Bang Bang Bang Bang (Second Reading Assignment)

Chapter 5 Response

     Intertextuality is (or how I think it is) the interaction between texts of two different works of literature where one is influenced by the other in some way.
     Brave New World and 1984.  Very different, right?  Well, ok I guess they do share the whole "dystopias/utopias aren't always as great as you would think" feeling (wait, who ever said a dystopia was any good in the first place?).

Vamanos, Vamanos (Reading Assignment 1)

1984

1. Quester: an average, mostly nondescript man who has a mind too thoughtful for his own good.  This thoughtfulness  even plagues Winston at times by leading his train of thought into questioning Big Brother and making Winston realize the obvious brutality of a totalitarian government.
2. A place to go: there is not one specific place to go.  However, there is the ultimate destination of the Ministry of Love. 
3. A stated reason to go there: though the Ministry of Love is not the intentional final destination, the closest to a stated reason to go there may be Winston's fatalism.  Towards the start of the novel, Winston accepts the inevitability of his own capture and accepts the idea that he will be taken to the Ministry of Love, tortured, sundered, and reeducated.
4. Challenges and trials: the thought police, Big Brother, and his own mind are just a few challenges Winston faces in his attempted defiance of Big Brother.  The omnipresent Big Brother glares piercingly over the denizens of Oceania by keeping an eye out for even the smallest sign of disloyalty or free thought.  If even an iota of free will is detected, the thought police crack down on the resident with brutal force, both physical and psychological.  Perhaps Winston's greatest enemy is his own mind.  Winston points out that even a tiny facial twitch could lead to arrest.  This makes a person's own nervous system an enormous enemy to himself or herself.  Also, thoughts against Big Brother, the Party, or in a way that is disapproved of is reason enough for the Party to terminate the person.
5. The real reason to go: to underscore the brutality measures taken by a totalitarian government to control its citizen's physical and mental existence.   (Something to note) 1984 was written after WW2 and during the Cold War.  This novel serves as an acute warning against the dangers of totalitarian governments.  Also, Winston's sundering in the Ministry of Love may be taken as a sign that totalitarian governments are vampiric in nature.  In example, Winston (a man full of life [despite his fatalism], free thought, and sense of independence) is taken in by Big Brother (the Ministry of Love being the tool, perhaps Big Brother's "fangs") and spat out as a thoughtless, nearly lifeless, indoctrinated member of the Party.  In the end, Winston is stripped of all that he held dear such as his sense of defiance and free will.

On the Status of Teachers...

Americans face a serious problem in their educational system. Teachers are no longer respected the way they once were and the status of teachers is at a low. For the United States to raise teachers from their status slump, we should trim out the teachers who are dragging the others down by being beacons of terrible teaching. Kati Haycock weighs in on the same subject. She claims here that "we ought to help the strongest ones and close the weakest". I agree with her. About a year ago, there was a survey on the question if teachers who do not have a degree close to what they teach shoud be allowed to teach. Many agreed that those teachers should not be allowed to teach a subject that they themselves are not familiar with. Those teachers that are taught in the field of what they teach obviously understand the subject better and thus can teach students much more than just textbook information. Those teachers who do not have as much knowledge in what they teach aren't able to help students understand the subject as well and, bluntly, may come across as being idiotic in their own line of work to students. Some may argue that if teachers who are not as good at teaching their subject are let go we would have a shortage of teachers. However, if those less than qualified teachers were trimmed away we would be left with the teachers that truly want to teach and thus will put real effort into what they do. Haycock's agrees with what I have said when she states that "we need to provide strong teachers" and that if we weed out the less motivated "we will interest far more of the bright, passionate self-starters we need to turn our system around". If a teacher is not willing to put forth the effort to understand his/her own subject then he/she is not motivated to teach the students who will next inherit this Earth. Those teachers would be instilling apathy into the next generation of people and the next generation of teachers who could possibly instill apathy into their next generation. If we are to pull our teachers out of their status depression we should trim out the terrible teachers to find those motivated, bright teachers to teach our newest generation.

