Religious states are the topic of this blog. By Religious states I mean country’s with laws that are specifically seeped in religion. I want to talk specifically about Israel to spring board this discussion. Recently Israel’s cabinet approved a draft for a new pledge that would require non-Jewish immigrants to Israel to pledge loyalty to Israel as a government that is specifically Jewish.
This bothers mean, in an age where society marks the Islamic countries as backwards for religious based politics, yet Israel was established to be a place where Jewish people could be safe and yet when they receive their state they almost immediately become expansionist. It is also bothers me that this loyalty pledge is only meant for people who are not Jewish or who do not have Jewish heritage. The New York Times article that I read mention that this was for the Hasidic Jews who are largely non-Zionist.
So what’s so bad about a loyalty pledge, you might ask, I mean after all we do have out pledge of allegiance? Well what so bad is you are promoting blind nationalism. The Pledge of Allegiance was originally instituted as an assimilation tactic, so that the child of immigrants would feel more loyalty to the USA than to their parents’ homeland. It’s a tactic that is deplorable, to require a person to pledge allegiance to a country is to say they must be loyal to it by virtue of living with in it, which does not seem right. A person does not have to be a nationalist to participate in government so why should they have to say a pledge, which means they are inevitably agreeing to risk life and limb for a country that they might not want to even be a part of but lack the means with which to get out.
This particular notion of loyalty oath bothers me because, while I am to some extant a Zionist, it requires the person to agree to Israel as an exclusively Jewish state, or at least its government to be exclusively Jewish. Which leave the everyday Palestinian who is already being crushed under the boot of Israeli occupation, even less likely to receive a voice in Israel. It also means that the only solution to peace talks is a two country system and that would ultimately lead to Israel giving up some of its occupied territory. So not only is this pledge disrespectful of anyone who might want to live in Israel, but is not Jewish, but it also limits the options for peace in the area.
I have been talking like this is already in effect I know, but it has yet to be passed through parliament. I am hoping the parliament will have the greater sense to not pass this loyalty pledge. Just the notion of a loyalty pledge gives me the shivers, and makes me think of a wonderful book Catch 22 by Joseph Heller, but this pledge limits what the non-Jewish immigrant can expect there government to do for them. Namely it limits the scope of progress to be made as well as the rights of others.
Friday, October 15, 2010
Saturday, October 9, 2010
Maus...again
This is going to be another post on Maus. In one of my earlier blog posts I talk about art in comics and how it has changed and has been reflected in other mediums, in this post I want to talk specifically on the topic of the art work of Maus and what it does to and for the story. In Maus there are two aspects I want to talk about: the very angular art style and then the extended metaphor in the use of various animals to represent the different factions of people in World War 2.
The angular art style in Maus intrigues me because it exists even when things ought to be round, like the clouds rising out of the chimneys of the gas chambers. Everything in in the art work feels angular, which leads me to wonder if it was specifically for Maus that Art Spiegelman uses this art style or if it is just his normal art style. To use a one case example I looked over “Prisoner on the Hell Planet,” I see some angular aspects of it, but it still looks more like ink block realism then the angular drawings of Maus itself, so I concluded that Maus’ art style is for Maus. To that end then what does the art style represent in the story? The only answer I can think of seems to be that its pointed and angular as a representation of the pointed conflicts throughout the graphic novel, whether it is Art and his father arguing or the conflict between the Nazi’s and the Jewish people. This seems like a weak guess at best to be forth right, but what else could a style used particularly for this piece mean beyond that when everything is about contrast and opposition? With this question wholly unanswered lets address my second observation on the art the animals.
