Author: Joshua Martin

Project Update: Full Draft #1

Metal Gear: Liminality and Legacy

I didn’t know what I was in for when I first got into Metal Gear. My first exposure to the series was Metal Gear Solid 3, which would have been around when I was thirteen. At that point I wasn’t looking to get anything out of it but mindless entertainment. The idea of playing a game for any other reason wouldn’t have occurred to me. I knew very little beforehand. The lead character, Snake, was familiar, as I had heard a hundred imitations of the low growl he has for a voice courtesy of the internet. I knew the setting and the plot were at least vaguely realistic. That was pretty much it.

The thing I didn’t know about Metal Gear was that it is unashamedly silly. Here I was coming in expecting straightforward action fare and being presented with a cadre of colorful characters with over the top personalities and bizarre supernatural abilities. The game presents absurd concepts and characters without so much as a wink and a nod, and no attempt whatsoever at justification. You’re either willing to accept the things it puts forth at face value or you’re not, and in the latter case I imagine the whole thing just wouldn’t work. After its opening, the game puts on a bombastic lyrical title sequence in the style of James Bond, which was the last piece I needed to really understand what this thing was. It’s parody. It’s a collection of elements from across spy fiction, all exaggerated to a hilarious extent, and very clearly not meant to be taken seriously. Now knowing what to expect from the rest of this game, I went in to see the rest of the comedy through. What I got was a story about loyalty between soldiers, the shifting sands of time and how they change the geopolitical landscape, and an ending that condemns the US military industrial complex as a cruel machine that chews people up and spits them back out, sad and broken. Some parody.

The most of my exposure to media at that time dealt with the military in a very post-9/11 “respect the troops” mold. Soldiers were to be glorified, and there was no room to consider that maybe the military is actually a bad thing. Seeing a video game of all things, and one that varied so wildly between cartoonish excess and somber subject matter, breaking that mold and levying that criticism drew me in. Exploring the rest of the series revealed a similar tendency towards blending the extremely serious and the extremely inane, a technique that would prove a marker of many of my media favorites in the years to come. The best term that I can put to this concept is “liminality.” Sang Hyun Lee explores this concept in his book From a Liminal Place: An Asian American Theology, where he defines it as a state “in which a person is neither one thing nor another, but betwixt and between.” (5) Lee goes on to explain the idea and its applications further:

liminality is a space where a person is freed up from the usual ways of thinking and acting and is therefore open to radically new ideas. Freed from structure, persons in liminality are also available to a genuine communion (comunitas) with others. Liminal space is also where a person can become acutely aware of the problems of the existing structure. A person in a liminal space, therefore, often reenters social structure with alternative ideas of human relatedness and also with a desire to reform the existing social structure. (6)

The way that Metal Gear juxtaposes such drastically different tones is only one way it embodies this concept. As Japanese games that are largely and unashamedly inspired by American movies, the series is the product of a strong pop culture cross current.

In a series of articles written from 2002 to 2003, series creator Hideo Kojima detailed a number of movies he fell in love with at a young age, and what each of them contributed to his own eventual creation. The Great Escape (1963) instilled a desire to create a game that could capture the tension of hiding from your enemies. The Guns of Navarone (1961) lent itself to the structure and objective behind the games, to “infiltrate, destroy, and escape.” Escape from New York (1981) most directly inspired the lead character, with Kurt Russell’s portrayal of Snake Plissken leading to the design of Metal Gear’s protagonist, Solid Snake. North by Northwest (1959) led to the choices around camera use for both first and third person perspectives, the use of recognizable landmarks and tourist locations for the site of the climactic action, and the decision to blend humor and tension to enhance the effectiveness of both. Dawn of the Dead (1978) led to the idea of setting the action in a singular interior location. Lastly, Planet of the Apes (1968) influenced the anti-war and specifically anti-nuclear themes of the games. In this regard the games also take noted influence from Japanese films, Godzilla (1954) especially, the titular Metal Gear being a titanic nuclear weapon capable of striking anywhere on Earth, representing the destructive capabilities of the nuclear bomb in much the same way as the famous Japanese movie monster.

Borrowing from so many sources might lead one to think of the end result as played out or derivative, but it’s a common practice in all media. The book Cinephilia: Movies, Love and Memory dedicates a chapter by Jenna Ng to understanding what she refers to as “Transcultural Fusion:”

Thus transpires the cinephilic impulse of intertextual referencing: love shown in tribute and celebration inherent in the practices of homage and memorialization, conveying an uncanny mixture of admiration and affection – the former in implicit acknowledgment of a unique superiority of the original; the latter in the complicity of unspoken recognition deep in an affected and subjective memory. (69)

The same concept is applied to the film Better Luck Tomorrow (2002) in Margaret Hillenbrand’s article “Of Myths and Men: ‘Better Luck Tomorrow’ and the Mainstreaming of Asian America Cinema.” The film borrows heavily from both teen comedy misadventures and suspenseful crime dramas, entrenching it in a liminal territory of its own. Hillenbrand writes, “Lin’s movie is less about the recital of an encyclopedic list of influences than the bricolage effect that these influences collectively conjure.” (62-63) The same goes for Metal Gear, as it goes for anything that owes its style and ideas to the groundwork laid out by the great works that came before it. As it turns out, that’s most things. The process of creating something original is less about coming up with an idea that’s literally never been done before, which is increasingly unlikely, and more about recognizing your influences and blending them together in a way that establishes the identity of your work as its own.

