Category: Class Notes (Page 2 of 3)

Group Discussions (The worksheet that was given on that day)

1a. (First Quote)

Bounty Hunters/Humans play a role in deciding who or what is live. They can only determine on killing the androids before they can join the humanization. It is based on perspectives.

1b. (Second Quote) (Not yet discussed)

The things we’ve learned so far:

• We have learned that future is not predicted
• In the story there was a “Meta” Moment
• The possibilities of imaginative stories
• The fact that the andys would read fiction, they would know the enjoyment of fiction

 

That is all the notes that I can give. I know that there is more than that, but there was so much conversation going on and it was too fast that I couldn’t keep up. At least I tried my best. That’s all there is to it.

 

Class notes 10/18/2016

Theme: doubling
Sub themes and points to explain the theme.

– two sides / mirror image
– Rachel / Paris
– humans / cyborgs( andys )
– synthetic / real
– good / bad
– alternate reality / parallel universe
– false memory’s / real memories
Start of class reminders:
– blogs were graded check your grading on Openlab
Questions to be answered by all formed groups:
5 groups of 3 students each are assigned to answer the raised question for each chapter discussed.

How does this chapter help us to understand the theme of ” Doubling” / the conflict of authentic/ ersatz ?

Each group analyzed one chapter and came up with 3 points regarding the question.

Chapter 7 group:
( 73 ) busters friendly and mercerism influence john.
( 74 ) mercerism has a way of showing peace
( 76 ) control over our souls.

Chapter 8 group:
Spoke about doubling in polokov and other self.
( 91 ) sloppy accent revealed his true identity to Rick
( 92-93 ) future weapons are strong – older weapons can be stronger.
(94) mood machine didn’t stick to the happy mood it went back to depression mood.

Chapter 9 group:
Spoke about false memory and Luba’s actions

Chapter 10 group:
Spoke about what’s real and what’s not real
User evidence from pages
( 113 ) Rick is real or not.
( 114 – 115 ) what’s real and what’s not real
( 118 ) non existence police agency and both humans and andys believe they are the reality.

Chapter 11 group: spoke about empathy and realism
( 128 ) 3rd paragraph
( 124 ) 2nd paragraph
( 122 ) 2nd paragraph

Groups 1 and 4 had a tie in votes: professor decided to give both extra credits in midterm exam. Congratulations for those who won

The best thesis on the analyses by groups is groups 4 : the idea is about prospective realism.

Reminders and questions to be answered by all students: a raised question for the whole class

Are they threat ?
Is andriods a threat to human in earth should they be killed or not ?
What do they fear andriods ?

Reminders: watch the third presidential debate and find out the the 2 different ideas they come with. A discussion board will be created in open lab you can comment your ideas after watching the debate. Thursday it should be created.

Make sure you do your reading and post your blogs before 12:00Am.

Good luck to all of you

Big Question Reminder from last class:

• What are different forms of “soma” within the novel?
• What defines humanity?
• Are emotions authentic from the Mood Organ
• What is Authentic?
• Where is the line drawn between cyborg/humanity.
• The notion of passing.

New Questions raised this class:

• How are nexus-6 android detected.
• Why do the androids come back? (motivation?)
• The “real” test to determine if you’re an android or a human (Bone marrow test)
• Why do they rebel? Do they understand their circumstances (Sentience/feelings) -> adapt/evolving
• Do they know they are androids?

Androids want to escape their masters and be free. (Gain dignity/respect)

They were only created for people to emigrate to mars.

There are flaws in determining an android from a human. Have there been mistakes made? Have they actually “retired” a real human by mistake?

Notion of the “other”, how do you “other” someone. The test privileges a certain type of emotion, and places those who can’t feel them into the “other” group.

Not everyone shares the same fear & disrespect for the andys.

Textual Analysis

Pg. 40

” A humanoid robot is like any other machine, it can fluctuate between being a benefit and a hazard very rapidly. ”
The Androids become a problem when they no longer benefit humanity.

Why did they create this new type of android?  Consumer Demand. The people wanted these types of androids, they demanded a new type something better to fit their needs on the colonies.

Retire is an euphemism. A way to self rationalize Rick’s job. Used to “dehumanize” androids to objectify them.

Pg. 57 Paragraph 4

“you’re a bounty hunter, you can handle a laser gun–in fact you’re carrying one right now. If you can’t protect yourself, how are you going to retire the six remaining Nexus-6 andys? They’re a good deal smarter than the Grozzi corporation’s odl W-4…….. But i hunt them, This way, with a reversion clause on the owl, someone would be hunting me. And he did not liek the idea of being stalked; he had seen the effects on androids,. It brought about certain notable changes even in them.”

