tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-54255149877153374372024-03-08T00:27:20.170-08:00Intro to Critical ReadingAdamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16302919444091859459noreply@blogger.comBlogger329125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5425514987715337437.post-87771307273194487282012-04-26T14:27:00.001-07:002012-04-26T14:27:37.007-07:00Religion and Relationships<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="color: #999999;">Edward
O. Wilson in his novel <i>On Human Nature</i></span><span style="color: #999999;">
devotes a whole chapter to religion and how it is in human nature to have
religious beliefs. He begins the chapter by stating “The predisposition to
religious belief is the most complex and powerful force in the human mind and
in all probability an ineradicable part of human nature.” (Wilson 169) In
another one of his novels <i>Consilience The Unity of Knowledge </i></span><span style="color: #999999;">he claims that because religions are so similar to
superorganisms, they follow the primary role of human existence “that whatever
is so necessary to sustain life is also ultimate biological.” He analyzes the
validity, necessity and overall sociobiological explanations for religions and
beliefs in a god or gods. In effect, Wilson gives his highly educated sociobiological
examination of religion and how it is a vital part of human nature. Because it
is so vital to our humanity, it is inevitable that one would see it in numerous
works of fiction, and mean a wide varies of different things, but I would
contend in that in the novels <i>Moby Dick</i></span><span style="color: #999999;">
by Herman Melville and <i>Invisible Man</i></span><span style="color: #999999;">
by Ralph Ellison the themes of religious and spirituality have the same
interconnected meaning. To many people, their religious communities are a
symbol of fellowship acceptance and union. It is a coalition of individuals
that share a common faith that equates to a connection with each other. Both
Ellison and Melville include religious themes in their novel to represent their
characters position in regards to their relationships with others.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="color: #999999;">Wilson
believes that genetically we are predisposed to partaking in religious
behavior. The idea of religious groups or worshiping in unison for a common
goal, according to Wilson, is a vital part of our humanity. As aforementioned,
a major part of religion is its ability to “circumscribe a group and bind its
member together in unquestioning allegiance”(Wilson 177). According to Wilson,
religious groups and sects are bound together and constantly connected with
each other through their common religion. In his analysis, Wilson deemed
religion as a point of connection between people which brings them closer
together. Due to the fact that “religion is above all the process by with
individuals are persuaded to subordinate their immediate self-interest to the
interest of the group” it is the perfect metaphor for community, fellowship and
acceptance. Ellison and Melville bring up themes of religion and religious
groups and use them to show how their protagonist are related to and connected
with at larger group or individual. Both authors see religion as the perfect
symbol for connections between people and over all unity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="color: #999999;">Earlier
on in the novel we are introduced to Trueblood, an ignorant black man who was
accused of raping and impregnating his daughter and forced to live on the
border of the narrator’s college campus. Trueblood is one of our first and most
perfect examples of isolation and seclusion from his community. The black
students and faculty of the college see Trueblood as a massive disgrace to the
black community. Because he is hated and shunned by his own people, he lives in
seclusion. When Mr. Norton insists that he and the narrator go to visit
Trueblood, Trueblood gives his dramatic account of the events according to his
perspective. He claimed that even though he was not aware of what he was doing,
he felt terrible. Trueblood sought out absolution and attempted to go to the
preacher and repent. He tried to seek acceptance in the place he assumed
guaranteed unwavering forgiveness but unfortunately was wrong: “I goes to see
the preacher and even he don't believe me. He tells me to git out of his house,
that I'm the most wicked man he's ever seen and that I better go pray but I
caint” (Ellison 66). He is truly shunned by his community. Because the church is
supposed to offer fellowship and forgiveness, he went to them to repent but was
rejected and therefore deemed as an outcast. Ellison uses the abandonment by
the church to show that Trueblood is truly abandoned by his community and
continues to use religion as a symbol of acceptance and fellowship, or lack
there off in regards to the narrator. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="color: #999999;">Initially
we see that the narrator is isolated from his identity, his family, his past
and from society. He is a lonely and confused narrator who is having an incredibly
difficult time trying to determine who he really is. He has been expelled from
his university and forced to move to New York, a place that is completely
foreign to his southern upbringing. When he arrives at a Men’s House in Harlem,
he is presented with a chair, a bed, a dresser and a Gideon Bible lying on a
small table. He begins to read that bible and becomes nostalgic: “I turned to
the book of Genesis, but could not read. I thought of home and the attempts my
father had made to institute family prayer” (Ellison 162). When the narrator is
reminded of home the feeling of a connection becomes too much for him and he
turns away from it. Alone in an unknown territory, he finds something that
makes him feel closer to home, but instead of embracing it, he neglects it. He
turns away from the one sense of familiarity, kinship and connection that he
finds and instead goes to find a job. The narrator does not want to feel that
sense of community or connection with his past and his family so he puts down
the Bible. By turning away from this religious symbol, in effect, he is turning
away from any past allegiance he possessed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="color: #999999;">As the
narrator continues to explore Harlem, he realizes that he is far more alienated
than he previously thought. The narrator manages to find work but is met with a
considerable amount of adversity which culminates in a violate accident that
causes him to be hospitalized. In the hospital he goes through an experimental
lobotomy procedure that leaves him feeling disoriented and abandoned but also
changed; he begins to feel so alienated that in his words he has “lost his
sense of direction” (Ellison 258). As the narrator wanders the streets
emotionally, spiritually and literally lost, he comes across a group of white
men who are attempting to evict a poor old black couple.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The white men were ravaging the
couple’s destitute home, repossessing all of their possessions and leaving them
with nothing. One of the men immerged from the house holding the elderly
woman’s bible and she immediately accosted them: “Just come stomping and jerk
your life up by the roots! But this here's the last straw. They ain't going to
bother with my Bible!" (Ellison 270).” At this point the narrator begins
to feel connected to the people, seeing their struggle and feeling that he is a
part of it. He feels a sense of community and amity that urges him to take a
stand. The couple demands to go back into the house to pray and the white men
refuse. The narrator starts to orate on behalf of the couple and gives a speech
so compelling that this causes the group that has manifested to start a riot.
In the midst of the narrator’s speech, he implores the re-po men to let the
elderly people pray, he exclaims: “They don't want the world, but only Jesus…
How about it, Mr. Law? Do we get our fifteen minutes worth of Jesus? You got
the world, can we have our Jesus?” (279). The narrator sees the importance of
religion in their lives, how God is a grounding point for them, and how praying
and their bible brings them comfort and security in the time that the feel most
isolated. The narrator sees that and uses it as a way to connect with these
people. Through connecting with them he connects with the entire community. The
narrator uses his bible and prayer as a way to relate to the elderly couple and
ultimately reuniting himself with the whole community. As the Narrator embraces
the idea of prayer, he also embraces the community, his culture, and his
identity which are all triggered by embracing religion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="color: #999999;">After
all of the drama subsides, a man who we later learn is named Brother Jack,
offers the narrator a position in a group that he calls the Brotherhood. They
claim to be dedicated to social change and betterment of the conditions for
black people in Harlem. They want the narrator to give speeches to the
community about the plight of the black man in America agrees. The narrator
joins the Brotherhood because they represent a sense of fraternity that the
narrator is longing for. The narrator thinks that the group has the
communities’ best interest in mind but he turns out to be wrong. One of the
brothers disappears for some time and is later found by the narrator selling
racist “Sambo” dolls. The brother - Brother Tod Clifton - gets into a fight
with a police officer and is gunned down. The pain of Clifton’s death,
juxtaposed with him selling symbols of racism, ignites hatred in the narrator.
He eulogizes Clifton, telling the community to protest his death and rise up
together but surprisingly this angers the brotherhood. They rebuked the narrator
for not consulting the group while the narrator contended that he knew what was
best for the community and their wellbeing, to which they jokingly responded
with this: “He’s in touch with God… the Black God.” (Ellison 471)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When one of the brothers says this he
doesn’t mean that the narrator thinks he is in touch with his spirituality, he
means that the narrator thinks that he is in touch with his community. He is
trying to show that narrator that he assumes that he knows what best for the
people of his community and what the future holds for them in the same way that
God would. By comparing the narrator’s assumed connection with the community to
a connection with God it’s shows how strong that connection appears to be. He
saying that the narrator thinks he has a meaningful and deep connection to the
people analogous to a connection with God. The narrator is trying to say that
he understands the community, but Brotherhood do not does not believe him, but
the only way to show him how outlandish his claim is is by comparing it to a
deep spiritual connection.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Religion, to the Brothers represents communion and an important mutual
relationship so this is the best comparison that the brothers can make to show
the narrator the magnitude of what he’s claiming. Yet again we see Ellison
using religion to represent and highlight unity and connections ideas of
community. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="color: #999999;">The
narrator’s response to the Brotherhood’s jeering is an interesting one. “Not
with God nor with your wife, Brother” (Elision 471). One would assume, at first
glance, that the narrator is denouncing his connection to the community but
that is not the case. With that retort the narrator is denouncing his
relationship with the Brotherhood. By proclaim that he has no relationship with
God or his Brother’s wife he is saying that he no longer connects with the
Brotherhood on a whole as a society and individually as members of a family.
The narrator realizes that this is not the type of fraternity that he was
looking for and distances himself from the Brotherhood. With this declaration
the narrator announces his separation from the brotherhood. He leaves the
Brotherhood and is later confronted by Ras that forces him to conceal his
identity in public. He dons a pair of sunglasses with dark green lenses that alter
his perceived appearance so much that people think he is another man: Rinehart.
Rinehart is a lot of things to a lot of people, a lover, a hipster, a gambler,
a briber, and finally and most importantly, a reverend. The narrator stumbles
upon a spiritual revival that is supposed to be run by Rinehart the reverend
and the emotion and energy that the people at the service emit has so much
power that the narrator is compelled to leave. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #999999; font-size: 10.0pt;">It was too much for me… could
he be all of them: Rine the runner and Rine the gambler and Rine the briber and
Rine the lover and Rinehart the Reverend?... He was a board man, a man of parts
who got around. Rinheart the rounder. (Ellison 498)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #999999;">This worship service caused the narrator to
realize just how disconnect he really was to his community and his identity.
This man, Rineheart, who meant something to so many people and affected the
entire community, was nothing like the narrator. This man had an identity,
several identities and the narrator barely even had one. Rineheart was actually
a part of the community and such an integral part of it that he was a preacher.
In the most community-oriented forum, Rinheart was the leader, and with that
the narrator realizes that he is far from connected. This is a pivotal instance
in which Ellison uses the ideas of community and fellowship that are so
ingrained in religion to give insight into the narrators struggle to be a part
of his community. By showing that Rineheart is so important that he has been
anointed to a high religious position of preacher, Elision shows how
disconnected and isolated the narrator truly is from his community. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #999999;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>This
brings us to the narrator’s final epiphany. After all of this he is forced into
seclusion in an underground basement. Although these events take place in the
prologue, chronologically they happen at the end of novels events. He recounts
a tale of a time that he smoke reefer and had a visions about the spaces in
between time in jazz music, a church service and an old singer of spirituals.
The preacher is talking about the Blackness of Blackness how blackness with and
wont get you, how it makes and un-makes you. The narrator questions the
spiritual singer and asks her why she is moaning.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She’s said that he slave master has died and although he
hated him he also loved him because he was the father of her two children.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She claimed that she loved he master
for giving her her children but hated him for not giving her the one thing she
wanted most: freedom. This love hate relationship completely baffles the
narrator. He can’t understand whether Freedom lied in love or in hatred or why
the woman still cared for her master. It is evident that the narrator cannot
yet understand his people and his community. The trouble and dilemmas of a
slave woman are completely foreign to him. Here we see how disconnected he is
from his past and his culture. His questioning bothered the woman so much that
she became dizzy and her son had to take care of her.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The son came to her aid and attacked the narrator for
harassing his mother. “Git outa here and stay, and next time you got questions
like that, ask yourself!” (Ellison 12). We see now that if the narrator really
wants to find a way to be connected with his community and his race he must
find that method within himself. And all of this happens in during a church
service on the Blackness of Blackness.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #999999;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>When
Elision presets us with scenes in which religion is the focal point of
discussion he is using it to alert us to the deeper theme of community,
togetherness and connection with others. Ellison uses religions symbols and
ideas as segways into the true topics of fellowship and bonding. When we see a
character embracing religion they are embracing fellowship and when they reject
it (or it rejects them) they are choosing a life of seclusion and segregation.
Even when a character is not directly involved in a religion practice we see
them making an assertion one way or the other how they relate to the community.
Melville does the same thing with his characters only one a smaller more
intimate scale. When he is attempting to develop the relationship between
Ishmael and Queequeg he uses Queequeg religion and religious tattooing to
connect them. He shows how as Ishmael begins to accept and understand a person
of another culture he begins by accepting and understanding their religious
values. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="color: #999999;">When
we first meet our other first person narrator, Ishmael he is also a lost,
troubled and isolated individual. He often considers suicide and attempts to or
actually gets into physical altercations. The narrator decides to join a
whaling crew in hopes of exploring the sea. As he arrives in New Bedford he
came upon an unknown building that he assumes to be “The Trap”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When he entered it he unknowingly
interrupted an all black church service. With this seen we see early on about
his views other cultures and their religious practices.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #999999; font-size: 10.0pt;">It seemed the great Black
Parliament sitting in Tophet. A hundred black faces turned round in their rows
to peer; and beyond, a black Angel of Doom was beating a book in a pulpit. It
was a negro church; and the preacher's text was about the blackness of
darkness, and the weeping and wailing and teeth-gnashing there. Ha, Ishmael,
muttered I, backing out, Wretched entertainment at the sign of 'The Trap!'
(Melville 11)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #999999;">Ishmael is unconcerned
and about the events going on in that pseudo church. He feels no connection to
the preacher or what he is preaching; he is an outsider walking into this world
that he does not know so he immediately backs out. He is obliviously discontented
with the preacher who he deems a “black Angel of Doom” referring not only to
his race but also about his profession. Ishmael is disconnected and displeased
by this all black religious service so instead of investigating it further he
removes himself from it promptly. Here we see a connection between Ishmael and
the narrator of <i>Invisible Man,</i></span><span style="color: #999999;"> not
only in relation to their initial isolation from religious practices which
equates to an isolation from others but also we see a direct borrowing by
Ellison of Melville’s work. We see obvious similarities better the sermons on
The Blackness of Darkness in <i>Moby Dick</i></span><span style="color: #999999;">
and The Blackness of Blackness in <i>Invisible Man</i></span><span style="color: #999999;">. Because we see such a strong connection between the two
authors it is inevitable that we will see a connection in their writing between
the ideas of religion and community and relationships. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #999999;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Ishmael
reaches The Spouter inn where he is paired with a foreign harpooner who is also
seeking a job on a whaling ship. He is forced to share a room with this savage
cannibal who is a native an island in the South Pacific Ocean. This foreigner,
named Queequeg is immediately revolting to Ishmael. His appearance may be the
most frightening thing to the narrators because Queequeg is covered from head
to toe in tribal tattoos. These tattoos, we learn later have spiritual,
religious and cosmic meaning. In Queequeg’s fictional primitive tribe religion
and culture are one and the same, so I would content that these tattoos are not
only cultural but religious as well. Wilson in is novel <i>Consilience: The
Unity of Knowledge</i></span><span style="color: #999999;"> that tribalism and
religion are powerful allies and that they become interconnect and intertwined
in certain cultures. (Wilson – <i>Consilience </i></span><span style="color: #999999;">281) These marking although beautiful to Queequeg are
utterly appalling to Ishmael. To Ishmael these markings do not represent his
rich spiritual heritage but a cultural so different from his that not only
cannot he not understand it he doesn’t want to.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here we see how much Ishmael wants to distance and isolate
himself from Queequeg due to his xenophobia but his main point of disgust are
Queequeg’s religious tattoos.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #999999;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>As
the novel progresses we see that Ishmael becomes comfortable with Queequeg. He
begins to grow accustomed, to a certain extent, to his differences and his
cultural intricacies and he even joins Queequeg in a social smoke out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This ritual, according to Queequeg,
qualifies them as married, so he gives Ishmael half his possessions and they
share a marital bed. Instead of thwarting this idea of marriage with a savage
earlier on he accepts it and embraces it. Ishmael is even prepared to join in
pagan worship with Queequeg, however his only stipulation is that Queequeg must
be willing to join him in a ritual of Christian worship as well. We see here
yet again how Melville uses religion or a religious practice to represent a
union between people. If Ishmael is willing to worship with a person who he
previously deemed as a brutal savage, it is evident that he in on the road to
accepting Queequeg. Because Ishmael feels a personal (and one could contend
physical) connection with Queequeg he feels the need to seek a spiritual
connection with him as well. Ishmael does not only want to join Queequeg in
worship but he also wants to introduce Queequeg to Presbyterian traditions.
This type of reciprocal, cross religion worship is a monumental sign of union.
We see that Ishmael truly wants a deep connection with Queequeg because he is
willing to partake in the rituals of a foreign religion. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #999999;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Later
on, Ishmael observes Queequeg in a full on religious display. Ishmael accepts
it at first but when he sees what his approval of this ritual really connotes
he withdraws his approval. Initially Ishmael claims that he “cherish [es] the
greatest respect to everybody’s religious obligations”(Melville 91) supposedly
not matter how foreign they are but when Queequeg locks himself in a room and
is so deep in meditation that he is unresponsive, Ishmael panics. He gets so
scared that grabs the landlady of the inn to help him break down the door so he
can confirm Queequeg’s safety. They discover him unharmed and the landlady
assures Ishmael that Queequeg is fine and that they should not disturb him.
With this frantic display of affection we see how much Ishmael truly cares
about Queequeg. When Queequeg’s ritual is over Ishmael finds the need to
reprimand Queequeg <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #999999; font-size: 10.0pt;">Now, as I before hinted, I
have no objection to any person's religion… [b]ut when a man's religion becomes
really frantic; when it is a positive torment to him; and, in fine, makes this
earth of ours an uncomfortable inn to lodge in; then I think it high time to
take that individual aside and argue the point with him. (Melville 94)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #999999;">Initially, Ishmael was ready to willingly
participate in Queequeg’s foreign religious practices, but now when he sees
what tolerating these practices really means he rejects them. He sees that he
deeply cares for Queequeg and after this display of affection in front of the
landlady he sees how unacceptable the love is. In an effort to attempt to push
Queequeg away from him and to show that their relationship is not as meaningful
as it seems he attempt to attack Queequeg’s religious practices and deem
them<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“uncomfortable” and
”frantic.” To refute this socially unacceptable relationship Ishmael attacks
Queequeg’s religion, one of the most poignant metaphors for their relationship
in the novel. Yet again we see a character distancing themselves from religion
in order to distance themselves from a relationship or a connection to other
people. It is blatantly evident that this coupling of ideas is an ongoing theme
for both authors. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="color: #999999;">Near the end of the
novel, after Queequeg and Ishmael’s, relationship has fully grown we see a full
on acceptance and tolerance of Queequeg religion by Ishmael. We see Ishmael
embracing the one thing that previously made him utterly revolted by Queequeg,
his tattoos. In an effort to understand more about whales he travels to the Arsacides,
to a village named Tranque to visit Tranquo, its king. This tribe is probably
not too dissimilar to Queequeg as they also practice tattooing. In Tranque
there is a huge whale skeleton that they use as a temple, Ishmael decides to
measure this skeleton and have the dimensions tattooed on his arm. This is
another symbol of commitment to Queequeg and the bond they have. Ishmael
journeys to tribe that is analogous to Queequeg’s and has one of their places
of worship tattooed on his arm. Tattooing alone is a sign of unambiguous sign
of devotion to Queequeg and his religious culture because at that time, as a
white man, having tattoos was unheard of.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Furthermore, in effect, Ishmael tattooed a church on his arm, and as
this church is a pivotal symbol of the tribes’ spirituality, this tattoo is an
irrevocable symbol of his dedication to his relationship of Queequeg. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="color: #999999;">Steve
Rosenthal, a Sociologist at Hampton University and a critic of Wilson’s works
argues that religions and religious groups do not promote community and
fellowship but rather subservience. It allows people to be controlled because
they have a higher power to answer to, according to Rosenthal.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 1.0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #999999; font-size: 10.0pt;">Therefore, religion is
"a necessary device of survival," because it promotes submission to
the group. Religion "is also empowered mightily by its principal ally,
tribalism." Moreover, humans by nature are easily indoctrinated and
manipulated (pp. 245-260). The human brain, Wilson asserts, "is a
stone-age organ." It makes people "intuitive and dogmatic,"
emotional and unscientific. (Rosenthal)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999;">I would contend that this is simply not the
case. In both <i>Moby Dick</i></span><span style="color: #999999;"> and <i>Invisible
Man </i></span><span style="color: #999999;">there is no instance of subservience
in regards to religion in any capacity. When Ishmael and Queequeg have their
pseudo marriage it is a mutual union where no man appears to be in a dominating
position. When the narrator in <i>Invisible Man </i></span><span style="color: #999999;">gives a speech in the attempt to stop the old couple from
being evicted he is attempting to inculcate himself into the community by
showing that he cares about it’s well being. Religion is the thread that ties
these two instances together but never once does manipulation or submission
come into play. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 1.0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #999999;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>It
is apparent that there is a thread running between both novels uniting them
with the theme of religion. When both character are actively embracing religion
the other is attempting to alert the reader to the fact that they are
attempting to strengthen or maintain a relationship with others. When we see a
character refute or distance themselves from religion we see that the want to
remain isolated and alone. Both authors adhere to Wilson’s definition of Religion
that is why they make is one of the cruxes of their novel. This unifying them
of religion helps the read or both novels see when and how the protaganist are
trying to make connections with other respectively. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<!--EndFragment-->James Simonshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07566524830931037232noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5425514987715337437.post-76862725235165309452012-04-26T14:21:00.000-07:002012-04-26T14:21:25.084-07:00Moby-Dick, an Evolutionary Text<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">In
Marcuse’s <i>One-Dimensional Man</i>, he
analyzes society in post WWII, Cold War period, and criticizes his belief that capitalist
society encompasses and influences all aspects of life. Though writing in a much different industrial,
technological time his theory on art is can be relevant to understanding and
appreciating <i>Moby-Dick</i>. Marcuse presents the idea that art of the
past and what he considers should be the ideal role of art is to offer an
alternative, a rational purpose to the widely help, often oppressive societal
views: “literature and art were essentially alienation, sustaining and
protecting the contradiction […] they
were a rational, cognitive force revealing a dimension of man and nature which
was repressed and repelled in reality.”(Marcuse 61). In this way, Marcuse glorifies art that is transcendent,
that moves beyond the constraints of common beliefs of the time to express an
unpopular opinion. <i>Moby-Dick</i> is a strong example of this type of art as a piece of literature
presenting emerging evolutionary thought in a time when a fixed Biblical interpretation
of species was the predominate belief. <i>On the Origin of Species</i>, the
evolutionary doctrine published by Darwin eight years after <i>Moby-Dick</i> can be used to show how
Melville presented and transcended not only the novel as a piece of literature
but also importantly popular opinions on species by presenting scientific
reason within an epic on whaling.
