#12 aka 7 days until the alpacalypse

We only have 7 days left until the alpacalypse, it's time to prepare...

I'm not entirely sure what to write about here...but I feel like I should write something about the movie Idiocracy. I actually really liked this movie. Although it was extremely satirical and innapropriate, I thought it was funny. It reminded me a lot of of Feed, with all the advertising and corporations that basically controlled everything.
But, it also scared me. While watching it, I thought about what would happen if the world ended up being like this 500 years from now. I wouldn't doubt it, with shows like honey boo boo on TV....

Anyway, I can't believe we only have a couple weeks left of this class!! I'm going to miss our  intense "discussions" (really, debates) and our (mostly katie t's) dead baby jokes.

Right now katie turk is writing an extensive poem about dystopian lit next to me, and I don't think my blog post could really top that.

Handmaids tale número dos

YAY ANOTHER HANDMAIDS TALE BLOG POST
 
    After hearing about Kate Middleton's pregnancy, I found an interesting news story and wanted to somehow incorporate it into my blog. I'm not sure how this is going to work, but here we go.
    Kate has been rumored to be pregnant, and the rumor was confirmed a few days ago when she went to the hospital due to morning sickness. While she was there, someone pretended to be the Queen and called the hospital, asking for an update on Kate's condition. Usually, the person on he other line with the queen would have to say a password or something to keep things confidential. But, the nurse didn't know this and gave out information about kate. Strangely enough, the nurse involved in the hoax commit suicide just a few days after the event.

Alright now to relate this to handmaid's tale...

    A huge motif in handmaids tale is, obviously, pregnancy. But, being pregnant in the story has a different sense of importance than it does now. I feel like in handmaid's tale, when a handmaid becomes pregnant, it isn't really a happy thing. They know that as soon as their child is born, it is going to be handed over to another woman to raise. It seems like women's bodies are only instruments of reproduction, and society is just waiting for them to reproduce. That being said, the way we view pregnancy is completely different. It's a beautiful and exciting thing. As soon and Kate Middleton married prince William, pregnancy rumors began to surface. So, pregnancy also plays a big role in celebrities/the media. Who is pregnant? Who is cheating on who? People always seem to be talking about these things. So, in the handmaid's tale, pregnancy is more like a tool of reproduction. But, in real life, it's an exciting experience that people always seem to be talking about

Lame blog post connection thing.

    I'm trying to find a way to relate Handmaid's Tale to the alpacalypse...but I just can't do it.

In A Handmaid's Tale, Atwood writes about the "unbabies." Unbabies are a result of chemical radiation and toxins (at a time before Gilead) causing deformities. These babies were born with birth defects and were discarded from society. But, because the amount of toxins in the water kept increasing, there were more unbabies and higher rates of infertility. Of course, in their society, women have few rights. So, they were the ones to blame for having an unbaby. Couldn't the men have contributed too? I doubt that it was just the women that had the toxins in them to create an unbaby. But, in Gilead's society, no one ever blames the men. It is very possible, though, that men can carry these toxins and eventually become infertile. According to this article, 1/3 of infertility is caused by men, 1/3 by women, and 1/3 by both. Also, environmental factors can cause infertility in men, so the men in Gilead could have been affected. So, it's easy to see that in A Handmaid's Tale, women are constantly blamed and put down, even if they didn't do anything wrong.

Children of Men

        I really enjoyed watching this movie, it was confusing at times but made me think. What would happen to our society if the youngest person died? We would still have a variety of age, but in the movie, the youngest person was 18. It's weird to think of a world only made up of people over the age of 18. Watching this movie reminded me of something we talked about in my english class the other day. We read the Story "Dr. Heidegger's Experiement" by Nathaniel Hawthore. In the story, the main chraracter discovers the fountain of youth and tests it's powers on his 4 older freinds. Immediately, they transform in to younger versions of them self. But, although given a 2nd chance at youth, they still have flaws. For instance, one of the characters had been very greedy and concerned with money as a young adult, and he shows these traits once he drinks the holy water. Hawthorne was trying to show how humans still make mistakes, even with a second chance.

 To connect this to children of men, I think it shows how much our society values youth. In Children of Men, when Key is carrying her baby down the stairs in the war-torn apartment, everyone stops to look at the baby, even the soldiers. After years and years of miscarriages and infertility, there is finally some hope for the world. In "Dr. Heidegger's Experiment," the characters were desperate to be young again. In fact, when the water's powers wear off after a short time, they continue drinking holy water 3 times a day to stay young. I think the reason we value youth so much, is because of the freedom. Young people are more carefree and generally happier. Take elementary school kids for an example. They are so much happier than adults because they don't have to worry about money, keeping a job, or anything else all that important.

