The Best of John Zoidberg

War is the H-Word
Nurse: Are you ready to operate, Doctor?
Zoidberg: I’d love to, but first I have to perform surgery.

IHAWK
Gee, Zoidberg. Leave some for the enemy
to kill.
NURSE
Leave Dr. Zoidberg alone. He has twice
the training you do
IHAWK
Yeah, he's a doctor and a butcher!

Zoidberg: I’m afraid he’s gone
Soldier: Whoa, Doc, I aint dead
Zoidberg: Excuse me, I believe I'm the doctor
IHawk: Believe it all you want, that won't
make it true. (mauldlin) This isn't
a war, it's a murder. (irreverent)
This isn't a war, it's a moider!

Love’s Labours Lost in Space
Amy: There’s plenty of places to meet people.
Hermes: The Federal Sex Bureau
Bender: A saucy puppet show
Zoidberg: The rotting carcass of a whale

I Second that Emotion
Bender: Hey, I got a busted ass here, I don't see anyone kissing it.
[Cut to: Planet Express: Meeting Room. Zoidberg puts a book down and stands up from the table.]
Zoidberg: [reluctant] Alright, I'm coming.

Amy: Hey, look at Nibbler!
[Nibbler is sat in a high-chair at the table and chews a spoon.]
Hermes: Aww, he's holding a spoon.
Zoidberg: He's so talented!

Why Must I Be A Crustacean In Love?
Zoidberg: I'm feeling less nuts, thank you, because tomorrow I will be depositing my jelly in the cloacal vents of a female. [sexfully] If you catch my drift.
Fry: [nudging Zoidberg] Who's the lucky lobsterina?
Zoidberg: I don't know yet. But I shall attract one this afternoon with an erotic display.
Leela: It's amazing that your people can fall in love so fast.
Zoidberg: Love? That word is unknown here. I'm simply looking for a female swollen with eggs to accept my genetic material.
Fry: You and me both, brother!

Fry: OK, you're on a date. What's the first thing you do?
Zoidberg: Ask her to mate with me.
Fry: No. Tell her she's special.
Zoidberg: But she's not. She's merely the female with the largest clutch of eggs.
Fry: Well, tell her that. And then?
Zoidberg: Then mating.
Fry: No. Make up some feelings and tell her you have them. [Zoidberg raises his hand.] Yes?
Zoidberg: Is "desire to mate" a feeling?
Fry: You're not even trying!
[Zoidberg buries his head in his claws and groans.]
Zoidberg: It's all so complicated with the flowers and the romance and the lies upon lies.
Fry: OK, OK, don't worry. The love meister will take you under his wing.
Zoidberg: What? Now there's a bird involved?

Zoidberg: I choose my own claws! I want the tactile pleasure of chopping him right here in the gonads!
[He points at Fry's neck.]
Fry: Shh! Nobody correct him!

Put Your Head On My Shoulders
Zoidberg: You're both very lucky. I'd pay anything to end my miserable loneliness. If only I weren't so desperately poor.

A Clone Of My Own
Zoidberg: Good evening, ladies and germs. [The band plays a rimshot.] That wasn't a joke, I was talking to Dean Streptococcus. [In the audience a big green germ waves.] Now, I'm not saying Professor Farnsworth is old, but if you consider his age, he's likely to die soon. [He grins. There is no rimshot and the audience don't laugh. A man drums his fingers on the table.] Hey, Ringo, that was the joke. Oh, it's Showtime at the Apollo all over again.

Zoidberg: You? The successor? Over my empty shell! The Professor will pick me. Only I have his lobster-like tenacity.
[He clacks his claws.]
Hermes: Up yours, Zoidberg. Up wherever your species traditionally crams things. The only sensible way to choose a successor is with a limbo contest.

Cubert: As long as I'm going to be in charge here, let me examine my so-called "crew", if it can so be called. First of all, Dr. Zoidberg, do you even have a medical degree?
Zoidberg: I lost it ... in a volcano.

The Deep South
Farnsworth: You'll never catch anything with that primitive technology. What you need is this fish pheromone. [He pulls out a spray can.] The most potent aphrodisiac known to fishkind. [He shakes the can and tries to spray it on his line but he is holding it the wrong way so it sprays back in his face.] Uh-oh!
[Several fish leap up to his head. He screams and knocks them off. Zoidberg comes up behind him and sniffs him.]
Zoidberg: [sexfully] I'm so into you!
[He wraps his mouth flaps around Farnsworth's head and slurps.]
Farnsworth: Oh, my!

Leela: Wake up, everyone! I've got something. And this time it's alive! [She pulls out another boot with Zoidberg on the end of it and groans.] Dr. Zoidberg, since when do you even wear boots?
Zoidberg: I wasn't wearing it. [ashamed] I was eating it.
[Leela sighs and lets go of the rope.]

Zoidberg: Wait! I'll save us! By cutting the unbreakable diamond filament! [He snips at the tether with his claw but it doesn't break.] Well, at least I'll die with my friends. Hello?
[The others shut the turret hatch behind them and the water line creeps towards Zoidberg. He climbs in and shuts it behind him. The ship lurches forward and disappears under the water and the staff scream. Something floats to the surface.]

[Time Lapse. The trio search for food next to a sunken wreck. Fry lifts a skull and crossbones flag.]
Zoidberg: Careful, Fry, I think that flag might be poisonous.
[Bender emerges from the boat wearing a pirate hat and an eye patch and carrying some bottles.]
Bender: Ahoy, mateys! I shanghaied us some hearty grub. [He opens the bottle and tries to drink what is in it but the liquid just drips out and trails away from him in the ocean current.] Arr! The laws o' science be a harsh mistress!

Zoidberg: What is it, Fry?
Fry: [blubbering] Mermaid.
Bender: You want some lemonade? You saw a big parade?
Zoidberg: Your student loans have been repaid? Then how 'bout lending your old pal Zoidberg a few bucks, Mr. Millionaire!

Zoidberg: You know, Fry, I've got a little place just outside town. You could come visit, maybe?
[Fry looks at the Colonel who shakes his head.]
Fry: Sorry, Zoidberg. I'm trying to join the country club.

Bender: [crying] Oh, Fry! [He bawls.] I'll miss you!
[He leaves and the Colonel waves.]
Colonel: Y'all come back now, y'hear?
Farnsworth: [shouting] Let's go, damnit! Let's go!
[Scene: Ships Airlock. Farnsworth opens the door and the staff walk in. Zoidberg stops outside.]
Zoidberg: Well, I guess this is goodbye for me as well.
Leela: Whatever.
Amy: Later.
Farnsworth: Bye.
[Cut to: Seabed. Zoidberg turns away sadly and the door closes behind him. He screams. His shell is a burned ruin.]
Zoidberg: No! My home! It burned down! [Hermes and Bender walk out of the ship. Zoidberg cries.] [crying] How did this happen?
Hermes: That's a very good question.
[Bender picks something up.]
Bender: So that's where I left my cigar.
[He smokes it.]
Hermes: That just raises further questions!

Anthology of Interest I
Zoidberg: What’s this? Two meals in one week?

Parasites Lost
Zoidberg: Hmm. We'll need to have a look inside you with this camera. [He holds up an endoscope. Fry opens his mouth.] Guess again.
[Fry's expression changes to worried.]

Zoidberg-Droid: Quick! We can escape through that nasal capillary into the sinus.
[Cut to: Fry's Nose. Amy turns the ship around and the ship heads for the hole.]
[Cut to: Miniature Ships Cockpit.]
Hermes-Droid: Strange. Usually you don't know anything about human anatomy.
Zoidberg-Droid: I learned it from a decongestant commercial. [echoing] "Soothing action, action, action, action..."

Where the Buggalo Roam
Mrs. Wong: OK, then. Make yourselves at home.
[Zoidberg stands on the landing, dressed in a bathrobe. He is holding a green bottle.]
Zoidberg: Don't mind if I already did. By the way, do you have anymore of this Dom Perignon bubble bath? There was only enough to fill the tub halfway.

Zoidberg: Mom! Dad! Don't ask me to choose!
Amy: They're not your parents, I'm not your sister and that's not your golf cart.
Zoidberg: Aw!

Zoidberg: Captain Brannigan, you're always welcome here at Rancho Zoidberg!
[Cut to: The Wongs' Porch. Zoidberg is thrown out. He hits his head on a post and scoffs.]
Zoidberg: Money doesn't make good people, no, siree!

Anthology of Interest II
Zoidberg: And I’m the other guy, courage. Not enough of it. Need some from whatshisname.
Roswell That Ends Well
Truman: If you come in peace, surrender or be destroyed. If you're here to make war, we surrender.
Zoidberg: Both good. The important thing is I'm meeting new people.
Truman: Bushwah! Now what's your mission? Are you planning to make some kind of alien-human hybrid?
Zoidberg: Are you coming onto me?
Truman: Hot crackers! I take exception to that!
Zoidberg: [sexfully] I'm not hearing a no.

