White noise and Happy Endings

Margret Atwood's Happy Endings made the point that all plots end the same; we all die. The important question is how and why we die. The question in White Noise that is posed various times is when Jack or Babette will die. In this short story, we see that yes Babette cheats on Jack just as his other wifes did to him. Atwood would praise this because these small plots within this story relate to everyday life. This is reality. Actually, I like White Noise for the simple reason that it is so unpredictable and that's life, you never no what's going to happen and then in a blink of an eye its all over.

Girl scouts

I feel as though our society is training young girls to carry their weight in looking innocent and making people want to buy a product only because of the seller. In this case it would be the little girl in the cheap skate outfit with a billion badges on it, and the best thing about this is that the cookies that the people buy are actually really disgusting. I mean some person in China probably made those cookies. when you buy girl scout cookies you honestly do it out of pity for little girls being taken advantage of because their counselor tells them they have to stand in front of a Safeway in the ghetto and essentially sell their soul for the betterment of the organization. And the problem is that as a consumer culture we will buy just to buy. We consume our money on useless things when in reality we could be helping others. That's really about helping others, but our society has programmed us to focus on ourselves and I wish I could change that. Little girls learn at a young age to look appealing in order to sell products and succeed in a consumer culture.

What is assignment

Overall, this assignment just frustrated people. Unfortunately, these people were not as frustrated as class on Friday because once I started to frustrate Patrick Donovan; he just flipped me off and walked away. In class, we did not have that option. People who deconstruct words are useless people because in essense they should not be able to communicate with words. Their sentences should be thing thing thing thing?

Consequences of what you write

I think writers have the freedom to write whatever they want, but with this freedom the writer has to embrace the criticism of the viewers. When you put some piece of art on the air, you are subject to all the criticism in the world and people can make judgements about your values. I definitely agree with the statement that you can be held accountable for the pieces of art you publish. If you put something on national T.V., I would say you're responsible for what the public sees, and it should in someway show your view of life. Characters in some way or another convey the way we will see the author's view of the world. The reason lies in the fact when you write art it should in someway show your feelings about a certain subject.

Art

Art is supposed to evoke feelings within its viewers. I think art becomes art if the author intends it to either be art or pores their feelings into this piece of work. Feelings are closely linked to art. I believe motel art could be art if the artist pored feeling into it, but if the artist just slapped some paint on paper in order to make five dollars then yeah it's definitely kitch. For me, art becomes real when you can look at it or listen to it and it evokes feelings that move you as a person. Within each piece of art, I believe their is a deep reseviour of feelings that we must discover and it is up to the individual to experience these feelings.

Disorder me very much

Disorder is definitely celebrated in within the postmodern works we discussed in class. For example, in Travelling, Simon Ortiz makes the comment, "He is Guaguin, he is Coyote, he is who he is, travelling the known and unknown places, travelling, travelling." The disorder here as that the reader does not know if the author has been to these places or not. As a result, travelling becomes a state of mind. The mind is always moving and that is good. Society needs us to think of new ideas and thougts because that is were inovation breeds. Likewise, in Forgetfulness, Collins states, "the name of the author is the first to o followed obediently by the title, the plot, the heartbreaking conclusion, the entire novel whic suddenly becomes on e you have never read, never even heard of as if, one by one, the memories you used to harbor decided to retire to the Southern Hemisphere of the brain, to a little fishing village where there are no phones." People have no idea why some of the things of human nature happen: for example, memory. As humans, this disorder is almost celebrated as being good. When people get old, they may forget somethings, but I would venture to say that people use the "I'm getting old and my memories fading" as an excuse. Our society accepts these disorders and accomodates the random thoughts in our mind to the forgetfullness of ourselves.

Forgetfulness by Billy Collins
Travelling by Simon Ortiz

Breakdown of words and meaning

The world is obviously post modern, which focuses on the subjective. For example, in "Toast," the author quotes "Toast is me. I am toast." Essentially, the individual has the right to make meaning for words. Toast is merely a word; the word's meaning must come from the individual. This is exactly where the breakdown of meaning and words occurs becuase the inadequetcy of our language can not understand reality. Reality is subjective. The author supports this by saying "Toast cannot be explained by any rational means." The rational means the author is aluding to is language. Reality is that 39 million trillion (whatever amount of people are on the earth) could possibly have a different meaning associated with a single word. Who is right? I would say the dictionary is right. But who wins if 39 million trillion people have a different meaning than the dictionary? I think our language is broken, and thus the individual has to clearly articulate why he chooses certain words. In essence, every word is boiled down to being a thing because thing is an abstract concept and allows for flucation in meaning and interpretation.

