Neuromancer
10/30/08
In the novel Neuromancer, Gibson portrays a society that appears entirely dependent on technology. Initially I thought there was no way possible our own society could reach such a level of technological dependence. As I continued to read this novel; however, I realized that Gibson appears to indeed be correct. In Neuromancer computer hackers are referred to as cyberspace cowboys, giving hackers an identity associated with being tough, hard-working, and iconic to our culture. Initially I did not make much of this connection, but when one of my friends complained about having to shut off a videogame because he was going to lose all of his work it hit me. Our own culture considers beating virtual levels on a computer the same as work. In all seriousness you really cannot consider playing a videogame work, its enjoyment. If you win a round of Halo 3, what do you have to show for it? Although hacking is considered "work" in many circles it does not appear to me that we should put hackers on the same iconic pedestal as our rough and tumble cowboy. Alas I fear that I am a minority with this opinion and that Gibson is correct in calling hackers cyberspace cowboys because it appears my own generation will replace the iconic cowboy with the Halo 3 champion.
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Questions About Kindred
8/23/08
Towards the end of the novel Kindred, I had some questions that went unanswered. In the text Dana appears to help Rufus when he has malaria and Tom Weylin is an old man. In this part of the novel Dana threatens Tom Weylin by telling him she will not continue to help his son if he mistreats her. My question is, what brought about this change in Dana during this conversation with Tom. Despite his age he could have still had Dana punished or killed, she did not know yet if her lineage was safe, and she did not know if she could return to her own time if Rufus was dead. Butler seems to play this threat out as a bluff on Dana's part, but why bother making it to a man who could have her killed. Not only does this seem out of character, but it is rather stupid for someone as intelligent as Dana. Another thing that bothered me was Butler's inconsistency with Dana's travel through space. At the end of the book Dana loses her arm in the past because Rufus held on to her as she went back to her own time. My question is, how could she lose an arm when she could transport objects through time and space in her denim bag. Is it because Rufus was dead and Butler did not want to write about Dana coming back home with a corpse? The only reason I can see Butler making this inconsistency for would be to demonstrate how horrible a time period Dana was coming back from.
Towards the end of the novel Kindred, I had some questions that went unanswered. In the text Dana appears to help Rufus when he has malaria and Tom Weylin is an old man. In this part of the novel Dana threatens Tom Weylin by telling him she will not continue to help his son if he mistreats her. My question is, what brought about this change in Dana during this conversation with Tom. Despite his age he could have still had Dana punished or killed, she did not know yet if her lineage was safe, and she did not know if she could return to her own time if Rufus was dead. Butler seems to play this threat out as a bluff on Dana's part, but why bother making it to a man who could have her killed. Not only does this seem out of character, but it is rather stupid for someone as intelligent as Dana. Another thing that bothered me was Butler's inconsistency with Dana's travel through space. At the end of the book Dana loses her arm in the past because Rufus held on to her as she went back to her own time. My question is, how could she lose an arm when she could transport objects through time and space in her denim bag. Is it because Rufus was dead and Butler did not want to write about Dana coming back home with a corpse? The only reason I can see Butler making this inconsistency for would be to demonstrate how horrible a time period Dana was coming back from.
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Time Travel in Kindred
10/16/08
Kindred
In Kindred, Butler breaks away from the typical time travel story. Similar to many time travel stories, Dana travels back in time to somehow aid in the making of history. For example, in the novel, A Conneticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, Hank travels back in time to help King Arthur protect Camelot. Like Hank, Dana is set back in time, but only to help a racist, white ancestor whenever he is in trouble. The difference between the two, is that at the end of Twain's book Hank is considered a hero and everyone at Camelot praises him as such. Dana, on the other hand, does not get any praise for her actions, and is instead beaten, whipped, and treated like a slave by the father of the boy she saves repeatedly. Butler seems to want us to see depsite the fact Dana helped Rufus, slavery and racism in the antebellum South is much too powerful to overcome. This is idea is much in contrast from Twain's novel, although a comedy, which allows a modern man to blend into a fifth century society. It seems that Butler wants us to see the reality in time travel and that modern citizens would have a difficult time adjusting to living only a century ago, especially a black woman. Butler shows us that despite numerous attempts to change the past and be a "hero", a person sent into a time of oppression would continue to be punished.
