Separate Kingdoms

Valeria Laken wrote her short story, Separate Kingdoms, with many things to tell her readers. The biggest purpose is undoubtedly to show how the family members interact with each other in different places. However, one other major purpose for writing this story is to show the difference between animals and humans. In particular, Valeria Laken wrote this to show how humans can virtually act like any other animals. Laken uses two-column strategy to talk about the behavior of Colt and Jack in the same period. In doing so, Laken helps the readers to distinguish the different behaviors between Colt and Jack. Laken uses the two-column strategy to show that Colt is not able to control his emotion, he is always alone in the dark, and he is only concerned with himself, whereas Jack is able to control his emotion, he likes to interact with other people, and he tries to understand the hardship that other people are going through. Then finally Laken hopes that the reader will realize that Colt acts like an animal as opposed to Jack who acts like a human.

The first example that shows the difference between Colt’s behavior and Jack’s behavior is when Sadie comes over to Jack’s basement to hang out with him. During that time, Colt and Colt’s wife were having an argument. When Sadie first comes over to Jack’s basement, Jack shows Sadie how to play the drums, then he says “it’s all under control, all exactly the way you want it. You’re the most perfectly tuned machine, dead on, precise” (Laken, 11). However, during that time Colt and his wife is having an argument, and Colt is not in his right mind. Not only that, he is not able to control his emotion nor can he really make a coherent argument against his wife. He is only able to make weird sounds such as “Squaaaaaaaaawk,” (laken, 10) or yell “Take it! Take the goddamn money and the little drummer boy and drive yourselves straight to paradise, set yourselves up! I’m fine right here.” Any person who is able to logical think knows that Colt’s wife is not obsessed with money but rather wants Colt to get money that he deserves and to avenge the company that hurt colt.

From these sections in two columns that are side by side, we see the difference between how Jack and Colt is. On one side, Jack is in complete control of himself. He is able to perfectly control the beat of the drums and is able to show Sadie a spectacular drum show. On the other hand, Colt is not able to control himself in any ways. He makes incoherent sound that resembles some animal, he yells at his wife even though his wife only intends for his best, and he cannot make a logical argument whether it is by his choice, or his inability to do so. In a sense, this shows the difference between humans and animals. One of the differences of humans and animals is the fact that humans are able to control their emotions and think logically, whereas animals are not able to do so and only act on their instinct and emotion.

The second example soon follows the first example in the story. Soon after Colt and his wife’s argument, Colt’s wife turns off the TV and take the remote with her. Then Colt is in the room alone, darkened by the absence of any sound or light. Then he says, “nine years on the night shift and they expect him to sleep in the dark now … and he’s alone now, drifting in his ranch house through the luminous, hollow sky” (Laken, 11). The first part of the quote reminds the reader of nocturnal animals, which is pretty much the best analogy that can be given seeing as Colt has worked the night shift for nine years, working and getting money for food. Nocturnal animals also run around at night looking for food. Then the second part of the quote shows that Colt is alone, like a predator in the woods alone at night. These two images are used often to describe a person or an animal in the dark forest at night.

Jack, however, is not alone. Jack is with Sadie listening to music. Not only that there is certain love in the air as “Sadie comes out of nowhere and kisses” Jack (Laken, 12). Also Jack himself explains that “She puts the iPod on my chest, and moves her hand to my rib cage, and it’s like we’re all one unit” (Laken 12). Contrary to Colt, Jack is interacting with other human with affection. When Colt is lonely, Jack is with someone else who loves him. From what happened to Jack it seems that both Jack and Sadie appreciate being with each other. Again, Colt and Jack can be analogous to a nocturnal animal and humans, and through this contrary using the two-column strategy, Laken intends to show how animals and humans differ.

The last example of Laken’s effective usage of two-column strategy to show the difference between Colt and Jack is at the very end of the story. When Colt goes outside to pee, he meets the lawyer who was at his house earlier. During the time that he pees outside and he has a conversation with the lawyer, Colt is able to think only about himself. When the lawyer tells Colt that he has a beautiful family, Colt responds “What’s that supposed to mean?” (Laken, 17). Colt then concludes that “He [The lawyer] thinks he understands, but he will never understand” (Laken, 18). When the lawyer tries to talk more, then he finally uses his one move that seemed to have worked so far: yelling out incoherent sounds. Finally, he yells out “I’m not one of you!” (Laken, 19). Colt does not change at all from the beginning. He makes incoherent sound from start of the story to the end. He separates himself from all the other people by concluding that no one will understand him, or saying he is not like the others. He does not care about his family. Even a dog or a cat will learn and progress much faster than him. This can only be concluded that he is as slow as any other animal at changing and learning if not worse.

