2011-05-01 11:44 pm

Extended Blog Post

This blog post is extra long. It's a make up for the week of Dawn when I didn't post, and for the week of Rocky Horror Picture Show. I’m just going to focus on RHPS though.

A few themes from RHPS really grabbed my attention and made me consider how well the movie connected with the class. The first is the “birth” of Rocky. Rocky was “created” by Frank; he was produced, not reproduced. A lot of attention is brought to his (re)production- it is celebrated, and the song immediately following his creation is about how Frank is going to “make” Rocky into a “man.” Rocky’s alternative reproduction makes an interesting comparison with other types of reproduction we have read about in the class- from out of womb brooders to assembly line production to cloning. Unlike the assembly line production of BNW and the cloning of NLMG, Rocky’s birth does not seem to be “for a purpose.” Instead, Rocky’s birth is simply a celebration of life and science, which is similar to reproduction in WOTEOT.

After thinking about the movie, I am still trying to figure out what each of the characters represent. Brad and Janet seem to represent normal, heteronormative society. They comply strictly with social norms, seem to be relatively happy with the life they are living, and do not recognize or know anything outside of what is considered normal. Frank seems to represent two things. First, Frank is the queer and often “closeted” side of society. This includes LGBT and other groups that are often looked down upon hated. Frank is satirically extreme and flamboyant; he is representing a group that is often stereotyped as such. He brings a simple message- give yourself over to absolute pleasure; however, his message is not a simple one to accept, if you are used to a heteronormative society. His appearance and his crazy actions are needed to get his point across. It also makes sense then that Frank’s castle is in the middle of a dark, stormy forest. He is an outcast of normal, safe society. Second, Frank is pleasure itself. Frank, or pleasure, and the desire for pleasure, creep up on Brad and Janet and “converts” them from “safe” and “normal” people to just people that enjoy life for what it is, by embracing what makes them happy and what satisfies them.

I guess Rocky would represent the young and developing youth in society. He is just born in the movie, and does not know much. Just like how sexual intercourse brings pleasure and leads to reproduction, Rocky is produced by Frank, who represents pleasure. Rocky is influenced by everyone in the movie. He is seduced by Janet, who represents the normal way of life in society. Normality and “fitting in” is tempting to youth in society. However, Rocky seems to have a natural allegiance to his creator, Frank. Rocky is conflicted, but he is somewhat loyal to his origin- an origin of pleasure, or of a LGBT identity. Rocky is tempted to turn to normal society, but he is still guided by his desire for pleasure, and his deep inner allegiance. Youth in society are tempted to be normal and fit in, but deep inside, they are often hiding their true feelings and queer identity.
2011-04-29 11:14 am

WOAH

So this 91 year old woman has been selling "suicide kits" online for 60 bucks each... Real life Quietus??

http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2011/04/28/grandmother-selling-suicide-kits-to-help-people-die-with-dignity/
2011-04-13 11:09 pm

Anupama Tadanki

I watched Anupama present her paper at the TO conference. Her paper was about different social classes, and how they can be seen in the art that each social class produces. Her paper was centered around a quote by Pierre Bordieu, which states that different classes designate themselves by by the different kinds of art they produce. Forster, an anthropologist and author, writes about how artistic production manipulates peoples perception of others, and how this can be carried over to a societal level. She draws from A Passage to India, Forster's novel, and a story that is told within the novel. Overall, Anupama's argument was extremely compelling. I enjoyed her speech!
2011-04-13 08:38 pm

Ooku

Ooku was an interesting read! The part of the novel that intrigued me the most was how the shortage of men in society leads to a reversal of gender roles in some aspects of society. Prostitution is an example. Prostitutes, throughout society, are usually women. They are seen as objects, and paid only for their bodies. Prostitution is seen as an extremely demeaning job, and often used as a last resort in times of poverty, when there are no other sources of income. In Ooku, the shortage of men has led to the popularity of male prostitution. Men are seen primarily for their reproductive capabilities, and that’s what they are paid to do. In Ooku, prostitution is seen as demeaning too. Mizuno thanks his parents several times throughout the novel for not making him sell his body, even though his family is impoverished.

