It's Been So REAL you guys! I'll miss you all!

This is just a thank you post.

So my Monday/Wednesday class schedule was very open this semester and while I was in an on again off again relationship with my Weight Training Class, Utopian Thought was fantastic. This class was a joy to be apart of because the discussions were lively and incredibly intelligent (even with my nonsensical blabbering). The insights you all had for the texts that we studied were deep as sh*t and truly helped my understanding of the texts. I can't thank you enough for that because I feel like classes tend to be on the drier side of things.

I want to emphasis now how amazing this class was for the people within. Reiteration is key for this point, YOU ARE AMAZING. This class was full of smart, witty, funny, and sexy people. No joke, ya'll are hot. *wink* I know without a single doubt that you all will succeed in having a future you can be proud of. I don't want to say anything too cheesy or insulting like I know you will all be rich, famous, and "successful". We all know that's a pile of crap. What I see in this class is adaptability, malleability, and the most confusing combination of professional/laid-back adults I have ever met. Everyone is going to be just fine in this class and that fills me with warm fuzzy feelings.

Also, shout out to Dr. Mitchell-buck. I mean, bravo to her for conducting a class in a fun and educational manner. Isn't it refreshing to have a professor treat you as a fully-functioning adult?! I thank her for being understanding and flexible with the grading and turn in dates. And, ya'know, thanks for being an overall amazing human being! Those are too rare these days.

I don't want to make this a sad sort of post so I will post something fun and interesting and HIP GODDAMMIT!

This right here is a Nyala bull.

LOOK AT TEH KITTEH WITH A BALL OF YARN ASDLKJFAHSDLJFNHALSKDJF

This beard is impressive. This guy holds stories and hope and kittens in his beard.

When I attempt to take over the world it will be with and army of Corgis.

With that I wish you all the best of luck and skill in your future endeavors  Whether that means graduating, working, traveling, or lying comatose in your underwear on a couch somewhere!

Here's to all of you!

What's LOOOOOOVE got to do, got to do with it Babe.

So I haven't posted about 1984 because this is kind of a rough text for me. This is my second time reading it and it does the same stomach upsetting that Frankenstein did for me. Which on an external level I can appreciate but on a deeper level makes me feel like a child.

You know how when you were a kid you would get mad. I mean like super mad because the world had wronged you so intensely that the only thing you could do was rage within yourself? And when your parents asked you what was wrong and you told them but they didn't understand and you wanted to shake meaning into them. This is the phenomenon of 1984 for me. I read that book and my hands shake and heat rises up behind my eyeballs making me tear up but not cry.

It is really freaking weird.

To start out with, I am not a huge fan for Winston as a character and I think that's why it works. I find myself repelled by Winston because he lacks the fire I usually associate with a protagonist. Winston is spineless but he needs to be in order to survive in this world. With eyes and ears everywhere there is that lack of the stand tall and proud and glare down your foe brass that I like to read. I want a protagonist that I can put my faith in and Winston is not really that character. That's where the gold is, he is the only character I am going to get out of this book. In this desolate, crap world the only kind of "hero" is Winston. I can't turn to the spunky side kick or funny cameo because every character is a sullied being that I don't want to associate myself with.

Winston works at a pointless job, In a shabby house, no friends, and is the only ray of damn sunshine you get in this story. When he feels emotion it is amplified by 1000 because his surroundings and even his past stories are devoid of any feeling. I had to stop reading at one point because he was admitting to Julia that he wanted to rape and then kill her and I as the reader, while disturbed, was secretly glad. I was so desperate for any semblance of emotion that his bestial response to Julia was taken as a positive even though it is as negative as you can get.

The fist to the gut of this book is the tension throughout. The false hope that its possible for Winston to win. For him to conquer Big Brother and live and be happy. The reader just wants there. To be a semblance that the lives in this book are worth something. The fact that the reader experiences this all on their own is cruel. The novel continually tells us that Winston knows he's going to get caught. He tells us this constantly, after sex,"alone" in his house , and lunch at work he just reminds himself. It might have just been this reader but I totally ignored Winston the first time I read this. I was totally thinking that something good could happen. Boy was I WRONG!

 We all know I'm a weepy person but this book makes me full out sob. I shake and my breath hitches and it is Ugly with a capital U. I cry this way because the breaking of a human "spirit" is literally the worst thing you can show me. The third part of this book shows me just how much spirit Winston had in the first two parts because they destroy it in the third. They break his body, they make him watch other human beings break, they shove his biggest fear in his face, and then they destroy Winston. They destroy his mind and every aspect of the character that the reader grew to know and they stretch that mother out.

 Asking one love his enemy, but not the Christiany sort of love, is sick. I think this is the bit of the over that I don't quite understand. I totally just read Raymond Carver's "What we talk about when we talk about love." And this form of love was not explained in the short story. I don't know how Winston's changed perspective of Big Brother. I think that it's just that you can't know what it's like to 'love' Big Brother until you do.

I Have Lost the Ability to CAN

So it literally took me 4 hours to figure out how to watch The Island last night. The internet was such crap that the video wasn't loading and I could not find a place to buy it online. I almost punched my computer into space. SPACE.