(ramble mode off)

(can't articulate a point at all and can't think of something decent to say)

The very last lines of the novel The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, are a reflective and slightly hopeless take on how the people of the United States were never quite satisfied with the things they had. The use of dashes, tone, and a metaphor enhance Fitzgerald's ability to push readers into a certain state of mind. A point in American society during that time, lust, is focused upon with the metaphor of the boat and waves.

There is a feathery sense of hopelessness in Fitzgerald's use of dashes, tone, and a metaphor of boats and waves. Fitzgerald is exagerating on the point of chasing after an "orgastic future" as he builds hope that we may make our way to that goal. This sudden, shinning spot of hope grabs attention, but let's it crumble as an unfinished thought. The hope we once had ends in hopelessness despite the fact that we had an idea of how to reach the goal of an orgastic future. As we are sailors on a boat, we must fight the waves of time to keep from falling into the past. People struggle in a constant fight to keep themselves

Humans know no end to lust. The Dutch beheld the "breast of the new world" where the trees simply vanished. The primal feeling of wanting more is among every human being and is expressed when the text claims that a person needs more or that we can just "run faster" or "stretch our arms farther" to

I have read 3 books, the equivalent of 6 books.

• And Then There Were None (272 pages)


• Mockingjay (400 pages)


• Water for Elephants (335 pages)

And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie perplexed me with its overwhelming sense of inevitability and mystery. Ten house guests are brought together to Soldier Island for various reasons. Each has a dark secret to hide and as people begin to die off, those secrets begin to come to light. With a foreshadowing nursery poem and a too human fear, Agathie Christie provides an excellent mystery novel.

Too much of the world’s happiness depends on taking from one to satisfy another. To increase my standard of living, someone in another part of the world must lower his. The worldwide crisis of hunger that we face today is a result of that method of pursuing happiness. Industrialized nations acquire appetites for more and more luxuries and higher and higher standards of living, and increasing numbers of people are made poor and hungry. It doesn’t have to be that way… But we have a greed problem: if I don’t grab mine while I can, I might not be happy. The hunger problem is not going to be solved by government or by industry, but in church, among Christians who learn a different way to pursue happiness.

-Eugene Peterson, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction, 1980


After discussing the song Ka-Ching, by Shania Twain I found that the juxtaposition of the three-legged dog and the woman in red was summed up quite well when Peterson stated that for he to increase his standard of living, someone else must lower theirs. This makes sense to me. If we consume quite a bit of resources, there aren't as many resources to go around. The world's not socialistic (not yet, or hopefully ever). The idea that many are made poor and hungry because of one's own abundance reminds me of the many commercials asking for donations for poor, hungry children in Africa and other such places. Peterson even goes so far as to hold the greed to buy more stuff accountable for the hunger and poverty in such places.

I'll Sell You a Life Experience from the Dollar Menu

This is meant to be read in more of a matter-of-fact tone

than a condescending tone (though the condescension is still intentional)

Advertisement is everywhere you turn. It's unescapable and many people have gotten smarter about what to spend money on after the recent recession. To keep people buying, some business have gone to a technique of implying that buying their product will also give the buyer a life experience. An example from McDonalds would be here (Since this won't open at school, I'll try to my best to describe the video in these brackets. Two different teenagers are hanging out with their own group of friends at a McDonalds. The boy steals glances at the girl in the other group and then they are both glancing at one another. The boy walks over to the girl to talk to her as a voice in the background says, "Where else can you go on your first date without even know it.").

I was raised by my parents with the idea that McDonalds was no place to eat (which I do thank them for). The idea of going to McDonalds could be best represented by a conversation between my sister and father. After being indecisive about what to eat, my father said, "Well, let's go to McDonalds," to which my sister instantly replied, "Eww..."

Back to the commercial. My first reaction was one of disgust and annoyance. "So this ad is saying that people can get a life experience such as going on a first date or having courage in a moment like that or starting anew by eating at McDonalds?" was my first thought. I wanted to speak back and say that that wasn't likely and that they were sending the wrong message to teens (and what about all the concern on the obesity of youth in America?). There was another commercial similar to this one about a group of teenagers hanging out and having fun while eating McDonalds. Needless to say, I had a very similar reaction.

Tvspotstv. "YouTube - McDONALD'S - FIRST DATE." YouTube - Broadcast Yourself. 24 Feb. 2011. Web. 28 Feb. 2011. .