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I decided to take this post to consider the changes we made to the classroom structure.  After deciding on the idea of the 'five second pause', it become obvious that the system had its certain flaws.  The system was put in place to inhibit people jumping onto the end trains of others' comments.  Clearly, it only created a five second buffer before the inevitable 'jump' occured.  From what I could see, the point of the 'five second pause' was to encourage a moment of self reflection before the class continued the dialogue, to PREVENT the jump.  Here is where I found the issue; it's not a question of rule or law in the classroom. Ironically, it is about self limitation or self censorship.  Although it's important to voice your opnions and participate in the classroom, the only way to ensure a fair environment for all the student in the class is for those who speak more often to limit THEIR speech to make room for the comments of others.  Everybody just simply needs to be mindful of themselves, how often they are speaking, and whether there might be other students who want to express themselves as well, and whether their excessive speech is hindering that experience for them.  It really might be as simple as that, which no class-wide rule can inspire.

Zadie Smith’s novel NW contains multiple stories composed of social, familial, romantic, and marital interaction. Surrounding several of these interactions are performances of economic activity, behaviour, and mentality. The stories of Leah, Michel, Natalie, Frank, and Natalie’s and Frank’s children all raise ideas of economic behavioural influences in non-economic aspects of their lives. This analysis leads to the notion of how self-interest and tendency for self-serving fundamentally drive our performance and behaviour in life.

When I started reading NW, I was confused about the entirely different actions by Leah and Michel. And I decided to focus on their difference caused by economical influences.

The story keeps comparing their differences: Leah wants to stay wherever she is, and Michel is always trying to push things forward. Their conflict comes from their different plans for future: as a well-planned man, Michel wants a child but Leah has a fear for having a change. But that difference didn’t occur for Leah hates her husband----she always likes being with Michel when alone, but she got socially embarrassed all the time by his poor English and social awkwardness in public. When they were in Natalie’s house, Leah kept correcting Michel and they came to a little fight which ended soon when they went back home and had time alone. This show that they actually are very harmonious without the society interrupting. Their social life seems to be one interruption to their relationship. And what made the differences?

                When does friendship begin? When can you say that you’ve made an acquaintance?  It might be after a dinner conversation, or even a long walk back to the dorm from classes, but what really marks the start of any kind of relationship is names.  Knowing another person’s name is what differentiates them from a person seen across the hallway or a face you recognize in a crowd, as if knowledge of names equates to familiarity and knowledge of another’s identity.  In NW by Zadie Smith, names are critical to understanding the identities and personalities of the characters.  In particular, the dichotomy between Keisha and Natalie as two different aspects of the same individual causes an incredibly complex identity crisis that drives much her story in the novel.

coauthored with Amy Ma

The real NW

Though seemingly realistic, Zadie Smith’s NW is loaded with inaccuracies in regards to the area and characteristics of locals that become apparent after an investigation.  

While reading NW something didn’t ring true.  The story did not feel real.  Having never been to the area, however, I accepted the descriptions of all of the actual locations to be accurate.  I accepted Willesden as an area where whites are the minority, everyone smokes and most people are from modest backgrounds, but these characterizations are inaccurate.  According to a report on the public health of Brent County in London more than half of Willesden residents are white and about 70% of all people in London are as well (Willesden).  This report goes on to show that “at least a fifth of the population… smokes” and in all of the separate sections of Willesden, for men and women, unemployment ranges from 3.4% to 7.4% which is about 50% higher than that of all of England; the report does not, however, indicate the actual socioeconomic statuses common in Willesden.  Though just numbers, these statistics paint a much more detailed picture of the citizens of Willesden.

Phoenix

Mlord

Play in the City 028

Sunday, October 27, 2013

Smith Meets Kirkegaard: Existentialism in NW

            Chapter number 138 in the section titled Host, in NW by Zadie Smith, is titled with a long URL. The URL, when typed into the web address bar of a browser, is merely a Google search on Søren Kierkegaard. The chapter itself is not about Kierkegaard at all. It is short, only 60 words:

Such a moment has a peculiar character. It is brief and temporal indeed, like every moment; it is transient as all moments are; it is past, like every moment in the next moment. And yet it is decisive, and filled with the eternal. Such a moment ought to have a distinctive name; let us call it the Fullness of Time. 303

What exactly this moment is, is somewhat unclear. The preceding chapter talks about the difference between a moment and an instant, but does not mention any particular type of moment that Smith might be describing now. If ‘Such a moment’ is all moments as opposed to instants, then it might describe the “special awareness” that beauty invokes in Natalie. “The fullness of time,” on the other hand, is rather easier to understand and to relate to the title: it’s a Bible verse, Galatians 4:4.5, describing the timing of God sending Jesus to Earth.

The number 37 and Leah Hanwell are introduced at the beginning of NW and resurface throughout it. Leah probably learned about the number 37 from her friend Natalie who said, “The number 37 has a magic about it, we’re compelled toward it. Websites are dedicated to the phenomenon. The imagined houses found in cinema, fiction, painting, and poetry-almost always 37. Asked to choose a number at random: almost always 37. Watch for 37, the girl said, in our lotteries, our game-shows, and our dreams and jokes, and Leah did, and Leah still does.” (46) This quote conveys that the number 37 has a “magical” significance, and is somehow part of the underlining structure of society. The number 37 stays in Leah’s subconscious throughout NW and she notes whenever she sees it.

Leah has many chance meetings with an old schoolmate named Shar. (5) After these encounters, like the number 37, Shar stays in Leah’s subconscious. Shar knocks on Leah’s door one day asking for money. Leah lends Shar money, and Shar promises to pay her back. After that incident, Leah starts to have multiple chance encounters with Shar, and Shar doesn’t pay her back.

Jessica Bernal

ESEM- Play in the City

Race: A factor in Relationship Stability and Function

            In NW, Zadie Smith delves into three preeminent romantic relationships; Leah and Michel, Natalie and Frank, and Felix and Grace. Each relationship with stories and dilemmas of their own like any other typical relationship. Yet, Leah and Michel’s relationship is far more complex than the average relationship as we determine that their different ethnicities play a bigger role in defining their unity. From the view of a London inner city resident, the attitude towards interracial couples emphasizes that race plays a role in relationship stability and function to which such is represented by Zadie Smith’s unique relationship creation of Leah and Michel.

            Leah and Michel’s relationship is more of a physical attraction and sexual compatibility than respect and admiration for one another. Two complete different ends of a spectrum where as she is a white successful woman and Michel is a francophone black man trying to make a better living by disproving all stereotypes based on the color of his skin and in the end proving he as well can do greatness. Their social status creates tension within their relationship causing it to be unfunctional.

In class, several people argued that Zadie Smith’s Natalie was the only character who showed any agency. By doing well in school, becoming a lawyer, and marrying a wealthy man, Natalie escapes poverty. But, is Natalie the only character who has agency in NW?

Sabina Alkirke analyzes several researchers’ methods of studying agency in “Subjective Quantitative studies of Human Agency.” She finds that agency is not only measured by a person’s ability to change her socioeconomic class. Alkirke broadens the definition of agency to be “people’s ability to act on behalf of what matters to them” (Alkirke 223). She presents agency as multi-faceted; it can be measured objectively through a person’s resources, but also subjectively through feelings of empowerment (Alkirke 23). Agency, therefore, is both an internal and an external phenomenon. Using Alkirke’s definition, Natalie has agency, but so do Leah and Felix.