Another reason we value youth, is because the younger generations of today have so much oppurtunity than the generations before them. It's similar to the american dream: We all want to be successfull in our lives. We value youth because the people in that generation have so much time to figure everything out and make good lives for themselves. So, Children of Men may seem like just another movie with blood and shooting, but it made me realize how much our society values youth.

feeeeeeeeed.

I'm not sure how I feel about the feed idea presented in the book. I think it would be cool, but like Violet, I would get sick of it. Constantly having people feeding information to you would drive me insane. But, I do think there could be benefits to the feed.

 I picture my feed as something similar to an Apple product (i.e. an iphone) but in my head. It would be better, though, if I were able to take off and put on the feed, like contact lenses. Similar to the google video we watched in class, I wouldn't want the Feed implanted into my brain.

My feed would consist of music that I could listen to in my head, as well as radio stations to choose from. Also, I would have things that you would find on an iPhone, like weather, a calendar, a clock, Facebook, twitter, and google maps.

Something else that would be on my feed, would be messaging. I would want to be able to send messages "telepathically," such as in the book, to my friends, without having to type anything. Another thing that I've always wanted, was a camera built into my head. I would love to be able to capture moments with just a blink of an eye.

Such as in Feed, there would be advertisements running through my head. The advertisements would target my main interests. Above, I put a coupon for Red Mango and an advertisement for a sale at Nordstrom. These ads would be changing though, to keep up with my interests.

All in all, I think that if the Feed was designed so that people are still human, unlike in Feed where everyone seems to be robots, that it would be beneficial to have. But, once the Feed controls everything about you and you can't think straight, I think that's when it can be harmful. I would like having the feed, as long as I am able to control it.

Blog #6

Ok my blog titles aren't as creative as Katie's or Katie's....


Julia. Julia is Winston's lover and the only other person he cant trust. She hates the party just like him, and together they rebel against the system. But, while Winston is more focused on rebelling for a change on a larger-scale, Julia is only concerned with enjoying the sex and avoiding the party for as long as possible. She seems to enjoy the rush she gets from all the  risk-taking they are doing.

In the novel, it almost seems like Julia is more rebellious than Winston. They are both breaking the rules, but Julia appears to be less concerned with the fact that they might get caught. In a way, Julia is similar to a defiant teenager. Research shows that teenagers' perception of risks are different from that of adults. Teenagers, for example, are more likely to experiment with the unknown. This is similar to Julia. While she has had sex many times before, she knows how dangerous the consequences could be, but continues on anyway.

In the book, we can see how Winston thinks differently. The minute he wrote "Down with Big Brother" in his diary and created his secret love affair with Julia, he knew that the chances of being caught by the Party were even greater. But, while Julia continues to rebel purely for the pleasure and rush she gets, Winston is rebelling because he believes that he will be caught no matter what he does.

Julia and Winston share the same passion for rebelling against the Party. But, while Julia is short-sighted and only does it for the pleasure, (similar to a teenager seeking risk-taking opportunities) Winston is rebelling because he knows he will be caught no matter what.

Truman Show and 1984

The Truman Show and 1984 have similar themes shown in dystopian literature. While watching the Truman Show, i noticed that the community Truman lived in wasn't exactly a dystopia, it was somewhat of a eutopia for him. He had a nice house, a good wife, and everything always seemed to go his way. This contrasts with 1984, where as the world Winston lives in a total dystopia. The government is very controlling over the citizens, and Winston is rebellious against this system .In the book, the government has a very strict rule over the people. There are telescreens everywhere that watch over the people, ensuring that they don't participate in rebellious activities. But, Winston finds a way to avoid being seen by the telescreens and is able to write in his journal (which is illegal). He also rebels by falling in love with a girl, and they continue to meet without the government knowing. But, they eventually find out about Winston's secret.

Another theme shown in both the movie and book is government control. In The Truman Show, there isn't a set "government," but a "creator" that controls everything that happens to Truman. He has total control over how people act, what they say, and even the weather. Truman doesn't realize his whole life is planned out until the end of the movie, when he realizes his whole life was one big experiment. The symbol of government control is also used in 1984. The government has complete control over the citizens, monitoring their every move and imposing certain rules on them. ("War is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength")