Prompt 1

The text I have chosen to write about for the first prompt was our reading for last Wednesday, Topic and Face, Inductive and Deductive Patterns of Discourse. I chose this reading to cause I found it very interesting. Before reading this, I had never thought about how their could be different patterns in phone conversations that somewhat run across cultural lines, and due to the type of relationship the two callers have. I have taken a linguistics class before this in a previous semester, and this text reminded me of how interesting studying language and speech can be.What I found most  interesting and useful was the explanation of the person in the conversation who takes shorter pauses usually dominates the conversation and it’s topic. I found this information helpful being and International Business minor because it reminded me that in some cultures, waiting, and not being the first to speak and dominate the conversation is more polite and correct.

I also liked this article because I think it helps explain why people often have certain cultural and language barriers. As I wrote about in my Intercultural Communication Breakdown post, language barriers can be difficult when working wu

Intercultural Communication Breakdown

One intercultural communication breakdown I experienced happened last semester in a marketing class I took. In this class, there were many international students, and for one of our main projects we were all assigned to random groups. I was in a group with three other student, and two were international. One groups member was from Mexico and the other was from China. When our group first met to simply introduce ourselves, we even had trouble pronouncing each others names and trying to arrange a time to have weekly meetings. When we did have our weekly meetings, often when we were discussing the project the international students would have to spend extra time trying to make their point because they could not find the words they wanted to use as easily in english. Our one group member from China would often type into his phone what he was trying to tell us and translate it into english. This language barrier was very difficult when trying to collaborate on a cohesive paper and presentation. All the group members wanted to contribute and help one another, but it was hard to communicate when two of our group members native languages were Spanish and Chinese. By the end of the project we were much better at understanding each other, and helping each other communicate, but it was still difficult to be able to fully explain what we wanted.

fight club movie v. book

Hannah Stover

11-18-2013

movie vs. book Fight Club

 

After reading Fight Club the novel, and watching the movie, I think that there are more similarities than I expected there to be. Often, movies based on books are not similar and do not portray the point or characters as they are in the novel. One theme in the novel that was very prominent was consumerism, and how it is becoming a problem in society. The obsession the narrator has with his IKEA furniture and his belongings in his apartment are in my opinion, represented almost exactly the same in the novel and the movie. In the novel, Tyler’s goal is to have the narrator, all of his followers, and eventually the whole world hit their “rock bottom”, in both the movie and novel, Tyler is very adamant about this point and his quotes are identical in both versions. Another similarity in the novel and the movie is the rules fight club, project mayhem, and the rules of both organizations. The movie sticks very closely to the book’s portrayal of the importance of the rules of fight club and project mayhem, the narrator, and especially Tyler and his followers always recite the rules and carry out the missions the way they are recited and carried out in the novel.

One important difference between the book and the movie is the complicated relationship involving Tyler, the narrator, and Marla. In the novel, it is not as obvious that Marla is attracted to the narrator and that he is equally attracted to her, the movie shows Marla wanting to be with the narrator, but every morning he tells her to leave, because he is not the personality of Tyler at that time. This makes Marla upset and it is clear that she knows that the narrator is crazy, or really has a split personality now. The tension between the narrator and Marla is obvious from the beginning in the movie, he still is upset she is at the meetings, but the way it is seen by the audience is that in the future, the narrator and Marla will have some type of complicated relationship. 

fight club analysis

Hannah Stover

11-8-2013

ENG 112

In the novel “Fight Club” by Chuck Palahniuk, Tyler Durden and the Narrator begin a simple fight in a bar one night, which eventually turns into a fight club. Tyler Durden is a radical character who wants to bring society to anarchy due to his belief that there is social inequality and that that inequality can only be changed by having everyone in society hit their rock bottom. The Narrator, before he meets Tyler, is an insomniac who goes to support group meeting that he does not even have the condition for to make himself feel better and sleep at night. After the Narrator meets Tyler and they have their bar fight, Tyler begins to change the way the Narrator thinks, eventually turning him into someone almost as angry at the world as himself, and trying to find a way to hit rock bottom. The Narrator finds a new way to hit his all time low through being a part of fight club, losing his possessions, and feel like a man. It can be argued that that hitting rock bottom is the only way for society to feel renewed and satisfied because identifying to much with material items takes away from your identity and happiness in your own accomplishments.

When the Narrator’s apartment blows up, he loses everything that was in it, all his furniture that he prized so much. The Narrator talked about his IKEA furniture as if it was something he has worked hard to produce, or as if it was something great he had accomplished. “My Haparanda sofa group with the orange slip covers, design by Erika Pekkari, it was trash, now” (Palahniuk 43) and “It took my whole life to buy this stuff” (Palahniuk 44). When Tyler Durden begins to steer the Narrator toward rock bottom, he wants him to realize that this furniture and consumerism is what is wrong with society. The fact that the Narrator is totally devastated by his cheap furniture being obliterated demonstrates that many people in society invest to much in material things and not enough in their own accomplishments.

