Interpreting a Joke

ARCHIVE ENTRY DATE: #5 October 20, 2011

TOPIC:Interpretive Processes/Speech Acts

TITLE: Interpreting a Joke

SOURCE: Personal Observations, Internet (specifically a facebook interaction), Class reading.

RELATION TO TEXT: Basso "Speaking with Names"

COMMENTARY:

After reading Basso, “Speaking with Names” which is an article about/deciphering a speech act that happened between a group of Apache Indians, I started looking for speech acts during conversations I had with others. While on facebook this morning I came across a friend’s status update post of a joke. The joke goes like this, “Why did the hipster burn his mouth on his coffee?....he drank it before it was cool.” As I read this I couldn’t help but laugh. This joke is considered a sort of speech act because it hold a double meaning that requires and allows you to think in order to understand it. It is makes sense literally because anyone is going to burn their mouth if they drink coffee before it cools down. But what makes the joke funny is because of the sterotype that goes along with hipsters and that is the thought that they do everything before it was trendy or common, that they are above doing it when it becomes a trend because they are “too cool”.  So hipster and cool are the key terms. This joke is appropriate only during certain times. I would be kind of scared if I tried to tell this joke around a group of people who actually consider themselves a hipster because this joke gives them a negative connotation and I don’t think they would take the joke lightly. It can only be told in a lighthearted manner, around people you know. What I found interesting is that I got to witness the affect that the joke had on the internet. Reading responses to the status were different because I can witness what is being said without having to be around it or participate in it. It was cool reading peoples thinking process once they “got” the joke.  One person even wrote that they had to read the joke 4 times in order to understand what the joke part was. It reminded me of when Basso heard Lola’s and her friends conversation and had no idea what they were talking about until he learned the places of their stories to understand Lola’s culture. In order to understand this joke you have to understand the American subculture that it is referring to.

"Going Green"

ARCHIVE ENTRY DATE: #4 October 6, 2011

TOPIC: Key Metaphors and Frames

TITLE: "Going Green"

SOURCE: Personal observations and experiences; wildlife 210 dicussion; class readings for this week.

RELATION TO TEXT: RR. pg. 86. Kwakwaka'wakw metaphors of hunger.

COMMENTARY:

Food is a common domain when it comes to key metaphors, the meanings that people in a specific culture attribute to their experience. According to Stanley Walens, " the act of eating is a key metaphor for the Kwakwaka'wakw (RR. pg 86)." to the Kwakawaka'wakw eating gives life by giving nutrition and freeing souls. They believe that when a person dies you must put their bodies on a scaffold so that birds and ravens can eat their bodies so that their souls can be freed and be able to enter a salmon so when that salmon is caught and eaten the human soul can be released back into a newborn child. Their art is filled with carnivorous animals with large jaws such as wolves, killer whales, hawks. they also believe that greed and conflict can be solved by controlling hunger, therefore eating is highly ritualized. Thus the act of eating becomes a metaphor through which much of their life is understood and described. As I read about the Kwakawaka'wakw and how eating has a huge impact on their beliefs it made me think of another area where food has a huge impact on a culture. I hear the term "going green" used quite often and at first I just thougt it meant you were a going to try to eat healthier, found that term to be the basis of a specific culture. Someone who is "going green" is someone who lives as organic, and enviromental friendly as possible. These people only eat local organic food (unprocessed), minimize their energy comsumption( such as riding a bike and not leaving light on), and overall try to as environmentally conscious as possible. Its their lifestyle, what their beliefs and opinions are based on. Going green doesnt mean being healthier but is a growing culture in which alot of groups, to name a few: vegans, vegetarians, environmentalist, bases their lives on.