This Blog = Punishable by Death or Imprisonment
4 November 2009
There is a distinct irony inherent in the power of the Party’s control in Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four. The crux of their power lies in the naiveté of the general public: their willingness to believe uncritically what is told to them, a willingness born of fear, and yet the execution of the Party’s power relies heavily on the sharp minds of the very public that Big Brother is trying to control. For instance, the act of writing is not allowed. Recording events, like keeping a diary (or writing a blog), is not “illegal” in the technical sense of the word, but could result in death or imprisonment, so any attempts to “communicate with the future” are highly risky to say the least. And yet it is Winston’s job to communicate and craft a reality for the future that is in compliance with the Party’s doctrines. The difference is that the diary promotes individual thought and subjective, uncontrolled reality, while the other is a highly crafted conformist reality. The thing is, Winston could do neither of these acts without an element of creativity and free thought. The very seed of individualism and creativity that leads Winston on his journey with the diary is the very thing that he draws upon when he fabricates fictionalized realities like that of Comrade Ogilvy.
Additionally, the double standard of control and reliance is seen with the character of Syme. Winston knows with certainty that one day Syme will be vaporized because he lacked “a sort of saving stupidity.” Unfortunately for Syme, the very thing that makes him so good at his job of language de-creation, if you will, is the thing that will get him killed in the end. Syme’s analytical and philosophical grasp of Newspeak with the implications and possibilities inherent in its execution provide Syme with an artistic reverence toward his job. While he crafts the language into simplicity, his knowledge of what he does ensures a finely crafted framework for future expressions of reality; this is exactly what Big Brother would like. And yet this insight is dangerous in one person, and so Syme’s insight and linguistic artisanship solidifies his fate.
In the world of Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, the characteristics that ensure a functioning role in society are also the ones that the Party seeks to suppress. There is a contrary nature in the reality of the novel; “even to understand the word DoubleThink involved the use of DoubleThink” and so there exists a simultaneous suppression and reliance on the individual members of the society to be able to access the very abilities and thought processes that they are told to control.
Feeding the Monster
21 July 2009
It has been a little over 10 days since my last post. I could say that it is because I took the GRE last week and I was all wrapped up in the preparations. That wouldn’t be a lie-I did and I was. But it isn’t the entire truth. You see, the thing is, I was reading New Moon. And after my scathing rant about Twilight, I was embarrassed to be reading the second in the series. But there I was-every night before bed, reading just a little more. I kept thinking that I wasn’t going to finish this one, because really-it was SO BLAND. I mean, blander than Michael Feldman’s Whad’Ya Know, blander than the most boring tapioca pudding you can imagine. (Although, I rather like tapioca pudding.) Bella actually says that “compared to the fear that he didn’t want me, this hurdle-my soul-seemed almost insignificant,” and, AND, she laments “I don’t trust myself to be…enough. To deserve you. There’s nothing about me that could hold you.” So not only does nothing really happen in the book, but Bella is blatantly saying that relationships are about entrapment, and that her very own soul is not as important as Edward’s attention. And of course she doesn’t deserve him. Hell, she is a girl. Do girls deserve any of the men that deign to look at them? (note well the sarcasm and disgust.)
And yet… I kept reading. This is where my epiphany lies.
Let me back track a bit. Last year, (or was it two years ago?) I would visit a certain website daily for all my movie news. This website would be third on the list of my morning web-rounds, and I would read the silver screen updates. And THEN. Then, I would rant to my husband that night about the utter stupidity of the website’s executive editor. I would marvel at how this guy could run a website about movies, when he SO CLEARLY had a) an aversion to fact-checking, b) no conception of the history of Hollywood cinema- for him, movies did not exist before 1982, and c) the persona of an unrefined, immature, and unprofessional moron. Yes. I HATED THIS WEBSITE. And yet I would visit it every day for about a year, because it fueled my day. A little bit of hate and disgust with my morning coffee was just what I needed to set me out into the world with a smugness that I just couldn’t find anywhere else. Twilight does this for me. Heather B. Armstrong recently posted something that resonated so strongly with me: “my righteous indignation, it flared up so magnificently that I sat down to read the whole book, just so that I could be angry at it. WHO DOES SHIT LIKE THIS?“
I do, Heather. I do.