Pointing out the difficulty of hunting the new types. Trying to bribe Rick to take the deal laid in front of him.

Rick notices he will be put in a situation where the hunter will become the hunted, and even he doesn’t like that situation. Might be some sort of sympathy shown for the andys.

Maybe they’re not rebelling because they are bad, but because the situation they have been put in. Bad situations make you do bad things.

• Androids might not know they are androids, so how can you effectively pick them out if they don’t know themselves. (false memories planted etc.)

Start of next class Page analysis and subjects:

Page 42 Paragraph Two 

Passing

Fake ANimals

Connection between the andys and fake animals

Reminders for next week:

Blog due monday night, and wednesday night.

Midterm Format:

• In class 75 minute test
• Thursday 27th
• Identification Question types (Identify where a passage is from etc.)
• definitional question type (Define words etc.)
• Short answer/analysis question (SHORT, TARGETED, PRECISE, FOCUSED, SPECIFIC, ORGANIZED)
• Anything we done, read, discussed is fair game for the midterm
• Review everything that has come up in class.

To study for the midterm. Read blogs, classnotes, review small texts, watch short movies, review scientific framework.

Key Terms:

• What is Authentic
• Utopian Enclave
• Utopia, dystopia
•  escapism (soma, etc)
• Technological determinism
• Simulation
• The “other”
• uniformity as an idea/standardization
• the idea of doubling
• Humanism vs the “savage”
• cyborg
• apocalypse / post apocalypse
• automation
• Juxtaposition (the fact of two things being seen or placed close together with contrasting effect)
• Hierarchy (System of order)
• euphemism
• Genres
• Elements of Fiction
• Man vs machine vs society
• conflict (identify major conflicts in the stories covered)
• glorification of nature
• illusion
• objective vs subjective

Major key: Make your answers specific and not too general.

Ended class with a few minutes of free writing.

What is it to you the most important/significant thing you have learned or experienced so far?

What questions remain in your mind?

I wish my professor knew…………

 

Sorry for the late class notes post.

• Mid- Semester grades go in on October 31st.
• Friday 10/14 is a Tuesday schedule and we’ll be reviewing for the mid-term.
• Visitor in class next Thursday

We talked about the first few chapters of Do Androids dream of electric sheep. Reviewed characters and themes.

– Rick Deckard – Ex-cop, Bounty hunter, main protagonist, hunts “Andys” androids. Considers himself a cop, but his wife calls him a killer hired by cops. He’s upset with being forced with staying on earth. He’s not content. Really wants an animal and is obsessed with them.

-Iran Deckard – Bitter voice, gray eyes compared to androids, refused to dial mood organ to wake up like her husband, chooses to be depressed and dials it into the mood organ machine.

– Empathy is a defining characteristic between humans / androids. Pg 30.   Mentions how androids have developed so much even surpassed humans but still can’t reproduce empathy.

Big Questions?

• Why was the mood organ created? What does it mean to have genuine emotion or artificial?
  Are there limited emotions on the Mood Organ Machine? Are the couple considered to be cyborgs because they use the mood organ?  Outside of what they dial they still manage to feel real emotions that they can’t control.
• Forms of Soma? Mood Organ Machines, Animals, mercerism, caste & social status, empathy box – Seems to be a form of VR that make people feel connected, and the buster friendly and his friendly friends show on TV.

Settings – Post-apocalyptic, dusty, WW3 or WWT, World War Terminus. There’s colonies on Mars. Radioactive fallout / dust. Narrator mentions no one remembers the reasons for the war really. Radioactive dust and fall out has killed almost all the animals, but they’re recreated. Animals that remain are really expensive and are cherished and taken care of. More expensive animals are for the rich and those of a higher social class. During colonization, androids were part of the process. The government promised an android to every single person who emigrated to Mars. These Andys were promised to be personalized and meant to serve you. Andys were modified in the for colonization / war and for specific jobs.

Someone mentioned the idea of androids being individuals? If you think of A brave New World  and how humans were created through the Bokanovsky Process. It is very similar to how these androids are created. They’re both created for a specific purpose or job. These are organic humans but they’re like robots because of how they’re created and conditioned. What’s the real difference between them?

Today we discussed the last final chapters of Brave New World.  We examined the major events that occur in these chapters as well as we analyzed in more depth each of the characters in the story. We also compare some of contemporary parallel society of Brave New World with our modern society as we go through these chapters of the book.

Chapter 14

In this chapter we observe several elements of fiction that we discussed in previous classes. For instance, the setting for this chapter mainly takes place in the Hospital of the Dying. The main characters involved in this chapter are John, Linda, the nurse, the group of twins and Pope. There is also a plot that plays a major part in the chapter as it becomes the climax of the story. It becomes the focus point of the following events in the book.

We said that Linda’s death is the motivation action as John reacts by getting emotional and turning to an aggressive behavior.  We pointed out the several conflicts between the characters in the chapter and we discussed some of them:

Conflicts:

               John vs Nurse

Page 181. We can observe that the nurse from the Hospital of the Dying does not seem to understand the pain of not being able to save a loved one from dying. The nurse has been conditioned to act without showing any human emotions. However when she saw John’s desperation and helplessness, she is clueless on what to do. She does not how to react because she has not been thought to deal with these situations.

               John vs Linda

Page 185. We observes a conflict between John and his mother Linda as she does not recognize his son due to the soma effects in her body. The lack of unrecognition by his own mother combined with the soma inside her mother’s body and the behavior of the twins towards the death, made John become aggressive.

               John vs himself

Page 186-187. John believes that he is the responsible for his mother’s dead. He desperately tries to bring his mother back to life even though it was already too late. He feels disoriented and claims to God in the hope that heaven could help him.

 

Page 186-188. We noticed that Huxley utilizes juxtaposition in the chapter to show the death conditioning. The author juxtaposed the emotional and intimate moment of Linda’s death against the playful and joyful moment of the group of twins.

Chapter 15

Feeling the grief and remorse for his mother’s death, John encountered a group of Delta people who are getting their daily soma dose. The soma distribution scene plus his depressing feelings collapsed together inside John. He rebelled and started a riot preaching that soma is a drug that is keeping the society in enslavement.  However the society believed that John was being irrational since soma was the only thing that keep them happy and stable. His effects are impotent and he fails in his attempt to save the people from this false happiness.

We also analyzed the contemporary parallel of the society with modern society and we said that the riot against the soma distribution is an example of the several protests that take effect in different places around the world which are caused by the disagreement between two different ideas.

Chapter 16-17

These two chapters are the crucial point in the development of the novel. Here, we are presented to a conversation between the World Controller, Mustapha Mond and the Savage, John. We remarked that there exist some qualities between these two major individuals. The dialogue between these two individual reveals us that there are certain similarities between them. They both are shown as equal, rational individuals with the same level of knowledge.

Many students enjoyed these two chapters of the book since they made the entire novel more explicit and revealed the conflicts behind this false society. However, other students disliked the chapters for several reason. Some of them opined the chapters pretty much summarized the whole novel, what we also called plot dump(throw everything at once). One student disliked the fact that only a powerful individual, in this case the World Controller, had the right to break his own rules whereas the rest of the society would live in the ignorance and falsity. Others dislike the fact that there was no action involve in the chapters which takes to an important key in utopian literature. In literature, a utopian society has most of the time a character who shows everything around of what happens in the entire book. In Brave New World, the World Controller is this character who revealed us everything in these finals two chapters.

Vocabulary

Evoking(adj).- To bring a feeling, memory, or picture into the mind.

Juxtapose(verb).- To place opposite things together in order to create an interesting effect or to show how they are the same or different

Iterative .- Being repetitive

Impotent(adj).- unable to take effective action; helpless or powerless.

Didactic/pedantic(adj).-In the manner of a teacher, particularly so as to treat someone in a patronizing way.

Homework Assignment

Read “There Will Come Soft Rains” by Ray Bradbury and write reading response #8. Due on Thursday 29.

Do not forget to print out the short story and the poem and bring it on Thursday for our class discussion.

The details for Essay #1 have been already posted in OpenLab. It will give you more information of how to write your first essay of the class.

There is two extra credit opportunities based on two movie versions of Brave New World. You can check more information in the class home page in OpenLab.

Continuing on with our group discussion of Brave New World from last class, we have covered the topics involving examples of “Emotions” and “Happiness.”  Like before, each group had to make a claim and find textual evidence that supports their claim.

Group covering the topic on “Emotions”

Claim: Humans develop through all emotions, including negative ones.  We see it through Lenina with her romantic feelings towards John.

Textual Evidence:

1) Near the bottom of page 156 Lenina says, “But, John … I thought you were  … I mean, aren’t you? …”

With this quote, we see that Lenina was rejected for the first time by anyone in the novel.  This rejection makes her experience feelings of disbelief and sadness.

2) Last paragraph of pg. 157, “One gramme, she decided, would not be enough; hers had been more than a one-gramme affliction.”

This quote shows that Lenina uses soma in order to resolve her internal afflictions.

3) Pg. 159 4th paragraph, “‘In a few minutes,’ she had said to herself, as she entered the room, ‘I shall be seeing him, talking to him, telling him’ (for she had come with her mind made up) ‘that I like him – more than anybody I’ve ever known.'”

Here we see an example of Lenina feeling anxious to see John.  Once again, Lenina has never experienced these emotions throughout the novel.

4) Pg. 160 1st paragraph, “‘Perhaps it’s because he doesn’t like me.'”

Lenina is aware of her negative emotions and she seems to be the only one feeling this as an individual.  She comes to the conclusion, that John didn’t show up to the party because of her.

5) Pg. 163 after the poem, “The golden T lay shining on Lenina’s bosom.  Sportively, the Arch-Community Songster caught hold of it, sportively he pulled, pulled.  “I think,” said Lenina suddenly, breaking a long silence. “I’d better take a couple of grammes of soma.””

Lenina feels depressed due to her feelings towards John, and she copes with it using soma.

6) Pg. 172 3rd paragraph from the bottom, “Half a gramme had been enough to make Lenina forget her fears and embarrassments.”

The narrator admits that Lenina is able to feel these emotions but she is blocking them with soma.

* A Side Note –  Be careful when choosing quotes to support your claims/Thesis.  When looking at quotes, they may seem to relate to your claims at first, but when you put them together they tend to drift away from the claims you are trying to prove. 

Adding on to the discussion on “Emotions” from others

1) Bottom of pg. 158 – 159, “It was only in zuñi that the savage could adequately express what he felt about the Arch-Community-Songster.”

Only in Zuñi the savage was able to express himself.  To add on, some people are only able to express themselves through foreign means.

2) Bottom of pg. 159, “Lenina suddenly felt all the sensations normally experienced at the beginning of a Violent Passion Surrogate treatment.”

* This quote brought up the question, What is a surrogate? –> A substitute.

We think of these emotions as being a natural response for us, but for Lenina it’s very odd. She is experiencing all of these stimulation’s for the very first time.

 

Group covering the topic on “Happiness”

Claim: From today’s world, general happiness comes from conflict not comfort.

Textual Evidence:

1) Pg. 96 1st paragraph, “For Bernard left the room with a swagger, exulting, as he banged the door behind him, in the thought that he stood alone, embattled against the order of things; elated by the intoxicating consciousness of his individual significance and importance.”

From this quote, we can see that Bernard’s happiness was drawn out by the conflict that he was going to be sent away to a sub-center.  This news brought out this feeling of happiness, which can be expressed through his feelings of excitement and feelings of importance as an individual.

2) Pg. 145 6th paragraph, “The days passed.  Success went fizzily to Bernard’s head, and in the process completely reconciled him (as any good intoxicant should do) to a world which, up till then, he had found very unsatisfactory. ”

Bernard is seen as a sort of middle man to get to John.  John was able to give Bernard more popularity, which made Bernard believe that there is nothing wrong in the world.  In this case, Bernard is feeling a sort of infantile happiness.

3) Pg. 163 5th paragraph, “‘Well, I’d rather be unhappy then have the sort of false, lying happiness you were having there.'”

John is telling Bernard that he prefers the real Bernard that he met at Malpais.

* False Happiness- One of the worst forms of happiness. *

Adding on to the discussion on “Happiness” from others

* Question raised: Can there be happiness without conflict?  Or is there a certain way to get happiness?

• It’s different for everyone else.
• Limit what you do, and happiness has to be earned.
• Referring to the Declaration of Independence, ” Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”  Actual happiness is never achieved.
• Happiness is a decision you make, which affects your thoughts, your state of mind, and taking drugs will only distract yourself.
• You can decide to steal happiness, which is a personal choice.
• Happiness is an escape from the poison of sadness or getting away from sadness.
• Happiness is a very complicated thing with many sub-categories.

 

Group Discussion on the Ending of Brave New World

– Claiming the right to be unhappy, john exemplifies this when he moves out of New London and to the outside world.

– On pg. 162, Mustapha Mond connects happiness to stability through several quotes.

• “It was the sort of idea that might easily decondition the more unsettled minds among the higher castes – make them lose their faith in happiness as the Sovereign good and take to believing, instead.”
• “‘If one didn’t have to think about happiness!'”

– There is a level of stability connected to happiness.

* Sovereign Good –> The highest good.

– On pg. 190 last paragraph, “The savage stood looking on, “O brave new world, O brave new world.”  This quote can be seen as an example of the use of apostrophe.

– On pg 191, Linda had died for the freedom of the world.