And in the end it wasn't even worth it. Now, it wasn't completely awful or anything but it just made me sangry (sad angry). This is the reason why I don't watch movies because they are so emotionally draining. The chase scenes make me anxious as hell and then I get irrationally mad at movie characters. I love Scarlet Johanson, she is my wife, but she I couldn't get into this movie.

My main issue is that the 'evil' in this movie is way too tweed-ily mustache for me. To view the clone versions of their clients as products is too much for me to fully grasp. I mean, people get uncomfortable hearing the cries of a furby, let alone they would all sit and watch a grown man get dragged away by his calves. I know that this is true in certain environments and if the environment is severe enough it can cause people to become horrible. This is how huge human atrocities happen but my issue is that they didn't dehumanize the clones.

The people in the silo where the clones were kept, unaware of the world outside, that helped by feeding the clones and teaching them aren't treating them like they are less than human. This is why the idea that these workers would sit and watch as the clones were attacked and treated in this way. I am 100% sure that there would be more than one Mac in this movie.

I don't even feel like I'm being overly optimistic about humanity at this point. I think that the fact that we have gotten this far as a race is enough for me to confidently say that I think more than two people would see the the atrocities and at least report the company to a reporter for a paltry sum of money.

Closing Thoughts, End of the Semester

Hell yeah! Summer Break!

Would I have said that sixteen weeks ago, when I was dealing with health issues and the question of whether or not I would return to Hood for the semester? No, certainly not. The idea of living at home for weeks, without work or a plan, terrified me.

This semester, we've studied all varieties of Utopias, starting with some of the more aged texts, into more modern utopias that become more and more radical, upon the verge of dystopia. All of these texts, in some form or another, approach an issue with the society at the time in which it was written and proposes a system that fixes the problem. Or the text (alternatively) warns where the current system must ultimately lead.

So, since Utopians can be far off, or as close as the next day, it's important to think about how we act on a daily basis (that's the only way to reach towards the idea of a Utopia, right?). As we discussed, not having a purpose is terrifying. We need to do something, whether or not it's a single talent like playing an instrument, or exercising at the gym every day for hours, or reading twenty books, or staying up until four in the morning building a megalith in Minecraft. And, while I know these examples aren't great for my point, it shouldn't be selfish purpose.

So, with exams next week, I challenge you to think of a goal of something to do this summer. I don't mean something simple like, "Oh, I'll go swimming on fridays!". I mean something something. Do something substantial. Join your local Habitat for Humanity, take part in coaching a local Parks and Rec. team, or join a book club. Do something that, when the end of the summer comes, you can look back in pride and say, "I made a difference and had fun". So, what is your Utopian goal for the summer? Hopefully, not too many days indoors ;) ...

As for me, I'll be studying and preparing to take my MCAT's to get into medical school. My Utopian dream of helping people through medicine is far off, but I can get there one small step at a time.

The Island for me was just an okay movie. In the beginning I was really interested because of the way Lincoln began his day. I liked the idea of the talking screen that interacted with him. I know we mentioned it in class, but it was never answered… a question that I had was “Why is he missing his left shoe?” I don’t think that this was ever even mentioned again throughout the movie nor was there any significance, but it unfortunately stuck with me throughout the entire movie. 

By the way that Lincoln acted I feel like this movie began to get really corny. He seemed like a typical young child who runs off to explore what he is strictly forbidden to do. He is represented as a human, even though the outside world thinks of him as a motionless sack of goop and organs. His ability to search for more, to go against the authority, and to set a plan into action shows he is more human than anyone could have imagined. I particularly like the quote that his ‘original copy’ said. He mentioned something about Lincoln being his insurance policy. However, it really was ironic when Lincoln was the one who out smarted the authorities into believing that he was the real Lincoln and living, while the ‘original copy’ was killed. This also showcases his human qualities. I just likes the idea that he outsmarted the ‘original copy’ when the entire movie before he was shown to be an immature and innocent clone.

I think that the idea of the lottery was awesome. What better way to engage and motivate people to be their best and work hard every day when there is a private island awaiting them? Although I thought this sounded like a cool place to go, I had an idea that it was too good to be true. I felt like this movie was a typical cliché utopian/science fiction movie, liked we had talked about in class. Flying motorcycles that Lincoln can suddenly drive really irritated me. Here was a character that had been so immature and oblivious to any real world situations that was now driving a powered flying vehicle and saving the world. What also really irritated me was the fact that he and Irene fell many stories only to survive miraculously. The use of technology did not irritate me as much. I was intrigued by the idea of the clones because I think that this is something people in our modern world would want to have. People want to stay beautiful. They also want to live as long as they can. With so many people getting cancer and being involved in accidents, I think that this idea of cloning for body parts would be something Americans would promote.

I think the real question when talking about cloning is the stand on moral beliefs. Is this clone a human? Is this clone an individual? It is a line that is unclear for many people, even in the movie. However, in the movie we see that perhaps these clones are more human and individual than first thought. If people did not think of them as such, why would the developers need to make the buyers believe the clones we unconscious and big blobs? People do want to be labeled as murderers. It’s a controversial issue that we may possibly one day see.