Women began doing all jobs, including holding governmental positions, while men were raised with extreme care as seed bearers. This raises an interesting question. Is the value we put on reproduction instinctive or socially constructed? The way in which men are treated following the outbreak of the virus seems to suggest that instinctively, we value reproduction greatly. It is our only way of ensuring the survival of our species. We do not want anything to happen to our chance of surviving as a species, so society protects males naturally. They do not work because they are too valuable to society to be lost in any accidents.

After reading the graphic novel, I decided to look up more information about Ooku. The Ooku was real, it actually existed in the Edo era of Japan! This little fact makes what we read even more impactful…
2011-04-06 07:23 pm

Children of Men

Children of Men was intense. It definitely raised some thought provoking questions...
First, what do babies and reproduction mean for society? Besides the biological need for them to ensure the survival of our species, babies mean a lot to our society. The young represent hope and change for the better of our future, they represent the future itself. Time and the future is something that all humans hold on to when times get tough; things will change for the better, just give them time. Even if all hope is lost in one own's life, parents often sacrifice everything they have so that their children will be able to live a better life, they have hope, in the form of the happiness of their children. In the world of Children of Men, where everyone is infertile, it is as if hope has been lost, for society as a whole. The film represents that quite well... the setting of London in 2027 is bleak and depressing. From the muted colors of the entire movie, to the existence of assisted suicide medication, Quietus, the viewer can tell that 2027 London is supposed to be a dystopia. However, with the presence of a baby, everything is changed. A baby brings hope to the world, for a better future. In the scene where Kee brings the baby out into the streets from the apartment building, everyone stops to stare. Hope has been brought into the world again!

Second, How do people respond to events such as infertility? In the movie, some people try to account for the infertility by providing all sorts of explanations. A protest group in yellow in the movie is an example of one such group that is doing this. Often times, people seem to attribute higher death rates, natural catastrophes, or trends such as infertility to God and God's wrath. For example, in today's world, the Westboro Baptist Church is a christian organization notorious for protesting and picketing the funerals of veterans and americans that are lost in war. Their rationale behind their actions is their belief that America is losing so many of its soldiers because we accept homosexuality, which is incurring God's wrath.
2011-03-23 08:29 pm

Dawn

Just a look at the name of the series of books that Dawn is a part of invokes many questions. Xenogenesis. The production of offspring completely unlike either parent. How is this possible? From a physiological standpoint? If the basic purpose of sexual reproduction is to ensure the survival of a species, what is the purpose of xenogenesis?

Just from reading a little bit about Octavia E. Butler, a few background essays about Dawn, as well as the first few chapters, I can see why Butler is so well-known for her fiction; it contains many themes of African-American history and the struggle of slavery and racism. Lilith is captured by beings that she has never seen before, which is similar to the plight of newly arrived slaves. She is separated from her family because they have died; slaves were often separated from their family purposely. Lilith cannot access the culture she is familiar with, and cannot reproduce, except for with her captors; slaves were often subject to the sexual advances of their masters, and first generation African American slaves were obviously separated from the lands they were familiar with.

Lilith’s plight is reminiscent again of Spiller’s essay that we read last week. Her family structure has been compromised, and the social structure around her is now in the hands of her captors. She is being persuaded to reproduce for a specific purpose, which is also what Spiller’s writes about. I am interested in seeing what other parallels will appear as I read more of this novel.
2011-03-09 06:56 pm

Spillers

After reading Spiller's essay and taking a step back to think about everything we've read this semester, an astounding realization occurs. Little aspects of the unimaginable dystopian futures we have been reading about have actually occurred, during New World slavery. Spillers described how enslaved communities were used for “medical research,” which is a plight not too far off from that of the donors in Never Let Me Go; both groups of humans, in the novel, and in real life, were bred purely for medical purposes. Spillers describes how this use of human life “demarcates a total objectification” of them, which can also be see in Ishiguro’s novel; the donors are called “creatures” by Madame, and are seen only as organ carriers.

