Twain Blog

"I like a good story well told. That is the reason I am sometimes forced to them myself."-"The Watermelon". This is probably one of my favorite quotes from Twain's book. I find it incredibly funny, because it shows his personality to be humorous and sarcastic. He is obviously trying to lighten the mood in his speech which is why he includes this type of joke. Also, I think that a lot of people sometimes feel the same way, in that they believe that they tell good stories. We all like to talk about ourselves which is why I found like quote so relatable to society as a whole.

Wit and Wisdom??

Blog 8

The Wit and Wisdom of Mark Twain

After reading the book of quotations by Mark Twain, I found it bearable. It was not as offense and rude like Juha was, but I also did not find the book to be exciting. Considering this is a class on humor and Mark Twain is supposed to be one of the funniest writers of all time, I was no as impressed as I had hoped to be. But given the book was just a bunch of quotations they may have been taken out of context. If I had read the books, speeches, or poems that the one-liners had come out of I may have been more inclined to judge the phrases as humorous. Because of the expectation that humor is associated with laughter, I pick up all of these books and assume that I am going to laugh-which is not always the case. Overall, I thought that Twain’s quotations were acceptable.

Right at the beginning of the piece I found a quote that I whole heartedly agree with. “Of all the animals, man is the only one that is cruel. He is the only one that inflicts pain for the pleasure of doing it”-The Lowest Animal. I may not have found this quote exceptionally funny, but I did find it applicable to human nature. I don’t think this just applies to extreme situations such as a psychopath who gets off on killing people and witnessing their pain, but it also applies to girls who gossip. Teenage girls are notorious for spreading rumors about other people and talking behind each other’s back; this fits in with the idea of being cruel for the pleasure of doing it. They gossip because they like the feeling of having someone below them, in essence they get pleasure out of someone else’s pain.

 Some of the quotes I read, I did not agree with. Even though Twain is a well-established author I think that he does miss the mark at some times. “When you fish for love, bait with your heart, not your brain”-Notebook. I disagree with this quote because while emotions are a necessity in any relationship, you need to think logically at times. People who search only with their heart en up getting hurt if they have nothing in common. You have to make sure that your heart matches your brain.

“Everyone is a moon, and has a dark side which he never shows to anyone”-Following the Equator”. I agree with this quote. I think it is showing how we all have secrets. We all have parts of ourselves that we can’t show to anyone else. This could even be something as small as or as simple as a flaw we believe we have. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a life altering secret-just something we believe is too dark to share with someone.

“It is by goodness of Got that in our country we have those three unspeakably precious things: freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, and the prudence never to participate in either of them”-Following the Equator. I this quote because it seems like a commentary on human nature. All too often people only remark about our freedoms when they want to make a point, not because they actually believe in our countries foundation in freedom. For instance, if someone makes an offensive comment to another person. They instantly use the claim “freedom of speech”-they don’t actually care about freedom of speech they are just using it as a crutch to stand on when they know they are wrong.

“I never could tell a lie that anyone would doubt, nor a truth that anybody would believe”-Following the Equator. This quote reminds we of those wise sayings that appear really insightful and inspiring but when you think about it, it doesn’t quite make much logical sense.

Last Meeting

Conversation 7

Yesterday I had my last official meeting with Alya. I can’t believe that it has already been seven times meeting with her. It hardly seems like I have met with her at all, but at the same time it feels like I know a lot about her. She is a really great person, and I honestly think that we are going to keep in touch. Today we happened to run into each other on campus when we were heading to class. We both had a class in Scharbauer and both happened to be early so we sat and chatted for a few minutes before we had to go to class. It really showed me that we would not need to be required to meet to stay in touch and have enjoyable conversations.

When Alya first walked in to the bookstore, she was almost jumping in excitement so I knew she had something she desperately wanted to share. The soccer team that comes from her small village outside of Dhahran, Saudi Arabia won the soccer championship they competed in! She told me that this team is not great and often is seen as the weakest link in the Saudi soccer teams, but they managed to beat several teams. Luckily, Alya and her husband have a satellite that allows them to receive Saudi television programs, so she was able to watch the game. While I do not know much about soccer, and am not interested in the sport, I was happy for her team, especially considering how happy she was!