The last of these influences to mention for Metal Gear is the James Bond franchise. Originally novels that were adapted to film, the movies themselves are now fifty-seven years in. While the influence of these films as spy fiction and espionage thrillers is obvious, the way they have carried on for so long was itself an influence on the ideas that Metal Gear is interested in. In the last of his articles on his inspirations, Kojima writes:

While the producer, scriptwriter, musicians, main actor, supporting actors and stuntmen have all changed since the first Bond film, 007 continues. Just like parents passing on to their children and masters to their apprentices, the essence of 007 is passed on so that the series continues generating hits. The way the 007 series passes on to the future is the theme I wanted to communicate in [Metal Gear Solid]. What will [Metal Gear Solid] be like 40 years from now, created by those who share the spirit of Team Kojima? I would like to stay alive and experience it myself.

This “legacy” concept is one of the core thematic elements of the Metal Gear series as a whole, each game taking up and exploring different ideas of how things are passed on from generation to generation.

The first of them to really do this was Metal Gear Solid, its primary concern being genetic legacy. In this story the internal conflict for most characters is driven by a sense of self derived from genetics, struggling to either find some trace of history in their genes, or to break away from them entirely and define themselves as their own person. Solid Snake is dealing with the ramifications of having been created as a clone in order to produce a perfect soldier. The primary conflict of the game is driven by the appearance of his heretofore unknown twin, Liquid Snake, and the animosity he feels at having been created with inferior genetic material merely as a necessary byproduct in order to create Snake. The character of Otacon is something of a stand in for Kojima himself, having created the nuclear weapon Metal Gear based on his fascination with Japanese pop culture, the same way Kojima created the video game franchise based on his fascination with American pop culture. For Otacon, the realization that he is the third generation in his family to contribute to the development of nuclear weapons weighs heavily on his mind. A character named Meryl Silverburgh enlisted to become a soldier in order to feel closer to her estranged father. This particular example was called to mind when reading Asian-Americans in the Twenty-First Century by Joann Faung Jean Lee, wherein Karl Ludwig ascribes his decision to become a police officer to his biological father who he’s never met: “The uniformed services – just seems like there’s what I call a constant echo.” (233)

All of these threads come together in the game’s conclusion. The character of Naomi Hunter, a geneticist, is presented as the in-universe authority on the subject. She’s been trying to come to understand herself and her place in the world through her work, and the conclusion she comes to is that genes were never going to hold the answers she was looking for. The statement the game makes is more or less that genes allow for potential, but they do not realize it. This fits quite well with the conclusion made by Theodosius Dobzhansky in his article, “The Myths of Genetic Predestination and of Tabula Rasa:”

Correctly understood, heredity is not the “dice of destiny.” It is rather a bundle of potentialities. Which part of the multitude of potentialities will be realized is for the environments, for the biography of the person, to decide. Only fanatic believers in the myth of genetic predestination can doubt that the life of every person offers numerous options, of which only a part, probably a miniscule part, is realized. (160)

This message is further solidified with the revelation that Snake, in his victory over his embittered twin, had actually been the inferior creation from the start. This defiance of “genetic predestination” is the note the game closes on.

The sequel, Metal Gear Solid 2, continues these thematic concerns and moves them into a new framework: memes. The term has seen some evolution and increased use in recent years, but the use here is as it was originally coined by Richard Dawkins in his book, The Selfish Gene. He explains it as such:

Examples of memes are tunes, ideas, catch-phrases, clothes fashions, ways of making pots or building arches. Just as genes propagate themselves in the gene pool by leaping from body to body via sperm or eggs, so memes propagate themselves in the meme pool by leaping from brain to brain via a process which, in the broad sense, can be called imitation. (192)

Importantly, the passage of information this way does not rely on familial relation as is the case with genes, which Metal Gear Solid 2 takes full advantage of. Here character relationships are more often non-biological in nature. We see Peter Stillman, a bomb disposal expert whose protégé takes the skills he was given and applies them to committing acts of terrorism rather than preventing them. Otacon’s stepsister plays a role in the story, her interest in engineering having been passed to her from her stepbrother. The central character of this game, Raiden, is a mirror of Snake’s conflict in the last game, having been raised as a child soldier by his godfather, yet another clone, Solidus Snake. Raiden’s struggle is in trying to find a reason to fight, rather than just playing the role that he’s been given. Solid Snake reappears as something of a mentor in this game, teaching Raiden that each person has the freedom to choose what they believe in, and what they will pass on to future generations. This echoes again Dobzhansky’s article. This is the “biography of the person” that realizes their potential.

Metal Gear Solid 4 is not the last game in the series to be released, but it is chronologically the ending to the story. This game deals with what happens to our legacy after death. Hideo Kojima isn’t dead, but he is no longer attached to Metal Gear in any way, meaning whatever happens with the property from here on happens without his involvement. One of the developments that’s been moving ever so slowly for years is the seeming inevitability of a Hollywood film adaptation of Metal Gear. I outlined this project with a conclusion already in mind: that the ongoing process to adapt Metal Gear to film was inherently misguided. There are so many things Metal Gear is doing that are entirely unique to the medium of games that trying to make it fit the mold of a movie almost seems to be missing the point. There’s a whole narrative through line in Metal Gear Solid 4 that I was going to use as a connection for this, about the misinterpretation of a person’s will. Basically, once a person is gone and is no longer able to express their will directly, it falls to their successors to interpret it, and in many cases this interpretation fails to capture the original intent. This was how I was feeling about any prospect of Metal Gear being made into a movie, that it was inevitably going to misunderstand what the games are really about.

