TOW #24 - Shipping OutL On the (nearly lethal) Comforts of a Luxury Cruise

David Foster Wallace is one of those authors who has experienced a great deal of pain in his life.  He dealt with depression, and ended up killing himself in the later years of his life.  However, through his writing shines a certain stubbornness and willingness to understand the world and all that comes with it.  In Shipping Out: On the (nearly lethal) Comforts of a Luxury Cruise, Wallace's darkness shines through as well.  He discusses a young kid, 16 years old, who jumped from the top of another cruise ship.  Through this anecdote, Wallace is able to highlight the grossness of American cruise culture, and American culture in general.
Wallace wrote the piece for Harper's Magazine after they sent him on the cruise.  However, it is clear that being on a cruise is not exactly where Wallace is meant to be.  He discusses almost objectively the different aspects of the cruise that push him towards suicide.  The terribly ironic part is that when the article was first released it was entirely humorous, and the audience had a good time laughing at the clear stereotypes of cruise-goers from far away.  When looked at on a deeper level, the essay has a dark tone.  It picks apart each of the people Wallace meets and looks at them in the broadest sense possible so as to identify the characteristics of an entire group.  Wallace many times will say, "I like him/her but...".  He can't seem to directly interact with anyone around him, and everyone he meets seems to be below his standards.
Wallace is an extremely interesting writer to read because of the way he is able to distance himself from the topics he talks about.  Although this tone often comes off as snarky and pretentious, Wallace has a distinguished way of viewing the world that is fascinating to a reader.  His comments about the ship are definitely insulting, but it is the way in which they are clearly true that shows Wallace's genius.  Wallace knows how to look at those around him, and his attitude of feeling as if he is better than them comes from the fact that, in many ways, he is.  Wallace went through the darkest times anyone can go through, yet his commentary reaches for generations to come.

TOW #23 - Things We Think We Know

In our modern world, stereotypes are the thing we say we avoid, yet exploit endlessly to our friends and colleagues.  Whether purposely or not, stereotypes define how we tend to see each other, and how we are able to justify the ways in which we classify those unfamiliar to us.  In his essay, Things We Think We Know, Chuck Klosterman discusses stereotypes, especially those that reach international lengths.  While never refuting the oppressive existence of stereotypes, Klosterman is able to bring about a call to action of sorts, after describing his visit to Germany.

While traveling around Germany, Klosterman found the inescapable presence of American stereotypes.  And not the stereotypes that Americans have about Germans, which are obviously plenty.  Instead, Klosterman focused on the stereotypes that Germans have about Americans.  The overabundance of people believing that all Americans do is watch Baywatch, since that's what Joey from Friends liked to do, was immense.  Even though this stereotype seems far fetched, the small bits of information we get are what we hold onto.  If Joey was in a German TV show and all he liked to do was watch Barney, Americans would believe that this is what Germans liked to do in their free time as well.  As humans, we tend to hold on to the pieces of information that we can make sense of, and this information is what becomes our stereotypes.  Klosterman uses his personal anecdotes from his time in Germany to describe how these stereotypes come about, and how to fight against them.

In his ending points, the author is describing how he spent time at a bar with a couple of guys from Michigan, as well as a man from Australia who was working for the king of Bahrain.  Even though all of these men gave Klosterman information about where they came from, Klosterman was only getting the tiniest sliver of what life was like in their homes.
While talking to these men in the bar, Klosterman was able to finally decipher how stereotypes come about.  They come from humans taking hold onto the smallest pieces of information they can find, and then allowing that information to become their basis of knowledge for anyone who comes from the same place.  While Klosterman could have taken all of the bits of observations he noted about Germans, he chose instead to admit that he really still didn't know anything about Germans, or Germany.  By not allowing himself to define an entire country by a few weeks of observations, Klosterman fought against our intense love of sterotypes, and the things we think we know.

TOW #22 - Serial Podcasts (Season 1)

There is something about Sarah Koenig's voice that sticks in your head.  Maybe it's the way she can explain the most gruesome of details, in a completely passionate, yet ironically objective, tone of voice.  While telling the story of a murder trial for Adnan Syed for her podcast Serial, Koenig portrays the voice of both sides.  Syed was charged in the 1999 murder of his ex-girlfriend, Hae Min Lee.  While to this day Syed proclaims his innocence, it has now become the job of the rest of the world to decide for themselves who they believe is innocent.  With endless twists and turns, newly uncovered evidence, and interviews with the key players in the case itself, Koenig is able to provide a narrative yet informative tale, one which certainly, while never stated, would seem to support Syed's innocence.
Throughout season 1 of Serial, Koenig states numerous times that she isn't taking a side.  However, her interest in the case was first sparked through a letter sent to her by Syed himself, from prison.  Therefore, her original ties to the case will always be through the defendant.  Koenig also spent large chunks of time going over the state's timeline, and refuting details that were overlooked in the original trial.  In addition, Koenig was able to track down a women named Asia Mcclain.  While she was never contacted by Syed's lawyer, Mcclain has proven to be an important witness in the case, as she clearly remembers seeing Syed in the library during the time of the murder.  The small details that don't add up in the state's case, as well as Mcclain's complete confidence in Syed's innocence, all serve to prove the way in which Syed received undue sentencing.
While Serial has captivated audiences all over the world, it has also made a difference to Syed himself.  Recently, a new hearing was granted to determine whether or not there was sufficient reason to retry the case in court.  Mcclain testified at these hearings, and Koenig documented each day for her avid audience.  It is clear that there is evidence that was overlooked during the original trial, and each new day brings the hope that Adnan Syed will be freed, or at least will be proven guilty in a much more concrete manner than in which it was originally done.