* Question raised: What is John’s conception of freedom? 

• Starting a riot, disposing of the soma by throwing them away, begged people to stop taking soma, and to just be free.

 

What is the Ending?

• John killed himself, by hanging.  Textual evidence: “Slowly, very slowly, like two unhurried compass needles, the feet turned towards the right; north, northeast …” (231).
• John fell into what he was trying to get away from in the society, then ended up being a part of it in a rush.
• Before John killed himself, he tortured himself.
• John became obsessed with purifying himself.
• Lenina was there with Henry, John whips her and himself during the ordeal.
• Society comes to him, trying to create a spectacle, something that is being commodified, making the moment public for public consumption.
• John becomes the mediator.
• Bernard pretty much commodified John.

 

* Terminology Introduced During the Class Discussion * (Some might have been defined already)

• Hubris – Thinking too much of yourself, or having an ego.
• Surrogate – A substitute.
• Sovereign Good – The highest good.
• False Happiness – One of the worst forms of happiness.
• Spectacle – Grand show.
• Paradox – A statement that seems to sound true, but it’s actually not.
• Apostrophe – Using “O” before referring to something.
• Commodity – A good something or service that has exchange value.
• Consumption – Relative to consumers.
• Commodification – A commodity

 

* Reminder *

For Tuesday

Class Discussion: ‘Brave New World’ – Make at least one comment by Sunday 9/25, then go back read all the comments, and extend the conversation by making at least two more comments by 9/27.

Brave New World, Chapters 16-18, Group Discussion handout.  Make claims and provide concrete textual evidence with your group.

For Thursday

Read/Watch

“August 2026: There Will Come Soft Rains” Ray Bradbury, 1950
“There will Come Rains,” Nazim Tulyakhodzayev, 1987
“There will Come Soft Rains,” Sara Teasdale, 2003

Blog/Due

Reading Response #8: There Will Come Soft Rains

* Remember it’s best to plan ahead.

 

* Feel free to add notes that I may have missed as a comment to this post. *

 

Today we started reviewing ideas from Brave New World chapter 10-13.We began by pairing up into five groups, in each group we made claims when thinking about The “Savage”, Emotions and Happiness.  Each group was responsible for finding five textual evidence that would help their claim. We then will present our claims with textual evidence in order to broaden our understanding of Brave New World.

Side note remember to think carefully about your claims/themes. A very broad or generic theme runs the risk of not proving much.

After roughly half an hour of work the first groups began to show their findings.

Group 1 Savage

Members: Jovan, Danny, Rhino, Ghasah

Claim: Civilization controls nature.

Textual evidence:

1)Pg-144 2nd paragraph ” It was john they were after. And as it was only through Bernard his accredited guardian, that John could be seen,”

Here we see how people start to become obsessed with John and trying to understand who or what he is. Bernard is also using John to gain fame and happiness showing that john is being exploited.

2)pg-158 ” You ought to have asked me first whether i wanted to meet them.”

John here shows that he is displeased with the party Bernard made to show case him and does not want to be controlled.

3)pg-161 “But the savage had chosen this evening of all evenings to lock himself up in his room, to shout “Hani!””

John here shows that he will not be used to the expense of Bernard who merely saw John as someone who could control him.

Side Note: With this claim we could argue John is a representation of nature, while Bernard and everyone else symbolizes civilization.

Group 2 Savage

Members: Tajay, Emanuel, Joselin

Claim:What makes a savage? Why is John a Savage?

1)Pg-102 3rd paragraph “They’re perfectly tame; savages wont do you any harm. They’ve got enough experience of gas bombs to know that they mustn’t play any tricks”

Here we see a dehumanizing view on how people of the state government view the citizens of Malpais. The very fact that there is a wall isolating them makes us wonder.

New term

Utopian Enclave, a hidden utopia. We see elements of this because in BNW we have this isolating separatist view on what should be done with outsiders of the norm. Their lifestyle is directly attributed to the isolation of what they consider to be outside the norm.

2)Pg-121  ” Linda taught him to read”

John here shows that Linda taught him how to read, meaning that he was raised by a civilized person. We must ask ourselves is john technically not a real savage? We find that the answer isn’t easily found since John is always an outsider.

Pg-146 “”The savage” wrote Bernard in his report to Mustapha Mond.”

Here in this paragraph we see that Bernard is trying to understand John’s customs and opinions in order to classify him better. Bernard’s role here is to understand how cosicety affects the savage, we never really get to know Bernard’s theory since Mustapha decides to stop reading his letter.

Discussion

We began a discussion on the  “Savage” due to our lack of time but somethings brought up were..

