Friday, February 4, 2011

I-Hotel 1976: Ai Hotel by Nathan

Written by Nathan Yuen

1:Devin & Yuri

Overview:
Devin, a resident at the I-hotel, has made the best of his living quarters by renovating the little space he had in his room, lofting his bed, saturating his room with music through his eight track speakers. The sense of loneliness is expressed throughout this story. Devin writes to Yuri, the girl across the hall, writing poems. “He watches her leave. He watches her arrive, sometimes with a guy. Always a different guy. A buff movement type who wears his jacket and boots casually like his cool masculinity. Sometimes the guy is there for many days, smell of pot and cigarettes seeping from under the door.”(Pg 536) As Devin tries to comfort Yuri after each breakup, he returns unsuccessful and writes more to her. Sometimes she would show up at his loft, where they talked about Love’s Body in great discussion. Yuri comments on how Devin is sweet and smart and then tells him she got to go to study group where they all think she’s stupid. She invites him to come along, commenting on all his books in his room and how he is smart. One day he finds her door ajar, and makes an excuse, “thinking” that she is calling him in. He walks in and sees her dead body lying on her bed, the room smelling strongly of sweat, beer, garlic and sex. He finds a notebook under her pillow, where he finds lists of things in her life. He can’t find his name in anywhere, which he then proceeds to grab her lifeless body, run out into the corridor screaming.

Quotes:
• “Freedom is poetry, he tells her, freedom is fire.”—Pg 537

Questions:
• What does the quote “Freedom is poetry, he tells her, freedom is fire.” Mean?
• What is the significance of his reading her journal before calling for help?
• What was the pill that she popped into her mouth?

2: Virgilio & Momo

Overview:
This part is chopped up into the actual storyline, continuing from the previous part, Devin and Yuri, an interview uses a recorder and the dialogue is intertwined into this chapter. Devin is interviewing Manong Virgilio. It talked about how Devin went to Langley because he went crazy for a while after Yuri’s death. Manong Virgilio starts by telling how he was hearing the voice of Momo, “ [his] beautiful peach girl.” Momo was a girl he met working for her father in Central Valley. They were lovers who interacted sexually multiple times a day. Her future was planned out by her father: go back to Japan to get an education and a Japanese husband. Then she got pregnant, and although Manong didn't stop loving her, she was in pain. One day he finds her hanging, and cuts her down but is too late. He then describes her body as if in a poem. All these recordings were in many different Asian dialects that, when given to professors, had a hard time translating. Manong continues to tell how he hears her voice and has to follow them but he knows she’s dead. The narrator then takes all the cassette tapes and plays all of them at the same time, causing the police to arrive.

Quotes:
• “Virgilio breathes in deep. So then I think Momo’s joking with me. How’s her feet dangling there? I got to climb up and cut the rope. I got to get her down. I got to get her neck straight. I got to make her speak to me. I got to hold her in my arms. I got to make her breathe. I got to feel her breathing on my neck. Got to taste her lips. Touch her breasts. Touch all her spots. Touch where she’s got the baby. No. No. No. How could she do this? How? How could she leave me behind like this? You know?”—Pg 543.

Questions:
• What may have motivated Momo to commit suicide?
• Why was the professor part put into the story?
• Why is the underlying theme of this chapter so far filled with poetry?

3. Sophie & Egan
Overview:
Arthur Ma is an artist, painting nudity in the basement of an abandoned fortune cookie factory. Sophie is his model and the women in the story. They talk about Arthur’s son Ethan and how they met on Telegraph at Moe’s reaching for the same book: The Tao of Love at the Spring Palace. She is also one of Arthur’s students from when he was at the Institute. We find out that Sophie is pregnant by Ethan, but Ethan is off at war. She isn’t keeping the baby though, and gave it up for adoption. At the end of the story we find out that Ethan is KIA (Killed In Action).

Quotes:
• “Sophie is Poetry.”—Pg 547
• “He rushes forward, creating a umbrella with his arms and shoulders as the entirely of the great arts of china, every porcelain vase and indeed landscape in book form, it topple around her.”— Pg 548
Questions:
• What was it saying by “Taoism serves the matriarchy. The Confucian patriarch generates kids to build his kingdom. The Taoist matriarch generates energy to prolong life.”

4. Stony & Aiko

Overview:
This chapter is about a group of monks. George comes in with a friend, sesshu, an artist from Japan, saying he needs a place to stay, except there is not much room in the place. It then switches into a prison cell in Soledad, California where stony writes a letter to Aiko. Throughout this chapter, the interaction between four Japanese people, sesshu, Stony, Aiko and Daruma, take place, talking about their sexual desires along with cooking Japanese cuisine

Quotes:
• “His chest pounds with the pride of eight hundred million people.”—pg. 558

Question:
Why are Japanese people advocating for Chinese communism?

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