Future Stock
Zoidberg: This company's circling the drain, I tell you. I'd sell my stock right now for a sandwich!
Steve Castle: Sold!
[He takes a sandwich out of a Miami Vice lunchbox and hands it to Zoidberg.]
Zoidberg: A complete sandwich? [He laughs.] You got fleeced! I would have settled for a hard roll with ketchup inside!

Kif Gets Knocked Up a Notch
Fry: Check it out, y'all. Everyone we invited is here.
Zoidberg: Also Zoidberg!

Less Than Hero
Zoidberg: I've got just the thing: Genuine miracle cream I bought from a travelling salesman. [Fry and Leela squeeze some onto their hands and rub it on themselves.] "Come one, come all," he said. "Step right up!" "This sounds too good to be true," I thought. He said I looked like a smart, young man. "So is it a deal?" I enquired. Two hours later he was gone, with 60 of my dollars. But I have the miracle cream--

The Sting
Zoidberg: [singing] Ain't got no cash,
Ain't got no style,
Ladies vomit when I smile,
But does Zoidberg worry?
Feh! You wish!

The Farnsworth Parabox
Zoidberg: In my experience, boxes are usually empty. Or maybe with a little cheese stuck to the top. And one time pepperoni! [He clasps his claws together.] What a day that was! [He screams and pushes Fry and Bender out of the way.] [shouting] Give me the box!

Three Hundred Big Boys
Zoidberg: Say, this reminds me of that time I ate that other watch Kif gave you.
Amy: Hey, it is kinda like that.
Zoidberg: To induce vomiting, that was the solution. Everywhere it went! [He chuckles.] What a Valentine's Day that was!

Zoidberg: What? It's not even scratch and sniff? But if rich people think it's good, I'll buy it. [He waves his $300 around.] One art, please!

The Devil’s Hands Are Idle Playthings
Zoidberg: [shouting] Yes you can! The beauty was in your heart, not your hands. [Fry picks the holophonor up and plays a bad tune. A crude holo-scene forms. A crude Holo-Fry and Holo-Leela walk out of some houses and stare at each other. The audience "boos".] The music's bad and you should feel bad.

Bender’ Game
Zoidberg: What is it, already? What's the cause of your anger?
Leela: I guess I would have to say, I hate you. [The collar emits a shock.]

Zoidberg: I'm beginning to understand. It all goes back to your parents.
Leela: What? [The collar is intermittently shocking her now.]

Zoidberg: You harbour resentment because they pushed you to study medicine when all you ever wanted was to be a song-and-dance man. [He dances around and sings a tune then falls to his knees and sobs.] Why? Whyyy?
Leela: I was raised in an orphanarium. My parents are sewer mutants who I never even met until a few years ago.
Zoidberg: Then you've got to go to them and work this song-and-dance stuff out. Maybe have them cook me nice dinner. No scallions. I hate them. (To an intercom:) Amy, cancel my appointments.
Amy: Stop calling me!

The Best of Bender Bending Rodriguez

What is contained here are the best Bender moments, arguably the finest in Futurama. Everyone's favorite alcoholic, whore-mongering, chain-smoking gambler with Latin charm is the greatest Robot of the Futurama universe. "I'm sick of Parallel Bender lording his cowboy hat over me."

Best of Bender
104 Love’s Labour Lost
Leela: I may have loved Zapp if he wasn’t a pompous dimwit who tried to kill me.
Bender: You really are too picky, Leela.

109 Hell is Other Robots
Bender: Hey, do I preach to you when you’re lying stoned in the gutter? No! So beat it.

Bender: Hey, what kinda party is this? There's no booze and only one hooker.

105 Fear of a Bot Planet
Bender: I love this planet! I've got wealth, fame, and access to the depths of sleaze that those things bring.

112 When Aliens Attack
Bender: Single female lawyer, fighting for her client. Wearing sexy miniskirts, and bein self-reliant. Single female lawyer, havin lots of sex.

113 Fry and the Slurm Factory
Bender: That’s no lady
Robot transvestite: Damn chico, one more upgrade and I’ll be more lady than you can handle! Why you so stupid, stupid?
Bender: Bite my shiny metal ass.
Robot Transvestite: You couldn’t afford it, honey!

Raging Bender-Season 2
Bender: Im just an ex-con trying to go straight and get my kids back.

Lesser of Two Evils-Season 2
Bender: It’s a little thing called style. Maybe you should look it up sometime!

A Bicyclops Built For Two-Season 2
Bender: Leela is experiencing the greatest joy a woman can feel: worshipping some low-life jerk.
Fry: He may be a low-life jerk, but I don’t trust him.

How Hermes Requisitioned His Groove Back
Hermes: I’m going to jump.
Bender: Do a Flip!
LaBarbara: Husband, no!
Hubert Farnsworth: No Hermes. Use a method that won’t damage your liver. Other people need it, you know!

Bender Gets Made-Season 2
Bender: Sorry I’m late, old bean. I was just enjoying a tasty watercress sandwich.
Bender: Oh, I don’t feel good. I’m genuinely sick.

The Problem with Popplers
Fry: They’re like sex, except I’m having them.
Bender: I can’t stand idly by while poor people get free food. We have to sell them.

War is the H-Word-Season 2
Bender: This is the worst kind of discrimination: the kind against me!

A Tale of 2 Santas
Bender: Isn't it true you that you have been paid for your testimony?
Pramala: Yes. You gave me a dollar and some candy.
Bender: And yet you haven't said what I told you to say! How can any of us trust you?

Bendless Love
Bender: Sorry I'm not your lover boy Flexo, whom you love so much. You love any one even pretending to be him!
Angleyne: Maybe I love you so much I love you no matter who you are pretending to be.
Bender: Oh how I wish I could believe or understand that! There's only one reasonable course of action now: kill Flexo!

Bender: Flexo! Hey, sorry about being sent to that South American Turkish prison on account of mistaken identity because of me.


Cyber House Rules-Season 3
Bender: Son, daddy’s trying to score with a cheap floozy right now…

Orphan: Daddy Bender, we're hungry.
Bender: What's with you kids? Every other day it's food, food, food. [pause] Alright, I'll get you some stupid food.
Orphan: Can we have Bender Burgers again?
Bender: No. The cat shelter's on to me!

315 I Dated A Robot
Bender: Humans dating robots is sick. You people wonder why I'm still single? It's 'cause all the fine robot sisters are dating humans!

(At Fry): You’ve got metal fever boy. Stay away from our women!

A Leela Of Her Own-Season 3
Bender: Hey, you add a one and two zeros to that or we walk!
Leela: How much did you make me?
Bender: One hundred dollars.

Anthology of Interest I
Bender: Leela, I’m shocked. Food goes in the disposal, hair and flesh go in the trash.
Leela: Wait, so you don’t care that I murdered Hermes?
Bender: Not even a little. There’s nothing wrong with murder so long as you let Bender wet his beak.
Leela: You’re blackmailing me?
Bender: Blackmail is such an ugly word. I prefer extortion. The “X” makes it sound cool.

The 30% Iron Chef
Bender: I decline the title of Iron Cook and accept the lesser title of Zinc Saucier, which I just made up. Uhh... also, comes with double prize money.

Love and Rocket-Season 4
Bender: Fry, in order for me to get busy at maximum efficiency, I need a big 400 ton bootie.

Bender: With my mighty robot powers, I can get sick of things much faster than you humans.

Jurassic Bark
Fry: You can see how I lived before I met you.
Bender: You lived before you met me?!
Fry: Yeah, lots of people did.
Bender: Really?!

Obsoletely Fabulous
I'm sorry, guys. I never meant to hurt you. Just to destroy everything you ever believed in.

The Devil’s Hands Are Idle Playthings
Bender: You may have to "metaphorically" make a deal with the "devil." And by "devil," I mean Robot Devil. And by "metaphorically," I mean get your coat.

Spanish Fry
Lrr: I thought the nose was the human wang?
Bender: No sir chief. The main event, so to speak, is near the wallet. Ever seen soccer players line up at a goal? They aint protecting their noses, I tell ya.

Lrr: Hmm, this jerk chicken is quite good. I think I’ll have Fry’s lower horn jerked.
Bender: It’s used to it! Whoo!