Leaving Marcuse’s theories on art, this paper will examine two problems
with traditional beliefs on species which led to the discovery of evolution and
how they were presented in <i>Moby-Dick</i>
as well as the unique way in which Melville incorporates scientific observation
into his description of whales, comparing with Darwin’s <i>On the Origin of Species</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">The
first problem which brought about a revolutionary change in thought in the
field of evolution was the issue of classification of species. The problem
stemmed from the great influx of knowledge of new species which occurred during
in the eighteenth and ninetieth centuries with discovery and colonizing of
foreign lands. The engrained belief that
species could be placed into distinct categories, reflecting the fact that they
were created distinctly proved very difficult when such wide variations of
species and between those of the same species was realized. The biggest problem to classification is
outlined by Darwin in <i>On the Origin of
Species</i> as “[t]he existence of groups would have been of simple
signification if one group had been exclusively fitted to inhabit the land ,
and another the water; one to feed on flesh, another on vegetable matter, and
so on; but the case is widely different in nature; for it is notorious how
commonly members of even the same sub-group have different habits, [ …]
dominant species belonging to the larger genera in each class […] vary the
most”(Darwin, 351). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Cetelogy
is a chapter in <i>Moby-Dick</i> which reads
as almost a classification textbook and discusses the classification of
whales. Ishmael outlines the differences
and distinctions between subgroups, however, it can be interpreted as an entire
chapter dedicated to representing a specific instance of the problem of
classification which helped lead to the discovery of evolution. In discussing which
part to use to classify as “whale” it is stated “in various sorts of whales, they
form such irregular combinations (of characteristics); or, in the case of any
one of them detached, such an irregular isolation; as utterly to defy all
general methodization formed upon such a basis”(Melville 176). The
solution to this as presented by Ishmael is to then “boldly sort
them”(176). And in Cetology, these distinctions are crudely shown
by comparing some whales’ features to the others and creating three vague
groups in which to organize the species. While Ishmael goes on to
describe twelve types of whales in detail, he concludes by presenting a list of
uncertain whales of which he does not know enough about to classify and states
that perhaps they can be fitted into the already loose arbitrary system of
classification. The way in which Ishmael has to resort to combining some
species together, leaving out others, focusing on some similarities and
ignoring others, mirrors the problems of those studying species at the time of
Darwin. It is interesting to note that,
it would be one thing for a biologist to say there is great variation even
within species, but Melville using whales specifically is a good comprehensible
example. A reader can begin to
understand the problem of classification and in this way, <i>Moby-Dick</i> represents art by Marcuse’s definition, in providing a
criticism to popular belief and an accessible criticism. This chapter not only gives background information
to the reader but also nudges the reader in an evolutionary direction and in
this way attempts to get the reader to transcend beyond the classic
interpretation of species. Further, here
is a place where Darwin’s <i>On the Origin
of Species</i> can provide a direct answer to the problem of classification,
and arguably had it be published after <i>Moby-Dick</i>,
it may be speculated that Melville would have included it: “I believe that the
arrangement of the groups within each class, in due subordination and relation
to the other groups must be strictly genealogical in order to preserve natural
order; but that the amount of difference in the several branches or groups,
though allied in the same degree by blood to their common progenitor, may
differ greatly being due to the different degrees of modification which they
have undergone”(Darwin 358). Darwin’s
solution to the problem of classification in Cetelogy is to base the groups off
of those related, in present times, related genetically.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Another very relevant issue that brought about study in the field
of evolution during the nineteenth century was the discovery of fossils of
species that were no longer on the earth.
This contradicted the engrained belief, based off of the story of creation,
that species were created at the same time and were still in existence. Attempts to bring together the story of
creation and extinction included theories of times of great catastrophes which
destroyed a population of species and that some were saved by means of an ark
or divine intervention. Extinction and the
discovery of fossil forms were, on the other hand, great support to the theory
of evolution as proof that species change over time. In <i>On
the Origin of Species</i>, Darwin states “the theory of natural selection is
grounded on the belief that each new variety and ultimately each new species is
produced and maintained by having some advantage over those which it comes in competition
and the consequent extinction of the less-favoured forms inevitably follows”(Darwin
278). Fossils are thus examples of
species that died out through the process of evolution but are still very
similar to present species because they are their ancestors. Melville addresses the idea of species, from
a very evolutionary perspective in the chapter The Fossil Whale. Here he states: “I desire to remind the
reader, that while in the earlier geological strata there are found the fossils
of monsters now almost completely extinct; the subsequent relics discovered in
what are called the Tertiary* formations seem the connecting or at any rate
intercepted links between the anti-chronical creatures.”(Melville 526). The
concept of fossils as outlined in The Fossil Whale is in complete accordance
with the theory of evolution in that Melville recognizes their significance as
being ancestors of present forms rather than unrelated ancient species, who
died from a mysterious catastrophe. Striking
here is the use of the word “link”, to which Darwin spends considerable amount
of time in <i>On the Origin of Species</i>
discussing transitional forms between past and present species. Links forms are essential to the theory of
evolution as they present support for natural selection through the gradual
buildup of advantageous characteristics which result in a change in species,
ultimately changing it altogether. This chapter
shows moving beyond fixed theories of species, not only for early evolutionary
thought but also into modern evolutionary theory, as biologists in modern times
continue to search for these transitional linking forms to greater understand
the evolution of species. In this way,
the discussion of fossils represents remarkable forward thinking, and in
Marcuse’s way, art.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
In addition to the classification problem presented and the
issue of extinction and fossils, the way in which the whale is described first
by the function of its features makes<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><i>Moby-Dick</i><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>a transcendentally scientific piece of
literature. Understanding the function of features of animals is
essential to evolutionary study as a feature that is better for performing a
function for passing on genes is the mechanism by which species develop. Darwin
describes natural selection as “individuals having any advantage, however
slight, over others, would have the best chance of surviving and procreating
their kind” (Darwin 79). This process in
which change in a species occurs and is based off having physical features better
suited to an environment. From this it
can be inferred that all features of an organism if developed through natural
selection have a functional purpose. Function is less important to the fixed
understanding of species because function was not the sole determining factor
in their creation. It is one thing to wonder at how god created such
intricate animals that are perfect for their environments but understanding
function and small differences between those of a similar species leads to
understanding that species are suited for their environments because those
environments of their ancestors created their genetic history. When
discussing the tail of a whale after commenting on its “appalling beauty” and
“titanism of power”, Ishmael proceeds to outline in great detail the five motions
of the whale’s tail: “First when used as a fin when used as a fin for
progression; second, when used as a mace in battle; Third, in sweeping; Fourth
in lobtailing; Fifth in peaking flukes”(Melville 438). Interpreting this
from an evolutionary way, the five specific and important motions of the
whale’s tail can be seen as a testament for how this sort of appendage would be
advantageous for a creature like the whale to develop including as mentioned by
Ishmael, for protection and for fights over mates. In evolutionary
theory, all features serve some survival or reproductive purpose. The
outline given of all of the intricate uses the whale has for its tail and how
essential it is for survival brings together again the idea of function being
directly tied with the creation and definition of a particular species.<u1:p></u1:p> <o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
Another interesting passage to consider when discussing
form and function is when Ishmael is describing the Right Whale and the Sperm
whale and their differences as they are being suspended from the ship. In
the chapters The Sperm Whale’s Head – Contrasted View and The Right Whale’s
Head – Contrasted View, Ishmael presents the differing features of the two
types of whales including their size, jaws, and the presence of lack of oil and
teeth. When describing the Right Whale, Ishmael discusses a
possible purpose to the hairy fibers that are present in this type of whale
rather than teeth as being “through which [it] strains the water, and in whose
intricacies he retains the small fish”(Melville 392). While the purpose
of the teeth in the sperm whale are not considered in these chapters, it could
be speculated as defensive would is mentioned briefly in the passage with the
squid. The fact though, that the function and differences between the two
species is considered shows and the depth in which they are considered
represents an objective way of approaching the study of species. The
concept of the features of a whale’s mouth and its origin can be further
examined by a brief mention in <i>On the
Origin of Species</i> as Darwin states: “in North America the black bear was
seen by Hearne swimming for hours with widely open mouth, thus catching, like a
whale insects in the water. Even in so
extreme a case as this, if the supply of insects were so constant, and if
better adapted competition did not already exist in the country, I can see no
difficulty in a race of bears being rendered, by natural selection, more
aquatic in their structure and habits with larger and larger mouths, till a
creature was produced as monstrous as a whale” (Darwin 189). This speculation of Darwin’s expands upon the
concept of the features of a whale’s mouth by saying that if it were
advantageous, even a bear could develop to become like a whale, and thus
providing a potential answer for how the two species of whales developed
different mouth features. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
Additionally it is in this similar comparison of related
species which lead Darwin to come up with the concept of evolution and the
ability to even entertain the thought of a land dwelling mammal like a bear
evolving into a whale. Listing the facts
and minute details through observation and previous knowledge shows a
scientific approach to the study of species. This is different from the
crude classification system employed earlier as it is more detailed oriented
and is similar to way that Darwin was able to come to his conclusions through
careful reason and tedious observations (Weiner 27). Darwin reflects on
the voyage of the beagle in which he made comparisons between species,
significantly between finches, that the “most important […] and determin[ing factor
to] my whole career was attend[ing] closely to several branches of natural
history and […] my power of observation”(Darwin 1). Melville’s writing, using the example of the different
types of whales shows very careful observation and consideration to detail. It
wouldn’t be out of the realm of possibilities to imagine Ishmael having similar
thoughts concerning the differences between these two types of whales as Darwin
did when comparing finches, as it is shown that he attended to the importance
of function of features. In this way, it
can be considered forward thinking text in that it presents the reader with a rational
reasonable way to approach species.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
In conclusion, <i>Moby-Dick</i>
can be appreciated as a transcendent piece of literature in the field of
evolution and thus can be respected as a great work of art, using Marcuse’s definition
of what art should be. Melville presents
the problems which were relevant to leading Darwin to bring together the
theories of natural selection and survival of the fittest into the theory of
evolution. By giving the reader an accessible
example of the issue of classification and an explanation for fossils, Melville
creates questions and theories that <i>On
the Origin of Species</i> directly addresses and answers. Additionally, the use of scientific
observation and careful description in <i>Moby-Dick</i>
reflects a rational technique and approach to the study of species which moved
beyond the thinking of the time in rationality.
Marcuse states “the <i>artistic
alienation </i>is the conscious transcendence of the alienate existence – a “higher
level” or mediated alienation” (Marcuse 60).
<i>Moby-Dick</i> can be viewed not
only as art that reflects an alienation, as it opposed accepted opinion of the
time, but also art that is successful in assisting in change of that society.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 24.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">References:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 24.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
Darwin, Charles. <i>On the Origin of Species</i>. London:
Cassell & Company, 1909. <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=d9biAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=on+the+origin+of+species&hl=en&sa=X&ei=kG-ZT8b9GYHz0gGHptjoCQ&">http://books.google.com/books?id=d9biAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=on+the+origin+of+species&hl=en&sa=X&ei=kG-ZT8b9GYHz0gGHptjoCQ&</a><o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="line-height: 24.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
Marcuse, Herbert.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><i>One-Dimensional Man</i>. Beacon, 1991.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="line-height: 24.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
Melville, Herman.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><i>Moby-Dick</i>.
New York: Barnes & Noble Classics, 2003.<o:p></o:p></div>
<u1:p></u1:p>
<div style="line-height: 24.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
Weiner, Jonathan.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><i>The
Beak of the Finch</i>. New York: Vintage Books, 1994.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>Colleen Lloydhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04082233159912327915noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5425514987715337437.post-90514126382907413262012-04-26T13:52:00.001-07:002012-04-26T13:52:38.142-07:00Invisible Blackness: Nigrescence and Double-Consciousness in Ellison"[B]eing a problem is a strange experience,--peculiar even for
one who has never been anything else."
-WEB Dubois
Ellison's narrator in Invisible Man spends the entirety of the novel trying to find his identity. He states: "I am an invisible man...I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me" (Ellison 3). By immediately fixating readers' mind around his invisibility, the narrator is able to position them in such a way as to accept the journey on which he is about to take them. He wishes not to "awaken the sleeping ones" (Ellison 3), that is to say, those who form an opinion of him, who see something that is not him, who make him invisible. The narrator battles against and with concepts of blackness and identity. As the narrator moves along his path of discovery, he understandably becomes upset and lashes out. As E. O. Wilson states in On Human Nature, "human beings have a marked hereditary predisposition to aggressive behavior" (100). While Wilson points out that there is an array of reactions to each situation, the reader can conceptually understand aggression through the example of Ellison's narrator. Thus, by studying the narrator's pattern of aggression, the reader can better understand every human's struggle with accepting his role in society. The novel stands as an examination of the journey of acceptance of one's double-consciousness--the perception of one's self through others' eyes--and the process of nigrescence, of becoming black, and the aggression inherent throughout the journey.
From the very beginning, the narrator equates his invisibility with WEB Dubois' concept of double-consciousness. In his book, The Souls of Black Folk, Dubois sets out his theory, stating that, "the Negro is a sort of seventh son, born with a veil, and gifted with second-sight in this American world, --a world which yields him no true self-consciousness, but only lets him see himself through the revelation of the other world" (12). That is to say, that black people do not have the luxury of having their own identity, but must grapple with that which is thrust upon them. The narrator struggles with this concept the entire way through the book, dealing with the identity of black scholar slapped on him by the rich white men of his town when he gave his speech on humility, the worst than "the dumbest black bastard in the cotton patch" (Ellison 139) placed on him by Bledsoe when the narrator first learns that "the only way to please a white man is to tell him a lie (Ellison 139), the mischievous Brer Rabbit identity unwittingly supplied by the doctors and the hospital machine, and the super black orator identity imposed on him by Brother Jack and the Brotherhood.
He struggles to identify with any of the personas he is given, becoming frustrated and disillusioned when he cannot reconcile himself with any one identity. Thus, he realizes that he is invisible, that is to say, doubly conscious. The narrator would no doubt agree with Dubois when he writes, "it is a peculiar sensation, this double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one's self through the eyes of others, of measuring one's self by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity" (12). The narrator recognizes this phenomenon of being seen physically but unperceived. Therefore, he must move through the world in such a way that he discovers part of his true identity, that is to say, his blackness.
In his discussion of the theory of nigrescence, or becoming black, Princeton educated psychologist William E. Cross propounds that "the challenges of being Black are modified through the exploration of new questions that crop up at different points across the lifespan of development" (122). It is important to recognize the overlap here between Cross and Dubois: both men have put forth a theory which puts heavy stock in a person's blackness. The narrator must come to terms with this blackness in order to fully realize his potential. Knowing on a conscious, factual level that he is black, and believing that humility is the way to success, the narrator begins in some stunted recognition of his double-consciousness. He realizes that this identity he has is supported by the whites in his community, but he has yet to see that they are what's causing this identity. That is so say: the narrator does not realize that he is looking at himself through the eyes of the white person, that his identity is forced upon him rather than self-imposed.
Throughout the beginning of the book, the narrator lives in what Cross calls the pre-encounter stage, where race is of little or no consequence to a person. The narrator is haunted by the words of his grandfather, that as a black man, he needed to "live with [his] head in the lion's mouth...overcome 'em with yeses, undermine 'em with grins, agree 'em to death and destruction, let 'em swoller [him] till they vomit or bust wide open" (Ellison 16). A person in this pre-encounter stage would not be able to make much sense out of this seemingly outrageous statement. Outside of acceptance of the way he is treated as a black person, the narrator does not go out of his way to question what he is or how society views him. Rather, he is part of some amorphous category: the black ones. In other words, in the pre-encounter stage, the narrator is acquiescent and pacific in his understanding of race identity. This non-confrontational behavior is exhibited throughout the beginning of the novel, while the narrator continually does as he is told, and, again, and again, is punished for doing so.
During his speech on humility, "the room was filled with the uproar of laughter" (Ellison 31) and the narrator fears "that they'd snatch [him] down" (Ellison 31). After his misadventures with the eminent Mr. Norton, Bledsoe chides the narrator for doing as he's told, yelling "My God, boy! You're black and living in the South--did you forget how to lie?" (Ellison 139) followed by "Nigger, this isn't the time to lie. I'm no white man. Tell me the truth!" (Ellison 139). Bledsoe exhibits a cultural form of aggression that the narrator does not understand. As head of the university, Bledsoe has as much power as any black man in the South at this time can hope to possess. The narrator does not understand why, humility his proverbial aim, he should not habe done as Norton instructed. Bledsoe, having already completed his nigrescence, and with a keen understanding of the role and function of double-consciousness in Southern society, enacts upon the narrator what Wilson defines as "disciplinary aggression used to enforce the rules of society" (102). Being so firmly entrenched in the identity that white culture has thrust upon him, the narrator does not see that Bledsoe is an example gone bad of his grandfather's advice. Bledsoe has "lived in the lion's mouth", but only for his own gain, not that of the entire black community. As such, Bledsoe refuses to let anything, especially the actions of someone he deems naive, get in the way of his power, so he exerts this kind of aggression on the narrator. Later, the narrator will come to understand this kind of aggression, yet, while he had accepted it before, he then holds it in contempt.
Even when he moves to New York and gets a job, he is constantly reprimanded for doing as he is told. He starts his day mixing paints, but does as he is told, makes a small mistake and is thrown into Brockway's hands. As the narrator returns from getting his lunch and running into the union meeting, Brockway screams that he will kill him, "you impudent son'bitch" (Ellison 226). This last event begins the encounter stage of Crossian nigrescence; it is the last straw for the narrator. Encountering a sort or revelation that this kind of reaction on Brockway's part should not be allowed, he tells the reader that "something fell away from me" (Ellison 225); the pre-encounter placidity is gone.
The narrator has reached the encounter stage of nigrescence by recognition of his own miseducation:
I seemed to be telling myself in a rush: You were trained to accept the foolishness of such a man as this, even when you thought them clowns and fools; you were trained to pretend that you respected them and acknowledged in them the same quality of authority and power in your world as the whites before whom they bowed and scraped and feared and loved and imitated, and you were even trained to accept it when, angered or spiteful, or drunk with power, they came at you with a stick or a strap or a cane and you made no effort to strike back, but only to escape unmarked. But this was too much . . . he was not grandfather or uncle or father, nor preacher or teacher. Something uncoiled in my stomach and I was moving toward him, shouting, more at a black blur that irritated my eyes than a clearly defined human face, "YOU'LL KILL WHO?" (Ellison 225)
By realizing that what he has been taught about interactions with people, not limited to Brockway himself, the narrator has an epiphany moment, although he his not quite sure what it means yet. Wilson writes in his analysis of human aggression that it
does not resemble a fluid that continuously builds pressure against the walls of its containers, nor is it like a set of active ingredients poured into an empty vessel. It is more accurately compared to a preexisting mix of chemicals ready to be transformed by specific catalysts that are added, heated, and stirred at some later time” (Wilson 106)
That is to say that the narrator has had these uncertainties about how he has been taught to treat others, who he has been taught to respect, and whether these teachings are actually beneficial. He is taken aback by his sudden questioning of ideas that he has been taught and rules he has followed since childhood. Mixing this confusion with a newfound pride in himself, and a sense that he should not be treated the way he has been his entire life forms" the rage that he aims at Brockway. Initially, he is shocked by this internal monologue, after the fight with Brockway is through, but suddenly Brockway tries to kill him again. In the aftermath of the explosion, the narrator says that he "was understanding something fully" (Ellison 230), that is, his miseducation, his identification with the white perception of blackness, and his own lack of blackness.
The narrator's subsequent encounter with the hospital machine cements his transition into exploring his blackness. While there, the doctors treat and speak of him rarely in terms of anything but his psychology, but when they do mention anything besides his brain, they use racial stereotypes, calling "They really do have rhythm, don't they? Get hot, boy! Get hot!" (Ellison 237) as he spasms from the electric currents. As they try to test his brain, coax him to remember, the doctors brought up the memory of Buckeye, or Brer the rabbit. As they question him about the character, he laughs internally, recognizing the nod to his blackness, and describes himself as "giddy with the delight of self-discovery" (Ellison 241) as he identifies with the character. He realizes as he leaves the hospital that he has been playing into white culture's perception of him the entire time.
[P]erhaps I was catching up with myself and had put into words feelings which I had hitherto suppressed. Or was it...that I was no longer afraid? I stopped, looking at the buildings down the bright street slanting with sun and shade. I was no longer afraid...I felt light-headed, my ears were ringing (Ellison 249)
The narrator's realization and acceptance that he is no longer afraid pushes him closer to accepting his blackness. He is no longer afraid of a lot of things: the white man and the trustees of the college and Bledsoe, but most importantly, he is no longer afraid of his own blackness.
