Blogging Around: Leanne and Brandon

As soon as I knew we had to do a "Blogging Around" blog, I went to Leanne's page, because I remembered when I was looking around for inspiration for my last "What if?" blog, I was extremely amused by hers, about what would happen if the world was ruled by boys. After reading it again, I commented:

Leanne, this blog was extremely creative and funny, just like how you are everyday in class. First of all, I loved how, instead of going down the path of least resistance and talking about short stories, you picked a new, unexplored topic to talk about.
Your voice in this post was really captivating because from knowing you, one can tell how sarcastic you are. The last line especially really emphasized the irony of this whole rant. Isn't it scary how about half of the things you discussed are true? (or at least in many guy's minds)I would have loved to read your "upcoming" post about if women ruled the world. :]

I also read Brandon's blog about writing our story fragments. I really liked his insights because they also affected me when we first got this assignment. We were both a bit put off and nervous at first, but realized that it was actually very rewarding and helpful to write our fragments. I wrote:

I felt the same way when we started talking about writing short stories. When I was younger, I always tried to start novels that I thought would make me rich and famous. I had really big aspirations, but a very small amount of patience; most of these future Pulitzer winners never made it past a few pages.
I also really have enjoyed Mr. Allen's ways of writing, just freeing your mind, and then editing and going deeper later. I also love the feeling that we don't have to come up with a full story on the first try, it really making writing the whole story much more fulfilling and meaningful.

Best of Week: School Board Issue

One problem that Mr. Allen posed to us recently was that the school board was challenging his teaching of Cathedral, because it supposedly relayed the message that marijuana and alcohol are fabulous tools that help you have epiphanies. He asked us to think about what argument we would pose to break down that claim. I thought this was an excellent assignment because it really make us not just think about the story, but why it was an important story to read. Unfortunately, we have not yet gotten to really discuss our responses in class, but I think it would be great to hear different perspectives on this issue.

His situation made me think about how much outside information really affects a person's decisions. As Mr. Allen said, a school board might ban a story from being read in school, but they can't sensor the fusillade of images of drugs, drinking and sex that bombards students from every other possible outlet. Throughout the media, these are very common themes, and the most popular shows on TV are usually based upon the big three taboos. So would a school board really think that by outlawing one short story, they are making a difference? And ironically enough, Cathedral doesn't even advocate the use of booze or pot, it merely mentions them as a fact of life for the character. Earlier this year, we read the Kite Runner, in which a character attempts suicide, another societal taboo. Should that book also be banned, because it might encourage students to do the same? If this argument was applied to every novel, short story, movie or play we learned about through school, we'd be left reading Winnie-the-Pooh and Little House on the Prairie until we're of voting age.

I also think Mr. Allen's question helped us notice that those "inappropriate" elements were not the important part of the story; it put them in context, in perspective. Sure, as soon as we read about Bub toking up, everyone chuckled and nudged each other, "Oh boy, reading about drugs in school". But by addressing these issues and putting the spotlight on them for a moment, Mr. Allen showed how they weren't really important to the overall message of the story.

What if? : I was in the Matrix

This week, we took our Heart of Darkness test, which included writing a paragraph connecting it to the Matrix. Throughout this whole unit, the idea of a Matrix-esque society has really piqued my interest. The scariest thing about science fiction movies is that, since they are set in the future, it's much easier to believe they could happen, or in the case of the Matrix, be happening right now. I'm honestly not sure what I would do if I discovered my whole life was a series of numbers created by machines, using my very life-force as a Duracell battery.

First of all, like Neo, I would probably be stuck in denial for a good period of time. I'd also be freaking out because of all the creepy metal holes all over my body; I'm extremely squeamish about things like that. I'd definitely try to rationalize this, think it was a dream, and repeatedly try to "wake up". After numerous failures, I'd probably just have a breakdown. I really don't know if I could handle it: knowing that my life really wasn't my own, it was just a sham, a little cyberworld. Presuming that I am not the One, the person destined to save the world, I think I would much rather head back into my little fairytale world and forget about it. Especially since the only other option, living in the real world, entails living on a tiny little ship, on a decrepit earth with no sunlight, no civilization, no hope.

I wonder how the writers of the Matrix originally got the idea. Here's a nice "what if": What if we actually are all in the Matrix, but the machines created this movie to try and convince the rest of us, the nice little vegetables, that since it's a movie, it can't be true? It's silly, but can you ever really know for sure?

Connection: Mr. Kurtz and the Wizard of Oz

"What can you expect!" he burst out; "he came to them with thunder and lightning, you know-and they had never seen anything like it - and very terrible. He could be very terrible. You can't judge Mr. Kurtz as you would an ordinary man. No, no, no! Now - just to give you an idea - I don't mind telling you, he wanted to shoot me too one day - but I don't judge him."

This description of Mr. Kurtz on page 56 immediately caused me to picture the giant, looming head of the Wizard of Oz, his relentless power and control. In the story, a girl named Dorothy and her motley bunch of friends including a animated scarecrow, tin man and lion, go on a quest for the Wizard, because they have heard from others that he has magical powers and can grant their wishes. They proceed to go on a difficult trek in order to find him, and once they do, they discover that he is actually an ordinary man who is very manipulative and frail.

It's easy to see that if you swap Dorothy for Marlow and set the scene in Africa, it's almost exactly the same story. The natives (like the Munchkins) saw their idols as all-knowing and deserving of worship, because they had been charmed through their respective special talents. Since Heart of Darkness was written just a year before the Wizard of Oz, it almost seems as if the story is alluding to to novel.

This realization lead me to realize how disappointed I really was with Mr. Kurtz. Like Dorothy and Marlow, I though he would be this incredible guy with amazing insight and intelligence, but from the book, I really did not get that feeling at all. I felt like there was not enough textual evidence to convince me of his awesomeness, and that really lowered my view of the book. This made me to connect more with Dorothy, because she actually saw that the Wizard was this pathetic little man, while Marlow still thought of Mr. Kurtz as amazing. I thought, as the reader and not being Marlow, I did not truly get a feel of why he was so great. (This could also be because there was some evidence, but it was so deeply entrenched with ridiculous amounts of extraneous detail and hyphens that I could not find it.)