Wikipedia Trails: Jamaica Kincaid to Creme Brulee



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamaica_Kincaid

I began with the wikipedia page for the author of Girl, because it was a short story/poem that really resonated with me. I think it's really important for women to make their experiences known through art. I wanted to see what other works she had made, and what themes she covers in them. I found out her other stories focus a lot on colonialism and its effects, also on gender and sexuality. There are heavy themes of "Magical Realism" in her work which made me want to look into this more, so I went to that page next.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_realism

I already knew what Magical Realism was, but I wanted to see some specific examples. On this page I saw a few things I had heard of, such as the movie "The Green Mile". It is about a mentally disabled black man put to death for a crime he didn't commit who also happens to have mysterious powers. Personally, I felt as though the addition of magic was a bit silly and unnecessary in the movie, and a bit stereotypical of the mentally disabled people and of black people. However, what really caught my eye on the page was the listing of a movie called Amelie. I had heard of the movie, but had no idea any magic was involved, so I went to that page to read more.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Am%C3%A9lie

Upon reading the summary of the movie, I didn't see much magical realism. At least, not as obviously as in The Green Mile. The closest thing I could see that would be considered "magic" is the way Amelie magically seems to know just how to solve the problems of the people around her with her quirkiness. Overall, the movie seemed boring to me, so I quickly moved on to another page. I chose creme brulee because I've heard of it often without knowing what it is. Apparently Amelie would break her creme brulee with a spoon, and I had no idea what that meant.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cr%C3%A8me_br%C3%BBl%C3%A9e

Creme brulee means burnt cream, but it's not actually burnt cream. It's creamy custard topped with a hardened layer of caramel, which is likely what Amelie was cracking with her spoon. Knowing this now, I don't know why this was important enough to mention in the summary. Apparently, to harden the caramel, fire is often used. This means sometimes creme brulee is also served flambee.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Week 14 Analysis: Close Reading of Letter to A Prisoner

In this poem, Senghor writes to one of his comrades named Ngom in a German prisoner of war camp. He tells him about what he's seen in wartime Paris after being released from the camp himself. "I write you from the solitude of my precious - and closely guarded -/ Residence of my black skin." (Senghor, 682) This line expresses how he feels as an African man away from his culture. He admits that he is isolated, but rather than use that word he uses a similar one: solitude. Though they both mean being alone, they have very different connotations. Solitude implies that it was a conscious decision, giving him agency in his distance from the people around him. He feels that as a black man he cannot relate to those around him, so he closely guards himself and his identity. "Fortunate are my friends/ Who know nothing of the icy walls and the brightly lit/ Apartments that sterilize every seed on the ancestors' masks/ And even the memories of love." (Senghor, 682...
Read more

Reading Analysis: Literary Analysis of The Dead

A major theme in "The Dead" is, unsurprisingly, death. The inevitability of it, the way it affects the living, and the way it connects us as human beings are all touched upon in the story. One way the theme of death is conveyed in the story is symbolically, in the snow that is present throughout the story. We see it introduced from almost the very beginning of the story, mentioned as Gabriel enters the scene. He is taking off his coat as he enters the house, and it is covered in snow and ice. This is symbolic of how we can try to shield ourselves from death as Gabriel shields himself from the snow with his coat, but it will still impact us regardless, just as Gabriel is still covered in snow. In the following conversation about the snow with Lily, he comments that there is probably going to be snowfall that night. This is foreshadowing about the looming existential crisis Gabriel is going to have involving death. At the end of the story, when Gabriel begins to think about ...
Read more