On the other hand, Jack learns and tries to understand what the other people are going through. When Colt was peeing outside and yelling at the lawyer, Jack tells his mother that “Yesterday [he] tried to do everything all day without [his] thumbs” (Laken, 17). In the beginning of the story Jack hated Colt because he didn’t play XBOX with him and he was not able to say a single coherent sentence for a week. However, now he tries to understand what kind of hardship his father is going through. After that Jack and his mother tapes up their thumbs and try to make a cookie and learn how hard it is to not have a thumb in person. This is the major difference between Colt and Jack: Colt, because they act on their instinct only thinks for himself but Jack tries to understand how the other people are feeling and he is able to sympathize with them. Not only is it the difference between Colt and Jack but it is also the difference between animals and humans.

In many other parts of the stories, Laken suggests that Colt is regressing into an animal: i.e. the difference between animals and humans is opposable thumbs. Combining the subtle hints and these three differences between Colt and Jack, using the two-column strategy to effectively help the readers to notice, Laken hopes the readers to realize that every human can regress back into their ancestors – animals. Perhaps she wishes to tell all the readers that even in the hardest times, logical thinking and sympathies can really help. In the end, Jack’s part of the story really is a happy ending, but Colt’s part of the story ends like an existentialistic story filled with failure and discontent.

About Drucker and Laken's essay

Visual strategies

1. There are two split columns – right and left

2. The columns have different distances (left column is 3^rd person (dad), right column is 1^st person (son)).

3. There are column bridges on page 6 and 11.

4. The two columns happen same time. I noticed that many repetitions and column bridge at both columns on page 2, 3, 6, and 11.

5. I found interesting Colt’s sound like “Squaaaaaaawk”, “Gaaah”, and “Zeeeeeeeeshandagahhh”

Purpose of the Laken’s writing

I think through her essay “Separate Kingdoms”, Laken wants to say how important the role of family and, by extension, human in this technology era.

There are two kingdoms in the Laken’s writing. One of that is father’s kingdom which is located on the left column of the essay and the other one is his son’s’ kingdom which is located on the right column. The father lost his thumbs by machine and after that he always watched TV and didn’t talk too much with his family. His son, Jack, also didn’t like to communicate with the family and usually play the game. However, the end of the essay although it takes Jack a long time to accept Colt and understand why he’s going through such a hard time, he accepts his father in his own way. The author does not explicitly tell the readers that Colt still cares about his family and loves his family, but it is conveyed in the conversation that Colt has with a lawyer at the very end of the story.

Assignment 1.3

My old controlling purpose is:

He used a variety of techniques to support his point that “strategic amnesia” should be adopted in American literature as a new style of American literature in the rest of 20th century.

My Current controlling purpose is:

At least to me very sensible, that he is continuously suggesting for his readers to use the strategic amnesia to be free from the shame caused by the forgetting in the information age with his thorough analysis of the mechanism that the forgetting results in shame and with the proof of how powerful the strategic amnesia works in many literal narrative forms in response to the shame.

New introduction:

Charles Baxter’s “Shame and Forgetting in the Information Age” seems to me very interesting piece of writing in terms of its variety of equipments to make its audience attracted to think about what will be really necessary for this age. Especially, the composition of his writing adds some extent of complexity on his essay in regard with his true purpose for this. However, after several times focused and attentive reading it, finally you would experience the feeling that slight light flash deeply shot through from your head to the heart. At the last sentence, “All the computers in the world cannot remedy it.” (Baxter, p.157) will lead you to the track you might have missed on the course of reading, which finally takes to the door, the purpose of this writing, at least to me very sensible, that he is continuously suggesting for his readers to use the strategic amnesia to be free from the shame caused by the forgetting in the information age with his thorough analysis of the mechanism that the forgetting results in shame and with the proof of how powerful the strategic amnesia works in many literal narrative forms in response to the shame.

Assignment 1.2

“Pioneering a new kind of literature”

At first glance, Charles Baxter’s “Shame and Forgetting in the Information Age” seems to be talking about a method for dealing with abundant information. However, while reading it, the main point of this writing became so much clear, that it is about literature in America. He used a variety of techniques to support his point that “strategic amnesia” should be adopted in American literature as a new style of American literature in the rest of 20th century. In order to establish the base of his argument, quotes from books, comparison, and personal anecdote are techniques he used.