I could not stop thinking about the connection to 1984 that this movie had. “War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength”. All of the clones were told that they were free and safe from the contamination, when in reality they were being held captive underground from a world they were never meant to know. By the clones not knowing anything, they were safe from harm and confrontation with the leaders of the cloning organization. Lincoln chose to ask questions and longed to become knowledgeable. This created problems for him. He was a target then. In order for him to find peace and live the life that he always thought he had, he had to create war. Through the war that he went through, he was able to be free in another sense that he and all the other clones had never known. This was only achieved once they were all out of the utopia that had been created. I think the best part about the movie was that Lincoln lived and was able to fool the officials into believing he was the real Lincoln. He finally was able to find a place in a real world where he was accepted, and where he could think for himself.

 I was happy for all of the clones at the end. However, I already had predicted this would happen. I think that these clones are all going to have a hard time adjusting to this life. I think that the owners of these ‘insurance policies’ will get mad that their clones are running around trying to live normal lives. It would almost be worth seeing a sequel, but I’m not sure I’m ready to see the corny storyline of that either.

What Has Been Keeping MJ From Updating; Also: Isolation

So, that old saying "Bit off more than you can chew" really applies here, to my blog posting. I had made the awesome decision to do all of my blog posts in story format, and ended up slipping into a Socrates-like story where I'm saying all of the things I'd normally say only to somebody. Which, I guess, worked out for me. For, like, three posts.

I got freaked out about my little stories sounding bad, or becoming repetitive. In the end, I became that student, the one who needs to post something like ten blog posts before the end of the week or else her grade will be really poor.

So, we're doing a new thing. If I've got the story pre-written, I'm gonna post it as is. Otherwise, I'm going to take my big file of half-written blog posts and put them together in a standard format. And you will love it. I promise you.

So, let's talk Bioshock.

I'm playing Bioshock again for work on my last paper for this class. Among the things I'm discussing within the Utopian setting of Rapture is the isolation involved in Rapture's underwater world. For those of you who haven't played Bioshock, here's a trailer for the game.

Rapture is an isolated fallen Utopia (not a dystopia, per se, but a world that had been a Utopia at one point but had fallen to ruin.) The world was created in the mindset of Andrew Ryan (the narrator of the trailer), who wanted a Libertarian-esque world where no outside forces could come in and screw things up.

This sense of isolation is something I've noticed before in other works. In Herland, the female world is set aside from the rest of the population, the same with More's Utopia, and our recent viewing of The Island. Other Utopian stories we've discussed, such as 1984, Minority Report, Gattaca, and Brave New World have the whole world changed rather than just an isolated segment. For places like Twin Oaks in Virginia, isolation makes this system work, but I still see the "whole world change" as significantly more realistic. A slow, gradual change over the world can change everything just a little bit at a time, rather than isolating and completely altering everything at once.

What do you guys think?

So, after a long, exhausting, frustrating day of work, I decided to come home and watch The Island thinking I would be entertained with some philosophical questions, problems, and solutions to some  idea of utopia. What I got was a cliched movie (when it started, my mother asked if this was the sequel to Gattaca) with ridiculous amounts of actions scenes that put me to sleep before twenty minutes before the movie ended – and I never fall asleep while watching movies, no matter how tired I am.

But enough about the experience, onto my reactions and thoughts about the ideas in the movie.

Why would the people in our society want to live forever or live for an extremely long time?

Almost everyone I have talked to has said that they do not want to live forever, and they would want to die in their 80s because by then they would have lived a full life. Besides, the life outside of the underground shelter did not seem any better than it currently is. So, again, why have a harvestable clone that prolongs your life?

What would happen if people found out that the clones were not vegetative?

This society seems rather selfish if it wants to live forever or at least a long time. It kind of reminds me of the Nike situation. When the news of the Nike sweatshops went on a whirlwind, everyone was disgusted and outraged! Yet, people are still buying Nike brand, do they really care? Would the people of the society in The Island care, or only care that they are getting the best product they can and will be better for it?

While I understand that the movie is a pastiche of utopian ideas and theories, it did not come across utopian or dystopian at all. It felt like a poorly executed, futuristic, action sci-fi drama with a love story. The people in the bomb shelter utopia were not happy until they won the lottery (they could not even eat what they wanted → bacon!) and the people above ground were not happy with the time they were given on earth or the physical and medical issues they were given. Neither group/society was happy and I do not believe that they were working towards happiness either, something that I feel is part of utopia.

Word Count: 391

Image 1: www.memecenter.com

Image 2: http://popreflection.wordpress.com

FINAL BLOG

My final blog post!!!!!!!!!! This is what my final blog post is about and the topic is the one thing or I should say person I actually CARE about in this world and she is the only person I actually exude any energy over. That person is my two year old daughter, Piper, and as stated earlier she is the only person to be able to get a wide array of emotions out of me. So there my readers have it. There is someone I am actually not just simply “whatever” over.

