Kool-Aid advertisement satire

Religious Interpretations of Maus II

This article discusses how Maus contains religious meaning and why he believes Spieglman wrote the graphic novel to contain religious themes. The author of the article is "convinced that Spiegelman is strongly suggesting that there is indeed a metaphysical dimension to life, and that a supernatural power may well be ordering it." For evidence the author talks about in the scene in the graphic novel where Vladek is in Auschwitz and a man tells him that the numbers on his arm suggets a sign of divine intervention. Then he describes several Jewish biblical themes in the graphic novel. These themes are centered around Vladek's dream and the incident where he speaks with the rabbi. The dream discussion is about (and is key to) the deep religious significance of Maus, as well as to Vladek's character; this is the biblical passage that Vladek dreams about when incarcerated in the German labor camp for Polish army prisoners of war. He also brings into view that Spiegelman in Maus subtly suggests that Vladek and Anja survived, while many others did not, for a very special reason. The article states some readers may argue that Spiegelman is a secular liberal and scarcely given to promoting ideas of divine intervention, as evidenced by the lack of any traditional religious belief in his self-characterization in Maus. However, the article comes up with a mass of evidence that Muas carries religious gravity. He even uses research from Spiegelman's other works and more information about his father. He also talks about in an interview in the Forward, Spieglman has praised the "great holy Jewish writings of [Mad magazine founder] Harvey Kurtzman and Franz Kafka," revealing a concept of Jewish holiness, however casually.  The author does a god job of showing how the graphic novel is subtley religious and discussing why Speigelman should be seen to purposely include religious themes in his works.


http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-120134935.html

Cats Cradle and Postmodernism

Cat's Cradle is a highly Postmodern text. The main theme of the novel is the parody of the concepts of truth and progress. Vonnegut uses Cat's Cradle to satire the ideas society holds about progress and how it is acheived through the pursuit of truth; the pursuit of science. Society seems to believe that it can better itself through obtaining empirical scientific data about the world around us. This is a belief of Modernism. This belief is that the more man knows about the nature of how things work or the more knowledge society obtains, the better off it is. But this is a belief highly critisized by the principles of Postmodernism as well as by Vonnegut. A renowned example of postmodernism's questioning of this modern forgery is the creation of the atom bomb (which appears in the novel). Supposedly the progression of society into the realms of science, discovery, and knowlegde, leads the world to the ever-nearing goal of a utopia. However the only benefit one of societys greatest scientific discoveries, in this case the atomic bomb, was the capacity and ramifications of endings hundreds of thousands of lives. So does this pursuit of science, of knowledge, of truth, really lead society to the bettering of mankind?

Vonnegut uses the plot of Cat's Cradle to make a postmodern parody of how science really does not lead to a utopia. In chapter 66 of the novel, Papa (the leader in San Lorenzo) suffers from a mysterious ailment and right before passing out he says "'You,' he said to Frank hoarsely, 'you - Franklin Hoenikker - you will be the next President of San Lorenzo. Science - you have science. Science is the strongest thing there is.' 'Science' said 'Papa' 'Ice.'" He elects to make Frank Hoenikker the new president of San Lorenzo because he thinks he is about to die. He chooses Frank because he knows of his possession of Ice-Nine (which happens to be the greatest and newest scientific discovery of mankind in the novel). The satire is this: Papa assumes Frank would be the best option for President because he has science; Ice-Nine. Papas ideas about how science betters society reflect the Modern idea of the concept. However, later in the novel, the reader discovers that Ice-Nine brings about the end of the world. Vonnegut's satire reflects the Postmodern concept that pursuing a utopia through science is a facetious pursuit because the further mankind dives into scientific discovery, the more destructive society becomes.

Brave New World - essay preparation

I think i know how to handle this essay much better than the last one on The Tempest. The practice has helped me and i feel readily prepared. I have been thinking about what i'd like to say about the novel and out of all the complex ideas within, i think i'm going to merely contrast the novel to our own society; and going to compare the similarities in the novel with our society today. There are so many ways that Huxley's fictitious society could be a prophesy for the future, as well as, a profound fantasy. I would like to call these concepts into question and see what theories i may be able to produce. I have also decided on the texts i'm going to synthesize with my analysis: Huxley's Brave New World Revisited, Neil Postman's Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology, and Sir Ken Robinson's Youtube.com RSA animate. 


Brave New World Revisited is a good text to use i feel because Huxley certainly knows his novel better than any other scholar. He provides valuable insights into it and how the society in his novel operates. I'm going to use this to dramatize the possibilities for own own society. 


Neil Postman's  Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology has vastly interesting theories about industry and technology. I plan to use this text as a bridge in my analysis between Huxley's novel and what i want to say about its connections and possible predictions to the real world. I can use his arguments to parallel my own and act as a backdrop for my opinions.


Finally and lastly, i will use Sir Ken Robinson's Youtube.com RSA animate. As can be seen in my previous blog post, there are a number of ways Robinson's opinions on American education relate to concepts in Brave New World. I'm going to use my previous arguments on this and synthesize new ones as well to reinforce my thesis for my essay.

