Perfect!

aesthetic maus

After randomly going through Google pages, I have found something! Whether or not anyone has used this is a mystery, and I will gladly leave it for the audience to solve. Kuddos for mysteries! (whatever that means... ) And now, I will continue this blog after this commercial break:

[Maus was featured in the Simpsons?! wha?!]



Art Spiegelman has abs? wha?!



Anyways, sorry for that randomness. I would have to say though, that was no commercial break...

Okay then, back to work. So yeah, after searching, I came across Robert C. Harvey's book, The Art of the Comic Book: an Aesthetic History. There are some pages missing, and I did not exactly read the whole thing. (sorry, it's a Google preview) So, from what I read, this book has many insights as to how cartoons are emerged and developed; as Harvey words it, this book gives the analysis of what a medium’s aesthetic history is. He explains that cartoons or mediums can have a narrative that approaches the blending of words and pictures, creating “meaning.” That is along the lines of what he talks about in the beginning, but as you can see, there are MANY pages in this document. I, again, did not read and accumulate all the info that was said, but I can say, he uses many lens to prove his point. Well, when Harvey does talk about Maus, he begins by giving his analysis upon Spiegelman’s choice of narrative in both book one and two. He analyzes Spiegelman’s narrative voice and states how its purpose was directed at the audience; how it was meant to make the audience respond in certain ways. He also mentions how, because Spiegelman spilt his storytelling into two, it made people expect things. He goes on to explain more about Maus’ representation with the cat v.s. mice, and how the racist aspect of the Holocaust drama eliminated individuality and brought the feelings of humanity to its readers, partly blinding us from his approach to storytell. But somewhere here, the preview stops, and so, that is all I have. In the end, I think maybe with this analysis of Maus, Harvey provides us with examples of how some cartoons are made from things/events/topics that attract our pure emotions and sensations, like with the Holocaust.  aesthetic

POST.MOD.IN.CAT'S.CRADLE

Kurt Vonnegut’s Cat’s Cradle is considered a postmodern text in that it exemplifies many displays of anti-form or more specifically, anti-art.  According to Jim Powell in Postmodernism for Beginners, “Postmodernists often create, compose, or paint entirely by chance--- spilling or throwing paint on canvasses, randomly determining the pitch and duration of musical notes in a melody, seeking to de-define art--- to create non-art or anti-art” (18). Postmodernists try to see the world as it is for what it is in the present, reflecting on the complexity and diversity of life. They express what they see and feel into this form of non-art, finding new ways that could represent life in it’s wholly matter.

For example, in finding Newt, Jonah comes upon Newt’s painting, all “small and black and warty… consist[ing] of scratches made in… black… [and] framed in a misty view of the sky, sea, and  valley” (Vonnegut 164). Such an empty and solid color came to life in the hands of Newton. Particularly, the color of black against the view is something to take note of; however, in comparing it to the world, the picture seems to reflect the emptiness of the world, despite all the happiness we see. Like the random strokes of black, life is shown to be just as haphazard in its truth. In addition, when Angela played her clarinet, she “went from liquid lyricism to rasping lechery to the shrill skittishness of a frightened child, to a heroin nightmare” (Vonnegut 182). Her music flowed right through her soul and poured over into life. Although her music played in tuned to another, her form of art went against whatever was there originally and was blasted into the formation of a more perplexed emotion, plainly showing her lack of happiness in the world.    Further more, even the house where Jonah resided displayed an amount of postmodernism, having an effect that “was not so much to enclose as to announce that a man had been whimsically busy there” (Vonnegut 163). 

well, that's all i have time for; sorry it was mostly all CD and not enough analysis to back it up. time has ran out.   

prep for BNW essay

Well, I really do not know how this will turn out and if it will even work out, but I will go ahead and use the idea of how BNW reveals the reality that people have become slaves of technology or of knowledge. Does that make sense? I want to go more to the theme of how BNW reveals how we have become slaves to knowledge; like how society today has too much knowledge, causing the need to hide away that knowledge, and in turn compromising people’s emotions and their reactions to those feelings (i.e.  poetry, songs, religion, etc.).  Of course, I will have to think this out more thoroughly, but this is only what I can think of now.

 From BNW, I plan to use how the people think they have freedom when actually their realities have been pushed inside their brains, using examples of how babies are raised and how their emotions and actions are always checked. Then, from the video of Robinson, I want to use how kids are taught in schools and maybe use the definitions that I used from the video in my last blog to compare people to. I also want to use the chapter of that gaming lesson to show how repetition works and link it to how babies’ realities are made in the same repetitive way. And with this, I want to follow in with how because they are slaves, they have no true emotions. I already have examples that I want to use, lines that go with Lenina and Linda on both accounts, and maybe some other lines when I am able to find them; however, for now, this is what I have stored in my mind.

I also want to give examples of what is fake, using John and his relation with living. This will all go with the “no emotions” topic. So yeah, this is what I can think of now. I need to find flaws in this theme and its examples though.

BNW with Sir Ken!

