User:Frankie Ulyanova

Ms. Frankie Ulyanova
AP English Language

Surgical Teams

Units
Education

Readings, Observations, and Experiences
Whether for class or my own enjoyment, these are a collection of some of my sources for learning.

Fiction

 * Gruen, Sara. Water for Elephants A Novel. New York: Algonquin Books, 2007. Print.

Summary: A well-researched novel about the American circus during the Great Depression. The whimsical air of the modern circus has a seedy history of mistreatment of workers and animals, vicious competition among troupes to maintain basic survival, and an internal class system that simultaneously unites and divides them as carnies. This engaging story alternates between the present of the protagonist and his past in the circus as a veterinarian, with detailed descriptions that lure a reader into its imagery.

"'I'm going to tell you how it is, Jacob Jankowski. ' He spits my name out like something distasteful.  'I've seen your sort a thousand times.  You think I can't read you like a book?  So what's the deal - did you and Mommy have a fight?  Or maybe you're just looking for a little adventure between semesters?'

'No, sir, it's nothing like that.'

'I don't give a damn what it is - even if I gave you a job on the show, you wouldn't survive. Not for a week. Not for a day. The show is a well-oiled machine, and only the toughest make it. But then you wouldn't know anything about tough, would you, Mr. College Boy?' "(58).

"When the orange and blue flag goes up over the cookhouse for dinner, a handful of new Benzini Brothers employees join the lineup, identifiable by the red dinner tickets they clutch in their hands. The fat man was luck, as was the bearded lady and a handful of dwarves.  Uncle Al took on only performers, although one unfortunate fellow found himself unemployed again within a matter of minutes when August caught him looking a little too appreciatively at Marlena as he exited the privilege car.

A few others try to join the lineup, and not a one of them gets by Ezra. His only job is to know everyone on the show, and by God, he's good at it. When he jerks his thumb at some unfortunate, Blackie steps forward to take care of it. One or two of the rejects manage to scarf a fistful of food before flying headfirst out of the cookhouse" (119-20).

"And then I laugh, because it's so ridiculous and so gorgeous and it's all I can do to not melt into a fit of giggles. So what if I'm ninety-three?  So what if I'm ancient and cranky and my body's a wreck?  If they're willing to accept me and my guilty conscience, why the hell shouldn't I run away with the circus?" (331).

Film and Television

 * Sollins, Susan. "Place." Art21: Art in the Twenty-First Century. Prod. Susan Dowling. PBS. 17 Jan. 2002. Hulu. Hulu LLC. Web. 15 Sept. 2009. .

Summary: The first episode of the series looks at the meaning of "place" for artists Richard Serra, Sally Mann, Barry McGee and Margaret Kilgallen, and Pepon Osorio. Serra creates giant steel structures that redefine space and place. Mann's photography of the mundane (dog bones) to the primal (her children growing up) to the natural (landscapes) explores different ways of envisioning and experiencing what is seen. McGee and Kilgallen balance their appreciation of the human creation by contributing art outside (graffiti) and inside (commissioned gallery pieces). Osorio orchestrates cultural experiences bombarding the eyes and the spaces he creates with images that are meant to invoke a personal response that lasts after viewing the art (Barber Shop, Crime Scene, Home Visit).


 * The Informant! Dir. Steven Soderbergh. Perf. Matt Damon, Lucas McHugh Carroll, Eddie Jemison. Warner Brothers, 2009. Film.

Summary: Based on a true story accounted in Kurt Eichenwald's nonfiction book The Informant, the film condenses people and events to portray comic tragedy of Mark Whitacre. Whitacre initially and successfully aided the FBI as a whistle blower of Archer Daniels Midland's (ADM) price fixing in the early 1990s. However, his good deeds paled as his own fraud of ADM was uncovered. Perhaps a tragic hero, Whitacre's story in this film seems to be one more of tragic comedy. Reviews of Eichenwald's book and press about Whitacre's request for Presidential pardon suggest a more somber truth.

Lectures/Community Events

 * Knight, Keith. "Fear of a Black Marker: Race, Humor, Politics and Cartooning." Decatur Book Festival. City Hall Stage, Decatur. 6 Sept. 2009. Lecture.

Summary: Knight commented on the background and history of his comics through a slideshow presentation of his strips "the K Chronicles," "the Knight Life," and "(th)ink." Issues of politics, race, and identity are recurrent themes, with approaches modified (or not) depending on the audience.

Nonfiction - Books

 * Kimmel, Michael. Guyland: The Perilous World Where Boys Become Men. New York: Harper, 2008. Print.

Summary: An analysis of the American phenomenon of a seemingly untenable male stage of life between 16 and 26. With traditional societal markers of "adulthood" now spread out over several decades ("leaving home, completing one's education, starting work, getting married, and becoming a parent" [24]), defining when one has "become a man" becomes less a function of societal recognition and more of a self proclamation adulated by one's peers. Guyland investigates the perils of peer-purported manhood, in truth more of an extended adolescence, and the detachment it forms from true adulthood.

"Guyland is a volatile stage, when one has access to all the tools of adulthood with few of the moral and familial constraints that urge sober conformity. These 'almost men' struggle to live up to a definition of masculinity they feel they had no part in creating, and yet from which they feel powerless to escape" (43).

"Friendship is the currency of Guyland -- the band of brothers. But often it's a counterfeit currency, based on suppression of emotion, false bravado, and toughness, a mutual recitation of allegiance to the Guy Code.  Developing a genuine friendship - a real one - is difficult, perhaps the biggest risk a guy can take.  It means being strong enough to show vulnerability, independent enough to brave social ostracism, courageous enough to trust another" (278).

"In the end we need to develop a new model of masculinity. Young men must understand on a deep level that being a real man isn't going along with what you know in your heart to be cruel, inhumane, stupid, humiliating, and dangerous.  Being a real man means doing the right thing, standing up to immorality and injustice when you see it, and expression compassion, not contempt, for those who are less fortunate.  In other words, it's about being courageous" (287).


 * Levy, Ariel. Female Chauvinist Pigs Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture. New York: Free, 2005. Print.

Summary: Under the deceptive guise of "empowerment," the ubiquitous American raunch culture does more to limit and return women to a pre-feminist status as objects. What's worse - women are the perpetrators of these limitations. Recalling the aspirations of the feminist movement, the backlash of some of its twisted implementation, and the emergence of a generation of young women who know nothing of either history, FCP addresses the underlying messages and implications of the raunch culture.

"Raunch provides a special opportunity for a woman who wants to prove her mettle. It's in fashion, and is something that has traditionally appealed exclusively to men and actively offended women, so producing it or participating in it is a way both to flaunt your coolness and to mark yourself as different, tougher; looser, funnier - a new sort of loophole woman who is 'not like other women,' who is instead 'like a man.'  Or, more precisely, like a Female Chauvinist Pig" (96).

"Tomming, then, is conforming to someone else's - someone more powerful's - distorted notion of what you represent. In so doing, you may be getting ahead in some way - getting paid to dance in blackface in a Tom show, or gaining favor with Mas'r as Stowe's hero did in literature - but you are simultaneously reifying the system that traps you . ..

It would be crazy to suggest that being a woman today (black or white) is anything remotely like being a slave (male or female) in antebellum America. There is obviously no comparison. But there are parallels in the ways we can think about the limits of what can be gained by 'acting like' an exalted group or reifying the stereotypes attributed to a subordinate group. These are the two strategies an FCP uses to deal with her femaleness: either acting like a cartoon man. . . or acting like a cartoon woman. . . " (106-7).

"But whereas older women were around for the women's movement itself, of at least for the period when its lessons were still alive in the country's collective memory, teenage girls have only the here and now. They have never known a time when 'ho' wasn't part of the lexicon . . . None of this can possibly be 'ironic' for teens because it's their whole truth - there's no backdrop of idealism to temper these messages.  If there's a way in which grown women are appropriating raunch as a rebellion against the constraints of feminism, we can't say the same for teens.  They never had a feminism to rebel against" (168-9).

Nonfiction - Essays

 * Jenee Desmond-Harris, Jenee. "Why Michelle Obama's Hair Matters." TIME Magazine. TIME.com. Time Inc., 7 Sept. 2009. Web. 3 Sept. 2009. .

Summary: A careful analysis of how the First Lady's various hairstyles reflect the identity and implied status of African-American women.

"The choice many black women make to alter their hair's natural texture has undeniable historical and psychological underpinnings. It has been attributed to everything from a history of oppression and assimilation to media-influenced notions of beauty and simple personal aesthetics" (1).

"The notion of natural black hair as being subversive or threatening is not new. When the New Yorker set out last summer to satirize Michelle as a militant, country-hating black radical, it was no coincidence that the illustrator portrayed her with an Afro. The cartoon was calling attention to all the ridiculous pre-election fearmongering. But the stereotypes it drew from may be one reason that 56% of respondents to a poll on NaturallyCurly.com say the U.S. is not ready for a 'First Lady with kinky hair' "(2).

"I'm neither high maintenance nor superficial: I'm a black woman. My focus on hair feels like a birthright. It is my membership in an exclusive, historical club, with privileges, responsibilities, infighting and bylaws that are rewritten every decade.

Not once when I've seen an image of our First Lady has it been lost on me that she is also a member. I don't see just an easy, bouncy do. I see the fruits of a time-consuming effort to convey a carefully calculated image. In the next-day ponytail, I see a familiar defeat" (2).

Pictures, Graphs/Charts, Cartoons
Forthcoming