Periods suck!

Maus II

For my outside source I found the article “Textual Analysis of Art Spiegelman’s Maus I amp Maus II” it is a research paper from an anonymous author.  The author discusses how telling the story about the Holocaust was a good decision because it made it easy for readers to understand. He says “by using the comic strip Art Spiegelman is able to make the transition from past to present very smooth and easy to understand.” Throughout the entire comic Spiegelman’s father, Vladek goes from talking directly to his son and then to talking about his experiences in Auschwitz. The author believes that it is not necessary for Spiegelman to use dates because the reader is able to whether or not he is talking about the past or present through the drawings.  The author of this essay believes that Speigelman’s purpose was not to just retell history, but to attach us emotionally to the Holocaust. He says “through actual pictures, maps, and drawings from Vladek we gain a sense of how genuine and personal the story is. Small details like the rats and worms Vladek must put up with when he goes into hiding bring his narrative to life. The detailed drawing of actual building in the camps like the floor plan of one of the execution building are a blunt way to describe how horrible conditions were.” The author believes that the comic does not downplay the events of the Holocaust at all; he actually thinks that it accurately examines the history of the events. The author also analyzes why Speigelman chose to use animals in place of people in the comic. He believes that Art did this because the animals distracted the readers from the person pain of everyone in the story. I think that I will be able to use this source as a lens for  my essay.

http://www.docshare.com/doc/158846/Textual-Analysis-of-Art-Spiegelmans-Maus-I-am

Cat's Cradle

Oops this blog is a little late, but better late than never right? So to start this off I’d just like to say that I really enjoy Socratic Circle because I was extremely confused by the book before it. For this blog we are supposed to talk about how Cat’s Cradle can be considered a postmodern text and since I don’t really understand postmodernism I had to look up the definition which is “any of a number of trends or movements in the arts and literature developing in the 1970s in reaction to or rejection of the dogma, principles, or practices of established modernism.” So thanks dictionary.com for helping me understand what I am supposed to be writing about!

Ok here we go… I think that the religion of Bokonon is a postmodernist idea. The whole religion is based on lies and the followers are aware of this and are totally fine with it. The first verse in the Book of Bokonon is “all of the true things that I am to tell you are shameless lies.” The people do not question anything they just believe all of the lies because it makes them feel better. In the novel it even says “truth was the enemy of the people, because the truth was so terrible, so Bokonon made it his business to provide the people with better and better lies.” The main purpose of the religion is to make the people feel like their lives have meaning and purpose. It’s hard for me to understand how someone can devote their whole life to lies, but it’s just a book I suppose. Also, the title of the book is also a postmodernist idea. Cats cradle is an old game (that I used to play in elementary school) that is pretty much never-ending. During Socratic circle someone brought up that cats cradle is a symbol of progress and the absence of truth.

BNW essay

Yay we are finally done reading Brave New World! I thought that this was the most interesting book that we have read this year, but it definitely was not my favorite. Okay for the Brave New World essay I am planning on comparing our society to the World State. The sources that I plan on using are Sir Ken Robinson’s video and Neil Postman’s technology article.

In Robinson’s video he makes many parallels to the novel. One being the way that our education system is set up. He believes that "schools are still organized on factory lines" which he thinks is outdated and not very effective. He also says that there are "only two types of people, academic or non-academic, smart people or non smart people." This is very similar to BNW because the citizens are conditioned for different roles in society. They are not seen as an individual, but as a whole. Just like the students in our society who are educated in “batches.” Another similarity is the use of drugs. In the video he talks about the recent “epidemic” of ADHD. Now it is very common for students to be drugged in order for them to be able to pay attention better in class and to get a better education. This is similar to the use of soma in BNW. The citizens are urged to take the drug whenever they feel unhappy so that their emotions do not get in the way of production.