The narrator moves into a transition phase where he begins to explore his blackness. Having not paid Mary for food and shelter for awhile, he finally accepts that maybe her suggestions of "some act of leadership, some newsworthy achievement" (Ellison 258) have some merit to them. He decides to explore his place in the black community by meeting with Brother Jack. Almost as soon as he takes up with him, though, his blackness is questioned by Brother Jack's mistress, Emma, who asks "don't you think he should be a little blacker?" (Ellison 303). The narrator is both uncomfortable and antagonized by the statement because he is unaware of his own role in the community. He wonders what he can do to show his blackness, "sweat coal tar, ink, shoe polish, graphite?" (Ellison 303).
Once he accepts the job, Ellison does not even bother to cover the adoption of this new identity with any sort of literary veil: "'This is your new identity,' Brother Jack said" (Ellison 309). The narrator gladly accepts this new identity in the eyes of the others, being so unsure of himself, but he vows to "be no one but [him]self--whoever [he] was" (Ellison 311). The whole phase of transition, according to Cross, because the person is struggling to reconcile who he has been with who he is and who he will be. "All the fireworks of identity metamorphosis are contained in this middle stage," writes Cross. "for within its boundaries, the old identity and emerging identity do battle" (122). The narrator feels at this point, and throughout his entire tenure with the Brotherhood, the acute sting of double-consciousness, for "[h]e simply wishes to make it possible for a man to be both a Negro and an American, without being cursed and spit upon by his fellows, without having the doors of Opportunity closed roughly in his face" (Dubois 13). The narrator tries to reconcile his blackness with his humanness and this proves difficult to him.
Before he leaves Mary's house, the narrator sees a cast iron bank that had previously gone unnoticed. Formed in the stereotypical caricature of a black man, the bank is offensive to the narrator and he breaks it in a fit of rage caused by "the tolerance or lack of discrimination, or whatever, that allows Mary to keep such a self-mocking image around" (Ellison 319). This figure represents not only the cultural perception of himself that he had formerly not noticed or cared about, but also his intolerance of anyone else who has not reached his stage of nigrescence. Wilson propounds that "[h]uman beings are strongly predisposed to respond with unreasoning hatred to external threats and to escalate their hostility sufficiently to overwhelm the source of the threat by a respectably wide margin of safety" (119). This effigy of the stereotypical black man offends the narrator so much, and threatens his newfound sense of blackness, that he overreacts, pounding the offensive image to a pulp, spilling its contents everywhere. He yells at the object, as if it is the entire black community, to "[g]et rid of your cottonpatch ways! Act civilized!" (Ellison 329). The narrator wonders why he did not notice the bank before, and the reader can clearly see that it is because it did not offend him earlier. Since he has come to recognize and embrace his blackness, he sees the image as representing his old self, the caricature of the agreeable, humble black community. Refusing to be seen that way, and wary of anything that threatens his newly embraced blackness, he eliminates the threat like Wilson says humans are want to do.
Although he believes in the work the Brotherhood is doing, the narrator finds himself constantly haunted by dreams of his grandfather. Being under the white man's supervision, even in a seemingly biracial partnership deeply disturbs the narrator and he struggles against the pacific nature of his former life and the incendiary nature of his current identity.
Once he realizes, after Clifton's death and his rousing eulogy, that the Brotherhood has basically used him, depersonalized him to the point of being a pawn in their game similar to the way white society had made him a pawn in their forced identity of the black community, the narrator decides to take his grandfather's advice and "agree 'em to death and destruction" (Ellison 16). Having come to terms with his blackness, the narrator no longer wants to be given an identity that he cannot control. He realizes that it is best to be himself rather than accept the identities that others thrust upon him.
As he reminisces on his journey, the narrator admits that he had let others project their own perception of identities onto him, and he realizes that his problem was that he "always tried to go everyone's way but [his] own" (Ellison 573). By allowing himself to be doubly conscious, or, as he calls it, invisible, he "finally rebelled" (Ellison 573). Having come to terms with his nonconcrete identity as well as his invisibility, the narrator does not feel threatened anymore, and no longer feels the need for aggression. Unlike his nonaggression before, he is not merely being pacified by the white population, but instead, he has a clear sense of his blackness and a wary eye to having identities thrust upon him.
So, in the end, the narrator's acceptance and embracing of his invisibility is a way of embracing his blackness, who he is, his own identity.
I'm shaking off the old skin...I'm coming out, no less invisible without it, but coming out nevertheless. And I suppose it's damn well time. Even hibernations can be overdone, come to think of it. Perhaps that's my greatest crime, I've overstayed my hibernation, since there's a possibility that even an invisible man has a socially responsible role to play (Ellison 581)
The reader has travelled the entire book to realize that being invisible is not a bad thing. Rather, invisibility is something to be embraced, because it means not that one has necessarily found the right identity, but that he has found his own identity.
The narrator shirks all identities placed upon him. He realizes, in the end, that the invisibility is part of his identity, whatever that may be, and that his time of "covert preparation for a more overt action" (Ellison 13) has passed. He finally recognizes that he must take social responsibility, not in the way the rich white men who praised his speech want him to, nor in the way the Brotherhood wanted him to, and not through aggression, but in whatever way is most appropriate to his role as invisible. By admitting his own culpability in the rocky story of finding and accepting his blackness and invisibility, the narrator invites the reader to accept his own invisibility, too, for the novel is not about findings concrete identity, but rather being open to shaping oneself rather than simply accepting what one is told that they are.
Works Cited
Cross, William E. "Nigrescence Theory: Historical and Explanatory Notes." Journal of
Vocational Behavior. 44.2 (1994):119-123. Print.
Dubois, W. E. B.. The Souls of Black Folk. New York: Arc Manor, 2008. eBook.
Ellison, Ralph. Invisible Man. New York: Random House, Inc., 1995. Print.
Wilson, E. O. On Human Nature. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2004.
Print.Erika Zimmermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02868482484611010466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5425514987715337437.post-4951268988665724042012-04-26T13:15:00.003-07:002012-04-26T13:15:32.142-07:00Ellison, Marcuse, and the Consciousness of Servitude<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i> <o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i> Invisible Man </i>and <i>One-Dimensional
Man </i>have a clear relationship in that they deal with the issues of
social-domination and the inability to recognize it. Both Ellison and
Marcuse are contending with this topic in slightly different ways.
Marcuse is mainly concerned with the overall power structure that is
dominated by a select, privileged few, a power structure that perpetuates the
destruction of multidimensional thought. Ellison, on the other hand,
focuses his lens a little more closely on the factors that racial tensions
bring into this power structure. In this
essay, it is my objective to argue for a clear relationship between the power
structures present in both Marcuse and Ellison.
Specifically, I will investigate how Marcuse’s “consciousness of
servitude” is related to the narrator’s role as well as other characters in <i>Invisible
Man.</i> <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Marcuse
asserts, “All liberation depends on the consciousness of servitude, and the
emergence of this consciousness is always hampered by the predominance of needs
and satisfactions which, to a great extent, have become the individual’s own”
(Marcuse, 7). Here, Marcuse is saying
that for true freedom to occur, everyone must first realize that they are in
fact not free. Only then can people
confront the status quo with alternatives, instigating a movement towards
liberation. However, this raises a
problem: people are generally too preoccupied with attaining basic needs, or
are too concerned with achieving success to realize that they are bound to the
ultimate form of servitude. As Box
explains, Marcuse goes on to construct “a broader analysis of society that
finds people distracted by sports, fun, and technology and pursuing the “false
needs” generated by advertisements for consumer goods, and settling into the
Happy Consciousness that no longer wonders whether there are alternatives to
the status quo” (Box, 172). Due
to this fact, ultimate liberation may never present itself as a feasible goal. Box
elaborates, “over time, an outline emerges of a society in which business and
government cooperate to stifle knowledge of alternatives, prevent changes in
the status quo, and preserve the advantages enjoyed by a few. Marcuse called this
condition “containment”” (Box, 173). The
power structure’s containment of alternatives, coupled with the preservation of
the status quo, may deem the Marcuse’s consciousness of servitude unattainable.
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Marcuse’s
idea of attaining the consciousness of servitude can be related to <i>The
Invisible Man </i>on several
occasions throughout the novel. However, the occasion that I would like to
first investigate appears in Chapter 1, where the narrator’s grandfather speaks
his dying words, “I never told you, but our life is a war and I have been a
traitor all my born days, a spy in the enemy’s country ever since I give up my
gun back in the Reconstruction” (Ellison, 16). The preceding quote from the
narrator’s grandfather troubled his family greatly. What exactly did he
mean by this statement? I believe that the grandfather meant that
he regretted living a humble life in such a racist environment. In living
this meek life, he felt that he was a traitor to his family and his race.
The grandfather proceeded to tell his family to protect themselves by remaining
compliant to the white power structure, but not to internally accept this
role. If they do not accept this role, they will not be traitors like
him. I also believe that the grandfather
felt that his family could somehow overcome the current power structure by
staying in the compliant character.
Jarenski explains, “the narrator's grandfather uses invisibility as an
accommodationist tactic. He hopes on the one hand to disappear beneath a veil
of yeses and grins so that he can live outside of the disciplinary gaze, and
wishes on the other hand that his meek compliance will frustrate white power to
the point of explosive destruction, causing it to vomit and burst” (Jarenski). The grandfather’s dying words greatly trouble
the narrator, as we see in the following quote, “It became a constant puzzle
which lay unanswered in the back of my mind. And whenever things went well for
me I remembered my grandfather and felt guilty and uncomfortable. It was
as though I was carrying out his advice in spite of myself. And to make
it worse, everyone loved me for it. I was praised by the most lily-white men of
the town. I was considered an example of desirable conduct—just as my
grandfather had been” (Ellison, 16). In the early stages of the novel, the
narrator seems that his <i>is </i>accepting the role that the white
power structure wants him to play. He receives great praise for his
behavior and is even given a scholarship to a black college. The narrator
seems to be well on his way to living the humble life his grandfather lived and
regretted.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This
event directly relates to Marcuse’s consciousness of servitude. The
grandfather seemed to live a life that was presumably more concerned with basic
needs then actually fighting against a system of white domination.
Throughout his life, the grandfather did not possess, or just refused to
acknowledge, the consciousness of servitude that is referred to by Marcuse.
However, it seems that the grandfather eventually gained this consciousness of
servitude later in his life. The narrator seems unable to fully grasp the
consciousness of servitude early in the novel. He has been distracted by praise
and benefits given to him, such as the scholarship. He continues to be blind to
the fact that he is being taken advantage of in several instances like the
“battle royal” in which he was made to participate. All of the praise and
gifts act as a cover that the narrator cannot see through. This is very
similar to Marcuse’s comments on the consciousness of servitude and how it is
hampered by personal wants and needs. The narrator does not yet possess
this quality. All of the approval and acclaim prevent him from seeing his
servitude, and in effect prevents the thought of real liberation from entering
his mind.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Let
us investigate the battle royal event more closely as I believe it clearly
demonstrates the motives of the power structure and the inability of the
narrator to fully recognize how he is serving it. At this event, the narrator was under the
impression that he was only there to give a great speech in front of a white
audience; he felt very good about this opportunity to demonstrate his
abilities. However, the narrator is made
to participate in a battle royal with other black kids before giving the speech. The narrator makes his initial thoughts about
this very clear, “I suspected that fighting a battle royal might detract from
the dignity of my speech. In those pre-invisible days I visualized myself as a
potential Booker T. Washington” (Ellison, 18).
These thoughts show that the narrator does not yet recognize that by
participating in the battle royal, he is serving the white power structure of
the status quo by playing the role that the whites at the event want to see him
play, a barbaric black fighting for coins.
Instead of recognizing his role, all the narrator can think about is how
this battle royal might affect his upcoming speech. Jarenski explains, “the narrator looks to
find identity within the roles assigned to him by the white audience. His
primary concern is how they will perceive his dual role as a participant and a
speaker. At this point, the only way in which he is able to conceive of his
identity is from their perspective. The use of the word visualize, a highly
charged word throughout the novel, highlights this conception. Whites can only
"see" the narrator when he performs the roles expected of black men,
as in this case when he can only give his speech after he has been dehumanized
by the battle. Similarly, he can only visualize himself within the context of a
black role that has already been officially recognized, specifically that of
Booker T. Washington” (Jarenski). The
narrator’s concerns about the battle royal do no change much throughout the
event. As the battle intensifies, the
narrator explains, “The harder we fought the more threatening the men became. And yet, I had begun to worry about my speech
again. How would it go? Would they recognize my ability? What would they give me?” (Ellison, 24). Once again, we see that the narrator’s main
concern is with how the battle royal will affect his speech instead of being
concerned with how he is being used. The
narrator is more concerned with whether or not his ability will be recognized
and what he will be given as an award.
As he makes his speech, the white audience jeers him when he mentions
equality. The narrator insists that he
said something else and finishes his speech.
Later the narrator is presented with a college scholarship, cementing
that everything he went through was worth it.
The narrator fails to see through this gift as a way of disguising his
servitude, and as maintaining the status quo by showing the narrator that
playing a certain role will get people like him somewhere in life. Any alternative thoughts that the narrator
may have are contained by praise and gifts.
This prevents the narrator from attaining the consciousness of servitude
at this point of the novel.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“This
is the pure form of servitude: to exist as an instrument, as a thing . . . the
organizers and administrators themselves become increasingly dependent on the
machinery which they organize and administer. And this mutual dependence is no
longer the dialectical relationship between Master and Servant, which has been
broken in the struggle for mutual recognition, but rather a vicious circle
which encloses both the Master and the Servant” (Marcuse, 33).<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This
quote from Marcuse also connects to Ellison. This quote is asserting that even
the so-called masters of the power structure in place fall victim to it. They
are bound to it and live their lives perpetuating it. The masters constantly
seek more power while at the same time defend against the loss of power. Box states, “Although people might be
vaguely aware of the absence of alternatives, they are fearful of endangering
their current position” (Box, 175). An
instance where this is clearly demonstrated in<i> Invisible Man </i>is when Bledsoe is admonishing the
narrator. The following quote is from Bledsoe, “This is a power set-up,
son, and I’m at the controls. You think about that. When you buck against
me, you’re bucking against power, rich white folks power, the nation’s
power—which means government power! (Ellison, 142). This quote illustrates
Bledsoe’s view of his position at the college. He sees himself as holding
authority over everyone at the college, and he seems pleased by this.
Even though his power in a way perpetuates the system of white control, Bledsoe
loves his position. However, he seems to be very nervous and self-conscious
about his power; he is very afraid that he might somehow be removed from his
position of authority. Bledsoe’s role in this connects to Marcuse’s
comments on the Master and the Servant. Even though Bledsoe holds power
over the narrator, there is no classic master-servant relationship. This
is because <i>both </i>Bledsoe and the narrator are being controlled
by the system dominated by whites. Bledsoe is so concerned with keeping
his power that he fails to see that he too is being controlled. Bledsoe
is blind to how he is being manipulated into perpetuating the current system in
place. He does this by being more concerned with keeping influential
whites happy and giving them what they want to see, than with helping his race
and college community progress against the system of domination.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Towards
the end of the novel, I believe the narrator clearly demonstrates that he has
attained Marcuse’s consciousness of servitude to some degree. This is seen when the narrator has sexual
encounters with white women. “The narrator has two sexual encounters with white
women that confirm and intensify his sense of himself as the abject. The first
of these encounters happens in the context of one of the narrator's speeches
for the Brotherhood, a political organization that pays the narrator to deliver
speeches and organize community action, and, in the process, assigns him a commodified
identity. The speeches represent moments of visibility for the narrator, and
they are supposed to be moments of growing subjectivity. However, his sexual
encounters suggest continued objectification” (Jarenski). During these encounters, the narrator comes
to realize that the white women see him only as a primitive sexual being for their
rape fantasies. While the narrator seems
a bit unsure about this role in the first encounter, he fully recognizes it in the
second encounter with a woman named Sybil.
When she asks him to rape her, the narrator plays along with the role
saying, “I rapes real good when I'm drunk” (Ellison, 521). I believe this is the narrator’s way of
following his grandfather’s advice by giving the white woman what she expects
to see from him. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The narrator has also discovered a new
identity for himself, one of invisibility.
“Sybil's desire to believe she has been raped coincides with his
realization that, to her, he is just another black brute. This realization
awakens a new sense of reality in the narrator and he declares, "I'm
invisible”” (Jarenski). He does not go
through with the sex act, as he feels sorry for her. He cannot bring himself to dominate the woman
and make her powerless and invisible like he has been to whites. He instead decides to help the drunken Sybil
to a taxi.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The
sexual encounters with the white women, coupled with the realization that the
Brotherhood was merely using him for their own means, leads the narrator to
finally become conscious of his role of servitude to the white power
structure. Now that he recognizes this
role, he creates a new identity for himself; he now considers himself invisible. At the end of the novel, we see the narrator
still living in the secluded basement from the prologue. The narrator still remains unnoticed by the
outside world. He hints that he may
emerge from this basement by stating, “I’ve overstayed my hibernation, since
there’s a possibility that even an invisible man has a socially responsible
role to play” (Ellison, 581). When the
narrator emerges, will he follow his grandfather’s advice to continue to yes
and grin em’ to death? On the other hand, will the narrator find some other way
to fight to white power structure? Will
he choose to do anything at all? Unfortunately, we will never know the answers
to these questions.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In
conclusion, there is a clear relationship between Marcuse’s consciousness of
servitude and the events that take place in <i>Invisible
Man.</i> The narrator goes through a
clear transformation concerning this attribute.
Early on, the narrator is blind to his servitude; he is only concerned
with praise and advancement. Throughout
the rest of the novel, the narrator becomes more and more aware of his role of
servitude. His realization that the
Brotherhood was using him, along with the realization that the white women he
had sexual encounters with only saw him as a rape fantasy object, allowed the
narrator to gain the consciousness of servitude that Marcuse refers to. This resulted in the narrator forming a new
invisible identity for himself. In
addition, other characters such as Bledsoe reflect Marcuse’s view on servitude
and the power structure at hand. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Works Cited:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.5in;">
Box,
Richard C. "Marcuse Was Right." <i>Administrative Theory &
Praxis (M.E. Sharpe)</i> 33.2 (2011): 169-191. <i>Business Source
Complete</i>. Web. 10 Apr. 2012.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.5in;">
Ellison,
Ralph. <i>Invisible Man</i>. New York: Vintage International, 1995. Print.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.5in;">
Jarenski,
Shelly. "Invisibility embraced: the abject as a site of agency in
Ellison's Invisible<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.5in;">
Man." <i>MELUS</i> 35.4
(2010): 85+. <i>Academic OneFile</i>. Web. 10 Apr. 2012\<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.5in;">
Marcuse,
Herbert. <i>One-Dimensional Man</i>. Beacon, 1991. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>Jesse Vihlidalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13719287261720193798noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5425514987715337437.post-80044647393574532232012-04-26T12:24:00.000-07:002012-04-26T12:24:35.074-07:00The heroism of transcendental goals<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The
beauty of the writing in Mary Shelley’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Frankenstein</i>
is the intricacy of the main characters. Victor and his monster both lie in
ambiguous grounds between hero and villain, and it is up to the reader to
decide that individually. The monster is obviously a very deep character,
constantly seeking acceptance and increased knowledge. It is hard to describe
its exact place in the novel in such black and white terms as hero or villain. The
novel itself is not a tale of a hero conquering a villain. It is about a quest
for knowledge and the dangers that can be associated with that. Levine
discusses the implications of transcendental knowledge within the context of
this novel. “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Frankenstein</i> embodies
one of the central myths of realistic fiction in the nineteenth century, even
in the contrast between its sensational style and its apparently explicit moral
implications. It embodies characteristically a simultaneous awe and reverence
toward greatness of ambition, and fear and distrust of those who act on such
ambition” (Levine 18). The monster becomes more dangerous as he acquires more
knowledge and grows, and Victor creates the monster in his search. They both
become separate from the society that surrounds them in accordance with their
quests for greatness and power. While anybody would admit that these two main
characters are not flawless, it is possible to say that they are both heroes in
this novel as they pursue the common goal of knowledge and understanding. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>When
beginning to debate if these characters are heroes, it must first be defined
what a hero is from a very basic sense. Many people proclaim they have a hero
based on the accomplishments of that person that came from their pursuit of an
ultimate goal. This pursuit of a clearly defined goal and the rigors involved
in the path to obtain it can describe a hero as much as any other definition. In
this case, aren’t Victor and the monster both heroes? These are two characters
are constantly at odds from the moment the monster is conceived. It is very
easy to cast either of them in a villainous role for some of their appalling
actions towards each other. However, that would only occur if this novel was
viewed from a more fairy tale viewpoint. This is an older novel made during a
time when many intellectuals were seeking new knowledge on a journey to self
fulfillment, and there was a great deal of emphasis on the individual. Both
Victor and the monster could be considered Romantics in this way. The creation
of the monster is Victor’s largest attempt at his aspiration to become a
godlike figure. This creation forms an obvious connection between the two
characters, albeit somewhat of a familial one. Despite their differences, they
are both searching for the same transcendental knowledge to go beyond the
capabilities of humanity as an individual. George Levine discusses heroism in
the novel, and he states:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Frankenstein
</i>spells out both the horror of going ahead and the emptiness in return. In
particular, it spells out the price of heroism … Heroism is personal
satisfaction writ large. That is, it implies the importance and power of the
individual human being, not in the web of responsibilities which constitute
personal action within his family and society and which deter him from all but
the most compromised and therefore moderate satisfactions, but in the testing
and fulfillment of personal powers. To test is to risk loss, and, of course,
disenchantment with self. To risk the test is to cut the cord, to assert one’s
selfhood as an independent being of others. <span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">The alternative to the test is repression of self, the establishment of
constraints for the sake of order and peace. Frankenstein is, in a way, about
cutting the cord” (Levine 28-29).</span></span><b><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> </span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Both characters are on a path for personal
satisfaction. After the monster is abandoned, his personal satisfaction would
come from an abundance of knowledge. If Levine is correct, the monster is
displaying heroism by showing strength despite his loneliness. He laments it,
but he never lets it impede him in his search for higher knowledge. This
definition of heroism in the novel can also apply to his link with Victor.
