Author: Marley Roberson

Othello is a common tragedy.  It is a classic for the fact that it was written by Shakespeare, and it will stay that way regardless of any reviews it gets.  Believed to have been written in 1603, it basically tells the story of how people do not communicate at ALL.  This is the most frustrating part of the whole story, is that it all could have been avoided had people just talked to each other.  However, like many of Shakespeare’s plays, it never ends how you want it to.

Personally, to begin reading the story you may want to educate yourself on simple terminology.  It is written in the language of the time, obviously, so sparknotes will be your best friend.  Find out what stances each character is in that society, for example Othello himself is a Moorish prince living in Venice, Italy and appointed general in the Venetian army.  To truly understand the situation you must understand the society at the time.  Placement of birth class had an effect on a person’s life.  A Moor was a black or Arabian man that came from North Africa at the time of Shakespeare.

Consisting of five acts and much drama, I would recommend the play.  It is crazy.  The opening scene is Roderigo and Iago plotting against Othello.  The audience gets dropped in the middle of a growing disaster.  It is very obvious Iago is the bad guy from the get go, no spoilers.  Desdemona and Othello being married is a problem to the Father of Desdemona, Barbantio, and thus he casts her out of his house.  Rough start, but she just moves in with Othello and then since Othello has to go do general duties Othello places her in the care of Iago.  This is foreshadowing that Desdemona’s future is in Iagos hands, and it is more than the reader or audience knows at this point.  The whole play just explodes and suddenly characters are stabbing other characters and the play is all over the place.  I mean, for real, if Shakespeare got bored i’m pretty sure he just killed characters.

Anyway, I’m not gonna give away spoilers, but it is a pretty cool play.  Good just to know it exists, honestly.  Emilia was my favorite character.  She is Iagos wife and Desdemona’s friend.  She is strong and most definitely shows she has a voice.  I love her because of the part she plays.  Emilia, ultimately, is the truth of the story.  Ironically, she is the villain’s wife.  Desdemona as a character didn’t have much to do with the actual doing of things, she hardly even took up for herself.  It irked me the way she let Othello just walk on her the way she did in Act IV and V.  She did not even really try to understand.  If I keep going on this rant, I will most definitely spoil something.  Shakespeare’s language will get to any reader, it’s difficult to understand, but it is worth the read!

I would give it a good 3.8 out of 5.

My personal copy of this story was apart of a book of T.C. Boyle’s short stories called The Human Fly and Other Stories.

The story began with a quote by Franz Kafka in A Hunger Artist,  “Just try to explain to anyone the art of fasting.”

The Human Fly by T.C. Boyle is a quick read that spires readers into the world of a talent agent set as a less successful counterpart in a large entertainment business.  One day he is approached by a man who refers to himself as la Mosca Humana, or the human fly.  This man is portrayed to carry a certain estranged sadness within his cape and bathing cap.  The character becomes known as Zoltan, but his full name is Zoltan Mindszenty. Zoltan has one object in mind throughout the story, and that is that he wants to be famous.  This is made apparent from the very beginning of the story, a goal is set and the two have a reason to need one another.  I won’t spoil anything and tell everything that happens, but i will say there are some absolutely sky high stunts portrayed scarily detailed by T.C. Boyle.

The tone of the book is the tone of the narrator for the most part, and that is Zoltan’s manager.  The name of this character is never revealed, but I believe this adds to the story.  The agent himself is much more caring and human than others in the business and this is portrayed by the worry the reader truly feels in all of the situations, for Zoltan.  Money could be made off of Zoltan whether not he lives or dies at one point in the story, and that shows the human and relatable part to the narrator.  Now, the narrator was not always this way.  In the beginning he was in it for the money and spotlight, but you see the shift of character throughout the story.  It is a un-pointed out, very important, change in voice and context he categorizes his emotions in.

I would recommend this story as a quick read with a lot of flesh and layers.  The imagery is beautiful, a real sense in all of the story.  There is an array of emotions to be taken away and given to this story, from sadness to hope and disbelief to anger.  If you are looking to be given another universe in your mind for a minute, this is the story for you.

