The Allure of Surfing
Describe the allure or draw of surf culture, as expressed in Kook. What do people find appealing about it? What does Heller specifically find appealing about it? Do you find surf culture alluring? Why or why not?
Esch and Medea- Jenna
Throughout Salvage the Bones, Ward makes connections between Esch and Medea both implicitly and explicitly, seeing as Esch and Medea are very similar characters. Esch relates to the mythical woman and wishes to think of herself as a version of Medea. One point in the novel that I think perfectly encompasses this idea is a quote on page 38, "In Mythology , I am still reading about Medea and the quest for the Golden Fleece. Here is something that I recognize. When Medea falls in love with Jason, it grabs me by the throat. I can see her. Medea sneaks Jason things to help him: ointments to make him invisible, secrets in rocks. She has magic, could bend the natural to the unnatural. But even with all her power, Jason bends her like a young pine in a hard wind; he makes her double in two. I know her." When Esch speaks of Medea and Jason in this quote, she is referring to her love with Manny. Esch sees herself as a powerful girl, but when she's near Manny, she shrink...
Surfing and surf culture are widely regarded as fun, cool, and laid back. Surfing became popular in the 50's and 60's and since then it has influenced our culture in the US: surf music is an entire genre of music that reflects surf culture, there are popular brands of clothing like Billabong that started out supplying surfers with surf wear, and in movies and tv shows surfers and surf culture are always portrayed as relaxed and fun. While many people do not know much about surfing itself, they still like surf culture because our culture has created such hype around it. Heller sees surf culture like most people: he says, "Theres a feeling I will always remember: walking out of the shop with my first surfboard under my arm. This was cool" (Heller 7). Before Heller even was a part of the surf culture or knew anything about it, he thought it was cool. As a middle aged man, Heller finds surf culture to be rejuvenating. He says, "Genius name, Sex Wax. Cool, edgy, adolescent, which strikes to the heart of surf culture" (Heller 8). I find surf culture alluring because it comes off as being relaxed, fun, and stress free. Nothing about it seems too serious and it seems to be mainly focused on enjoying oneself.
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