...harmless and also incredibly damaging. For me, subtle humour is most enjoyable. The show about nothing, also known as Seinfeld is my favourite show. Stereotypes have always been used in comedies. Stephen Amos says when comics consciously tackle controversial social issues using stereotypes, they can reach people on a more meaningful level. Amos contends that one of the singular properties of satire is the...
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...the collection was released. Eleven of the stories were reprinted from Vonnegut’s 1961 short story collection Canary in a Cat House (Vonnegut). This paper will focus on four futuristic science fiction stories from the collection. These stories, “Welcome to the Monkey House”, “Harrison Bergeron”, “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow”, and “Unready to Wear” all share a dystopian science fiction theme. Science and technology are supposed to make the world a better place, but instead, Vonnegut concludes they only create a new set of problems (Farrell, “Science and Technology in the Works of Kurt Vonnegut”). Television is often a target of satire in much of his fiction from the 1950’s. He describes it as desensitizing and numbing while deceiving the masses (Werlock). Vonnegut uses satire and pessimism throughout these dystopian stories. Satire is a special form of literature that seeks to uncover ridiculous ideas and customs in a society (Mowery). Each story portrays a totalitarian government that proposes an irrational solution to genuine problems. Vonnegut uses dystopian fiction and his aversion to science, technology, and television to expose what he feels are foolish ideas and weaknesses in our society. This paper will analyze each story, contrasting how each...
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...1.Which selection(s) should be taken off? 2.What selection(s) would you consider as your favorite? 3.What else do you think should be included in our selections? 4.Any other activities in addition to online discussions? 5.Do you think the course load is appropriate? 6.Do you think you have written a reasonable number of reader’s responses? 7.Should there be more tests or fewer tests? Are they too difficult, too easy, or should they be kept the same? 8.What is your suggestion of the proportion between multiple-choice questions and short essay questions? 9.Do you think the grading is consistent? Do you think the comments on your responses help explain your grades? 10.Do you think the online lectures are helpful? Any suggestions? 11.How would you evaluate the difficulty level of the course? (Hint: 1 = a piece of cake; 10 = as challenging as rocket science) 12.Any suggestions, comments? The Ramayana has enchanted generations of Indians, and this ancient epic continues to fascinate modern readers. Through the centuries it has been retold in the major language of India and Southwest Asia and has been interpreted through theater, dance, and other performance traditions. Valmiki’s telling, written in Sanskrit, is the oldest extant version of the Rama story. In Valmiki’s account, King Dasaratha proclaims his son Rama, son of the senior Queen Kausalya, heir apparent. The jealous Queen Kaikeyi, wishing her own son to rule Ayodhya, demands that Rama be exiled to the forest for...
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...Brave New World by Aldous Huxley Brave New world is a dystopian novel written in England in 1931 and published in 1932 during the Modernism literary period. The setting of the novel is in London and New Mexico ruled under an imagined future one-world government called the World State. The World State of Brave New World is a totalitarian dystopia that uses technology to, deceive its citizens into loving their slavery. Dystopia is a society, in this case the World State, that is an imaginary society organized to create ideal conditions for human beings, eliminating hatred, pain, neglect, and all of the other evils of the world. Huxley wrote Brave New World as a dystopian novel due to the rise of technology and science in the 1930s, focusing on the totalitarianism evils (meaning centralized or dictatorial). Huxley imagined a future of a totalitarian state where there is no such thing as freedom of anything and happiness was forced through manipulation, called conditioning in the novel. When Huxley wrote Brave New World, it was just a little over a decade since World War I. During this time, totalitarian states were popping up in the Soviet Union and Fascist parties were gaining power in Europe. Also, there were advancements in science, technology, and the relationship between the two as the world became more industrialized. Aldous Huxley was born in Surrey, England, on July 26, 1894, to a well-known family of scientists, writers, and teachers deeply rooted in England’s literary...
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...La planète des singes to Planet of the Apes: The Evolution of a Franchise The 1960's saw a rise in the popularity of science fiction novels, television shows and movies being produced around the world. In France, Pierre Boulle, a former engineer and secret agent with the French army, published La planète des singes, a satirical novel that found nearly immediate success in the science fiction community. Less than five years after publication, the novel had been translated into English, and the first of many films in the American Planet of the Apes media franchise debuted as "loose adaptations" of Boulle's work. Today, this science fiction powerhouse continues to create popular film adaptations, however as time continues, the derivation from Boulle's original French novel escalates. By looking at a handful of the many films, one can see how each of the different versions distances further from the original intent of the novel, becoming nearly unrecognizable from the 1963 French novel. Despite Boulle willingly signing over the rights to his work, having been credited and compensated accordingly, and even writing new material for a movie sequel, the Planet of the Apes franchise's continual derivation from the original work is a disservice to Boulle's creation and legacy, leaving the author almost forgotten. On the contrary, the modifications to the original allowed Boulle's creative thoughts to reach entire audiences that he never thought possible. The author himself spoke minimal...