Victor is on a search to “cut the cord” and go beyond other humans in terms of
knowledge and accomplishments. The monster removing some of the people closest
to Victor allows him to more easily continue his search for the things he
desires. The monster essentially frees up Victor to be a hero fueled by endless
ambition. Later in the novel when the monster requests that Victor create a
companion for him to share his life with, he initially refuses the request and
eventually destroys his creation before it is brought into life. The two
characters both prevent traditional familial happiness for the other so they
are both able to continue on their quests. Victor probably best states the case
that these two should be considered heroes at the end of the novel when he
addresses Walton’s men who want to turn their ship around: </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">“Did you not call this
a glorious expedition? And wherefore was it glorious? Not because the way was
smooth and placid as a southern sea, but because it was full of dangers and
terror; because at every new incident your fortitude was to be called forth and
your courage exhibited; because danger and death surrounded it, and these you
were to brave and overcome. For this was it a glorious, for this was it an
honourable undertaking. You were hereafter to be hailed as the benefactors of
your species; your names adored as belonging to brave men who encountered death
for honour and the benefit of mankind” (Shelley 248). </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">This passionate speech by Victor can apply to both
his quest and that of the monster. A glorious expedition is something that
would be transcendent and never done before. This is precisely what Victor and
the monster are trying to do in their search for knowledge and power. They both
had treacherous journeys with many problems, but they both overcame in
different ways and continued on the quest. This speech could also reflect the
link between Victor and the monster which is always present because it ends up
being indicative of both characters and their journeys. The most accurate way
to describe these characters in terms of heroism comes from Levine’s article. “As
an ambitious hero, he wants to change things, to improve them, and much of the
novel, as I have pointed out, regards the mechanisms of society as cruel and
unjust” (29). This describes Victor as an “ambitious hero.” This is the most
accurate way to describe Victor and the monster in terms of their searches.
They both long for family and a sense of community, but these are things that
prevent them from pursuing their goals so they see society as unjust. They,
instead, both have a great deal of ambition in their endeavors, and they both
seek to improve their own fame and knowledge throughout the novel. In their
respective searches to accomplish new levels of intelligence and undertakings,
they could both be considered heroes. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">If one were to view the
monster and Victor through E.O. Wilson’s eyes, he might see that Wilson would
see these people as heroes as well. These two characters both cannot accept
normal human biological limitation that is placed before them, and they strive
to reach new goals for mankind. Victor attempts to conquer death by reanimating
that which is already dead, and the monster embarks on a quest to seek an
incredible amount of knowledge and understanding. Wilson states, “Thus the
danger implicit in the first dilemma is the rapid dissolution of transcendental
goals towards which societies can organize their energies. Those goals, the
true moral equivalents of war, have faded; they went one by one, like mirages,
as we drew closer” (Wilson 4). Wilson recognizes that human beings have become
complacent in their quest for more knowledge and growth. These “transcendental
goals” are very important for the further advancement of the human race, but
they have been largely abandoned over time. Part of this is a moral dilemma. Wilson
continues to say that “Innate censors and motivators exist in the brain that
deeply and unconsciously affect our ethical premises; from these roots,
morality evolved as instinct. If that perception is correct, science may soon
be in a position to investigate the very origin and meaning of human values”
(Wilson 4). The dilemma that Wilson argues is that humans are almost capable of
transcendence, but there is a moral compass that prevents us from doing that.
Although if morality evolved in the brain, it may be possible to change the
idea of it. Victor is able to overcome this dilemma without much difficulty. “I
seemed to have lost all soul or sensation but for this one pursuit … A human
being in perfection ought always to preserve a calm and peaceful mind, and
never to allow passion or a transitory desire to disturb his tranquility … If
this rule were always observed; if no man allowed any pursuit whatsoever to
interfere with the tranquility of his domestic affections, Greece had not been
enslaved; Caesar would have spared his country; America would have been
discovered more gradually; and the empires of Mexico and Peru had not been
destroyed” (Shelley 50-51). Victor is able to recognize that some things must
be ignored in order to reach new heights. These classical models are used as
examples to show that people of the past accomplished these transcendental
goals of mankind by going against society and aiming for higher goals. Victor
is simply doing the same thing as all these famous men of the past by trying to
conquer death. Rauch’s article discusses the conquering of death, and how it
would affect a man to have this ability:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">“The process of using
galvanism in a restorative manner, that is to introduce electricity into
objects living or dead was … familiar to scientists … Many others, including
William Nicholson, who discussed Aldini's experiments in his <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Journal of Natural Philosophy, Chemistry and
the Arts</i>, agreed: ‘In the mean time the reader, will, doubtless, receive
satisfaction from this short notice he [Aldini] has enabled me to give of his
labour, on a subject which promises greatly to extend the limits of natural
science and may be reasonably expected to add to the powers which man is
enabled to exert for his own benefit over the numerous beings around him’”
(Rauch 241-242).</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Aldini was a man who
did experiments using galvanism to attempt to restore dead bodies. Some people,
like Nicholson, agreed with his attempts. Nicholson recognizes the sheer power
that would come with developing this science. It would be a transcendent
triumph for mankind and would allow humans to control the living world in a
much more concrete way. Victor’s eventual conquering of death by the creation
of the monster from pieces of dead flesh is his transcendental moment where he
overcomes moral and physiological boundaries to accomplish a goal that no one
else in the world could. It is a heroic moment for him in a more technical
sense of the word, and this moment is what defines Victor for the remainder of
his life. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>While
it is true that the monster commits several unforgivable acts, it is only due
to the fact that Victor and other humans are standing in its way on the quest
for more power and knowledge. By leaving it to be alone, Victor already made it
more difficult for the monster to grow after its original birth. He was the
first human being to shun the monster, and the De Lacey family followed suit. From
the monster’s point of view, Victor becomes the enemy over time and vice versa
for Victor. After that, the monster “Declared everlasting war against the
species, and, more than all, against him who had formed me” (Shelley 152). Due
to Victor’s abandonment and the rejection, he no longer seeks companionship and
is able to look for something else. However, it is important for the reader not
to cast either of these characters as the villain. The monster is much more of
a hero than Victor in the classical sense of which it is normally thought. It
is a being of extremely distinguished, and unparalleled, ability, and possesses
godlike power. Shelley does not try to make the monster seem like an average
person at any point. It is able to learn and gain strength at a speed that a
human could never fathom, and it reaches levels of these things that no human
ever could. Rauch describes the scene depicted on page 158 of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Frankenstein </i>where, “She was senseless;
and I endeavored by every means in my power to restore animation,” and he
states that “The enormous strength of the creature contributes to his success …
In doing so, demonstrates a moral commitment to the application of knowledge”
(240). It commits a soulless act and uses the knowledge it has acquired in its
short life to save a young girl’s life. He knows that he is grotesque to
humans, and they will most likely be appalled by the site of him; however, he
still feels a moral obligation to save this girl based on knowledge it acquired
in the past. The monster undoubtedly lives up to traditional idea of a hero.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">In general, it is on a
search for knowledge and acceptance into the general community. It begins the
novel as a solitary character when Victor runs away from it at its conception,
and it ends alone in the world after Victor passes. Due to the monster’s
solitude, its only real option is to live alone and attempt to gain knowledge
on a search for acceptance. When the monster’s narration first begins, it
recalls some of its early life to quickly make it a sympathetic figure to the
reader. “I was a poor, helpless, miserable wretch; I knew, and could
distinguish, nothing; but feeling pain invade me on all sides, I sat down and
wept” (Shelley 111). The monster originally is cast as a tragic figure with no
knowledge or understanding of the natural world, or itself for that matter. Literary
heroes often begin their journeys in a down-and-out kind of state. The monster
is able to ascend from this incredibly quickly, but the reader’s sympathy
allows the monster to come from a place of fright and confusion and rise
towards greater understanding. The monster comes upon the De Lacey family
shortly after this, and his quest truly begins then. He is so taken with the
family structure and the emotions involved. This interest could be perceived
because of abandonment by his father as well. It feels the emotions that the
family feels and connects with them, “I saw no cause for their unhappiness; but
I was deeply affected by it. (Shelley 120). After it begins to develop
emotionally, it quickly acquires a taste for intellectual knowledge. It first
wants to understand speech after it hears them communicating with each other,
“I found that these people possessed a method of communicating their experience
and feelings to one another by articulate sounds … This was indeed a godlike
science, and I ardently desired to become acquainted with it” (Shelley
121-122). The monster genuinely wants to learn speech so that he can
communicate his emotions to others, whoever those others may be. Its journey
toward his goal of knowledge continues to move along, and it seems more heroic
as its narration continues. One moment of the narration that is incredibly
interesting is when the monster begins to learn of human history from readings
of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Ruins of Empires</i>. It learns of the
historical values of human nature and some of the more intriguing cases. The
monster states that “Was man, indeed, at once so powerful, so virtuous and
magnificent, yet so vicious and base? He appeared at one time a mere scion of
the evil principle, and at another as all that can be conceived of noble and
godlike. To be a great and virtuous man appeared the highest honour that can
befall a sensitive being; to be base and vicious appeared the lowest
degradation” (Shelley 131). After reading this, it is very difficult not to
think of the monster itself by the end of the novel. It can easily be described
by all of the terms it sets forth here. However, the monster specifies that
being base and vicious is “the lowest degradation.” At that point, it becomes
known that the monster is not a despicable being that would intentionally harm
someone out of malice. It is simply a creature that desires companionship and
transcendence and commits some terrible acts in the pursuit of that. These
positive features of human’s that it describes such as “powerful, virtuous, and
magnificent” are traits that the monster aspires for in the novel. It wants to
be held in a high regard intellectually and socially, similar to the heroes
that are written in the human history books. To obtain this high regard, it
must obtain greater understanding of human nature and higher intelligence. When
the monster finds the bag of books, it reaches another level of thinking. It
relates to all the books it reads, especially <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Paradise Lost</i>, and gains a great deal of knowledge from these. By
this point, the monster has grown so far intellectually it is obvious that it
has a much higher capacity for knowledge than any human. The monster never
reaches its heroic goal of being understood by humans, and it wanders alone in
the Arctic at the end of the novel. When the monster encounters Walton at the
end of the novel, he states that “Once my fancy was soothed with dreams of
virtue, of fame, and of enjoyment … I am the same creature whose thoughts were
once filled with sublime and transcendent visions of the beauty and the majesty
of goodness” (Shelley 256). The monster laments his time alive and the torture
he inflicted on his master. He makes it clear in this passage that he was
indeed on a quest for fame and transcendence during his life. The way that
Shelley contrasts his actual, noble endeavors and his crimes against Victor
make his actual quest seem that much more heroic. Compared to the murders it
committed, it makes it clear that all it ever wanted was to acquire a
tremendous amount of knowledge and reputation. It was all part of his journey,
and the fact he uses the words sublime and transcendent in his lament lets the
reader know that these were, and still are, the monster’s intentions. He is led
to feel bad by society for his crimes, but he still has a desire to obtain
knowledge and power deep down. This fact in no way diminishes the monster’s
life long quest for acceptance. It does, however, accomplish its goal of
gaining an enormous amount of eloquence and knowledge in this pursuit. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>From
a more technical definition of the word hero, it can be applied to both Victor
Frankenstein and his creation. They both have a great deal of parallels in
their stories and their quests to obtain a tremendous amount of knowledge. It
is difficult to understand either of these men as heroes, but once morals are
put aside, they can be seen as heroic figures attempting to accomplish a
defined, transcendental goal. If more readers were able to look at these two as
heroes for those virtues, it could help us grow towards more transcendence and
growth as a society. The textbook <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Evolutionary
Analysis</i> discusses one of these major problems with natural selection and
the further development of human society towards transcendental goals.
“[Evolution] is not progressive in the sense of leading toward some
predetermined goal. Evolution makes populations “better” only in the sense of
increasing their average adaptation to their environment. There is no
inexorable trend toward more advanced forms of life” (Freeman and Herron 93). This
is just proof that evolution by natural selection will not lead human beings
towards any new and major progressions any time soon without a push from the
scientific community. Humans have adapted to the environment in place, and,
although it is changing more rapidly than ever, there will be no major changes
in our DNA or ethical values that come from that. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">On Human Nature</i> discusses the limitations that humans have placed
on themselves through growth of ethics and the inherent problems with natural
selection. Wilson believes that emotional responses have evolved via DNA just
like any other trait, and he offers a loose idea of what humans may need to do
in order to progress ethically and emotionally. “Human emotional responses and
the more general ethical practices based on them have been programmed to a
substantial degree by natural selection over thousands of generations. The
challenge to science is to measure the tightness of the constraints caused by
the programming, to find their source in the brain, and to decode their
significance through a reconstruction of the evolutionary history of the mind”
(Wilson 6). Although it is hard to agree that emotional responses have been
formed by genetic natural selection, he does make a very strong point that we
need to loosen the constraints of these features in order to advance as a
society. Victor’s wayward venture to reincarnate human flesh is certainly an
extreme example of this advancement. Rather, the monster’s quest for tremendous
amounts of knowledge and power are a more accurate version of where human
beings should be trying to go. Although murder is clearly no option, the monster
is able to look past some of the ethics he has learned in order to continue his
quest. At the end of his novel, Wilson proposes some very important questions.
“The human species can change its own nature. What will it choose? Will it
remain the same, teetering on a jerrybuilt foundation of partly obsolete
Ice-Age adaptations? Or will it press on toward still higher intelligence and
creativity, accompanied by a greater – or lesser – capacity for emotional
response” (Wilson 208). These questions let the reader imagine these scenarios
and try to picture what may happen in the future. Science fiction has always
been a genre that imagines what could happen in the future. By understanding
the main characters of Frankenstein as heroes for their journeys, the reader
would be able to form their own answer about Wilson’s question and recognize
that the human species must go through some sort of change in order to
transcend the current limitations. </span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-align: center; text-indent: -.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Works Cited</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Freeman, Scott, and Jon C. Herron.
Evolutionary Analysis. 4th ed. San Francisco: Pearson Benjamin Cummings, 2007.
Print. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Levine, George. “’Frankenstein’ and
the Tradition of Realism.” <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Novel: A Forum
on Fiction</i> 7.1 (1973): 14-30. Print.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Rauch, Alan. “The Monstrous Body of
Knowledge in Mary Shelley’s ‘Frankenstein’.” <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Studies in Romanticism</i> 34.2 (1995): 227-253. Print.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Shelley, Mary. <i>Frankenstein</i>.
New York: Dover Publication, Inc, 2009. Print.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Wilson, Edward. <i>On Human Nature</i>.
Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2004. Print.</span></div>
<br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.5in;">
<br /></div>Cody Wisniewskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02038074007977044156noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5425514987715337437.post-44681701840464464452012-04-24T16:37:00.000-07:002012-04-24T16:54:23.986-07:00Perceiving Free-Will in Lilith's Brood<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Perhaps one of the most frustrating
and long-debated philosophical inquiries is the notion of whether or not humans
have free-will. The more science progresses, it seems the more that our notion
of free-will is threatened; with every biological advance, we can liken ourselves
more and more to machines, rather than some separate, special and mysterious
force within nature. This puts science in a very interesting position:
simultaneously demystifying the human, while at the same time continuing to
spawn several questions through its answering of just one, in a
Hydra-regenerative process, leading thinkers to consider just how we became so
complex in the first place. There seems to be little room for free-will in
almost any scientific discipline. Yet, its complete absence can be a
frightening concept. I submit that, while we cannot – and may never –
definitively prove either the absence or presence of free-will within a human
being, we can be sure of a human’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">perception</i>
of free-will, which serves an identical purpose as free-will itself. Through a
close reading of several philosophical works, as well as Octavia Butler’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Lilith’s Brood</i>, the differences and similarities
between free-will and the perception thereof will hopefully be made somewhat
more clear.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I am completely
sure that I operate under the absolute <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">perception</i>
of free-will and, to me, that works just as well. In <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">On Human Nature</i>, sociobiologist Edward O. Wilson argues that it is
probable, although not within the current constraints of human intelligence, to
predict the future of a human being “with an accuracy exceeding pure chance”
(Wilson, pg 73, actually referring to honeybees, but he makes the humanoid
comparison in the very next paragraph). His concept is that the honey bee,
within the constraints of its particular CNS, has the perception of free-will,
although it is possible for humans, whom arguably have a larger, more aware and
intuitive CNS, to see that the honey bee is simply responding to external
stimuli in an extremely predictable manner. Wilson then postulates that what
humans are able to do to honey bees, in terms of fatalist reductionism, could
theoretically be done to us “[b]ut only [with] techniques beyond our present
imagining could [we] hope to achieve even the short-term prediction of the
detailed behavior of an individual human being, and such an accomplishment
might be beyond the capacity of any conceivable intelligence” (Wilson, pg 73).
Octavia Butler has conceived, at least figuratively, of such intelligence
within the Oankali in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Lilith’s Brood</i>.
She is less concerned with the allegorical human study of the honey bee than
she is with what the honey bee feels when we present it with our prescient data
(it also may be worthwhile to mention that to do this, we would have to figure
out a way to make the data digestible to a honey bee, which cannot read
scientific papers or understand graphs, and, unless we can learn to relay
abstract concepts with waggle dances, this may be even more difficult than the
initial prediction). </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Here, it should be pointed out,
Wilson is operating erroneously, attributing human-specific entities (the
notion of free-will) to non-human beings (a honeybee). We cannot, with any
certainty, say that a honeybee experiences free-will any more than we can say
that it experiences happiness or depression (we can barely even say it
experiences a flower in the same way we do). This is especially dangerous
because the notion can be extrapolated (and Wilson certainly does this) further
and folded back to pertain to humans again, providing false insight and thereby
justifying human actions. These human actions are vindicated in such a way that
they completely beg the question: many of Wilson’s acumens then become
completely circular arguments, succumbing to massive logical fallacy. R. C. Lewontin
has already acknowledged that Wilson conflates homology and analogy (Lewontin,
95). This is his first error. Wilson’s second error is that he uses these
perceived analogies to animal behavior to justify human behavior: clearly, our
behavior, however distasteful as it may be, has evolved from millions upon
millions of years of selection and is evident in primordial form in lower taxonomies,
therefore it is just <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">human nature</i> and
we should perhaps be less hell-bent on trying to improve or change it. So, to
review, Wilson takes a human behavior, exclaims “Hey, look! Bears do something
like that!” and then rushes towards “It must be OK that we do it,” <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">which is based purely and exclusively on the
fact that we do it.</i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">And so, it goes without saying that
Wilson’s treatment of the perception of free-will is subject to the same error.
He assumes that honeybees experience their own version of free-will, based on
the fact that humans do. He operates under the assumption that honeybees can
only experience either free-will, or the absence of free-will. It does not seem
to occur to Wilson that none of this might even cross a honeybee’s mind. I.e. there
is a fundamental difference between “Oh, it’s time to gather honey” and “I
think I’ll go gather some honey now.”(A serious precursor for the perception of
free-will is probably being sentient.) However factually erroneous, Wilson’s
honeybee example at the very least serves as an excellent analogy for human
perceptions of free-will. One of my favorite science-related quotes is Emerson
Pugh’s<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5425514987715337437#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[1]</span></span></span></span></a>
“if the human mind were so simple that we could understand it, we would be so
simple that we wouldn’t” (Pugh, 154). Wilson is pretty much<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5425514987715337437#_ftn2" name="_ftnref2" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn2;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[2]</span></span></span></span></a>
advocating the same idea: No, we probably don’t have free-will. In fact, the
whole idea of free-will is pretty silly when you consider how we are just
bundles of neurons or rather, just electricity. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">But, on the other hand, we are
conscious, as we define it. However, we are conscious only to a certain extent.
Meaning that, on the whole, the majority of actions and reactions humans
perform are subconscious and on a molecular level and are impossible for us, or
anything we build, to compute in either retrospect or real-time. In the same
way, you can perceive a wave crashing, the computation of which is nearly
impossible and would involve mind-numbing physics, and still know that the way
in which the wave crashes depends only on a few simple rules: the interaction
of partially charged water molecules with one another and the salts and
minerals in the ocean, the topography of the ocean floor, the gravitational
pull of both the moon and the earth, and so on. The wave fits into none of our
definitions of free-will. Yet such computations are reserved for chaos theory,
and involve the physical computational cop-out called “turbulence.” Our own
myriad stimuli and their corresponding responses compose a matrix which we call
free-will. ‘Free-will’ is very much a way for us to deal with our own
turbulence and it becomes increasingly mollifying towards our psyche in the
face of mounting scientific evidence that we are no more than mind-blowingly
complex computing machines (but just not complex enough to compute ourselves).
