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Hi! I'm Zona Hrnjak and this is my blog for African American Literature.

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Out of Context Images

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I sat down with  Mumbo Jumbo , a pen, and notebook on my desk, and the entire internet at my disposal. Every cryptic image would become a specimen for examination, a good Atonist explanation. But what we called “Reed glasses” transformed into “Reed contacts” into “Reed lasik surgery”, and now I can’t unsee much of the thesis Reed presented us with. So let’s just get two birds stoned at once; why go down a time consuming rabbit hole of research when I could simply explain that the point of the images is contained within their awkwardness. Including citations, a bibliography, newspaper excerpts, and the images, all make Mumbo Jumbo at a surface level appear something more like an academic text. This could be a conversation in and of itself of course, but images especially add to this. Usually you see them in the middle part of a non-fiction book or a history textbook, with added captions explaining what is being shown. However, Mumbo Jumbo lacks any captions and really the connectio...
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Sex and Death: Part 2 Electric Boogaloo

Henry and Ethan brought up this question about sex and death in their panel presentation: just like in Ragtime, sex and violence are undoubtedly, but very depressingly, connected. In the essay they presented, the author describes the sexual language with which the war enthusiasts describe war, particularly the “post-coital satisfaction” of the process of “mopping up”. The entire concept of war as conquest is associated with an overblown masculinity, and that concept of war is sexualized. Violence and sex are linked, fetishized by men and used to exploit others. As the author says, Vonnegut essentially genders the concepts of conquest and innocence. When masculinity is overblown in this way, the world we live in is ultimately a dangerous and deeply misogynistic one as well. The way sex is described in calmer parts of the novel isn't any less troubling. For Billy, any sex with either his wife Valencia or Montana Wildhack are fundamentally about comfort. They are depicted as comforta...
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An attempt to rationalize history (Final project)

     This is all based on a story. No real plot, it’s just a bit of family history. My grandma Olga went to prison when she was 18. She never talked about it, but some bits and pieces survived with brief exchanges and visits and images from my great-aunt (her sister), who told my mom while she lived with her in college, who told me, again in bits and pieces over the years, told in passing, on walks around the neighborhood with my mom, in dinner conversations with relatives, a historical footnote from my parents. Every time, there’s some new context that makes me hear it a bit differently.      I’m going to write this story a few times. Right now I’m writing from my bedroom during the age of coronavirus. I’ve been told, “you should keep a journal this is a very historic time,”. Okay look, nobody’s going to be reading my journal as historical evidence, it’s not even about coronavirus. It’s about the normal shit teenagers go through, figuring out a complex ...
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