SUSAN BORDO!

Saturday Night Fever. Dir. John Badham. Perf. John Travolta. Paramount Pictures. 1979. Videocassette.

Saturday Night Fever is film that demonstrates the point where men changed their ways of viewing their own appearances. The main character, Tony Manero (John Travolta), is a vain young man. He spends most of his money on clothes, and most of his time perfecting his hairdo. This was revolutionary in the 1970s. Before this time, a man seen primping himself was thought to be a pimp or a homosexual. Even though the movie Saturday Night Fever pokes fun at Tony Manero’s narcissist ways, it also makes him a sort of hero. He has some admirable qualities such as standing up for gays and refusing to abide to racist ideals. This movie is ideal to demonstrate the gradual change that has driven heterosexual men to become more conscious of their looks without losing their masculinity.                                                                                                                                                                          

DFW

    

          David Foster Wallace’s address to the Kenyon College students had a very grim message to students. He says in his speech, “I'm going to be pissed and miserable every time I have to food-shop, because my natural default-setting is the certainty that situations like this are really all about me, about my hungriness and my fatigue and my desire to just get home.” This is describing the everyday ordeal he has to go through every day. He is telling the students that the future that they prepared for, which is supposed to be exciting and enlightening, will be boring and will consist of a routine.

        David F. Wallace also hints at the idea that “ignorance is bliss.” He states repeatedly that the liberal arts education that the students have obtained have made them “conscious” of many problems surrounding the world. He states “It is about simple awareness -- awareness of what is so real and essential, so hidden in plain sight all around us …” Here he is talking about the automated lives that people live, and that he and other people are aware of. One specific area of the speech that further pushed the idea that ignorance is bliss is when he says “It is not the least bit coincidental that adults who commit suicide with firearms almost always shoot themselves in the head.” He is stating that once people become aware of their petty boring lives, they see their end as something good. It is almost like he sees human lives the same as caged animals. They just have to eat, sleep, and keep on living.

       The fact that I knew that David F. Wallace committed suicide made me view certain aspects of the speech as a mirror to his own problems. One example of this is when he states that once a man becomes “conscious” a person has to work hard to make it “…to 30, or maybe 50, without wanting to shoot…”themselves in the head. Other ideas he throws at his audience that made me believe he was talking about his own life is that he stated that it is hard to stay conscious and alive at the same time.

       I believe David F. Wallace wants students to be prepared for the trivial lives they will lead. He wants them to understand that life will not be like a box of chocolates. This is true, and I myself think about how life will be like once I begin working a nine-to-five job, but he also misses the relationships people have between each other. He doesn’t discuss how the people you surround yourself with make a difference in your life. He only discusses the work aspect, and the routine.

Blog 4: The Banking Concept of Education

           Paulo Freire lists a number of problems with the education system in Brazil. These problems are also evident in the education system in the United States. Freire describes students as containers that are being “filled” with information. Eventually, people are filled with a large amount of information that serves no creative or problem-solving purpose. Students are forced to adapt to what the teachers want to teach, and thus the students have no true interest in the knowledge they are learning. Students do not develop “critical consciousness.”  

           This critical consciousness is what drives students to question ideas, and learn useful knowledge in order for society to become productive. Freire argues that the educational system that is currently used is oppressing the poor people. For example, Freire says “‘the capital of Para is Belem.’ The student records, memorizes, and repeats these phrases without perceiving … the true significance of "capital" in the affirmation ‘the capital of Para is Belem,’ that is, what Belem means for Para and what Para means for Brazil.” The banking concept of education is instilling knowledge in a way that will never be useful. Most importantly, it is not educating the students to revolt against an elitist society. It is not letting them get ahead in the world; rather it is hindering them from getting a proper education.

          According to Freire, the banking concept of education is a tool being used by the elites in society to oppress the poor. This leads Freire to reference Marx’s idea of a classless society. If the proletariats were to revolt and people were to form an economically unified society, the world would become more efficient and peaceful. Wars, hunger, and other catastrophes would be evaded. History would cease to be.

          Freire’s idea of the educating the proletariat to become conscious and revolting against the elites sounds to be the perfect idea to create a more humane world. The only problem with his ideology is that he forgets human nature to put material objects at a high value. Once the proletariats become educated, their entire human nature must be changed so that they do not fall back on an oppressive world, where they become the oppressors towards the former elites.

Research Paper

    

      Over the summer I volunteered at two different animal shelters. One was a “kill” shelter and the other was a “no-kill” shelter. I noticed that the no-kill shelter had to reject most animals that were abandoned because it was overcapacity. They refused to euthanize the defective dogs and cats and kept all of the “aggressive” dogs. The kill shelter had to reject as well. Even though they euthanize the unhealthy and aggressive animals, they still did not have enough room to take in the healthy animals. This made me realize that animal overpopulation is a gigantic problem in the United States, and all animal shelters are suffering because they cannot provide accommodations for these animals.

     The purpose of my research would be to find suitable options to contain companion animal population in the United States. I will have to explore the idea of euthanasia. The effect of “no-kill,” “low-kill,” and “high-kill” shelters will have to be addressed. Also, in the paper I will describe how spaying and neutering helps reduce animal population. Private dog/cat breeders will also be researched thoroughly, as well as “puppy-mills.”  Animal trapping, especially cat trapping will also be explored, as this is a new method of population control that has just recently been used.

      Many of the population control methods are very controversial. Many people are against any type euthanasia, and thus there will be some counterargument dealing with this, especially from large organizations such as PETA. Dog/cat breeders, as well as “puppy mills,” are controversial as people make a living out of breeding animals, and their livelihood is dependent on their animals. Animal trapping has also had a lot of reprisals, especially from wildlife associations who claim that trapping a feral cat for spaying or neutering is illegal as they are “wild” animals not pets.

