I'm a genius!

Umm so I'm super proud of this... Subtle yet witty. :P

Maus II Essay Preparation...

Oh, how I've missed doing these blogs... Not.

This is the article I chose: http://www.docshare.com/doc/158846/Textual-Analysis-of-Art-Spiegelmans-Maus-I-am

However, I will base it upon many different articles in my writing of the essay, seeing as though it's going to be hard to stick to one idea.

A summary of the posting is this:

In Maus, the author presents the Holocaust in a way people have not viewed it before, and it brings up the idea if it is appropriate or not. Instead of the Holocaust being presented in a formal book with a somewhat expected depressing feel, the author uses a comic book, which is extremely surprising. When you think of the Holocaust you would typically not associate it with a comic book. The author uses a comic book to exemplify a more connectible feeling to the reader, which makes it easier to relate to. Spiegelman uses a mouse (or any animal for that matter would have worked) to make the story less emotional, and not connect the tragedies of the Holocaust to actual people that died, making it easier to read about. Oddly enough through use of a mouse he is able to connect the readers to the event of the Holocaust, giving it a more real feeling to the reader. The article also states (and I happen to find a really good point in this) that the pictures, although the story is depicted through the personification of a mouse, give a real feeling to the story. It shows how real the conditions were without actually showing pictures from the Holocaust. Another good point is that the story connects us to an actual character, not just a mass of people. We are able to more easily connect ourselves to one person's story than to a large amount of people. 

So honestly I'm going to say that before I wrote this blog I just googled and picked a link to choose for this. But after analyzing what the person had to say, I really agree with it, and like where they were going. I believe I can write a decent essay on this. :)

Postmodernism Applied To Cat's Cradle

So let me start off by saying... Will we ever not have to connect something to Postmodernism? Haha just kidding... But really.

Essentially Postmodernism was derived by 18th century thinkers who wanted to get rid of all myths and holy ideas. They wanted to emphasize the ideas of science, logic, and reason.

In the text early on it states, "The first sentence in the Books of Bokonon is this: 'All of the true things I am about to tell you are harmless lies.'" (5) So what this means is that the religion itself is not truly a religion at all. All of the rules and books are just made up lies, proving that you should believe what you feel is morally right. I think this ties in with Postmodernism well. A large amount of people would agree that today's religions are lies made up to keep people to have faith in what they have no idea to be true. The same goes with the ideas of Postmodernism. The thinkers of that time period wanted to eliminate religion and societal myths as a whole. Cat's Cradle's religion of Bokononism shows that it is possible to have a religion in which nothing is true. Which to me just shows that it isn't truly a religion at all, if anything just the opposite.

Another quote I found very interesting in the text is, "'Nothing generous about it. New knowledge is the most valuable commodity on earth. The more truth we have to work with, the richer we become.'" (41) So this in itself shows that truth and knowledge is powerful. In Postmodernism, this is the exact idea they were getting at. By eliminating lies and the myths that society holds, they become all that more powerful. Science is also a major idea of this text, and finding the truth and having more knowledge. With Postmodernism, these same ideas emerge. The people who came up with Postmodernism came to believe that science is the power of logic, which seems to tie in with the scientist's idea in Cat's Cradle as well.

Yeah this is definitely late.....

Okay, so after finally finishing Brave New World, i can finally blog on it.


For this upcoming essay, I am going to use Brave New World Revisited, The Tempest, and possibly 1984. I found a lot of parallels from both novels we read before this in respect to how the people were controlled.

In The Tempest, Miranda was controlled by Prospero, as with Caliban as well. Prospero brainwashed Miranda into believing what he wanted, and she believed him. Caliban also was pressured to conform to the changes his once native land had. In Brave New World, the people were filled with soma and were genetically engineered to like whatever they did. Even though they were happy, they were ignorant of the truth and reality.