The animals in Maus each represent a different faction in pre and post war Europe, they address the issues of identity, division, and the role that that faction played in the climate of the times. While those are all interesting topic, I choose to ignore them in pursuit of a different question (though I may come back to them in a later blog post, spoiler alert), why use animals at all? I think this is the largest question that looms over all these other themes. What interests me the most is that these animals aren’t animals with human characteristics, but rather humans with animal characteristics. It is like inverting an Aesop’s Fable. The reason I think Spiegelman does this is so that he may turn it into a sort of bed time story with a moral at the end, but that leads into a cascade of other questions, such as what is the moral? Why doesn’t anyone in the story appear to grow or change? In all I think that the animals allow Spiegelman to label the good and the bad, but even that does not work to its full effect because we see mice betray mice and pigs help mice, the lines are vague even while the metaphor of the animals stands concrete. It is a conflicting ambiguity one that bothers me to know end, is this ambiguity a direct addressing to the concept that the Nazi’s had of humanity being separated so definitely that we were different species, but if he was trying to address that claim why make his wife a mouse in the end shouldn’t she be a frog because she is French and then she could represent that the “races” could mix? Spielgelman seems to mix his metaphor with the potent spices of ambiguity and social critique, but all that comes out of the pot is an ambiguous symbol, a symbol unable to be deciphered is useless. So we must give it a label but to do that eliminates everything else it could be so how does it get labeled? I do not know.
The angular art style in Maus intrigues me because it exists even when things ought to be round, like the clouds rising out of the chimneys of the gas chambers. Everything in in the art work feels angular, which leads me to wonder if it was specifically for Maus that Art Spiegelman uses this art style or if it is just his normal art style. To use a one case example I looked over “Prisoner on the Hell Planet,” I see some angular aspects of it, but it still looks more like ink block realism then the angular drawings of Maus itself, so I concluded that Maus’ art style is for Maus. To that end then what does the art style represent in the story? The only answer I can think of seems to be that its pointed and angular as a representation of the pointed conflicts throughout the graphic novel, whether it is Art and his father arguing or the conflict between the Nazi’s and the Jewish people. This seems like a weak guess at best to be forth right, but what else could a style used particularly for this piece mean beyond that when everything is about contrast and opposition? With this question wholly unanswered lets address my second observation on the art the animals.
The animals in Maus each represent a different faction in pre and post war Europe, they address the issues of identity, division, and the role that that faction played in the climate of the times. While those are all interesting topic, I choose to ignore them in pursuit of a different question (though I may come back to them in a later blog post, spoiler alert), why use animals at all? I think this is the largest question that looms over all these other themes. What interests me the most is that these animals aren’t animals with human characteristics, but rather humans with animal characteristics. It is like inverting an Aesop’s Fable. The reason I think Spiegelman does this is so that he may turn it into a sort of bed time story with a moral at the end, but that leads into a cascade of other questions, such as what is the moral? Why doesn’t anyone in the story appear to grow or change? In all I think that the animals allow Spiegelman to label the good and the bad, but even that does not work to its full effect because we see mice betray mice and pigs help mice, the lines are vague even while the metaphor of the animals stands concrete. It is a conflicting ambiguity one that bothers me to know end, is this ambiguity a direct addressing to the concept that the Nazi’s had of humanity being separated so definitely that we were different species, but if he was trying to address that claim why make his wife a mouse in the end shouldn’t she be a frog because she is French and then she could represent that the “races” could mix? Spielgelman seems to mix his metaphor with the potent spices of ambiguity and social critique, but all that comes out of the pot is an ambiguous symbol, a symbol unable to be deciphered is useless. So we must give it a label but to do that eliminates everything else it could be so how does it get labeled? I do not know.
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Maus
This blog will be dedicated to Maus volume one. This graphic novel is interesting for me because it is about holocaust memory and about the relationship between a holocaust survivor and his son. Of those two things I have to say the interactions of Art Spiegelman with his father is the more interesting of the two sides of this tale. This is interesting to me because the relationship between Spiegelman and his father is tumultuous at best.
This can be broken down in to a couple different attitudes that Art has towards his father. His attitudes seems to be split between contempt for his father’s miserliness and awe at what his father went through during World War 2.