On revisiting Metal Gear Solid 4 for this project though, I found another theme in it that I had forgotten. That sheltering things is an easy way to suffocate them completely. The oft spoken of but seldom seen “next generation” is finally given form in this game in a character named Sunny, an orphaned girl adopted by Otacon and raised by him and Snake in total seclusion all her life. The means by which a future free from oppressive control is able to be secured is due to Naomi Hunter having passed on her work to Sunny to be continued after her death. Even the closest thing to an absolute villain in the series is only given rise to because its creator lacked the faith to pass his work on to the next generation. It’s clear that a part of what the games are saying about our legacy is that eventually leaving it in the hands of other people is a part of the process. The legacy of these games is already written. A movie isn’t going to erase that. I’ll keep my skepticism about the actual quality of the thing, but there’s always a chance that the end result will actually manage to capture the liminality and legacy of Metal Gear. That’s more credit than I would have been willing to give it before.

Works Cited

Dawkins, Richard. The Selfish Gene. Oxford University Press, 1976.

Dobzhansky, Theodosius. “The Myths of Genetic Predestination and of Tabula Rasa.” Perspectives in Biology and Medicine, vol. 19, no. 2, 1976, pp. 156– 170., doi:10.1353/pbm.1976.0048.

Hillenbrand, Margaret. “Of Myths and Men: Better Luck Tomorrow and the Mainstreaming of Asian America Cinema.” Cinema Journal, vol. 47, no. 4, 2008, pp. 50–75., doi:10.1353/cj.0.0024.

Kojima, Hideo. “Hideo Kojima at the Movies: 007.” Official PlayStation 2 Magazine, 3 May 2003.

Lee, Joann Faung Jean. Asian Americans in the Twenty-First Century: Oral Histories of First- to Fourth-Generation Americans from China, Japan, India, Korea, the Philippines, Vietnam, and Laos. New Press, 2009.

Lee, Sang Hyun. From a Liminal Place: An Asian American Theology. Fortress Press, 2010.

Ng, Jenna, “Love in the Time of Transcultural Fusion: Cinephilia, Homage and Kill Bill.” Cinephilia: Movies, Love, and Memory. Amsterdam University Press, 2005.

Class Notes: Week 7

May 14
oikos – home, house

Gook, 2017, dir. Justin Chon
Eli and Daniel, shoe store owners, backdrop: 1992 LA riots
Kamilla, visits the store
Keith blames Eli and Daniel for the death of his mom
Daniel and Eli both get beaten
Eli and Mr. Kim, argument about language
“gook means country,” Miguk = America
Mr. Kim was in the military with Daniel and Eli’s father
Keith is made to feel inferior to Daniel and Eli by Kamilla
use of black and white creates both contrast and ambiguity
Kamilla dancing outside the burning shoe store at the opening of the film
Kamilla’s mother and Eli’s father were killed in a robbery, Mr. Kim blames himself
“came to America to give you a better life”
“all over some money,” “should have given it to them”
Eli and Daniel do give up the “money,” but it isn’t what Keith was really after
“people do crazy shit when they’re mad”

May 15
Twinsters, 2015, dir. Samantha Futerman, Ryan Miyamoto
Samantha Futerman and Anais Bordier, twins separated at birth find each other via internet
mother denies having children
Sam and Anais’ different experiences: siblings/no siblings, discrimination/acceptance
feeling given up/abandoned/not having had a choice

multiple identities
fluidity

“teenage brain”
“impulsivity”

Talking Points: Drifting House

A Temporary Marriage
Abuse and self-harm both play a role here, with Mrs. Shin both asking Mr. Rhee to hit her in one instance and asking her ex-husband if he beats his wife in another. The affect of these things manifests in a lot of self-loathing, as seen in the ending with Mrs. Shin cutting herself with a pair of scissors, noting that “the pain erased all grief, stripped her of camouflage.” (23)

Failed relationships are present throughout the story. Mrs. Shin and her ex-husband, Mr. Rhee and his family. The aftermath of going through something like this is explored through both of these characters and their attempts to cop.

One of the primary ways they do this is by sort of pretending that they are in a functional relationship together. This relationship is only an act for both of them though, as it’s made clear that what they feel for each other is nothing approaching love.

The relationship between Mrs. Shin and her daughter is the center of the story, the thing that motivates her choices throughout. In the end Yuri is young enough that, if she remembers her mother at all she doesn’t remember her fondly. She’s firmly sided with her father in the split, in a way that very much give the impression of a child simply believing what their remaining parent has told them.

At the Edge of the World
Mark’s characterization makes him seem very concerned with always wanting to be the smartest person in the room, to the point of asking his mother to buy him glasses to make him look “more intellectual.” The way he withholds sharing his facts and trivia when upset with people proves its use to him is as a tool rather than being from a genuine desire to learn. It serves to contrast Mark, who is a child with a child’s idea of what it means to be smart, versus his father, who is shown to have actually lived and suffered in life and thus probably knows a fair bit more than his son.

The idea of being stuck living in the past runs through the story, primarily because of Mark’s father. He seems to dwell on the experiences he’s had in life and the loved ones he’s lost, in a way that leaves people around him unsympathetic. His wife berates him on page 42, saying “You think too much. He’s dead. They’re all dead. Just don’t think!”

Similarly frustrated with his father’s way of being stuck in the past, Mark resolves to live for the future. He lays elaborate plans for the life he’s going to lead and thinks that he’ll never allow anything bad to happen to him, an outlook on the future that is very much in keeping with the childish ways he tries to present himself as knowledgeable.

Mark’s relationship with Chanhee is a part of that future he envisions for himself. Their relationship, like Mark’s attempts at seeming intelligent, seems to be born out of a child’s idea of what having a future and being successful looks like. They only briefly entertain the notion of possible complications when Chanhee begins questioning the treatment of Asian people in America on page 37.

