All posts by dms10

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Reflection

Thoughts on the unicorns

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*insert timely snapchat filter that makes you a rainbow-vomiting unicorn*

So other than unicorns being majestic and whimsical AF…. why did Murakami pick unicorns to represent memories of the people that reside in the subconscious of the main character? Unicorns are mythical (I think) creatures that show up in many different cultures across time…. Scottish coat of arms, Renaissance art, the Indus Valley, Harry Potter, and some even argue that a unicorn-like creature was mentioned in the bible.

My first thoughts if someone mentions unicorns are the My Little Pony figurines, but I’m sure that was not was Murakami was thinking. I think he was more leaning towards the idea that unicorns are a thing of dreams and that dreams arise from the subconscious. Secondly, the narrator of the End of the World is “The Dreamreader,” so it seems fitting that the medium for his job is unicorn skulls. He’s reading dreams through a thing of dreams.

Upon asking my family the first word that comes to their mind when I say unicorn, this was their response:

Younger Sister: Magic

Stepdad: Bull shit

Mom: Horn

Older sister: Horse

My mom wasn’t exactly helpful, but she’s busy knitting. However, my sistesr and stepdad were pretty on point. Unicorns are magical and remind me that the  End of the World chapters resemble magical realism while the other chapters are more technology, information, and industrial related. Secondly, from class discussions we have determined that the act of shuffling is totally pointless because it is essentially destroying information. The professor should have taken a note from the scientist in Gojira  and simply burned all of his work and data. That being said, shuffling is bull shit just like how my dad thinks unicorns are bull shit. Lastly, my first impressions of the setting of the End of the World  was that it was incredibly pastoral. It focused on the trees and the beauty and the nature found in the walled city. I didn’t realize at first that the beasts were unicorns so I at first pictured them as cows and horses. Interesting that my older sister’s first thought of unicorns was horses. Unicorns represent a range of things from the narrator’s line of work to dreams to  magic to even pastoral images.

Dani dms10

 

Argument

How Æon Flux is “cyber-punk”

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According to the super dependable and accurate site, Wikipedia, cyber punk  “features advanced technology and science, such as information technology and cybernetics, coupled with a degree of breakdown or radical change in the social order.” The plots tend to be staged in dystopian futures and revolve around protagonists that are rebelling against some form of system or government.

The movie I have chosen to watch and write about, Æon Flux, contains all of these elements and more. The story takes place in the walled-in city of Bregna in the year 2415 after 99% of the population has been killed by a virus. The city is run by the Goodchild family, however,  the rebels, The Monicans, are trying to bring down the regime. The leader of the Monicans communicates with the rebels through the subconscious and electric neural pathways. An ingested chemical allows the rebels to enter their own mind where they find the leader of the rebels who then gives them information on their next assignment.

Later in the plot we see that the Goodchild regime is actually not multiple generations at all, but the same man over and over again. Trevor Goodchild, has actually saved his genetic makeup in a gene bank and remakes himself every time. I’m unsure how the population doesn’t realize that he look sooo similar to previous generations. There’s even posters of himself next to other posters of himself and the people still don’t notice that it’s the same guy! However, the leader of the regime is not the only person whose genes are being replicated. Every person in the city suffers the same fate, but they are unaware of the replication. It further becomes clear that the people have been chosen to live this way because they are immune to the virus. This being said, the inhabitants are not allowed to have children of their own because natural genetic mutation could render them susceptible to the virus once again.

The genetic replication is indeed advanced technology and the secrecy of the government makes an easy target for the rebels to try to defeat. The breakdown or change in social order arises when the blimp flying around the city crashes into the wall and lets the people free. The blimp, or Rellicle (sp?), is actually an information bank for the government and they keep their secrets from the citizens right under (or I guess above) their noses.

 

Dani dms10

Reflection

About the animals…

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In class, we thoroughly discussed the title of “Come into Animal Presence” and took apart the words. “Come” can be seen as an invitation, command, or request. “Animal” is specifically talking about alive things in nature and not just nature itself (ie. rocks, trees, water, grass). And “presence” is something spiritual, religious, and not physical, but a way of being in the world.

What I want to focus on is the animals that Levertov chose to use in the poem. There are four animals: serpent, rabbit, llama, and armadillo. There is a lot to say about serpents and rabbits because they are seen a lot in cultures. Serpents are associated biblically, mythologically, and Disney-movie-ly with a bad/evil connotation. There are little to no fables or stories that have the snake being a “good guy” or anything short of evil. However, Levertov focuses on the cunning and beauty of the snake. The snake is “guileless” and has “no blemish”. Being smart and not having acne seems like a pretty good deal to me, but people still think of snakes as bad.

Secondly, we have the rabbit. We see the rabbit as lucky (it’s foot on a key chain), with spring time (Easter Bunny… but who knows why),  and in a lot of disney movies (Alice in Wonderland, Snow White, Bambi, Winnie the Pooh, and countless Disney Junior shows). The rabbit is popular in our culture. However, Levertov again focuses on a different aspect, its loneliness. Rabbits are actually well known for being social creatures.

