Slurp!

Slurp!
By Arthur Ball

Intimate and complex relationships explored in “Wench”

Diving into an unsettling time in American history, author Dolen Perkins-Valdez’s “Wench: A Novel” takes an intimate look at the relationships between four female slaves and their white masters. The book follows Lizzie, Reenie, Sweet and Mawu, chronicling their lives as mistresses on and off of their plantation homes. Taken every year to a free state vacation spot, the women are treated as greatly as wives yet, also treated as poorly as dogs by their masters.

The novel takes place before the Civil War and the women see what the free world has to offer; they each contemplate if they should risk everything they love — their lives, the belief of a master’s “love” and, namely, their children — to escape to the world of freedom in the North.

While the book shows you the world and experiences of the four women on vacation, Perkins-Valdez decides to dig deeper into the life of Lizzie. Psychologically, the reader is sucked into Lizzie’s abuse and confusing role as a slave and mistress. While unsure of the author’s reasoning behind telling only Lizzie’s full history, the reader will find her story remarkably fascinating. However, interest in the other women’s lives may prompt readers to anticipate a sequel to the novel. Noted with this, readers may find the transition from the four characters’ stories to only Lizzie’s personal experience slightly difficult to follow.

While the book has some cause for confusion, its narrative is quite a page-turner and leaves the reader reeling at the behavior of this past way of life. “Wench” not only shows the yearning of all human beings to be free, but also depicts the complexities of human relationships. Although the plot, characters and subject matter engage the reader, the book lacks a grand finale. The story does not provide adequate closure for the characters and situations at hand — one wonders if Perkins-Valdez will write a sequel after all.

Dolen Perkins-Valdez’s writings have appeared in “The Kenyon Review,” “StoryQuarterly,” “P•M•S: poemmemoirstory,” “North Carolina Literary Review,” “Robert Olen Butler Prize Stories 2009” and “African American Review.” She is a former University of California President’s Postdoctoral Fellow and graduate of Harvard University. Born and raised in Memphis, Tennessee, she now divides her time between Seattle and Washington, DC. “Wench” is her debut novel. You can follow the author on Twitter or visit her website.

Dick Cheney

Vans Warped Tour 2010

This year Vans Warped Tour is back by touring the country and intorducing concert goers to new and up-and-coming artists. Here are images from yesterday’s Vans Warped Tour in Orlando which include The Cab, The Rocket Summer, iwrestledabearonce, After Midnight Project, and We The Kings. Today they are in Atlanta! If you are free today, be sure to check out Lakewood Amphitheater from 11am-9pm. Tickets are $40 at the gate and more info can be found at the official site: here.

Photo of the week

Calling all writers and wordsmiths! SCAD Atlanta’s student publication, SCAN Magazine, is currently seeking creative writing pieces for the Fall 2010 issue. Read more

“Inception” is the best dream you’ve ever had

Most people know Christopher Nolan’s name as the director behind the mega-hit Batman franchise of the past few years. You know, the one that made half a billion dollars and won Heath Ledger a posthumous Oscar for Best Supporting Actor? Despite his blockbuster success, Nolan’s personal pet projects are the ones that have amazed, mystified and baffled moviegoers since his 2001 film “Memento.” That film, along with “Insomnia” and “The Prestige,” were mind-bending, smartly crafted cinematic wonders that demanded repeated viewings and admiration for the man who could concoct them. Roaring into the current summer movie climate of sequels and underachievers, Nolan’s newest work, “Inception,” is no different.

If you have seen any of the promotional marketing for “Inception,” you know that the film’s public relations department was secretive to the point of confusion. Many were intrigued by the twisty visuals and the wide-ranging cast roster, but few knew the plot’s contents. So, what the heck is “Inception” about, exactly? The film is ⎯ at its heart ⎯ a heist movie, though there are no bank robberies and no hostages taken. Instead of plundering safes, the targets here are people’s minds ⎯ robbing them not of money, but of their free will when the mind is most vulnerable. The film follows Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio, in his second mind-bender this year), a man who performs corporate espionage with the help of some near-future biotechnology that allows him to enter the dream worlds of others. Usually, Cobb tries to steal ideas hidden in the recesses of a person’s mind, but when offered the chance to redeem his troubled past and return to his family, he assembles an elite team of mind hackers to perform “inception” ⎯ that is, enter the dream state and try to plant an idea instead.