*The use of the word “Savage” which would indicate ignorance.

*John not liking the “feely’s” show. He can relate to the main antagonist who is an outsider causing him to not like the show.

*John’s fear of sexual freedom and promiscuity. This also relates to his old customs, seeing his mother getting punished for her promiscuity and attacking Lenina.

*John is also a very refined and intellectual character. He constantly quotes Shakespeare and thinks about emotional strife. But when John is pushed we see that a more barbaric and violent side to his nature shows.

Next time

Remember guys that for our blogs on Thursday we are only talking about chapters 13 to the end of eighteen

Questions

Some things we can ask ourselves while we finish Brave New world…

• How is the “Savage” characterized
• In order to maintain a utopia, should we isolate ourselves the way John does?
• Does this form of Utopian Enclave help?

Metropolis (Cont.)

Last Time

• Discussed the idea that Maria (the real Maria) is an angelic figure, as you see her with children entering the Eternal Gardens; the children signify she’s caring, nurturing, and good

• Left off with Freder in search for Maria

Today’s Lecture

Freder’s transition from Upper-Class Playboy to Mediator (13:53)

• Freder learns about class inequality through his attraction to Maria

• Freder (and the viewer) observes the following about the workers: they move in sync with the machines they work on and are exhausted

• The thermometer rising is related to maintaining the heat levels of the machines

• The machine becomes personified (as Moloch) when it explodes

• Freder’s expression in his dramatized shots, show fear, shock, but also realization that things need to be changed (that he should later become the Mediator of the working and upper-class).

Sacrifice to the Machine (13:53)

• The men look like they are bound and are slaves

• More groups of people go into Moloch; as though to maintain the routine as though it’s normal

• The two gate-keepers of Moloch appear to be “savage”

[An aside comparison with Trip to the Moon]

• The moon men (Selenites) are like the two gate-keepers; recurrence in Sci-Fi to have the “other” be a savage or barbaric person

• This viewpoint was popular during early American worldviews that painted tribal people as different, and allowed early 20^th century writers to exoticize them through Science Fiction.

Jon Frederson’s Office; no one is comfortable, even with status (19:15)

• You can see everyone is anxious working with Jon Frederson

• No one is exempt from living comfortable lives, not even Jon Frederson later on when he’s concerned with his own son

• Shows a similarity between the working and upper-class citizens in their constant anxiety over the tasks they need to do (although it’s not nearly as dangerous as maintaining the machines below)

Rotwang; the original “Mad Scientist” (~38:00)

• He’s a cyborg, denoted by his hand being robotic after creating his man-machine

• The exterior of his lab looks like a church, which alludes to his ability to create life and thus having “divine powers”

• Creates Hel as the man-machine (first double introduced); has a Pentagram above where she sits, which signifies demonic/sacrilegious; has female attributes based on the curves (43:40)

• The clocks in Rotwangs lab mirror the worker’s movements when operating the machines they labor over (47:30)

Maria; Ave Maria (51:50)

• Under the catacombs she’s preaching and the subject is the Tower of Babel; there’s an altar, candles, crosses; Maria wears white (purity) and a scarf, which a lot of religious figure adorn

• Can clearly see that this is a church and she’s the pastor

• The men are kneeling showing respect to her, with reverent faces (as though they are at mass)

Creation of Maria’s Double (1:23:00)

• Reminiscent of “Frankenstein”, likely being an homage

• Alludes to the idea of thinking one is in control of the monster, but in reality the monster has a mind of it’s own (the man-machine being the monster in this case)

Distinction between Real and Fake Maria (1:28:50)

• The recurring theme of doubling with Fake Maria; unable to distinguish the synthetic and real

• The audience is able to tell; Fake Maria has dark eye shadow/mascara and her eyes twitch more, as though she’s malfunctioning

• Interesting imagery using the eyes to have it be the tell, because eyes are “windows to the soul”; so use of black makes it seem like it’s evil or malicious

Intermission

What does it mean to be “human”?

• Constantly grappled with idea in Science-Fiction stories

• Writers push the limits of the perception of what is really human

• Can something be human if it passes as human and mimics them?

• Can something be human if it feels the same way as humans do?

Brave New World (Ch. 1-5)

• Utopia/Dystopia is brought up again in BNW, since it’s one of the three most notable dystopian novels

• On the surface it looks like a utopia, but it’s really a dystopia in outside perspective; which seems to be the case with most utopia/dystopia novels

Class Discussion: What Stuck Out In The Book?