Hypereality

I have fallen victim to hyper-reality in the area of advertisements. For example, Kobe Bryant is a sponsor for "Nike, McDonald's, Spalding, Sprite and Upper Deck combine to give Bryant $20 million a year in endorsement deals" (Link 1).People believe that if they somehow drink sprite or wear converse, they will magically become super athletic. Dwayne Wade and Kobe worked hard before they started drinking sprite and wearing converse shoes. Furthermore, advertising is important just as seen in "Gatorade's whopping $180 million budget towards their advertisements" (link 2). Sometimes I think if I drink Gatorade, I will play better. Advertisements have become manipulative and make individuals have a subconscious belief that certain items enhance performance or enjoyment. Overall, I find myself influenced by the media which make simple products appear to be better than they are in reality.

http://advertising.about.com/od/bryantkobe/Bryant_Kobe.htm
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/54756/powerade_option_versus_gatorade_propel.html?page=3

Crisis Postmodernism

As Christians, all we can do is embrace postmodernism, but acknowledge that the Bible trumps all postmodern theories of order or disorder. Postmodernism denies meta narratives, but essentially as a Christian you have to read the meta narrative, the Bible, in order to acknowledge Christianity in general. As Christians, you can take some postmodern views on issues, but for the most part you have to think logically about things. I mean there is meaning in life, its called serving and glorifying God. As a Christian, personally, I center my life around God and what the Bible has to say about the way we should live in regards to our culture. The crisis of postmodernism is just something you have to deal with and live with. I mean if your Evan you can be a nihilist, but I mean as for me philosophy comes down to what you personally believe and how you interact with people in a Christian manner.

Metafiction

Obviously the ending of Happy endings is metafictional because the author is talking about plots at the same time a plot is ending. Debatable whether there is a plot, but nevertheless the author supports the idea that one decision can change the course of a plot. Isn't that true about life though, one decision can make or break you. Plots are constructed on the basis that we start here rise here fall here and then it's all over. The author is suggesting that we do away with plot and write about life the way it really happens. Everyday is a plot and there are ups and downs that determine our fate. How and Why are more important than the destination. We're all going to die in the end, it's an inevitable given.

Captain Jack

Jack is postmodern because he flippantly changes sides in the third movie 3 times. He's like wait I'm on the British side, oh wait, no I'm a pirate, then oh I'm battling pirates. The circular battle in the 3rd movie represents chaos. The postmodern person loves chaos. Jack's whole demeanor centers on the fact that Jack regards all people's thoughts as subjective to the individual. Also, death is a state of mind; I mean Jack was dead and forgot all the people he knew; then all of a sudden he's back and knows everyone.

Ants

At the homecoming game, I stepped out of my comfort zone and talked to the Aussies. It sounded like Australia is extremely boring. The two girls thought I was crazy because I had never tasted alcohol. Anyway, I also learned that tight is evidently bad. Also, loose isn't exactly a great word either.

When you talk to people that you do not know and have little in common you learn a lot about yourself. I learned that I hold to a fairly high moral standard and work ethic. Also, words. Words are different to many cultures. Words are subjective. Words have a standard. If there was no cultural standard for words, communication would be impossible. I have come to the conclusion that each culture or region makes its own standard for words. Along with a standard of meaning for words, there is a standard of pronunciation. I mean half the time the Aussies could not understand me and I did not know what language they were speaking. Actually, I think I should talk with a British accent accent just because it would it would be different. Different. Difference is what everyone wants, but few ever get because of pride or fear. Fear will no longer be an issue in my life from this second foward. Charm is probably the single most important mannerism in a world of subjectivity and I wll master this mannerism.

Overall, I realized that we live in a subjective world- a postmodern world- meaning made by the individual.

echoes

Echoes could represent fragmentation. When the echoes resonate throughout the kingdom of Denmark, everyone can hear them, but they have no idea of the source of these mysterious sounds. The sounds are just symbols of uncertainity, which is what postmodernism is. Postmodernism is making your own meaning out of seemingly meaningless things. In a way, I could argue that you have to make meaning out of the characters of R & G*. Also, the echoes were somewhat existential because when the people of the Kingdom of Denmark heard the echoes they thought nothing of it. That is how they also feel about R & G*. The echoes could be interpreted as the feelings of wanting to be heard, when no one listens such as R & G trying to figure out there purpose in Denmark. Sorry MR. Johnson about being late, but last night a guy on Cascade gave me an elbow to the nose, which resulted in a water fall of blood raging out of my nose, which ended in much pain, which ended in a win, which ended in my nose be swollen, which ended with a trip to E.R. to make sure I did not get anykind of head injury, which ended in the doctor saying well your nose could be broken or it could not, which all ended at 1:30 when I finally returned home with my blog unfinished and that is why this is late. I beg on hands and knees to give me grace and give me full points on this assignment. I really would have had this done on Tuesday night if all that did not happen.

*R & G stands for Roschenchrantz and Guildenstern

disapproved

I think when Horatio says that "so R and G go to't," he is saying that thank God these people are finally done. They have back stabbed their friend and probably made a lot of money in service for the King. And the worst part is that they "wanted to make love to their employment." They enjoyed being treacherous, dishonest, and not loyal to Hamlet. Overall, I believe that Horatio is stating that I disapprove of all the actions you guys have done and I even disapprove of your death and you even tried to kill my best friend. Guys you earned death and that is the best alternative for these two rats.