Enigmatic, dense and visually intense are just a few words one would use to describe “Inception.” These sentiments are compounded by the fact that the concept of the film is complex and multi-faceted. This is a movie that equals “The Dark Knight” in length and requires the first hour of the film to set up the ground rules of the world you have just entered. Even though this paragraph may scare away half of those reading this article, I implore everyone to stick with the film ⎯ the back half of the movie pays off in spades.

Some have said that the story lacks pathos, that while we are on the edge of our seats with suspense, we don’t really care what happens to Cobb or any of the other players. They’d be right, to an extent, but when a story is this well done, sometimes you don’t need to be entirely emotionally invested in the characters to anticipate the story’s outcome.

The brilliance of the film emerges over the course of the inception job, as Cobb and his crew attempt to break up a conglomerate by planting seeds of doubt in an energy heir’s mind. To do this, the “architect” (Ellen Page) builds levels of dreams as if they were a video game, and the team must enter deeper and deeper levels of their target’s subconscious. Each level, however, operates under ever-expanding time constraints. If the first level of a dream spans 30 seconds, the next spans several hours, the next spans weeks, and the next spans years. By the time you get to the meat of the third act, Nolan is juggling so many narrative balls that the film is an impressive, exciting feat to watch.

Commercials have shown snippets of some of the amazing, mind-bending special effects, but they really are great to see on the big screen. Nolan was essentially given carte blanche on this production thanks to his Batman success, and spends his money on lavish action sequences, several trips around the globe and manipulations of time that perfectly complement the mechanics set up in the narrative. Yet, the visual interest that gets you to the cineplex is by no means the feature here. This is a story-driven movie with some excellent eye candy for good measure ⎯ the complete opposite of most summer movies.

With “Inception,” Christopher Nolan has crafted yet another unique world that demands repeat viewings to fully grasp what you just saw. The movie is a daring gamble: a self-contained amalgamation of psychological thriller, heist movie and action epic that makes you question what is real. Like the best of dreams, “Inception” may not make sense at times, but stays with you long after you’ve come to.

Talk publishing to me

Many assume that writing students are the only ones who need to get published in order to further their careers. If you write a book, your work should be published; if you want a job as a journalist for a magazine or newspaper, then your only option for getting said job is to have published materials on your resume. Yet, for the students of SCAD, getting published goes well beyond writing majors and can appeal to many fields of study.

So, what exactly is publishing all about? New American Paintings, a juried exhibition in print and venue for art publishing, stated that being published “differ[s] for every artist, but most report a significant amount of contact as a direct result of publication. For some artists, being published results in sales, for others it results in new gallery representation or the inclusion of work in an exhibition.” For every sort of artist, simply placing artwork in a gallery no longer exists; one must learn to distribute work in anthologies, postcards, social media and other outlets. This allows the artist, whether in school or out, to break into his or her chosen career path.

Georgia Lee, director of Ivy Hall and a former editor and journalist, indicated that trying to find a job ⎯ as a writer or in any artistic field ⎯ without some published material could set back job seekers in their search for employment; potential employers like to see candidates with real world experience and being published falls into that realm. Echoing her sentiments, Jay Montgomery, an illustration professor at SCAD Atlanta, stated, “Yes, it is important to try to get published before you graduate in the illustration field. It’s not a deal breaker with most editorial or small clients, but if you are wanting to illustrate children’s books, advertisements for a big company or corporate illustrations, it certainly helps ⎯ if not being required by some.” The idea is to have something to present to a potential employer. “The more the better,” stated Lee.