Thus, free-will becomes something of a coping mechanism for the crushing
recognition that the concept of human ‘specialness’ is itself a coping
mechanism. At least for Wilson, we cannot transcend our perception of
free-will: we just aren’t equipped for it. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">According to this treatment of
free-will, I submit that the free-will and the perception of free-will are
functionally identical. Whether I actually <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">choose</i>
to do something or I simply (/complexly) react in a ‘conceivably’ predictable
manner to either short- or long-term stimuli is trivial if I believe that I <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">have </i>chosen it. Given two otherwise
identical beings, one with true free-will and another with only a perception of
free-will, the two should react identically to a given subset of stimuli.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Octavia Butler seems intrigued by
these concepts. In <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Lilith’s Brood</i>,
humans have their perception of free-will threatened.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They are put on a simulation of Earth, and
blatantly told and reminded that it is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">only
</i>a simulation of Earth. However, they nearly immediately begin to question
whether or not the simulation is the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">real</i>
Earth: they begin to seek to restore their perception of free will. Within the
novel, this reaction is perpetuated by the fact that the simulation is completely
undetectable as a simulation: it resembles Earth in every way possible. Being
hereto captive, the humans revert to thinking that perhaps they are being lied
to, and in fact they are on the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">actual</i>
Earth. This is completely separate from their actual free-will, because they
are told from the beginning that it is not real Earth and that they are aboard
a spaceship. However, they seek the edges of the simulation, presumably
operating under the assumption that if they cannot find an edge or an end –
anything slightly artificial – their perception of free-will will be restored. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Like most things, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Lilith’s Brood</i> is in engaging with many
of Martin Heidegger’s ideas. The humans in the spaceship are indeed ‘thrown’
into a new world, one in which they must build truth purely and only upon
history. Their truth can only come to them through a thorough understanding of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">what happened</i>: how did they get there,
what are these things, should they feel weird about having sex with them? The
sexual relationships seemed particularly pertinent to Hedegger’s idea of
authenticity: having sex with aliens was simply not something <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">one</i> <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">did</i>,
yet the very ability to either choose or not choose to do it (even if the choice
went along with the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">they</i>), was still exercising
autonomy and therefore free-will. Except, in a very interesting point in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Lilith’s Brood</i>, Butler tests these
preceptions: </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
“He pulled his arm free ‘You said I could choose. I’ve made my choice!’</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
“You have, yes…you see. Your body has made a different choice” (Butler 189).</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Butler is drawing a very subtle line
here – she is approaching the very threshold that exists between conscious
reactions and subconscious reactions. Through this exposure, the Oankali hope
to enlighten humans as to how calculating they really are, to rid them of their
perception of free-will, in hope that it will liberate them from their ‘conflicts.’ </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Heidegger would probably not view
this as a possibility. Heidegger’s entire philosophy in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Being and Time</i> seems based upon a notion of freedom – no matter how
he tried to define it – the central concept of fallen Dasein, authenticity and
resoluteness all stem from the perception of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">choosing</i> – all actions come from making (or believing to make) a
choice and how we then choose to deal with our choice once we have made it
(itself its own choice). Even choosing to do what “they” do, to follow flock,
is itself an authentic choice, as Dasein chooses to be one thing and not
another. In this way, Heidegger would find serious error with Wilson’s
treatment of free-will. Heidegger believes that the very act of asking whether
or not we bother considering our free will is evidence that we, in fact, have
and employ it, as the very inquiry is an example of “anxiety [which] makes manifest
in Dasein its <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Being towards</i> its
ownmost potentiality-for-Being – that is, its <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Being-free for</i> the freedom of choosing itself and taking hold of
itself. Anxiety brings Dasein face to face with its <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Being-free for</i>” (Heidegger, 188). Through Heidegger’s philosophy,
the human’s in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Lilith’s Brood</i> are
showing autonomy and free-will purely by questioning the Oankali’s notions and
beliefs – and even being anxious about what their own bodies “choose” for them.
If they have lost anything, perhaps they have lost <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">only</i> their <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">perception </i>of
free-will, and not, as Heidegger sees it, their free-will itself.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Herbert Marcuse, a once-student of
Heidegger’s, echoes Wilson’s recognition of transcendence, stating that “[a]ll
liberation depends on the consciousness of servitude, and the emergence of this
consciousness is always hampered by the predominance of needs and satisfactions
which, to a great extent, have become the individual’s own” (Marcuse, 7).
Marcuse’s entire critique of modern civilization calls for modern society to
transcend methods of control that are currently inescapable: to see their
surroundings as ‘oppressive’ no matter what view may be intuitive, and
transcend beyond the dichotomy of capitalism and communism. As both focus on some
sort of freedom, we can perhaps see parallels already between Wilson’s and
Marcuse’s ideas. Marcuse would certainly argue that humans <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">have</i> free-will, but would state that we too often confuse free-will
and the perception of free-will. Or, in other words, Marcuse would argue that
society has the potentiality for free-will, which they can only achieve and exercise
once they realize how atrophied it has become. Wilson thinks such transcendence
is impossible: consider Pugh’s quote, altered to fit into a more Marcusean
theory: “If our society were so simple that we were able to ameliorate it, we
would be so simple that we couldn’t.” Wilson would argue that such a
transcendence as what Marcuse calls for is impossible: transcending our own
society is impossible, as our society is bounded by itself and was never built
nor meant to understand and systematically improve itself (only to understand
and systematically improve individuals within the society: and even then,
improve <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">for whom</i>). </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Again, Butler seems cognizant of her
philosophical forbearers. In <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Lilith’s
Brood</i>, an alien race (the higher-intelligence that Wilson alluded to
regarding our free-will perception) is trying to change our society – reboot it
in such a way that we transcend our “human contradiction” and begin a society
that is eerily close to Marcuse’s utopia: “society would be rational and free
to the extent to which it is organized, sustained, and reproduced by an
essentially new historical Subject,” (Marcuse, 252) one where “the productive
apparatus [is] organized and directed toward the satisfaction of vital needs,
its control might well be centralized; such control [does] not prevent
individual autonomy, but render[s] it possible” (Marcuse, 2).</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">So, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">is</i> there freedom within <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Lilith’s
Brood</i>? Heidegger would of course argue yes, as the humans question
themselves and their surroundings, but Heidegger often blurs freedom of thought
and freedom of choice a bit liberally. Wilson would say that it depends on whose
point of view the question is being asked from. If the Oankali are to answer
regarding humans, then of course, no. If the humans are to answer regarding
themselves, then of course, yes, as they are operating beneath an inescapable perception
of free-will, fundamentally and functionally identical to actual free-will.
Marcuse would become irate at the very suggestion that they might be free.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">The notion of free-will perception approaches
Marcuse’s analysis of contemporary culture by creating problems within his
diagnosis. Marcuse states that modern man is not free, and cannot <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">be </i>free (from advertising, capitalism,
materialism, etc.) until he realizes that he is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">not</i> free. This insinuates that modern man does not realize that he
is not free. Even if he is indeed unfree, modern man (with, I suppose, Marcuse
excluded) is operating under the perception of freedom. Is there a quantifiable
difference in the functional quality of an individual’s life if he operates
beneath a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">perception</i> of freedom,
rather than <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">actual</i> freedom? Is the
difference purely immaterial and ideological? One cannot simply loose this
perception of freedom and assume that he has also lost freedom itself,
subsequently concluding that his fellow man must also be operating beneath
similar assumptions. Which brings me to another question: can one have
free-will but not the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">perception</i> of
free-will? Or, rather, can one have freedom and not the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">perception</i> of freedom? I suspect that the distinction between the
two is why Marcuse and Wilson clash so irrefutably. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Butler, Octavia E. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Lilith’s Brood</i>. New York City: Grand
Central Publishing, 1989</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Heidegger, Martin. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Being and Time</i>. Trans. John Macquarrie
and Edward Robinson. New York: Harper Collins, 1962.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Lewontin,
R.C. <i>Biology as Ideology.</i> Concord: Harper Perennial, 1991.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Marcuse,
Herbert. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">One-Dimensional Man</i>. Boston:
Beacon Press, 1964.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Pugh, George. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Biological Origin of Human Values</i>. New York: Basic Books, 1977.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Wilson, Edward O. On Human Nature.
Cambridge (Mass.): Harvard University Press, 2004</span></div>
<div style="mso-element: footnote-list;">
<br clear="all" />
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<div id="ftn1" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5425514987715337437#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[1]</span></span></span></span></a> N.B.
Emerson Pugh is George Pugh’s, the book’s author, father. G.E. Pugh is fondly
quoting his father at this point in the book.</div>
</div>
<div id="ftn2" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5425514987715337437#_ftnref2" name="_ftn2" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn2;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[2]</span></span></span></span></a> By
“pretty much” I mean “nearly exactly.” Edward O. Wilson’s own endorsement
appears on the cover of Pugh’s book: “I believe this book is exceptional,
potentially even revolutionary in its approach to the study of ethics.”
Somehow, some way, I failed to realize this until I was nearly done with the
entire structure of this paper.</div>
</div>
</div>Dean Matthewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10317050215775698939noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5425514987715337437.post-62164630835755335572012-04-22T12:04:00.002-07:002012-04-22T12:04:44.951-07:00Judas as Jinn: Final Paper<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Judas
as Jinn<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">“It's
all part 'n parcel of the whole genie gig: Phenomenal cosmic powers! Eeeetibity
living space!”(John Musker, Aladdin). Throughout the reading of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Lilith’s Brood</i> by Octavia E. Butler I
couldn’t help but noticing the similarities between Jodahs and the Genie of the
Lamp from Aladdin. Through further investigation of Arabic genie mythology I
found that Jodahs was almost an exact reflection of these beliefs. Because
these tales were so connected to the Islamic belief and the Qur’an, I was led
to believe that Jodahs himself could be seen as a faith-based figure, which
could lead to a further explanation of Jodahs’ position as the correction to
the human-contradiction.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Genies, also known as Jinn are found all through Arabic
folklore. Their representation is highly reflective of the relationship between
Jodahs and his humans. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.5in; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">“The ability of
the jinn to copulate with humans – they are almost satyr-like in their sexual
appetite in some popular anecdotes – is recognized in the Qur’an, where the
maidens of paradise are described as untouched by humans or jinn.”(Neguin
Yavari, Jinn).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As we saw throughout <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Lilith’s Brood</i> Oankali and Oankali constructs had an insatiable
desire for all humans. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.5in; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">“It’s a good
thing your people don’t eat meat. If you did, the way you talk about us, our flavor
and your hunger and your need to taste us, I think you would eat us instead of
fiddling with our genes.”(Butler, 680). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">This desire is a
reaction of the Oankali to the “human condition” along with the humans’
tendency for cancer. It seems that their only reason for continually
overlooking the “human contradiction” is that it is equally as horrible as it
is sexy to the Oankali. The novel describes the attachment between the Oankali
and its mates as “Literal, physical addiction to another person…”(Butler, 679).
This complete need for one another surpasses any typical form of desire, going
into the realms of “satyr-like” merely because of the idea of complete physical
addiction. It seems that the most notable parallel between this folklore and
the novel is this extreme physical bond.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">We
also see similarities between the human backlash in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Lilith’s Brood </i>and Arabic mythology between Jinn and humans. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.5in; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">“Marriage with
jinn was forbidden by most classical exegetes, both Sunni and Shi’i, on the
grounds that God has commanded humans to marry with their own kind.”(Neguin
Yavari, Jinn). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Like the humans of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Lilith’s Brood</i> the humans of folklore
also saw a disagreeing factor to copulation with non-humans. In their eyes, the
act of marriage with the jinn is such a sin that God saw the necessity of
decreeing it off-limits. The humans of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Lilith’s
Brood</i> also were extremely mistrustful of marriage with the Oankali and then
went to great lengths to preserve human-only relations. This resulted in
extreme deformation within their tribe, and shortened life spans. These humans
too spread folklore about the Oankali “demons” and what would happen to them
should they choose to mate with a non-human.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Other
connections between the two include the incapability of touch in both folklore
and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Lilith’s Brood</i>. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">“In that
community female jinn also frequent the sexual fantatsies of young men as
ephemeral beauties who are objects of arousal but disappear before any physical
contact with them. Jinn as agents of sexual desire prevail in Muslim
communities, although rarely.”(Neguin Yavari, Jinn). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">In
some folklore, Jinn are capable to flitting between entities in order to create
sexual feelings in humans, or in order to have sexual relations(Islam, Arabs,
and the Intelligent World of Jinn, 108).The absence of contact within this
branch of folklore is also reflected in Butler’s writing. The Oankali
constructs have sexual relations with the humans through chemical stimulations
within their bodies, not through actual touch. Furthermore, once two humans
have bonded with their Oankali or construct mate they are incapable of touch
between one another. They are “physically” capable of touching one another;
however the pleasure or comfort they may have once found in physical
interaction is now uncomfortable.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">After
having accepted that Jodahs truly is based on this jinn folklore, examination
of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Arabian Nights</i>, the pinnacle of
genie folklore (and the basis of Disney’s Aladdin), seemed absolutely
necessary. In <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Arabian Nights</i> there
was an outlandish amount of sexual desire between humans and genies, with the
love theme dominant above all.<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">“<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Nights</i>, this monumental literary
material, undoubtedly overflows with the most outlandish and stunning stories
on the theme of love between jinn and humans. It is the most prolific and the
most ingenious popular source… The daily life of humans in love with
supernatural beings constantly combines the unfamiliar with the historical and
the social. It is a realm where pure logic is of no avail for here and there,
past and present, human and alien persistently fuse to create a perplexing
reality.”(Islam, Arabs, and the Intelligent World of the Jinn, 109). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">This love theme is
clearly present in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Lilith’s Brood</i>.
Also present in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Arabian Nights</i> is the
presence of the Qur’an’s influence. Though they may not abide by all laws of
the Qur’an such as the prohibition of sexual relations between the Jinn and
humans, it is clear that the influence remains portraying them as supernatural
beings with extreme physical relationships despite their prohibition.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Because of these connections to the Qur’an it is hard to
overlook all the religious implications it entails. It is necessary to
understand the pre-Islamic ideas that created the Qur’an. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.5in; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">“In pre-Islam, a
jinni who loved a woman or a jinniyah who loved a man would take on a human
form, and sometimes an animal form… It was alleged these spiritual entities
would always follow the human they loved, whether the latter was aware of their
presence or not.”(Islam, Arabs, and the Intelligent World of Jinn, 103). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">This extreme love
plagues all theories of Jinn folklore; there are also tales of the sexual
relations between these Jinn and humans in the Islamic faith. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">“The idea jinn embody a
human form when they fall in love with a human, of either sex, persisted in
Islam… Despite an authorized prohibition against marriages between jinn and
humans, as mentioned in the writings of Muslim jurists, it was believed these
claimed unions continued to take place in Islam… Religious experts had to
provide a juridical and theological status to this progeny. “(Islam, Arabs, and
the Intelligent World of Jinn, 105)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">The views of the Qur’an
are also implicated in this statement. Just how does the Qur’an view these
creatures?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is a very distinct
story of jinn along with a ‘creation story’ of humans within the Qur’an.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.5in; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">“He created man
of clay like the potter’s,/And the Jinn did He create of smokeless fire.”(Ayat
14-15). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Though nowhere within <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Lilith’s Brood</i> is it stated that Jodahs
is made of fire, Jodahs is a construct child. Where jinn of the Qur’an come
from the loins of an angel and a human; Jodahs is born of an alien race and the
human race. Because of this fact, the Oankali race as a whole cannot be seen as
a genie, though all previous examples could be applied to the race as a whole.
Perhaps Octavia Butler’s reason for this was to present the Oankali constructs
as a type of final evolution into this “genie” state which further questions
the success or failure of Jodahs in this position. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The implication of fire is interesting beyond the
angelic/human composition. As we have discussed in class, Butler was highly
influenced by Herman Melville who was also was extremely interested in
mythology and the presence of fire. In Melville’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Moby Dick</i> we saw Ahab reflecting on Prometheus’ fire in discussion
with the creation of his robot which is to be viewed as a perfect being. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.5in; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">“Hold; while
Prometheus is about it, I’ll order a complete man after a desirable pattern.
Imprimis, fifty feet high in his socks; then, chest modeled after the Thames
Tunnel; then, legs with roots to ‘em, to stay in one place; then, arms three
feet through the wrist; no eart at all, brass forehead, and about a quarter of
an acre of fine brains; and let me see – shall I order eyes to see outwards?
No, but put a sky-light on top of his head to illuminate inwards. There, take
the order, and away.”(Melville, 512).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">This robot is
constructed so that information pours in, but is not chosen by the robot. Here
we see a robot with massive dimensions, superior in every way. Ahab intends
this robot to be the replacement of human beings. The eerie connection here is
the similarities of intent. Both are seeking a ‘perfect’ race or being; Ahab
with the perfect man and the Oankali creating a more perfect race by combining
two with the best characteristics of both races. However, the perfect robot is
never created for Ahab and his search for being ‘God-like’ leads him to his
imminent downfall. The same could possibly be said for the Oankali. They are
playing a ‘God-like’ position, attempting to create a superior being by playing
the role of God themselves. It seems that despite their intentions of creating
a superior race they are only running headlong into their own downfall. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>If Jodahs truly is a religious-based character then it is
hard to miss the connection of Jodahs and the biblical Judas Iscariot. Because
Butler is so influenced by Herman Melville, it is hard to overlook the similarities
of their naming processes. “Call me Ishmael.”(Melville, 1): one of the most
famous lines within any literary work. This too is an influential name within
Biblical terms. Because Ishmael’s name is significant within the terms of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Moby Dick</i> and Butler is so influenced by
Melville, the names and Biblical implications of such within <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Lilith’s Brood</i> must also be of
significance.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Judas
Iscariot biblically is known as the Apostle who betrayed Jesus Christ for money
leading to Jesus’ crucifixion. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.5in; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">“And Satan entered
into Judas, who was surnamed Iscariot, one of the twelve. And he went, and
discoursed with the chief priests and the magistrates, how he might betray him
to them. And they were glad, and covenanted to give him money. And he promised.
And he sought opportunity to betray him in the absence of the multitude.”(Luke
22:3-6) <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Jodahs also should be viewed
as a figure of betrayal within the Christian viewpoint. However, as we have
already noted Judahs is already being contextualized within the Islamic viewpoint.
There, Judas Iscariot plays a marginally different role. Here, we see Judas
Iscariot being crucified by the unbelievers in place of Jesus. This belief
comes from the following text from the Qur’an.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.5in; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">“And because of
[the Jews] saying: We slew the Messiah, Jesus son of Mary, Allah’s messenger –
they slew him not nor crucified him, but it appeared so unto them; and lo!
Those who disagree concerning it are in doubt thereof; they have no knowledge
thereof save pursuit of a conjecture; they slew him not for certain. But Allah
took him up Himself. Allah was ever Mighty.”(S. 4:157-158). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Here, the traitor then
dies in place of Jesus after the betrayal. This allows us to interpret Judas as
either the traitor or the traitor turned hero. Either way, it is imperative
that we allow these religious perspectives enhance our view of his character.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Though we may see this almost critical of Christianity, I
feel that in terms of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Lilith’s Brood </i>we
are to see Christianity and Islamic beliefs in conjunction with one another. Aside
from the presence of Judas Iscariot it may not be quite as clear as to how
Christianity and Islam do come together here. As we know, Lilith’s first
husband is a Nigerian man. This should not be taken as an insignificant detail.
Nigeria itself is split between Christianity and Islam as well. Lilith’s first
son is also given a Nigerian name. Lilith, then, could easily carry both
traditions with her. As Lilith’s son, it is not hard to imagine that Jodahs
could be both the connection between the Oankali and the humans and between
Christianity and Islam.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>All of these combined ideas seem to point to an obvious
failure of Jodahs as the correction of the human contradiction: that reason
being that a religious figure as a solution would be outrageous to the Oankali.
The Oankali have no use for religion, they are highly intellectual creatures
who see all things in terms of genetics. Throughout the novel even in light of
these intellectually superior creatures, humans continue to remain faithful. By
placing so many faith-based contexts into Jodahs’ character it implies that
rather than being the bridge between Oankali and human he is much more human
than any of the Oankali could ever comprehend, because religion and faith are
entirely incomprehensible to them. Though the Oankali may not even comprehend
the idea of a God, they are attempting to play the role of God by making a
figure that is akin to Ahab’s robot. Though the race may be, in the eyes of the
Oankali, a perfect one, it is doomed to fail and take the Oankali with it for
attempting to be like God.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Further proof of this failure is proven within Amira
El-Zein’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Islam, Arabs, and the
Intelligent World of the Jinn</i>. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.5in; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">“The
hierarchical Islamic view of the cosmos entails the imaginal realm just above
our terrestrial domain impinges unswervingly on us and interferes in our lives
in a subtle and hidden manner… Chapter 55 of the Qur’an, entitled <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">al-Rahman</i> (the All Merciful), embodies
at the best the correspondence between humans and jinn. Throughout this chapter,
written in the dual form to address its message to both jinn and humans, the
following sentence is repeated ad infinitum, like a forewarning to jinn and
humans: “O which of your Lord’s bounties will you [humans] and you [jinn] deny?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.5in; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Jinn are
addressed in the Qur’an as nations endowed with rational faculties. Jinn and
humans have mental faculties that allow them to access knowledge, perceive
truth, and distinguish them from all other living beings in the universe. These
two intelligent species are described as discerning the Word of God through
reasoning, while the rest of Creation grasps it instinctively”(El-Zein, 13). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">These paragraphs do two
interesting things. Primarily, it shows that the Qur’an sees both jinn and
humans as intelligently similar. They are beings who are viewed the same with
the same commands and consequences for their actions. However, beyond this the
jinn are part of a hierarchical cosmos. By being equally a part of this cosmos
as the humans, the jinn are also hierarchical. Therefore, as a correction to
the “human contradiction”, Jodahs is a complete failure, because he too encapsulates
the hierarchical tendencies of the humans and the cosmos. This presence
entirely refutes the idea that Jodahs could possibly be the correction, if he
too holds tis major part of the “human contradiction.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Jodahs as a jinn figure and a religious figure is
incapable of being a correction to the “human contradiction.” Aside from
religious figures being strictly from human nature, jinn too are connection to
religious beliefs. These religious beliefs show jinn and humans being of the
same nature, and in connection, equally as hierarchical and intelligent;
meaning that the jinn also hold the “human contradiction”. Jodahs cannot be a resolution
to an issue that he encompasses.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Bibliography<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 24pt; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Butler,
Octavia E. <i>Lilith's Brood</i>. New York: Aspect/Warner, 2000. Print.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 24pt; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Drieskens, Barbara. <i>Living with Djinns:
Understanding and Dealing with the Invisible in Cairo</i>. London: Saqi, 2008.