The Pastor’s Son

The Goose Father

The Salaryman

Drifting House

A Small Sorrow

The Believer

Beautiful Women

Project Update: Partial Draft

Metal Gear: Liminality and Legacy

I didn’t know what I was in for when I first got into Metal Gear. My point of entry to the series was Metal Gear Solid 3. Near as I can remember I would have been around thirteen the first time I played it, and at that age I wasn’t looking for much more in a game than to be decently entertained for a few hours at a time, without having to think too much about what I was actually engaged in. So, what I expected from this game was assumption based on what little I knew already. I knew the lead character, Snake, and his growly voice from so many imitations. I knew the setting and plot were vaguely realistic and militaristic. That was about it.

What I didn’t know based on the fleeting things I had come to understand about Metal Gear beforehand was how downright goofy it would be. Where I expected standard action fare, I was met with a game that showed no hesitation in introducing a swath of characters with weird supernatural abilities, including a man whose superpower is “bees” and one completely literal ghost, with absolutely no attempt at explaining or justifying any of it. At about the point the game rolls out an elaborate title sequence a la James Bond I realized what this actually was. It’s parody. A completely non-serious pastiche of various genre elements, all exaggerated to humorous effect. With expectations reconfigured, I went on to see through a story that proceeds to take itself deadly seriously, about loyalty, the shifting sands of time, and ending on an indictment of the U.S. military industrial complex as a cruel machine that chews people up and spits them back out sad and broken. Some parody.

At that age the only exposure I had to any media that dealt with the military was very much in a post 9/11 “respect the troops” mold that glorified soldiers and offered no room for considering that maybe the American military is in fact a bad thing. The idea of anything, least of all a video game, levying criticism at that fundamental idea was a new one by me. The fact that it had come from a game that varied so wildly between its cartoonish excess and somber commentary on the world drew me in. I would continue to grow a fondness for the rest of the series, and that balancing act of juxtaposing absurdity and self-seriousness would persist as a defining trait in several of my media favorites. The term that best embodies this duality in Metal Gear is “liminality.” Sang Hyun Lee explores this concept in his book From a Liminal Place: An Asian American Theology, where he defines it as a state “in which a person is neither one thing nor another, but betwixt and between.” (5) Lee goes on to explain the idea and its applications further:

liminality is a space where a person is freed up from the usual ways of thinking and acting and is therefore open to radically new ideas. Freed from structure, persons in liminality are also available to a genuine communion (comunitas) with others. Liminal space is also where a person can become acutely aware of the problems of the existing structure. A person in a liminal space, therefore, often reenters social structure with alternative ideas of human relatedness and also with a desire to reform the existing social structure. (6)

While the balance of humor and drama is one way this concept manifests in Metal Gear, it is far from the only way. As Japanese games largely and unashamedly inspired by American movies, the series is a product of a strong pop culture crosscurrent that makes it what it is. The series’ creator, Hideo Kojima, wrote a series of articles from 2002 to 2003, detailing the movies he fell in love with from a young age, and what each of them gave to his own eventual creation. The Great Escape (1963) instilled a desire to create a game that could capture the tension of hiding from your enemies. The Guns of Navarone (1961) lent itself to the structure and objective behind the games, to “infiltrate, destroy, and escape.” Escape from New York (1981) most directly inspired the lead character, with Kurt Russel’s portrayal of Snake Plissken leading to the design of Metal Gear’s protagonist, Solid Snake. North by Northwest (1959) led to the choices around camera use for both first and third person perspectives, the use of recognizable landmarks and tourist locations for the site of the climactic action, and the decision to blend humor and tension to enhance the effectiveness of both. Dawn of the Dead (1978) led to the idea of setting the action in a singular interior location. Lastly, Planet of the Apes (1968) influenced the anti-war and specifically anti-nuclear themes of the games. In this regard the games also take noted influence from Japanese films, Godzilla (1954) especially, the titular Metal Gear being a titanic nuclear weapon capable of striking anywhere on Earth, representing the destructive capabilities of the nuclear bomb in much the same way as the famous Japanese movie monster.

This practice of borrowing from so many sources is a common tradition in almost all art forms but is especially noticeable in cinema. The book Cinephilia: Movies, Love and Memory dedicates a chapter by Jenna Ng to understanding what she refers to as “Transcultural Fusion.” Ng writes:

Thus transpires the cinephilic impulse of intertextual referencing: love shown in tribute and celebration inherent in the practices of homage and memorialization, conveying an uncanny mixture of admiration and affection – the former in implicit acknowledgment of a unique superiority of the original; the latter in the complicity of unspoken recognition deep in an affected and subjective memory. (69)

The concept is also applied to the film Better Luck Tomorrow (2002) in Margaret Hillenbrand’s article Of Myths and Men: “Better Luck Tomorrow” and the Mainstreaming of Asian America Cinema. Speaking to the film’s broad use of genre elements from both teen movies and crime dramas, Hillenbrand writes, “Lin’s movie is less about the recital of an encyclopedic list of influences than the bricolage effect that these influences collectively conjure.” (62-63) The effect is similar for Metal Gear, where the assortment of influences and the elements borrowed from each of them does less to make the whole seem unoriginal, and more to establish the identity of the work as its own. The idea of art as theft is common parlance, whichever artist the particular quote might be attributed to. The extent to which anything can be truly original is more a matter of exactly how its influences blend together than whether or not its an idea that’s never been done before, increasingly unlikely as that latter possibility is.

The last influence to note for Metal Gear is the long running James Bond franchise. Starting from novels that were then adapted to film, the movies alone are at fifty-seven years running. In addition to the more obvious influence the films have had as spy fiction and espionage thrillers, the way the films have carried on for so many decades was itself an influence on the thematic elements Metal Gear is interested in. Writing the last in his series of articles on the films that influenced him, Kojima says of the Bond films:

While the producer, scriptwriter, musicians, main actor, supporting actors and stuntmen have all changed since the first Bond film, 007 continues. Just like parents passing on to their children and masters to their apprentices, the essence of 007 is passed on so that the series continues generating hits. The way the 007 series passes on to the future is the theme I wanted to communicate in [Metal Gear Solid]. What will [Metal Gear Solid] be like 40 years from now, created by those who share the spirit of Team Kojima? I would like to stay alive and experience it myself.

