Shaun of the Dead

  The movie Shaun of the Dead shows many similar horror aesthics that most zombie horror movies contain, which this movie takes from the movie Dawn of the Dead.  Like in Shaun of the Dead the zombies had to bite a victim to reproduce more zombies such as in Dawn of the Dead where the zombies bit their victims to create more of themselves.

  One part of the movie that is shown throughout the movie is the fact that Shaun is depicted as a zombie before z-day and then circles back to his zombie like characteristics at the end of the movie.  This is shown at the ending he yawns and shuffles his feet in the morning like a zombie and then at the end yawns again.  Also as Z-day is happening around him, which he is oblivious to it by walking right past chaos, buying his drink and sitting on the couch.  This circle motion of the movies is like Kellner’s point of things starting at one point and going full circle. 

  Then Shaun, his friends and his mother have to act like zombies to get past them to get to the bar.  And at first it works showing even the zombies oblivious to whats going on around them because clearly Shaun and his friends and mom are acting like zombies and are not zombies themselves.

Apex Hides the Hurt

  The history of the town of Winthrop in the novel Apex Hides the Hurt by Whitehead is facinating to me because in a lot of ways it is like American history.  The free slaves founded the town but then white men took the town from them and rename the town to make it now their town, Winthrop.  In a lot of ways this is like our history of how America was founded with Christopher Columbus landing on a piece of land and has people move in and says he discovers America but the Native Americans always had the land and it was theirs to start with. 

  The town of Winthrop plan to tear down the town library to build Outfit Outlet, a chain of stores.  But if there is no library then no one has to admit that the slaves founded the town first and there would be no records because there would be no library.

Identidy and Hall

  Stuart Hall discusses the idea of identidy and how a person is defined internally then what other people think.  One example is in Apex Hides the Hurt by Whitehead.  In this novel it show that free slaves founded the town and the white men took over the town and renamed it Winthrop.  But without the slaves or other people, which then the white men wouldn’t have the town.

  A common recent example of this is with music, rap.  Black rappers invented rap music but when Eminem, white rapper, takes their rap and makes it his own.  Without first having rap invented by black people then Eminem would not have became a famous white rapper.

Paper Topic and Ideas

  I am doing my paper on love in the postmodern novel and I will use the relationship of the narrator and Marla in Fight Club, the novel.  I am also going to describe my definition of love by looking at people’s depictions of love in recent movies or other books.  Then i will describe the depiction of love in Fight Club and distinguish both the portrayals. 

  I have two sources in mind.  One is Love and Death in the American Novel by Fiedler and Postmodernist Fiction by Brian McHale (when I get it from SUNY Albany’s library). 

  I really haven’ t thought of specific theorists yet.  McHale can be used because he talks about ontological and epistemological questions and love is epistemological. 

  I am working on a thesis but I  need to  research more about my topic to pinpoint my arguement I will discuss in my paper. 

Galatea 2.2: The ending

  The ending was not to be suspected of happening like it did in the ending of Galatea 2.2.  The conclusion of this novel is a lot like the life of Richard Powers the author.  Helen, the computer model that Lentz and Powers the character made becomes human like when Powers reads books to Helen, current events and then talks to the computer about C and his own life.

   When Powers talks to Helen about his own life, which he begins a relationship with the computer.  That is weird and unnatural to fall in love with the very thing that he made, a computer.  Helen can not live in the real world and shuts herself off and tells Powers to see everything in the world.  The shutdown of Helen ends up in Powers favor because it creates Powers to change and interact with people better and he can write again.  So is Powers the author writing about himself and how he came to write his book.

  Also Powers finally finds out that Lentz was using Powers as his own experiment and does not end up like Lentz wanted but changes his whole personality or self and starts to write novels again.

McHale’s Theory on Postmodernism

  In all the theorists that we have studied so far, which I think I agree with McHale’s theory on postmodernism.  One idea I agree with  is the idea is that postmodernism did not take over modernism as a movement.  Ryan states in his blog, “McHale is against the notion that modernism ended and then there was postmodernism, but instead that postmodernism is a continuation of the modernism movement, and that postmodernism is modernism but with a new face.” I agree with that because I always thought that postmodernism is a movement instead of a time period and modernism is still going on including postmodernism.

  The other idea with McHale is the dominant idea.  According to him if a person believes that a novel is about a certain topic or looks at a novel a certain way than that person’s reading will be like his or her intrepreation of the novel.  When a read Harry Potter the first time, which I knew it was awesome from all my friends told me it was a good read so I liked the book.  McHale would say that I had a good response going into reading the book so Harry Potter became a good read.