My favorite part of the story is the narrator describing Zoltan in this quote,

“A fine band of skin as blanched and waxen as the cap of a mushroom outlined his ears, his hairline, and the back of his neck, dead white against the sun-burnished oval of his face.  His eyes were pale watery blue and the hair beneath the cap was as wispy and colorless as the strands of his mustache.  His name was Zoltan Mindszenty, and he’d come to Los Angeles to live with his uncle when the Russian tanks rolled through Budapest in 1956.”

How to Love, How to Work

Chapter 9-11

Chapter 9; “When should you act more extroverted than you really are?”

This chapter begins with a quote by William James:

“A man has many social selves as there are distinct groups of persons about whose opinion he cares.  He generally shows a different side of himself to each of these different groups.”

The quote summerizes the basic thought the chapter is based off of.  It explains the free trait theory veru simply also.  This chapter poses the question “Do fixed personality traits really exist, or do they shift according to situation.?” The Free Trait Theory says we are born culturally endowed with certain personality traits, such as extro or introversion.  However intoverts are capable of acting like extroverts when working on “core personal projects”.  These are things people find personally important- loved ones or anything this person values highly in their life.

This Chapter includes a checklist to see if you are a high self monitor or not.  A high self monitor plays to audience.  They ‘monitor’ their social behaviour more than low self moniters.  Low self monitors go by their own internal compass.  They are less sensitive to social cues and behaviour changes.

Chapter 10

The Communication Gap

‘How to Talk to Members of the Opposite Type’

This chapter begins with a quote by Carl Jung:

“The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances; if there is any reaction, both are transformed.”

This chapter tells how introverts and extroverts react to one another.  The book says that introverts actually attract extroverts, as extroverts tend to attract inroverts.  Opposites attract, in other words.  The chapter opens with an example of a couple that is introverted and extroverted.  They love eachother, however the fights they have are normally about social events.  Unsurprisingly the extrovert wants people over constantly, while the introvert does not.  The two admire one another for their opposite strengths.  The extrovert feels grounded will the intovert feels alive.  I good dynamic for a relationship, whether it is frienship or being a couple.

The book also talks about the dynamic of understanding portrayed emotion through each personality.  When arguing intoverts typically get flat toned and sipassionate, whether it is sad news or angry news.  This is hard for extroverts to understand because all they see is a dispassionate person that does not care.  When really, it’s the opposite.  Introverts care too much, typically and do not know how to accurately portray that emotion without breaking into fits of complete vulnerability.

Chapter 11

On Cobblers and Generals

‘How to Cultivate Quiet Kids in a World that Can’t Hear Them’

This chapter begins with a quote by Plato, The Republic

“With anything young and tender the most important part of the task is the beginning of it; for that is the time at which the character is being formed and the desired impression more readily taken.”

This chapter explains how if extrocerted parents are given an introverted child, they often think something is wrong with this child.  However in another household, this kid would be a ‘model child’.  It really does depend on the understanding of the two types of personalities.  It starts with a story once told by Mark Twain about a man in search of the greatest general to ever live.  This man went all the way around the world, and by the time he found the guy someone told him the greatest general ever had died.  The man pays a visit to the pearly white gates and talks to Saint Paul.  The man tells Saint Paul he is looking for the greatest general that ever lived.  Saint Paul points to a regular looking man.   The man says “That’s not the greatest general to ever live!  I knew him when he was alive, he’s just an old cobbler.”  To which Saint John replied with “No, he was not a general, but if he was he would have been the greatest that ever lived.”  This is supposed to show the importance of letting talents flourish.

In conclusion, the tone was factual, but it is biased for introverts.  It refers to extroverts in a sort of outsider way.  I immensely enjoyed this informative concept and structure of the book.  Each paragraph began with a quote and a story as an example of the topic.  It was a very well written book, and I would recommend it.

Do All Cultures Have an Extrovert Ideal?

Soft Power

“In a gentle way, you can shake the world.” – Mahatma Gandhi

This section of Quiet by Susan Cain explores the different cultural outlook of the “perfect” or “ideal” boss.  Mainly looking into Asian countries ideals.

