(Muhaimen “Moo” Ahmed)

ムーハイメン (Muu-Hai-Men, written in katakana)

At the MET I had the chance to walk around the Japanese Art Exhibit.  The artwork covered around 1500 through present time.  I was able to view many pieces of Japanese art from the Edo Period 1603-1868 and some pieces from as early as 1500.  I got to see some of the visual depictions of the Samurai Culture while also seeing use of drawing techniques many use today.  In the picture below of the lion on the cliff, you see a beautiful landscape where depth is depicted via shading.  This was my favorite piece out of the exhibit purely because I liked how the scenery looked and I found the expression on the lion’s face silly.  Below this picture is a picture of a Shoin room.  It is a room that would often be used as a study room.  The walls are made of paper and there is gold leaf detailing.  I’ve always found the use of paper for walls quite interesting.  While not very functional, it gives the room a unique look.  In paper rooms, light from other rooms would bleed in, making it easier to achieve good lighting in a household.  According to my Japanese professor, some paper household items are still in style.  The blinds for his windows were made of paper so light could come through.  He often got in trouble as a child because he’d break or make holes in it often.  Paper walls and doors were often the inside of a house and there were many reasons to use paper walls in Japan.  The climate during the summer is very hot and humid and it’s probably easier to keep a house heated with an open fire rather than cool it down when air conditioners existed.  Overall, I enjoyed the Japanese art section, it gave me a peek into the culture of Japan while not focusing on anything in particular.  I left the exhibit wanting to learn more about the various aspects of Japanese culture from drawing styles, the evolution of its written language, architecture, to its textiles.  I highly recommend that you guys stop by it when you have the chance.

In Jean De Lery’s stories, there is a theme prevalent throughout his writing dependent on his travels to Brazil and that theme has to do with culture shock upon his viewing and interpretation of the customs and culture of another country. In his book History of a Voyage to the Land of Brazil, he talks about “savages” a lot and in one particular passage he writes, “As for the civil order of our savages, it is an incredible thing,” which reflects his opinion on the customs that the Brazil natives showed. He hardly saw them fight with one another, but when he did, he saw how violent matters were dealt with. He says “it is a life for a life, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth” meaning that if one person hurt another person, then the kinsmen would apprehend the attacker and perform the exact attack on him that he gave to another person. Also, if the attacker killed the other person by stabbing then the family of the victim can have the attacker killed by stabbing. Lery’s writing also discusses how the Brazilian people live, how they move their villages every six months, how each family has their own house but the father keeps the mother and children in individual quarters, and how when the Brazilians move they take with them the largest pieces of wood and the indigenous plants that cover the home. He describes this tradition by saying, “If you ask them why they move their household so often, they simply answer that the change of air keeps them healthier, and that if they did other than what their grandfathers did.” This can be interpreted by believing that these natives of Brazil are a very traditional people who learn their customs, laws, and conventional behavior from the tales and lessons passed down from their ancestors, their fathers, and their grandfathers before them. Another interesting thing Lery writes about the Brazilian “savages” (as he calls them, which I interpret as a friend term meaning native people, and not the negative meaning associated with the word savages) is their friendly reception of strangers who visit upon them and their custom to ask strangers for their names. He writes about his experience meeting them for the first time and while they are naked and looking so different from French native Lery, they immediately surrounded him and asked to know his name while trying on his hat and dressing up in his sword and belts. All these examples illustrate just how interesting, accepting, and culturally interesting this experience was for Lery during his journey in 1554.

Attached in the link below are the New World readings I was discussing in class today. We can discuss them in conjunction with Othello (or, if you signed up for a blog post for Wednesday, then you could consider doing the post on these readings).

Here’s what’s included (all told, about 8 pages of reading):

Jean de Lery, a few pages from History of a Voyage to the Land of Brazil.
Inca Garcilaso de la Vega, a page discussing race and ethnicity in the New World from Royal Commentaries of the Incas and a General History of Peru
Pero Vaz de Caminha, from A Letter to King Manuel

NewWorld

On last Saturday, I waited five hours in line to get into a free admissions Museum that is said to be opened only seasonally. Each room was supposedly symbolize a different emotion by its color, lighting, and smell. It was really a rushed tour since there was only like seven rooms and entire tour only lasted about thirty minutes. However, I was glad I did go because I saw one of the most mesmerizing room I’ve ever been to. The room is called exhilarate, the entire room was framed by abstractly shaped mirrors and on the mirrors were the reflections of cherry blossom flowers. In the center of the room, there was a control panel that allows you to control the pattern and size of the flowers by swiping your fingers up and down.

