Notes: 15 October – 21 October

Tuesday Morning: Twinsters

Two adopted Korean girls met up online under one question: Are we related? After some digging, DNA tests, and correspondence, not only were they related – they were twin sisters. The movie was sweet, sad, and heartwarming overall.

The concept of home works becomes emboldened in this film. Both sisters found wholeness and home within each other. But returning to an adoption conference in Korea came with mixed reviews. One had amazing time, feeling like her world opened up. However, the other felt a little more empty.

But regardless, they both found home within each other and their lives. Their families expanded and so did the possibilities. They shared food, music, social media, and other forms of popular culture. One could think that this film could’ve been the movie version of our final project.

Tuesday Afternoon: Hoppin’ on A-POP

Humor is content. Comedy is performance. Self-deprecation is self-preservation. Chides are self-defense.

Most often, culturally rooted humor doesn’t always translate well because there are other unspoken, assumed concepts and experiences associated with the situations described. Much like an advanced class, one won’t understand the material if they don’t have the basics and sometimes learning the basics is hard because it can only be learned in a specific time and a specific way.

I will always know what it’s like for colorism to permeate my family and put me in the precarious spot of self-fetishization or self-hatred. Sometimes I confuse my l and my r sounds when I talk. Or chicken intestines is arguably better than chicken breast and that’s how god intended life to be. I can remember.

But I will never know what it’s like to remember generational trauma looking at a Confederate flag. I wouldn’t know what it’s like being valued as cheap labor and to have my country constantly questioned on morality. I don’t know religious persecution. I can only imagine.

Remembering and imagining have many things in common, I think. The parts we don’t know, we can fill in with an educated guess and I think that’s the hard part of humor. I think comedy knows how to lead a wide audience to the same thought.

Wednesday: Writing Workshop

If you don’t have a shitty first draft, you’re not going anywhere. Get out what you know is bad so you know what to avoid. And sometimes, what you think is garbage, is actually pretty good in it’s own trashy way. Example: Neo Yokio.

Friday: Seminar

Admitantly, I was sick and didn’t show up but I can still put out some notes about Chung’s Forgotten Country.

The thing that struck me the most is how much I disliked the parents. Yes, I can understand and rationalize the way they behaved around their daughters. Yes, they loved them with all their heart, I know. Yes, they did their very best. But I can’t justify it.

The hardships they faced that they know their children will never know personally – the decisions they won’t have to make – it creates a division between parent and child. But sometimes I wonder if that’s ok. I think it is. Oppressive government isn’t something I’d ever wish on anyone, regardless the lessons of autonomy and anti-fascism.

But I can also rationalize Hannah’s feelings and why she ran. She’s not her sister. The expectation for her to be (like) her sister is impossible. She’s her own person. I can justify it.

But that’s culture clash and the lack of shared trauma.

They differ on ideas of social contract, family duties, traditional beliefs, and how they translate in their time. Often, the parents’ brash natures and demands are because they’re parents. Regardless of who you are and how you’ve become the way you are, if you love your child, you will do what you think is right.

But understandably, part of what you think is right is out of culture and how you were raised.

Much of that culture is shared through stories and tradition – both of which are recurring themes in all of our novels so far.