Fresh off the Boat blog

Fresh off the boat has been a tremendous book to read this semester. Fresh off the boat is an autobiography by Eddie Huang is a restaurant owner and now author. Eddie is a son of Taiwanese immigrants. In his book he talks about growing up as an Asia American in the 80s and 90s. Growing up he struggled with is identity at a young age. In his book he takes the reader into his live and shows his view points of the world around him. He shows the reader the positive and negative things that he when through his live in his own unique way.

Growing up Eddie had struggle with his own identity because he didn't feel like an American citizen because of his parents and the culture he lived in at his home. During his younger years in school, Eddie face a lot of bullying and racism growing up. Many of the other children that in was in school with made fun of him and called him names because he was Asian. Eddie did not relate or had anything in common with majority of the children he was in school with. At this stage in his life he was very confused about his identity but as he got older he began to start finding his identity.

      

When Eddie enters his teens he begins to find his identity. Eddie found his identity within the hip hop and African American cultures. He felt more accepted by African Americans and people of the hip hop community. He adopted the culture with ease and felt connect to the lifestyle, for expamle the language, the music and the fashion. Throughout his book he uses many slang words that are used in the African American and hip hop communities.

   

Later down the road, Eddie ended up going to law school. After a brief career in law Eddie decide to open a Taiwanese and Chinese style restaurant in New York. At his Restaurant he specializes in Asian cuisine. Becoming a chef and a restaurant owner helped Eddie find his identity as well.

Overall Fresh off the boat was a very good book and I enjoyed reading it very much. I felt very connect to the book because Eddie and I are both around the same age and we a few things in common. He makes the reader feel like they personally know him. Overall this book is very funny and it took me back to my teenage years. I would recommend this book to anyone who would like to get a good laugh.

Harvard Blog

The Harvard Psychedelic Club by Don Lattin  is a very intriguing book  that takes place between the 1950s to the 1970s. The book focuses on the lives of 4 professors and their research of the psychedelic drug LSD. Timothy Leary, Ram Dass, Huston Smith, Andrew Weil and a few others made up the Harvard Psychedelic club.  All the characters in the book all had very complex lives. Also this book brought a lot of social issues to the table. The different topics that the book has focused on are sexuality, lifestyles and drugs.

Sexuality is one of the social issues that the book focuses on. This is the first book that I have read that goes into the topic of sexuality. In the beginning of the book, Richard Alpert one of the characters finds out the he is gay. Things started off all right for Richard at Williston, where he worked on the school newspaper and excelled at tennis. But in his early teens, he started having strange feelings about some of the other at school. Sexual feelings.[1] As Richard gets older he began dating both a man and women. Richard was living two different lifestyles on each end of the US, the Bay Area and Boston. During this time period in our society we begin to see people be more open about their sexuality and relationships.

In Harvard Psychedelic Club, alternative lifestyles are shown throughout the book. Timothy Leary and his wife Marianne had a alternative lifestyle. In their marriage, they agreed that it was okay to have a lover on the side. He and his wife, Marianne, had what would later be called an "open relationship". They called it "wife swapping back in the fifties.[2]  Later Marianne would kill herself after she believes that Timothy has fell in love with his lover. This tragic event adds more complexity to the life of  Timothy Leary. But during this time period, more and more people started to lives these type of lifestyles. 

With people being more open about their sexuality and their lifestyles, drugs start to be apart of American society. Drugs like Marijuana, Mushrooms and LSD are at the forefront in the 50's,60's, and 70's. Richard Alpert and Timothy started to research and experiment with psychedelic drugs in the early 60's. They wanted to show evidence that psychedelic drugs contributed to religious mysticism. The Good Friday subjects were to demonstrate that psychedelic drugs could produce genuine experiences of religious mysticism.[3] The guys of  the Harvard Psychedelic Club were the pioneers of drug use and they had a major impact on American culture.