Kindred
In Kindred, Butler breaks away from the typical time travel story. Similar to many time travel stories, Dana travels back in time to somehow aid in the making of history. For example, in the novel, A Conneticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, Hank travels back in time to help King Arthur protect Camelot. Like Hank, Dana is set back in time, but only to help a racist, white ancestor whenever he is in trouble. The difference between the two, is that at the end of Twain's book Hank is considered a hero and everyone at Camelot praises him as such. Dana, on the other hand, does not get any praise for her actions, and is instead beaten, whipped, and treated like a slave by the father of the boy she saves repeatedly. Butler seems to want us to see depsite the fact Dana helped Rufus, slavery and racism in the antebellum South is much too powerful to overcome. This is idea is much in contrast from Twain's novel, although a comedy, which allows a modern man to blend into a fifth century society. It seems that Butler wants us to see the reality in time travel and that modern citizens would have a difficult time adjusting to living only a century ago, especially a black woman. Butler shows us that despite numerous attempts to change the past and be a "hero", a person sent into a time of oppression would continue to be punished.
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Reading Stage of Development
10/9/08
Blog Analysis
Before the beginning of this semester my choice of literature was mainly classical literature such as Dickens, Verne, Wells, and many other authors that most people think are “dusty”. The writing styles of these authors can be somewhat dull, but what drew me to these novels were the stories that they told. The stories they tell are the foundation on which so much popular culture stands whether that be television, movies, or other books. Although I began reading more modern novels in the middle of high school such as One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest, my main choice of literature were the classics. My style of reading has somewhat evolved around my choice of literature and I do not think that I analyze the texts as much as I should. I do consider historical elements in older novels, but I never really try to analyze classic novels on their ability to challenge gender. I think my reading ability is quite developed but I think I fall somewhere between relating text to other texts and relating text to world.
My stage of reading development seems to really depend on what I am reading or why I am reading. If I am reading for school purposes I tend to delve deeper into the text and look for meaning; however, while reading for enjoyment purposes I sometimes take the story just at face value. One example that stands out for relating text to world was in my A.P. Literature class in high school. We were given poems to analyze and write our thoughts about them. I was given Seamus Heaney’s “Blackberry-Picking”. At face value the poem seems to recount Seamus picking blackberries and him getting cut by thorns and getting stained with juice. At the end of the poem, the narrator tells of how they picked too many and they spoiled. Just by reading the poem one would gather a very confused account of picking blackberries without any real meaning; however, I realized that Seamus, obviously of Irish descent, was probably Christian. In the poem he talked about thickened wine and summer’s blood which relate to Christ’s blood at the Last Supper. In addition, Heaney’s description of getting pricked by thorns relates to Christ’s crown of thorns when he died on the cross. With a second analysis of the poem, one can really understand the religious influence Heaney has in his writing. Besides for the Christian impact on this poem, there were several other themes one could gather from this poem such as mankind’s greed; however, I will not elaborate on them now. The point is, while reading this poem I did not relate this poem to myself or to other text, but rather the religious influence in the text.
Reading for enjoyment I may not had made this connection because I am not being judged on my reading. For example, one of my favorite books, Frankenstein, was ruined in a literary analysis class I took in high school. We analyzed the book through lenses of historical criticism and feminist criticism which allowed me to see the book in a different light; however, my original interpretation was destroyed. I am not trying to say that people should not analyze books, but I think that writing is an art form that is understood in different ways. I originally liked Frankenstein because of how it related to scientific experiments being performed today, but after analyzing it through other lenses the book is nowhere near as entertaining for me. In the case of Heaney’s poem and Frankenstein, my reading is definitely text - world; however, judging by my blog entries I feel it is best to label my reading as text - other texts.
The reason I chose text – other texts to describe my reading development is because although I have text to world tendencies, I seem to relate texts to other texts in my blogs. For example, in my most recent blog, “Gender Barriers in Brokeback Mountain”, I simply relate Butler’s idea of children being indoctrinated into gender roles to the Thanksgiving scene in the film. In this scene, L.D. pushes to let his grandson watch football during dinner so that he will “grow up to be a man”. As I mention in the blog, Butler would recognize this scene as a child being forced into a gender role; boys watch football. I feel that this entry is clearly a stage of text to text because all I do is realize Butler’s idea within the film without ever really coming up with any great idea on my own. In another blog, I discuss the character Falmouth in You Don’t Love Me Yet, and demonstrate how he exemplifies postmodernism. He himself is a postmodern art form because he has a shaved head and wears a suit even though he is surrounded by people wearing t-shirts. In addition, he strives to do art that really has no purpose because it can only be viewed for a short time by him; the Aparty is really only art to Falmouth. Again, this blog is simply text to text because I relate Falmouth to David Lodge’s article “Breaking the Frame” and his definition of postmodernism. Therefore according to these two blogs, it seems to me that my reading development is still is in the text to other text stage of reading development.