As for our meeting yesterday, we filled each other in on our weekend adventures. As per usual, mine consisted of studying, writing papers, and a few hours of enjoyment. Alya on the other hand, always manages to have an exciting adventure. She went to Dallas all three days! On a whim, she and her husband decided to take a drive to Dallas for dinner on Friday night after they picked up their children. Since her husband had a guys day planned to watch TV with 20 of his closest friends, Alya spent the day in Dallas with her husband’s cousin. In the Arab culture, some husbands do not like other men to see their wife inside of the home, so Alya had to make sure she was not at home when any of her husbands friends were there. She told me that they always talk about it when they want to have people over to their house, so that no one is offended or gets uncomfortable.

Her husband’s cousin was visiting from out of town so the two decided Dallas was the only place to visit. Alya was sort of laughing at the experience, but her husband’s cousin did not want to come to Texas because she thought it was filled only with cowboys and horses; she instead wanted Alya to visit her in Oklahoma. Having driven through Oklahoma before, Alya said she had no interest in ever visiting there! But they spent the day in Dallas and rather enjoyed themselves, by the way she was talking about it! She is really taking advantage of living in America and enjoying every spare minutes.

While most of her weekend was delightful, Alya clued me in to the not-so-delightful aspect of her weekend. Apparently, a few weeks ago new tenants moved in to the apartment above them and they have been stomping on the floor every time her children make even a small noise. The other night, her daughter fell out of bed and started crying and the neighbor upstairs starting stomping on the floor to quiet them! Another day, her son started doing a dance for less than a minute and the fellows upstairs again starting stomping on the floor to get them to be quite. I could tell Alya was shaken up by these occurrences and she didn’t know how to handle this. Her children get extremely frightened whenever the people above them start stomping and she is having a hard time explaining to them why they are doing that; partly because she does not understand herself. They are never loud and do not let their children run inside the apartment. I was incredibly off put by this and honestly did not know what say. I tried my best to reassure her that she is not doing anything wrong and that she should continue to ignore them as much as possible. 

Second Time Around

Blog 7

In class yesterday we talked about how to think of Juha. The first time I was reading the book I really did not think of Juha as funny at all. I will admit that there were a few instances in a few tales that I found funny and may have even chuckled at. But overall, no I did not find them especially humorous. I could have chalked it up to cultural differences or certain humor aspects lost in translation, but that was before we discussed how to think of Juha. For a bit in class we noted the similarity between Juha and the idea of a trickster. I had never put the two together but I can see now how that is. A trickster is similar to the actions that Juha takes and the verbal remarks that he makes. I think what was throwing me off was that I was always taught that a trickster had to be an animal whereas Juha is a person. But apparently a trickster can be a human.

So I went back and looked at the first section of reading where it talks about the history of Juha and some of the other names he is known for. The section I thought was particularly interesting was the paragraph right before the title heading of “Juha: The balance of opposites”. In that last paragraph the author mentions that this a character who is breaking boundaries and crossing lines. It made me rethink how I depict Juha. Since he is a person I was taking a literal look at all of the tales instead of being in the mindset of a trickster character or one who is breaking boundaries. This is mind frame that I tried to put myself into as I was reading the next section of this book.

The tale about the matchmaker finding Juha and ugly woman was the first tale that stuck in my mind. I tried to look for the humor in it but only cam across the misogynistic aspects. He doesn’t want to look at his wife because she is ugly. Poor girl! Beauty is not everything; personality and love should mean more. I get where the humor is trying to come in to play but personally I don’t really like humor where someone makes fun of someone else. I do not think it is kind. This world has too much hatred and is already so superficial that we do not need to be surrounded by it is folklore. Folklore should go beyond the typical and be used for good.