A Reappraisal of Community's 'Basic Rocket Science'

Season 2's 'Basic Rocket Science' was never one of my favorite episodes of Community. In fact, the first time I watched it on Hulu, I was a little disappointed. Another concept episode or "self-contained escapade" with sci-fi parody and Abed quirkiness, the premise of the episode, a simulation rocket being commandeered by the Greendale Seven and then towed away, outside of town because of City College's Dean's malfeasance never really struck me as grounded in reality. Annie's character leaving Greendale for City College never sounded legitimate, either, since she decided to stay in Greendale at the end of season 1 despite her earlier talk of joining Vaughn at another city college outside the state (the show is set in Colorado, but the palm trees make it quite clear it's shot in California). That said, the episode has it's great moments and some laughs, so I will stand by it despite my earlier disdain for what some consider a dud in the great number of laughs, such as the study group's Greendale flag, an anus (with a Freudian slip from the Dean alluding to peanuts/penis!), or the Colonel Sanders narrator in the simulation rocket, because the former winnebago was sponsored by KFC in its transformation to a simulation spaceship, and, last but not least, references to the Dean's ratings of truck stop restrooms, presumably ratings based on the quality of sex he acquired from those bathrooms (anyone remember the one Republican senator caught soliciting gay sex in the Minneapolis airport bathroom?). The meta-commentary on this episode of a simulation of a simulation for instance, or the classic science fiction allusions, as well as a joke about Wesley Snipes hating the government (linked to tax evasion charges) made this episode enjoyable. We also get a look at an assertive, semi-professional Dean, presenting his ideas to the board. Abed also becomes a 'hero' in this episode, guiding Jeff, Troy, Pierce, Shirley, and Annie through the KFC simulation while Troy takes an early leadership role as captain of the simulation. In addition, we get hints of Pierce's future mental instability in this episode, since he imagines Sanders telling him he will die alone and even attacks Troy in his mistaken delusions (Troy refers to it as space madness, and claustrophobia and Sander's resemblance to Pierce's father only makes things worse).

Thus, this episode features some emotional depth and foreshadows later trends in the second season of Community. Close contact between Troy and Britta for instance, in the winnebago/spaceship where they each say, "Hi" to each other (which must be a reference to Star Wars or some other science fiction classic, it sounds so familiar) and Troy rising to the position of captain with support and acceptance by Jeff hints at his future maturity and adulthood in his 21st birthday and the paintball tournament which concludes the second season. Likewise, we see growth in Jeff, who accepts Greendale as his home, the place that accepts him, despite disparaging remarks and attitude toward his new home. And Troy and Abed are hilarious per usual in the short post-episode clip, playing with cardboard boxes while imagining they're in space firing at each other, only reinforcing their Calvin & Hobbes like love for imagination. Also, I gotta ask, what the hell happened between Dean Spreck and Dean Pelton in the past, there's clearly something personal between the two rival deans. There is also some obvious commentary on the degree to which corporations and fast-food culture have permeated our everyday life, a trend seemingly on the rise, what with the Supreme Court declaration of corporations as people and its entry into popular culture.

Thank God for the fabulous Greenstronauts!

Best Lines:

Dean Pelton: We Make Greendale, not City College, the first community college to pretend to put a man in space!

Pierce Hawthorne: You guys are walking slow-mo?

Shirley: It was the '80s, everyone who made this was on cocaine.

Jeff: I don't this this is a simulation. I think we're being towed.

Dean Pelton: So handicap spots count on Saturdays?

Jeff: I hate to pull reality on you but you got your rank, captain, by sitting in the chair with the largest knobs.

Annie: You guys thought that butthole flag was so funny. I mean, I respect you well enough to let you hate yourselves but I respect myself too much to let you hate my school.

Troy: Yeah, let's kill her.

Jeff: Our school may be a toilet, but it's OUR toilet. Nobody craps in it but us.

Abed: They're next to the truckstop with three thumbs.
Dean Pelton: Those aren't thumbs.

Troy: I told you we should've put cheeks on it. There is a time and a place for subtlety and that time was before Scary Movie.

Firmin's Equality of the Races (De l'égalité des races humaines)

I finally read  The Equality of the Human Races translated by Asselin Charles after a preemptive review on this blog. This classic really challenges a lot of stereotypes about Haiti and Haitians: a black man (and not mixed-race like many of Haiti's intelligentsia and educated elite at the time) who is well-read, educated, articulate, open to scientific progress and positivism as well as connected to broader intellectual debates on the international level is striking since Haiti is supposed to be the "best nightmare on earth" and black Haitians in particular stereotyped as savage, 'Voodoo-practitioners'. In many ways the book not only offers a scientific and philosophical defense of the Haitian Revolution and black autonomy, but also a vindicationist text on ancient Egypt, Nubia, and Ethiopia as inherent proof of black equality, which, actually predates a lot of Afrocentric interpretations of the African past by several decades. I thought it was a little outdated at times because Firmin assumes a sort of "Western Europe" is best mentality at times by looking down upon the contemporary cultures of Africa ("now fallen into barbarism..." 287). That's hardly unique to him, I suppose, since many diasporic black peoples in the 19th century saw contemporary Africa through Eurocentric, racist lens or a Christian missionary perspective. Indeed, from what I have read via secondary sources, early 19th century Haitian writers, such as de Vastey, despite praising ancient African civilizations such as Egypt and Nubia, saw the African societies of the early 19th century as inferior culturally and technologically to Europe. Firmin also alludes to several Haitian literary and cultural figures, as well as scientists and other educated examples to further demonstrate the absence of scientific evidence for black sub-humanity or separate species. He includes "mulattoes" and mixed-race people as proof of the inherent equality of the human races, too:

But to acknowledge the intellectual equality of mulattoes and Whites is inevitably to admit the equality of Blacks and Whites. Indeed, if the two races had any innately different intellectual abilities, it would be impossible to understand how the mulatto is endowed, not with an average intelligence but, to the contrary, with an intelligence equal to that of the supposedly superior genitor. So most anthropologists simply refuse to recognize the intellectual equality of the mulatto and the White man, an equality so positively proclaimed by the author of L’Espece humaine” (204).

Nevertheless, Firmin's important text, though not nearly as widely known as that of Gobineau's Inequality of the Races, predicts future 'Afrocentric' thoughts quite brilliantly with powerful quotations such as the following, “Besides, the honor of having invented the science of numbers and surface measurement does not belong to the White race. The origin of mathematics goes back to Black Egypt, the land of the Pharaohs” (168). On page 242, he suggests that the ancient Egyptians were of a red-brown, or brick-like color, quite common in Africa, whereas elsewhere he defends African religion as practical rationalism instead of the dominant European perception of Africa as a land of superstitious fetish worship and irrationality (342). He also conducted linguistic research, examined the flora and fauna of ancient Egypt, studied migration patterns, and analyzed sculptural depictions to place ancient Egypt firmly in the world of black history, something which fit into a vindicationist framework centered on Haiti as the rehabilitation of Africa and the African diaspora.Thus, despite some rather condescending or pro-European views of 19th century Africa, the text offers a powerful critique of white supremacy and stereotypes of Haiti, Africa, and the silliness of scientific racism since ancient Africa was the bedrock of many ideas that contributed to human development and civilization. In addition, his entire book calls into question the notion of black mental inferiority from positivist and philosophical grounds, proof of how there was a space for black intellectuals from Haiti to respond to the burgeoning field of scientific racism and Social Darwinism in the late 19th century. Indeed, though Firmin was educated in Haitian institutions, he utilized the inductive positivist approach to anthropology developed by Auguste de Comte as well as personally engaging with Francophone anthropologists and scientists in Paris who actively debated the merits of scientific racism in terms of cranial measurements and outdated theories of polygenesis versus monogesis (an important debate prior to the irrefutable discovery of early anatomically-modern humans in Africa) within the Societé d'Anthropologie de Paris, where the leading scientists of the day gathered.

As an early text of Pan-Africanist thought by a pioneer in anti-racist  anthropology and science, Firmin's text's ultimate strength lies in its relevance to today's world, since pseudoscientific racism has again arose in the works of Rushton, The Bell Curve, and the recent appearance of scientific racism over claims of genetic differences between native whites in the US and Latin American immigrants that causes the latter to have lower IQs, leading to the author to call for limited immigration due to what would arguably be innately inferior IQ scores. The ugliness of scientific racism, a scourge that grew exponentially in the late 18th century and fueled by Social Darwinism and European imperialism, requires strong critiques, and Firmin's classic text provides a great example, despite it being published in 1885. Although disturbing at times for his statements (such as the mulatto being more beautiful than both blacks and whites, or referring to Africa as a land fallen to barbarism), Firmin is mostly on point by doing what the earlier black writers of Haiti had established since the days of Henri Christophe and de Vastey, vindicating the sons and daughters of Africa at home and abroad through a combination of history, science, philosophy, anthropology, and the progression of ideas over time. The equality of the human races, therefore, lies in the equal potential to reach the noblest heights of human existence, and since natural selection and evolution made human 'races' unfixed, it would be foolish to elevate one race as permanently 'superior' to that of others.