On the first day of class we were asked what would our idea of utopia is or something to that effect. I forget what I said the first day, but I would like to change that if I may. Having had time to mull this over, my new idea for a perfect world would be one in which my daughter would have a perfect life and one where she never had any heartaches, pain or problems. Now I am routinely told that conflict makes us stronger people and that you have to be sad in order to know what happiness is. I think Kahlil Glibran wrote about that. While everyone is correct on that I must admit to being the stereotypical parent in that I feel that the more I can lessen the pain she has to go through in life the better off she will be.

All of this does tie into the idea of utopia though and this is how I expressing my humble opinion, and after hearing all these different types of utopias, I believe that the only true utopia that can exist is the one you make for yourself. There is no magical pill, no stroke of the pen that can make every one happy and live in a state of nirvana. It’s up to each of us individually to create his or her own utopia. Every day people choose more or less to either be happy or sad (Abraham Lincoln) unless you’re someone like I am who is happily oblivious to everything. J The point of all this is that utopia will never happen in the broad sense of society because there is no one thing or state of existence that makes everyone happy. Therefore, we all should be happy in our own way so that we can all have our own, self-made utopia.  

   

Minority Report

The film Minority Report was in my humble opinion a pretty decent picture. I admit there were definitely some elements that put me off, and some were really questionable as to whether they would be actually viable. For instance, the whole notion of how the balls are created exactly. Still the movie was well done in that it was a fun movie to watch and also showcased some talented acting. Now I have criticized Tom Cruise in the past for playing the same roles over and over, but most time when he has a new movie coming out I will still go to see it. One might ask what exactly does all this have to do with a utopia? Well, I would say it’s the notion of the whole free will versus predestination debate. My simple opinion on this and please do remember that opinions are like ass holes in that everyone has one, is that while humans will always have the free will to do whatever they so aptly desire there is also some credence to the whole predetermination philosophy. While I am usually totally against believing that because something happened to someone then that same something will happen to someone else, but this is actually true when it comes to humans in terms of our health. For instance if your family has a history of addiction the there is a strong CHANCE (notice that word please) that you will have an addictive personality. The same can be said for high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, and the list I’m sure goes on and on. The overall point I would like make is that nothing will ever completely, 100 percent accurately predict how a person’s life will turn out but, if you look at adverse effects from the past, both internal and external, it may help in some slight way to at least explain to a person what he or she should do or avoid in order to have a better life. 

Looking Forward: The City on a Hill Revisited

      So this is it. We've reached the end of the semester, and aside from feeling totally burnt out, I think I've learned quite a bit about utopias over the past fifteen-odd weeks. We've seen shining republics (with pastries), spiritual cities, theocracies, classical utopias, weird martian utopias, modern dystopias, and lots of explosions in an utopian/dystopian(?) Michael Bay film.

Leftovers again?!

      At the beginning of the semester, most of us agreed that an utopia is not a perfect place; rather, it is better than the one we currently occupy. Similarly, we will probably never be able to achieve a perfect world, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't try.

      I think I may have realized something this semester. What if the definition of utopia is wrong? What if, in our real-world sense, the closest we ever get to an utopia is by helping each other and trying to make the world a better place?

      In that case, our “City on a Hill” is already here. When we help others, we come the closest to an utopia that we ever will. As the saying goes, “It's not the end result of the quest that matters; it's the getting there that counts.”

      What if an utopia is the process by which we try to make the world a better place?

(Michael Bay meme taken from www.joblo.com. Comparative photo of The Island and Transformers 3 taken from www.reddit.com. Image of the City on a Hill taken from insidetheshrink-dailygrace.blogspot.com.)

Regarding Utopia in Today's Society

There was a comment in class from a few weeks ago where the United States was observed to be a very rich, prosperous nation. In honesty, part of me cringed when I heard this said. It's not so much that I disagree with that the US is a prosperous nation. Certainly, our version of poverty is unlike that of a nation where people have trouble eating due to famine. However, I think it's important to look at our country from more pragmatic eyes.

Crime in our country, whether it's civil or criminal, is present despite the best intentions of our government. Our Congress holds an all time low of trust with the people .. due to the massive amounts of money that is swaying our representative's votes. People struggle with two, sometimes three jobs, to barely pay bills and feed their families.

I don't know if you remember, but some years ago, there was this thing called the Housing Bubble crash.

That period marked a time where the value of homes plummeted, yet the value of the mortgages stayed high simply because the banks didn't want to admit fault and accept the debt by re-evaluating mortgages. Homeowner's couldn't meet the cost of the mortgage by selling their homes, and many people abandoned their property. Some stories even rose of families living out of a U-Haul.

Our nation may be 'prosperous' when you look at our GDP, but we are nowhere near prosperous when it comes to individual happiness and freedom from strife. Each of us must fight for our own survival, and no nation, regardless of the system and its origins, can prevent tragedy .. whether it results from debt, violent crime, or abuse.

No Utopian system, no matter how 'perfect' or 'prosperous' it may seem, can save each and every single individual. I am a victim of abuse, and many of my close friends are as well. Each tragedy that occurs shapes who we are and defines us on some level, and no Utopia can prevent all individuals from falling through the cracks. 

Whether it's the land of the free and the home of the brave, or a dystopia where there's no reason to think .. where ignorance is peace and freedom is slavery .. no system can fix every individual issue because (as we've found time and again) no individual perfectly conforms to the laws and ideals of a society. Is the US a prosperous country? Certainly. Is it Utopian, certainly not. 

