brick by brick, block by block

Obamakoak

ERB — Mon, 12 May 2008 22:50:58 EDT

There is a text, originally written in Euskera, by Basque author Bernardo Atxaga called Obabakoak. B&N gives us a synopsis:

"Obabakoak means 'the people and things of Obaba (a Basque village),' and the narrator weaves a tale reminiscent of Scheherazade's. The village is peopled with rascals, innocents, intellectuals, shepherds, hunters, idiots, and creatures of superstition, and the interconnection of their private worlds is brilliantly evoked. Parody, riddles, texts within texts abound in a book that is playful yet always tinged with melancholy. Possessed of the timelessness of the fairy tale and informed by the lore of the oral tradition - and offering a good-humored spin through metaliterature and intertextuality - Obabakoak is a multi-faceted and rousing celebration of the art of storytelling."

Obaba is the name of town in which the collection of stories take place. The Basque word Obabakoak means loosely "things of Obaba," which we could also understand to means more specifically stories of Obaba. Hence the book is a collection of short stories all centered around this town. Nevertheless, a key element to understanding the book is the knowledge that while these stories are extremely localized, they could have taken place in any town, in any country, and indeed on any planet (as these stories themselves tell). Thus the book is simultaneously local and universal.

Due to its resemblance in name, my colleagues loosely came up with the idea of "Obamakoak," and idea which I actually think has a great deal of validity and meaning. Humor me while I elaborate.

I was thinking more about the Obamakoak based on something that comes up in the field of Folklore Studies: that specific public display events, like festivals, often have intentionally ambiguous meanings so that individual members of that society can project their own personal meaning onto the representations. So while you have one singular event, you have multiple understanding of that event (which we like to call postmodern hermeneutics).

This is so Obama. He is criticized for being vague and lacking substance in his speeches, but that's precisely the genius of him as a public figure (not a public festival, but still a public figure that operates by using discourse in the public sphere). By remaining somewhat ambiguous, he allows many different people to project their own meaning onto him. That's how he can reach across party, racial, and gender divides: he means something different for everyone. This is also why I consider him to be an important figure as a politician: through his presence in the public sphere as a politician, he has the ability to change our national imaginary.

And thus we arrive at Obaba and the Obabakoak. If the Obabakoak are the things of Obaba, or more specifically the stories of Obaba - a small, local Basque town - then the Obamakoak are the individual narratives that we create about Barack Obama. The Obamakoak are the narratives that we project onto him. And, just like the Obabakoak, these Obamakoak are simultaneously personal and universal. Not merely a personal narrative, the Obamakoak are also universal narratives that can be - and are - shared by millions of other people.

This blog post was translated into Spanish by my colleague: http://elforastero.blogalia.com/historias/57386

Barack Obama in the Public Sphere

ERB — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 01:42:05 EDT

Not to be too academic and out of touch with reality, I do think that Benedict Anderson's identification of the importance of the public sphere is, in fact, an accurate assessment of the way in which information has traditionally been disseminated to a community of people. Anderson explains in Imagined Communities that print culture - specifically the novel and the newspaper - was important for eighteenth-century nation building projects. Not only did these print cultures help to fix a vernacular language that would unite its reading population, but they also served to unite all peoples of a nation under what Anderson refers to as the imagined community of the nation. That is to say, even though all the members of a given nation do not know each other, they still have the same imaginary, or idea, of what that nation is, and believe themselves connected as a community.

It is in this way that I see Barack Obama playing particular importance in our nation, here and now. While the United States is clearly an already-formed nation state, the processes of nation building are ever-present and ever-pertinent. Our imaginary - or idea - of the American nation is not fixed, but rather is something that is flexible and malleable according to a wide set of factors, both political and social.

Although Anderson was writing in the eighteenth century before the advent of television and radio and thus was limited to print culture such as novels and newspapers, I don't think we can deny that television, radio, and of course the internet now plays a major role in the creation of our public sphere. It is in all these circuits where we see our Presidential candidates, such as Barack Obama, both presented (by themselves) and represented (by a third party source).