This brings us to the concept of “legacy,” and then there’s going to be the rest of an essay here at some point.

Works Cited

Hillenbrand, Margaret. “Of Myths and Men: Better Luck Tomorrow and the Mainstreaming of Asian America Cinema.” Cinema Journal, vol. 47, no. 4, 2008, pp. 50–75., doi:10.1353/cj.0.0024.

Kojima, Hideo. “Hideo Kojima at the Movies: 007.” Official PlayStation 2 Magazine, 3 May 2003.

Lee, Sang Hyun. From a Liminal Place: An Asian American Theology. Fortress Press, 2010.

Ng, Jenna, “Love in the Time of Transcultural Fusion: Cinephilia, Homage and Kill Bill.” Cinephilia: Movies, Love, and Memory. Amsterdam University Press, 2005

Class Notes: Week 6

May 7
Themes in Dark Blue Suit
closure, portrayal of women, privilege, family, community, role models, hope vs. reality, fighting (boxing), code switching, trauma, money/poverty, death/mourning, pride, coming of age, generations, father/son, America

Carlos Bulosan, America is in the Heart
Elaine Castillo, America is Not the Heart

The Debut, 2001, dir. Gene Cajayon
tradition and expectation
family pressure to be a doctor vs. personal passion to be an artist
traditional dancing and clothing/costumes at sister’s birthday
Ben’s white friends getting introduced to the culture
competition of masculinity between Ben and Gusto
Ben doesn’t speak or understand Tagalog
“car conspiracy,” materialism as a distraction, keeps people complacent
racism at the other party (“She didn’t know what she was saying”)
white uncle explaining politically correct terminology, “Filipinos aren’t Asian”
father wants to give his son a better life than he had
we see that he got his tendencies from his own father, including several of the same words (“hard headed,” “gallivanting”)
FOB, resentment of family members who don’t speak English as well
“sellout,” “coconut,” Gustavo’s resentment of Ben is racially driven
Ben’s father is more accepting in the end, but still stoic and silent, in keeping with Bacho’s description of his relationship with his father in Dark Blue Suit

May 10
Pilipinx Pop Culture
Chico (hip-hop)
Isaac (komiks, boxing)
Anthony (comedy)

Tagalog, Cebuano, Ilokano

culture which originates from “the people”
culture rooted in exchange and negotiation between dominate and subordinate groups

“resistance vernaculars”
Sampling and the dialogics of hip-hop (Mikhail Bakhtin)

comics originated in the sports pages of newspapers
Alfredo Alcala, learned to illustrate spying on the Japanese, Voltar
Tony DeZuniga, worked for Marvel, brought over Alcala
Whilce Portacio, illustrator for Marvel/DC, co-founded Image Comics
Lynda Barry, Evergreen alumni, alternative illustrator
Lorina Mapa, “Duran Duran, Imelda, Marcos, and Me”
November Garcia, catholic guilt, blind faith

comedy gives people the ability to talk about personal experiences and perspectives
less tense and restricting
convert pain into something they can laugh at and work with
starting a conversation, making social issues more approachable
laugh at ourselves
Jo Koy, relationship with his mother
Ron Josol, raised in Canada by Filipino parents
Raymond Santos, mother’s accent
Edwin San Juan
Rob Schneider
Alfredo “The Sauce” Diaz

End-of-week Synthesis
I learned the importance of family and tradition, as seen in both Dark Blue Suit and The Debut. In the latter especially we see a character struggling with his personal desire against the rigid expectations of his family. At the same time as he is trying to establish a greater independence he is also getting more in touch with Filipino traditions than he ever has in both the contact with his extended family and the celebrations at his sister’s party. The importance of boxing in Filipino culture was another new thing for me. In Dark Blue Suit this is elaborated on as being emblematic of the struggles people faced, projected onto the competitors so that their fights became a symbol of the problems people faced in everyday life. The documentary featuring Peter Bacho had him stating more or less the same ideas. I also learned about Cebuano and Ilokano, as Tagalog was the only language of the Phillipines I had heard of before. The litany of Filipino comics artists and comedians were all people I was unfamiliar with so the introduction to them and their work was appreciated.

D&R: A Sequel to The Joy Luck Club

‘Joy Luck Club’ Producer Reveals a Sequel Script Has Been Written 25 Years Later

After watching the movie last week I found this story that there is apparently work being done to produce a sequel, either for a movie or a TV series, with the same cast. The decision is an interesting one, since the film was based on a novel, and the novel doesn’t have a sequel, meaning whatever they intend to do with this project will be to stray away from the author’s original story and try to create new stories with the characters and ideas established by Amy Tan. Seeing a work pulled away from it’s original creator like this always gives me some uneasiness, but there’s still the potential that whatever comes out of it (if anything actually does) could be genuinely good, and the idea of extending the generational themes of the original story to include a third generation is not without merit.

Talking Points: Dark Blue Suit

Dark Blue Suit
The relationship between father and son is a strong element in this story. We see the son studying his father’s mannerisms carefully, watching how he interacts with other people and how his demeanor affects them. This leads up to the closing of the story, where the son entertains the notion of trying to replicate these mannerisms himself, as a show of the way that behaviors like these are passed on between parent and child.

Accordions in the story are presented as a symbol of people chasing after success. Seeing the television host and accordionist Lawrence Welk, scores of people try to replicate that path to success, much the same way the son tries to replicate his father’s behavior. Just as information like this can be passed from parent to child, it can also be transferred from media to its audience.

The way that language is used in this story is as a barrier, which keeps certain people close together and others left out entirely. The son in this story is actually able to understand the Cebuano language, allowing him access to the “in-group” in this case, “a world I didn’t want to leave,” as he explains on page 26. Also of note is the way the language is described as having “a nice melodious tone” on page 20, setting it apart from the accordion and the hollow attempt at achieving success that it represents.

Rico
Rico’s decision to enlist is driven by a belief that he has no future in America. Specifically, on page 33 the way he says “I ain’t got no black power let-your-hair-grow-out-don’t-conk-it-shit” draws a divide in the way he views the plight of different racial minorities. Rico’s feeling is that black people at least had a growing sense of pride and the fight for civil rights, where Filipinos had nothing.

Earlier on the same page the story adequately portrays the nature of war, with our perspective character narrating how “boys from poor neighborhoods like ours carried the flag into dangerous places for powerful, arrogant, and profoundly foolish old white men.” The growing effort to have a racially integrated military after World War II offered minority groups the privilege of dying for the country that had mistreated and abused them for generations.

At the bottom of page 35, the line “In our neighborhood, emotion was for sissies and not to be shown, even to friends,” captures another sad reality. The way that men are often taught not to express their feelings is a very real issue, and one that can work its way into any culture, as exhibited by this story written from a Filipino perspective.

The Second Room
The skepticism Bruce Lee had of some of the “traditional Chinese fighting arts” is described on page 42. I thought the way this concept is then broadened to apply to other concepts including “religion, marriage, and careers” demonstrated the ways that the lessons we learn aren’t necessarily one dimensional but can be applicable in many aspects of our lives.

The way Taky is characterized in the story is very effective. While our perspective character doesn’t spend too much time with him, it’s the respect other people have for him that establishes how we are supposed to feel. Knowing what each of these characters is capable of themselves, understanding that each of them looks up to Taky makes him seem more legitimate by some sort of transitive property.

Violence and the ways that people seek it out both factor into the story. A character dubbed only “Killer” is emblematic of the sort of person who takes pleasure in exerting power over those weaker than themselves. By contrast the perspective character is pitted against opponents of equal or greater capability and pushes themselves to best them by improving his own technique (and using illegal moves sparring against the boxer).

August 1968
The tension between racial groups is felt on page 62 with the line “Were my traits now targets – entries stamped on a passport to a beating?” The beating of a Chinese boy for not being “one of us” causes these conflicted feelings in our Filipino protagonist.

This continues with the character questioning whether he will become a target in a black revolution. This story being set in 1968 places it late in the era of the civil rights movement and serves as a reminder that racial tensions at the time weren’t just between black and white.

On page 63, Aaron’s response to his friend using a racial slur against him (framed the same way as his friendly jabs from earlier, worth mentioning) is to say that he sounds “like a damn white man.” How did you feel about this interaction and the way that Aaron responds?

Home
On page 71, the way Rico notes that Buddy wasn’t in Vietnam almost gives the feeling of some resentment for that fact. It doesn’t feel like a fair thing to hold against your friend necessarily, especially knowing firsthand how affecting that experience was, but it’s also easy to see that Rico’s not really in a great place so as to be targeting his feelings at all the right people.

The sort of ritual Buddy has for Rico alone at his grave is the delivery on a promise made between them when they were young, and much better friends. The way the relationship deteriorates over time until there’s almost no communication between them anymore is a particularly tragic example of someone who felt like he had nothing losing one of the few things he did have.

The story follows on from the earlier story, paying off the line about what happens to “boys from poor neighborhoods” when there’s a war to be fought. We got a hint of the conclusion in that story, but here we see in detail the effect the experience had on Rico.

A Life Well Lived
Page 82 mentions the way that the fight against building the Kingdome was one that put the Filipinos at a strong disadvantage. Specifically, Chris’ reaction to this and the way it illustrates the many fights he’s been through, build his character quite effectively. As it says on the same page, “At his age, what mattered most was the chance to joust, whatever the outcome.”

The custom of taking pictures of the dead highlights the differing cultures experienced by Filipino-Americans. This practice of remembering the dead is made a point of comparison against forgetting the living, suggesting the way that we often choose to ignore the suffering of people around us as we go about our own lives.

Chris’s political values are brought up in detail on page 87. He’s a Stalinist, and not the sort willing to entertain any other forms of Communism, despite varying political beliefs in his friend group. The way this is outlined is in contrast to his personality. As written, “Chris’s talent – the human touch – worked in spite of his ideology, not because of it.”

The Wedding
The common of image of people coming to America is that they come here hoping to live out the “American Dream.” What we find in this story is the end result of someone who did the same but ultimately failed in their pursuits, eventually returning back to the Philippines, despite appearing to hate their home.

This idea is first introduced on page 91, with Vince returning to the Philippines to marry, and sharing stories of the “Wonderland” he’ll be taking her to. Despite Vince turning out better than Leo would, it’s mentioned that “the America of Filipino dreams” fell apart on the first night after arriving.

The thing that drives Leo’s decision is the feeling that America is “too hard for old men,” as stated on page 101. Despite living and working in America for twenty years, Leo is left with nothing to show for it. There are similarities between Leo here and Rico earlier, whose decision to enlist in the army is based on his feeling that he has no future in America. Difference is the realization for these characters comes to them at very different stages in their lives.

A Manong’s Heart
On page 109 we get an illustration of the differences between the generation that first came to America and the generation after. The younger generation is described as remembering the past in a way that is “clean and detached” when it is remembered at all, while the older generation, having lived through the process of coming to America and the subsequent disillusionment, still remembers and holds on to that history.