We, as humans, will never be free from strife. Bernard in "Brave New World" was an outcast because of his height, while Helmholtz was an outcast due to his genius. No Utopian system perfectly accommodates each individual, so why bother trying? 

A bleak outlook? Maybe. But does that invalidate the point?

Monday Morning TV

Every warm morning in the summer of my high school years, I would share my mornings with my Dad. Every morning, after waking from the alarm, getting showered and dressed for work, I would share an hour or so as we both prepared. I would have a small plate of two cooked eggs with ketchup (he an egg tortilla wrap with cheese), and we would share an hour watching all of the classic Gene Roddenberry Star Trek reruns.
While I was watching The Island, it wasn't really the themes of white spandex jumpsuits, government surveillance, or intersocial disruption that made me think of Utopia. Humorously enough, it was the, "I'm Tom Lincoln!" exchange.

It reminded me of the Star Trek episode, one of which I saw with my Dad that morning, called "The Enemy Within". It's an episode where Kirk is split into two people: one that is the good in Kirk, and the other that is the evil in him. It explores the limits of humanity which drive and power us all. It shows that a balance between both good and evil bring out the very best (or, possibly, the very worst in us).

"We all have our darker side. We need it! It's half of what we are. It's not really ugly. It's human."
- McCoy, to Kirk's good duplicate

Months back, I posted about how there's no such thing as a Utopia, or one that we can actually live in. We found that it's something we're always striving for, and something we'll never accomplish because people are always becoming dedicated to revolutionary new ideas that we believe can change the world for the better.
I've written in the past that it's the innate human desire to excel, or for freedom, or to be happy, that prevents a Utopia from being realized. As of late, I'm beginning to think that it's the struggle between the emotions inside of us that prevent a true Utopia. There's no way of brainwashing people into being model citizens because various external influences pull us to and fro like puppets at the hand of a puppeteer.

It's the combination of demons that brings out the best in us and the worst in us, allowing us either to achieve our goals while maintaining a respect for others or to harm those whom we should care for. Even the slightest imbalance in any single individual's heart upsets any possibility for a Utopia that can be realized and sustained.

Utopia-ception

This evening I treated myself and my boyfriend to a night at the movie theatre. We decided to see Oblivion, starring Tom Cruise, because we had no idea what any of the other movies were. Oblivion is basically an end-of-the-Earth movie, where the moon has been blown up by an alien population, which caused earthquakes and tsunamis, making the planet virtually uninhabitable. The whole Earth population had been relocated to Titan, one of Saturn's moons. Tom Cruise's character John is based on Earth with a partner, Victoria, to help repair the machines that harness sea water for energy. Along the way, John gets a little too curious and learns that the plan for life on Titan is not what it seems to be. 

It is a little bit of a stretch, but I can definitely see utopian concepts in this film. When Earth was rendered uninhabitable, a plan needed to be formulated, thus Titan. At his home on Earth, John and Victoria's lives are dictated in every aspect. They rely on their higher-ups to send them all supplies and take orders from them for missions each day. Their house is streamlined and almost antiseptic how clean and white it is. Adhering to all the rules, Victoria is afraid to bring anything from outside into her house, fearing contamination. John blindly takes orders to kill off any aliens that he comes in contact with, because they are still the enemy despite looking exactly like a human being. 

John and Victoria's home

One of the more utopian aspects that I found was the fact that the society, in the end, could not hold together. In the texts that we have read for this class, the utopian plan does not make everyone content and there is some type of disintegration of the community or an attempt at a revolt. 

Even during the previews I was bombarded with another Utopian film, Elysium. First of all, it looks really cool and stars Matt Damon, so I'm definitely going to see it. From what I could tell from the preview, Elysium is essentially a big space station that is where all the best people go. There's nothing bad on Elysium (the preview showed a woman being scanned and showing trace amounts of cancer and then having it taken away immediately). But, back on Earth, life is a different story: the planet is in shambles and there is a rogue group of people, Matt Damon's character included, that feel the need to take down Elysium if they want to save the human population. The preview left a lot to the imagination, but it definitely got me hooked.

These two films show me that we are fascinated with utopias and dreaming of another way of life. Also, because utopias can be a commentary on things in our current world, it sure seems that film writers have some issues with the way things are going. I do not ever see a time when utopian literature or films will not exist, they are simply too compelling.

Past the Finish Line

A little behind schedule here, but I would like to discuss my favorite points about the book Herland by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. This book brings a question to my mind: are we attempting to “progress” as a society in an attempt to reach a certain end? Or are we simply innovating for the sake of doing something different? The passage that brings these questions to mind is this:

“The years of pioneering lay far behind them. Theirs was a civilization in which the initial difficulties had long since been overcome. The untroubled peace, the unmeasured plenty, the steady health, the large good will and smooth management which ordered everything, left nothing to overcome. It was like a pleasant family in an old established, perfectly run country place.”

Terry had problems with the fact that a society could exist in these types of conditions.

“Life is a struggle, has to be . . . if there is no struggle, there is no life-that’s all.”

