Opportunity Cost

Aria by Richard Rodriguez

Extended Comment: Los gringos by Emily Q.T.


Hit ^ play, please.
When I hear the word 'aria', I think of a slow, somber melody. What you're listening to now is the closest I have.

1. Maybe it appears that Rodriguez is not being negative, but the entire piece rings with sadness to me.  Parts may not be negative, but I think he shows that the experience was a negative and, in his mind, necessary experience.  It's a good thing that he was able to have public individuality, but I think it cost him a great deal in private individuality and he knows it. Maybe he thinks it was an acceptable trade-off, but I don't think it was.

2.  Rodriguez may have started learning the code, but he failed to take into account something many English speakers use often -- the tone.  "Hearing someone's tone of voice--angry or questioning or sarcastic or happy or sad--I didn't distinguish it from the words it expressed."  He was just taking words at face value, something you wouldn't do in any language.  Such a disregard of the tone could potentially have alienated him further from the Culture of Power; he might have misinterpreted a remark and then became 'a representative of the entire group'.

3.  To me, it wasn't so much that he was proud of his public individuality but rather to emphasize that he lost any sense of private individuality.  Yes, he assimilated into the public, but at what cost?  To be 7 years old and alienated from your family like that?  Seems like a very high price to me.  While Rodriguez seems to support the uneven exchange of individuality, I doubt anyone else we've read from would agree with him.


Definition:  Opportunity cost - an economics term for the highest trade-off you make for something.

Music used in accordance with Fair Use.  Invitation to Mystery [Shinpoheno Sasoi] - Robert Etoll, featured on Zoids Chaotic Century OST 1.