One folk lore that I did find incredibly funny was the one about Juha and his son riding the donkey. Every time they come across a new group of people they judge him for the way he is riding or walking with the donkey and his son. It really does shows how you can never please people. There will always be someone how will be ungrateful or will criticize what you do. This story depicts how we as humans are always trying to please others and make people happy by changing our behaviors. Unlike the other stories in this book that are mean and hurtful this tale seem true because it applies to everyone and no one is getting hurt. Also it applies to all people, of all sizes, shape, color, wealth, and status. I think it is effective in sending it’s message.

Another story that I thought was funny one the one about Juha telling his son to always do two things when he asks for one, so when he asks his son to get the doctor his son also brings the grave digger. I found this story funny because it shows how words can come back to bite you. It is the classic saying ‘be careful what you wish for’ in the format of a folk lore. Plus it has a bit of cognitive shift at the end because you wouldn’t expect a son to get a grave digger for his father. I would have though he could have had two doctors come instead of just one as a way of obeying his father.

The chapter entitled “Naivete and stupidity” was quite promising! When people are dumb or act dumb at least it can cause for a few good laughs. As I was reading this section some of the tales were actually funny. I was a bit nervous that it would just be stupid jokes but instead it was tales about out smarting others. I also liked how at some points Juha was the one being the smart character and at other times he was out smarted. The variation in stories made for an interesting read. 

Another Great Meeting

Conversation 6

When I walked in to the TCU bookstore for our usual meeting, Alya was reading George Orwell’s 1984. I have never read this book but know that it is a famous novel, so I was curious what she thought of it. It was interesting that her class was teaching this novel as a way of teaching English. She is only a few chapters in by she said the plot is interesting and not too difficult to follow. But she did say that there was a lot of vocabulary that was difficult for her, so to help her with pronunciation she got the audio version of the book to follow along with. I thought this was a really smart idea for how to read along with a novel when she is having trouble. That is way better than giving up or not even trying! We talked about the book and how she felt about it for a bit, and she said that the liked how the book was talking about a future that is now the past.

Instantly that reminded me of the film series Back to the Future. She had never heard of this before so I explained them to her. I think I got a little to excited about it because I really like the movies, but she seemed intrigued. I remember from the movies that the one where the go to the future they go to the year 2015. That is not too far away from where we are now. I told her about the flying hoverboards in the movie that are kind of like skateboards but they fly. It was really funny talking about the future, which in just a few short years will be our present. Unfortunately, I don’t think that we are going to have hoverboards any time soon. But then again technology is advancing rapidly. I am still going to hold out hope! Alya seemed interested as I was telling her about these movies and she even wrote down the title so she could remember it for later. One of her favorite movie genres is science fiction; so I think it will be a good fit for her.

We also talked about potential summer plans and when I mentioned that I was trying to get an internship she appeared confused. She admitted that she did not know this word or know what it meant. After I explained, or attempted to explain (I really never know if I am explaining something correctly or enough; it makes sense in my mind, but I don’t know if it comes across as I am intending), Alya said that she understood but that there are no internships in Saudi Arabia. I was shocked! I cannot imagine a place where there are no internships. She said that this concept makes logical sense to her because so many institutions and establishments in Saudi ask for a degree with high grade or a degree with two years experience, only no one will give the experience without previous experience. She has no idea how people get experience when everyone wants them to have held a job in their respective field before they can apply for the job. Alya was impressed with the westernized aspect of internships and noted that she hopes Saudi gets something like that soon. I really hope that she is able to take advantage of the internships and other opportunities that America has to offer while she is here.

Near the end of our talk, we turned to the subject of the conflict in Syria. Alya had just done a presentation about this is class and was thus interested in the topic. I admitted that I was not up to date on the subject but knew that the civil war was distressing and incredibly sad. Luckily, Alya does not have any friends or family who are in the country so they are all out of harms way. But she was still moved by the topic and was interested to know what Americans thought of the situation. This reminded me of the most recent episode of ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ in which two Syrian doctors come to Seattle to learn how to perform surgeries with limited supplies. While the show is a fictionalization about the events occurring in Syria, I thought it was clever of the writers to bring a global conflict into the show. Many Americans probably have no idea what is going on in the show or do not care. This episode raised awareness about the war as well as humanized the people in the country instead of just presenting the facts of who has died and who is winning. Alya enjoys this show as well and we were both happy to see that the writers of the show were able to raise awareness to the issue.