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 24pt; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN;">El-Zein, Amira. <i>Islam, Arabs, and the
Intelligent World of the Jinn</i>. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse UP, 2009. Print.</span><span lang="EN" style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">“Genie.”
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Encyclopedia of Demons and
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<span lang="EN" style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Melville, Herman. <i>Moby Dick</i>. Print.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN;">"</span><a href="http://www.credoreference.com/entry/brewerphrase/jinn"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="color: black;">Jinn</span></span></a><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN;">."
<em>Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable</em>. London: Chambers Harrap,
2009. <em>Credo Reference</em>. Web. 26 March 2012<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN;">“Jinn - Crystalinks." <i>Crystalinks
Home Page</i>. Web. 27 Mar. 2012. <http://www.crystalinks.com/jinn.html>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN;">“Judas Iscariot.” <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA</i>:. Web. 17 Apr. 2012. </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><a href="http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08539a.htm"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="color: black;">http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08539a.htm</span></span></a></span><span lang="EN" style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN;">. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Meeks, Wayne A., and Jouette M. Bassler. <i>The
HarperCollins Study Bible: New Revised Standard Version, with the
Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical Books</i>. New York, NY: HarperCollins, 1993.
Print.</span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN;">“Yavari, Neguin. “Jinn.” <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Encyclopedia of Sex and Gender.</i> Ed. Fedwa Malti-Douglas. Vol. 3.
Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2007. 809-811. Web. 24 Mar. 2012.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>Katelyn Antolikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01782157169013244674noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5425514987715337437.post-8010397549370707372012-04-16T18:23:00.001-07:002012-04-16T18:23:46.292-07:00Last open thread on Ellison and marcuseAdamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16302919444091859459noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5425514987715337437.post-76640536134670483292012-04-11T12:04:00.001-07:002012-04-11T12:04:23.104-07:00Melville's Influence on the Nature of Blackness and Whiteness in Invisible Man<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">In
the prologue of Ralph Ellison’s <i>Invisible
Man</i>, we see the narrator stealing light from Monopolated Light & Power
in “an act of sabotage” (7). In this instance the ceiling of light bulbs
represent the power and authority that comes with being a white man in 20<sup>th</sup>
century America, a sense of control that is denied to African Americans, and
the narrator specifically. In addition to that level of symbolism, there is an
even deeper layer of metaphoric rhetoric attached to the notion of light: it is
colloquially associated with the concept of truth and goodness. “Nothing, storm
or flood, must get in the way of our need for light” the narrator explains, “and
ever more and brighter light. The truth is the light and the light is the
truth” (Ellison 7). </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">However, the narrator is not stealing sunlight; he is
stealing electricity. Consequently, this plot device has yet another
association to it because, in a physical sense, the protagonist is filling his
basement with something artificial. Therefore, because electricity is a
facsimile of sunlight it can be argued that Ellison is making the statement
that the transcendental sense of freedom and control that the narrator is
chasing which belongs to Caucasians in society is, in actually, artificial. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">In
addition, by using the interpretation of the text where the light from the
power company is not perpetuating a metaphor of truth, but rather one of falseness
on both a symbolic and physical level, then the opposite of that notion must also
be true: the negativity associated with the invisible man’s blackness is also
contingent on perception and not the nature of reality.</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">This theme of the perception of connotations associated with light
and dark, white and black, is also relevant when analyzing Ellison’s novel
through the influence Melville’s work had on it. The connection between <i>Moby-Dick</i> and <i>Invisible Man</i> is introduced within the first few pages of the
novel, with the <i>Invisible Man’s</i> main
character having a reefer-induced dream that makes allusions towards the moment
in <i>Moby-Dick</i> where Ishmael briefly
comes across a Black church in Nantucket. This connection is further strengthened
when Brother Jack says to the narrator, “<i>History</i>
has been born in your brain” (Ellison 291). This moment exemplifies the link
between Ellison and <i>Moby-Dick</i> because
<i>Invisible Man’s</i> narrator is decidedly
similar to Ishmael: just like Ishmael is manufacturing the retelling of the
story of the great whale, Ellison’s nameless narrator is creating his own “<i>History</i>” in his head.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Furthermore, a reading of Ellison through the influence of
Melville is equally as prominent when examining the concept of white and
blackness, as this theme is significant in both books. Within the chapter
entitled “The Whiteness of the Whale” Ishmael undulates between various
interpretations of the symbolism of whiteness. He states that “whiteness refiningly
enhances beauty” and it is “the symbol of the divine spotlessness and power”
(Melville 204-204). However, Ishmael contradicts this interpretations, also
pointing out that white is also associated with “the white bear of the poles,
and the white sharks of the tropics” (Melville 205). Ishmael acknowledges
white as a race, saying that whiteness “applies to the human race itself,
giving the white man ideal mastership over every dusky tribe” (Meville 205.)
However, the back-and-forth between what white means (beautiful and terrible,
pure and evil) is an intentional choice by Melville as it encapsulates a major
theme within <i>Moby-Dick</i>: the
associations of lightness and darkness, goodness and evil, are ultimately
perception, not concrete reality. As Ishmael himself asks “Or is it, that as in
essence whiteness is not so much a color as the visible absence of color, and
at the same time the concrete of all colors?” (Melville 212).</span><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 325.8pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 325.8pt;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">The nameless narrator in <i>Invisible Man</i> also emphasizes Ishmael’s point. Throughout the novel
thus far, the protagonist undergoes different incarnations of blackness </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">as the narrative unfolds</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; line-height: 200%;">,
shifting between white and black and the stereotypes associated with each. With Melville’s influence in mind, this aspect of the
novel is a choice by Ellison to portray the point that the true nature of whiteness
and blackness is so complicated and varied that the association of truth and goodness
for whiteness and white men and negativity and darkness for blackness and black
men is an oversimplification used to justify the racism of America in the
1930s. Therefore, by reading Ellison through the impact of Melville</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; line-height: 200%;">, </span><i style="font-family: Helvetica; line-height: 200%;">Invisible Man </i><span style="font-family: Helvetica; line-height: 200%;">becomes not only a novel
that deals with issues of sociology, bigotry, and the capacity of human ignorance,
it also serves as commentary on the human psyche beyond race.</span></div>
<!--EndFragment-->Alison Cooperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03360096776852562068noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5425514987715337437.post-16896764001438779932012-04-10T14:25:00.001-07:002012-04-10T14:25:45.271-07:00Naming in Invisible Man and Moby Dick<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
Having a name implies having an
identity tied to other relations. Parents
give their newborn children names to indicate claiming and possession. To have a first and last name implies
relations that care enough to come up with a title for the child and that there
is a need to have something that others can use to refer to them by later in
life. In both Moby Dick and Invisible
Man, Melville and Ellison have narrators whose personal identities follow a
different pattern of naming. The lack of
a specific name for the author in Invisible Man can be interpreted as Ellison taking
Melville’s technique as a way to show the narrator is a nameless member of a
unit rather than a distinct individual.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
In Melville, the narrator tells the
reader what to call him in the famous “Call me Ishmael” (Melville 1). This seems to be perhaps for the convenience
of the reader to have a name to which to refer to the narrator throughout the
reading and is not referring to any familial relation. Additionally it may be interpreted as Ishmael
removing his previous relation, showing his personal transition to a whole new
identity with new ties, best defined by a chosen Biblical name himself rather
than a name given by relatives. Another perspective is that Ishmael throughout
Moby Dick is not the driving force, and tends to dissolve entirely at points to
give way to the more influential characters on the ship, specifically Ahab and
to perhaps a lesser degree Queegueg.
Ishmael happens to be the only one who survives the crash at the end and
comes back to relay the story to others in society. Telling the reader to call him Ishmael, may
be a way to tell the reader that his identity is not important. This may be related to the descriptions given
in the text about how the ship is a machine, with Ahab as the central calculating
unit and the others as cogs doing his bidding.
The members of the ship other than Ahab become living pieces of the
machine, and in Ishmael’s case, nearly nameless. One quotation that directly relates to this
is: “They were one man, not thirty. For
as the one ship that held them all; though it was put together of all
contrasting things […] all varieties
were welded into oneness, and were all directed to that fatal goal which Ahab
their one lord and keel did point to”(Melville 636).<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In
Invisible Man, the narrator does have a name but it is not (yet?) explicitly
given to the reader. The narrator does
talk about family relations, most
influential being that of his grandfather but this seems to be more haunting
him than anything. There are numerous
instances in the text, when a person asks the name of the narrator including
secretaries, Mr. Emerson’s son, Mr. Broadway and the doctors in the factory
hospital yet in all of these case, the narrator does not reveal the specific
name to the reader. In the specific
example of the factory hospital, the narrator after the electrical treatment,
can’t recall his own name: “Who am I? It was no good. I felt like a clown. Nor was I up to being both criminal and
detective - though criminal I didn’t know” (Ellison 242). This specific passage is interesting as it
brings up aspects of naming present in Moby Dick as well. Here when the narrator can’t remember his
name, he suddenly thinks of himself as a criminal. Though he doesn’t understand the connection
at the moment, it makes sense as part of being in prison is being referred to
by numbers and not by a name. The prison
metaphor as well as the machine metaphor are very present in Moby-Dick as the
men on the ship are in an enclosed area with no women, and the majority are
there out of financial necessity – perhaps a reason why a number of people are
in prison. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Another
interesting connection to Melville on the subject of naming is the interaction
with Mr. Broadway and the narrator in regards to what to call him. When the narrator meets him for the first
time, he calls him by his first name Lucius and he frowns and says “That’s
me-and don’t come calling me by my first name,
To you and all like you I’m <i>Mister</i>
Broadway…”(Ellison 207). Late Mr.
Broadway discusses his importance to the factory and the fact that his
knowledge of the machines is really what makes the Optic White paint the
best. From the beginning of their
interactions, it is established that the narrator is replaceable and is in a
position not necessary. This relates to the
fact that Mister Broadway has earned the right to be referred to with a title
of respect, whereas the narrator is referred to by Mr. Broadway as “Boy.” A quotation that directly relates this to
Melville is spoken by Mr. Broadway when he discusses his work on the plant as “They
got all this machinery, but that ain’t everything; <i>we the machines inside the machines</i>”(Ellison 217). This mechanical analogy relates rightly to
the one in Melville about the ship, in that the workers are simply an extension
of the machinery. Mister Broadway, in a
way, like Ahab, has earned a higher position in the mechanism to gain a title.
Yet Ishmael and the narrator in Invisible Man are expendable and their names
are not important to the functioning of the machine. In this way, they individuality does not need
to be referred to and their previous relations are not important. Their importance comes from being part of a
unit and thus there is no need to have or remember their names.<o:p></o:p></div>Colleen Lloydhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04082233159912327915noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5425514987715337437.post-86730952069133259552012-04-10T13:38:00.000-07:002012-04-10T13:38:08.370-07:00Final Project Proposal<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
My proposal for my final project is a revision of my
previous entry titled “Ellison, Marcuse, and the Consciousness of Servitude.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>1. <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The following is the
current bibliography for my project. I may change or add sources as I
investigate further:<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Box, Richard C. "Marcuse Was Right." <i>Administrative
Theory & Praxis (M.E. Sharpe)</i> 33.2 (2011): 169-191. <i>Business
Source Complete</i>. Web. 10 Apr. 2012.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
I will implement this source to
better explain and clarify the relevant arguments that Marcuse is making, and
how they directly apply to Ellison.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Ellison, Ralph. <i>Invisible Man</i>. New York: Vintage
International, 1995. Print.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<i>Invisible
Man </i>will be the main source that my essay will be focused around. I will
deeply investigate several relevant events in the novel and use my other sources
to guide my discussion of them.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Jarenski, Shelly. "Invisibility embraced: the abject as
a site of agency in Ellison's Invisible <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Man." <i>MELUS</i> 35.4 (2010): 85+. <i>Academic
OneFile</i>. Web. 10 Apr. 2012\<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
This source will be a great aid to
my explanation of the events that I select from Ellison. This source has helped
me discover new ways to look at these events.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Marcuse, Herbert. <i>One-Dimensional Man</i>. Beacon,
1991.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
Examples from Marcuse will be
selected in order to demonstrate the clear relationship that exists between <i>One-Dimensional Man </i>and <i>Invisible Man</i>. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
2. <b>
</b>The main argument of my essay is that <i>One-Dimensional
Man </i>and <i>Invisible Man</i> both deal
with the topic of social-domination and the inability to see it. These themes
are central to both Marcuse and Ellison. Marcuse discusses these topics at
great length, providing several examples for my argument. In <i>Invisible Man</i>, the narrator contends
with social-domination throughout the entire story. I believe that the narrator
fails to recognize his place of servitude in the beginning, but he comes to
realize it towards the end. A possible counterargument may propose the Ellison
and Marcuse deal with social domination in entirely different ways; therefore,
there is no clear relationship between the two. In addition, <i>One-Dimensional Man </i>was written after <i>Invisible Man</i>, so one cannot say that <i>Invisible </i>Man was influenced by <i>One-Dimensional Man.</i> I will have to
contend with these arguments during the my writing process.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
<i> </i>The
reader should care about my argument because it clarifies the statements that
Ellison is attempting to make in <i>Invisible
Man. </i>It gives the reader a better understanding of the significance of the
events that take place in the narrative. In addition, these topics are still
relevant to today’s society and deserve the reader’s time and attention.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
3. I
will use Marcuse to interrogate the events I select from <i>Invisible Man</i> and show how Ellison and Marcuse are related. Marcuse’s
idea of the “consciousness of servitude” will serve as one of the main themes
for my argument. The following quote introduces Marcuse’s consciousness of
servitude:<span style="background: #EFE0CB; color: #8e8e8e; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span>“All liberation depends on the
consciousness of servitude, and the emergence of this consciousness is always
hampered by the predominance of needs and satisfactions which, to a great
extent, have become the individual’s own” (Marcuse, 7). This quote is
applicable to several part of Ellison such as the battle royal. I will also use
the consciousness of servitude mentioned above and apply it to instances such
as the narrator’s time at Liberty Paints, and the narrator’s sexual encounter
with a white woman. There are many other quotes from Marcuse that will be used
to examine other events and characters such as Bledsoe and Tod Clifton. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
4. There are several things that I plan
to change about my previous essay. I will go into much greater detail about the
significance of the battle royal as I now believe it is an essential part of my
argument. I will try to further examine the role of the narrator’s grandfather because
I believe that I did not do a sufficient enough job in explaining this in the
original essay. I need to go into
greater detail in the explanations of Marcuse’s statements (“Marcuse Was Right”
will greatly aid me here). The same is true for the events that I have selected
from Ellison such as the battle royal and Bledsoe’s position of power. In
addition, I will make use of many additional events in Ellison that will help
my argument. These include the narrator’s
sexual encounters with white women, the Liberty Paints incidents, and the presence
of the Sambo dolls that Clifton sells. I am sure that I will come across even
more examples to use from Ellison as I continue my reading of the novel.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
I chose this as my final project
because I am deeply interested in this topic. I enjoyed writing the previous blog
entry more than any other, and I am confident that I will be able to produce a revision
that contains a more expansive, detailed, and clear argument.<b><o:p></o:p></b></div>Jesse Vihlidalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13719287261720193798noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5425514987715337437.post-67728748725501452602012-04-10T13:34:00.002-07:002014-11-13T19:39:53.825-08:00Marcuse in The Invisible Man<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="color: #8e8e8e; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;">“The most
effective and enduring form of warfare against liberation is the implanting of material
and intellectual needs that perpetuate obsolete forms of the struggle for existence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The intensity, the satisfaction and even the
character of human needs, beyond the biological level, have always been
preconditioned.” (Marcuse 4)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="color: #8e8e8e; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Again and again in the <u>Invisible
Man</u> we witness the effect of possessions and “necessities” on the Narrator
and his view on the material goods blacks wish to gain. His experiences and his
thoughts both agree with Marcuse that material and even intellectual goods only
suppress him and other blacks in the end.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="color: #8e8e8e; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The narrator’s thoughts on this
subject are perhaps most clear on page 256 where he tells us those” who sought
to achieve the status of brokers through imagination alone, a group of janitors
and messengers who spent most of their wages on clothing such as was
fashionable among Wall Street brokers, with their Brooks Brothers suits and
bowler hats, English umbrellas, black calfskin shoes and yellow gloves; with
their orthodox and passionate argument as to what was the correct tie to wear
with what shirt, what shade of gray was correct for spats”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These clothes do not free these “janitors” from
their position as poor blacks in New York and instead causes them to work to
make money for things they do not need.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>They become entrapped in the system that Marcuse describes where we work
because we are preconditioned to desire things we do not need and thus must
work more. However, they are not even working for a future generation but to show
they are not the stereotype others believe of them.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="color: #8e8e8e; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 200%;">However, just as quickly as our
narrator espouses these thoughts he seems to go back on them. The first thing
he does with his </span><span style="line-height: 26.6666641235352px;">new-found</span><span style="line-height: 200%;"> wealth from the brotherhood is buy himself a very
nice suit. “I selected a more expensive suit than I’d intended, and while it
was being altered I picked up a hat, shirts, shoes, underwear and socks, then
hurried to call Brother Jack, who snapped his orders like a general.” (Ellison
331)</span></span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 200%;">I think it is this last part of
this sentence that we need to look at if we wish to understand this sudden
change in our narrator. Our narrator, who had previously separated himself from
the “dreamers” and redefined himself as a black-man who was not afraid to be
black, shown by him eating yams, has now been offered a new position and gives
up part of his individuality and identify to be accepted by the brotherhood.</span></span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 200%;">He hurries to his new master’s call and obeys
his “orders” giving up his name, his family, and speaking for them instead of
just himself.</span></span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 200%;">Although he is fighting
for the people he has subjected himself to the “material needs” that society
dictates so that society will accept him instead of accepting himself.</span></span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 200%;">This passage also shows that he is not
entering a good community if the people he is with value such “material needs”
and later “intellectual needs” instead of the biological and individual. </span></span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 200%;">The Brotherhood is then not so </span><span style="line-height: 26px;">anti-establishment</span><span style="line-height: 200%;"> as it first appears.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="color: #8e8e8e; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The most obvious show of our
narrator’s disassociation with material goods and lifestyle is in the prologue,
where he tells us of his current life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>In this section he has surpassed his state before and has entered into a
new way of life, he tells us “(before I discovered the advantages of being
invisible) I went through the routine process of buying service and paying
their outrageous rates.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But no more. I
gave up all that, along with my apartment, and old way of life.” Our narrator,
abandoned the material needs we find the most basic such as an official home
and address to pursue a life we have not been preconditioned for but that is
perhaps more natural. At least in the world today you must have a home address,
every application, government form, and document whether it makes sense or not requires
one for completion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By rejecting a
standard home and with it a standard life of forms and paid for electricity our
narrator not only becomes invisible to the government and society but rejects
these common conveniences as unnecessary.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Why should he or we have a standard home when we can find a space to
live in warmth, why should we pay for electricity or what we assume must be gas
and water when we can get it anyways, why live in a world of forms?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On the one hand this lifestyle can suggest law-breaking
and anarchy, on another it could suggest Communism where these services will be
free, he seems to use it more to suggest individuality, a person not controlled
by preconditioning, not pursuing obsolete forms of the struggle for existence.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="color: #8e8e8e; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 200%;">Throughout </span></span><u style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;">Invisible Man </u><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 200%;">Ellison
repeatedly shows us that material and even intellectual needs that are not
biological are not necessary.</span></span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 200%;">He shows
they are </span><span style="line-height: 26.6666641235352px;">trappings</span><span style="line-height: 200%;"> of a society that bring men down and waste their money instead of imparting the happiness or fulfillment that they expect.</span></span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 200%;">Janitor do not become brokers by their clothes,
nice clothes and a nice apartment only trap the narrator with the Brotherhood,
and it is only in the isolation and anonymity of an unknown basement that our
narrator is free to hibernate and explore himself and truth. <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
Kayceehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13353642588534805264noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5425514987715337437.post-28854187859069198452012-04-10T13:34:00.000-07:002012-04-10T13:34:07.300-07:00Final paper proposal<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Shelley, Mary. <i>Frankenstein</i>. New York:
Dover Publication, Inc, 2009. Print.</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.5in;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I’ll be using
this novel as the main focus of my final paper. Focusing particularly on
expanding my first revision. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.5in;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Wilson, Edward. <i>On
Human Nature</i>. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2004. Print.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">I’ll use Wilson to discuss transcendental goals. I’ll also use other
some points from Wilson to prove my main argument.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: -.5in;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Freeman, Scott, and Jon C. Herron. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Evolutionary Analysis</i>. 4<sup>th</sup>
ed. San Francisco: Pearson Benjamin Cummings, 2007. Print. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">This is my textbook for my class on Evolution. I’ll use
evolutionary topics to discuss limitations of evolution that would limit
transcendental growth of knowledge that Victor and the monster seek.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: -.5in;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Rauch, Alan. “The Monstrous Body of
Knowledge in Mary Shelley’s ‘Frankenstein’.” <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Studies in Romanticism </i>34. 2 (1995): 227-253. Print. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">This article presents an argument largely for Victor’s quest for
knowledge. However, it also includes several interesting insights about the
monster’s knowledge on which could be helpful. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">I’m still searching for more sources to help prove my arguments,
and I’ll have more in the final paper. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">2. It is an easy task for the reader to look at Victor
Frankenstein and his monster as villains in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Frankenstein</i>.
This could be the view that many people hold, or that they are protagonist and
antagonist in the novel with no clear distinction between the hero and villain.