  The last idea that was interesting to me was the transhistorical party.  The idea of blending other items into one setting has a name and is important to the idea of postmodernism is interesting.  The ideas like Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, cartoon movies like Space Jam all are examples of this idea because they blend two things of the epistelogical and ontological but coexist like its normal.

Galatea 2.2

  The novel Galatea 2.2 by Richard Powers is a very unique book that takes a lot of rereading to understand the plot or story line behind it.  Richard Powers is the main character of the story and the narrator, which is the author’s name also.   Some people beleive that Richard Powers the character and Richard Powers the author are the same person and that he wrote about his life.

  There are a lot of stereotypes in this novel.  According to readers scientists only know about science topics but the scientists in this book have knowledge about literary information.  Postmodernism is the fusing of science and literature like the scientists.  Lentz is an example of a scientist that has a lot of knowledge about literary genres.  He tells the narrator that he read all his books and critiques his books.

  Thr narrator states, “Repeated experience and selection taught these synapses thier ABC’s.  The machine grew.  It advanced from babbling infancy to verbal youth.  In half a day, the network progressed from “googoo daadaa” to a thousand comprehensible words. Three hundred simlulated cells had learned to read aloud.  No one told it how.  No one helped it plough through tough dough.  The cell connections, like the gaps they emulated, taught themselves, with the aid of iterated reinforcement” (30).  This is an example of how the neural net works and it is compared to children’s speech.  Lentz in a way is programming Richard just like the neural net, and Lentz is trying to make his own humanist production.

Nikki Lee’s Photos

  Nikki Lee is a unique photographer in that she can assimilate into a photograph of different people and show to her audience somehting about that place, the people or the world.  One of her photos called the Ohio project is of her and a man with a shot gun.  It would be a different perspective if the man would be looking at the camera that would make both Nikki and this man objectifying themselves to the audience and therefore making the audience an object.  Another thing in this photo is that the man has potato chips and a drink where Nikki has just a drink, which is she trying to portray that American women are concerned too much of their weight so we eat very little food.

  The next drastic change are two photos that Nikki Lee name the Tourist project.  First the photo with her and other women at the Rockafeller building, which all the women in the photo are dressed the same and look like they are not from New York City but just visiting.  Here Nikki looks completely different and assimilates well with these people.  The other photo is herself beneath the Statue of Liberty with her hand up.  By Nikki putting her hand up that shows the audience that she is an immigrant grateful to be in America.  One point to all her photos is that if she can assimilate well with other people, which then who is she and what is her identidy as an individual. By her being in different backgrounds and trying to fit with everyone did Nikki lose her own identidy.

Ideas on Cindy Sherman

  There are two pictures that we talked in class that I want to discuss.  The picture of Britney Spears taken in 1999 by David LaChapelle and the self portrait of Cindy Sherman, Film Still #6.  Even though both pictures are taken in a similar position but each picture conveys a different message than the other picture.

  There are  a lot of differences between both pictures.  The Cindy Sherman picture almost gives the impression that she is dead because she has that manicin look to her or that she is looking up in a daze.  The portrait is conveying that women’s role is dead in a good way as saying that women do not have to be just homemakers and take care of the children but can be out in the work place with the men. 

  The other picture taken by David LaChapelle of Britney Spears looks like that he is mimicing Cindy Sherman’s work with her being in a similar position but the way it is done gives the audience a different message.  Britney is holding a telly tubby and a phone and looking straight at the camera to her viewers.  Also she is wearing bra and underwear but her bra is a push up to accent her breasts and she looks almost provacative.

Fight Club and the Ending

  The ending of the book Fight Club ends open ended and leaves the readers with a lot of questions.  The narrator states, “The angels here are the Old Testament kind, legions and lieutenants, a heavenly host who works in shifts, days, swing.  Graveyard.  They bring you your meals on a tray with a paper cup of meds.  The Valley of the Dolls playset” (198).  All these images such as the angels and them bringing food and meds on a tray show that the narrator at the end of the book is in a mental institution.

  It does not end with Marla except for the end the narrator mentions that he calls her on the phone from the hospital and talks to her instead of hanging up on her.  And he does not want to go back to his life outside this hospital because he refers to it as heaven adn he can sleep there. People from fight club also work there and talk to him. And the last line the one of the fight club/project mahem members states, “We look foward to getting you back” (199). That line can be interpreted in so many ways. One way is that this member means it and welcomes his leader back.  Another way is that he dislikes the leader and will beat or kill the leader.

  The ending drastically is different in the book from the movie. The movie ended with a hollywood ending with the narrator killing Tyler, then Marla and the narrator hold hands as the buildings come crashing down leading the audience to believe that life goes on and they will be together. Then the book ends with the narrator killine Tyler but going into a mental instituion, Marla is not there but he talks to her and fight club and project mahem are still going on.