This week I want to speak about Homi Bhabha’s “Signs of Wonder”. From reading the first paragraph it caught my interest by the mention by mentioning an English book and what effect it had in the Carribean. I had an interest with Carribean culture growing up and the effects of colonialism. From what I read, when colonist came to the US they invaded the islands and mainland, while they did that they forced the locals to conform, forcing them to speak English and practice religions like Christianity. It’s not just a change of language that occurred, colonization also brought in technology that has not been done in certain parts of the world like the book.

According to the article, “origin, memorable for its balance between epiphany and enunciation. The discovery of the book is, at once, a moment of originality and authority, as well as a process of displacement that, paradoxically, makes the presence of the book wondrous to the extent to which it is repeated, translated, misread, displaced”.

The quote states that the idea of the book brings a way to document the world. Books are written down ideas or history which can be used by many people and the information contained inside can be passed down, told, and translated.

The text I chose to reflect on this week is Elizabeth Eisentein’s “Defining the Initial Shift”.   In this book, Eisentein is writing about the major shift of scribes to printers and even goes to call it a “Communication Revolution”. Personally I think thats the best way to describe it. While reading this, I couldn’t help but think of how far we’ve coming with the printing press and how successful it had become and how much it has grown over time. We forget that before there were books or print in general, there were only scribes and everything was hand written and copied many many times. Sit back and think to yourself “what if the production of this never happened?” We wouldn’t have books, education would have been much more different than it is now.  In class, we previously spoke about why we trust books so much and I couldn’t help but think that right now too. All of these scribes were hand written and then printed.  In the text Eisentein writes “Unlike the shift from stationer to publisher, the shift from scribe to printer represented a genuine occupational mutation.” Having seen many poorly transcribed papers, I see why there are many editions of textbooks now. Or even bibles. They make it more and more modern by the day, but how can we believe any of it if it’s been transcribed over and over again?

Citation:

For this weeks post I am focusing on The Nature of the Book:Print and Knowledge in the Making. The printing revolution had a major impact on the printing press. The printing press had dramatic effects on European civilization. Its immediate effect was that it spread information quickly and accurately. This helped create a wider literate reading public. Printing has changed over time in this day and age and over time it will continue to change. Their are many questions as to how printing culture developed, why it is successful and how it took hold. The issue of piracy takes place every single day in the printing world. Companies take credit for work that has not been established by their own partners.  Hard work and virtue discredits these authors as printing continues to exist. Any printed book is both the product of a social and technological process and they both have a correlating starting point in the printing world. Printing consists of a large number of people, machines, materials to make it all happen, to have books and newspapers in our hands, to establish things. One book doesnt just exist, it goes through a wide range of processes before it hits store shelves and our hands.

In this week’s response, I will be talking about Homi Bhabha’s article, Signs of Wonder. In this article, he talks about how European Christian values influenced the culture of books and reading(from what I have picked up). Bhabha brought up this example about the Bible. Bhabha brings up the Bible by telling a story about an Indian catechist named Anund Messeh who discovered a group of people reading the Bible. He wrote “‘These books,’ said Anund, ‘teach the religion of the European Sahibs. It is THEIR book; and they printed it in our language, for our use”(Bhabha, 1985). Bhabha mentions that since this group of people never seen a printed book in their lives before, they cherished it like it was given to them by God. However, in this case, the group of people was given a “book” by Europeans and was forced to believe that is the word of God by European religion standards aka Christianity. Bhahba goes on and writes “The discovery of the English book establishes both a measure of mimesis and a mode of civil authority and order. If these scenes, as I’ve narrated them, suggest the triumph of the writ of colonialist power, then it must be conceded that the wily letter of the law inscribes a much more ambivalent text of authority”(Bhahba, 1985). I believe he is saying that European Christians used the Bible as a contribution to colonization and used “the Word” as a way to “right their wrongs” that is the right to authorize and colonize those who need “saving”.

 

References: Bhabha, Homi K. “Signs Taken for Wonders: Questions of Ambivalence and Authority under a Tree Outside Delhi, May 1817.” Critical Inquiry, vol. 12, no. 1, 1985, pp. 144–165. JSTOR, JSTOR

I read Essays on Media and Society by James W. Carey.

I actually read majority of the essay because it was interesting.  I wanted to challenge some of the thoughts that were  articulated. “ We have barely seen these advantages as opportunities to expand People’s power to learn and exchange ideas and experience”.  This quote is pertaining to  how printing and technology has become a form of communicating, And what it’s like to communicate as a culture. I think that is interesting Because it’s 2018 we have all these apps that we use on technology to meet up and hang out with people , But when we get together we have the problem of physically communicating because were so wrapped up on our phones ,on our computers in our emails  we tend to forget people are within  our surroundings . We have social media that allows us to keep in contact with people and stay up to date with what they’re doing but in the same breath something James had mentioned was computers have allowed people to see what society is currently doing we all know where and what people are doing and when  they are doing. So the question that I create from this is

The more that technology advances does humanity lose their freedom ?

 

 

I’ll start by interpreting the individual’s first name Adeyemi to “The crown is fit for me”. This explains his saying, “ Wherever you put me I could make a life for myself.” [18:06] This can amount to the source of his confidence, which seemed almost arrogant as he expressed his proficiency in the business of finance and lack of fear for joining the Air Force, coming out strong, and always willing to accept a challenging tasks in his latter years. Nigerian culture takes pride in the naming of an individual and one’s parents would often choose, “something great” as the name their child because of the need for survival in the environment. It’s like an adrenaline; reminding you were born to overcome whatever obstacles may come your way in troubled times.

I understand Oloruntoba’s story clearly as we’re both form the same culture and speak the same language. A lot of his milestones actually remind me of stories my father shared about risks Nigerians take being fascinated with the idea of American Nationalism. Remaining in American territory included of those things and explains his reasons for joining the military instead of returning back to Nigeria.

Military experience is often associated with discipline in Nigerian culture. The structure of society forces especially men to prove they are Alphas. Joining and enduring through the military and transferring into politics to gain more power is a perfect illustration of how to prove one’s dominance.

It was easy to empathize with the lack of care veterans received as they return from war. It is true some become homeless, have psychotic challenges because of their military service. However It is quite harsh for Oluruntoba  to say everyone should join the military to learn discipline. It’s not possible because not everyone is physically nor mentally capable to survive in that atmosphere.

We should improve in the manner of treatment towards our veterans and our veterans should also think more towards their future endeavors. That aspect of management is crucial on their end so that programs established for veterans can adequately support their returning from service.