Another way the men in Fight Club began to detach themselves from materialistic belongings was to join the fight club that Tyler and the Narrator began and spread around the world. The fight club, although extremely violent and brutal, made the men feel free and relaxed the day after. The fight club gave them more confidence and self appreciation, as if they have found happiness in something non material. “even a week after fight club, you’ve got no problem driving inside the speed limit…after fight club your so relaxed, you just cannot care” (Palahniuk 139). the fight club give the men who join the escape they need from the pressures of consumerism and the need for getting identity from material belongings. Fight club makes the fighters want to accomplish something and have scars to show what they are a part of and personally worked for, not bought in a store like a piece of furniture. What the men who fight gain at fight club is something that cannot be destroyed and taken away from them, and they can prove that to anyone without saying anything or having to be of a certain social class.

The way Tyler Durden approaches his movement toward elimination of identity through owning material things and breaking down social inequality is radical, violent, and illogical in many ways. Though when looked at for the main message of what Palahniuk wants the reader to contemplate through the views and ideas of the character of Tyler Durden is that only having pride in material items you own will not make you happy, or give you true self gratification. Material items can be swept away at any moment, unlike fight scars and the feeling of winning, something such as a fight, just as the men did in fight club. 

122 passage fight club

One theme in this passage that is very prominent is the creation of anarchy, especially through violence. When the narrator totally demolishes “mister angel face” Tyler knows that fight club is not reaching the goal that the men and the narrator want, and especially the goals he wants himself. This is when Tyler creates “Project Mayhem”, his radical movement to start the world moving toward anarchy.

The men that already follow Tyler and go to fight club are very numerous now including all classes and professions of people. One concern that this brings up for our society is the idea that people are willing to believe and work for such a destructive, and brutal idea through violence. They believe that when humanity is destroyed and brought back to total anarchy, such as the idea of Tyler’s that :mankind will retreat to empty zoos and lock itself in cages as protection against bears and cats and wolves that pace and watch us from  outside the cage bars at night” (124). It is concerning that people would be willing to go along with these ideas and allow themselves to be brainwashed into thinking that this was what is best for the world and mankind. Everyone who follows Tyler eventually develops and extremely hostile attitude toward themselves and the world, and Tyler tell them that this violence such as fight club and Project Mayhem is a way to get relief, revenge, and justice at the same time.

“Gattaca”

Hannah Stover

10-28-2013

Gattaca response

 

In the movie “Gattaca”, all people have the opportunity to have their children genetically engineered to be perfectly smart and healthy, or born naturally and leave all to chance. Regardless of what the parents choose, at the time of birth, a persons life expectancy, and chances for mental and physical diseases and disabilities can be predicted, and what percent chance the person has of actually having the diseases. The main character, Jerome Morrow, who’s real name is Vincent, takes on the identity of the real Morrow, who is now paralyzed, and uses his blood and other physical features and aspects to have a false and favorable identity. Vincent does this to reach become closer to his goal of going into space. Multiple times, after the death of the missions director is being investigated, Jerome Morrow is almost discovered for who he really is “a broken latter”, because he was not born with the genetically engineered qualities that people like the real Morrow had. It is argued in the movie “Gattaca” that predetermining humans genetic make up is harmful to society because it creates severe divide between everyone in society.

In “Gattaca”, when Vincent is born and his parents discover that he is probably going to have a short life and heart problems, they are worried and dejected. His parents decide to have another son, who they choose the physical and mental make up for, creating a near perfect son. In his family, Vincent sees that his younger brother is the favorite, and that he is also stronger and smarter than him. Every time he and his brother see who can swim further into the ocean before turning back, his brother would win. Vincent knew he could not beat his brother and he knew why, which created an unfair tension among them as brothers. Another example is the real Jerome Morrow himself. He was a star swimmer and the perfect man before he had an injury and was paralyzed. After he became wheelchair bound, he was left to himself and seen as unfavorable and useless.       

Works Cited/ Bibliography

 

 

Bruggencate, Janet Ten. “Blue Shark May Be on Road to Recovery.” Honolulu Advertiser 18 June 2000: n. pag. Web. 6 Nov. 2000.

Elliot, Carmen. Personal interview. 10 Oct. 2003.

Fisher, Janet H. “Comparing Electronic Journals and Print Journals: Are There Savings?” Ed. Richard Ekman and Richard E. Quandt. Technology and Scholarly Communication (1999): 95-101. University of California Press. Print.

Harden, Mark. Picasso the Legend. The Archive, n.d. Web. 6 Nov. 2000.

Reagan, Michael D. Curing the Crisis: Options for American Health Care. Boulder: Westview, 1992. Print.

Waite, Linda J., Frances Korbin Goldscheider, and Christina Witsberger. “Nonfamily Living and the Erosion of Traditional Family Orientations Among Young Adults.” American Sociological Review 51.10 (1986): 541-54. Web.

