Blog Post 7

For this next exploration of critical approaches, we will be exploring multiple perspectives, approaches, and texts in order to give you more options to how you approach the texts, which texts you approach, and from what angle you approach the texts. For this assignment, you will be asked to complete one blog post that addresses one of the new critical approaches (Feminist, Marxist) and one of the old critical approaches (Philosophical/Moral, Psychological) in conjunction with the film. We will be showing “The Social Network” in class over the next few days. Please write a 3-5 paragraph blog response regarding these approaches and texts.

In the Social Network women are portrayed with no respect at all. In the first few scenes you see Mark talking to his girlfriend with no respect and insulting her every chance he gets. He insults people every chance he gets so he can feel superior. In other scenes in the movie you see the male characters also treating girls with no respect. You see the character Sean Parker has over two girls and the whole scene you see them acting really drunk and smoking out of a bong, they're just laughing really stupidly and Sean just makes them drink more and smoke more like he's taking advantage of them.

In this movie another critical approach is the Marxist. Money is a big issue in this film. You see the two twins who have had money their entire life and have gotten whatever they've wanted finally not get anything they wanted. They ask Mark for help making a website that they have an idea on. They tell him that they can pay him to do it instead of them making it. Because if you have money why do any work?! So Mark takes their idea and creates the Facebook. This makes the twins quite angry because for once they didn't get what they wanted. There is a lot to do with money with if they should charge people to go on facebook or use advertisements and stuff like that. I like that money to Mark doesn't mean anything.

In this movie the Philosophical/Moral approach has a lot to do with Mark and his decision if he wants to do the right thing or if he just wants to go along with what he's doing and steal the twins idea. The moral in this story is do what you feel is important and do what you feel you can accomplish. Mark pays the consequence of stealing someones idea by getting sued. Then as time goes on he becomes a major jerk to his best and only friend cheating him out of the facebook so in the end Eduardo sues him too.  So in the end Mark pays for his bad decisions. This story is telling you that do what you feel you have to do and just be ready to pay the consequences of what happens later on.



 

Blog Post 8

Song lyrics, Otherside by Macklemore

The implied reader in these lyrics is saying how drugs and hip hop go hand in hand together. Rappers sing to their listeners about how they get high and run from the cops, but in the end it puts this idea into their listeners head that doing that is cool and if they want to be like their favorite rapper they too should be doing drugs and running from the cops. In this song it talks about how everyone at some point wants to be someone and do something but once they start taking drugs it becomes part of their life and all their dreams and hopes go out the window because now their dream is to just get more that drug they're on. Another main point the actual reader wants to enforce is the idea of overdose. One of the lyrics they say how he was sippin on his cup but he never got up. It's saying before you know it your drug use becomes an addiction and the next thing you know you're gone.

Actual reader in these lyrics for me it just shows you that doing drugs isn't everything. You don't need to do the same drugs as your favorite artist to feel cool like them. Doing drugs and letting them take over your life isn't cool, it isn't right. This song related to me as a friend of mine got addicted to Heroin last year. I can't tell you why she did it or why it took over her life but it did. She would always call me up asking me to borrow her large amounts of cash. I stopped talking to her because I knew that by giving her money I was just feeding her addiction. It really sucks going through that and turning your back on a friend. Every time I listen to this song I am always reminded of her because she was the first one to show me this song, but now it just is about her in a way. This song is real and is a rap song that is actually about something important. It isn't just about women, getting faded, or about running from the cops. I think everyone should listen to this song because it'll make you realize how dumb it is to just do something because you think it'll make you "cool".

I think that it is always important to think about the reader when you are reading something. What made them write this? Did they go through this? When you think about the reader it's easier to relate to them along with their work. There are plenty of books I've read were when I'm reading them I think to myself, "wow this completely goes along with how I'm feeling right now." Then I wonder to myself did the author go through this too? When you read something that relates to you no matter how bad you're feeling it's always a little comforting to know that someone out there has gone through what you're going through and lived through it.

Blog 4

 In both "Fantastic Mr. Fox" and Into the Wild the sons have problems with their family aspect. In the book Into the Wild Chris is looking for a way to be himself and break free from the perfect son idea his father has put on him. He looks for himself by traveling into the wild and doing what he truly wants to be.
In the movie "Fantastic Mr. Fox" the son, Ash, is always looking for ways to impress his dad and get his attention. In one scene he's trying to jump into the pool with his cousin, Kristofferson. He yells for his dad's attention and then jumps into the pool. His dad doesn't say much but when his cousin jumps in his dad yells with excitment and gives him lots of compliments causing Ash to feel extremley jelous of his cousin.
In the book Into the Wild the reader finds out that his relationship with his father isn't the best. You hear about the fighting between his mom and dad, the affair his dad had, and how his dad has all these plans for Chris without even asking him if that's what he wanted to do. I think though that the reason Chris was so against being home was becasue of all the fighting."It was a stressful existence. Both Walt and Billie are tightly wound, emotional, loath to give ground. now and then the tension erupted in verbal sparring. in moments of anger, one or the other often threantened divorce. The rancor was more smoe than fire, says Carine, but "I think it was one of the reasons Chris and I were so close. We learned to count on each other when Mom and Dad weren't getting along." Pg 107 Chapter 11.
So in both of these stories the son is looking for ways to impress or get back at their parents. Chris is tired of being underneath his dad's hopes and dreams instead of his own. While Ash is tired of not having any of his dad's attention, and feeling like his dad doesn't care.