The way that boxing provided young Filipinos the rare chance to be judged as equals is a fascinating point. It sheds some light on the way that non-white people are valued in America, that they would be good for the spectacle of prizefighting, but rarely afforded any privilege outside of the ring. The comparison to “the days of dogs, pits, and bears” on 110 is apt.

The importance of sports and games, also elaborated on page 110, is of similar interest. There are several quotes here that really stand out: “Organized sport in America magnifies the insignificant… In this competition, symbols are held dearest by those who hold the least of anything else.” This does a really great job at explaining the highly personal stakes a lot of people have in the success of their favored athletes or teams, especially when it comes to, as described, “competition between religions, classes, or races.”

Stephie
The tension in the relationship here comes from Stephie’s decision to leave Buddy for a white man, a decision driven by her mother, who seems to think this will be what is best for her half-Filipino child.

As a recurring theme by this point, Mildred believes Buddy has no future. So it was with Rico, so it was with Leo. This idea that there was no future for Filipinos in America must have been a pervasive one for how often it appears throughout these stories.

In the argument that breaks out Stephie raises some points about her own experience being the child of a white mother and Filipino father. On page 120, “You had uncles, Buddy. You had the Community. You had it made. It was easy for you to be who you are, to be Filipino. Mom and me were outcasts, Buddy. Lepers.”

A Matter of Faith
Page 128 brings us the revelation that Buddy, despite his closeness, doesn’t actually know Kikoy’s real name. This might seem like it was trying to say that he didn’t actually know him as well as he thought, but the point this beat makes in the story is actually to emphasize just how close they really were. “For Filipinos, nicknames meant closeness, a key granting access to the intimate. I didn’t know his real name, didn’t have to.”

The “matter of faith” referred to in the title is a theme in the story of religion as it relates to the family and their culture. Specifically, Kikoy and Buddy’s mother are presented as the faithful people in the story, practicing their religion, and in Kikoy’s case trying to share the experiences he has had with the younger generation represented in Buddy.

By contrast, Buddy and his father are non-religious. It’s not until Kikoy’s death that Buddy entertains the notion of using Kikoy’s necklace to invoke any of the faith it had given his uncle overseas. Also of interest is the way Buddy tries to use faith to ensure his uncle that he will make it to the hospital before he dies. This ultimately doesn’t work out, and yet Buddy turns to faith again in the closing of the story.

Dancer
The story depicts a rather complicated schism in the family that, unless I’m misremembering, wasn’t mentioned before. It kind of falls in line with the way that Sonia says (on page 140) that the family never even asked about her. The way she was cast out and was relegated to a sort of silence among the family is in keeping with the way we were kept unaware as readers until now.

Buddy’s reaction to being told what happened by Sonia on page 138 is telling. At the fact that his mother may have been responsible for pushing Sonia out he immediately feels an urge to deny the allegation or defend her in some way, but ultimately resists the urge and continues to listen rather than objecting.

A similar thing happens with Sonia in regard to her and Buddy’s father on page 139. Despite the feelings of abandonment and all the resentment that brings, as Sonia says, “the bitch of it is, I still love ‘im.” The ways both characters feel about their family despite the events that occurred shows a sort of resilience in the family relationship. They understand that what happened was wrong and that it complicates their feelings towards the people responsible, but they still love them as family regardless.

A Family Gathering
The story depicts a difference between generations of immigrants. Page 143 describes the later generation as having “landed on a much softer place” thanks to the foundation built for them by generations prior.

There’s a sort of parallel here with the relationship between Buddy and his father. On page 147, we get a description of the way his dad worked for what he called blood money: “He did this, I knew, so his kids could avoid a life of blood money.” As one of the early immigrants and as someone who worked hard to ensure a better life for his children, Buddy’s father is an example of the ways that people should try to do what they can to leave behind a better world than the one they inhabited.

In describing his relationship with his father on page 146 there is a comparison to the model American family as seen on TV: “I had the impression, dashed by age ten, that fathers and sons were supposed to talk, to hold long heart-to-heart marathons like Ward and Beaver.” The comparison might make the relationship Buddy had with his father seem cold, but the reality is the relationship presented on TV is artificial. We see the love Buddy’s father had for his son manifested in real ways, just nothing so up front as the ways we usually see love expressed in fiction.

Project Update: Outline

This week has proven effective for me in terms of refamiliarizing myself with the materials I intend to work with. My initial idea for this project was born out of a memory of what Metal Gear talks about rather than a deep familiarity, which may have produced a less than accurate reading on what subject matter the series actually concerns itself with. Revisiting the games has refocused my project only slightly, but it means I’ll have to take a second pass at research to find books and articles that are more in conversation with the themes I now intend to explore. This is only to explain the absence of these in my outline. The theme I was working with previously was “identity,” which is not an incorrect takeaway exactly, but a bit too vague. The themes I have identified and will go forward with are presented in the title for my project. That said, my outline:

METAL GEAR: LIMINALITY AND LEGACY

  • Intro
    • context
      • Metal Gear background (boring answer)
      • personal background (“tell it slant”)
    • what am I talking about/why am I talking about it?
      • Japanese games inspired by American movies
      • balancing act of self-seriousness and absurdity that thematically deals with what it means to pass things on to future generations, can be applied to the Asian American experience
  • Pop culture crosscurrent
    • films that inspired the series’ creator, speaks to the way media is a part of the process of things being handed down generation to generation
      • The Great Escape
        • “running away from the enemy,” “the thrill of hiding”
      • The Guns of Navarone
        • “infiltrating enemy grounds,” “luring the enemy with a noise,” “ecstasy of overcoming limits and making the impossible possible”
      • Escape from New York
        • Snake Plissken -> Solid Snake
      • North by Northwest
        • “switching between the first-person view and the objective view,” “tourist sites and landmarks for the climax,” “mixes humor and tension in order to shake an audience’s emotion and enhance the terror/fear we feel”
      • Planet of the Apes
        • “anti-war/anti-nuke message and criticism of civilization”
      • Dawn of the Dead
        • “dealing with the enemies in a closed building”
      • 007
        • “a secret mission on which hangs the fate of the world, spy-versus-spy, and espionage action,” “turned the spy into a special forces member and gave him heavy firearms and equipment, and a more realistic world,” “The reason why the series has maintained its style (in a good way) and its freshness over 40 years is that the staff and cast have kept and passed on the 007 style and spirit loyally. This is what a series must do.” “The way the 007 series passes on to the future is the theme I wanted to communicate in MGS”
    • What do we pass on for future generations to inherit?
      • Genetics
        • Metal Gear Solid
        • genes may define potential, do not define who you are
      • Information
        • Metal Gear Solid 2
        • people have the freedom to decide what to pass on beyond their genes
      • Environment
        • Metal Gear Solid 3
        • ? (this one may not have as much to do with the “legacy” theme as I thought, may need to rework or just cut this section, TBD)
    • Conclusion
      • Metal Gear Solid 4
      • after passing the torch (genetically/memetically/any kind of way) what comes next?
      • misinterpretation of intent -> eventual movie adaptation
        • yes, you could probably get away with a straightforward adaptation of the story, but in so doing you would be missing a lot of the unique capabilities of the medium that makes this series what it is

Class Notes: Week 5

May 3
The Joy Luck Club, 1993, dir. Wayne Wang
four Chinese women, friends, June’s mother dies and June takes her place
“More to do with hope than joy or luck”
daughters ignorant of mothers hopes and dreams
conflict between June and her mother, “you want me to be someone I’m not,” parent and child having different visions, different interests
Suyuan had to give up two children in China
June feels she didn’t know anything about her mother
Lindo had her life decided for her from age 4, feels she was given up by her mother much the same way Suyuan abandoned her children
Waverly believed she could be better than anyone else, but her mom always has “the perfect counter,” argument with her mother destroys her self-confidence, “I did it to myself”
Ying-Ying’s husband, “happiest when he was cruel,” she drowns their son, narration makes it sound deliberate, scene that plays out makes it seem negligent, “Lena had no spirit because I had none to give her”
Lena, all her mother’s fears turned into worries for her daughter, attempts at dividing responsibility with her husband evenly only calls attention to the imbalance of power in their relationship, wants respect and tenderness
June trying to carry on her mother’s stories
An-Mei, mother shamed into leaving her only to return for her ailing grandmother, “the pain you must forget, the most important sacrifice a daughter can make for her mother”
Rose, going out of her way to do things her for her husband without acknowledgment, feeling taken for granted, fractures growing in their relationship, “just like my mother, you never know what you’re worth”
June feels she’s not been appreciated by her mother, “every time you hoped for something I couldn’t deliver it hurt,” Suyuan assures her otherwise

Shaolin Ulysses: Kung Fu Monks in America, 2003, dir. Mei-Juin Chen, Martha Burr
Buddhist monks from China who moved to America
“Will they change America or will America change Shaolin?”
no Shaolin Temple in America, difference in age groups of disciples between China and America
Jamel Brown, grew up watching kung fu movies and developed a fascination
Shaolin – “little forest”
1992, Shaolin monks first tour to America
Guolin, diverse group of disciples, blend their own culture and Chinese culture
Hengxin, relationship between master and disciple is like father and child, “parents only give birth to you, they didn’t teach you”
Jamel connects dance and martial arts as art forms, self expression
May 2000, Guolin opens first Shaolin Temple in America
America is an immigrant country, spreading Buddhism in America can help people from all over the world
Brooklyn New York, ex-monk Li Peng
Dawn DuBois, married Li Peng
Li Peng seems to have separated Kung Fu from the Buddhist elements
Li Peng’s father attributes rise in popularity to Jet Li
12,000 martial arts students at Shaolin, 2 million tourists a year
“temple doesn’t belong to girls, girls can’t wear monk’s robes”
Li Peng takes up the English name Matthew, raises his son Catholic
wants army school for his son, also wants his son to do whatever he wants
Houston, Texas, Monk Xing Hao, came to America in 1988, assigned to stay in Houston
Officer Adam Cempa wants kung fu cops
adjustment to the non-vegetarian dietary options in America
Julie Zhang wants to beat up bullies
Xing Hao talks about the effort to make kung fu an Olypics event, but first it must become more international
Julie wants to be on TV, wants to win medals, wants to be in movies, wants to be special
Las Vegas, Richard Russel M.D. returns to Shaolin every six months to get a “spiritual boost,” values the Buddhist element, believes self defense techniques are not the primary focus, “a way of approaching life”
Monk Xing Hong was famous in the Shaolin area, “your mind is not quiet, its floating,” begged to learn zen, spent 5 years (which was short!)
1996, culture exchange between martial artists and musical artists on Lollapalooza tour
kung fu for health, zen’s wisdom to perfect the mind

D&R: Using the Internet to Empower APIA Voices

Phil Yu Of ‘Angry Asian Man’: ‘Don’t Let Anyone Else Tell Your Story’

This article focuses on Yu, whose blog has highlighted the mistreatment of Asian Americans since 2001, and how he successfully leveraged the internet’s potential to unite distant and disconnected people towards a common cause. Notably, the title of the blog was chosen so as to tell Asian American people that they can defy the stereotypes they face as meek and quiet and have every right to be and act angry.