In dealing with employers, they want to see if you can market yourself, before you market their works. O’Seremi Odu, a third year squential art student, stated, “Work [that is] published has credibility. It shows [that] editors reviewed your work, critiqued it, you revised it and it was approved. References on the Internet have weak credibility. But, to cite something published shows people who know what is appealing and aesthetically pleasing [that you] have refined it.”

Some students at SCAD have observed that aspects of the writing world and the visual art world overlap. Curron Gajadhar, a second year painting student, stated that “an online portfolio can only go so far and if you don’t get critiqued, then you don’t get exposure.” He continued by saying, “there has to be a symbiosis between the journalistic end and artistic end ⎯ bridging [the gap] between the creator and viewer. It is a literature stepping stone for the artist to express.”

For many students, they are not only creating visual pictures, but also want to create pictures with their words. Gajadhar, paraphrasing the poet Rene Ricard, stated, “When people see a work of art and pass it around and it is good and he writes an article about it, people know it is true.”

For those who want to start marketing their work, Lee explained that the most important thing an employer looks for is errors. She explained, “Before being considered, it has to be correct … then, the content must fit.” Montgomery stated that in some cases, “there is a catch-22. ‘I can’t get published until I’m published.’ The most important thing, however, is having a professional portfolio, networking and business skills to actually use and a great attitude when you are doing it.” The combination of these attributes will help any student and/or job seeker to further their career.

Why vote?

Why vote?

Photo of the week

A Sentinel guards the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (at right) in Arlington National Cemetery near Washington, D.C. The Tomb serves as a memorial for soldiers who died Read more

The gulf is in crisis, where’s Kanye?

Illustration by Arthur Ball

Where are all the “Save the Gulf” concerts? Where are the TV benefits with celebrities and musicians giving heartfelt speeches on the poor fisherman, wildlife, beaches, loss of income and sabotaged gulf economy? Why hasn’t Kanye West made an excited utterance claiming that President Obama doesn’t care about the gulf people? I find it rather strange that these people, sans Larry King, and our own government are quick to help Haiti and other countries, but sit on their butts for this one.

What’s that you say? “More than 200,000 people were killed, over 300,000 injured and 1.5 million are still homeless in Haiti. Yes, the oil spill is terrible, but comparing it to a disaster where human life was lost is disrespectful of the dead and suffering.”

Don’t get me wrong, I am definitely sensitive to loss of life and know that pain intimately. However, the bottom line is that our duty as American citizens  is to help Americans who are living and who are less fortunate. The BP oil spill’s effect on our environment has an immediate impact on the lives of the living. U.S. resources must be deployed in a way that not only sustains life, but also revives the environment and its people in a way that is consistent with the general American expectations of prosperity – the right to pursue it.

It is appalling that many of us are compelled to do nothing and, furthermore, there are some who remain clueless that an oil spill even exists. A catastrophe of this magnitude on American soil will have not only economic effects, but also sociological and ecological effects that are so far reaching, they cannot yet be quantified! A lackluster response from our government is to arguably deny citizens their right to pursue life and liberty.

To put this into context, as a country, we believe that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, among which are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. To secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. SOUND FAMILIAR? These phrases are derived from the Declaration of Independence. Furthermore, the fundamental belief to American life was incorporated into the Bill of Rights via the 5th Amendment – no person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.

Basically, the less than adequate responses from both the federal and state governments are synonymous with denying our AMERICAN citizens their basic constitutional rights! Whether the crisis is an outcome of BP’s carelessness or an act of God like Hurricane Katrina, the government has a responsibility to its citizens.

Bradford Anderson, a law lecturer for Graduate Business Programs at the Orfalea College of Business at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, describes the situation best: “In the end, I envision that BP and the other entities responsible in the Gulf oil spill will pay for some of the cleanup costs and human damages. Meanwhile, natural habitats and harmed animals will recover little, because our legal system fails to adequately address long-term environmental injury. And all the money in the world cannot recreate a lost animal species.”

It’s sad that more of our citizens don’t see this issue as large as a natural disaster when the spill affects Americans on American soil and the effects will be much more devastating in the long run. Charity begins at home.

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