The whole cherry blossom scene and its reflections on the mirrors reminds me one of the scenes in the Pillow Book. When Sei Shonagon states “if you break off a branch of splendidly flowering cherry and arrange it in a large flower vase, the effect is delightful….particularly charming if a gentleman … wearing a cloak in the cherry-blossom combination with under sleeves displayed” (The Pillow Book 1133). I can imagine Sei Shonagon having the same admiration at the perfect match between the cloak and the display vase of cherry blossoms just as I was admiring the projection of cherry blossoms on the mirrors. It was definitely a sight worth seeing and that was one of the most memorable moments of my trip.

In act five or the death act as I would call it. Lago has already brain washed Othello, Rodrigo, Cassio, and his wife Emilia. Everyone is out to get someone. In the beginning of the act Lago starts off by convincing Rodrigo to kill Cassio and that he will be with him through it all. So as Rodrigo approaches Cassio to stab him he fails and so Cassio ends up stabbing him. Lago seeing this he wounds Cassio in the leg from behind him and disappears without giving Cassio a chance to see who it was. Act five scene 2 becomes more interesting when Othello walks into Desdemona room while she is sleeping. He locks the door behind him and starts yelling at her calling her all types of names. He tells her “This sorrow’s heavenly, / It strikes where it doth love. She wakes.” (act 5 scene 2 lines 21-22). What he meant was that he wants the truth from her, that he knows she is a sinner and so he wants her to confess before she dies. Desdemona begs for a half an hour and Othello refuses to giver her that time and so he kills her. This scene becomes intense when Emilia finds out the reason behind Othello killing Desdemona. She gets furious and tells him she was never unfaithful and that she was so pure and would never do such a thing to him. Emilie insults Othello by saying “Thou hast not half that pow’r to do me harm/ As I have to be hurt. O gull, O dolt, / As ignorant as dirt! Thou hasn’t done a deed” (act5 scene 2 lines 162-167). Later on the rest that survived from the other room enter and so Emilia is face to face with her husband who planted false ideas in Othello’s head confesses. She tells Othello that her husband had asked her to steal the handkerchief he gave Desdemona. Othello can’t bear with the fact that he kills the women he loved and so he ends up killing himself. Its crazy how much someone can’t hate and want so much revenge they are willing to kill anyone in their way.

In scene 1, Roderigo plans to ambush Cassio but it ends up backfiring because he ends up getting hurt. Worse, Roderigo is betrayed by Iago and ends up dead. Cassio is then attacked by Iago but is not aware it was him. Then Othello guesses that it was Iago who hurt him. The scene ends with Othello leaving to see Desdemona and Cassio being taken care of.

Iago is then caught and brought before Othello. Othello attempts to wound Iago when he actually does and is disarmed again. Othello eventually asks Iago why he has done the acts he has done but Iago claims that he will no longer speak another word. Iago is found guilty and will be punished as necessary. As for Othello, he is removed from his position and will be reviewed by the state. Othello’s last speech is explains how foolish it is to lose something so valuable. Othello stabs himself and dies after one last kiss to Desdemona.

Overall, I found a theme of hastiness wrecking havoc and also having too much emphasis on emotion instead of reason. Othello and every character could have avoided so much if they had all taken into consideration all the factors of the situations they were in and level-headedly reached a course of action.

In this act, we see the total cunningness of Iago. Iago was able to fool every character in the play by distorting reality and focus in on what appears to be the truth rather than the truth itself. Iago fools Othello in what appears to be Cassio admitting to sleeping with Desdemona when in fact a confession must be heard and not seen through facial expressions. Another interesting point is the time when Othello is called back to the city and Cassio is going to replace him in Cyprus. This can further anger Othello since Cassio is not only replacing him in his personal life but also in his job.

At the start of the play, we understand why Iago seeks revenge and harm on Othello for choosing Cassio. However, it is interesting to note that when Othello has had enough and chooses to poison his wife in bed, it is not enough for Iago. Iago says, ” Do it not with poison. Strangle her in her bed, even the bed she hath contaminated.” Iago wants Desdemona to die a harsher death. What has she ever done to him to deserve this punishment?