My husband and I call it my Alex Billington Syndrome. Everything that annoys me is dubbed an A-Bill, or some version thereof. I eventually stopped visiting the site, and I now wonder what fueled my self-righteousness in the period between First Showing.net and the Twilight series. I wonder what I will do when I have finished Stephanie Meyer’s handbooks for co-dependent and abusive relationships. I ask you, people, what will I direct my self-important, superior rants at?
I am sure I will find something. If nothing surfaces, there is always Ann Coulter’s Bookstore.
Know Thy Enemy. Its Name is Twilight.
1 July 2009
Here is the post on the second backlogged book that I had mentioned-the first being Jane Eyre and the second is Twilight. Unlike Jane Eyre, my reasons for reading Twilight are not only relevant, but necessary, as I can’t allow myself to let anyone out there think that I read Twilight because of a willing interest. No, no, no. I read the book because I realized, during yet another debate with my friend about the evils of the Twilight gender models, that I was a complete hypocrite-because although I may be right, and Twilight is an evil re-imagining of the vapid, helpless princess stories for a new era, I had never actually read the book. And let’s be honest- How annoying is it when someone spouts off all this OPINION, without even doing their homework? It’s pretty damn annoying and self-righteous, and I was that person. So in order to confront my own hypocrisy and lend some actual weight to my arguments, I made a deal with my friend. I would read Twilight and she would read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.
I admit it. I was scared. I was scared that I was going to start reading Twilight and I was never going to be able to put it down. I was afraid of being absorbed by the mass legion of Twihards out there that scream out their love for the series, and lament the lack of any “real men,” like Dream-Boat Cullen. I was afraid I was going to LIKE IT. And the funny thing is, I kind of did. I read the book in two days, cursing at the responsibilities that got in the way of my reading it in one day, and I was entertained. To a degree. I was entertained in the way that squeezing a whole tube of toothpaste into the sink is entertaining. Or having a food fight, or smashing a bottle on the sidewalk…these forms of “entertainment” are not necessary, the satisfaction is hollow and fleeting, and the fallout/cleanup of these events is far worse than any “fun” that was had. And in instances like the last one-breaking a bottle-the underlying aggression in the act can be damaging in itself. This is the entertainment of Twilight.
So much, and yet not nearly enough, has been written about the anti-feminist nature of Twilight. The folks over at feministing have some really great community posts about the misogyny in Twilight, and how the series is “A Significant Step Down From Buffy.” I expected the book to present a horrible role model for healthy relationships. What I didn’t expect was that the model was far worse than I had imagined. Not only does he like to watch Bella sleep, but Edward invades the minds of her friends in order to hear what she is thinking. Yup. Because she smells good (and therefore this whole dichotomy is her fault) and he can’t gain direct access into her mind, Edward’s entire existence is focused on controlling Bella. (although, it IS interesting that the audience is given what Edward is denied-First person access into Bella’s thoughts.) I can’t go into everything about this book that makes me sick, because, well, it makes me sick, but real quick: let’s pretend for a minute that your friend, your daughter, your son, your mother, anyone you care about came to you with this story:
-I met this guy last week and he is HOT, but I don’t think he likes me because he growled at me and acts like I smell bad.
-OMG!! He talked to me today. He is so hot and Godlike. I am so plain and human and utterly unworthy of his attention.
-Turns out he has been watching me sleep every night.
-He listens in on my conversations with my friends. But it is just so he can get to know me.
-I don’t associate with my other friends anymore…This Hot guy is all I need.
-He protects me from myself. But it is because he loves me.
-He won’t have sex with me because it is for my own good. And when he kisses me he makes me stand very, very still. If I move even the littlest bit, I provoke him and he can’t take it, so he has to pull away from me.
-He disabled my car..but it was for my own good.
Yeah. Count the red flags at the tip of that iceberg and be awed. And outraged.
The thing is, we are telling our daughters that the only way for a woman to have and recognize her own power is when it is being taken away from her. And we are telling our sons that the way to be a “real” man is to dominate women and control them, because manipulation is sexy. Or as I heard someone say: “stalking is flattery.” This isn’t simply a reinvention of the Princess myth..it is a step-by-step handbook for dysfunctional, emotionally abusive relationships. So, like I said…not nearly enough has been written about the anti-feminist, misogynistic and horrendously damaging phenomena that is the Twilight series. The book may be fun to read, but it is just like throwing that bottle on the ground: a split second of unfulfilling fun with a piece of trash creates a situation that demands dangerous cleanup.