In 1984, I can find the most parallels between the two texts. In 1984, the people in the party are unaware of reality. Their freedom is taken away because they are constantly watched and monitored. In Brave New World, I find many parallels. While the people were actually happy, they were genetically engineered to fit into their job occupation and be content with where they were placed in society. They were given soma to make them content in whatever situation they were in. While they were happy, it wasn't really real.

There are quite a few social parallels I can find between the texts thus far, which is exciting. I feel like I have a good basis of the books to write a thorough essay and find
Many points to talk about.

Okay and again I'm sorry this is late, but I really wanted to have fully read the essay before planning out what I want to talk about.... :)

Brave New Education...

I would love to know why that video was so intriguing, haha. That guy had a very good presentation and I felt he had very good points people don't always think of.

I like that the speaker was able to draw out the fact that education was created for a different time. Like it is said in the video, how can you say that just because you are the same age you are at the same level of education? While the school system has reasons for the way it is set up, it does not work for today's world. You cannot classify students under the same level of education just because they are the same age. Also, his reference to ADHD was very interesting as well. ADHD is looked at as an 'epidemic', even though we seem to overexaggerate. He brings up an interesting point in saying that we are essentially "drugging" children with ADHD, and making them almost robots in school.

I definitely find many parallels with Brave New World and this video. Like I just mentioned, children that are diagnosed with ADHD are drugged and treated as though they just need medicine to mute their disorder. I feel that Brave New World is in a way the same. They genetically engineered the people to make them content with how they are, except their creativity is destroyed within the process. In Brave New World, they say "And that, put in the director sententiously, "that is the secret of happiness and virtue-liking what you've got to do. All conditioning aims at that: making people like their inescapable social destiny." Ch. 1. I believe the children have no control over how they are controlled in a school environment, which in ways is similar. People in Brave New World have no control over the people they have become, since they are engineered to like whatever environment they are placed in.

Overall I definitely liked what this speaker had to say and enjoyed connecting the text we are reading to what he had to say.

Brave New World

Okay so first off I am just going to say how thankful I am that we are past The Tempest and on to something new! Okay now I can start. :P

From what I have read of Brave New World, it is becoming apparent the kind of world the people live in. People are genetically engineered by machines and people to be built for different purposes. In the first chapter, Mr Foster states "We decant our babies as socialized human beings, as Alphas or Epsilons, as future sewage workers or future..." The children that are genetically engineered are used for different social purposes. Mr. Foster continues on in saying, "The lower the caste... The shorter the oxygen." With the lower caste genetically engineered embryo they expose it to less oxygen so it is used to being in the conditions under which job it will work.

The people that are engineered in the book seem to be of no importance, they are just used by society to make things run smoothly. The book even states the fact that the people believe procreation to be a waste and inefficient to their purpose in survival.

The quote you wanted us to explain shows that there is someone needed for every task, and they must have people designed to work under each job and profession.

The Tempest never gets old... Not.

In discussions of The Tempest, one controversial issue has been whether or not there is a specific political interpretation to be taken from the writing. On the one hand, critics argue that the main focus on The Tempest is based on Imperialism (or any other specific interpretation for that matter). On the other hand, other critics argue that this interpretation of the text has been taken way too far out of context. Others even maintain neutral in their thoughts, believing that it could go either way. However, my own view is that to say the interpretation of The Tempest to be focused on imperialism is far too much of a stretch. Like I talked about it my last blog posting, I believe too often critics over analyze works of writing. Not all authors write a book or novel with a specific almost "hidden" interpretation, they just write to write. I believe it is unrealistic to say that Shakespeare wrote The Tempest with a basis on Imperialism. I take George Will's view in saying that "Critics displace literature and critics displace authors as bestowers of meaning." You cannot just say that a piece of writing has a certain meaning, and that the meaning it has was specifically written by the author. Lots of times it seems that critics and readers can make their own interpretation of the text and believe it to be the author's intention. I think critics and readers need to stop over analyzing works of writing and focus more on the interpretation they personally took away from the story.

And that is my two cents!

**Oh by the way I was absent, hence why this is late.