 

Hannah Stover, 10- 14-13. Eng. 112 MLA exercise

Hannah Stover

10-7-2013

eng.112 reoccurring theme 2 pgs.

In “The Handmaid’s Tale” by Margaret Atwood, many themes reoccur and overlap through out the story. In this novel, the government and those in positions of authority do not always practice what they preach. The aunts, commanders, and wives all claim to be supportive of the rules and unrelentingly enforce them, but at the same time they are sneaking out, breaking the laws and even arranging secret meetings for those like in positions like Offred. Although this society attempts to portray its self as a strict unwavering utopia, hypocrisy, lies, and secrecy are lying right under the surface of what Gilead appears to be.

This continuing trend of secret rule bending and breaking in “The Handmaid’s Tale” is seen as early as page 14 “Even now that there is no real money anymore, there’s still a black market. There’s always a black market, there’s always something that can be exchanged”. The trading on the black market in Gilead consists of small, simple items like cigarettes, alcohol, and some old magazines. The trading and bribing done with the black market items was another way to force women in situations like Offred to perform certain tasks for women like the wives, and for those like the commander to form relationships, just like he did with Offred. The aunts, like Lydia and Rita who work at the centers that train Offred and her fellow handmaid’s are supposedly forbidden to read like all women are, but of course there are exceptions to this rule, because the aunts have a position of authority “for every rule there is always an exception: this too can always be depended upon. The aunts are allowed to read and write” (129). The aunts, although they are women, are given an exception possibly to keep them happy and give them incentive to suppress the other women and perform the tasks they must required for their job. If the aunts were not allowed to read they would not be satisfied with or see benefits to their positions and basically be on the same level as handmaid’s and Martha’s.

Another profound example of this hypocrisy is Offred’s meetings with the commander which lead to him taking her out to the old hotel that has now been turned into a “club”. The commander himself, one of the highest figures of authority in the strict regime that forces Offred to live the life that women do justifies his rule breaking actions at the club “I thought this sort of thing was strictly forbidden, I say. “Well officially, but everyone is human after all” (237). The commander condones breaking the rules for himself and the officials, which are mostly men, but does not include women like Offred in this category of “humans” that need a break from strict, unpleasant way of living.

No society can truly follow all rules it establishes for itself and without always having some type of exception of bending of the laws. Gilead is extremely hypocritical in multiple aspects, causing even more tension between those in power and those not.   

10-4 historical notes analysis

Hannah Stover

October 4, 2013

The historical notes at the end of “The Handmaid’s Tale” is a conference type setting of historians who study the time of Gilead, when Offred was alive. “The Handmaid;s Tale” itself, the novel we just read is actually a type of diary kept by Offred. After reading the historical notes, it is somewhat clearer about where much of the story was taking place, and how the society of Gilead came to be. Many of the bible references are explained, such as “the top-secret Gilead Think Tanks” (Atwood 306) where some of the top officials and commanders in the government came up with the rules for the handmaid’s.

Although some aspects of the Gileadean culture and the reasoning behind them are explained, it does raise new questions about Offred and the rest of society. What were the Purges and discarding of their own documents good for? On pages 308-309, it is obvious that the creators of the society of Gilead knew that many men were sterile because of a virus. If this was already known, why was the blame put on the women made just, and backed up by all society? Why did The new regime not try to fix the problems with the males instead of use twisted biblical stories to target the handmaid’s? One interesting evaluation of the historians who are studying Gilead is that none of them ever actually criticize or condemn the regime for what it did, at one point in the address to the other specialists on Gilead, Professor Pieixoto says “Gileadean society was under a great deal of pressure, demographic and otherwise… Our job is not to censure but to understand” (Atwood 302). Although the time of Gilead seems to be over, is the government still similar to that of Gileads? On page 303, it is stated that the tapes they have found are from one hundred and fifty years ago, which is not such a long time in the scheme of all history. This passage of the historical notes reinforces our ideas about how strict, authoritarian, and secretive the Gileadean government was over its people and policies.

One of the biggest questions the historical notes raises is did Offred ever escape? One indicator that she did is the same tapes. “Obviously, it could not have been recorded during the period of time it recounts, since, if the author is telling the truth, no machines or tapes would have been available to her…It has a whiff of emotion recollected, if not tranquility, at least post fact” (Atwood 303). This suggests that Offred did get out, and that these tapes were a retelling of her story after she had escaped. Although the historical notes answer many questions, they seem to raise more about the novel, and in my opinion, make it more engaging and intriguing.

137-140 summary

Summary:

In this passage in “The Handmaid’s Tale” Offred is asked to go to the Commanders office for the first time. When she goes in, he asks her to play scrabble with him, and just talk. While Offred is in the room playing games, she is constantly wondering what the commander will want in return for her visit. In the end, the commander does ask her for one thing, just that Offred kiss him before she “goes home” to her room.