Why I Love House of Leaves

The second half of this video does a good job detailing the horrifying power of House of Leaves, an excellent frame story and meta-text with extensive footnotes that facilitate the storyline. Each frame in the densely layered text offers frightening commentary on what is presumably a fictional story the protagonist, Johnny Truant discovers, and as he gradually reads more and more of the text, we lose sense of the protagonist's sanity, since he gradually loses himself in the story of a family, the Navidsons, living in a house that appears to be dimensionally transcendantal, with a passageway to an infinitely large space inside the home, expanding and contracting. Thus, Danielewski provides two entwined stories of burgeoning horror as Truant and the presumably fictional characters he reads about each face impending psychological and physical trauma. Truant's characters adds additional notes, telling his own story which becomes, to quote this video, "more and more warped" and offers an astounding example of post-modern fiction incorporating meta-fictional styles and revealing how blurry the division between fiction and reality can be in literature. As a fan of frame stories, such as the legendary Arabian Knights, for instance, I devoured this psychological thriller where, as the video states, the loss of control (whether it is Truant's own life, plunging further and further into the abyss of his psyche, or the Navidsons descending deeper and deeper into physical darkness and death in the endless maze of the hidden black passageway) provides an unseating, fearful experience for the reader who enters into the world of these characters. Although I have read House of Leaves twice, I would love to re-read it perpetually and write a future post wherein I engage in deeper analysis on the brilliant novel with its deeper mathematical, psychological, and philosophical themes. In addition, perhaps another reason I enjoy this so much is due to my affinity for writers willing to engage literary texts with footnotes, notes, and other traditionally uncommon devices and non-literary styles, since Patrick Chamoiseau, Ishmael Reed, and even Junot Diaz have also written similarly structured texts.

Why I Love Agatha Christie

After re-reading Christie's A Caribbean Mystery several years later from my middle school years, I have felt a desire to blog about this brilliant writer. Though some of her novels' titles were not very clever or creative, her stories, though always following a simple formula for detective fiction, revealed new words, Englishisms, an imperialist white gaze, and a record on the rapidly changing world of the 20th century. In addition, her detective fiction introduced two of the best sleuths in the game, Jane Marple and Hercule Poirot. I will admit to being initially biased against Marple, who, as an old woman living in a village in the south of England, I assumed would be rather boring, I grew to love both Poirot and Marple over the years. Indeed, my seventh and eighth grade years were often spent reading Christie mystery books and listening to my mother complain and tell me to read 'real literature' or 'real books,' a suggestion I find disconcerting since it suggests that detective fiction lacks literary or artistic merit. In such a long literary career (and a very successful one at that!), Christie did produce some overly contrived and over the top nonsense though, The Big Four being a great example of Christie's lack of steam in different decades of her writing. In the following list of reasons below, I hope to reveal how foolish such an interpretation of mystery novels can be.

1. Christie, as an English woman, uses peculiar and uniquely English phrases as well as a large vocabulary useful for expanding one's vocal palette. For instance, reading Christie several years ago introduced me to words such as "lugubrious" (excessively mournful) and other so typical old, Victorian and early 20th century English words nobody in their right mind would use in everyday conversation. Thus, reading Christie helped expand my palette and allow me to increase my understanding of British English and unique phrases and idioms from across the pond. Indeed, as a young person reading almost all of the Marple mysteries and every single Poirot story, I often had to check my mother's dictionary she had lying around the house just to catch the meaning of certain words. In fact, I wish I had done so after reading A Caribbean Mystery. It's always a useful learning experience to discover new words. Furthermore, many of the titles and lines in her book contain literary quotes from Shakespeare, the Bible, nursery rhymes, and other elements of popular culture which are thereby further mythologized and transformed via her pen. Thus, a process of refashioning and reusing past literary allusions and popular culture infuse her novels with fun little references and a dash or realism.

2. Christie's writings over most of the 20th century reveal a lot of the sweeping changes across the world. World War II, the decline and fall of the British Empire, hippies and the counterculture, lesbians and gays, non-white immigrants and students in London, changes in gender relations, and Christie's own dated social views show how important the world around the writer is in shaping how one creates their own literary worlds. For instance, in Christie's work, one can find references to non-white immigrants in England, if you read Hickory Dickory Death, which reveals a rapidly changing postwar immigration policy in Christie's nation. She also makes references to men with long hair, new music, counterculture, changes in how women dress and behave, commentary on marital problems for newer generations, and, like many older individuals living in a world that seems to shift so rapidly, often include characters resistant, indifferent, and confused by social change. One could argue that, at times, Christie succumbed to being crotchety, but it reveals something universal for all of us as we age and discover a world in constant flux. Nevertheless, Christie produced some great novels well up to the point of her death in the mid-1970s, and her perspective on the 'revolutionary' decades of the 1960s and 1970s is interesting from a historical and personal perspective. 

3. Christie's novels often contain references to characters who lived or worked in some capacity (often military service) in the former colonies of the largest empire in world history, the British Empire. Allusions to India, Africa, the West Indies, Egypt, Iraq, and other 'exotic' locales populate her literary world, which demonstrates the degree to which the colonies shaped the English as well as how the English likewise impacted their vast colonies. Indian tigers, African safaris, ancient Egyptian ruins and temples, the Nile river, Mesopotamia and its archaeological excavations (Christie's second husband was an archaeologist, so her Murder in Mesopotamia was partly inspired by her time with her husband in the Fertile Crescent), Hinduism and Hindu traditions, India's tea and other exports, tourism in the Caribbean, and train services travelling in parts of Europe often appear in her work. As a product of her time, Christie gives off uncomfortable racist vibes in some of her work, for instance, in A Caribbean Mystery the local black population of the island are generalized as lazy because of one man who climbs a tree to eat a coconut and apparently sleeps for the rest of the day! As a product of the British Empire and it's imperialist gaze, many indigenous peoples and subjects become 'savages' and a seemingly permanent "Other" used to define the insular, organized world of Britain. She could, at times, also use offensive language and rhetoric, with sayings such as "nigger in the woodpile" appearing in one novel, if I remember correctly, as well as the brilliant Ten Little Indians (originally entitled Ten Little Niggers, but changed for American audiences to avoid offense, and also known as And Then There Were None). Regardless, I find value in studying and consuming Christie's writings, even if it at times engages in severe white imperialistic gazing, largely since it documents how some English writers perceived colonial subjects as well as providing another medium through which one can analyze British perceptions of racial difference, world politics, and the change in racial views of younger, more immigrant-fed generations of Britons. In addition, through the use of a Belgian sleuth forced to relocate to London after the German invasion of Belgium during the first World War, Christie, I like to think, mocks the English for their insular and xenophobic attitudes toward European immigrants, too.

4. One cannot forget the many creative and progressive techniques and contributions to the genre made by Christie. For example, one of her early gems includes a tale where the narrator is revealed to the be murderer, discovered by Poirot (for the sake of spoilers I shall not give the name of this novel). Some people would say that's cheating on the part of Christie, but is it not the purpose of mystery or whodunit novels to keep the reader hanging on the edge of their feet and surprised? She also wrote another classic in which the murderer is revealed to be essentially everyone on a train, thanks again to the brilliant, albeit slightly compulsive and strange little egg-shaped man, Poirot, who loves liqueurs, dyes his hair black, uses French phrases profusely, and enjoys living in a perfectly square-shaped building for his flat and office. Poirot's OCD and obsession with neatness definitely influenced the TV sleuth, Adrian Monk. In addition, Christie also wrote mysteries which were entirely psychological (Cards on the Table) as well as some dealing with public crises wrought by serial killers (ABC Murders), the shock of exciting crime and intrigue in small-town St. Mary Mead, the town of Jane Murple, an elderly woman who, though largely most often in her village, nevertheless has picked up on universal human nature to help solve crimes as well as use her old age as an advantage to obtain gossip and information, and she created endearing, long-lasting characters. She can also, like Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and the best of mystery writers, take advantage of secret codes, European aristocracy, and other stock plot devices and archetypes of detective fiction successfully.

The Watson for Poirot, often Captain Hastings, who, compared to Poirot was lacking in the "little grey cells," often helped Poirot solve cases simply through his ignorance, as well as providing amusing moments of a great friendship that, nonetheless, often broke down into petty insults and condescension from Poirot to Hastings. Yet the two remain friends, even after Hastings marries and moves to Argentina. Fortunately, Poirot's occasional Watson, Ariadne Oliver, an example of self-insertion, is a nice self-parody of Christie. She has her own detective, a Finn, is poorly organized and slightly scatter-brained while also very interested in women's intuition as a crime-solving method, and her relationship with Poirot always intrigued me for the unlikely compatibility of the pair. Poirot's relationship with her, as well as the Russian countess who Poirot seems to love but never succeeds, are great occasional characters in the oeuvre of Poirot novels and short stories, as well as the one-time appearance of Poirot's brother, Achille, which was likely just Poirot pretending to be someone else. 

