Comments on: Expatriation — Chapter 5

By: kevinf

kevinf — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 00:32:55 +0000

Wie gehts du, Mark? I guess I misspelled midst, but I like your take on it better.

By: Mark B.

Mark B. — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 22:40:52 +0000

I didn’t know Kevin spoke German. From his reference to white culture putting the mixed race folks in Mist to calling the whole thing Dreck, it’s pretty obvious where he’s coming from.

By: Ardis E. Parshall

Ardis E. Parshall — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 17:24:49 +0000

Marrying Dick would multiply the problems first because she is still in love with Nate and not with Dick. Then she still couldn’t go back home to the Redfields, ’cause she’d still be “colored” and would still be out of place, with everybody looking at her and Dick as a mixed-race couple. Finally, if they had kids, she would only be postponing the dreadful awful horrible scandalous problem onto the next generation — true, the kids would only be 1/32nd “colored blood” but there’s that ol’ “one drop” rule still in place — should those kids marry? Or should they just throw themselves into that volcano and put an end to it?

Three more episodes for this drama to resolve itself into happily ever after. Can it be done? Will what means “happily ever after” in the context of this story satisfy readers of 2012? Stay tuned! (as if you could tune out now …)

It’s just an artifact … it’s just an artifact …

By: Michelle Glauser

Michelle Glauser — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 17:04:48 +0000

How would marrying Dick multiply the problems? I think Nell should really consider going to the nearest temple and getting an answer about the whole thing . . .

By: kevinf

kevinf — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 16:59:55 +0000

This is a slippery slope. Short of throwing herself into a volcano, I can’t see at this point how this will turn out well at all.

I’ve been thinking about the Hollywood treatment of the South Pacific, and a lot of that shows up here. In the stereotypical white role, men and women go to the islands, and lower their standards, seduced by the tranquil climate, and the innocent but alluring manner of the natives. Rogers & Hammerstein’s South Pacific is a good example. Ensign Nellie (there’s that name again!} Forbush tries but fails to resist falling for the safely white but still exotic planter Lebeque, while Lt. Cable falls in love with a native girl from the forbidden island of Bali Hai, with tragic results. The movie treatments of the Mutiny on the Bounty also play up the same theme, more or less, all ending in tragedy of some sort. Even our cultural vision of the painter Gauguin runs down the same path to a great extent.

Nate and Lt. Hawley both are entranced with Nell’s exotic beauty, but it is forbidden to them, and Nell, being part white, knows it as well. She’s so conflicted that she will do the only acceptable thing for someone with mixed ancestry which is to deny herself any happiness. This is certainly representative of what white culture would wish of the mixed race folks in their mist. Be honorable, and don’t allow this pernicious evil to be perpetuated.

What dreck! You promised us a truly weird one, and this certainly fits the bill. This installment ups the ante with a stereotypical British military figure, waxing wise about the colonial natives, and their “abnormal jealousy, a racial characteristic.”

It’s only a historical artifact….
Read 2 Nephi 26:33. Repeat as necessary.

By: Ardis E. Parshall

Ardis E. Parshall — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 16:31:35 +0000

Thanks for the reminder, Michelle — I posted this on the fly yesterday from my Kindle (if it’s even possible to do, I haven’t figure out how to copy and paste URLs on that) and forgot to insert the link when I was back on my laptop. It should work now.

By: Michelle Glauser

Michelle Glauser — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 16:26:48 +0000

Ardis, heads up: the “previous chapter” link isn’t working. I’ll leave a better comment when I finish reading the last one (which I opened through another link) and this one!

By: Ardis E. Parshall

Ardis E. Parshall — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 23:10:53 +0000

Haven’t heard that one in decades, Mark!

I like to wear necklaces. Is that the savage Fijian coming out in me, I wonder? Gaaaahhhh!

By: Mark B.

Mark B. — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 22:55:33 +0000

"They had one child – a boy, I think, but maybe it was a girl. I know it was one or the other." Really, Gen. Howcroft? Aren't you going out on a limb on that one?? And shark fishing, with human bait? Come on, Brother Cannon! We all know that only happens with alligators, and Amos Moses.