BRITISH SUBURBAN LIFE

2005-11-21T20:02:00.000-08:00

In Search for Suburbia

In regards to the discussion we had on Eliza having a breakdown from the suburban lifestyle, I also saw her ordeal as a result of her inability to obtain a true suburban lifestyle. There were many things about Eliza that kept her distant from typical suburbaia which I think caused her to make up Joan as an ideal suburban wife/mother.
One of the key things seperating Eliza from suburban life was that she never embraced modernity as other suburban families had. For example she doesn't even have a car. Everywhere she goes, she always chooses to walk as she says many times throughout the novel she prefers to do so and would rather walk than even get a lift by anyone else. She also doesnt care for materialistic things unlike other families who were more preoccupied with consumption. We see this through their continuous comments on her earings and dress given by 'Joan'. Even though Eliza has "plenty of money" (45), she would rather not spend it on new outfits or latest trends or else she could have bought the earings/dress at any earlier point in life.
The biggest factor seperating Eliza from suburbia, and the most obvious, is that she has no children. Although something not in her control, being child-less distinguished her as just a housewife rather than a suburban woman as being a mother is a large part of the suburban lifestyle. Dealing with problems, buying the newest toys, taking them to school/practice: all an established part of a mothers life in suburbia yet something Eliza could never take part in.
In addition to this, it also seems that when Eliza is hit with modernity, she chooses to be 'invisible' if she can, because thats how she feels most comfortable. Even in her role as housewife, she chooses instead to be an "invisible wife" (45) because this way she can be aware of the typical household problems yet remove herself from them if necessary so theres never anything she has to deal with. This occurs again when she is dealing with "Sarah's" pregnancy incident, she wants to be invisible on the meeting with the godfather so she wouldnt have to deal with the awkward situation as a real mother would have to.
As Eliza runs away from suburban duty and never really experiences a true suburban lifestyle, I see her breakdown as a result of not being able to obtain the suburban lifestyle she wanted rather than a breakdown because of the suburban life. I find her goal is to become a suburban woman rather than wanting to escape from it and the first steps she takes in making this so is finally coming to terms with the reality of Joan and finally bringing her family together by speaking with Henry and going to visit her stepdaughter.

2005-11-14T21:44:00.000-08:00

In regards to the pros and cons of everyday in Rita Felski's article The Invention of Everyday Life, I tried to apply both sides of her argument in relation to my own life and come to a conclusion on the paradox of everyday: mundane and repetitive or liberating and celebrated? I realized that if I was to sit down and look at every aspect of every activity I do during the day then obviously it would seem boring; however, in looking at the everyday as a whole, I find the scheduled life is a welcomed thing. Like most students, life is run by semesters and within semesters there are set times for assignments/finals etc. and in order to make sure the deadlines are met I set goals and make timelines to follow in order to allow a stressfree life. Therefore, the ritual of planning out the semester is definatly something that is welcomed as it allows me to use my time more wisely and make the semester more manageable without going crazy. I live by my agenda which has all my obligations laid out, just like other students, to help with any spur of the moment changes/appointments which I find to be a hasstle rather than a positive to the scheduled semester. Life is so much easier, in regards to school, when it is laid out and the learned habit of making sure things are done in order and on time is something that I would never want to lose or escape from. Nevertheless, if ordered life of school ever became too much changes can always be made by taking a semester off and going on spontaneous trips or doing activities. I dont feel that one has to choose between the everyday as being good or bad but something that can be a mix of both, and I agree with Felinski when she says that habit -although boring - is a liberating thing.
In addition to the article proposing the everyday having to be good or bad, I think that for everyone there is always the option of change in the everyday so that no matter what it can always be good even if it is as little as the housewife trying out a new dishwashing soap, there is always the little bit of excitement in trying out something new.