RSA animate/ Brave New World

There are lots of parallels i noticed in the video that were similar to Brave New World. Several of which were very strong congruencies:

First, there was the idea of ADHD being an epidemic in America. Sir Ken Robinson points out that there is not really an epidemic and that children are being medicated carelessly. they are given Ritalin and Adderol so they can be focused in school. a non-medical problem is being cared for with medication. this strongly resembles the Somma in Brave New World. if someone isnt happy, they simple take Somma, and suddenly theyre content again. This reliance on drugs is a parallel between Huxleys novel and Sir Robinson's video.

Next, i noticed the similarities between how our education system puts children in groups by age and has them taught to think that there is only one answer. Robinson points out how students are taught linearly instead of divergently. this standardization of education reflects the caste system in Brave New World and how each caste is conditioned to be only able to do the job their caste demands. each caste is conditioned through hypnopaedia to to only think one way, this resembles the culture of our education system and how  students are taught to think only in terms of if one score high on tests, one is intelligent and will have a good job and if one scores low, the person is unintelligent and must have a laborous job.

Another significant thing i noticed was the similarities between the "production line mentality" of America's education system, and the biologically mass-produced citizens of the World State in Brave New World. The students in America go through this process of classes organized by age, yet as Robinson elucidates, age does not necessarily dictate a students aptitude or discipline with a certain subject. This parallels the caste system in the novel and how everyone is conditioned from pre-birth to maturity to only be intelligent enough for their caste's jobs.

Brave New World- Chapter 3: an examination of collectivism and inverse morality

"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."
this quote encompassed the industrial and economic systems in Brave New World. The lower castes of this society are simple workers; multitudes of drones and one-task thinkers. the mass production of human life is key to the economic structure of this society. but there is another factor that goes along with the workers. not only are the workers created for the purpose of a simple life of servitude, they are also conditioned to enjoy such a meager life. they are content with this lifestyle in every sense, and therefore, they are stable. like biological machinery. constantly working working working and satisfied with every minute of their day.


family, monogamy, impulse, feeling, desire? 
these are concepts that are no longer established in the Brave New World. family is an extinct concept replaced with the communistic principle that "everyone belongs to everyone else." humans are grown not birthed and the exclusive nature of family has been expanded to a society of free love. the morals of this society are not that one person belongs with one partner (as it is today) but instead the morality of the culture lies in multiple partners. the idea is that if a person only has one emotional outlet that they become unstable. by introducing multiple partners a person has multiple outlets and therefore is more stable. in the novel the character Mustapha Mons makes an analogy of a person being like a pipe. if one hole is punctured then it would spray out a jet stream of water. however with many holes, the pipe would merely leak from them all. Thus, stability is reached.


impulse and desire is extinguished from the culture. these are dangerous, unstable emotions which threaten the structure of the society. by conditioning the ideology of collective love and property into the minds of the people, they lose the opportunity for emotions such as jealousy or envy or desire which can inspire or be inspired by impulse and desire.


"'stability,' said the Controller, 'stability. No civilization without social stability. No social stability without individual stability.'"
As can be seen in the quote the goal of the society is to create a world where the peoples are emotionally stable and ultimately happy with their lives. by doing this a utopia-esque social structure can be created where the industrial and economic aspects of the society reach a state of near-perfection. which incidentally can be related to the previous quote, and the efficiency of "sane men, obedient men, stable in contentment."

The Tempest essay preparation

In discussions of postcolonialism, one controversial issue in the Tempest has been whether the dominated culture -in this case the character Caliban- is wronged or the domineering Prospero maintains justification. On the one hand, George Will argues this is an unjustified political response. On the other hand, Stephen Greenblatt contends (with evidence) that Shakespeare deliberately wanted to explore this concept. He connects Shakespeare's research and interest in imperialism with his purpose in The Tempest. Others even maintain that it was his main purpose in writing The Tempest. However, my own view is congruent with Greenblatt's. I feel Shakespeare's main interest in writing this poetry was to call question to the concept and he pulled his interest from the colonization of the native americas.

In my essay i plan to discuss the concept of postcolonialism and then pull into view the contrasting views on Shakespeare's intent with the concept in The Tempest. First i will use Bressler's discussion of it. Then I'm going to use the literary debate we covered in class between Greenblatt and Will as well as the ideas in A Tempest and how aime cesaire further developed ideology in The Tempest. After discussing the the ideas between these sources and contrasting them as well as comparing them, i will synthesize my own opinion into the essay. 

Im going to attempt to use a large context for my discussion and possibly some outside research beyond what we have done is class. Yet for now, my outline consists of mainly the literary debate and how the views expressed in it as well as my own mesh together. All of this discussion will be preceded with postcolonialism arguments. Then in the end, i will connect these discussions together and use the concepts expressed to sum up a final point i want to make about Shakespeare and his writing pursuits on postcolonialism and how the authors in my essay relate and differ.