It seems that the extrovert ideal is not important at all to Asian countries.  Indulgence of sound is important to them, but it is opposite from Americans where the sound they should indulge in comes from.  Asian families would much rather instill a “listen before speaking” basis in their children.   Listening is much more important for finding information and making well rounded, well thought out decisions.

Personally, I think this is very important in the case of understanding Asian culture and people.  In fact, I think this rule is brilliant.  I do not find having grades for how much you speak in class, just to get a grade for being loud without understanding anything, is a good thing.  I think it is lazy teaching and shows that culture in America prizes loud and noisy people over well thought out and well aimed articulate people.  China and Japan prizes the quiet and well spoken people.  They are number one in industry for a reason, and I think this is a beautiful way of thinking because it prizes respect and thought over being spoken over and not thinking about things.  Obviously America prizes loud noisy people, our cabinet is full of them.  Our president is a perfect way to show this.  He is loud and intimidating, but as shown what has he to show he thinks?  Not much but his words.  His tweets sure don’t.

Back to the subject, the book gives examples of how surprised immigrants from Asian countries were to sit in an American classroom for the first time.  Susan Cain met and interviewed Hung Wei Chien, a mother in Cupertino, California who moved from Taiwan to the U.S. in 1979.

“I remember bring amazed.  It was linguistics class, and that’s not even linguistics the students are talking about!  I thought, ‘oh, in the U.S., as soon as you start talking, you’re fine.”   while as she reminisced about her time as a child growing up and attending school back in Taiwan, she commented “The teaching back home is very different from here.  There, you learn the subject, and they test you.  At least when I grew up, they don’t go off subject a lot, and they don’t allow the students to ramble.  If you stand up and talk nonsense, you’ll be reprimanded.”

This section of Quiet followed the differences in what the U.S. prided its students off of verses what Asian countries prided themselves off of.  It explains the importances they set on the basis of their counties and contributes to societal affairs and the economy of the country as a whole.

My take on this section of the book is that the United States puts too much importance on just talking instead of also talking to listen as well.  I believe there needs to be a balance between the two.  These are both incredible aspects to pride off of, but if there is not one to listen what is the point of talking and if there is no one to talk what is the point of listening?

Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can’t Stop Talking is a factually powerful read.  The book itself is split into four parts. In this review, I will talk about the part entitled, “The Extrovert Ideal”.

“Strangers’ eyes, keen and critical.  Can you meet them- Confidently– without fear?” – Print Advertisement for Woodbury’s Soap, 1922

The section begins with a reflection on the creation of the ideal business man and the transition from a society based upon morals to a society based upon personality, or as historian Warren Susman put it a “Culture of Character to a Culture of Personality”.  It is pressed into the readers mind from the beginning a tone of biased among an introvert studying a simple fascination of the extroverted “ideals” and natural to learned traits and behaviors.

Quoted from Cane herself “In a Culture of Character, the ideal self was serious, disciplined, and honorable.  What counted was not so much the impression one made in public as how one behaved in private.  The word personality didn’t exist in English until the eighteenth century, and the idea of ‘having a good personality’ was not widespread until the twentieth.”

It was about the industrialistic new society that was being created that moved the discipline man out of the spotlight to platform a man meant for selling the spotlight.  The twentieth century brought on a less agricultural outlook and created today’s urban culture.  The extroverted businessman was a key part played in this development, because along with the big production belts came a need for someone to sell those products to ordinary people who didn’t simply leave their house with the intention to buy.  Thus the salesman was created.  Since business circulates business the best people to be in business was not the people who knew laws and philosophy and the real antics of things, but rather the people who knew how to talk and sway into other peoples wants.  They needed to be confident, loud, a natural improviser of charm, attractive, and an overall energetically open person.  The need for these people to sell and exist was what created the American idealistic personality/person.  Everyone wanted to be these people so that they could be something.

Since this bar in society was created, they noticed the difference in natural salesmen and their counterpart opposites.  The closed door operators were the people who simply were not this, and so they were not this “something” everyone wanted to be.  Introverts were not noticed out of praise, they were noticed to contrast the extroverted agenda society had created at the time.  Ads like the one that Cane began the book with, and I quoted to begin my article were used to entice sell factor from the need to become this type.