The contempt for his father is interesting to me because it shows that Spiegelman really hasn’t grown out of the teenage angst phase and it’s also an interesting reaction to how his father raised him. This is shown by the prologue in which Spiegelman get ditched by his friends and his father’s reaction is to say that you can only find out who your friends really are when you are all locked in a room starving. This is definitely an unusual approach to parenting to say the least, but I think it also contributes to the way Art Spielgelman behaves when his father throws out his coat and then replace it; Spielgelman is angered with his father, because he believes his father is saying that Spielgelman’s stuff, his life isn’t good enough for his father. This coupled with the suicide of his mother leads Spielgman to be trapped in this state of adolescences with no visible way out. This is an interesting insight into him psychologically, and really he all but admits the fact that he is stuck in his development in his comic “Prisoner on the Hell Planet” this is interesting because it shows he has a realization that he is trapped, but his actions with his father make it seem as if he isn’t even trying to move on in his life. An interesting contrast to this is the reverence he shows for his father when he is telling the tale of how he made it through World War 2.
The respect he has for his father’s struggles is most obvious in his persistence to hear his father retell the story of what happened to him, but also is obvious in the panels that cut back to the present day. Whenever Art visits his father he is always bothering him to tell more of his story, even when his father wants to do other things and just spend time with his son all we see is Art constantly bothering his father to hear more of the story. Then once he is able to convince his father to tell his story it goes on for 5 or 6 pages and cuts back to present day and in more than one case we see Art sitting at his father’s feet like a child listening to a bed time story. Arts adoration for his father’s struggle is apparent in the work on Maus volume one.
This can be broken down in to a couple different attitudes that Art has towards his father. His attitudes seems to be split between contempt for his father’s miserliness and awe at what his father went through during World War 2.
The contempt for his father is interesting to me because it shows that Spiegelman really hasn’t grown out of the teenage angst phase and it’s also an interesting reaction to how his father raised him. This is shown by the prologue in which Spiegelman get ditched by his friends and his father’s reaction is to say that you can only find out who your friends really are when you are all locked in a room starving. This is definitely an unusual approach to parenting to say the least, but I think it also contributes to the way Art Spielgelman behaves when his father throws out his coat and then replace it; Spielgelman is angered with his father, because he believes his father is saying that Spielgelman’s stuff, his life isn’t good enough for his father. This coupled with the suicide of his mother leads Spielgman to be trapped in this state of adolescences with no visible way out. This is an interesting insight into him psychologically, and really he all but admits the fact that he is stuck in his development in his comic “Prisoner on the Hell Planet” this is interesting because it shows he has a realization that he is trapped, but his actions with his father make it seem as if he isn’t even trying to move on in his life. An interesting contrast to this is the reverence he shows for his father when he is telling the tale of how he made it through World War 2.
The respect he has for his father’s struggles is most obvious in his persistence to hear his father retell the story of what happened to him, but also is obvious in the panels that cut back to the present day. Whenever Art visits his father he is always bothering him to tell more of his story, even when his father wants to do other things and just spend time with his son all we see is Art constantly bothering his father to hear more of the story. Then once he is able to convince his father to tell his story it goes on for 5 or 6 pages and cuts back to present day and in more than one case we see Art sitting at his father’s feet like a child listening to a bed time story. Arts adoration for his father’s struggle is apparent in the work on Maus volume one.
Saturday, September 25, 2010
The Golem
In this post I want to talk about one of my favorite aspects of Jewish mythology, the golem. Its a creation myth, but rather then a myth of a god creating humans, it is humans creating protectors, of clay. I what to focus on a few ideas first the idea of the protector in any mythology, then the idea of creation from clay or some from of earth present in other mythologies, and finally I want to talk about the golem in modern setting.
The idea of protectors, totems that help societies of peoples stay safe, for the Jewish there is the golem, for the medieval Christian's it was gargoyles, and to the Babylonians it was the lamassu. Fear is an emotion everyone share so even a made up sense of safety is comforting. The mythology around the golem is that it will protect the Jewish people from people who wish to harm them or get rid of them, and given the history of the persecution of the Jewish people its an understandable fear to have. The medieval Christians had fears of a different kind they had the fear of the world, quiet literally anything that wasn't explained by the church was something to be feared. The gargoyles were on the gothic cathedrals to protect them from evil spirits. The Babylonians believe that the lamassu would protect them from invading forces an thus they were put at the gates of cities to protect them from outside forces. Then there are the creation myths tied in with golem.