5. Christie's final greatness is due to her ability to weave complex and compelling characters in several mystery novels while mostly using the detective fiction framework. Yes, she may not be Shakespeare, or writing something that's revolutionary in terms of aesthetics, style, or content, but Christie succeeds for the most part in creating a realistic world, an encapsulation of a real-world event utterly fictional. Somehow, her characters make sense and come together, and the denouement of each mystery novel is normally satisfying, moving, insightful, unexpected, and/or engaging. Her novels can sometimes be successfully solved by the reader before her sleuths uncover the culprit, but usually make it difficult to guess outright, a sign of a well-written whodunit. Overall, her memorable characters, including recurring side characters and the endearing detectives, Marple and Poirot, often interact with interesting suspects, victims, witnesses, and perpetrators who can easily transport the reader to the Caribbean, a train, an airplane, a villa, the streets of London, and the villages of the south of England and, through these other characters, the rest of the world based on themes of love, infidelity, betrayal, trust, greed, and a plethora of human emotions that drive our relationships. For that, I stand by Christie, even if her writing itself is nothing awe-inducing in terms of literary prowess or superb, fantastic prose. If one wants interesting, literary somersaults in detective fiction, check out Ishmael Reed's Mumbo Jumbo and I promise you won't be disappointed, it's a meta-fiction detective tale.

The Wire, Edgar Allan Poe and Baltimore

I recently read an excellent collection of essays on The Wire which included one by a scholar noting the Poe influence in the excellent program. For instance, in one scene of the show, some white tourists ask a group of lower-class African-American gentlemen, "Where is the Poe house?" Their response, hearing it as "po" as in poor, is to essentially take your pick, since every house in that particular westside neighborhood is a po' house. However, a more startling literary revelation arises in the method through which Marlo Stanfield's crew disposes of corpses, placing them in unoccupied houses. Many of Poe's excellent macabre short stories feature similar themes, of characters placing corpses into walls of homes in an attempt to hide them. For instance, "The Black Cat" story, if i remember correctly, concludes with the aforementioned black cat revealing where a husband placed his wife into a wall. Likewise, "The Tell-Tale Heart" consists of a similar story, where the still-beating heart of the villain's victim reveals his crime. Fascinatingly, the writers of The Wire reincorporate themes from the dark fiction of the genius, Poe, for the rather disturbing practices of crews in the city of Baltimore. The character of Marlo Stanfield, a ghastly person in 'love with the game' and the violence of the corner, unsurprisingly, perpetuates similar misdeeds of Poe's fictional characters of 19th century American fiction. As an undisputed master of Gothic fiction, it is no surprise Poe's influence would appear in a very dark urban fiction populated by drug dealers, killers, corrupt government and police, and the bleak urban landscape of a once great American city. This is an interesting look at David Simon and Poe.

Zadie Smith's On Beauty

“The street, the global street, lined with hustling brothers working corners from Roxbury to Casablanca, from South Central to Cape Town” (245-246).

I am unsure what to think of Zadie Smith's On Beauty...but undoubtedly my favorite character is the wannabe-gansta Levi Belsey, son of a British professor at an elite university and living in suburban Boston, yet pretending to be from Roxbury and speaking in an incomprehensible manner 99.9 percent of the world cannot understand (yet he thinks it's 'hood'). In addition, Smith reveals some deep appreciation for poetry, Haitian art, transatlantic families and the New England urban/suburban landscape, as well as a scathing look at university politics. The above painting, "Maitresse Erzulie" by Hector Hyppolite, a legendary Haitian painter, depicts the loa associated with love and sexuality, very appropriate for a novel about the pursuit of beauty in all its forms as well as the dangers of such pursuits. Oh, and Zora Belsey, a 'big' mixed-race girl, is very similar to Irie from White Teeth, since both are 'big girls' in love with young men out of their league. Haitian immigrants appear everywhere in the novel, from the cleaning ladies and maids of the Belseys and rival family of conservatives, the Kipps (also transatlantic, with Afro-Caribbean/British identities instead of the African-American/White English Belsey clan), to the cleaning staff at Wellington, the elite private university in the town of Wellington, a suburb of Boston. Haitians feature prominently to highlight 'essentialized blackness,' beauty where you'd least expect it (Haitian art, specifically, the paintings of the Haitian loa associated with beauty and sexuality, or beauty from a land of misery and ugliness, as one may assume from Levi's one book he read on Haiti) and the racial/class hierarchies of New England. In addition, the emphasis on the part of Howard Belsey, the English liberal professor specializing in Rembrandt and European art history is matched by the emphasis on Haitian painting, suggesting some equivalency in terms of artistic merit, despite the lack of universal recognition of Haitian art, unlike that accorded to Rembrandt. 

Anyway, it is difficult not to think of Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God when reading this novel, since some of the characters, particularly Monty Kipps' daughter, Victoria, could be read as personifications of the Haitian Vodou pantheon, particularly Erzulie. Indeed, the theme of the pursuit of beauty as the cause of one's downfall could be read in Howard's infidelity with Victoria, the young, amazing-looking black woman who, despite being the daughter of his enemy, Monty Kipps, a black British conservative of Afro-Caribbean roots who despises affirmative action, liberals, gays, and wants to take "the liberal out of liberal arts," represents the power of beauty to distract and lead one to one's destruction. Likewise, the Hyppolite painting and it's beauty (as well as worth), leads Levi astray into theft, stealing it from Kipps' office at Wellington University, so clearly the potentially negative power of beauty is something Smith stresses. Indeed, perhaps some of this beauty is more akin to Lasiren, and sirens more generally. But like Zora Neale Hurston (notice how one of Howard and Kiki's children is named Zora?) the dialogue of the text often contains some more form African-American vernacular English (primarily through the slang spoken by gansta-wannabe Levi) and a general love story ransacked by infidelity and marital troubles, just as Kiki, like Janie, learns to love herself (though taking joy in the creations of her marriage to Howard, their three children). The homages to Haitian Vodou loa of beauty, Erzulie, as well as a reference to the motif of crossroads in African-American music, an obvious allusion to Papa Legba, a trickster figure important for opening the doors to communication with the gods (which occurs since Carl, the disadvantaged employee in the African American Music Library at Wellington essentially paves the way for Levi to return and steal the Hyppolite painting!). Thus, Haitian Vodou and influences from Haitian popular religion, as well as echoes of Zora Neale Hurston, rear their head in the novel's characters and plot, a sign of the archetypal Vodou lwa. 

The E.M. Forster homages are beyond my understanding, since I have yet to read any Forster. But if there is an influence in the prose of Smith, then perhaps I should. The novel is humorous, very British in its narration, and, like White Teeth, slightly hysterical at times in its vivid descriptions of characters and settings. It also serves as an ugly reminder of class stratification within Black America as as source of divide, the insidious politics of universities and the battle between left and right within the ivory tower, censorship, and, of course, marital strife, the family as a metaphor for the troubles of the human condition and nations, the notion of diaspora and transatlantic family, and, more broadly, the moral weaknesses of both liberals and conservatives in the battle for the soul of the US and the UK. Overall, this is a fascinating novel replete with a plethora of insightful themes and commentary, as well as a prominent place for Haitian Boston and the centrality of race on both sides of the Atlantic. Though not nearly as moving or strong as White Teeth, I enjoyed this novel far more than NW, which likewise featured a diverse cast of characters living in northwestern London. I would give this a 4 out of 5 stars. For an interesting look at the novel focusing on Haitian influences, check out this.

Home Is Where the Hatred Is

Gil Scott-Heron's brilliant song about drug addiction was masterfully covered by Esther Phillips. Beautiful, hauntingly touching and emotional song. Like Gil, Esther also succumbed to drug addiction to, although the ultimate beauty of this song is that "home" can also include, perhaps, a broken family, addiction of all kinds, and to a great, funky beat with jazz and rock aesthetics. "A junkie walking through the twilight, I'm on my way home." Common would rap over a sample of this song produced by Kanye West expertly.

