slave you ask? Just slave, my property. I am offering you a good deal, in fact this will make you happy, don't deny it since you stated it.

Oh I just forgot to mention a couple of things. 
1. You will lose your freedom, not that it matters.
2. You will lose your status of 'human being,' and be just a 'thing.' You know, worst than an animal, but it doesn't matter because you don't care about that, you will have a good life.
3. You don't have pride; I forbid you to have one.
4. I will treat you well, like my property you will be, but that doesn't mean my good friends that look after my slaves, my valuable workers, my brothers, my doctor, my lawyer, and all the rest of the people I know will treat you well. Oh yes some of them like to fuck my slaves, since we are good friends, you know as long as I don't get to know it; it's cool, right?
5.You do whatever I want, and I will hurt you on a whim because I am your master.

Well, those things doesn't really matter since you will have a good life, and a good future. Because your children, and grandchildren will have a great life in my country. That is when that happens in a hundred years, maybe, well who knows? Doesn't really matter.

So, what do you say? Do you accept my offer?..." From Crunchyroll.com

All of the Slavery-era readings we have read illuminate one point: Slavery is, was, and always will be bad on every level. None of the readings have supported slavery or the conditions in which those slaves lived as 'good' the best that can be said about them is 'not bad'.

Ignorance of these writers leads to their voices being muted and thus people forget just how harmful slavery is for the slave and the slave owner. Much like how Lies warned about lessens lost from ignoring or romancing the facts. As in; making the issue of slavery be a one time deal. It is over and everything is happy since both races get along, and there was never any tension in the northern states(142, bottom paragraph Lies).

Frederick Douglass' Life

Frederick Douglass "Narrative of Life"

Frederick Douglass' Narrative of Life is a powerful book detailing the events that happened to him during his life. The story is all too familiar though, as a boy he is moved around a lot between slaveholders but learns to read a little from Mrs. Auld which opens his mind to be able to comprehend slavery. From then on, Douglass is subjected to torments under slavery: the hypocrisy between religion and reality, starvation, and whippings. Then Douglass was sent to Mr. Covey's to be broken. After seeming to be broken he fell ill and attempted to go to his master for protection, but finding no protection he was left with the choice, "...to go home and be whipped to death, or stay in the woods and starve to death (2102)." After his return Mr. Covey attacks.

Success came from the brawl and was the changing point for Douglass; his spirit no longer felt crushed and he once again felt empowered. Soon after he goes to a new master, Mr. Freeland who makes the biggest impact on Douglass through him being free of religion. It was here that Douglass founded a Sabbath school, and was beaten for it by others and commented on how Mr. Freeland was, "... the best master I ever had, till I became my own master (2108)." After his time there he tries to escape, gets caught, imprisoned and sold to Master Hugh. With Hugh, Douglass gets work and makes plans to escape and succeeds in 1838. Mr. Ruggles gives Douglass a location where he can go and be safe: New Bedford. It is here Douglass begins his free life and gets started in activism for the abolitionists.

The biggest impact Douglass makes in his Life is through his tone. He speaks in a forceful tone, strong and commanding, detailing the injustices he both saw and befell. In a brief comparison, his wok is the opposite if Stowe's: Douglass uses cutting words and actions and anger, where Stowe appeals to emotions using softer tones and comedy. There was nothing funny in Douglass' biography mostly because it wasn't fiction but what really happened. The point of writing this way was to incite anger in others and to promote outrage over slavery.

Below is a coloring book picture of Douglass, look at how he is standing how aggressively he holds the paper. One final note, well more of a quote of the text below him, "Douglass left the U.S. after the failure of the John Brown raid at Harper's Ferry."
It is quite funny to see the situation dumbed down to the point that is losses all meaning and context (much like what chapter 7 in Lies warned us about). By contrast below is the link to a quote by Douglass about the 4th of July, only the link to the image since it is a bit more graphic in it's display of the evils of slavery and whipping.

<Link to quote and picture>

Poe's House of Usher

"Catalepsy: Complete trance-like mental detachment."

Symptoms include:rigid body, rigid limbs, limbs retain position when moved, loss of voluntary muscle control, and no response of recognition. See also "what appears to be death"

from WrongDiagnosis

"The Fall of the House of Usher" is pure Poe being Poe, which means it's good but complex. There are so many different and equally spiraling outward threads of meaning that picking one is not easy. But madness is the central issue in "House of Usher" the only hard question is what type of madness and what is inducing it.

The madness is caused by pressure, so much pressure that Roderick has lost his mind. The pressure comes from everything, really though everything pressures this man so much so that he has retreated to hermitage. The madness does not cease though, and so willing is he to end the suffering he sees ending the line of Usher as the only way. So Roderick invites an old friend, the narrator, over to help him kill his twin sister. The quote at the top is what Roderick knows, that she will appear dead and this condition will fool others. Enlisting the narrator to help move he body works until she breaks free and kills him by dieing on top of him.

To be honest who wouldn't be almost shocked to death if this came running after them.

So the Madness consumues and culminates for Roderick in the dead coming back to life to be with him, hinting that he will never be free of the curse of the House of Usher.

The real treasure in this story is that when summed up it amounts to little more than a ghost story, but in the hands of Poe it turns into a Gothic masterpiece.


P.S. While looking I found a comic book of the fall of the house of usher.
http://thehorrorsofitall.blogspot.com/2009/01/fall-of-house-of-usher.html

Hawthorne: The Minister's black veil

"The antipathy or, at the very least, ambiguity towards masks is hundreds, if not thousands of years old, and it always associated with evil, sickness, wrongdoing, or, at the very least, “naughtiness” in western culture." From The Scottish Boomerang

Mr Hooper traded a part of his soul away for power: the power to move people by his words. The result is that he hides away from everyone lest they know what he has done. By hiding his face he repulses the townsfolk and even his bride to be Elizabeth.


This story is about more than just isolation it is also about power. In effect by isolating himself, Mr. Hooper has become a hermit but not a wise man lifted above darkness instead a righteous man trusted into darkness who is still trying to light the way out for others.

The irony is that Hooper has power to bring others into his flock while his flock does not invite Hooper in. And so even after his death the veil is left on symbolizing the disconnection Hooper has made from the rest of the world.