McDonald's & Obesity

Cut Off Their Tails With A Carving Knife

In an article titled  "Art Spiegelman's MAUS: Working-Through The Trauma of the Holocaust" by Robert S. Leventhal, the author explores many different aspect that can be analyzed through Maus. He first discusses the topic of trauma, working through it, and problems of historical understanding This is where he deals with problems like how does one deal with trauma, for example the suicide of Speilgman's mom, or  Aushwitz. He quotes from Winicott saying, " that there must be an empathetic witness to the pain of this traumatic loss, that the person who suffers this loss must be able to give testimony to someone as a way of working-through or processing this loss, and that finally certain "transitional" or "intermediate" objects might be necessary in order to move from the state of dependence and reliance on the Other to a renewed state of self-sufficiency after the traumatic severance." This is an interesting topic that I will most likely bring into my essay. Leventhal then goes on to explore, who would have guessed, POSTMODERNISM in Maus. Here he brings many different lenses to use from Lyotard to books writtten about representing the holocaust. (There is a ton of stuff here.) His next section discusses what he calls Cultural Besetzung, "One of the ways in which a culture betrays (in the sense of "allows to become clear") its own "investments" or Besetzungen, to use Freud's term for the psychic endowment of certain things, is in its priveleging specific ways of thinking and writing, certain forms of presentation, the selection of specific genres as being "apt" or "appropriate" for certain tasks." Finally Leventhal, then begins to actually talk about Maus itself. Even going into the way the comic is drawn. For example, "In a particularly compelling segment of the text, Artie narrates his reaction to his mother's suicide. A comic book within the comic book Maus entitled "Prisoner on the Hell Planet: A Case History," this text-within-the-text recounts Artie's own incomplete or failed attempt to work through the trauamatic loss of his mother, his own melancholic and masochistic tendencies to internalize the dysfunction of his family and his mother's depression, and the degree to which his writing bears the mark of that loss and is itself a type of working-through in its own right"  There's some good stuff there.
Also I plan to pull from Maus: A Survivors Tale, for further insight into the novel. & that's what I'm throwing.

Slip Of The Mind

 Well, i guess this is my fist official late assignment...that sucks.

What makes Cat’s Cradle Postmodern is its heavy reliance on Bokonon. The whole Bokononism is a kind of postmodernist religion. With all these -isms claiming, (capitalism, communism, socialism?) and that is: that only their -ism is the right one for the world. The founder of Bokononism was Lionel Boyd Johnson, whose name was corrupted by the island dialect. Bokononism contains the postmodernist misreading, combination and anarchy at once. Even the first verse in the Book of Bokonons says: "All of the true things that I am to tell you are shameless lies." Here we can see Vonnegut's opinion about religion. He tells us, that people always look for something to what they can believe. "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 religion just covers the horrible truths out there. Bokononism is like a play. All the people are actors, which are fed with lies and like in a Christianity or other religions, they don't question it, they just blindly follow it. They believe in their made up religion, they believe in something which is not. Like Cat's Cradle, which for some people is just a bunch of strings, for some a real image of a Cradle. The crisis of Christianity (religion) is according to interview with Vonnegut: "The adults can not regard themselves as God's little sheep anymore." This a postmodernist feature, which is typical for many postmodernist books. The main faith is not based in some religion, but in man himself.  Even Felix Hoenikker was described as person so innocent, that he was practically a Jesus.  An open critique of the Catholic Church is included in one of the Calypsos as well:

On the Natives of San Lorenzo:
Oh, a very sorry people, yes,
Did I find here.
Oh, they had no music,
And they had no beer.
And, oh, everywhere
Where they tried to perch
Belonged to Castle Sugar, Incorporated,
Or the Catholic church.

This shows, through Vonnegut’s almost attire of religion, just how postmodernist Cat’s Cradle is. Blog OVER! & that's what i'm throwing. 

Are We Human Or Are We Dancers?

Throughout the discussion of Brave New World  we constantly talked about that society in this novel lacked morales, and was completely perverse.  I have a problem with this. Although personally, yes, i think that this society is freaking psycho and absurd, I believe that, in order to completely understand Huxley's purpose you must delve into the definition of "social norm." What makes you normal in society? What drives the creation of your personal morales, and those of society? What are these morale, or what makes a person morale? To even continue this, why follow these morales? What is a morale? What is normal? What makes you human? I think this would be an interesting argument to present for BNW is an exaggeration of today's "morales" being completely absent. Addtionally, i would like to analyize the influence of technology and marketing on morales and normality. To dive into these topics, the articles from Postman's Technopoly and Klein's No Logo.  Postman's article talks about the concurrent evolution of technology and society, and its effect on society as a whole, by using this theoretical government of "Technopoly." This can be comparatively analyzed with BNW and it's manipulation of technology to control it citizens, in order for supreme efficiency. That's is the ideal objective. Then how does this technology manipulate morales and norms to better this efficiency. Why manipulate these aspects of life? What is its effect? Additionally, i want to bring in Klein's article and its discussion of the effects it has on society, with emphasis on the youth. The market controls the idea of what it is like to be "cool" by presenting brands worn by these people, or billboards depicting those people. In a generation of youth striving towards "freedom", youth were being consumed by their "yuppie" counterparts, and succumbing to western consumerism. I find this interesting, because I want to discuss a different machine, besides the government, that can influence society, consumerism and the market; (Albeit that most likely the government has some role in controlling the market).  How this  other machine can define social norms and morales, and how this relates to BNW. I feel like this could be an interesting essay, because i can explore what it is that makes us "human." What if BNW's society isn't perverse at all? Is it only perverse because society defines it to be? Are we human or are we just dancing along with the metaphorical tune of society, letting it take us where it wants? (I may even, if i'm feeling extra ambitious, throw in a parallel to Edward Scissorhands and how his "abnormal" behavior reveals the perverse nature of our "normal" behavior, and go into a discussion on Huxley's purpose was to reveal this same perverseness in BNW, but only if it i feel like it) & that's what i'm throwing.