I feel like most people these days pretty much agree with Terry. Nobody seems to be satisfied with a steady life in which their needs are perfectly met. I think that this is a problem and will continue to cause turmoil throughout the world. The final product seems like it was about 20 years ago to me.

The only outlook many people have for the future is technology. Evidence for this in all of the utopian/dystopian films we have watched in class recently. The main features include genetically perfected children and Tom Cruise throwing around data in the air with his light up magic gloves. As far as I can tell, people won’t be satisfied until doctors are able to implant metal hearts in their chests and brains in their heads so that they can be immortal. But even then I’m sure people wouldn’t be satisfied.

Obviously I’m pretty anti-technology and I’m sure that’s getting real old, real quick for people who actually read my blogs. Some people probably even think that hating technology is corny and unoriginal. I’ll tell you what’s corny though: zooming around in a “smart” six foot long metal box on wheels, scrolling through all of your social websites on your touch screen iphone that has a cracked screen . . . oh wait! Don’t forget to listen to the digital voice coming out of your Garmin telling you where to turn next because you can’t read the 20 foot green signs that tell you where to go-thanks, but I’ll stick with my map. I can see it now, one day I’ll be driving down the highway and notice that there are no more road signs. They will all have been taken down overnight because there will be a GPS built into every single car!

Think about the major “innovations” and technological progressions that have taken place in the past decade. Two that immediately come to mind are Google and Facebook. First I’ll take a look at Google. Let’s see, pretty much anything that interests you can be accessed in about three seconds by just “googling” it! I cannot even begin to try and count the number of tests that I have done zero amount of reading for, paid no attention in class, “googled” everything the night before and got a solid B+ on. It doesn’t help me learn; in fact I retain pretty much nothing when I try to learn things this way. Organizing the world’s information and making it universally accessible and useful. Now that’s a dream come true.

Man, I get fired up just thinking about Facebook. Never in my life will I support something so utterly useless and devastating to the world that I live in. The people who sit on Facebook all day are the same ones who complain about inequality throughout our country. Maybe there is inequality because you support a man like Mark Zuckerberg who is worth 10 billion dollars and done nothing but “make us all connected.”

As much as I have tricked myself into thinking that I enjoy things like YouTube and Google, I’m sure that I would be better off without them. Nothing makes my brain feel more like mashed potatoes than staring at the front page of YouTube and not knowing what I want to search for.

Technology does some good things, but it isn’t our savior. We need to take steps to make the world a better place without becoming reliant, using technology to overcome bad choices/lifestyles. I’m sure that we will never consider ourselves finished in our “pioneering” quest.

A final thought (maybe) from Gattaca

I heard on the radio the other day a commercial that made me think of Gattaca, and I wanted to share it. It was advertising for open enrollment for women to donate their eggs and men to donate sperm. It mentioned that screenings need to be done to show health and physical fitness. It also addressed the need to make a profile, so possible parents can pick the best candidate for their selection. This gives future parents the option of choosing an athletic build, blue eyes, blonde hair, or whatever their preference. I find this amusing since Gattaca is still fresh in my mind. Everyone wants to be able to pick the perfect child. What one person sees as perfect, another may not. But this is not the point. The point is that perfection is what people are longing to get. They want a child who will thrive. We are coming closer and closer to that day of genetically modifying our children. … God help us.

A Word on my Personal Utopia and a Public Apology

First of all, if you haven't noticed from my blog posts I am a "cup half full" kind of girl. I believe in the good in people and the world and genuinely think that love and compassion can go a long way in making a better place for us all to live. I try my best to be a good person and do good things and to not be offensive. I also have a dark cynical sarcastic side but I try to keep it contained. Not to say that I don't feed it every once and a while. Regardless, it was brought to my attention after class today, in an extremely inappropriate manner, that I may have offended some people with a comment that I made during our discussion. I just want to be clear and open and honest and set the record straight that my intention is never to be rude or disrespectful or to hurt anyone's feelings. And I am not exaggerating when I say that I think that people with good intentions who make even small steps or small sacrifices towards any positive outcome can make a difference in our world. Therefore I would not want to do anything to negate that ideal. I know that words can hurt and I am not in the business of hurting others.

Death Note

DEATH NOTE
I didn't think there was enough information in the series to write it for my paper but I wanted to talk about it because I felt it fit the class.

One of the books I was reading was the manga Death Note. And I found its idea of utopia an interesting, if overly simplistic idea.
 For Those of you who are not familiar with the series Death Note is an anime/manga about a High School student named Light Yagami who discovers a notebook with the words Death Note written on it. On the inside it claims that if you write a person's name and think of their face they will die.

The Rules of the Death Note

 Light is skeptical but decides to try it out on a criminal holding a bunch of kids hostage. To his surprise the Death Note works. He tests it again to double check and again it works. He freaks out realizing that he killed people but gets over it rather quickly deciding that they did deserve to die and he was going to make the world a better place by killing all criminals in the world

And that is the goal of Light Yamagi for the rest of the story. (Besides making even the most mundane action completely over the top)

\


However people obviously oppose his actions in killing criminals without a trial or anything similar and they attempt to arrest. This ends up being the main plot of the story where a famous detective known as L tries to discover how the killer (known as Kira in public) is doing the killings and prove his real identity while Light is trying to discover L's real name and face so he can kill him.