Okay, so here I am, staying up very, very late to do this blog. Honestly, I did not really know what to write at the start. I just opened up a bunch of other people’s blogs to see what they wrote. From doing so, I saw that the majority basically pointed out the same stuff, quoting similar lines from both resources. Well… now that I have read a bunch, I do not have a “want” to write toward those ideas; I feel as though if I did, I would just be repeating what other’s have already said. And so, in order to get something to spark in my head with what Sir Ken Robinson said, I watched the video over and over dozens of times; and I might say so myself that I fell asleep at certain parts (that is partly why I had to watch it over). Well now, after all the hard work, I have found something!

From watching the video and listening to Robinson, I have found a parallel to add to the list. Y’alls remember when he was going on about ADHD and how it “increases as you travel east across the country”? Well, a bit after, he says that the Arts “are the victims of this mentality,” and he goes on to explain the meanings of being aesthetic and anaesthetic. Well, thinking of BNW, don’t these definitions apply to the differences between the savages and the people of London? As Robinson was saying, “an aesthetic experience is one in which your senses are operating at their peak,” “when [one is] fully alive.” There are many incidents among the savages, including John, when one can see this effect. For one, I can recall back to when Bernard and Lenina visited Malpais; there, they saw “two young women giving breast to their babies” (Huxley 111). Here, the women surely feel “alive” for they can feed their children; they, unlike the citizens of London, are alive with feelings of love for their child. Through that bond, both the mother and child are dependent upon each other for happiness, and is it not out of love that the mother looks for food for the children? However, in that same scene, you can see Lenina on the side with her face blushing and “turned away… She had never seen anything so indecent” (111). Although no soma is mentioned here, one can imagine her crave for it as it, like the definition of an anaesthetic, “[shuts] your senses off and [deadens] yourself to what’s happening.”

Of course throughout the book, there are many more examples to which one could match with the aesthetic effect; for example, whenever John cries or goes in an outrage, or when Mitsima teaches John the “work of clay,” but one can especially relate an aesthetic effect to John when he so fluidly repeats Shakespeare by memory. As he does so, his emotions surges forward and because he cannot express it physically, he does so with words. Furthermore, whenever his emotions flows out of him in these forms of either rage, tears, or words, he finds himself distanced even more as the people of London look at him with distaste; but remember, they themselves are examples of the anaesthetic.

Yup. I want to get into more detail, but as you can see, it is already… FIVE! Holy monkey! Gotta go!

BNW with chap3

Hmm… Consider the following quotation from Mustapha Mond: "Wheels must turn steadily, but can not turn untended. There must be men to tend them, men as sturdy as the wheels upon their axles, sane men, obedient men, stable in contentment."

Okay, so when he is referring to wheels, does it matter what the wheels can represent? So, say it represents… the works of life, or humanity… Could that work or no? Or does it just represent technology? (with technology, I do not really get how it would work out) I do not know, but, to me, it seems like the wheels are of life and humanity. So like, the wheels of life (circle of life?) turn, but because humanity is the main factor that causes its turn, it deeply depends upon humanity to change life; therefore, life turns steadily, but not without humanity. And in order for life to turn steadily, humanity would have to be controlled, and thus the need for the sane, obedient man, stable in contentment.

Now in order to have steady rotations, control is a must, and where there is control, there is power. Where there is power-in-control, you know that manipulation is at its best, and just like in 1984, the… higher-ups manipulate people’s reality and keep their emotions in check. [Since I am on the subject, I want to say that these two are very alike in how their reality thrives (although, BNW seems to have a cleaner world). Both worlds live with their reality distorted, having the human values grow inside out. Funny thing, too, since both novels concentrate a lot on the relationships between people; actually, I think it is pretty darn cool that both novels have similarities.] Well yeah, anyways, with the manipulation of such things, the aspects of human experience come in. As they manipulate and change reality, they take over the history of the past experiences and replace them with the kind they want. This way, the emotions of love and respect go to the higher-ups, which are the Directors and Controllers... I think. (hey, just like with Big Brother!) 

Each human value loses its original value; words of love and family are understood as dirty, and the roles of the family itself are ruined. Images of a "mother [brooding] over her children" is compared to the brooding of "a cat over its kitten; but a cat that could talk" (Huxley 37). And then, what is more funny, Mond goes and gives the students permission to shudder. It is as if the image of a mother treating to her kids is more absurd than a talking cat. The feelings of love both shown in the cat and mother are just quickly pushed aside like a bothersome object, not even having the chance of acceptance. Love is quickly burned away, and left to ashes for the past to pick up. The image of a family is ruined as no one is in need of it. Feelings and desire are now long gone with the repetition of whisperings and actions; the experiences of it all are pushed and forced upon them, diminishing it's values and recreating reality.
With these accomplishments, they create a sane man, obedient to the ones in power; looking closely, the men they create are slaves, accustomed to do and like what they are told to do.  

Okay then, considering that I am really, really tired, I will stop here. Sorry if at many points, I was just repeating myself; I felt the need to get stuff across but... looking back, I didn't do such a good job with it. Sorry again if it feels incomplete.   

JYJ "Empty" remix ver

Yay! JYJ is here, in the US! They're going to have a concert in LA and SF soon! Wish I could go...
Oh well; I think their album, THE BEGINNING, is up for sale online... I'm not sure. Anyways, awesome randomness before I get to work on the next blog!