Images of the Black in Medieval and Renaissance Europe

Black Drummer, early 16th century Germany

Black Magus

Black Trumpeter, England in the early 16th century

Juan Latino, black professor of 16th century Spain

Black Drummer in this picture

Portrait of a Moor, of a clearly cultured, cultivated, and refined black male asking the viewer to judge him on European standards

Katharina, slave of a Portuguese living in Antwerp, I think, by Durer

Titian piece

Avengers of the Americas

Interesting fact, when Dessalines declared the independence of Saint-Domingue as Haiti, a Taino word referring to the island's mountainous terrain, he also referred to the former slave army as the "Avengers of the Americas." In addition to choosing a name for the new nation reflecting its indigenous past, whose inhabitants were largely eradicated through colonial conquest, enslavement, and Spanish cruelty, some parallels can be seen in the experience of people of African descent in the island under brutal French colonial racial slavery. Indeed, Philippe Girard suggests part of the reason Haiti was named such may have been due to some similarities in both groups' experiences with colonial violence and barbarity, such as the use of war dogs, for example. In addition, David Geggus has researched some trends in the rise of the use of "Haiti" as a name for the island, which he traces back to white creole elites in the colonial period who, upset over French colonial ruling structures, considered secession at one point while open to the idea of using the name Haiti. Furthermore, Geggus demonstrates that many saw the origin of the Incas in South America as derived from Hispaniola, so Dessalines and the newly established nation of Haiti "avenged" the Amerindian or indigenous peoples of the Americas. Perhaps this is part of the inclusion of those of Native American or indigenous descent in the pro-Black and pro-Indian immigration policy in 19th century Haitian constitutions.

Regardless of the specificity of how some conceived of Incas originating in the Caribbean, the parallels in the experiences of African slaves and indigenous peoples of the Americas were obvious and of some meaning to many of African descent. Thus, the naming of Haiti and the declaration of Dessalines as the "Avenger of the Americas" indicates interracial solidarity and an interesting case study for African-Native relations in the hemisphere. Moreover, since a few decades before the 1791 slave revolt initiated the Haitian Revolution, Tupac Amaru and other indigenes led rebellions against colonial rule in South America. It would be interesting to see the intersections of indigenous anti-colonial resistance and that of enslaved peoples of African descent in the Caribbean. For instance, we know of the alliances between runaway slave communities and Seminoles in Florida, or the Garifuna communities' links to African slaves and Caribs, but what about ideological solidarity, something that appears to be the case in early Haiti. Moreover, we know that by the time Haiti became a French colony in the 1600s, very few indigenous people were left, and many people of Indian backgrounds were likely captives and slaves from other parts of the circum-Caribbean region. What I would like to know is if the news of indigenous rebellions in Peru or Bolivia somehow reached back into the French Caribbean's Afro-descendants, or, if perhaps the general knowledge of European colonial genocide and racism against indigenous peoples was the main motive for the naming of Haiti and the self-proclaimed "Avenger of the Americas" Dessalines.

Zadie Smith's White Teeth and the Centrality of World War II

After listening to an interesting lecture by a professor, Michelle M. Wright, from Northwestern on "Black physics," or adapting theories of physics to the study of the African diaspora, the lecturer incorporated Zadie Smith's brilliant White Teeth into her lecture (I have blogged about the novel, here). The professor's videos can be found here, in 3 parts. I am a little disappointed to not have seen some of the obvious ties to World War II, eugenics, and Nazi racial theory that permeate Smith's text through the middle-class, liberal white family, whose male patriarch seeks to improve humanity through creation of a better, superior breed. The eugenicist-leaning white family, the middle-class liberal Chalfens, eventually takes in one of the twin brothers of Bangladeshi descent, and the mother of said white family falls in love with the beautiful, young brown man. Needless to say, the family's obsession with eugenics can be traced, in part, to Nazi racial theory and genocide, which is one of the ways World War II is central to the multiracial, immigrant communities in postwar Britain and elsewhere in Europe. The Chalfen patriarch's obsession with genetically-engineered mice and the family's political views and sense of self-importance clearly reveal a disturbing, paternalistic eugenicist perspective they have toward immigrants and non-whites. In addition, World War II occupies a large portion of the narrative structure, since it is how Irie's English father met Iqbal, both were serving in Europe during the war, though, as one could guess, their experience was far from heroic. In addition, the postwar years in Britain and other European nations led to opening the doors for immigration from Africa, the Caribbean, and Asia, often through labour programs that invited workers from India, Pakistan, Algeria, and various other regions of the world to settle and work in the European metropoles just as colonialism's formal structure was dissolving. The following quotations from the text are quite revealing of the Chalfen arrogance, eugenics-leaning beliefs.

"They were still the same remarkable family they always had been. But having cut all ties with their Oxbridge peers--judges, TV execs, advertisers, lawyers, actors, and other frivolous professions Chalfenism sneered at--there was no one left to admire Chalfenism itself. Its gorgeous logic, its compassion, its intellect. They were like wild-eyed passengers on the Mayflower with no rock in sight. Pilgrims and prophets with no strange land. They were bored, and none more than Joyce."
  
"In the Chalfen lexicon the middle classes were the inheritors of the enlightenment, the creators of the welfare state, the intellectual elite, and the source of all culture. Where they got this idea, it's hard to say."

Juan Manuel Rosas and Afro-Argentine Candombe

 

 Afro-Argentines played a large role in the caudillo government of Juan Manuel de Rosas, who responded to the needs of the Afro-Argentine community, appeared at their societies' festivals and, if I remember correctly, his white daughter even participated in their dances! As a patron of the Afro-Argentines of 19th century, postcolonial Argentina, his government, ruled non-democratically as a strong man, required patron-client relationships with certain segments of the population. In this case, his rule in the 19th century led to patronage for Afro-Argentine societies, which, at the time, formed perhaps 1/4 of the entire population of Buenos Aires and were visible minorities in other areas of the young nation. Afro-Argentines would offer military support, receive special protections and privileges, and some of their 'ethnic' associations (cabildos de nacion) receiving funding from Rosas. I have been meaning to write a critical overview of Afro-Argentine history, and, one day, shall write more extensively on the role of Argentinos de ascendencia africana en la historia de Buenos Aires. 

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Americanah

 

"Ifemelu shifted. Kelsey's knowing tone grated. Her headache was getting worse. She did not think the novel was about Africa at all. It was about Europe, or the longing for Europe, about the battered self-image of an Indian man born in Africa, who felt so wounded, so diminished, by not having been born European, a member of a race which he had elevated for their ability to create, that he turned his imagined personal insufficiencies into an impatient contempt for Africa, in his knowing haughty attitude to the African, he could become, even if only fleetingly, a European. She leaned back on her seat and said this in measured tones. Kelsey looked startled; she had not expected a mini-lecture. Then, she said kindly, 'Oh, well, I see why you would read the novel like that.'"

After reading the pure delight of Adichie's historical fiction, Half of a Yellow Sun, which told through literature the horrifying story of the Biafran war and, what some may consider, genocidal policies pursued by the Nigerian government to end the secession of Biafran through starvation as a weapon of mass destruction. If you can recall, I have blogged about that beautiful, well-researched and well-written novel, here. Americanah looks to the Nigerian immigrant experience in the United States and Britain, however, with little of the deep, well-researched historical detail of the various generals and dictators who caused unrest, university strikes, and economic turmoil, which prompted the novel's protagonists, secondary school lovebirds, Ifemelu and Obinze, to take their chances abroad in the US and UK. So, instead of a novel set entirely in Nigeria during the early postcolonial decades, Americanah focuses on two Nigerian experiences in a transnational, global world shaped by immigration, race, love, Westernization, and, beginning around page 190, takes a literary quip at Naipaul's A Bend in the River, a pro-imperialist, racist critique of Mobutu's rule of Zaire generalized for an entire continent, an entire 'race' (I wrote about Naipaul's novel, here and check this out). 

The novel also adopts an interesting, non-linear narrative structure. Each part of the novel is divided into it's focus on the life of Ifemelu or Obinze, and it often leaps backwards and forwards chronologically to explain or connect events in their lives, from Ifemelu's eventual move to the US, living with her Aunty Uju, traveling in the US, attending university, and dating a middle-class American black, Blaine, and a wealthy white American, returning to Nigeria, and, rediscovering Lagos, the metropolis of West Africa. Obinze, on the other hand, stays in Nigeria to finish university, struggles to find work, manages to make it to the UK through his mother, a university professor in Nigeria, his visa expires, and he is then deported back to Nigeria right before his sham marriage to a European Union citizen, a biracial woman of Angolan and Portuguese heritage. Personally, I found the transitions to different phases in the life of both characters confusing or too rapid, as if each event in the course of Ifemelu's life was just a long string of inevitability in succession. Don't get me wrong, I was enthralled by the novel and could not put it down, but the back-and-forth felt awkward and lacked a more flowing, gradual transition at times. Obinze's backstory, in my opinion, is slightly lacking, since I am still a little confused as to how he became a 'big man' in Lagos and acquired property after living a life of immigrant hardship in the UK, but in the last part of the novel, everything comes together and, for the most part, makes sense.