1. Developing Children as though it were an assembly line

2. Soma; the drug that is excessively used in the society

3. Manipulation of language (p. 62)

4. Caste System/ranking based on genes

5. Hypnopædia; programming humans with suggestive thoughts while sleeping

6. Parallels of doing human experiments on actual people in our own society (Little Albert Experiment)

7. Viewing Soma & Sex as a “religion” (the Solidarity Service)

8. Bernard is seen as an outcast

9. Use of similes; Mother & Child like Cat & Kitten (p.43)

10. Bokanovsky process; competing with others to be efficient; science/progress; 13. stability

11. Individuality; the view on sex/society defines a person’s individualism (like with Lenina and Helmholst)

12. Therapy; the conditioning that is done that we would use to benefit people, is used here to be exploitative

13. (See 10)

14. Happiness; conditioning creates “happiness” but are you truly happy? (p. 77)

15. Fear/disgust of the old world; old world mentality of personal connections don’t benefit a society that focuses on the greater good

16. Social Predestination; everything is planned out and monitored by people outside of your life, from conception to death

Some other ideas to be aware of

• The motto: Community, Identity, Stability

• There’s a monetary incentive to do Bokanovsky (p.17)

• The idea of progress (p.17): efficiency, mass production, standardization, good of society, mass quantity, sustainability (balance), development (ie, betterment), equal opportunity

• It’s clear that Helmhost and Marx are individuals (p.71)

Review For Next Class

• The section that rapidly changed perspectives in each paragraph (with Mustapha) (~p.45)

• Individualism (p.69)

Key Terms (will be talked about more next class)

Bokanovsky Process

Mass Production/Assembly Line

Hedonism

Utilitarianism

Eugenics/Social Engineering/Social Darwinism

Propaganda

Materialism/Commercialism

Hypnopædia

A Note About Blogs

• Blogs should have more structure to them and should utilize topic sentences

• Separate paragraphs; each paragraph should have one idea and should reflect the topic sentence of that paragraph

• Topic Sentence: First sentence of each paragraph that addresses the overall idea of that paragraph

• Each blog should focus on one key idea, with (at least) three pieces of evidence

 

Wrap up of The Machine Stops by E.M. Forster
Reminder: if you want to discuss ideas, questions, further details, office hours are available or you can add to existing class discussions or start new ones.
The mending apparatus was where we left off in the previous discussion on The Machine Stops.
The goal was to go over key points and notes under remaining sections of The Machine Stops.
The key points were man VS. machine, mediation, technological determination, what is authentic , what does it mean to be human, obsession with machine man, A.I., post-apocalyptic setting , religion, ersatz, uniformity, standardization, euphemism.
All of the above is important for the science fiction genre and can be seen in both in The Machine stops and Metropolis.

The Machine Stops, page 11.
Kuno’s prospective, he tells of his problem, face to face to his mother. This further shows that he doesn’t conform to the current system due to the reaction his mother had. Shows that he is a rebel. She asks how he got out and his response was that he found his own way. This conveyed no meaning to her because it was not part of the machine. Due to the loss of the idea of an individual and oneself, this shows uniformity within the world of the machine and to it as well. Kuno is shown as an individual due to his experimentation with what it means to be human.
Euthanasia means good death, sugar coating for the masses, more acceptable VS murder or suicide, in the world of the machine they kill the strong and keep the weak. Method of control and the way to remain in power. These particular themes can be seen in Brave New World. Justification of mercy killing of strong due to fact that they would not be happy living in a room all their lives because they would want to be active and athletic, which wouldn’t be possible. They would suffer in closed space. Allusion Mount Taygetus – The Taygetus, Taugetus, or Taygetos, is a mountain range in the Peloponnese peninsula in Southern Greece. In antiquity, male Spartan newborns were abandoned there if deemed unfit after examination for vitality. Irony
What is happiness? Freedom to/freedom from. Directly stated that machine controls everything in their daily life. The people kill in kindness for the progress of the machine as a sacrifice almost.
Kuno introduces new or bring back to life the idea that man is the measure, that everything is in relations to yourself, basic measurement based on if you can reach it or not. Anthropocene Anthropocentric – centered around man. Pushes for idea to be independent of the machine and the community that individuals are important, shows shift in his prospective VS. the majority of people.

Page 14.
Fountain of artificial air mixing with natural air, romanticized nature – gilded, an idealized, Kuno is between worlds and acts as a link between past and future. Mediator, link. Similar to airship, old world tech lost purpose of windows due to current views, lost meaning similar to light houses that are also not needed or serve less of a purpose, impossible to understand due to current circumstances, technology and ideas VS old ones. Another concept in Sci-Fi in the preservation of old ideas , history, ideology and views particularly post-apocalyptic to prevent the loss of information with the death of one person, if they were keeping it to themselves. Also arises question, how to explain it to someone else, who doesn’t known the concept of the ideas that you are trying to explain to them.