I will argue that these men are simply on a quest to obtain transcendental
knowledge, and this quest for knowledge is heroic, thus making these characters
heroes. I attempted to make this argument in my first revision, but there is
still more that can be done to improve the argument that I intend on doing. It
is not common thought that these characters are seen as heroes for their search
for knowledge, and I believe it is important to look at them in this light as
it gives them another layer for the reader to understand and form opinions
about. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">3. I will be using Wilson mostly for his discussion of
transcendental goals. I used this passage in my original revision, “Thus the
danger implicit in the first dilemma is the rapid dissolution of transcendental
goals towards which societies can organize their energies. Those goals, the
true moral equivalents of war, have faded; they went one by one, like mirages,
as we drew closer” (Wilson 4). I will use this again only I will look to build
on the idea even further by using other passages from <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Frankenstein</i> and also more passages from Wilson that are later in
the novel. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">4. I am working off of my first revision to improve it and make a
stronger argument. I plan on using the comments you gave me as the main basis
for what to change. I also plan on using new sources to add additional other
thoughts about these two characters and their quest for knowledge. I will need
to discuss the importance of these two men being heroes within the context of
the novel. I didn’t delve into that topic at all with my revision. I’ll also
need to make much better use of examples from the text to clarify some of my
main arguments. The more interesting part of my argument is that the monster
should be seen as a hero so I will work to make that argument stronger with
examples and better points. In general, I will use better supplementary texts
and more examples from Shelley and Wilson to improve and clarify my argument
while focusing more on the monster as a hero. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>Cody Wisniewskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02038074007977044156noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5425514987715337437.post-86349689823507502892012-04-10T13:23:00.002-07:002012-04-10T13:24:26.374-07:00Tentative Final Paper Proposal<br />
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<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="color: #999999;"><b>Tentative Argument:</b></span><span style="color: #999999;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<b>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="color: #999999;">Religion
is an important part of our society. There are obviously many different stances
on religion, whether it is necessary at all, when it is appropriate and the
validity of most religious claims. We live in a self-proclaimed Christian
society so the morals and values held by religious individuals also become a
part of our daily lives. Religion may be one of the most polarizing topics of
discussion there ever was so it is obvious that it would appear frequently in
literature. <span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="color: #999999;">Edward
O. Wilson in his novel On Human Nature devotes a whole chapter to religion and
how it is in human nature to have religious beliefs. He analyzes the validity,
necessity and overall sociobiological explanations for religions and beliefs in
a god or gods. In effect Wilson gives his highly educated sociobiological
examination of religion and how it is a vital part of human nature. <span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="color: #999999;">I want
to use this chapter to analyze and observe the appearances of religion in other
literary pieces we looked at this year. I want to use this chapter to make a
claim about the overall purpose of religion in these novels and the intent the
authors had in including it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="color: #999999;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In order to make my argument more clear
and concise I will focus it on three novels, The Invisible man, Moby Dick and
Litith’s Brood. I feel that these novels are all progressions on one another,
Butler was influenced by Ellison and Ellison by Melville. There is also a
progression of time in these novels as well so I feel that the ideas about and
of religion will progress also. These three novels have distinct and related
instances where religion plays an important part in the narrative. Some ideas
are as subtle but omnipresent as a character’s name, while other my be long and
drawn out scenes that are all centered around religion and religious practices.
I want to analyze the majority of there instances and see not only if they are
connected but if there is an over arching point of relevance. I feel as though
this is an important topic because it so prevalent in these three novels. All
of the authors included religion and religious allusions as an integral part of
their narrative so it has to be an important topic of discussion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The only real question is whether these
references have connections with each other and have a conjoining element.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #999999;"><b>Counter argument:</b></span><span style="color: #999999;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="color: #999999;">Like I
said previously, religion is basically everywhere, it is such a polarizing
topic that all three authors could have simply included religious themes to
keep the readers intrigued. There could be no real correlation or connection in
the three books to eachother in terms of religious references. Just because
religion is a part of all of these novels doesn’t mean they have to be
connected through that one theme. All of these references could stand as individual
unconnected entities and have no relation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #999999;"><b>Bibliography<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #999999;"><b>On Human Nature – Edward O
Wilson<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #999999;"><b><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></b></span><span style="color: #999999;">I want to use Wilson as the litmus test for what religion
is, what it means, and how important it is to human nature. Wilson’s analysis
of religion and my interpretation of it will be the backbone of my discussion.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #999999;"><b>Bridging Science and Religion
- Edward O. Wilson</b></span><span style="color: #999999;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #999999;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I
will use this piece to add supplemental ideas and evidence to the crux of my
argument. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #999999;">[Edward O. Wilson, , dir.
"Talk of the Nation." <i>Bridging Science and Religion</i></span><span style="color: #999999;">. NPR: 08 Sep 2006. Radio.
<http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5788810>.]<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #999999;"><b>Moby Dick -<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Herman Melville<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #999999;"><b><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></b></span><span style="color: #999999;">I want to start with Moby Dick because it comes 1<sup>st</sup>
in chronological setting. I will beginning with a discussion of the characters
names then go into more details by analyzing certain scenes from chapter 2 and
chapters 7-9.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #999999;"><b>The Invisible Man Ralph
Ellison<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #999999;"><b><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></b></span><span style="color: #999999;">This will be used as a continuation of my argument about
Melville and a comparison of chapter 2, looking closely at the prologue and at
other instances in the novel (as we read them).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #999999;"><b>Lilith’s Brood Octavia Butler<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #999999;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>This
will be used not only as a comparison be as a contrast. I will be discussing
the Oankli’s lack of religion and Lilith’s namesake<b>. <o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #999999;"><b>Steve Rosenthal - How Science
is Perverted to Build Fascism<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #999999;">This will be used to gain
contrasting ideas to Wilson’s about religion and do develop a counter argument
on the subject. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #999999;">[Rosenthal, Steve. "How
Science is Perverted to Build Fascism: A Marxist Critique of E.O. Wilson's
Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge." Southern Sociological Society
meeting. Department of Sociology, Hampton University. Hampton VA. 1998.
Keynote.]<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<!--EndFragment--></b></div>James Simonshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07566524830931037232noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5425514987715337437.post-1423213123044683982012-04-10T12:53:00.000-07:002012-04-10T12:53:11.220-07:00Final Paper Proposal<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #8e8e8e; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">For my final project, I plan to revise my essay on Queequeg
as a Gnostic symbol within the novel <i>Moby
Dick; </i>more specifically, my essay will focus on Queequeg as an incarnation
of a bringer of enlightenment and knowledge to Ishmael. I will do this through using textual evidence
in <i>Moby Dick, </i>in addition to at least
two separate texts that not only explore the Gnostic elements and symbols
within <i>Moby Dick, </i>but also define
Gnosticism as a religion in order to gain adequate understanding of the
connections between the two that I will be making. Some of these Gnostic articles and texts will
focus on a sect of Gnosticism called the Ophites, who were essentially
worshipers of the serpent in the Garden of Eden, who regarded the serpent as a
friend to humanity and a bringer of knowledge.
This topic will be good fodder for discussion and argument, because the
character Queequeg and his role in the novel is in many ways ambiguous. Although he is not the main protagonist/antagonist,
he plays a pivotal role in the novel and I believe through better understanding
his character and the influences that Melville used in order to construct him,
the reader may gain further insight into <i>Moby
Dick</i>; an extremely complex, and at times, confusing novel. Queequeg’s beliefs, customs, and his
relationship with Ishmael can be interpreted in a variety of different ways,
however it is in my opinion that out of all of these interpretations, the
argument of Queequeg as Gnostic symbol of a bringer of knowledge and
enlightenment is the most appropriate and the most illuminating. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> The reader of my essay should find
this argument important and hopefully worthy of thought in that it is a
different take on Queequeg’s character than what one usually finds in the
literature written on the subject.
Gnosticism in general and its interpretation of well-known biblical
stories and characters, like the serpent in the Garden of Eden, are at least in
my eyes, extremely unusual from the interpretations that I grew up with, and are
in that way very fascinating. The notion
that something that I, and many others, have been taught to regard as the
ultimate symbol of evil, is in another interpretation, a benevolent and worship
worthy character is extremely provocative.
However, I understand that this argument of religious interpretation has
the ability to spiral out of control and become too tangential. I am hoping that through using <i>On Human Nature’s</i> chapter on religion in
order to contextualize my argument in that it will allow me to argue for a
Gnostic interpretation of Queequeg in relation to the story of <i>Moby Dick</i>. Although I cannot completely agree to
Wilson’s interpretation that culture, and therefore, religion is a mere product
of genetics, I can understand Wilson’s argument as religion being an essential
and an organizing principle within our lives.
In the end, I think Wilson will be a good way to contexualize and
legitimize my interpretation of Queequeg as a Gnostic symbol, and why this
interpretation is important for the understanding of the novel, and why
Melville may have written him in such a way.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> I plan on making significant changes
to my previous revision in this final project.
The first half of my revision, in which I make conjectures that Queequeg
is initially a malevolent character whom the reader may interpret as perhaps an
incarnation of the devil within <i>Moby Dick
</i>will be cut back in order to focus more closely on my main argument which
argues that Queequeg is a Gnostic symbol.
However, I plan to edit this part of the paper as well, and will attempt
to make the argument more streamlined and concise, in addition to supplying
more textual evidence from new sources on Ophites and Gnosticism. Also, I will have to find an appropriate
place for the section on Wilson, and as of now I’m trying to find an
appropriate place for the discussion of Wilson’s text and how it relates to my
argument, however I think it’s placement will become more clear after I’m
finished with the initial cuts and restructuring of my essay. Overall, through these changes, the inclusion
of new sources, and the purging of most of the first half of my essay in
addition to any other overly tangential sections throughout the essay, I hope to
make a solid, and fascinating argument on Queequeg and his place within the
world of <i>Moby Dick. <o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Melville,
Herman. Moby Dick. 1851. New York City: Penguin Books, 2003. Print. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Nock, Darby.
"Gnosticism." <i>The Harvard
Theological Review</i> 57.4 (1964): 255-279. JSTOR. Web. 10 Apr. 2012.
< http://www.jstor.org/stable/1508563>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Vargish, Thomas.
"Gnostic Mythos in Moby-Dick." <i>Modern
Language Association</i> 81.3 (1966): 272-277.
JSTOR. Web. 15 Mar. 2012. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/460812<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<i><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><br /></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<i><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">The Bible</span></i><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">. New International Version. <i>Biblegateway.com</i>.
N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Mar. 2012. </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"> <www.biblegateway.com>.
</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Rasimus, Tuomas.
"Ophite Gnosticism, Sethianism and the Nag Hammadi Library." <i>Vigiliae
Christianae</i> 59.3 (2005): 235-263. <i>JSTOR</i>. Web. 10
Apr. 2012. <:http://www.jstor.org/stable/1584571
>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>Mia Bencivengahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16738528308799429643noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5425514987715337437.post-24601251928285961222012-04-10T11:17:00.002-07:002012-04-10T11:17:29.731-07:00Melville's Robot vs. Ellison's Man<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>As encapsulated
by the opening of Ralph Ellison’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Invisible
Man</i> we see that Herman Melville was of great influence in this novel.
Because of this it seems only obvious that the use of machinery in reference to
men should be held within both <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Invisible
Man and Melville’s Moby-Dick</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A better
understanding of Ahab’s robot helps a reader better understand the changes
which take place to the narrator in Ellison’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Invisible Man</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Hold;
while Prometheus is about it, I’ll order a complete man after a desirable
pattern. Imprimis, a fifty feet high in his socks; then, chest modeled after
the Thames Tunnel; then, legs with roots to ‘em, to stay in one place; then,
arms three feet through the wrist; no heart at all, brass forehead, and about a
quarter of an acre of fine brains; and let them see – shall I order eyes to see
outwards?, No but put a sky-light on top of his head to illuminate inwards.
There, take the order, and away.”(Melville, 512).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Prometheus,
a Titan who in Greek mythology famously gave Zeus’ fire to humans thus giving
them knowledge, is also a general symbol for socialism and communism. This begs
us to question the representation of the doctors within <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Invisible Man</i>. Their conversation involving the narrator is already
suspect.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">“’But what of his psychology?’<br />
‘Absolutely of no importance!’ the voice said. ‘The patient will live as he has
to live, and with absolute integrity. Who could ask more? He’ll experience no
major conflict of motives, and what is even better, society will suffer no more
traumata on his account.”(Ellison, 190).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The doctors are clearly altering their patient for the
benefit of society rather than his own physical benefit. In fact, his entire
psychology is ‘of no importance’ to them! If we are to view these doctors as a
type of Prometheus, not only are they giving a form of “knowledge” (Prometheus’
fire) but also representing a form of socialism. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Though socialism is mainly
economic, as is communism largely, they both revolve around the ideas of
decentralization and public or common ownership. This seems to reflect largely
what is going on with the narrator’s body. After he is “hospitalized” the
narrator is subjected to questionable experimental electric shock therapy, in
which he has not consented to, a decision made by a separate group of men he
has not met, and the benefits (or the lack thereof) the narrator will receive is
of “no importance” <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>but the benefit to
society is primary here. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Furthermore, the “knowledge” here
is primarily benefits society. However, we can see this better within the terms
of Ahab’s robot. ”’… about a quarter of an acre of fine brains; and let them
see – shall I order eyes to see outwards?, No but put a sky-light on top of his
head to illuminate inwards.’”(Melville, 512). As we see through the narrator’s
later actions, this is precisely what the doctors have achieved through their
experimentation on the narrator. Clearly intelligent, no true remaining
identity, only information that is given to him is processed, and he does not
necessarily choose his form of action. We see this in the eviction scene, where
the narrator both gives an inspiring speech urging the rioters to not harm the
white authority, but then continuing to inspire them all to do the exact
opposite. The rants of those around him inspire him to act in radical ways
simply because he no longer chooses his form of action (first responding to the
white authority and then to the enraged black gatherers). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">This raises the question, is the
narrator the success or failure of the perfect replacement of humanity, or in
this case, black humanity. It is obvious that when Ahab was imagining the robot
that he was imagining a replacement of humanity entirely, but within the scope
of the ongoing racial issues within <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Invisible
Man</i> they are attempting the perfect black man. Thus far it seems to me that
to the white man this has been a failure. Throughout the novel we see that a “good”
black man gives the white man what they want to hear by feeding them deceiving truths.
Now, through his alterations, the narrator is simply spewing back what is given
to him, which is what he has been warned against his entire life. It seems now
that this perfect creation is now going to be the white man’s biggest threat.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">By seeing the event of the hospital
machine through the eyes of Ahab’s robot I feel that it can deeply influence
our view of what is taking place within <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Invisible
Man</i>. Rather than a man struggling with his identity, we see a man
regurgitating his surroundings from the intentional alterations by a group of
white men attempting to achieve the perfect black man. This results in what
seems to be a threat to the white man in a way they did not anticipate. <o:p></o:p></span></div>Katelyn Antolikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01782157169013244674noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5425514987715337437.post-16458164617628497012012-04-09T19:06:00.003-07:002012-04-09T19:12:01.995-07:00Marcuse's Supra-Individuality in Ellison<em>“[A] certain speech…by a certain individual who is (authorized or unauthorized) spokesman of a particular group…in a specific society. This group has its own values, objectives, codes of thought and behavior which enter—affirmed or opposed—with various degrees of awareness and explicitness, into individual communication. The later thus “individualizes” a supra-individual system of meaning, which constitutes a dimension of discourse different from, yet merged with, that of individual communication"</em> (Marcuse 197).<br /><br />When Ellison’s protagonist gives his graduation speech at a gathering of important local white men, he is representing the whole of the black community in the town. His speech “showed that humility was the secret, indeed the very essence, of progress” (17). According to Marcuse, this speech should interpolate some sort of meaning or essence of the black community for the white folk present. For most of the presentation, however, that is not the case.<br /><br />The speaker, with his parable about the men in the boat who need the water and obey the other ship in order to get it, is representational not of the black community—remember his grandfather?—but of the black community that the white men want to see, the black community under the finger of the white population. Ellison’s narrator orates eloquently of the importance of humility to success in the community, exemplifying the concept as he speaks, having just been a pawn in their entertainment. He has been pitted against his schoolmates in a battle royal, beat up, bloodied, electrocuted, and yet he does not fight back, protest, or even hesitate in his speech, but continues with the humility that the white men in attendance demand from the black community.<br /><br />The men “were still talking and laughing” (30) as he delivered the speech he had labored to create. The white men were laughing at the narrator’s naïveté, his willingness to go along with the culture they have created for the black people. That is to say that the narrator is not evincing the Marcusian definition of the supra-individual system of the black community, but rather the supra-individual system of the black community as brainwashed by the white community. The narrator is not expressing the views of his people, but the views of his people as colored—or whitewashed, as it were, by the white “masters”.<br /><br />The entirety of the gathering is in on the joke together. They laugh and chirp at the narrator,<br />congratulating themselves on a job well done, being able to have created such a well-rounded black man after their own design. Instead of being colored by his own culture, the narrator’s speech is tinged with the oppressor’s rhetoric. That is, until he slips up.<br /><br />The reader knows that the narrator did not mean to stir up trouble, for Ellison writes that the narrator “made a mistake and yelled a phrase [he] had often seen denounced in newspaper editorials, head debated in private” (31). He utters a phrase—social equality—that makes “[t]he laughter [hang] smokelike in the sudden stillness” (31). Whereas the group was merry moments before as the narrator gamely discussed social responsibility, they are caught off guard and consequently try to run him off stage. The white men are angered by and afraid of the chink in the armor of what they considered a perfect specimen of black submissiveness.<br /><br />The supra-identity of the narrator’s culture—embodied in the memory of his grandfather’s words—peeks through in this moment, although the narrator contributes the slip to being “distracted by having to gulp down my blood” (31). While this may be true, it is also Ellison’s way to say that the narrator needed to swallow the white people’s influence on his culture and accept what is deep down and confusing to him: the assertion of his grandfather that the social responsibility of the black man was not "humility” but to “agree ’em to death and destruction” (16).Erika Zimmermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02868482484611010466noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5425514987715337437.post-89025621491155187992012-04-09T16:10:00.001-07:002012-04-09T16:10:54.929-07:00Revision Outline Sketch Blueprint<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
Fatalist 'Enlightenment' </span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">For my revision, I plan to expand my
blog post on what I titled “The Fatalist Enlightenment” (<a href="http://pitt-crit-reading.blogspot.com/2012/01/fatalist-enlightenment.html">http://pitt-crit-reading.blogspot.com/2012/01/fatalist-enlightenment.html</a>).
There are several reasons why I am choosing to do this. First, I believe nearly
every text we’ve read since I wrote the post in late January is highly germane
to the debate between fate and free-will. I plan, at the very least, to include<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> Lilith’s Brood</i> and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">On Human Nature </i>(as per the original post), as well as <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Moby-Dick</i>. I also plan on engaging with <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">One Dimensional Man</i>. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">A requirement for this final project
is that we choose one of the more philosophical works from the class (Wilson,
Lewotin, or Marcuse) and engage with their ideas/work in a sustained manner
throughout my argument. My initial post harped pretty extensively on Wilson’s
idea of the non-existence of free-will. I plan to shift the majority of my
philosophical engagement from that of Wilson to that of Marcuse. The schematics
of such a revision will most likely bound an argument as follows:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1)<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Wilson makes the claim that honeybees
do <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">not</i> have free-will. He makes this
claim based upon our understanding of science and our heightened/developed intellectual
skills compared to the honeybee. His argument summarizes as such: </span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .75in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level3 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">i)<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Given enough computational power, we
can predict the ‘choices’ that a honeybee would make based on a knowledge of
all external stimuli: the placement of nearby flowers, pheromones, etc.</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .75in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level3 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">ii)<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Therefore the honeybee does not have
free-will, as we can predict what the bee will do “with an accuracy exceeding
pure chance” (Wilson, 73).</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .75in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level3 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">iii)<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">We can then imagine that, if there
were a higher life-form than humans that were able to view humans in an
objectified manner, they would come to similar conclusions regarding humans.</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .75in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level3 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">iv)<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Therefore, humans do not have
free-will either.</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .75in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level3 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">v)<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">However, it is the limitations of a
being’s own intellect that determine its <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">illusion</i>
of free-will, therefore any given being should, by Wilson’s definition, always
have the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">illusion</i> of free-will.</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">2)<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Many opponents of sociobiology see
this as problematic; I do not. As I claimed in my previous essay, there is no
inherent or functional difference between illusions of free-will and free-will
itself. In fact, it only becomes problematic or bothersome when we begin to
make inquiries with regards to its nature. Otherwise, we do our human-version
of happily collecting honey obliviously.</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">3)<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Marcuse views humanoid happy,
oblivious honey-collection as a private (public?) hell. Much of his theories of
liberation state that we cannot become <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">truly
</i>free until we realize that we are <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">not</i>
free.</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">4)<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Wilson’s theory seems to directly
contradict Marcuse’s. I realize that discussions of free-will and freedom are
not entirely within the same realm, but there are substantial overlaps.
Consider:</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .75in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level3 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">i)<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Wilson believes that any given being
cannot transcend its own intelligence in order to realize that it is, in fact,
not able to exercise free-will.</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .75in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level3 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">ii)<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Marcuse believes that it is possible
for society to transcend its own consciousness in order for it to realize that
it is, indeed, not free.</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">5)<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I think both of these make a
substantial amount of sense to me, yet I think that Wilson’s reasoning poses
more of a challenge to the validity of Marcuse’s claim than vice versa.</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">6)<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">For, if you have the perception of
free-will, it is as good as free-will. Is not, then, the perception of freedom
inherently the same as freedom itself?</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">7)<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Surely it is not, yet this does pose
a particular challenge to Marcuse’s work, one which I would like to explore using
several examples from the texts we have read over the course of the semester.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">As for outside sources, I am still
somewhat searching for the most germane texts to my inchoate argument. I have
been referred to Heidegger countless times over the semester and have begun to
engage (albeit a somewhat cursory engagement) with his philosophical outlook.