That said, the novel's quite compelling, particularly for the focus on race, hair and body politics for women of African descent, both in Africa and the US, and the topic of black immigration in the US, which is often overlooked or ignored by the focus on Latin American or Asian immigrants. Indeed, reading Ifemelu's thoughts and life story while in the US, I know from personal experience some of what she discusses. Furthermore, the use of a fictional race blog started by her, allows for Adichie's personal views on race to enter the text in some rather direct, obvious ways. I don't mind, however, since she's on point, on white liberal and white conservative racism in the US, and how the NAB (Non-American Black) perspective on race relations in the US is often eliminated or reduced to stereotypes of Black immigrants distancing themselves from 'race' and African-Americans (or, American blacks, as Adichie often refers to them in the novel). Clearly, some of the experiences of Ifemelu are autobiographical, because Adichie lived in the US for some time, too, attending Ivy League institutions while vividly experiencing and observing racial segregation, disproportional poverty, and the long, deep, historical roots of American racism. In addition, Adichie's relatively privileged Nigerian Igbo background is reflected in the two characters, Ifemelu and Obinze, who are not the poorest, most desperate Nigerians seeking a living in Europe or the US, but rather, come from educated and middle-class families, though the plight of Ifemelu's civil servant father's struggle to find work in the earlier part of the novel establishes her lower middle-class or working-class roots. Perfectly aware of this, Adichie likely engaged in critique of herself and privileged, educated abroad Nigerian returnees in Lagos, who, as Ifemelu sees in the Nigerpolitan club, consist of wealthy Nigerians who complain incessantly about how Lagos is not New York City, Nigerians do not cook or consume the same style of food as American and European peoples, and, last but certainly not least, Adichie critiques this dependence of the Nigerian elite on overpriced American and European styles and trends. Similarly, she criticizes the notion that black women, both American and Nigerian, feel pressured and compelled to relax or straighten their hair for employment or, just to be considered attractive (as well as the skin bleaching phenomenon, which Ifemelu notices in some Nigerian women whose whitened faces don't match the darker skin elsewhere on their bodies. 

Moreover, Ifemelu's on point blogs in the novel resonated with me, a fellow blogger who often writes about race. Her blogs are the keys to her career success: fellowship at Princeton, advertising profits from the blog and fan donations, conferences (which, as Adichie so knowingly wrote, consisted of Adichie lying to conference attendees at corporations and schools about American 'progress' on tackling racism since she knew none of these people read her blog, but in the desire to appear anti-racist, hired her to speak and congratulate mostly white audiences on their good work), and meeting her educated, middle-class American black lover, Blaine, who she has a serious relationship with after the disastrous end to her relationship with Curt, a wealthy white American whose conservative mother was racist (though not nearly as racist as the aunt of the children Ifemelu becomes a nanny to while attending university in Philadelphia, to finish her communications major). Her blogs, her voice and outlet to the world on her thoughts regarding race relations in the US and 21st century Lagos, also reveal the transnational, global links in the world wrought by increased communication. Advances in technology include the democratization of cellular phones in Nigeria beyond the wealthy, internet and computer usage, transnational immigration, and, perhaps most significantly for Ifemelu and Obinze, the vicissitudes in the economic conditions of Lagos. 

Reminiscent of a critique leveled against Lagos from a class on African Urban History I observed last semester, Lagos is either a heaven of capitalist entrepreneurial spirit, or a disgustingly unequal city illustrative of the lack of equity wrought by capitalism's iron fist. The widespread practice of government corruption that allows some 'big men' to establish monopolies and acquire extreme wealth indicates more of the latter, at least in my mind, since the shacks, poor quality roads, and exploitation or neglect of the dispossessed appears stark in the novel. Adichie's characters also experience the blackouts and expensive cost of living in what may be Africa's largest city. Nevertheless, Ifemelu defends Lagos as a city on its own terms, despite her initial sympathies with Nigerpolitan returnees and their condescension towards the city of their homeland. Lagos is Lagos, it is Nigeria, not New York, and it never will be. Thus, one sees some African and Nigerian nationalist sentiment in Adichie's characters, who strive to create their own identities instead of regurgitating Western cuisine, styles, and definitions of urban space and life. Equally important in the case of Ifemelu, acknowledging race and the importance for black women to accept their natural, God-given hair and bodies, shows common sense as well as some elements of Nigerian and African self-love and nationalist sympathies. 

Ultimately, Ifemelu escapes the "Americanah" identity of a Nigerian returnee who talks in an American accent, thinks the "American way is the best" and struggles to conform to dominant notions of American (or Western and European) superiority. Race and the immigrant experience of poverty, xenophobia, and cross-cultural learning teach Ifemelu and Obinze to not place American practices, literature, and lifestyles on a pedestal above that of their own local, Nigerian identities. This actually reminds me of a piece from The Guardian on Afropeans who, despite being raised or born in Europe, seem to be returning to the African nations of their parents, which Ifemelu and others also do in this novel, though they were raised in Nigeria before leaving for the US. Moreover, some of the scenes described resonated with me as beautiful reminders of the Francophone West African women who braid black hair in run-down shops, often in bad neighborhoods, and the racial microaggressions, disappointment after the charismatic, uplifting Obama campaign of 2008 (which plays a significant role for Ifemelu and Blaine's relationship, not only uniting many eager to see a black president and a 'changing America' but also restoring their relationship), and the vivid, moving descriptions of black immigrant family life in predominantly white towns, suburbs, and areas, such as Aunty Uju and Dike's life in small-town Massachusetts. Despite some slight problems, this is a brilliant, captivating novel, and hopefully it will reach out to Nigerians and Nigerian-Americans, as well as other African and black immigrant families, whose negative views toward African-Americans will be challenged by the honest dialogue of Ifemelu.

Don't Let Me Down

Though I am not a huge fan of The Beatles, songs such as "Don't Let Me Down" are timeless. Beautiful song, with melancholy coming out the wazoo. Check this out, too.

Marvin Gaye and Michael Jackson: Let's Dance, Let's Shout!

"Shake Your Body (Down to the Ground)" is one of my favorite jams from Michael Jackson's pre-Thriller days. The chorus of Michael Jackson's song was taken from the popular "Got To Give It Up" and note the influence of Gaye on D'Angelo's vocal style, particularly the falsetto, and don't forget that funky beat with Latin percussion incorporated and some jazz-funk in this extended version of the song. Anyway, the chorus lien repeated by Gaye, "let's dance, let's shout, gettin' funky is what it's all about" morphed into "let's dance, let's shout, shake your body down to the ground." Although the Gaye song is much better and funkier than the straight-up disco sensibilities of "Shake Your Body," Michael's singing is enticing.

A Show About A Show Making a Show About Nothing

My favorite story arc over the long life of Seinfeld remains the season-long tale of Jerry and George pitching a sitcom based on their own lives to NBC. Watch this clip for one of my favorite moments, where Jerry explains to the actress playing Elaine Benes why she cannot date his butler. The show is a show about nothing, and is based on their own lives as fictional characters, which is meta or self-referential in that George and Jerry are based on real-life creators of Seinfeld, Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David, who wrote the show for NBC themselves! This kind of meta-humor from the 1990s is quite entertaining and provides hilarious commentary on how the show's writers perceived their own project whilst working for NBC. One must wonder how this likely impacted sitcoms in future years embrace of metafiction and, in some cases, breaking the fourth wall. Watch season 4 of the show to see this brilliant season-long story arc play out. By the way, this is definitely my favorite season of the show, alongside season 5.

Why I Love Community

While constructing a Youtube playlist of my favorite Community moments, largely to aid my procrastination efforts during my last exams of my undergraduate career, I have come to the realization that NBC's Community is the best sitcom on television, although Louie is brilliant, and occasionally, Archer. My love for the show was rekindled while watching the weak fourth season in order to distract myself from studying for pointless exams. Though season 4 was disappointing, without Dan Harmon's oversight and excellent writers who quit the show when Harmon was booted, it featured occasional moments of brilliant comedy that surpassed the rather lame attempts by the two replacements for Harmon to "mainstream" Community while trying to remain loyal to the spirit of Harmon through spoofs and wacky, fantasty episodes. I have written about season 4 of the show here. Anyway, here are some reasons I love this show and pray for six seasons and a movie!

