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maus....

Okay so  I am thinking about relating Alzheimer's Disease to Valdek since he seems to show the symptoms of having the disease plus I think if I can do this right, it will be an interesting way of looking at the text.

I used an article from Wikipedia, although a looked over some similar ones as well but all in all they stay the same.

Basically what the article strates is that Alzheimer's is an incurable disease relsulting in memory loss. THis disease is not well understood as to what causes is itl however things to prevent it include a healthy diet, and an overall cange of lifestyle.  Stress is what is looked to as the main cause of this disease.

In relation to Maus, Valdek has all of the signs to having this disease. He calls Art by the name of his deceased son,  he constantly relives the past. His body is not function prperly anymore resulting in his death. he also has mood swings, and troublecoping with up to date life is one of the biggest red flags in relation to this article.

THe amount of stress and harm done to  his body while at Auchwitz, and also the death of his friends and his beloved Anya is what I believe diagnosed him with this disease.

With the symptoms of Alzheimer's and Valdek's personality he definately seems like a patient of the disease.
Here's the article information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alzheimer%27s_disease

See the Cat? See the Cradle?

Okay so Cat's Cradle does indeed relate to the ideas of Post Modernism, simply by the statement  from Powell’s Postmodernism For Beginninners: "We live in a world interconnected with differences, differences amplified and multiplied at the speed of electricity"(Powell 3). Today's world is all about differences in every aspect of life. Everyone's goal is to be original, and stay away from the norm.

Simiarly, in Cat's Cradle the Bokononist religion advocates this same idea. In Bokononism, you have the power to believe anything you wish as long you were able to understand it. Bokononism was merely whatever you please, and Bokonon himself reveals this when he states, “All of the true things I am about to tell you are shameless lies” (Vonnegut 5).

 In addition, Powell discusses how Post Modernism has resulted in cyberspace developing vast “new universes and realities” (Powell 2), in which who’s to say that these realities have any meaning to them? With realities constantly being created, there is no means of information of whether they are true or false. In Cat’s Cradle Newt shows Jonah his painting and asks him if he “see[s] the Cat’s Cradle” (165). There was indeed no cat or cradle in the painting, however that is exactly right. Cat’s Cradle is merely a never ending meaningless game, as was Newt’s painting. Nothing ever really meant anything to Newt; it was just something he did to pass the time.  The same idea is present with Postmodernism. Because everything is constantly changing and revamping itself to become better, nothing really means and thing to anyone, at least not like things used to. We are so consumed in daily activities to solve our boredom, rather than  looking at the big picture, and that itself is Post Modernism.

Brave New World Essay Topic

For the essay on Brave New World   I want to illustrate the points of too much government control and the effects it has on society.  I want to bring forth the ideas that people depend too much on the influences of others to solve their problems, such as the use of soma to make someone happy. This is all do to the government and how their actions affect its society. These ideas can definitely be tied in with our world today and how we operate. My essay will be able to discuss the defective human race in Brave New World and make connections to our world today.

            One source of information I will reference to is the YouTube video that was posted on the last blog topic. I believe it was called RSA Animate: Changing Education Paradigms. This video made a lot of good points about the defects of humanity nowadays, which would now make good points in relation to the novel.     I want to reveal through the use of this video that we today are not that far off from Huxley’s imagined world which is a scary thought!

            Another source I want to use points from is Neil Postman’s Technopoly. From this source I can relate his theories of technology taking over to Brave New World, as well as, tie it in with today’s world. This will allow me to discuss how technology will ultimately lead to the destruction of mankind by looking at the effects technology has thrust upon the human race through the years, in comparison to that of the novel.

             I may use other sources as well, but these are perfect for now! J

This Video was pretty interesting!

So I found the video to be pretty interesting in the sense that we as students are all exactly as the communitiy around us. If you think about that it is true. We all dress about the same, well within the same cliques or styles. We talk the same. We take the same educational classes. In a sense, we are the same. However, unlike Brave New World, we all are able to think for ourselves. Our sole purpose may be to contribute to the economy and live our lives out that way, however we have choices. We are not genetically programmed to fufill a certain machine's needs.
We do work, but we have the choce of when and where we work.

Other than this working as being somewhat of a parallel, the one parallel that was a "red flag" to my attention was the point in the video where he addressed the condition of ADHD and the fact that most people nowadays seem to have it. We as a society are constantly bored looking for the next thing to  occupy our attention, whether it be technology, food, sports, or even on the harsh terms of drugs and alcohol. Likewise, in Brave New World, the people turn to Soma to relieve them from any boredom: "What you need is a gamme of Soma." Soma is the fix, the excitement in their manipulative world.

On another note, we are taught throughout school what is right and wrong through the eyes of the teacher. Isn't this too a parallel to Brave New World. They are taught what they can and canot do to fufill their life purpose. But who is really in charge of the right and wrong?

This video was indeed an eye opener of how society is slowly starting to resemble that of Bravc New World by our lack of concentration and our ability to easily be consumed by what is around us.

At least this isn't dealing with the Tempest anymore.

While reading chapter 3 i realized how easy it was for the government to shelter society from treasuring experiences and replace those experiences with synthetic pleasures.
Infants are tempted with books and flowers and then shocked when they go to grasp them they are electrically shocked. This is a way of showing harm to what was once a pleasure. In a way it is like the idea of a child burning his hand on a hot stove to realize that he should not touch a hot stove again. If the children are caused pain for what they desire then soon enough they will no longer find pleasure in it.

On a different note, women are able to feel all of the symptoms of a pregnancy artificially. With thoughts like “my baby… the little hands, the hunger, and that unspeakable agonizing pleasure!”  Women are no longer able to experience the feelings of carrying and birthing a baby due to the new manufacturing technique, so those who desire such feelings are able to consume a “pregnancy substitute.”

Also, people are encouraged to be promiscuous and change partners regularly to keep happy. “Impulse arrested spills over, and the flood is feeling, the flood is passion, the flood is even madness.” If one is able to have whatever he wants, what is keeping him from being unhappy? Nothing.

To me the quote refers to Henry Ford’s assembly line, but by the means of the people and their lives. In Brave New World, people are birthed to do their jobs and nothing else. There sole purpose is to fulfill the job that they were embedded to do. The must be “obedient men,” men who enjoy fulfilling their duties rather than acting against them. This quote justifies Ford’s thoughts on how life should be. Life should be manufactured and synthetic, not real.

Let's give this topic a shot...

Well okay, this my view of  what the blog promp is asking of me.  There are too many controversial and varying interpretations of "The Tempest" to compare; however, I will compare a few of them.

In discussions of "The Tempest", one controversial issue has been that Shakepeare leaned more towards imperialism when writing this play. Aime Cesaire, supports this idea through her verion of the play called "A Tempest,"
which shows Caliban and Ariel as being enslaved against their will. This is  one way of looking at it, however it may not have been what Shakespeare intended.

On the other hand, others such as Meredith Skura, view that those critics viewing "The Tempest" as a postcolonialist piece "flattens the text into the postcolonialist discourse and eliminates  what is characteristically 'Shakesparean'." Shakespeare often wrote according to his time period so who is to say which he meant since both were occuring at the point in time.

How I read it I mostly believe it to be more imperialism. caliban and Ariel, like Cesaire had stated are indeed held against their will and forced to learn Prospero's ways, as is Ferdinand; therefore the views of this paly to me are very imperialistic.