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...passages he constantly has a sense of want of what would be the opposite in the dystopian world. “...because, after all, I know quite well why I can’t-- what it would be like if I could, if I were free-- not enslaved by my conditioning.” (Huxley p.91) In the dystopian world there are people like him who’d want everything to be different, and others who go along with it and don’t have the same desire of feeling free. The ways Huxley uses satire are mainly to both criticize and expose how the conditions of the dystopian world affect the citizens living in it. Huxley’s tone is also very dramatic. He extends what he’s trying to say in a way it’s almost poetic which is something he enjoys and wishes there was more of, so it makes sense. He...
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...In American Psycho, by Bret Easton Ellis, the main character Patrick Bateman plans both roles of antagonist and protagonist. Patrick Bateman and his Group of insanely wealthy Wall Street colleagues live a life of utter excess, purchasing nothing but the finest things, wearing the best clothes money can buy, eating only at luxurious restaurants, and looking down on those who don’t meet their standard. This along with many other aspects of the novel contribute to the theme of these characters being exaggerated stereotypes of the 1980s “yuppie” class. Ellis’s assessment of this stereotype contributed to satire in this novel. Ellis tries not to make an attempt at realism, but instead tries to increase the characters’ obsession with materiality...
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...Rachel Beck Professor Carr RWS 200 2/27/14 Electronic Cigarettes: the Future of Smoking? Today, if you were to sit at a bar on the Lower East Side, you may find yourself next to a guy smoking a light-up plastic tube that smells like cherries and think to yourself, even Humphrey Bogart couldn’t make one of those look cool. Or if you haven’t seen the 1941 film, Casablanca, you may still chuckle a bit. But could these vaping devices be the future of smoking? Author Andrew Stuttaford in his article, “Vaper Strain” published by the National Review in 2013, addresses the topic of these electronic cigarettes, arguing that these healthy alternatives are, in fact, the future of smoking. He believes they are often demonized for no good reason and he advocates for the product by addressing some of the key health concerns that consistently show up in debates on e-cigarettes. His purpose is to address these concerns, but ultimately show how the benefits of e-cigarettes outweigh their potential detriments. In his attempt to debunk arguments from the critics of e-cigarettes, he adopts a sarcastic tone for his audience, the readers of the National Review. Stuttaford’s sarcastic tone is used to introduce e-cigarettes to an older audience, predominantly one of older cigarette smokers who grew up in a time when smoking was a part of the American culture. The very first sentence in his article is introducing e-cigarettes – what they do and how they work – knowledge that is commonly known...
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...embedded deep within our society. The staff turns Hartke into an inmate, wrongfully accusing him of instilling the idea of the rebellion. But Hartke’s life is far from innocent. In actuality, he is guilty of many other crimes. During his time in Vietnam, he slaughtered many innocent people—in fact, as many people as he had had affairs with. In this case, the motive may have been simply an impulse of survival—the most natural, selfish instinct that we, as humans, own. But Vonnegut may hint at other, darker qualities of humanity—our ceaseless ability for corruption, hatred, and violence. The genre of this novel is very hard to pinpoint; we cannot just put it in a box and give it a label. It can be described as a retrospective first-person satire—a multifaceted blend of unconventional realistic fiction and fictitious...
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...up set, she cries and floods the room. As she shrinks she is forced to swim in her own tears and is soon joined by a number of other animals. They get out of the water and the mouse tells a story to a caucus race to dry all of the animals off.. Once Alice is dry, she enters the garden where she goes into a house and drinks from the bottle to make herself grow again, but this makes her too big, too big that she cannot get out of the house. Animals start to gather to make her leave, they throw pebbles at her (which are in fact pieces of cake that she eats and shrinks). Another strange character she encounters is a caterpillar that is sitting on a mushroom, smoking a ‘hookah’. Now being a teenager in this generation, this has connotations of drugs and made me think is the caterpillar sitting encouraging her to ear the mushrooms and if that had a different meaning to it. The two sides of the mushroom will...
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...Marijuana Overdoses kill 37 Colorado first day of legalization William Martin PHI 103 Informal Logic Mr. Edwin Teall 09/08/2014 The story that Colorado is reconsidering its decision to legalize recreational pot following the death of 37 people from marijuana overdoses. Came from the Rocky Mountain News. Across the state on January 1st the first day the drug became legal for all adults to use, the hospitals where overloaded with people clinging onto life due to overdosing on marijuana. The reporter says the chef surgery at St Luke’s Medical Center in Denver said he has put 5 college students in body bags already this morning and more are arriving every minute. This story about marijuana overdoses killing 37 people in Colorado on the first day of pot legalization is a hoax, but thousands are believing the fake news story, malicious deception. The Daily Currant published the story on January 2. It has been liked on Facebook over 11,000 times. The story purportedly cites a report in Rocky Mountain News that said 37 people died on January 1, the first day marijuana was legalized in Colorado. Marijuana was legalized in the state of Colorado, on New Year’s Day, but no one died from overdosing. The true is that, The Rocky Mountain News was an actual media outlet, but shut down several years ago. Fake news stories are increasingly combining real and fake elements to confuse unsuspecting people. It is impossible to overdose purely on marijuana, studies have found. “Lethal overdoses...