Mutiple creations myths involve the use of some form of earth, from the Judeo Christian creation myth, and Grecian creation myths, as well as the golem itself. The Judeo Christian creation myth is that God created the first man out of the dust of the ground and formed him in to the current shape of humanity. Then there are multiple creation myths in Greek mythology, one of which is that a man who threw rocks to the ground and these rocks sprung up as men to be part of his country. The golem itself is made of clay and then given life. The importance of all these being linked is that it results in an interesting connection to humanity and earth, in a sort of circle of life way, it explains our burial practices and out belief systems.
Now lets talk about the golem, like I said one of my favorite Jewish myths, if not one of my favorite myths period. The golem interests me because it is a creation meant for protection but also because it give a man the ability to be a god to give life to an object in a more real way then one could accomplish in any other way. What role does the golem play in the modern setting you might ask and the answer to that would be a favorite past time of mine, D&D. In D&D there are multiple types of golems not just clay, but iron and stone and golems made of flesh. I think these are interesting because the myth never states that a golem must be made of clay and thus anything formed into the shape of a human can be animated with a spell and serve as a protector. However they are always automatons, creatures without thoughts or feelings they serve a purpose in obeying their masters. Which really limits and confuses can they be seen as something that needs caring from a creator or can they be wiped away as marker on a white board and I think that leaves an interesting place when connected to the creation myths, does that mean man is mindless? Does it mean that we can be destroyed pointlessly and with out a 2nd thought?
The idea of protectors, totems that help societies of peoples stay safe, for the Jewish there is the golem, for the medieval Christian's it was gargoyles, and to the Babylonians it was the lamassu. Fear is an emotion everyone share so even a made up sense of safety is comforting. The mythology around the golem is that it will protect the Jewish people from people who wish to harm them or get rid of them, and given the history of the persecution of the Jewish people its an understandable fear to have. The medieval Christians had fears of a different kind they had the fear of the world, quiet literally anything that wasn't explained by the church was something to be feared. The gargoyles were on the gothic cathedrals to protect them from evil spirits. The Babylonians believe that the lamassu would protect them from invading forces an thus they were put at the gates of cities to protect them from outside forces. Then there are the creation myths tied in with golem.
Mutiple creations myths involve the use of some form of earth, from the Judeo Christian creation myth, and Grecian creation myths, as well as the golem itself. The Judeo Christian creation myth is that God created the first man out of the dust of the ground and formed him in to the current shape of humanity. Then there are multiple creation myths in Greek mythology, one of which is that a man who threw rocks to the ground and these rocks sprung up as men to be part of his country. The golem itself is made of clay and then given life. The importance of all these being linked is that it results in an interesting connection to humanity and earth, in a sort of circle of life way, it explains our burial practices and out belief systems.
Now lets talk about the golem, like I said one of my favorite Jewish myths, if not one of my favorite myths period. The golem interests me because it is a creation meant for protection but also because it give a man the ability to be a god to give life to an object in a more real way then one could accomplish in any other way. What role does the golem play in the modern setting you might ask and the answer to that would be a favorite past time of mine, D&D. In D&D there are multiple types of golems not just clay, but iron and stone and golems made of flesh. I think these are interesting because the myth never states that a golem must be made of clay and thus anything formed into the shape of a human can be animated with a spell and serve as a protector. However they are always automatons, creatures without thoughts or feelings they serve a purpose in obeying their masters. Which really limits and confuses can they be seen as something that needs caring from a creator or can they be wiped away as marker on a white board and I think that leaves an interesting place when connected to the creation myths, does that mean man is mindless? Does it mean that we can be destroyed pointlessly and with out a 2nd thought?
History Of Comics
In my last post I talked about the art change in comics and how it has affected other types of media. This time I would like to talk more about the actual history of comics. Particularly the golden age.
