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.