2005-11-07T13:37:00.000-08:00

One of the elements of the novel, Buddha of Suburbia, that I think has been overlooked is the connection to Japan, whether it be through the Buddhist religion, Shinko, or Eva's design techniques. As I am taking a Japanese Literature in Translation course, one of the Japanese aesthetics that stood out for me while reading the book was the idea of Wabi Sabi which means that out of a normal everyday object/idea (wabi) there is some sort of imperfection (sabi); however, one should embrace this imperfection and see beauty in the wabi once again. One translation of this wabi sabi concept into Western life has been the fact that men are the flawed/imperfect beings but women are able to see the beauty in them despite their flaws and deal with the males in their lives. By keeping this concept in mind, I looked at the relationship between Anwar, Jamila and Jeeta in respect to Changez being the sabi with his physical flaw and his disruption to their family as well as how he is treated in respect to his imperfections.
The first incident that came into mind was Changez's ability to help out with the store. Anwar assumed that because of Changez's physical flaw he was incapable of doing anything productive and therefore never bothered to ask Changez of his capabilities. Changez was stuck with the lousiest jobs making him feel even more useless. As as result, by not being accepted, Changez decided to do even less work and just made things harder for Anwar. Jeeta however, embraces whatever help Changez can offer. By not seeing his physical flaws as a barrier but just dealing with it and allowing Changez to do something he is good at, they were able to work together and make the store more successful.
This reaction towards Changez occurs again with the fact that after going through with the arranged marriage, Changez would be incorporated into the family causing a disruption to their norms of life. Anwar had believed that in having Changez in the family, there would be more help with the business allowing himself more time to be with Jeeta and to make her happy. However, in seeing Changez's dissability, Anwar is never able to assimilate him into the family because he believes all his dreams are ruined. He sees Changez as an obstacle and never gets passed this notion, eventually causing his own downfall and death with the pain of the situation. Jamila however, deals with Changez being in the family. Despite the inconvenience he has caused her, she chooses to deal with the fact that he will be a part of her life. She carries on as normal not letting him get in the way of her life plans but incorporates him into them to best fit her needs.
In both situations we see how sabi, in the male form of Changez, is embraced by the female characters Jamila and Jeeta so that even though he may have caused some disruption, they were able to deal with it and positively move on. Anwar, being a clashing sabi to Changez, is incapable of dealing with him resulting in a negative influence on his life.

2005-10-31T22:54:00.000-08:00

In watching Keeping up Appearances, we were able to see the lives of three sisters living in suburbia and the different ways each of them deals with the situations around them. The one who stuck out most, probably because it is hard to forget her ever-revealing outfits, is Rose: the sexually crazed, attention seeker. Despite what she came across to be in the sitcom, I tried to understand why she always chose to be center of attenton and act child-like, for example, by locking herself in her room. What I first noticed, and I'm sure Rose did too, was the fact that when looking at the way her life was "supposed" to be according to her sisters Hyacinth and Daisy, the typical suburban lives they were living as examples for her was nothing to be jelous of as both women had unappealing and unsatisfying marriages. Daisy was obviously sexually frustrated and Hyacinth had to continually keep up a facade in the town while both their husbands chose to escape their dreary suburban lives by turning to modernity: watching television or working on the car. Rose was the only sister who, even though a little eccentric, was able to be content with her life as she could act as she wished, never having to worry about what anyone thought of her as she had nobody to impress - except for potential suitors - and no real authority to answer to. By trying to stay and act young I believe she was rebelling against the modern suburban life because she knew that as soon as she was tied down she would have to grow-up and succumb to the pressures of what a suburban woman has to live through - shown by Daisy and Hyacinth. Her permiscuous outfits and random affairs would never be accepted if she chose to follow her sisters as the "rules" of suburban life (which Hyacinth overtly followed like the bible) would cause her unhappiness and turn her into somebody she wasnt. There was no room to be unique as anything out of the norm was unacceptable and shunned. Everybody was avoiding Hyacinth because she was different in the fact that she tried too hard to keep up her facade of being a part of the wealthy suburban neighbourhood and Daisy was avoided by Hyacinth and her community because she was poorer than them and therefore had a cheaper car and dressed differently. In seeing this, I believe Rose wanted to stick to the child-like role as this way she wouldnt have to compromise who she was and she could remain as care-free as she chose....maybe even being smarter than her two sisters - although that might be taking it a little far!

2005-10-16T01:10:00.000-07:00

Found this song by Green Day "Jesus of Suburbia"....its not British Suburbia but I thought it still expresses some of the same problems: inability to be yourself, typical life-style your expected to have, making you feel as in you're in a "city of the dead" as everyone/everything is the same. It ends with the monotony being solved by leaving home to escape from it all - something George tried to do.