Metafiction – fiction in which the author self-consciously alludes to the artificiality or literariness of a work by parodying or departing from novelistic conventions (especially naturalism) and traditional narrative techniques.

Page 17.
Story teller is referencing own work and how the story is progressing, gives us access to internal thoughts, while still writing, allows us to see that Kuno left parts out of his story to his mother, reflects on himself, thinking about what is said and why.
Homelessness – punishment used by the people of the machine to punish other people by forcing them to the surface where they died without the machine. At this time, years after Kuno’s incident respirators are banned and official religion of the machine is created, such as Kuno’s mother book ritual can now be done without fear even though no one ever saw her doing it before anyway. All of this was not radical due to it all happening slowly before anyway. Kuno’s mother laughs at his wording that the machine will stop. She doesn’t want to believe it and ignores the signs of it being so.

Page 20.
Final destruction, trouble started before with all the smaller breakdowns in the machine but she doesn’t realize or doesn’t want to see it as the end of the machine. She doesn’t want to accept reality. She and others complain to the committees which ultimately archived nothing, especially as they sought instant gratification due to them being spoiled by the machine quick responses before. She, at one point, requests to die due to a fail of lecture that she gave what was not allowed, due to the birth /death ratio.
Other complained about machine as well but are told to tell another group which then tells to the other group. Ultimately, their complaints are lost in the beaurocracy and nothing gets fixed. However, she feels entitled, and complains anyway. She only cares about the problems that affect her
Page 24.

After chaos happens, she reconnects with Kuno, after praying to be saved, while outside the screams of the people, who are panicking, feels her room as the light deems and darkness takes hold. She holds the book but the air is bad and she starts to panic and act as people of old religions would, praying, sobbing desperately hitting the buttons that no longer do anything, with her bleeding hands.
She has lost everything at this point in time, her way of life, which was a gilded cage, seeming good on the outside, terrible within.

Page 25.
She reunites with Kuno for the last time, blood with blood, they hold hands, dying but Kuno says that in death they have recaptured life, restored humanity, hope, people left on surface will learn from the mistakes of this tragedy.

Metropolis

People’s thoughts – dramatic, facial expressions, stylized, on the nose, hammers in a message, head and hands must meet with the help of the heart. Reoccurring motif, visual styles made her headway in science fiction films, considered first full length Science Fiction movie. Luna was considered the first Science Fiction short film. Story, plot, biblical in nature, creepy, New York inspired, gain idea for city scape, people cramped in, Bronx style buildings, displacement of people, inequality, roads in the sky, cars on the sky highways, contrast of the top and bottom, futuristic esthetic, film references other science fiction works such as Frankenstein, Man Vs machine, watches and clocks, mechanical movement, conflict men VS. machine, merging man and machine into machine men, the heart machine, doubling of doubling, misrecognizing of things, fooled, fake marina was able to lead people and no one knew that she was fake, machine passed on look for human, working class VS upper class, two split cities, one underground one above, need each other, hierarchy, the title cards, the worker destroyed their own city, heaven in hell, religious theme.

Beginning of film. The worker wear dark uniform, look depressed, heads down, their movements are like machines, work underground, symbolism, automaton. The machines becomes like people and the people become like machines. The worker walk the same way, in groups and have no freedom, while the world above lives in light, is free , fun, alive.
We first meet Maria surrounded by children, visiting the gardens.

Reminder: starting Brave new World next week. Keep in mind what needs to be read and blogged and all the term we learned previously and how they apply.

Inequality – difference in size, degree, circumstances, etc.; lack of equality

Gentrification- s a process of renovation and revival of deteriorated urban neighborhoods by means of influx of more affluent residents, which results in increased property values and the displacing of lower-income families and small businesses. This is a common and controversial topic in urban planning.

Intertextuality – the relationship between texts, especially literary ones.

Doubling – (of a person or thing) be used in or play another, different role.

Synthetic – (of a substance) made by chemical synthesis, especially to imitate a natural product.

Simulation – the imitation of the operation of a real-world process or system over time. The act of simulating something first requires that a model be developed; this model represents the key characteristics or behaviors/functions of the selected physical or abstract system or process.

Recognition – the action or process of recognizing or being recognized, in particular.

Colonization – is an ongoing process of by which a central system of power dominates the surrounding land and its components

Imperialism – a policy of extending a country’s power and influence through diplomacy or military force.