Lets start with what the golden age is. Its the age when comics first started up until about the 1960's. The early 1930's is when the comic book originated and that was originally a comic book had multiple different comic strips. This was so there was something for everyone. The first superhero comic and also the first comic to have its own serialized book was superman. However I don't want to spend this entire post telling you the story of comics books I actually want to comment on my thoughts on the old heros and the comic book censorship that took place in the 50's.
First my thoughts on the old heros the ones that have existed sense the dawn of comics, superman, batman, the entire lot of them. They were the heros that captured the imagination of the children of the great depression and of world war 2. These heros were something fantastic, but what about in our day and age how do they old up? Here is what I think, I think some have held up better then other Superman for instance is to over powered in my opinion he has one flaw an incredibly rare and expensive stone, it would be like a human only being able to die by swallowing plutonium. Then there is batman and this will show my personal bias because he is my favorite hero. Batman transcends time lines really because he could really be placed in any time with cutting edge weaponry and still fit, and he still mortal, with the right budget anyone could do it. Then there is Captain America, I think this hero is incredibly outdated, he is a character that played heavily on the nationalism of World War 2. Which in the modern day and age makes him appear like a rather flat character. Then I want to talk on the topic of the censorship panels.
Censorship, to me it is one of the ugliest words in the English language. It means repression of thoughts and ideas that could be important to a particular sector of the public, ideas that could shape and change the world. The foolishness of censorship really leads to deliberate ignorance, and that is why the censorship panels of comics and all censorship in general is completely foolish to me. The worst part was the suppression of art. Art, in my opinion, is one of the best mediums for expressing ideas, so when censorship represses art it is particularly heinous. Even if one believes that comics are the lowest form of art they have to see that comics do serve a purpose they can enlighten and educate a sector of the population that would normally not be exposed to these ideas even if they are radical, or stupid they serve a purpose.
Lets start with what the golden age is. Its the age when comics first started up until about the 1960's. The early 1930's is when the comic book originated and that was originally a comic book had multiple different comic strips. This was so there was something for everyone. The first superhero comic and also the first comic to have its own serialized book was superman. However I don't want to spend this entire post telling you the story of comics books I actually want to comment on my thoughts on the old heros and the comic book censorship that took place in the 50's.
First my thoughts on the old heros the ones that have existed sense the dawn of comics, superman, batman, the entire lot of them. They were the heros that captured the imagination of the children of the great depression and of world war 2. These heros were something fantastic, but what about in our day and age how do they old up? Here is what I think, I think some have held up better then other Superman for instance is to over powered in my opinion he has one flaw an incredibly rare and expensive stone, it would be like a human only being able to die by swallowing plutonium. Then there is batman and this will show my personal bias because he is my favorite hero. Batman transcends time lines really because he could really be placed in any time with cutting edge weaponry and still fit, and he still mortal, with the right budget anyone could do it. Then there is Captain America, I think this hero is incredibly outdated, he is a character that played heavily on the nationalism of World War 2. Which in the modern day and age makes him appear like a rather flat character. Then I want to talk on the topic of the censorship panels.
Censorship, to me it is one of the ugliest words in the English language. It means repression of thoughts and ideas that could be important to a particular sector of the public, ideas that could shape and change the world. The foolishness of censorship really leads to deliberate ignorance, and that is why the censorship panels of comics and all censorship in general is completely foolish to me. The worst part was the suppression of art. Art, in my opinion, is one of the best mediums for expressing ideas, so when censorship represses art it is particularly heinous. Even if one believes that comics are the lowest form of art they have to see that comics do serve a purpose they can enlighten and educate a sector of the population that would normally not be exposed to these ideas even if they are radical, or stupid they serve a purpose.
Saturday, September 18, 2010
Comic Art
In this post I want to talk more about the artistic style of comic and graphic novels rather than the content of a particular graphic novel or comic. Frist I will examine how the art style has grown and then how the art is applied in modern setting not just to comics, but to other media as well.