At the beginning, Baxter successfully catches the eyes of his readers with his personal history about his brother. This personal anecdote successfully plays a roll in making a logical start for the development of his argument. Especially, his brother’s case that “he had trouble in school (and he went to a lot of schools) because he could not learn printed information easily” (Baxter, p.141) help make this essay tangible and intimate to readers due to the fact that, as later he asserted that “there’s no intimacy otherwise, and any memoir requires intimacy to convey its experiences” (Baxter, p.152), it is personal experience of the author, and may be frequently seen in a family.

The second part is where Baxter first mentions the necessity of “strategic amnesia” presenting the analysis of a situation that “No one can absorb all the information” (Baxter, p.146). Then, he raised the question, “What meaning does forgetfulness possess in an information age?”(Baxter, P.146). Following the question, logically the strategic forgetfulness is justified by the case that “Reaganism, understood as the proving ground of historical amnesia, strategically ignored the past in favor of a wasteful and a self-indulgent present”(Baxter, p.148)

At the third part, the turning point to get into what really the author wants to say just began with a theoretical viewpoint about memory by the quote from a book “The Storyteller” by Walter Benjamin. Baxter purposely had the excerpt from the book so as easily to jump on the area of literature by paraphrasing Benjamin’s argument that “Experience has fallen in value” (Benjamin, p.149), the paraphrase as follow:

“To paraphrase his argument: you don’t want to hear about my experiences anymore. Nor am I usually in a mood to tell you about them. Why? First of all, because much of my experience feels blank, terrible, or unchaning. Benjamin here uses the example of mute shell-shocked soldiers coming back from World War I. Secondly, I’m not having experiences in my day-to-day life: instead, I’m absorbing or processing information.” (Baxter, p149)

By doing so, he was getting establishing more clearly his stance on the memory definitely distinct from the memory of personal experience with a hypothetical example of our kind of daily life, MS. Bartleby who hardly makes her own time because of stuffing data she has to arrange and analyze wherever she is at home or work. Then, Baxter slightly implied his advocacy of forgetting stating that “And yet, if her life feels inadequate and shallow to her, that very forgetting, that very shame, may, through a quasi-Freudian reversal, also seem immensely attractive.” (Baxter, p.150), and further explaining as follow :

“Forgetting and shame might just serve, under the immediate surface of consciousness, as an escape route of sorts. Nor “I prefer not to,” but “I don’t remember.” Or, “I prefer not to “ in the form of “I don’t remember.” Not remembering locates itself as an act of sabotage against mere data, of rebellion at the local level. It is memory’s version of the Freudian slip.” (Baxter, p150)

Finally, Baxter revealed his point more clearly with the established the mechanism of forgetfulness, the newly defined the three notions that are shame, innocence, and forgetfulness. Those mechanism and notions are involved in American literature in terms of memoir described as below :

“The recent proliferation of memoirs has been viewed with alarm by literary and cultural pundits, who have claimed that all these memoirs are yet another manifestation of the ubiquitous viral narcissism at work in the American cultural body, indentified by Christopher Lasch and several others”(Baxter. P.151)

Then, Baxter made his contradictory viewpoint on the anxiety of the pundits, saying “It’s a perfectly reasonable response to the devaluation and even destruction of personal experience.” (Baxter, p.151) Right after this statement, he added that “What you remember is the key to who you are.” (Baxter, 151) Now, he seems to be ready to go for the conclusion clearly about something in matter of writing. Again, Baxter pointed out a problematic tendency in American memoirs that have had “reserved a special place for missing or empty or vacated or just bad father.” (Baxter, p.152) Then, narrative dysfunction as a term for writing style or a phenomenon in writing, is also used to stand out the problem in American memoirs.