What makes this relevant to a Utopia class though is Light's goals. He is actively trying to create a Utopia. And this is interesting because we usually don't see this side of utopias. We either see the hypothetical of how a utopia should be created, or we join one once its already been created. So just seeing it from the creative perspective is interesting.
Further Death Note idea to get rid of bad stuff is simply to kill off all people who commit crimes. This is a somewhat interesting perspective because on one hand you are getting rid of all the people who would hurt others. Most people would not disagree that getting rid of, at least the most violent serial killers, would not be a negative thing. And the novel explores both sides of this idea. On one hand with Light's actions crime goes down substantially, getting to the point where criminals are very rare and do whatever possible to hide their identities. On the other hand the world is not shown as becoming a positive world because of it but still rather darker and more negative as the show goes on. I don't agree myself with this utopia because I see problems where simply killing off criminals would not solve but I believe that some people would think this way. And this is what makes the story interesting.
And at times when Kira disappears the crime rate goes back up again showing that the people were not really changed, but simply afraid to commit crimes. The minute they get a chance to do so they immediately start committing crimes again.
Its a creepy idea and it makes the story itself quite interesting (which is more focused on the mind game between L and Light)

I recommend it both as an interesting read if you like mind games and as an interesting idea of a rather simplistic utopia.

And so begins the last minute blogging...

I know I aught to be ashamed but I am a college student...so yeah. Nope.

So to begin this saga we shall start with Brave New World. I don't actually have the book with me right now but that's because I gave it to my friend Pablo Con Carne to read. I thought it was a book to share...but that probably makes me a bad friend. And here are the reasons why:

1. It starts with a tour of where human's are mass produced. And not in the creepy mad scientist way but in the innovative way. We are proud that this happened and that we could have progressed this far. To be fair, I'm kind of okay with this. I'm not okay with the classical training and mass production of the same genes thing but the idea of having a baby without a human vessel is pretty cool. Like...it'd be cool to watch a human form but that's really the only appeal I see.
2. The fact that this society judges people by who they are and not what they do is really sad. It's super sad because we do that now. I mean, it's true that we don't manufacture human beings but we assume things based off of what people look like and their biological...ness. It's a sack of crap.
3. The book ends in suicide. And it ends in the kind of suicide that just affirms my definition of suicide. I define suicide as societal murder; the pressures of society and the failings of society pushed a person to feeling like they couldn't exist. I know this isn't applicable to all suicides but I think that it's a big player. 
4. So I think one of my biggest beefs is that there is a consciousness of the higher ups about what is happening. They are aware of how crap this society is and that their drugging the population into compliance. They are forsaking future developments and progress in anything to keep this utopia. I...Ju...The....NO. NO! THAT SUCKS AND IT'S STUPID.

Anyway, I hope Pablo enjoys this book as much as I did. While I did nothing but complain for this entire blog post I am a fan of this book and how it was written. I thought the moments when we were jumping from person to person were awesome. The deep seated passion and anger in these characters was freaking great. 

This post was brought to you by the number 404. Also, by Catbug.

Utopian Pastiche

As I re-watched The Island (our final text!) last night, I reminded myself why I chose this film and why I feel it's a good way to bring our discussions to a close.

It's the gripping and in no way repetitive action sequences!

Um, no. But it was directed by Michael Bay, so were you expecting something else?

It's the Dick-and-Jane scene!

Hmm. Still no...

Two Ewan McGregors?

Possibly...

No, seriously now. This movie has been called a pastiche of utopian/dystopian fiction, an assessment that I completely support. But deeming something a pastiche (OED paraphrase: a work that incorporates distinctive elements of a particular style, artist, genre, etc. and/or that takes elements from many different sources and incorporates them into one work) isn't necessarily derogatory. The Island is a pastiche because it manages to take all of the themes that we have been looking at this semester and smooshes them all together. It's a big Utopian mashup.

A good pastiche is in the eye of the beholder. There are many people who think this is a godawful film, and I can see why. The movie takes a clean, sleek, Utopian first half and tries to attach it (like a Barbie head jammed onto the neck of GI Joe figure) onto a big, loud, explosion-riddled, car chase extravaganza. Two films for the price of one!

But the thing that ultimately intrigues me about this film - or any mashup, for that matter - is the way it encourages us to take a look at all of its constituent parts and think about how they fit together. Often, the combinations are predictable, but sometimes they are surprisingly appealing. If you have any doubts about this, see one of my favorite recent mashups at the end of this post.

By now, we are all incredibly familiar with the tropes of Utopia, and this movie tries to squeeze them all in here. But, by the act of cramming so much into a single film, Bay and his production team have issued us an engraved invitation to see which of these elements work together, how they work together, and why they work together - or don't. Whether it intends it or not, this film is a reflection on the whole idea of Utopian fiction and why the idea of Utopia can so easily be used against us if we aren't careful. 

And hey, who doesn't love a good mashup now and then?

(if you don't, DO NOT CLICK THE VIDEO BELOW!)