Blondes

Humorous Blog 4

Last night my roommates were in my room helping me design a poster. I knew the basic information I needed to put on it, but realized quickly there is a lot more to a poster than just words. I needed a graph to show the results, but since I have never created a graph, other than the ones you draw by hand, I was at a loss. Luckily one of my roommates is a business major and she works with Excel on a daily basis and she said she would be able to help me. We were inputting the data and playing around with the different graphs when my other roommate came in my room to see what we were talking about. She saw what I was working on and quickly started suggesting websites that show color pallets that I could use for my color scheme. After about 20 minutes of the three of us sitting in my room talking about graphs, colors, and word placements I started laughing and said “how many blondes does it take to make a poster?” We all three started laughing realizing this is how blond jokes get started. It was quite funny seeing the three of us bounce ideas off of each other about the arrangement of my poster elements; it is such a simple thing and yet we all were working on it. 

Juha

Blog 6: Tales of Juha 1-41

The beginning of this book with the description and historical recollections of Juha I really enjoyed. I especially like how Salma Khadra Jayyusi wrote about the logic behind why Juha is so humorous. He writes “everything becomes inverted, taking on a meaning that runs counter to the norms of common sense and conventional pattern. This is why Juha’s actions and sayings stimulate us and make us laugh. His world becomes a living paradox. A lot of times it is difficult to explain why we laugh or why we find something funny, but the author lays it out for us we have no doubt about why we are laughing at these stories of Juha.

The first tale that I read which stuck with me was the one where two thieves come across Juha and demand he give them his bag. They struggle over who will get it and eventually Juha tricks them into fighting each other until they are both dead. I like this story it shows he is using wisdom to solve the situation. I think this sort of fable could be used to show kids how to solve problems-not killing people actually, but instead talking to them until they overcome the situation. The figurative message not the literal one is the message that is supposed to be meaningful. I can see how this could be used as a moral to talk things through and use wit and wisdom, just as the section title suggests.

Another story that I came across which I really liked was the tale of the friends who blame Juha for a thief stealing his donkey. I don’t really find this a funny story, but it does have a take away message-why blame someone for something outside of their control. This could be good for some child to read and study if they are one of the friends who blames others all the time. I’m just not sure where all the humor comes in. I get the moral, but not the humor. It’s not funny that his friends blame him for a thieves action. What do you think? Am I missing some humor element or technique?

The first tale that I actually found funny was the one where Juha is on a trip with a man who constantly asks him to help prepare the meal and Juha keeps turning his down. In the end the man asks Juha to come and eat and Juha responds “by God I feel so ashamed now, that I turned down all of your requests before”. Juha is being lazy and selfish by not helping the man but then says he feels bad he has denied the man all his previous times, so now he will do as the man wishes and eat with him. He is in a sense helping the man and being kind by him for doing as he requests and eating. It’s the classic excuse and Juha pulls it off and makes the reader laugh. With this story I can see how kids and adults alike would enjoy him.

One tale I just did not get at all was the one about Juha marrying an ugly woman and then when he sees a pretty woman he suggests that he and his wife marry her. I really just don’t get it at all. I know that men can have multiple wives but I don’t see why the wife would be involved or why it would be a joke. My only guess is it is a play on the social attitude toward marriage, but I could also be way off base. I just don’t know. What do y’all think?

My group did our presentation on Arab humor so I thought that the research we did in preparation for describing their humor would be beneficial when it came time to read this book. Unfortunately, it has not. Most of the stories are either way off base that I have no idea what it means, or my research is not applicable. Most of our research had to do with present day humor and satirical jokes about repressive regimes, but these tales seem to be in reference to older times.