Another source that I plan on using is Neil Postman’s technology article. In the article he argues that thought-worlds disappear by “redefining what we mean by religion, by art, by family, by politics, by history, by truth, by privacy, by intelligence, so that our definitions fits its new requirements.” In BNW they do some of these things. One example is how they worship Henry Ford. Another thing is how they redefine family and make it nonexistent.

Sir Ken Robinson

There are many parallels between the society in Brave New World and Sir Ken Robinsons video "Changing Education Paradigms".  I thought that the video was very interesting and agree that our education system is becoming outdated and needs to be changed. Robinson believes that "we are getting our children through education by anaesthetising them" he says this because there is an epidemic of ADHD in the country. More and more kids are given drugs to help them focus better in school. This relates to what goes on in Brave New World, the citizens are encouraged to take soma whenever they are unhappy. This causes them to never truly deal with their emotions because the drugs make them feel happy at all times. John, who is seen as a savage in the story, realizes that the drugs are unnatural and throws the soma while shouting "free, free!" Another similarity is that "schools are still organised on factory lines" Robinson believes that because of the ringing bells, separate facilities, separate subjects, and that children are educated by batches. He believes that the model of education should not come from a production line mentality. This is similar to the society in the book. Their whole world is based on the production line. They worship Ford who is responsible for the creation of an assembly line. In our society we are put in "batches" by our age, but in Brave New World they are grouped by Alphas, Betas, Gammas, Deltas, and Epsilons. There are many similarities between the views of education and Brave New World.

Brave New World

In chapter 3 of Brave New World, Mustapha Mond said "Wheels must turn steadily, but can not turn untended. There must be men to tend them, men as sturdy as the wheels upon their axles, sane men, obedient men, stable in contentment." Mond who is “One of the Ten World Controllers” (34) is a powerful character in the book. The ideas in the passage above are used to manipulate the desired outcomes of human experiences such as family, monogamy, impulse, feeling, and desire. The citizens of the World State are encouraged to act promiscuously. Lenina tells Fanny that she hasn’t been very enthusiastic about promiscuity lately and Fanny tells her “one’s got to make the effort…one’s got to play the game” (43).  She goes on and says that “every one belongs to every one else.” This is very true because the citizens are told not to have relationships with one another. They are encourages to see many different people so that they do not become attached to each other. They are less meaningful if they are short relationships. There are also no families in the World State because humans are manufactured. There is no such thing as love in the World State. The controller tells the boys that the “pre-moderns were mad and wicked and miserable” (41) because they had experiences such as family and monogamy. Mond explains that things like love and families will cause social instability. Another way that the citizens are manipulated is by taking the drug “soma”. This drug gives the citizens a false sense of happiness. The government is able to control the citizens because they do not think for themselves and there is no individuality at all. The people are manufactured to think the same way and act in a way that would be beneficial to the World State.  

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In the discussions of The Tempest, one controversial issue has been about whether or not Shakespeare intended to address the issue of imperialism and colonialism in his play. For example, Aime Cesaire's A Tempest portrays the play in a completely different way than Shakespeare intended. Although the plot follows the same basic premise and the cast of characters is for the most part the same, Cesaire changes the dialogue between the characters and change the way that the play is portrayed. In A Tempest Caliban tells Prospero, “Call me X. That would be best. Like a man without a name. Or, to be more precise, a man whose name has been stolen.”  In this line Cesaire is referring to Malcolm X, which is his way of comparing Caliban to the African American slaves. Cesaire hinted at the idea of imperialism a lot more than Shakespeare did in the original play. On the other hand, George Will argues that literature always reflects political beliefs. Will states that “The Tempest reflects the imperialist rape of the Third World.” After looking into both critics’ ideas I can see that Cesaire was able to change the meaning of the play just by changing the way that the characters talked to each other throughout the play. The author made the play reflect imperialism. Will believes that politics can change the way that people read and analyze certain text. He also argues that some critics over analyze some literature and change the authors meaning.

            I am very confused with this week’s blog so I am hoping that we have to write comments to each other this week so that I can get some other opinions on this stuff because right now I am not sure if I am doing this write.