Spillers description of how human offspring are not “related to the owner, though the owner possesses it” can be seen in the dystopia the Connie visits in Woman on the Edge of Time. In that alternate future, Gildina, the female that Connie meets, is a possession of her owner. She sees herself and other women only as sexual possessions of men in their society; their bodies are obligated by contract to their owners. Humans that are seen as objectified possessions by their “owners” is not only something that occurs in science fiction, but can also be seen in history.

Spillers questions “whether or not [sexual] pleasure is possible [in seductions and couplings] at all under conditions that I would aver as non-freedom.” This is a question that is also asked by the reader during Brave New World; the people of the World State seem to be happy and enjoy their sexual promiscuity, but are they REALLY happy? They only derive pleasure from the life they know because they are oppressed by their condition; they do not know any other kind of life.
2011-02-23 06:34 pm

Judith Butler, Entry 6

I decided to blog about Butler's essay because I'm not quite finished with the Ishiguro reading, and Butler would be easier to write about…

Butler’s essay “clicked” with me, but raised some questions in my mind. Her idea that certain social organizations dehumanize others makes sense, but it left me asking what the “alternative” to our world looks like. If we lived in a society that had no social organizations, what would we do about human identity? I believe that humans find who they are and their identity through the people they associate with and the ideas and social groups that they organize themselves around. If we lived in a world that did not dehumanize anyone, how individuals assert who they are as people?

Butler’s essay reminded me of Woman on the Edge of Time again. In the novel, the people of Luciente’s time removed gender roles from their society by letting both males and females breastfeed, and changing reproductive techniques. Race was not associated with culture at all. These changes were made in order to get rid of racism, sexism, and discrimination in the future, and to make everybody equal in society. Piercy’s novel fits quite well into the framework of Butler’s argument. However, the people of the future of Piercy’s novel still organize themselves around certain cultures. Is this feasible in the Butler’s alternative to our world?

One of Butler’s final points is that one must be “intelligible” to be oppressed. That one must be comprehensible and understood by society to be kept down. However, she also says that those that do not fit into the social norms that our society has created are dehumanized. What is better then, being oppressed or dehumanized? Butler loses me here…

One last note about Piercy’s novel. The people of the future do not have SET names. They do not even have permanent last/family names, and can change their names whenever. Although this causes confusion sometimes, it is said to be better, because your name will always represent your true identity. Perhaps no set names actually means no REAL identities that can be grasped and hated. With malleable identities, no one can be dehumanized, and one can always change his or her identity to avoid being oppressed.
2011-02-10 09:16 am

Entry 4

In our reading this week, the society of the savages is what intrigued me the most. At first, I thought Huxley was going to use the reservation as a contrast to the society that Lenina and Bernard lived in, showing that living primitively is better than living in London in the future. Lenina and Bernard would question their habits, and embrace the ways of the savages. However, Huxley did not do this; he makes the savages evil and primitive by describing their ritual of whipping the boy. I believe Huxley wrote the way he did as a way of emphasizing the xenophobia and sleep conditioning that has been engrained into the society of Lenina and Bernard. In the future, anything outside of what you are conditioned to believe is so weird, that interacting with other humans that live differently is a recreational activity. This appears again at the end of the novel, when people come to watch John whip himself.

Furthermore, the strength of the conditioning that they go through can be seen again in Linda. Her desire to go back to London and use soma, even after living with the savages and raising a child, shows that the sleep-conditioning of their society lasts forever. I believe Huxley is trying to emphasize just how dehumanized and manufactured human life has become. Just like how an object or a tool has no mind of its own and can never break free of what it was made to do, humans in the future have become the same way.
2011-02-03 08:08 am

Entry 3

This was my first time reading Brave New World, and as I read it, an idea kept grabbing my attention. Huxley’s novel must be a critique on Capitalism and Capitalist Production. His use of a caste system is an example of a system of classes that creates inequality, which is often described by socialist literature as being a necessary part of Capitalism. Capitalism needs a way to distinguish who the exploiters and the ones being exploited are in the system, and in many societies, race, class, and poverty are these factors. Huxley imagines a future where humans are completely dehumanized by Capitalism; humans are seen only as tools for society; they’re production is based on creating class inequality, and they are created the way they are created in order to be more efficient workers. Fertilized eggs are treated different ways to make the baby that grows from them suitable for different jobs. In order to perpetuate the Capitalist system, hypnopaedia is used. Children are constantly taught that buying new things is better than mending old things, and as a result, contribute to the continuation of capitalism by purchasing in a capitalist market. This novel is a great example of a piece of speculative science fiction; Huxley is imagining a world completely governed by our economic system, and is trying to show the horrors of such a world.

