Railroad Standard Time
Page 3- “The thousand-year-old living Chinese meat makes dinner a safari into the unknown, a blood ritual, Food pornography. Black Magic. ”
This reminded me of a newspaper article from the 20’s I read about Chinese food. It said that anything Chinaman will not eat is unfit to eat. It had a quote from the writer’s Chinese friends that said, “The stomach likes to be surprised.”
Page 3- “I stood it. Still and expressionless as some good Chink. I watched Barbara drive off, leave me, like some blonde white goddess going home from the jungle….I’ll learn to be a sore loser. I’ll learn to hit people in the face. I’ll learn to cry when I’m hurt and go for the throat instead of being polite and worrying about being obnoxious to people walking out of my house with my things, taking my kids away. I’ll be more than quiet, embarrassed, I won’t be likable anymore.”
The quiet expressionless Asian stereotype combined with the repressed rage and emotion reminds me of Angel Island poetry. Angel Island’s angsty, depressing, and angry emotional poetry is a direct counter to the silent Asian stereotype.
Food, singing, vehicles, ghosts and sexy ladies are things that show up multiple times throughout this story. The last page combines all of this when he talks about tricking the singing teacher into singing so he can look at her breasts, and then he talks about meat and lettuce and driving through a dead Chinatown full of “ghostpiss.”
Page 1- “as if the sound of running water and breathing the warm soggy ghosts of stale food, floating grease, old spices, ever comforted her as if the kitchen was a paradise for conspiracy.”
I feel like this first page really set the mood for the rest of the story. Homey, Asian, ghost imagery, griminess, and a sense of childish mystery and ancientness.
To Eat and Run Midnight People
Page 8 “I felt the night sea crouch up gloomy, humpbacked under the starlight, near me a dark creature in a dark cape that moved closer to me, breathing a heavy breath full of fish and weeds, sighing a bad breath that hackled the beach, that faked the sounds of distant applause, the faraway screech of a treed mountain lion echoing down the hills out of the dark night woods, near my feet. I was still and shitless stone inside the lay of its breath. The wet flash of old men’s Chinatown sneezes came out of the past from the sea to paw my body with stardust and mosquitoes. I was in the way here. I was always in the way.”
This sets up the story to have a shadowy and grotesque atmosphere. The imagery reminded me of this music video by MGMT:
Page 9 “black eyes gleaming in swollen black assholes”
Woah. More twisted and grotesque imagery. Black tongue and aluminum skin.
There is a lot of horror imagery in this chapter too. Bats, monsters, mummies, creepy sexy asshole nun lady, skulls, blood, corpses, death, and funerals.
Food themes: grease, meat, meat imagery, rice, white rice. There is also the theme of the voracious Chinamen that will eat anything when he talked about peasant ancestors. There is a lot of beer and drunkness involved in this story.
The Chinatown Kid
Food words – Tea, sandwiches, cake, coffee, bean curd, pickles, pork, chicken, rice, oatmeal.
Body part words – Flesh, skin, liver, flaps, muscle, nerves, bones, blood, hearts, teeth. Skin and flesh are especially used a lot in this chapter.
Animals are a theme in this one. Chameleons and dogs. Screeching, hissing, clicking. Fur and butterflies. Claws. Owls.
Shadows, darkness, and ghosts will probably be in every chapter huh. Funerals and death. Dream and unconscious are recurring themes in this story.
The only real day
Dead wife and the train are two things in this story that appear in other stories of this book. There is piss, dogs, meat, and sexy ladies (in calendars).
There is a lot of smoke, cigarettes, and fish in this story. These seem to be the unique aspects. I think print is another unique theme in this one. Comic books, calendars, and magazines are seen throughout. Eggs come up multiple times.
Page 44 – “Because nobody likes the Jews!”
In my last program, something that one of the teachers brought up in a presentation was how a lot of the times immigrants would come to America and throw other minority groups under the bus to gain favor. Black people were the easiest target for this even though black activists did a lot for immigrant rights.
Page 69 “They like the Chinese better than the Negroes because we aren’t many and we aren’t black. They don’t like us as much as the Germans or Norwegians because we aren’t white. They like us better than the Jews because we can’t be white like the Jews and disappear among the lo fan…. This is being a professional Christian Chinese”
This story is about conforming to America and catering to American narcissism. The successful Chinese are those that play along with the role that has been laid out for them by America.
Yes, Young Daddy
Summer cousin penpals. The younger female cousin doesn’t speak perfect English. Flowers, perfume, and summer are recurring themes.
This story seems a lot more sterile than the previous ones. Church, cleaning, pretty smells, summer, letters, childhood memories, beds, and houses. There is no grime or grease or meat sex.
The main character is a bit pervy towards his cousin. I think all of the main characters have been pervy in the head.
The boy definitely seems teenagery to show off his vocabulary the way he does in his letters to Lena.
Give the Enemy Sweet Sissies and Women to Infatuate Him, and Jades and Silks to Blind him with Greed
Notes part 1″
Celebration, heavy rain, metal, noise, organs, nerves, fat, firecrackers, radios. Dirigible is back. Glitter, ooze, a monster of unfathomable dimensions, incommunicable grumbling intellect, helpless fool.
Notes part 2:
A little God without religion. Chinese New year. Realm of meaningful consciousness. Superstitious practices. Funeral. Church. Buddhist. Cosmic Auntie. Mummy. Ghosts. Skin. Skeleton Shadow.
A lot of recurring themes as usual. I think in this story Dirigible gets lost in his thought on a rainy Chinese new year. He gets pulled back into reality by interactions with people, outside stimulus, and the usual pervy/romantic thoughts.
The chapter ends on a dude calling for people to help build a church as the noblest service they could offer. I have an assumption that the church is viewed with cynicism in this book.
A Chinese Lady DiesI
Paralysis comes up on page 110. I didn’t keep track of this before but I think paralysis was a thing in previous chapters.
The mention of Edgar Allan Poe makes me think that the morbid and grotesque writing style of this book was partially inspired by Poe.
Scenes out of a classic western cowboy movie keep popping up in Dirigibles thoughts in this story. There are references to classic pop-culture movies and actors like Bette Davis and Henry Fonda.
Tv and vehicles are brought up. Things are described as mechanical multiple times. I think this has something to do with the references to movies that kept coming up.
The sons of Chan
Neon, hotel, radio. Electricity, Lone Ranger, Pirates, Robin Hood, Cisco Kid. Every first page of a story in this book sets up the themes and atmosphere.
There are a lot of lists of pop-culture stuff in this story. Celebrities, movies, Tv shows, characters.
Ghostly flesh. Looked like a vampire, plump and dark with blood. Spooky themes carried all the way through this book to the end.
This story seems to be a crazy and cynical celebrity Chinese life.