I want to start out by discussing panels. They are the framework of any story quite literally. A panel is the picture where something happens in a comic. They also produce the flow in a comic, the way they are arranged directs the reader’s eyes to follow the story a certain ways, or in a full page panel allow the reader to explore the page as they see fit. This also allows for a character to exist a panel, meaning they break the border this means either they are usually being more dramatic, grabbing the reader’s attention by breaking the strait lines, or it is done to break the fourth wall. The panels can also be used to manipulate they speed at which the reader reads, a longer panel will slow the reader down which a bunch of quick short small panels will speed up the reader. So panels are an effective frame work for the art to take place, but what about the art style within the panels?
Well the art style has changed quite a bit over the years, from stippling in the 50’s to the heavy inking of the grittier dramas in conjunction with cell shading, and know in the era of more webcomics we she an mixture of a flash and anime mix as well as a large number of artistic styles. The art of comics has evolved along with comics as a medium, as the writing got more sophisticated so does the art as a way to tell the story. Stippling was a bright colorful medium, which made even the darkest melodramas seem to play across a clown’s face paint. Then as comics grew into a more adult medium a new art style grew as well darker, heavier, and scarier environments were created, like in the stories of the “darkest night” character arc or the graphic novels of V for Vendetta and Watchmen. So comics began to be taken more seriously as an artistic medium. Then as the internet grew as a place for media to flourish, webcomics began to pop up these usually one page weekly comics have become a mixture of many different art styles, for a great display of many artistic style I would recommend the Gutters ( http://www.the-gutters.com/ ) it is a funny series.
The art style of comics has translated into other media as they become a more popularized medium. This is seen in super hero movies as well as movies like Scott Pilgrim which actually barrow quite heavily from comics and video games. Then video games themselves the new game Halo Reach for instance has a special effect in the forge mode that turns the entire map into a heavy black and white contrast which is called pen and ink, which makes me think of graphic novels. Comics as an artistic medium as crossed borders, and not just the ones around panels, to create an aristic approach to all media.
I want to start out by discussing panels. They are the framework of any story quite literally. A panel is the picture where something happens in a comic. They also produce the flow in a comic, the way they are arranged directs the reader’s eyes to follow the story a certain ways, or in a full page panel allow the reader to explore the page as they see fit. This also allows for a character to exist a panel, meaning they break the border this means either they are usually being more dramatic, grabbing the reader’s attention by breaking the strait lines, or it is done to break the fourth wall. The panels can also be used to manipulate they speed at which the reader reads, a longer panel will slow the reader down which a bunch of quick short small panels will speed up the reader. So panels are an effective frame work for the art to take place, but what about the art style within the panels?
Well the art style has changed quite a bit over the years, from stippling in the 50’s to the heavy inking of the grittier dramas in conjunction with cell shading, and know in the era of more webcomics we she an mixture of a flash and anime mix as well as a large number of artistic styles. The art of comics has evolved along with comics as a medium, as the writing got more sophisticated so does the art as a way to tell the story. Stippling was a bright colorful medium, which made even the darkest melodramas seem to play across a clown’s face paint. Then as comics grew into a more adult medium a new art style grew as well darker, heavier, and scarier environments were created, like in the stories of the “darkest night” character arc or the graphic novels of V for Vendetta and Watchmen. So comics began to be taken more seriously as an artistic medium. Then as the internet grew as a place for media to flourish, webcomics began to pop up these usually one page weekly comics have become a mixture of many different art styles, for a great display of many artistic style I would recommend the Gutters ( http://www.the-gutters.com/ ) it is a funny series.
The art style of comics has translated into other media as they become a more popularized medium. This is seen in super hero movies as well as movies like Scott Pilgrim which actually barrow quite heavily from comics and video games. Then video games themselves the new game Halo Reach for instance has a special effect in the forge mode that turns the entire map into a heavy black and white contrast which is called pen and ink, which makes me think of graphic novels. Comics as an artistic medium as crossed borders, and not just the ones around panels, to create an aristic approach to all media.