As an undergraduate freshman discovering Community from friends discussing it in my presence, I related to the show's first season as a first-year in college. Though I did not attend a community college, the general college/higher education experience provided an outlet for me to relate to something on television, one of my parents coming up in this world. The first time I actually watched Community, it was over the Winter break after the first semester of freshman year, and, while hanging out with some friends who were fans of the show, began to devour episodes on Hulu. Thank God for Hulu, whose users voted Community the best program on television a few years ago. I am not sure what initially struck me about the show in its comparatively tame first season (I say 'tame' in comparison to the adventures, escapades, meta-humour, and extravagant spoofs and parodies in seasons 2 and 3), but perhaps just a shared experience as college students united us. The characters are likeable and interesting (well, excluding Chevy Chase's Pierce, a racist, sexist, homophobic old man who only exists in the show because NBC wanted a big name to attract viewers), and, deliberately 'diverse' for the purposes of being "politically correct" while mocking their own internal diversity of the study group through the well-intentioned, awkward liberal racism of Dean Craig Pelton. The socially awkward Abed, assumed to have asperger's according to Jeff and Britta, reminded me of a friend of mine while also speaking to my own personality and lack of obeisance to social cues. Like Abed, I too often find it difficult to communicate with people, live through obsessive hobbies and habits, and, often face ignorant and racist assumptions. Though the actor who plays Abed is clearly Indian, his character is a half-Palestinian, half-Polish American Muslim whose actual Palestinian heritage or thoughts on America's "War on Islam" or the Israel-Palestine conflict remain hidden, perhaps to reflect mainstream network television sitcoms' tendency to avoid addressing politically 'controversial' issues.

As someone often assumed to be "Indian" or "Muslim" (as if Muslim is a race and not a religion), as well as being socially awkward (unfortunately not as popular culture savvy as Abed, who devours infinitely more television, film, and genres than I ever could), I have been recognized as an "Abed" by a friend who also loves Community. In addition to Abed and the rest of the study group, Jeff, Brita, Pierce, Shirley, the adorable Annie, and Donald Glover's Troy, and the hilarious pansexual Dean with a Dalmatian fetish (and many other fetishes and an unhealthy obsession with the handsome Jeff Winger), the world of Greendale Community College is enticing. Throughout the show's run, the campus oscillates between a world of fantasy and rather down to earth episodes focusing on more mundane material, all the while relating to the universal experiences of college students groaning and moaning over exams, procrastinating on campus with friends, discovering who they are and how they fit into this crazy thing called life, and, last but not least, becoming a family. Every sitcom is always centered on this basic nuclear unit, the family, including my other favorite program, Futurama, which uses the crew and workforce of the Professor's shipping company to establish a 'family' around a lovable group of misfits! Indeed, Community was aptly titled by Harmon, since this show is ultimately about community, friendship, and solidarity, which can take place in or outside of a college campus. Thus, Community related to my experiences as a student, socializing on campus, the search for self and self-realization, and my own idiosyncrasies and child-like worldview, encapsulated in the behavior of Troy and Abed. As the past four years of my life flowed by, I "grew up" with Community's cast as parallel experiences in the undergraduate 'experience,' eagerly awaiting each subsequent season of the program. May you live long and prosper to six seasons and a movie!

My other reason for loving Community relates to my other favorite television show, Futurama, which is essentially one long series of animated spoofs, parodies, and numerous examples of intertextuality, something Matt Groening and writers for both Futurama and The Simpsons (a show I actually grew up with, watching from my elementary school years until the end of my secondary schooling) infuse into the series for comedic effect, plots, allusions, and for establishing their fictional worlds. Moreover, Futurama, as a sci-fi parody world, often created entire episodes based on Star Trek or Star Wars and a plethora of other elements of science fiction, film, television, literature, and references beyond the world of sci-fi. Similarly, Dan Harmon's comedic vision and tenure as head of Community also relied on similar methods for sitcom success, loading up episodes with references to popular culture, film, other television shows, incorporating meta-styled humour and lines, often through Abed, who became a voice for the show's writers and Harmon at times, as well as doing spoofs of sitcom tropes and archetypes, such as bottle episodes, clip shows, and using Abed as a filter to break the fourth wall by making fun of Community itself as a sitcom. That, my friend, is genius! Perhaps it drove additional viewers away from the show in seasons 2 and 3, especially as both season premieres clearly established the direction of the show into fantastical escapades, soaring parody, and mind-boggling metafiction and dense allusions to other great television shows, such as The Wire and Breaking Bad (there's absolutely no way that the Dean's beard in season 3 is not an homage to Walter White's bad-ass beard in Breaking Bad).

This style of multi-layered meta humor, intertextuality with other elements of popular culture, ranging from Pulp Fiction to Doctor Who, spoofs of sitcom writing, and numerous parody episodes reflect the influence of previous classics in American television, such as Futurama and The Simpsons, besides the obvious Arrested Development (the influence of AD is prominent in the conspiracy theory episode of the second season wherein Annie and Dean Pelton endeavor to teach Jeff a lesson about faking a class for credits but in reality ends with numerous conspiracy crossovers and hijinks over who shot you and who teaches who a lesson). Perhaps for many viewers, this style of humor veered to far toward individual creative excess of Harmon, who was clearly indulging himself in seasons 2 and 3 of the show with episodes of clay-mation, videogames, fake clip shows (Fun Fact: the infamous "Gravity" video of Annie and Jeff is actually a parody of a fan-made video from youtube!). Nevertheless, the show has developed a cult following, largely because of the "Harmon touch" with these rather complex, densely layered allusions, intertextuality, and meta-humor, perhaps following in the path established by Arrested Development, another classic show cancelled before its time. We know some writers of Community worked on AD or were influenced by it, so following in the predecessor's footsteps through high DVD sales, a visible, cult following, and the spread of the fandom base to mainstream audiences could lead to Community's recognition as one of the greatest American sitcoms of all time.

The show does not feature the annoying traditional laugh track, explores intellectually-engaging plot developments and clever, meta-parody, and in the process, weaves the lives of a diverse cast into a real community. Therefore, Community not only challenges viewers to rethink comedy and television, but also retains elements of traditional sitcoms' focus on family, friendship and love. It's the type of college most students would love, where the Dean is close to students, lines are crossed in terms of professionalism and personal relationships, teachers and students mingle, and talented actors are given space for improvisation to further develop their characters. Undeniably, the presence of Chevy Chase's character often weakens the cohesion of the group and the show's overall strength, but even Pierce occasionally has glimpses of brilliance and plays a large role in the show's family structure, since even old, racist grandfathers or crazy uncles have a role at the study room table. It's a powerful, enlightening show that at its zenith, approaches the alleged "hysterical realism" of Zadie Smith's enchanting White Teeth: a combination of insightful, deep thoughts on the realities of life and social commentary with a deliberately overly contrived world of extreme reality-bending. Perhaps undermined by the use of "hipster racism" through Pierce's character and a few duds in the indulgences of Harmon in season 3 of Community (I am not even going to bother to include season 4, which, minus Harmon, is sub-par in comparison), Community remains one of the more racially-integrated network comedies with meaningful television moments of the promise of American democracy, integration, and, finally, comedy and acting as artistic endeavors. The cast relate to each other superbly, and the Troy-Abed friendship is adorably hilarious, as well as the blurring of fact and fiction in the innocent, naive Annie versus the sexually exuberant Alison Brie. God, I love this show (but you just have to ignore Chevy Chase most of the time and Senor Chang, except in season 1, where he was in a position of authority that was believable and amusing, versus the rest of his character's existence as a social freak struggling to join the study group). Oh, and the cross dressing pansexual Dean is always hilarious, coming on to Jeff periodically as well as his obvious pan-attractions, love for costumes, and the show's mockery of him perhaps veering toward negative, slightly offensive views of the Dean's sexuality. Oh, did I mention the lovable misfits who populate the world of Greendale? The lovable douche bag Starburns, whose name is Alex, has a great line in the first episode of season 2: "Come On, I know you and Britta did it. Isn’t the whole reason you got together with those people because you wanted to bang the blonde. Now I hear you frenched the brunette. What more could you have gotten out of that group?"

The show's numerous allusions to Cougar Town (including a scene in the latter where Abed appears in the background, sitting at a table, and the brilliant episode of season 2, "Critical Film Studies") and Doctor Who have also aroused my curiosity and fascination with perhaps later discoveries of additional television gems. The blending of fiction and reality also occurred in the intersection of social media, in this case, Twitter accounts for the fictional characters in Community's study group. This show transcends the already blurry division between fact and fiction, surpasses the limits of the sitcom medium, and has led to one of the best, in my opinion, fan communities. Ultimately, I love Community for imparting with viewers the important message that the border between fact and fiction is not nearly as clear-cut as many would like us to believe. Like all great art and fiction, Community reminds us that social realities are shaped by fiction, from our archetypal mythology and literary trends (which have carried over into television) to the very ideas, theories, and stories constructed over the last several thousand years that have given meaning to categories of social identity, function, and, in the end, contributes as much as "so-called reality" towards constructing humanity's relations with itself and the world around us. Through it all, Community carries over to the non-animated, real-time format, elements of the genius of Futurama with significant boosts of metafiction and an interesting college experience pertaining to finding community. As Abed would say, "Cool. Cool, cool, cool."