2005-09-29T13:45:00.000-07:00

Is this Kitsch....??
Just a quick comment about the discussion we had in class yesterday. After the mention of the 9/11 website i remembered an episode of Jay Leno where these two men were on for creating a website where there are videos of people who are crying while eating. I've never seen a website dedicated to this unusual topic but I thought it was quite original (and wierd) and so did many others at it has recieved millions of hits. I'm just mentioning it as in class we were trying to come up with original/unique things and so I thought this website had some potential for being different. The only ways I thought it could relate to Kitsch was that it does arise some type of cheap emotion, and the origin may have been the idea that girls, when in tears from a break-up for example, go and get a tub of ice-cream to eat. Once it caught on, many more videos were made making it more of a mass product; however, none of the creators were making any money off of it, it was purely for enjoyment.

2005-09-22T22:23:00.000-07:00

After discussing the idea of whether George goes through an epiphany while re-visiting Lower Binfield, one idea came to mind in favor for his coming to some sort of realization about his life and the world around him.
Earlier in the novel, George, upon realizing that WW2 was likely to be inevitable, goes to discuss his fears about the situation with his old friend Porteus who we are told is an educated school master rejecting any idea of modernity around him. He objects to the radio his neighbour has recently bought, never reads a modern novel, and relates any situation and/or event in the present or future to have stemmed or repeated the past he is stuck in: Ancient Rome and Greece. Although George knows Porteus is stuck in the past, he still chooses to take this 'travel back in time' and visit him in order to escape the suburban family life he is stuck in. Despite this welcomed atmosphere at Porteus's home, George understands that he cannot become a fool like Porteus in thinking that the world will never change because he sees that it already has and there is nothing anyone can do to stop it from being swallowed up by modernity.
In addition, while at his home, Porteus reads George a poem in the exact way he read it to him the first time, and it is at this point that George realizes that Porteus is a ghost stuck in an eternal cycle incapable of comprehending change. He lives as though the world outside cannot effect him as long as he does not accept it - even though we see through the incident of the wireless, that it already has.

George mentions this idea of 'ghosts' once again when he returns to Lower Binfield in order to re-visit a time when his life was unaffected by the on-rush of suburbia. At first he claims that all the new inhabitants of his home town are ghosts; however, as he watches all the people who now live in Lower Binfield go on with their lives, he comes to the realization that he himself is the ghost, like Porteus, not all the people around him. Just as Porteus, he was stuck in a past that was non-exsistent and had been afraid to come to the realization that it too had been swallowed up by modern suburbia. He spoke of and longed for the Lower Binfield he knew of 30 years ago just as Porteus longed to be surrounded by the atmousphere of Ancient times, concequently uncovering that he himself was a fool and a ghost too. He had believed his beloved home town was a sanctuary from the changes of the world, but upon realizing that it was only an illusion, George experiences his epiphany to find that no matter what, there was nothing he or anyone else could do to stop modernity from overtaking his home and his memory.

2005-09-12T01:48:00.000-07:00

After watching the sitcom, The Good Life, where we were given a small glimpse of what Britsh suburbia was like during the twentieth century, there was a clear distinction made between the two main households we followed. Jerry and Margo were the couple who seemed to indulge on the ideas of modernity that were taking place around them, as a predetermined way of life was what made them happy - Margo with her drinks on the patio and Jerry with his 5th floor, managerial position. Meanwhile Tom and Barbara, their neighbours, rejected as much as they could of this new 'robotic' way of life by deciding to self-sufficiently run a farm in the middle of the suburbs. Because Tom willingly choses to reject the monotonous ways that Jerry utilizes to better his work position, Tom remains on the 3rd floor and is never promoted, instead designing side by side with the younger generation.
As we talked about the similarities and differences between these two couples, one distinct feature that stood out as a major parallel not only between the two couples but the different generations as well, was the idea that they all had a love for sport - primarily cricket. Tom, even though working with people half his age, was able to break the ice with his co-workers by talking about cricket. Although the 'best' players were outdated and the co-workers assumed Tom was too old to play on the work team, it was still something they could sit and have a chat about as Tom tried to do before he left to see Jerry. In addition, when Tom went to go see Jerry in his office, it was a conversation they were able to have as well despite their differences. Both men had played when they were younger and as they talked they reminisced of the times they had enjoyed the sport. All three men had a passion for cricket and could easily be pictured going to watch/play a match together showing how sport in British suburbs was popular no matter what changes took place due to modernization or the difference in age.