      My research would involve looking at data that deals with how spaying and neutering has helped (or not helped) reduce the animal population in an area. Additionally, I would look at scientific journals written by veterinary researchers about euthanasia and its effects in animal control, as well as animal shelter productivity. Moreover, I would have to find sources that would define the differences between animal breeders and animal mills subjectively. This would help determine what the problems are with these types of breeding sites.

    I have found several sources to help me determine the correct method that would help contain the pet population in America. One source is called Redemption: The Myth of Pet Overpopulation and the No Kill Revolution in America. This book argues that animal shelters are unnecessarily killing thousands of animals every year. They describe a humane plan to protect and help animals. Another book called Shelter Medicine for Veterinarians and Staff talks about feral cat programs (cat trapping) and euthanasia (its pros and cons). This takes on a more objective and medical perspective. Another good source I have found is called Rescuing Rover: Saving America’s Dogs which discusses the dog overpopulation problem, covering puppy mills, pet stores, and backyard breeders.

The Achievement of Desire

The Achievement of Desire

      The Achievement of Desire by Richard Rodriguez is an autobiographical essay relating Rodriguez’ coming of age story.

       In the very first paragraph, Rodriguez mirrors himself with a young girl who is extremely enthusiastic about her school work. He says that “it is myself (as a boy) I see as she faces me now (a man in my thirties.”  Rodriguez sees himself in the girl because when he was younger he used to want to learn everything he could. He would spend his afternoons at school just so that he would be able to be with his teachers, whom he saw as authority figures.

      His parents encouraged his education, but eventually his education separated him from his parents. His parents could not help with his homework as English was their second language. Moreover, eventually Rodriguez saw his parents speaking in ways that his teachers would discourage. This led Rodriguez to feel a bit ashamed of his parents. Furthermore, when family members would come to visit and speak Spanish, Rodriguez would cower away and read in his room. The “Spanish sounds” did not attract him. He slowly cut away his Mexican roots, and rather chose to continue his American education.

     Eventually Rodriguez went off to college at Stanford University. He described his visits home to his parents as being cold and lacking in conversation. They would talk as if they did not know each other. With these words, it seems to me that Rodriguez regrets the fact that his education caused him separation from his family. He seems to feel alienated, and seems to want to reconnect with his parents.

  

      I feel like many students who come from families whom have recently immigrated to America would feel the same way as Rodriguez. Even I feel this way sometimes, as I have only just immigrated to America 10 years ago. It is not education that is the boundary separating me from the rest of my family though, it is the new culture. When Rodriguez chose to go to college outside of his home his parents asked him “Why aren’t colleges here in Sacramento good enough for you?” My grandparents and my mother asked me the same thing when I left to come to Gainesville. It is just not common in my country to leave one’s home to go to college. Everyone just goes to the local college, and studies there.

The Pain Scale

       
       Eula Biss wrote “The Pain Scale,” utilizing elements such as mathematics, Dante’s Inferno, her personal experience, and different scales. Her piece is so convoluted with ideas that it creates a strange mixture that reads as an objective piece. This is strange given that pain is subjective.
               Biss’ essay repeats the idea of the number zero being different from the rest of the numbers. She says “Zero is not a number...It does not add, subtract or multiply like other numbers.” She then goes off to state that “Aristotle did not believe in zero.” This is surprising, as Aristotle is considered one of the most influential physicists. She also says zero in a mathematical proof can equal to one. Thus, it leads one to believe she is questioning the use of such forms of categorization. Basically, she is stating that these items are human made, and not a concrete “law.” She furthers this idea by informing the reader that years ago surgery was performed on babies without pain medication. This was done because it was believed babies did not have “fully developed nervous systems necessary to feel pain.” This idea that used to be a fact is now known to be completely false.
               Biss’ continual use of science and scales demonstrates her need to make pain objective. Biss mentions the definition of pain that the International Association of the Study of Pain conjured. She did this in order to limit the idea of pain. She furthers the idea of objectivity by comparing the pain scale to the Beaufort scale of wind power. The scale offers not just a number, but a term for the wind speed and a brief description. This is something that she references throughout her essay in order to make sense of her own pain.

               Never does the reader understand the specifics of Biss’ pain. She states that there are “…No marks. No swelling. No terrible tumor... There was nothing to illustrate my pain…” She then discusses different types of pain. For example, she states “the longer the pain persisted, and the harder it became for me to imagine what it was like not to be in pain, the more seriously I considered the disturbing possibility that I was not, in fact, in pain.” She states that 50% of Americans claim to be in pain. This surprises her, and makes her question her own pain. Biss’ seems to push the idea that pain could be a confabulation of the mind.  

Michael Pollan Summary "Why Bother?"

Why Bother? ...

The article by Michael Pollan discusses reasons to NOT GIVE UP on decreasing your carbon foot print. He explains that one person can make a difference by setting the example for other people to follow. He believes that "conciousness will be raised"  and possibly harmful habits can be changed. He gives several ideas as to how this could be done. For example, he says a person could stop eating meat, stop all economic/driving activity for a day, and most importantly start their own garden. Pollan states that growing yor own produce can make a big difference. He says "It's estimated that they way we feed ourselves...accounts for a fifth of greenhouse gas for which each of us is responsible." Pollan references that problems with climate change are in the near future, and coaxes his readers to try to make a change before it is too late. Something that he repeated through his text was that, newly developed nations (China, etc.) where not concious of the climate change, and that if Americans became concious  "...a process of viral social change..." could occur throughout the world.