The question is how do I move on from simply relating texts to other texts? I think that I have not only the potential, but also have realized ability to truly relate text to world issues because I do it already in my writing and analyzing of certain works such as Heaney’s poem. The main problem I have is that I do it infrequently and inconsistently especially when you compare my analysis of Blackberry-Picking to my blog entries. My thought is that I must focus less on the story itself when I read a novel and consciously think about the time period in which it was written and what the author may have been thinking about when they were writing their work. In addition, I think that when I compare text to other text I should consider what those other texts that I am familiar with relate to in terms of social discourse. In this manner I should be able to draw conclusions about how a new work relates to the world while still be able to focus on the text itself.
Before I began this semester I think my reading skills were fairly well developed, but not as analytical as perhaps is necessary when reading certain texts. When reading a contemporary novel, often times there is much more going on than in a classical piece of literature. In the classic novel there are indeed underlying themes that relate to the time period in which it was written; however, in a contemporary piece the reader is now faced with issues that define gender and question our social foundations. In the past, I have spent most of my time reading classical literature that did not focus on such issues and realize that when reading different genres I will need to address them. Obviously this will take time to adjust to a different style of reading and questioning, but I think that if I follow the strategies I have come up with I should be able to move to new stage of reading development.
Blog Analysis
Before the beginning of this semester my choice of literature was mainly classical literature such as Dickens, Verne, Wells, and many other authors that most people think are “dusty”. The writing styles of these authors can be somewhat dull, but what drew me to these novels were the stories that they told. The stories they tell are the foundation on which so much popular culture stands whether that be television, movies, or other books. Although I began reading more modern novels in the middle of high school such as One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest, my main choice of literature were the classics. My style of reading has somewhat evolved around my choice of literature and I do not think that I analyze the texts as much as I should. I do consider historical elements in older novels, but I never really try to analyze classic novels on their ability to challenge gender. I think my reading ability is quite developed but I think I fall somewhere between relating text to other texts and relating text to world.
My stage of reading development seems to really depend on what I am reading or why I am reading. If I am reading for school purposes I tend to delve deeper into the text and look for meaning; however, while reading for enjoyment purposes I sometimes take the story just at face value. One example that stands out for relating text to world was in my A.P. Literature class in high school. We were given poems to analyze and write our thoughts about them. I was given Seamus Heaney’s “Blackberry-Picking”. At face value the poem seems to recount Seamus picking blackberries and him getting cut by thorns and getting stained with juice. At the end of the poem, the narrator tells of how they picked too many and they spoiled. Just by reading the poem one would gather a very confused account of picking blackberries without any real meaning; however, I realized that Seamus, obviously of Irish descent, was probably Christian. In the poem he talked about thickened wine and summer’s blood which relate to Christ’s blood at the Last Supper. In addition, Heaney’s description of getting pricked by thorns relates to Christ’s crown of thorns when he died on the cross. With a second analysis of the poem, one can really understand the religious influence Heaney has in his writing. Besides for the Christian impact on this poem, there were several other themes one could gather from this poem such as mankind’s greed; however, I will not elaborate on them now. The point is, while reading this poem I did not relate this poem to myself or to other text, but rather the religious influence in the text.
Reading for enjoyment I may not had made this connection because I am not being judged on my reading. For example, one of my favorite books, Frankenstein, was ruined in a literary analysis class I took in high school. We analyzed the book through lenses of historical criticism and feminist criticism which allowed me to see the book in a different light; however, my original interpretation was destroyed. I am not trying to say that people should not analyze books, but I think that writing is an art form that is understood in different ways. I originally liked Frankenstein because of how it related to scientific experiments being performed today, but after analyzing it through other lenses the book is nowhere near as entertaining for me. In the case of Heaney’s poem and Frankenstein, my reading is definitely text - world; however, judging by my blog entries I feel it is best to label my reading as text - other texts.
The reason I chose text – other texts to describe my reading development is because although I have text to world tendencies, I seem to relate texts to other texts in my blogs. For example, in my most recent blog, “Gender Barriers in Brokeback Mountain”, I simply relate Butler’s idea of children being indoctrinated into gender roles to the Thanksgiving scene in the film. In this scene, L.D. pushes to let his grandson watch football during dinner so that he will “grow up to be a man”. As I mention in the blog, Butler would recognize this scene as a child being forced into a gender role; boys watch football. I feel that this entry is clearly a stage of text to text because all I do is realize Butler’s idea within the film without ever really coming up with any great idea on my own. In another blog, I discuss the character Falmouth in You Don’t Love Me Yet, and demonstrate how he exemplifies postmodernism. He himself is a postmodern art form because he has a shaved head and wears a suit even though he is surrounded by people wearing t-shirts. In addition, he strives to do art that really has no purpose because it can only be viewed for a short time by him; the Aparty is really only art to Falmouth. Again, this blog is simply text to text because I relate Falmouth to David Lodge’s article “Breaking the Frame” and his definition of postmodernism. Therefore according to these two blogs, it seems to me that my reading development is still is in the text to other text stage of reading development.
