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 He believes that "schools are still organized on factory lines" which he thinks is outdated and not very effective.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.

Literary Debate...

After reading George Will's Literary Politics and Stephen Greenblatt's The Best Way to Kill our Literature is to Turn it into a Decorous Celebration of the New World Order I came to the conclusion that both authors have different opinions on the content of literature. George Will believes that literature always reflects political beliefs. For example, in his essay he states that "all literature is, whether writers are conscious of it or not, political." Will also argues that people read too much into the meaning of the text and interpret it in their own way. This leads to the reader making false conclusions of what the text was supposed to mean. Stephen Greenblatt has an opposing view. He believes that readers should look for underlying meaning of the text. I think that he wants readers to analyze stories so that they can come up with their own opinions. To argue both of their points they use The Tempest. Will states that “The Tempest reflects the imperialist rape of the Third World.” Greenblatt on the other hand believes that the Tempest is “full of conspicuous allusions to contemporary debates over the project of colonization.” He believes that if we relate colonialism to The Tempest then we will better understand what it “has to teach us about forgiveness, wisdom, and social atonement.”

            I think that both authors make good arguments, but they are very extreme about their opinions. I agree with Will in some ways because I think that sometimes people over analyze things and come up with things that do not reflect what the author meant for it to be. Although I do believe that Greenblatt made some good points and that it is important to be aware of when the text was written so that you can better analyze the meaning. Both articles had good arguments.  

Postcolonialism

In the video “How Hollywood Stereotyped the Native Americans” it talks about how Native Americans have been portrayed in a negative way in the media for the past 100 years.  This video reminded me of the one that we watched last week “The Danger of a Single Story” because the Native American man that was interviewed in the video said that when he was watching the movies about his people when he was a kid he did not know any more than the white kid sitting next to him. This can be dangerous in the long run because people will have the wrong information about Native Americans.  This video and the packet we read about postcolonialism all relates to The Tempest. In Act II and III there is evidence that Caliban is a representation of native peoples. For example, Prospero says to Caliban “thou poisonous slave, got by the devil himself upon thy wicked dam, come forth!” This is an example of alternity. In the text about postcolonialism alternity is described as “the others” being “excluded from positions of power and viewed as different and inferior.” This is exactly what Prospero does to Caliban in The Tempest because he treats him badly and makes him a slave. Caliban was a native of the island but was forced to give it over to Prospero because he had no power. Prospero was able to take control by manipulating Caliban. The Tempest, the article on postcolonialism, and the video about Native Americans all relate to each other very well.  In this case, Caliban can relate to the Native Americans because they both were controlled by people that took over their land. They were seen as different and inferior to the people that took control of their land.

The Tempest Act 1

Prospero is the protagonist in The Tempest, he is also the father of Miranda. He is able to manipulate the other characters in the play by constructing historical narratives. One of example if this is when he tells his daughter “here in this island we arrived, and here have I, thy schoolmaster, made thee more profit than other princesses can that have more time for vainer hours and tutors not so careful.” In basic English this quote means that Prospero acted as his daughter’s teacher when he brought her to the island and gave her a better education than any other princess. He is able to control her because he makes himself seem like he truly cares about her. Although he does not really care about her at all he just wants to have power over her. Prospero also tell stories in such a way to make other people look bad, he tells his daughter “whereon, a treacherous army levied, one midnight fated to th’ purpose did Antonio open the gates of Milan, and, i’ th’ dead of darkness, the ministers for th’ purpose hurried thence me and thy crying self.”                This is yet another example of Prospero makes up a story to make himself look better so that he can have more power. He is successful in controlling his daughter through these lies because she is not able to remember what truly happened. By telling this story he is able to change Miranda’s opinion of Antonio. Most of the methods that Prospero uses to manipulate the people in the play are also seen on Orwell’s 1984. He changes the past in order to control the future just like the government does in the book. In both the play and the book the residents are given false information so that they are more easily controlled.  

socratic circle

I really enjoyed this week’s Socratic Circle because I had never participated in anything like it before. I thought that the topics that we discussed were very interesting and I was surprised that I had never heard of this issue before. After the discussion and hearing my classmates opinions I came to the conclusion that there is no possible way to have a history book with no bias in it. Because of this I believe that students should be presented both sides so that they are able to make their own opinions on what happened. There are always two sides to a story, so both should be given in the textbooks.


I took part in the discussion about the Texas Board of Education changing information in history and economic textbooks. I was shocked that I had never heard of this issue before reading the article in class on Thursday. During the Socratic Circle it was brought up that the people that were trying to change the curriculum in Texas were not even experts on the topics. I thought that it was interesting that this small group has been given so much power that they are able to basically rewrite the history books. One of the board members said that they “are adding balance” to the textbooks, but I don’t think that these people are qualified to do so because they are not experts in these subjects.

Every textbook will have some bias information in it, but if there is more than one opinion given it would help give the students come to their own conclusion on what they believe to be true. I think this would give the students a better idea of what actually happened and would give them more information. Although this would make textbooks much bigger I believe that it would be worth it.

First Post!

These are pretty flowers!