“… narrative dysfunction (the phrase is C. K. Williams’s) is the process by which we lose track of the story of ourselves, the story that tells us who we are supposed to be and how we are supposed to act.” (Baxter, p.153)

At the last part, he was rather decisively trying to present an alternative to power through the matters in writing previously analyzed. He was saying as follow:

“Nevertheless, it’s just possible that in the last part of the twentieth century, we are pioneering a new kind of literature, a literature of amnesia, as we assemble the fragmentary texts of forgetting. This new literature is probably one side effect of data-nausea, of which narrative minimalism may be another. If memory stands against death, forgetting stands against data. It’s also one solution to the problem of trauma”(Baxter, p.154)

Then, he took lots of alternative books using “forgetting as a consistent narrative device.” (Baxter, p.154) the books weighing power on the argument that there are needs to change in American literature and also possible solutions to develop and find out a new literature style in the age of devaluation of personal memory. In addition, before the last example, he again convinced the ground of using forgetting in writing by saying this:

“The shame of forgetting. The necessity of it. What help is the data if you don’t – if you can’t and won’t – remember the story?”(Baxter, p.155)

Rather forcing his argument to the reader, he chose to boldly imply his point at the last sentence using metaphor quoting from “Lake-of-the-Woods.” This would help him much powerfully appeal his point of the essay to readers rather directly reinforcing his point with repeating the argument using forgetfulness, make new types of narrative in American culture. With his open ending of his essay, there are lots more possibilities that we can think about the power of using forgetting in writing in this Information age. So far, this essay would give not only insight on forgetting as a technique for literature but also points to be applied to day-to-day lives of ours, which may enhance our lives to be more human-like and valuable with our own personal memories.

Introduction

Have you ever thought about living without the internet in your life? In my case, the answer is “never.” I am using the internet everyday and at least seven hours a day. The internet is very useful because it gives a lot of information to me. For example, when I decided to apply colleges in the U.S.A., I had searched information about colleges in Wisconsin and finally I decided to choose the UWM. It was helpful because I could compare those universities’ advantages and disadvantages at my home in South Korea. However, for the most of my internet time, I just spend reading a lot of unimportant articles like entertainment information and visit my friend’s blogs. Same as me, I believe most people, who are using the Internet, are exposed to a lot of unnecessary information through daily web searching if they want or not. I think it is a really big problem because as Baxter’s wrote using Neil’s statement, “We have transformed information into a form of garbage” (Neil, p141), even though we find valuable information, it can be possible to deal with unimportant things. Now, I want to write about why we have to develop our ability to realize which information is more important than others. First of all, as I already mentioned before, there are a lot of information in our daily life. Secondly, we are losing opportunities to get our experience data because of those unnecessary information data and finally, in this information age, it is going to be a person’s strong power and ability how much valuable data you have.

"The virtuosi of knowledge, they are presumed to have-they do have-some authority because of what they know and what they remember"(144).

"A proliferation of information causes information-inflation. That is, every individual piece of information loses some value given the sheer quantity of other information"(146)

"Benjamin argues that the explosion of information in the Modern Age is denying us something precious: "the ability to exchange experiences."(149)

Shame and Forgetting in the Information Age

In Charles Baxter’s essay, “Shame and forgetting in the Information Age”, he divides his essay into five parts. First part of the story is about his brother who suffered from “learning disability”. Second part is an introduction about memory, shame, and forgetting in the information age. In third, forth, and fifth parts, he gives more examples and explanations of memory, shame, and forgetting individually.

In the first part, he talks about his brother who could remember everything when he listened to stories but had trouble with reading and writing some information. Also, his brother felt shame when he forgot some information. I think through this experience, the author attempts to make easy to approach what he is going to say about memory, shame, and forgetting in this information era.

According to Baxter, “We are all (well, most of us) computer users now” (Baxter, p.146). He also says, “’Our memories’ are memories of our experiences in narrative form…Data, by contrast, the proliferating facts and figures, can easily be stored” (Baxter, P. 146). That means we are forced to expose a lot of information even though we don’t want to get it. Sometimes knowing and remembering of a lot of professional information has authority. That is why people feel shame to forget some information because he thinks they lose faces in front of people. The author says that our capacity for remembering or even having experiences has reduced due to an increasing information exposure. Lastly, to cope with the excessive information age, the author advised that we need to forget something strategically. He mentions that “Strategic amnesia has everything to do with the desire to create or destroy personal histories. It has everything to do with the way we tell stories (Baxter, p. 145).

I think the purpose of the Baxter’s writing is to inform us how we get useful information and experiences for our daylily life in this information age.

About me

My name is Yousun Moon. I am a transfer student from South Korea. I have lived in the U.S.A. for two and a half years so maybe you guys can notice that my English is not so fluent. I welcome your comments on my English as your advice makes my English better. I am studying nursing and nice to meet you guys!