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...favor of Acuff-Rose. ... Judge Joiner, writing for the majority, considered each of the factors in section 107 in determining that the derivative work was not fair use. ... The Supreme Court's Application of the Fair Use Doctrine in Acuff-Rose Music, Inc. v. Campbell ... He observed that the application of the fair use doctrine requires a case-by-case analysis, as opposed to "bright-line rules." Such an approach is necessary because section 107 does not define every type of creative work that a court may exempt under the fair use doctrine. ... However, the Court of Appeals read Sony as presuming unfair use when a derivative work is used for commercial purposes and found that the fourth factor weighed against fair use. ... HIGHLIGHT: Satire is the sort of glass, wherein beholders do generally discover everybody's face but their own. -- Jonathan Swift n1 TEXT: [*627] I. Introduction Suppose that an artist sees another person's copyrighted work as rich in potential for some pointed social criticism or a wry humorous...
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...The harmony of jazz music floats through the lit-up streets among hasty Americans. Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby details the characteristics in the 1920’s. Society is rolling in money and young women are exposing themselves more than ever before. Amusement in this jazz age is immense. Culture and lifestyles are changing into glamorous affairs. Lavish bashes and carousing mixed with a wealth-centered society is a recipe for carelessness; Fitzgerald recognizes the need for stimulating consciousness in the minds of his contemporaries through satire. Parties are thrown all over New York, most often in Gatsby’s opulent mansion. Nick Carraway observes, “The bar is in full swing, and floating rounds of cocktails permeate the garden outside, until the air is alive with chatter and laughter, and casual innuendo and introductions forgotten on the spot, and enthusiastic meetings between women who never knew each others’ names” (40). What is greatly exaggerated is the expression that nobody knows anybody they come across at the party. It is true that many of the guests are not truly invited, but have invited themselves. In fact, many of the attendees do not personally know Gatsby. Yet...
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...that makes them laugh. I am no exception, but this changes when watching a Martin McDonagh or Harold Pinter Black Comedy. On viewing McDonagh’s The Lieutenant of Inishmore and Pinter’s The Homecoming, two vastly different Black Comedies. When watching these plays, I found myself laughing at what would seem like the most inappropriate places, if one was only looking at the violent and chaotic visuals. It is in their staging that the dialogue, characters and settings mix to create laughter and cartharsis. On viewing NIDA’s production of The Lieutenant of Inishmore, I discovered that one of the most laughter-inducing scenes was also one of the most violent. The second scene of the play where the mad son of Donny, Padraic, is torturing a ‘drug pusher’, James, is visually disturbing. I saw James hanging upside down, blood trickling down from his massacred feet to his horrified face. Despite this, the lyrical, song-like way in which Padraic adresses him, coupled with the highly satirical dialogue, provokes the audience to laugh and creates a funny scene. Padraic tells James sincerely to ‘Be pickin’ yer nipple’, as he feels it to be a kind gesture rather than cutting off both nipples. The extreme stupidity with which Padraic spoke incited laughter fom the audience around me, and focused attention away from the macabre nature of the scene. Inspired by my viewing of the NIDA production, I played the character of Davey in a similar manner to what I saw of Padraic when I was performing...
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...Dystopia: The World Today Introduction Written in 1931 and published a year after, The Brave New World (1932) contradicts the idea of Utopia (perfect world); a type of novel that queries the values of 1931 London using satire to dramatically represent a futuristic world in which occurring fads in British and America have been taken to extremity. People from The World State are living peacefully, free from any kind of war, abhorrence, impecuniousness, illness and physical sufferings. The novel depicts a potentially perfect world, not to mention people can enjoy wealth in terms of material possessions and all form of pleasures. Using high technology, human beings no longer have to conceive. They are created in factories wherein they are being prepared for future lives. The children are raised altogether and minds are controlled through sleep-teaching to further enhance their condition. As they turn to be adults, people are already destined to certain classes. And if one was unfortunately destined to be of the lower class, he would be raised to generally like the kind of life designated to him and be trained not to like nor appreciate - basically to the extent of being manipulated - other roles but theirs. They are subjected to engage or yield themselves in totally harmless entertainment and physical activities as form of leisure. There are several anticipations which were depicted by Huxley in The Brave New World. Although some of them may not be totally proven by this time,...
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