I recently read somewhere that when he was on his deathbed, Huxley had his wife bring him a really large dose of LSD, and he ended up killing himself by overdosing. This fact, coupled with the use of soma in Brave New World, has led me to think that Huxley was really interested in drug use. I am interested in exploring the significance of soma in the novel, and relating that to Huxley’s own life.
2011-01-27 12:31 am

Journal Entry 2- Woman on the Edge of Time

I loved Woman on the Edge of Time. Piercy’s book was amazing, and honestly, the first book I’ve read from beginning to end in a few years. The most interesting scene of this week’s reading was the dystopia world of Gildina. Piercy’s depiction of Gildina really made me think about the course that science was taking, and the impacts it would have on life in the future.

One thing I noticed about Gildina’s universe is the nature of its appearance in the story. This alternate future appears after Connie’s brain implant, but the future reverts back to Luciente’s world after Connie kills the doctors that were experimenting on her. This implies that Gildina’s future is a result of the science that was researched and developed on Connie and other patients. Piercy seems to be suggesting that if a science ever becomes exploitative, as in the case of the mind control devices of Dr. Redding, the future would be a bad, bad place. The ability to control others and program what they do would lead to the complete objectification of humans as sex machines, complete with serial numbers, as shown by Gildina.

Gildina’s universe is Piercy’s speculation on what would happen if science were exploitative in its research and development. This seems to be a theme that is resonant throughout Woman on the Edge of Time. Connie mentions several times of the heartbreak that she went through when Claud died, as a result of the illegal, immoral testing of hepatitis on Claud when he was in prison. Luciente and Connie have a whole conversation on who pharmaceutical drugs are to be tested on; Connie is especially concerned, and questions Luciente when she says that people “volunteer” for testing. A little background research on Marge Piercy shows that she is a social activist. Perhaps this theme in Woman on the Edge of Time was just a way to voice her social concerns.
2011-01-19 10:56 pm

Journal Entry 1- Woman on the Edge of Time

Although I’ve only read up to Chapter 5 of Woman on the Edge of Time, several aspects of this novel have already caught my attention, and make this novel particularly interesting. The first thing that caught my attention was Piercy’s vision of the future: an organic, self-sustaining utopia that is populated by a simple people. Besides their “kenners”, the people of 2137 use very little technology, and seem to be very open, free-spirited people. Piercy’s future is reminiscent of the future described by H.G. Wells’ in The Time Machine; in his novella, humans have evolved into two different species in the future. One of them, the Eloi, live simply and happily, dining on fruits and vegetables. The Eloi do not use any technology, and are androgynous, like Luciente. By showing a future that is much different from our present, Wells’ depiction suggests to his reader that the economic and social systems that are being used currently do not work, and as a result, a massive change happens. Perhaps Piercy is trying to send the same message to her readers, by illustrating a future that is so similar to Wells’. This may explain why she chooses to make Connie’s background so miserable – she is trying to tell us that our society right now is flawed.

A second aspect of this novel I’ve found to be interesting is Dolly’s relationship with Geraldo. It is a stereotypical pimp-prostitute relationship- Dolly considers Geraldo to be her boyfriend, he is extremely abusive and does not support her, she believes everything he says, including his plan to marry her if she gets an abortion, etc. Reading about Dolly is difficult; seeing the position that she is in, and knowing that she is not willing to do anything for herself is especially poignant. So far, Woman on the Edge of Time has been engaging and intriguing. I look forward to finishing the book and seeing what happens, however, I will be disappointed in the creativity of Piercy if the novel ends with a typical “Inception”-esque psychological twist, where the reader is left wondering if the events of the novel actually occurred, or if they were hallucinations in the mind of the protagonist the whole time.