But then we come to the llama and the armadillo and I am stumped. Why a llama and an armadillo? First thing that comes to mind with llama is wool and Peru. Llamas are notoriously beasts of burden in South America (kind of like horses are in other places, carrying humans stuff around). I doubt there are many wild llamas roaming the mountains of Peru, but there are many under human control.

First thing that comes to mind for armadillos is road kill. That again, is under human control. Armadillos are pretty cool. They have their own armor, they can roll up into balls, they apparently have leprosy (not cool but interesting). But all I can think of is road kill. Llamas and armadillos encounter humans way more than rabbits and snakes and yet they are included in part of this natural imagery of coming into an animal state of mind.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that the choice of animals seems very random to me and the animals aren’t exactly mysterious to us.  She’s telling us to “come into animal presence”, but we kind of already have by including them in our lives. However, I guess the poem could be telling us to think about it from their point of view and not the points of views that I have previously stated. To think about how there is more to animals than how they are associated with and by humans. They are their own thing and we cannot limit them to what we have predetermined they are/can be.

Exercise

Rockets n’ stuff

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I have a special affinity for space travel because my aunt is an astronaut. I have a rad jacket from the 80s that has been to space.

Actual post:

There were rockets in the past, but the 20th century marked the creation of rockets that had enough power to beat gravity and reach a speed that could lead to human space travel. Germany, Russia, and the USA all were designing engines at the same time. Nazi Germany wanted to use long-distance rockets for weapons. After the war was over, the USA and Soviet Union started their own missile/rocket programs. SPACE RACE! Sputnik 1 (Russian) was launched into space in early October of 1957. Four years later they put a human in space with Vostok 1. Not too far behind, Explorer 1 (USA) began orbit in late January 1958 with the first american to orbit earth being in February 1962 (yay US). JFK was hellbent on getting a man on the moon… Neil Armostrong accomplished this in 1969. Various aircrafts went to map out and image Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and various moons. Eventually America and Russia worked together in the 70’s in an international space mission. Satelites have been used for TV, imaging of the world, finding stars, and seeing parts of the galaxy (woa that’s dope). Sadly, the Challenger exploded in 1986 and killed 7 people. Fun fact: my aunt (Millie Hughes-Fulford) is an astronaut and was supposed to be on the Challenger, but the teacher bumped her. She has since been to space three times to study the effects of anti gravity on bone density…. I think?

Since the Challenger, new launch methods have been made to ensure safety. In recent years however, NASA’s influence has declined. There are a few private researchers trying to send people into space. One of which is Red Bull. Felix Baumgartner, an Austrian skydiver, was sponsored by Red Bull to jump from 24 miles into the stratosphere. To my knowledge they have yet to go back into space, but we shall see.

 

Dani

Reflection

Gojira: the metaphorical monster

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What’s intriguing about Gojira is the lost symbolic importance once the film left Japan. Certain aspects were been removed when Americans remade it (ie the fact that the American’s atomic bomb created Godzilla in the first place). The movie originally expressed anger and resentment of the affects of the atomic bomb, but now it’s just another monster for the superheroes of Hollywood to fight. Gojira started out as “an earnest attempt to grapple with compelling and timely issues” (like getting the shit bombed out of them). It was “intended to frighten rather than amuse” and messed with the nuclear problems that came after WW2. Nowadays we see Godzilla as another character, but the Japanese at the time saw it as a metaphor for the aftermath of WW2. Japan already has unpredictable nature because of fault lines they often experience “earthquakes and volcanoes, typhoons and tidal waves, floods and landslides” Godzilla is just a combination of their bad luck with mother nature and nuclear residue from the atomic bomb dropping. The Japanese people did not take the movie lightly. They watched “in respectful silence” and some even left crying. As entertaining as the movie (and its rudimentary special effects) are to us, at the time the movie was a reminder of the carnage of WW2 and the bomb that it brought with it. Godzilla is a physical representation of the war and its effects. By destroying Godzilla in the end and regaining control over their city, the movie is encouraging to post-war Japan.

Many years post war, what does the world have to do with Godzilla? It’s just a plot line. Monster attacks city. Hero fights monster. (Hero might be a robot, a superhuman, biological warfare, or even another monster). Nowadays, Godzilla doesn’t have the same meaning. American Sniper is to modern day America as Gojira is to post WW2 Japan. I’m sure in a couple decades there will be even more war movies based in the middle east, but they won’t hit as close to home because hopefully the fighting there has since stopped. Middle eastern warfare will just be another plot for the next blockbuster.

I was asked the question, what is the monster? I have two answers. 1. Back then it was a reminder and a metaphor for the atrocities of war and the effects of a nuclear bomb. 2. It’s a cool plot that involves nature becoming supernatural for reasons probably related to radioactivity, but the tall and jacked super hero will save the day in the end. So appreciate Gojira for the Japanese as we appreciate the American Sniper and related movies.