God Forbid Separate Male and Female Facilities In School!

            Sir Ken Robinson makes some interesting parallels to Brave New World. Firstly is the idea of medicating our children to the point of utter nothingness, in order for the child to become educated, as defined by society. Soma, in Brave New World, is like the Ritalin of today, but rather than being taken to learn, it is being taken to forget. Both of the process are done to keep the metaphorical machine of their own respective government and societies. The next point Robinson makes is the assembly line metaphor of taking these drugged kids and placing them with groups of students in their age group, to go and be educated, and be found out to the smart, or not so smart. The same way the people in Brave New World are conditioned in their predetermined group to be their respective role in life, to be a Alpha or Beta, Smart, or Delta, Epsilon, or Gamma, not so smart. Robinson is trying to show that our society today is looking at education in the wrong way. The way education is set up, is the same way brave new world  is set up, disallowing for there to be any change in one’s life once your are put in your predetermined group. You are essentially doomed to the system. As you can see here, "The greater a man's talents, the greater his power to lead astray. It is better that one should suffer than that many should be corrupted. Consider the matter dispassionately, Mr. Foster, and you will see that no offense is so heinous as unorthodoxy of behavior. Murder kills only the individual-and, after all, what is an individual?" As Huxley and Robinson are explaining this lack of individualism, in education for example, where your predetermined state is where the assembly line of life will take you. You are doomed to the system.

             My personal opinion of this video is seen with a little skepticism. Here are just some questions, if given the opportunity, I’d like to ask Sir Robinson. You describe each child as being, and learning differently, then what do you suggest we do to our system? Make a school for each individual child based on their needs? I’m not saying this idea isn’t a great. I just think that you are presenting a problem, and answering it in a vague, unsupported fashion that causes more confusion than solution.

Last Late Blog....EVER!

The idea of being human is nonexistent in Adulous Huxley’s Brave New World.  Rather than experiencing natural accomplishments or events, the citizens are now just taking soma to feel good. The things in life that  only bring  momentary happiness, are what are emphasized in this society. One does not have a, dare I say the word?, long-term relationship with anyone. Families, who needs them? People in society have been designed to know what they want, to want simple things, and to know the exact way they should achieve this. They have been told what to feel since early childhood through a constant stream of brainwashing tapes played in their sleep. They have been conditioned to believe that all the impulses, feelings, and desires they have are indeed natural, but even more, they are to be expended as much as possible in the most basic and easiest ways possible. “Everywhere exclusiveness, a narrow channeling of energy and impulse” The society is based on impulsive actions, no complex thought whatsoever.  Why? Because these thing rob productivity, and that is the goal of the society that worships the epitome of productivity, Ford.  If one is to truly feel any sort of human emotion, one will became distracted halting the assembly line, slowing down  the machine. The complexity of the relationships, the emotion one must expend to maintain these relationships, it is all seen as too many limitations on mankind. How can one get what they want when they want if they held back by a relationship? & that’s what I’m throwin’ 

(Actual post date later than what appears, In order to stifle confusion.)

Circumstantial Tardiness (Essay Preparation Blog)

In discussions of how a text should be read, the traditional view is formed by George Will and his view of analyzing the text for its aesthetics. However, there may be other ways to think about this text. For one thing, Stephen Greenblatt explains that texts should be read for their political value to forward society to learn from previous mistakes or triumphs. And  Greenblatt also contends that if we only discuss text for its aesthetic value we will lose on the value of the text as a learning mechanism. “The best way to kill our literary inheritance is to turn it into a decorous liturgical celebration of the new world order. Poets cannot soar when their feet are stuck in the social cement.”. Therefore, taking these positions into account, we can see that both argument have a sense of truth and must find a perfect medium for literature to fully be appreciated for its worth.

For this essay the best source would be the article entitled “Literary Study, Politics, ad Shakespeare: A Debate” This article outlines everything one needs to know about this debate, giving both side to the debate in a lengthy fashion. I can quote from these articles to further the development of my essay, but in the same token, it allows me to conjure up my own values in this debate. Another beneficial essay to use would be Cesaire’s A Tempest. Her interpretation of The Tempest  completely amplifies the amount of post colonialist values in the play. Her text could allow me to make an argument for both sides of the debate showing how it could add or detract from the literature of the play itself. I think these articles in combination would be the right recipe for a great essay. & that’s what I’m throwin’

(Posted 10/20/2010 but like the previous blog the date has been changed to reduce confusion and interference).