So far this has been my favorite book of the class. Maybe because I'm from Berkeley and I know all of the locations in the Bay Area that the book points out. For example, Tim and Marianne house on 1230 Queens road. The martini parties they held at their home at 1230 Queens road had become notorious among the clinical psychologists down the hill on the University of California campus.[1] I know exactly were that is, I grew up about two blocks from UC Berkeley.  Also when the book mentions cities like San Francisco,Oakland and Palo Alto it makes me become more connected to the book. The different topics that the book has focused on such as homosexuality, lifestyles and drugs makes this book very interesting. 

1. Don Lattin. The Harvard Psychedelic Club: How Timothy Leary, Ram Dass, Huston Smith, and Andrew Weil Killed the Fifties and Ushered in a New Age for America. New York: HarperCollins, 2010. Kindle edition. Location 108

2.Don Lattin. The Harvard Psychedelic Club: How Timothy Leary, Ram Dass, Huston Smith, and Andrew Weil Killed the Fifties and Ushered in a New Age for America. New York: HarperCollins, 2010. Kindle edition. Location 209

3. Don Lattin. The Harvard Psychedelic Club: How Timothy Leary, Ram Dass, Huston Smith, and Andrew Weil Killed the Fifties and Ushered in a New Age for America. New York: HarperCollins, 2010. Kindle edition. Location 935

4. Don Lattin. The Harvard Psychedelic Club: How Timothy Leary, Ram Dass, Huston Smith, and Andrew Weil Killed the Fifties and Ushered in a New Age for America. New York: HarperCollins, 2010. Kindle edition. Location 200

Flapper Blog

Flapper by Joshua Zeitz is so far a great book that shows us a new era for Women. The book helps us understand the term Flapper and also goes deep into the time period of the 1920s. In the 1920s, we begin to see women gain more independence and freedom.There were a few things that help create the term flapper and also helped women gain more freedom. Things like The spread of technology , women joining the workforce, and lifesytle helped create both the term flapper  and woman's independence. With the additions of new short cut hairstyles, the smoking and drinking by women we learn what it meant to be a flapper in the 1920s.

During the beginning of the 1900's we start the rise in technology in the U.S. The spread of technology, mainly the automobile, was the main reason why women gain their freedom in the 1920s. With the introduction of the automobile, women were able to go out and do more things and also be more social. Just like most new things that are fairly new, the automobile still had a few bugs that needed to be worked out. Most people felt cars were unsafe and unreliable which made parents of most young women uneasy about letting their daughters traveling in automobiles. At the dawn of the twentieth century, cars were still viewed as impractical and unsafe.[1] Even with the concerns of others, young women were still going out to clubs, social events and work by using automobile as their main source of transportation.

Another reason for the growing independence and freedom for women was the increase of women joining the workforce. Women were taking jobs as factory workers and clerks during this time period. Women were making their own money so they were making their own decisions, which make them feel more free and independent. Despite deep and abiding discrimination in wages and employment, working women often found that real money could buy real freedom.[2] As women began to make a living for themselves, their lifestyles started to change. Woman started to wear different hairstyles, going to clubs and also drinking and smoking which started the term Flapper.

When I think of the term flapper, I think more of a lifestyle or culture  than a actual young women in her teens or  early 20's. The lifestyle of a flapper consisted of a short boyish hairstyle, clubbing, drinking, smoking and more sexual activities for women. In my opinion, any women of any age that took part of these activities was a flapper. This lifestyle was a very important part of American history and it played a huge role in the independence and progression of women in our society.

As we continue to read Flapper by Joshua Zeitz, I learn more and more about an important part of American history. Flappers were some the first women to express themselves freely out to the public. This era is a very important part of women's history. So far I have really enjoyed the book and I have learned a lot as well.

1. Joshua Zeitz. Flapper: A Madcap Story of Sex, Style, Celebrity, and the Women Who Made America Modern. New York: Crown Publishers, 2006. Kindle edition. Location 591

2. Joshua Zeitz. Flapper: A Madcap Story of Sex, Style, Celebrity, and the Women Who Made America Modern. New York: Crown Publishers, 2006. Kindle edition. Location 520