When I was a kid I saw Indiana Jones many times. However I never noticed the intense racial undertones until now. How someone in the 1980s could produce a movie that biased I do not know. Orientalism makes me think of the Jim Crow segregation acts of the early 20th century. Black people were just beginning to get out from under white control. They were working, living in middle class neighborhoods. Eventually race riots broke out. The Whites worried about Blacks becoming socially and economically equal with them and developed the Jim Crow laws. This kind of racism always develops out of fear. Fear of a race and their customs that are different. Or fear of a race, considered inferior, becoming equal with another. I also thought about the Japanese intrenment camps of WWII. Becuase the Americans were so worried about Japanese power and so afriad of what could happen, they developed an irrational fear and hatred for all Japanese. Indiana Jones portrays native Indians as barbaric. The food they eat, the way they eat, their surroundings and the way they act are all absurd. In the 1930s there were defintely people who lived in villages in the poor parts of India, however there were also cities and buildings just like in America. It is ridiculous for the producers of the movie to portray Indian people as they did. Said points to media as a starting ground for racism. Society certainly takes much of what the media produces and runs with it. The media outrageously depicts people sometimes and society oftentimes develops that same belief about those people. Many times ignorance is the beginning of racism or in this case orientalism. If a person is naive about a culture or race they will be more suseptible to believing the negative things they see or hear about the culture or race. Orientalism makes me think about chinese food in America. It is so far from what the Chinese people really eat, but yet that is what Americans think they really do eat. Interesting.

I really like the "Wild Sheep Chase". I think Murakami definately follows the unique detective writing style. Although the book is very strange I think it it keeps the audiance, for the most part, engaged. The book also has kept me interested and wanting to find out what will happen next. Rushdie's Haroun however, although very mystical, remained much more difficult for me to remain interested in. I think the intertextuality of a Wild Sheep Chase makes the book easier for younger people like us to stay interested. The numerous musical references and infamous stories like Moby Dick bring it closer to home. At first, because of the 1960s rock bands Murakami mentioned, I did not remember the book was set in Tokyo or that the main character was Japanese. As I get farther into the book it is still at times difficult to remember where the character actually is. I like the mystic of Murakami's writing. It is very interesting how he jumps around in time and confuses you because of it. The rat's letters made the story seem to jump into a completely different story. I can definately see a sequal or even maybe a book before this book with more information on the rat and his part in the whole thing. I think parts of the book are fairly unbelievable and that makes it awesome. Obviously a sheep entering a human being is out of the realm of the ordinary. I think it is interesting that Murakmi chose sheep. At first I didnt understand the reason, except for the whole sheep are followers ... mentality. I was very curious to find out if sheep really have entered people in asian mythology or legend. I looked for a while on the internet to see if anything popped up to confirm this idea, but I had no luck. I guess Murakami made that up. He does a great job of making seemingly ridiculous things come off as perhaps being true, or maybe not? Boku meeting the sheep man really threw me off. I am not sure what he really knows about the rat or the girlfriend but he knows something i think. It is also very hard to read his dialogue, a very interesting addiation to the already bizarre story.

Haroun contains many references to other stories, songs, plays etc. I found it interesting that Rushdie used a Beatles song to name a character in the story, the Walrus. Rushdie's magical realism style reminds me of Alice and Wonderland because of the strange names and exotic places in the story. Alice and Wonderland was also made into a children's book. obviously the references to other stories, songs etc. are an indication of postmodern literature, are the abundant metaphors Rushdie uses also an indication? The idea that water represents words and free speech is prevelant many times throughout the story. I think that Rushdie's main point in the book was freedom of speech. Because Rushdie wrote from hiding after being persecuted for writing the satanic verses it would make sense that he would include his feelings on free speech in his first novel since the satanic verses. Rushdie uses the common good vs. evil imagery of light and dark when he writes about the inhabitants of the moon, however the light signifies speech and words and the dark signifies silence.

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