Blog Post 6-House episode

I sympathize with Cameron the most. Not just because she's a woman but because she is always looking for the best way to help the patient. She is always looking out and trying to help the patient by being nice and all that jazz.She's quite nice. The character I sympathize with the least would have to be Dr. House because he can be a real ass sometimes. He is a good doctor but he's let all that get to his head I believe. Now he knows he's the best so he feels free to do whatever he wants. I mean that can be a good idea because in the end he does always find the cure and fix the patient. Dr.House goes back forth between a growth mindset and fixed. I think that most of the time though he is stuck in a fixed mindset.

The morals of the story differ from mine because in some of these cases they really don't care about the patient and are just being scientist trying to figure out all these different hypothesis when in the end it could kill the patient. I don't think that that's right. In my opinion I think that the characters don't face much of a consequence if what they do it wrong. Like for an example in on scene House believes he doesn't need to get permission to run certain tests on his patient so he goes a long and does what he think. Dr. Cuddy though has a problem with this and tells him no, but he goes a long and pretends that she didn't say anything and in the end she just lets him do it. The only consequence they might have is if their patient dies, but that only happens a few times in this show.

I think that the lesson being taught in this episode is go with your instinct. Even if you think what you could be doing could be dangerous if you truly believe it's right then mine as well go with it. In this episode House feels that he knows what's right when he thinks that steroids will help them narrow down

 

The Lottery-Blog post 5

When Shirley Jackson first published “The Lottery”, she was bombarded with bad reviews and angry letters and phone calls. However, Jackson maintained that her story was relevant to society, its morals and its values. From a moral and philosophical standpoint, why do you believe Jackson wrote this story? What lessons was she trying to teach? Also, how do the characters of Tessie Hutchinson, Old Man Warner and the townspeople reflect the members or groups of our society? (Keep in mind that one character in the story may reflect an entire group of society).

I believe that Shirley Jackson wrote this story because she felt like it. It was an idea in her head that she wanted to express through writing and share with others. I think that she was trying to teach people that not all traditions are ment to stay. The stoning of humans just isnt' the best tradition to keep up in my opinion. Old Man Warner, I believe is suppose to reflect on the older generation and that they will always just be there comparing and contrasting between when they were young and that time period to the present time. They might not always agree with what's going on in the now, heck they rarely do that, but they will always just give in to the new traditions because they know that there's no use trying to fight it. Like the saying goes, "Times they are a changin." Tessie Hutchinson refelects the younger people in life who once things start to go sour and they're involved try to get out of it and blame it on being unfair. When it comes to being stoned to death though I can see where she's coming from. Over all this story to me was quite strange and to be honest I don't really see the whole purpose of why we read it.

Blog 3

My understanding of Chris has a changed a lot throughout the novel. I now understand his motivations for going Into the Wild a little more.
In the book it tells us about how Chris's parents would fight got stressed out easily. I belive this effected his choice of going into the wild because all the fighting made him not believe in love or something like that. "It was a stressful existence. Both Walt and Billie are tightly wound, emotional, loath to give ground. now and then the tension erupted in verbal sparring. in moments of anger, one or the other often threantened divorce. The rancor was more smoe than fire, says Carine, but "I think it was one of the reasons Chris and I were so close. We learned to count on each other when Mom and Dad weren't getting along." Pg 107. In this chapter we also learn that when Chris was young he was introduced to climbing with his dad. They both bonded over this and Chris learned that he was a natural at it. "Chris was fearlesswven when he was little," he sayd after a long pause. "He didn't think the odds applied to him. We were always trying to pull him back from the edge." Pg. 109. From the beginning we know that he has always loved to live life on the edge and challenge himself since everything came so easily to him. Knowing all of this makes sense that he would want to go into the wild and live off the land. It was just another challenge to him that he figured he would conquer.

Into the Wild. Blog post 1

Are patterns such as repression, dreams, and desire presented consciously or unconsciously by the author?

Chapter 1-3. In these chapters you're being introduced to the whole idea of the story. You learn that Chris has died before you really get a chance to know who he is. You learn that his dreams of traveling to Alaska and being free are quite prominant. ""There was just no talking the guy out of it," Gallien remembers.
 "He was determined. Real gung ho. the word that comes to mind is excited. He couldn't wait to head out of there and get started."" pg. 6.

Chapter 4-6. In these chapters the author explains how Chris traveled and what he did with all of his belongings. When he has to abandone his car he put a tarp over it and then people surveying flowers found it. So in these the author shows that Chris's dreams are coming true with one journey after the other.
 "We know all of this because Chris McCandless documented the burning of his money and most of the events that followed in a journal-snapshot album he would later leave with Wayne Westerberg for safekeeping before departing for Alaska." Pg. 29

Chapters 7-9. In these chapters here the reader reads about Chris getting a job and making friends. He works with a guy named Westerberg and those two develope a strong friendship. In the next chapter it explains people's responses to the article in Outside. The majority of the people's comment are saying how he was mentally ill and blahblahblah. In this chapter you see how his dream didn't die with him becasue he still got to do what he intended to he just accidentally died. The last chapter talks all about the other people who went into the wild like Chirs. It shows that there are many patterns with dreams and even though two people could be completley different in many ways they could also share a dream of travling into the wild.
 "Rosellini appeared to accept the failure of his hypothesis with equanimity. At the age of forty-nine, he cheerfully announced that he had "recast" his goals and next intended to "walk around the world, living out of my backpack." Pg. 75