A contract with God
To discuss Will Eisner's "A Contract with God" is to discuss not only the Jewish relationship with God but also the ideas of sexuality, and, suffering. Cookalein was my personal favorite so I'm going to address these themes with respect to that story. While the most potent theme in Cookalein is sexuality, I will start by addressing the idea of suffering.
In Cookalein the most apparent suffering is loneliness, whether it is the loneliness of Goldie and Benny searching for lovers, and money, or Sam’s wife being cheated on. Loneliness is constant theme in the story, Goldie talks about spending all her savings to buy two dresses just to find a husband. This In my option speaks of desperation, she’s willing to spend all her money in order to obtain a husband. Then Sam’s wife appears to be lonely because she spends all day doing house work, and the only reason she will not get a divorce from Sam is because they have children. Then at the end of the story she tells Willie he has to be the man of the house because his father is going to be around less often. Benny appears lonely not only in the extremes he goes to attract a mate, but also that he wants to have sex so badly he rapes Goldie, and while I know this is a heinous and villainous act to do, it also speaks of a desperation for a basic human need that I think Benny has. The other person who seems to be lonely is Maralyn, her husband mention how she is back to her old tricks when she is sleeping with Willie, which implies she is in the habit of sleeping around. This could mean she is either an overly sexualized woman or she is lonely and looking for attention, or both are possible. Eisner focuses heavily on the idea of loneliness but not nearly as much as he does on the role of sexuality in the lives of his characters.
Almost every one of the characters Eisner presents to the reader in Cookalein has some sort of experience with sexuality over the course of the story. Sam has sex with his mistress and tries to have sex with his wife but she rejects him because she knows that he is sleeping around. Maralyn has sex with both Willie and her husband. Benny rapes Goldie, and the two young children watch. Each of these characters reacts to the sex differently as well. Sam enjoys the sex with his mistress, but the sex with his wife she more like it is out of obligation then out of love, or even lust which seems like a larger driving force behind sex in this story. This leads me to both Maralyn and Benny, who both seem motivated by lust to seek out sexual encounters. Then the children witness the rape of Goldie but in their innocence that just what adults do when they are being “naughty” so they are exposed to sexuality at a young age and it leads to them already having an interesting exposure to sex.
In Cookalein the most apparent suffering is loneliness, whether it is the loneliness of Goldie and Benny searching for lovers, and money, or Sam’s wife being cheated on. Loneliness is constant theme in the story, Goldie talks about spending all her savings to buy two dresses just to find a husband. This In my option speaks of desperation, she’s willing to spend all her money in order to obtain a husband. Then Sam’s wife appears to be lonely because she spends all day doing house work, and the only reason she will not get a divorce from Sam is because they have children. Then at the end of the story she tells Willie he has to be the man of the house because his father is going to be around less often. Benny appears lonely not only in the extremes he goes to attract a mate, but also that he wants to have sex so badly he rapes Goldie, and while I know this is a heinous and villainous act to do, it also speaks of a desperation for a basic human need that I think Benny has. The other person who seems to be lonely is Maralyn, her husband mention how she is back to her old tricks when she is sleeping with Willie, which implies she is in the habit of sleeping around. This could mean she is either an overly sexualized woman or she is lonely and looking for attention, or both are possible. Eisner focuses heavily on the idea of loneliness but not nearly as much as he does on the role of sexuality in the lives of his characters.
Almost every one of the characters Eisner presents to the reader in Cookalein has some sort of experience with sexuality over the course of the story. Sam has sex with his mistress and tries to have sex with his wife but she rejects him because she knows that he is sleeping around. Maralyn has sex with both Willie and her husband. Benny rapes Goldie, and the two young children watch. Each of these characters reacts to the sex differently as well. Sam enjoys the sex with his mistress, but the sex with his wife she more like it is out of obligation then out of love, or even lust which seems like a larger driving force behind sex in this story. This leads me to both Maralyn and Benny, who both seem motivated by lust to seek out sexual encounters. Then the children witness the rape of Goldie but in their innocence that just what adults do when they are being “naughty” so they are exposed to sexuality at a young age and it leads to them already having an interesting exposure to sex.
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