Dani

Argument

An argument to add David Bowie to our syllabus

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Post-modernism is notorious for breaking the pre-established boundaries of art and literature. One could easily say that David Bowie also broke pre-established boundaries in art, fashion, and music. Like many famous canonical literary figures, Bowie was born in England. An English lady, Jane Austen, is known for her romantic fiction based in the country side. Another English woman, Virginia Woolfe, is often associated with feminist views appearing in her writing. Unlike these figures, Bowie was not known for just one thing. Bowie had ever changing genre, style, and persona.

Part of his music and works involve hyperreality. For him, part of the hyperreality was creating a whole new person, Ziggy Stardust. Some argue that Ziggy Stardust was part of performance art which is also very common in the visual art world of post-modernism. Another staple of post-modernism and maybe even an appendage to hyperreality is simulacra. Ziggy Stardust appeared to be a real person and artist but he was actually just a projection of one of the many personalities of David Bowie. There is definitely a “loss of connection to reality” because obviously, Ziggy isn’t a real person, but just David Bowie with a different wig on.

Yet another staple of postmodernism is intertextuality or the relationship and reference between texts or forms of media. For starters, David Bowie has a song called “Andy Warhol”. If that is not a reference to another art (or artist) then I don’t know what is! If anyone knows who Escher is and has seen the Labyrinth (featuring David Bowie as the main character), they will immediately associate the stair scene with Escher’s piece of the stairs. In the painting or in the scene, you don’t know where the stairs go and what’s real or not. Escher himself is also post modernist so it’s post- modern inception for a post-modernist artist to have intertextuality to another post-modernist artist. Woa.

If anyone needed a reason to study David Bowie… here’s some reasons.

I also apologize for the word vomit that is this blog post…. I just got really excited and had a lot of ideas. whoops

 

Dani

Reflection

Do Lowell and Pound agree?

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During week 2 of class, we read two articles that explained the concept of imagism. The first being, “A Retrospect” and “A Few Don’ts” by Ezra Pound. The second being, “Preface to Some Imagist Poets”  by Amy Lowell. Many people have found differences in the two’s definition of imagism, however, I have found that they agree on the important stuff. The important stuff being: rhythm and form, clarity, and the use of imagery (duh).

The last point of agreement, imagery, seems obvious to have when describing imagist poetry because it is in the name itself. However, agreeing on rhythm and form and clarity is quite the importance. By rhythm and form, I mean that both Pound and Lowell believed that it was not necessary to follow a certain meter while writing in poetry. Lowell says that free verse should be fought for as a “principle of liberty” and that the new rhythms found in free verse convey “new moods”. By being modernist, one would assume there would be modern rhythms and not “old rhythms, which merely echo old moods” like those in a set meter. Pound agrees that composition “in the sequence of a metronome” is not the best rhythm. Pound believes the poems should be “composed in the sequence of the musical phrase”.

Miraculously, the pair not only agree on the use of free-verse, but they also agree on being succinct in way they are trying to convey. In Lowell’s words, the job of the imagist is “to produce poetry that is hard and clear, never blurred nor indefinite”. In other words, don’t beat around the bush in what you are trying to say. It isn’t necessary to have an extended metaphor that extends through out the whole poem and is up for 87 different interpretations. Pound agrees that the imagist should have “direct treatment of the ‘thing'” in which they are writing about. As someone who greatly appreciates clarity, I’m incredibly glad that both Pound and Lowell think it is good to be straight forward.

Lastly, does the importance of imagery in imagist writing really need to be explained? It seems pretty straight forward to me. Kind of like, you need a basketball to play a basketball game. Or you need to know how to write, to write an essay. So, I’m not really surprised they agreed on that front. I’d be more surprised if they disagreed.

 

Dani Shewmake

dms10

Reflection

War vs. Death

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After reading both “The Charge of the Light Brigade” by Alfred Lord Tennyson and “The Dead” by Rupert Brooke, I have found that “The Dead” is actually more about life. The former focuses on a battle where 600 soldiers were killed. The latter focuses on the life and the happinesses in life of the deceased. Both poems are about wars and both are memorials to the deceased soldiers. However, Tennyson has a focus on the battle itself and the “shots”, “shells”, and “mouth of Hell” associated with war and battle. Brooke writes about the “joys”, “flowers”, “and wandering loveliness” of the lives of the soldiers. Brooke is able to paint a beautiful picture of life and happiness. Tennyson’s piece has lots of imagery of war and death. Tennyson never mentions the soldiers individually; he only refers to them as “the six hundred”. Brooke, as well, does not mention any soldiers individually, but his piece humanizes the soldiers as people rather than just as dead soldiers.

After reading both pieces, I tend to like “The Dead” because of its focus on life and joys of life. I appreciate “The Charge of the Light Brigade” as it is a beautiful eulogy to the battle. However, I like how “The Dead” doesn’t even mention death, but is a celebration of life.

 

Dani