Due to the fact that he undeniably occupies our public sphere, Barack Obama, too, has the ability to enter into and alter our national imaginary. This is precisely how we can now understand his huge appeal to a wide audience. He is not simply a good speaker. He is not simply calm and cool-headed. He is not simply an admirable person. He is, in fact, changing our national imaginary of the United States.

Half, at least, of the population of the United States has found itself unhappy with the state of its nation and its leaders, excluding from membership into a national imaginary to which they could relate. We did not agree with Bush's policies, and so the idea we had of our nation was not only something at times embarrassing and shameful, but it was also something we felt was external to ourselves. We felt that we lived in our nation, but we did not believe in that nation. We did not feel a part of the imagined community of the American Nation.

What Barack has done is to allow us membership into that national imaginary once again. This is where his rhetoric is so important. Look at the quote at the top of this Obama webpage, to start: "I'm asking you to believe, not just in my ability to bring about real change in Washington... I'm asking you to believe in yours." Barack always encourages us, through mass media that allows him entry into the public sphere, to be active as individuals within a collectivity, that as individuals we can make a better nation. He presents us with new, radical ideas that change the way we conceive of US politics and policies.

All of this leads to a shift in the national imaginary of the United States. And that is precisely why Barack is so motivating, so moving, so exciting for so many people, even if they don't quite understand why. He is allowing them to participate in the creation of a new national imaginary - one of equality, stability, and more importantly, one that is different from the old conception of our nation.

The nation begins with the individual. By empowering us as individuals as he speaks in the public sphere, Barack is allowing us to build a new nation (national imaginary) based on a renewed sense of community and collectivity.

Reflections on the March 4th primaries

ERB — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 22:07:18 EST

I can't deny that I was disappointed by the March 4th primary results. It's frightening to hear the phrase "Obama lost," but I understand that Obama is still ahead in delegates, and that's the important thing. I simply found myself let down by my fellow Ohioans, and disappointed that Hillary had to resort to such nasty, old school, patriarchal campaigning techniques in order to win. I've become quite jaded in regard to Hillary Clinton recently, in fact. She used to set herself apart from the traditional candidates by rising above their traditional (dirty) approaches to campaigning. Recently, however, her reliance on those same techniques has really been negative for her, in my mind. Not just because it lowers the public's opinion of her, but because in all likelihood, Obama is going to be the democratic nominee for President. Her negative campaign against him will only hurt her own party by weakening his campaign when it comes time to fight against McCain. I understand that she believes she is the best candidate. But let the people decide that based on debates, issues, and merit, not through subversive fear tactics that warp people's reasons for voting.

Obama is just SUCH an amazing possibility for the future that I don't want to see it squelched out by Hillary through dirty means. The people believe in Obama, so let them vote for Obama.

Together, ordinary people can do extraordinary things

ERB — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 21:36:53 EST

Quite possibly my favorite Obama quote:

Hope. Hope is what led me here today, with a father from Kenya, a mother from Kansas, and a story that can only happen in the United States of America. Hope is the bedrock of this nation, the belief that our destiny will not be written for us, but by us, by all those men and women who are not content to settle for the world as it is, who have the courage to remake the world as it should be. That is what we started here in Iowa and that is the message that we can now carry to New Hampshire and beyond: the same message we had when we were up and when we were down, the one that can change this country brick by brick, block by block, callous hand by callous hand. That together, ordinary people can do extraordinary things. Because we are not a collection of red states and blue states, we are the United States of America. And in this moment, in this election, we are ready to believe again.
-Barack Obama, Iowa Caucus Victory Speech

Pictures and video from Columbus Obama rally 2/27/08

ERB — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 19:32:52 EST

What an amazing speaker! This certainly was an inspirational day for me. I also had the privilege of shaking Senator Obama's hand at this rally. :)

Here are some videos I took at the rally:

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/1003/laLuz33/Obama/?action=view&current=MVI_2136.flv

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/1003/laLuz33/Obama/?action=view&current=MVI_2151.flv

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/1003/laLuz33/Obama/?action=view&current=MVI_2156.flv