The question is how do I move on from simply relating texts to other texts? I think that I have not only the potential, but also have realized ability to truly relate text to world issues because I do it already in my writing and analyzing of certain works such as Heaney’s poem. The main problem I have is that I do it infrequently and inconsistently especially when you compare my analysis of Blackberry-Picking to my blog entries. My thought is that I must focus less on the story itself when I read a novel and consciously think about the time period in which it was written and what the author may have been thinking about when they were writing their work. In addition, I think that when I compare text to other text I should consider what those other texts that I am familiar with relate to in terms of social discourse. In this manner I should be able to draw conclusions about how a new work relates to the world while still be able to focus on the text itself.
Before I began this semester I think my reading skills were fairly well developed, but not as analytical as perhaps is necessary when reading certain texts. When reading a contemporary novel, often times there is much more going on than in a classical piece of literature. In the classic novel there are indeed underlying themes that relate to the time period in which it was written; however, in a contemporary piece the reader is now faced with issues that define gender and question our social foundations. In the past, I have spent most of my time reading classical literature that did not focus on such issues and realize that when reading different genres I will need to address them. Obviously this will take time to adjust to a different style of reading and questioning, but I think that if I follow the strategies I have come up with I should be able to move to new stage of reading development.
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Gender Barriers in Brokeback Mountain
10/2/08
Judith Butler and film Brokeback Mountain
After reading Butler's article and how children are indoctrinated into their gender roles, one scene in Brokeback Mountain really seemed to jump out at me. In this scene, Jack is hosting Thanksgiving at his home with his in-laws as his guests. When dinner is served, Jack is preparing to carve the turkey until L.D. steps in to usurp Jack's role as head of the household. At the same time Bobby is watching football on the television while Lureen tells him to turn off the game and eat his dinner. After Jack turns off the television, L.D. walks over to the television and turns the game back on for Bobby to watch. L.D. tells Lureen that this will make him grow up to be a man as if that by somehow watching sports will make him more masculine than a child who has no interest in sports. According to Butler, Bobby would learn from this that watching football would make him a man, rather than being courteous to his mother as Jack exhibits by turning off the television. After L.D. says this Jack is somewhat angered by the fact that L.D. indirectly suggested that he was not a man, and he gets up once again to turn off the televsion. At this point Jack turning off the television is not merely a matter of teaching Bobby to be gracious to his mother, but rather to prove to L.D. that he is in fact a man despite his secret homosexuality. Jack's masculinity is proven to L.D. when L.D. gets up to turn the television back on and Jack yells, "sit down you old son of a bitch," and then takes his place carving the turkey. Jack does not feel that his son should be taught by someone as ignorant as his grandpa and must want Bobby to grow up in his own way. I am not saying that Jack wants his son to become homosexual, but rather that he wants Bobby to become his own person and not have to hide who he is like Jack does.
Judith Butler and film Brokeback Mountain
After reading Butler's article and how children are indoctrinated into their gender roles, one scene in Brokeback Mountain really seemed to jump out at me. In this scene, Jack is hosting Thanksgiving at his home with his in-laws as his guests. When dinner is served, Jack is preparing to carve the turkey until L.D. steps in to usurp Jack's role as head of the household. At the same time Bobby is watching football on the television while Lureen tells him to turn off the game and eat his dinner. After Jack turns off the television, L.D. walks over to the television and turns the game back on for Bobby to watch. L.D. tells Lureen that this will make him grow up to be a man as if that by somehow watching sports will make him more masculine than a child who has no interest in sports. According to Butler, Bobby would learn from this that watching football would make him a man, rather than being courteous to his mother as Jack exhibits by turning off the television. After L.D. says this Jack is somewhat angered by the fact that L.D. indirectly suggested that he was not a man, and he gets up once again to turn off the televsion. At this point Jack turning off the television is not merely a matter of teaching Bobby to be gracious to his mother, but rather to prove to L.D. that he is in fact a man despite his secret homosexuality. Jack's masculinity is proven to L.D. when L.D. gets up to turn the television back on and Jack yells, "sit down you old son of a bitch," and then takes his place carving the turkey. Jack does not feel that his son should be taught by someone as ignorant as his grandpa and must want Bobby to grow up in his own way. I am not saying that Jack wants his son to become homosexual, but rather that he wants Bobby to become his own person and not have to hide who he is like Jack does.
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