I Think I would rather go to "The Island" than watch The Island

This is not the first time I've seen this movie. and I do not remember it being this bad. I really tried not to nitpick this movie but I CAN'T. This movie was so bad.
Alright to be fair the action was decent if slightly dumb
the acting was actually pretty good
and I did like the visual design.
What did I hate about it? The story. Because it is so dumb.
This movie's story is dumb for an action movie.

(My reaction to this movie) 

It is so over the top, I admit I was laughing quite a bit at just how ridiculous it was.
The evil clone business mega-corporation was so evil I expected to see a scene where they kick a puppy or laugh maniacally while lighting strikes the building.
And the mercenary captain having a Heel Face turn? This was a guy who brutally gunned down people in the street without any thoughts of collateral damage.
If you actually think about it can you imagine the reaction in the real world if a small force did shoot up a bunch of police officers, with high powered weapons, helicopters, and machine gun motor floater cycles?
This would a national emergency. And a business man would want to be even remotely associated with that?
I would criticize the fact that every bad guy walks into punching distance when they have long range weapons JUST so they can get hit by the heroes... but considering their accuracy with those weapons I think its reasonable.
Even the Stormtroopers would be mocking these guys aim.


Now even for the "ethical dilemma  of this movie. I don't even know if we can really discuss it. It so comically dealt with its kind of funny. And so much bullshit and questions? I don't buy that the clones need to be conscious for the transfers to work. NO. NO. Not Happening.
Even assuming that they do need to be conscious why do they need to be educated? And if someone says its to give them something to do I don't really buy that. There is plenty of physical things you can get people to do without education. Hell they had TV and videogames.

And in some ways I do think that is a pity because there are some better stories that deal with a similar theme. One of the more interesting ones is Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go. The book came out about the same times as this movie. The story of Never Let Me Go involves the life of one clone and her experiences. She was different from other clones in that she and her companions had a more privileged life growing up in almost a rich boarding school type setting. But the biggest distinction between this movie and the book is that the clones know what they are and their ultimate fate. They are conditioned so strongly that in the novel they never try to escape it. They do ask for extension from the people they believe to be in charge but they willingly accepted their fate. This was in many ways more creepy and interesting because while the clones did act in many ways like humans they did act slightly different in off-putting ways. It was creepy in the uncanny valley sense.

But most of the ethical dilemmas about organ harvesting cloning are kind of dumb anyways because as we are discovering we can grow/make organs. And it, at a certain point, is easy to make organs than it is to make organs, and the entire support system that uses them.

However as the last movie of the semester, its dumb, its stupid, its hilarious in those aspects, but I can not deny that it is somewhat entertaining. And since its the end of the semester and I honestly have enough to analyze/stress out over/pass/fail over I do appreciate a dumb action movie.

Minority Nonsense

While my discussion in class was limited at best, it was because "The Minority Report" seemed to be more of an exploration of the fundamental fabric of the universe instead of the basic capabilities of mankind. Despite how much we would like to think, mankind is no more special than a rock, that plant on your desk, or the fluffy cat that seems to think that your keyboard is a more preferable bed over actual cotton.

Hey, speaking of cats, this minutephysics video will give you a great idea of what exactly I'm talking about, and why this movie drove me absolutely nuts.

Hopefully now you have a good idea why I had issues with the movie. It worked entirely under the assumption (as we assumed in class) that time is linear, unchanging, and worked based on certain likelihood of events. And, while I know that many sects of religion believe that there is a set "plan" for humanity, I'm not exactly approaching that aspect of the issue.

I'm just peeved that the movie didn't explore any other options of possible timelines. Many other theories render the idea gazing into the future (based on the linear theory of time) obsolete.

Say what you will, but the idea of suspension of disbelief doesn't really apply to this specific idea because it is so fundamental to the entire concept of the movie.

Why?

“I wish that there was more.”  This is what Lincoln says when he is being evaluated for unusual behavior.  He is frustrated by the lack of stimulus, the lack of knowledge, the lack of fulfillment in his life.  He has become curious about the outside world and restless in the one he has called home for so long.

Isn’t this a statement that has been repeated time and again ever since we began this course?  We as the readers look at these “Utopias” and say to ourselves, “I wish there was more.”  And don’t the protagonists in the Utopian literature we have been reading say the same thing?  Utopia isn’t fulfilling.  It isn’t real.  It isn’t life.

In The Island, it’s plain to see that the agnates or clones are unhappy.  Day after day, their meals are dictated, their proximity is monitored, and their individuality is essentially snuffed out completely.  The only thing that is keeping these “humans” alive and (theoretically) away from a rebellion is the promise of the island.

Lincoln challenges that system though.  Its remarkable how one man with inside knowledge can cause the collapse of an entire society, a system that has been years in the making.  All it took was one man to ask the simple question: why?

On a completely unrelated note, I personally thought that the movie was…meh.  The beginning was really interesting until I figured out what was going on.  The concept and the idea of the movie was good, but the execution was not so good.  By the time the movie ended, I was so fed up with intense action sequences, you have no idea.  It seemed to me that Michael Bay just added the action to see how long he could make the movie.