Parents taught haughtiness and over activity to perfect these introverted limps in the child’s personality.  This spiked the anxiety and insecurity in the average person, and continues to grow over time.  Ads and TV shows portray larger than life men and beautified perfect women.  No wonder the years that followed this transition created such a divide and objective to personify yourself as largely and widely as possible.

Crane does a wonderful job of telling the transition and the importance to stay in-tuned with your extroverted side as much as possible.  She does not leave the underlying pieces of opposition out though, as she sees and details the difference and the utmost importance that both extroverts and introverts are necessity to keep the ball rolling.

I found this book, or rather, this book found me at a bookstore in Seaside, FL.  I was staring at a book beside it when a man came up and pointed at it and told me, “I’m not an introvert, but my friends who’ve read it are telling me that it’s a great book.  Just thought I’d let you know.”  And I am a big believer in fate, so this book was mine the second that happened.  I find it reflective, a real penny for your thoughts kind of book.  Reflection to society and the society your grandparents grew up in and the similarities, showing the times aren’t that different after all.  Maybe a bit more or less extreme in some places, but the cracks and barriers in preferable personalities is a common strong suit that plays a roll in both.

Overview

Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson  is about a girl tortured by an eating disorder and being the only one that could have stopped the death of her childhood best friend.  It begins with the basics of a disordered thought process- calories over nutrition, the thoughts of anorexia.  In the chapters that pass, you see the hurtles she goes through coping with her eating disorder.  The way that this is control for her, she explains so much through her story from top to bottom with anorexia, and her best friend, who at recently died of bulimia in the story.  It is pain meant to be read, and meant to be scoured through.

Diction

I found this book exponentially helpful in sweeping through all the point of views of a story centered around an eating disorder.  Little details of input memory stories showed the pain enthralled family, the stressful doctors offices and appointments.   For me, i read it with that purpose, to be able to gaze through a kaleidoscope of views and not only the sicknesses thoughts.  People with that mindset need to see other peoples pain because they are so enthralled in control and number hypnotization.  It distracts from everything- but this book brings the point of view back to a centerfold of perspective.  That is what makes this story so memorable and well done for me.

Appeal Factor(s)

The writing and structure is beautiful.  The imagery spiked my obsession with Laurie Halse Anderson- who never disappoints with that factor.  A quote I will never forget it is:

Why? You want to know why?

Step into a tanning booth and fry yourself for two or three days. After your skin bubbles and peels off, roll in coarse salt, then pull on long underwear woven from spun glass and razor wire. Over that goes your regular clothes, as long as they are tight.

Smoke gunpowder and go to school to jump through hoops, sit up and beg, and roll over on command. Listen to the whispers that curl into your head at night, calling you ugly and fat and stupid and bitch and whore and worst of all, “a disappointment.” Puke and starve and cut and drink because you don’t want to feel any of this. Puke and starve and drink and cut because you need the anesthetic and it works. For a while. But then the anesthetic turns into poison and by then it’s too late because you are mainlining it now, straight into your soul. It is rotting you and you can’t stop.

Look in a mirror and find a ghost. Hear every heartbeat scream that everysinglething is wrong with you.

“Why?” is the wrong question.

Ask “Why not? “

If this is not appealing enough for you, then i do not know what would be.  It is the most personal thing I’ve read that i never knew was so loud at one point in my life.  It is a book like this, a book that scares you, that makes you learn.  It’s like a metaphor to a lesson in life.  Overall this book is one of the most personal things I could fear and love at the same time and i could not recommend a book more strongly.

Not-so-appealing Factor(s)

It may be too emotionally conflicting for you, in some parts the description becomes very graphic.  Which is exactly what a topic like this needs, but some people would not appreciate out of the sheer discomfort of what they see through it.  I, personally, am am very emotionally in touch person, and so i cried and laughed and related wherever needed in the book.  There is a difference in just emotionally in touch and just out right discomfort- this is a disclaimer to those that may not like to read sad things, or things too vulnerable.