Assuming I can rise ever so slightly above my current dilettante-level
understanding of Heidegger I would like to bring in a discussion of his concept
of Dasein, particularly when it comes to Dasein’s choice between authenticity
and mimicry (and how both are still choices and therefore ‘free-will-ish’).
Which means my tentative bibliography includes <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Being and Time</i> (Between the Macquarrie/Robinson and the Stambaugh
translation, is either more cogent? (Are there particular sections I should
look at?))</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">My second, and perhaps third
academic resource will be from an academic journal. I am currently perusing some
of PittCat’s catalogue to find a nice review of current neurological/psychological
understanding of free-will (or the perception thereof). Mostly, I am finding
highly esoteric submissions involving much neurological jargon and very little
speculation in the neurology papers I’ve found and pretty much the complete
inverse in psychology papers (speculation abound). I want to find a good mix
between the two, something I can reference as our current biological
understanding (removed from sociobiology, hopefully) of not only where our
free-will comes from, but where our own limitations in understanding it lay.
Hopefully I will be able to turn this back around to challenge Marcuse’s
proclamation further.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">If not (it’s not looking good), I
plan on engaging with, at least in a passingly critical fashion, neuroscientist
and author Sam Harris in either his book (appropriately enough) “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Free Will</i>” or “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Moral Landscape</i>.” In each, he argues for a scientific
understanding of basic morality and believes that science can offer us a way to
build our morality around – very much a neo-Wilson. I will use his claims as a
counterpoint to Heidegger’s approach (or rather, Heidegger’s approach as a
solution to Harris’s floundering).</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Hope all this qualifies.</span></div>
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<br /></div>Dean Matthewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10317050215775698939noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5425514987715337437.post-88167287339842915142012-04-07T17:13:00.001-07:002012-04-07T17:13:06.035-07:00Questions on Ellison/Marcuse, Week 2Adamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16302919444091859459noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5425514987715337437.post-9726838736788383992012-04-07T17:12:00.002-07:002012-04-07T17:12:52.367-07:00Prompts for this week...Are unchanged from last week. Do the proposal if you haven't done it; otherwise, write on Ellison, as defined last week.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://pitt-crit-reading.blogspot.com/2012/03/prompts-for-this-week-and-next-week.html">http://pitt-crit-reading.blogspot.com/2012/03/prompts-for-this-week-and-next-week.html</a>Adamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16302919444091859459noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5425514987715337437.post-63350468987860272562012-04-03T19:35:00.000-07:002012-04-03T19:35:18.771-07:00Reification of Oppression in Marcuse and Ellison.<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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“I was thinking of the first person who’d mentioned anything
like fate in my presence, my grandfather. There had been nothing pleasant about
it and I had tried to forget it. Now, riding here in the powerful car with this
white man who was so pleased with what he called his fate, I felt a sense of
dread. My grandfather would have called this treachery and I could not understand
in just what way it was” (Ellison). Marcuse’s unification of opposites runs
rampant within Ralph Ellison’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Invisible
Man</i>. Ellison creates and presents racial control and class oppression that
takes place through an illusory unification of opposites bestowed to the
oppressed class from the oppressor. In this way, the potentiality for protest
and therefore revolt are recognized by the oppressing class. These nodes of
resistance are swiftly applauded and upheld by the oppressing class – they are
given money, education, and attention. Upon receiving this money, education and
attention, the node of resistance undergoes a paradigm shift – becoming something
other than a portion of the oppressed class and thereby the node is effectively
distanced from its identification with the oppressed class and begins to
identify with the oppressing class. Once it becomes difficult for the node of
resistance to identify with the class from which it transcended, the initial
ideology that it first recognized becomes clouded, hazy, and conflated with the
ideology of the oppressing class. Thus, a harmonious unification of opposites. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
What is particularly tricky with regards to the bolstering
of nodes of resistance by the oppressing class is that the very act which leads
to the unification of the oppressed and oppressing can easily be propagated as
an act of valor for the oppressed class by the oppressing class. This can
create the illusion that progress is being made and that not only is the
oppressing class empathetic to the plight of the oppressed class, but, indeed,
they have taken a step towards closing the gap. The narrator’s initial speech
that gains him attention within the society was concerned with the idea “that
humility was the secret, indeed, the very essence of progress” (Ellison, ). This
idea is heavily grounded in Marcuse’s ideas of the mollification of social
protest. A young African American man, a member of the oppressed class, makes a
speech during a time of great social injustice and his main idea is that the
effacement of the individual would lead to what he identifies with as progress.
Within the very next sentence, the narrator scoffs at this idea: “Not that I
believed this – how could I, remembering my grandfather? – I only believed that
it worked” (Ellison, ). Yet he puts forward the idea, knowing that he would
benefit from it. From the start, this is a clear representation of the
unification of opposites. The narrator is clearly a member of an oppressed
class and he recognizes this. Still, his first speech concerns progress (it is
unclear within the text if this initial speech is connected to racial issues or
not) by engagement <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">with</i> the
established system. Furthermore, the speech itself symbolizes this very
engagement, as the ideas contained within the speech are not beliefs which the
narrator holds, but which he recognizes as a tool for gaining social merit
(which he then may be able to turn around and use for actual progress). </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Once recognized as a potentially influential orator, the
narrator is presented with a scholarship to attend college. The narrator is
essentially being integrated into the very society that oppresses his people
and accepts. At the ceremony where he receives his scholarship, he is berated,
belittled and beaten by bigoted white men, which eventually allow him to make a
speech concerning relations between African Americans and white persons. The
speech, again, highlights humility and the ‘social responsibility’ of both
classes, yet it is given after the battle royale, after the narrator had been
beaten and demeaned. The presentation of the scholarship at the end of the
speech completely closes the universe of discourse within the novel. Any
initial protest that the narrator had – whether regarding race relations in
general or objections to the way he had been treated before his speech – were efficiently
squashed once he was given the briefcase. Indeed he claims that he was “overjoyed”
(Ellison, ). The injustices of the men (or the society) are somewhat forgotten
or at least accepted by the narrator as he is allowed to transcend his previous
social stature and become more fully integrated into the established order. In
addition, the actions of the men are offered as if they were “in jest,”
treating social inequality as inevitable, taking great pride in proving an
African American a scholarship, while blatantly taking part in overt racial
violence.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The next chapter depicts the narrator driving Mr. Norton
around the outskirts of the college. The narrator feels privileged at this
point, and the opposites of oppressed and oppressor are unified within the car.
They travel outward from the college and witness the countryside to which Mr.
Norton takes a fascination. Outside of the realm of affluence and privilege,
the oppression of the African American race makes itself readily apparent. Mr.
Norton’s fascination with African American struggle and his apparent want to
experience their culture seems as his acceptance of proven social roles, given
that “renunciation and toil are the prerequisites for gratification and joy,
business must go on and that the alternatives are Utopian” (Marcuse,145). Mr.
Norton views the social gap between whites and African Americans as something
for African Americans to ‘overcome’ – and he believes he is providing them the
tools – instead to viewing the bigoted tendencies of the overarching societal
structure itself – including all relevant races – as problematic. The narrator’s
reluctant acquiescence to Mr. Norton’s request is yet another example of the
acceptance of this: although the narrator is clearly made uncomfortable by the exploitation
of the log cabin’s scenery and symbolism, he is powerless to refuse Mr. Norton’s
demand due to previously determined social roles that with domination. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Mr. Norton’s sickness is perhaps symbolic of a breakdown of
this one-dimensional thought. Upon exposure to the poverty and alienation of
Trueblood, Mr. Norton becomes aware that the college he had founded and funded
only served to perpetrate racial relations between African Americans that were
not attending the college. Furthermore, African Americans attending the college
were less likely to protest, less likely to seek radical social change, and
more likely to conform to the contemporary order. The $100 that Mr. Norton
gives to Trueblood is further evidence that he believes the struggle for
existence is primary financial and monetary: for Mr. Norton, a $100 gift to an
oppressed individual is equal to that of a college dedicated to an oppressed
class. The notion that the oppression of a race came from the quality or lack
of their <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">education</i> rather than the
structure of society is ignoring the core and central issue – or, rather,
simply operating in a two-dimensional society.</div>Dean Matthewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10317050215775698939noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5425514987715337437.post-11562201502132189452012-04-03T14:57:00.002-07:002012-04-03T14:57:23.565-07:00Ellison, Marcuse, and the Consciousness of Servitude<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<i>The
Invisible Man </i>and <i>One-Dimensional Man
</i>have a clear relationship in that they deal with the issues of
social-domination and the inability to recognize it. Both Ellison and Marcuse are contending with
this topic in slightly different ways. Marcuse is mainly concerned with the overall
power structure that is dominated by the rich, and one that perpetuates the
destruction of multidimensional thought.
Ellison, on the other hand, focuses his lens a little more closely on
the factors that racial tensions bring into this power structure.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
Marcuse asserts, “All liberation
depends on the consciousness of servitude, and the emergence of this
consciousness is always hampered by the predominance of needs and satisfactions
which, to a great extent, have become the individual’s own” (Marcuse, 7). Here,
Marcuse is saying that for true freedom to occur, everyone must first realize
that they are in fact not free. This
raises a problem: people are generally too preoccupied with attaining basic
needs, or are too concerned with achieving success to realize that they are
bound to the ultimate form of servitude.
Due to this fact, ultimate liberation may never present itself as a feasible
goal. This quote from Marcuse can be
related to <i>The Invisible Man on</i>
several occasions throughout the novel. However, the occasion that I would like
to investigate appears in Chapter 1, where the narrator’s grandfather speaks
his dying words. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
“I never told you, but our life is
a war and I have been a traitor all my born days, a spy in the enemy’s country
ever since I give up my gun back in the Reconstruction” (Ellison, 16). The preceding
quote from the narrator’s grandfather troubled his family greatly. What exactly did he mean by this statement? I
believe that the grandfather meant that he regretted living a humble life in
such a racist environment. In living
this meek life, he felt that he was a traitor to his family and his race. The grandfather proceeded to tell his family
to protect themselves by remaining in the servant character, but do not
internally accept this role. If they do
not accept this role, they will not be traitors like him. All of these words greatly trouble the
narrator, as we see in the following quote, “It became a constant puzzle which
lay unanswered in the back of my mind. And whenever things went well for me I
remembered my grandfather and felt guilty and uncomfortable. It was as though I was carrying out his
advice in spite of myself. And to make
it worse, everyone loved me for it. I was praised by the most lily-white men of
the town. I was considered an example of desirable conduct—just as my
grandfather had been” (Ellison, 16). In the early stages of the novel, the
narrator seems that his <i>is </i>accepting
the role that the white power structure wants him to play. He receives great praise for his behavior and
is even given a scholarship to a black college.
The narrator seems to be well on his way to living the humble life his
grandfather lived and regretted.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
This event directly relates to the
previous quote from Marcuse. The
grandfather seemed to live a life that was presumably more concerned with basic
needs then actually fighting against a system of white domination. Throughout his life, the grandfather did not
possess, or just refused to acknowledge, the consciousness of servitude that is
referred to by Marcuse. However, it seems that the grandfather eventually
gained this consciousness of servitude while on his deathbed. The narrator also seems unable to fully grasp
the consciousness early in the novel. He has been distracted by praise and benefits
given to him, such as the scholarship. His full obedience to the system flies
in the face of his dead grandfather, and this makes the narrator very
uncomfortable. Still he continues to be blind to the fact that he is being
taken advantage of in several instances like the “battle royal” in which he was
made to participate. All of the praise and
gifts act as a cover that the narrator cannot see through. This is very similar to Marcuse’s comments on
the consciousness of servitude and how it is hampered by personal wants and
needs. The narrator does not yet possess
this quality. All of the approval and acclaim prevent him from seeing his servitude,
and in effect prevents the thought of real liberation from entering his mind. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
“This is the pure form of
servitude: to exist as an instrument, as a thing . . . the organizers and
administrators themselves become increasingly dependent on the machinery which
they organize and administer. And this mutual dependence is no longer the dialectical
relationship between Master and Servant, which has been broken in the struggle
for mutual recognition, but rather a vicious circle which encloses both the
Master and the Servant” (Marcuse, 33).<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
This quote from Marcuse also
connects to Ellison. This quote is asserting that even the so-called masters of
the power structure in place fall victim to it. They are bound to it and live
their lives perpetuating it. The masters constantly seek more power while at
the same time defend against the loss of power.
An instance where this is seen in <i>The
Invisible Man is</i> when Bledsoe is admonishing the narrator. The following quote is from Bledsoe, “This is
a power set-up, son, and I’m at the controls.
You think about that. When you buck against me, you’re bucking against power,
rich white folks power, the nation’s power—which means government power!
(Ellison, 142). This quote illustrates Bledsoe’s view of his position at the
college. He sees himself as holding authority over everyone at the college, and
he seems pleased by this. Even though
his power in a way perpetuates the system of white control, Bledsoe loves his
position. However, he seems to be very nervous and self-conscious about his
power; he is very afraid that he might somehow be removed from his position of authority. Bledsoe’s role in this connects to Marcuse’s
comments on the Master and the Servant.
Even though Bledsoe holds power over the narrator, there is no classic
master-servant relationship. This is
because <i>both </i>Bledsoe and the narrator
are being controlled by the system dominated by whites. Bledsoe is so concerned with keeping his
power that he fails to see that he too is being controlled. Bledsoe is blind to how he is being
manipulated into perpetuating the current system in place. He does this by being more concerned with
keeping influential whites happy and giving them what they want to see, than
with helping his race and college community progress against the system of
domination.<o:p></o:p></div>Jesse Vihlidalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13719287261720193798noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5425514987715337437.post-63093649108533207422012-04-03T14:27:00.000-07:002012-04-03T14:27:16.088-07:00A One Dimensional Invisible Man<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="color: #999999;">Throughout
history there have been many attempts, wide scale and at the individual level,
to abolish the confines of social class. These attempts are usually made by the
lower class to either become apart of the upper class or to simply have no
stratification whatsoever.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One
could say that an individual with the cliché rags-to-riches story is and
individual who has successfully transcended their class and has balanced out
these class inequalities. Herbert Marcuse would disagree with those who believe
this (and I would concur with him.) When one attempts to rise up out of their
class by emulating or assimilating with the upper class they are not ridding
the world of class distinctions but really preserve them. This claim by Marcuse
is also echoed in Ralph Ellison’s work <i>Invisible Man </i></span><span style="color: #999999;">but first we will start with an analysis of Marcuse.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in;">
<span style="color: #999999; font-size: 10.0pt;">Here, the so-called equalization of class distinctions reveals
its ideological function. If the worker and his boss enjoy the same television
program and visit the same resort places, if the typist is as attractively made
up as the daughter of her employer, if the Negro owns a Cadillac, if they all
read the same newspaper, then this assimilation indicates not the disappearance
of classes, but the extent to which the needs and satisfactions that serve the
preservations of the Establishment are shared by the underlying population.
(Marcuse 8)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #999999;">What Marcuse claims here is that
when we try to assimilate with the upper class by living their lifestyle we are
simply maintaining the status quo. Instead of equalizing or abolishing class
stratification we are actually perpetuating it and showing how important it’s
preservation is to the Establishment. By buying the same luxuries that those we
admire have we are not showing that there is no need for class or that we are
becoming a part of the higher class but rather that class is so important that
one must buy these things in order to display their class to the masses. These
actions, in effect, perpetuate class farther and therefore are counter
productive to their goal. The preservation of class roles through their
attempted abolishment is a theme that is echoed early on in Ellison’s work.
Ellison uses the narrator to illustrate this same idea that the attempt to
transcend ones class by emulating the upper class usually has negative results.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: #999999;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>In
the 1<sup>st</sup> chapter the narrator recounts a speech he gave at his
graduation. The speech was so compelling that it was met with vigorous praise
and the narrator was even asked to give the speech at a gathering of the towns
most prestigious, white, members. The narrator terms this invitation as a
“triumph for [his] whole community” (Ellison 17) which one would assume it is
without reading Marcuse. Initially the reader does consider this a triumph; in
the time of the novel, if a young black, high school graduate was given the
opportunity to speak in front the white elite it was considered not only a
success but and extreme rarity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We
assume that the narrator is transcending his social class.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His superior intellect has impressed
the prestigious members of society and because of this they accept him into
their community, and in the beginning we imagine that this is a good thing.
However we see shortly after that the narrator was not brought there to transcend
his social class, but to highlight it and reaffirm it. Instead of showing how
his presence shatters social constructs it proves how important they are to the
community. </span><span style="color: #999999; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></span><span style="color: #999999;">When the narrator arrived he was not considered the main
event, or the guess of honor as he had hoped. He was not given the opportunity
to prove why he deserved to be there or why he was meant to be a part of this
upper class at all. Instead the narrator was proposed with something completely
different: “I was told that since I was to be there anyways I might as well
take part in the battle royal to be fought by some of my schoolmates as part of
the entertainment.” (Ellison 17)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>This is completely antithetical to the reason why the narrator thought
he was invited to the event and exactly what Marcuse was talking about. Rather
than getting the opportunity to rise above his class the narrator was told to
maintain it and instead of being the triumphant representative for his
community his was force to physically fight against them. Here we see the
masses using the attempt to balance out class distinction as a way to affirm
them. The narrator’s attempt to be come apart of the elite caused him to be
placed in a position where he is considered as more of an animal that even a
human being. </span><span style="color: #999999; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999;">The narrators
attempt to become apart of the elite social class was thwarted by the very same
group that he was attempting to emulate. Through out the night he was received
with racial slurs, he was berated and harassed and barely given the chance to
give his speech. When the narrator did get a chance to talk, he was given no
respect and ironically enough, generated quite a few laughs when he misspoke
and preached social equality instead of social responsibility. Here and in
other parts in the novel we see Marcuse’s argument accurately portrayed. By trying
emulate the upper class in an attempt to strip society of class distinctions
only helps to maintain those distinctions and show how important they are to
our society.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<!--EndFragment-->James Simonshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07566524830931037232noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5425514987715337437.post-39544502551549842042012-04-03T14:11:00.002-07:002012-04-03T14:11:46.013-07:00Blindness<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>A theme
that resonates through both <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Moby Dick</i>
and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Invisible Man</i> is that of blind following.
The following is by men who have a problem finding a sense of identity. Ishmael
has nothing for him on land so he takes to the sea under the leadership of Ahab
to cast himself away from society. Ahab has almost a supernatural ability to
lead men and have them surrender to his will. The men know that it is like a
death sentence to chase after Moby Dick, but they follow him out of loyalty and
his powerful leadership. The narrator in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Invisible
Man</i> suffers from a similar lack of identity as Ishmael. The main difference
I see between the two is that the narrator suffers from a lack of racial identity,
and Ishmael suffers from loneliness and sadness it seems. There is also the
blindness of Ahab in his pursuit (following) of the Great Whale. The Whale is
an even more supernatural and unseen source of chase than that which Ahab
carries with him for Ishmael. Ahab laments about this in the novel when he
states that “What is it, what nameless, inscrutable, unearthly thing is it;
what cozening, hidden lord and master, and cruel, remorseless emperor commands
me; that against all natural lovings and longings, I so keep pushing, and
crowding, and jamming myself on all the time; recklessly making me ready to do
what in my own proper, natural heart, I durst not so much as dare” (Melville
592). Ahab recognizes that following this force is bad, but there is something
that prevents him from ending it all. The blindness of the narrator at the
beginning of the novel could be understood more easily when looking at Melville’s
two main characters and the incredible forces that they follow blindly behind. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>In the
first chapter of the novel, the narrator and other black boys must blindly
entertain white men who see themselves as greatly superior in social status
because of their race. In order to give his speech to these prominent white
men, the narrator decides to first participate in a blind battle royale. The
boys were literally blindfolded during the fights by the white men. This is anthropomorphism
for the metaphorical blindness that these boys are also suffering from. The
narrator is very reliant on more prominent white men for the beginning of the
novel, whether it is these men or Norton. Throughout the fights he is nervous
to give his speech to these people and frequently thinks it. He says that “The
harder we fought the more threatening the men became. And yet, I had begun to
worry about my speech again. How would it go? Would they recognize my ability?
What would they give me?” (Ellison 24). The last question that he asked himself
in particular shows his blindness towards the feelings of these men towards
him. They have blindfolded him and treated him like the stereotypical savage
that blacks were seen as in the south at the time. These men are able to
control his actions due to the idea that they could give him better things if
he reduces himself down to a stereotypical African American. They award him a
scholarship for college, but he remains under the control of the force of
whites, especially in the form of Norton. He seems to care about the kids, but
he really has control over their fate and their actions if he desires. When the
two are in the Golden Day, they are confronted by a veteran who seems insane to
the narrator and Norton. He is the first person in the novel to really confront
the narrator’s relationship with whites and how blind he is to their actual feelings
towards him. He argues with Norton and says many things about the connection
between the narrator, Norton, and other whites. He says that “And the boy, this
automaton, he was made of the very mud of the region and he sees far less than
you … To you he is the mark on the scorecard of your achievement, a thing and
not a man … And you, for all your power, are not a man to him, but a God, a
force” (Ellison 95). He continues, “He believes in you as he believes in the
beat of his heart. He believes in that ret false wisdom taught slaves and
pragmatists alike, that white is right. I can tell you his destiny. He’ll do
your bidding, and for that his blindness is his chief asset” (Ellison 95). He
makes a very explicit reference to the narrator’s blindness in reference to his
relationship with Norton. He makes the observation that the narrator clearly
has his own individuality and feelings, but Norton rules over them. He even
describes him as “a God, a force” which is very strong language and sticks with
the idea that the narrator is being led by something he cannot see by these
white men. Throughout the beginning of the novel, the narrator is indeed blind
to this force that causes his following. At this point, like Ahab and Ishmael,
he seems destined to be with this force and follow it away from his own
individuality. </div>
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<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></div>Cody Wisniewskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02038074007977044156noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5425514987715337437.post-19185785848548170172012-04-03T14:03:00.002-07:002012-04-03T14:03:49.673-07:00The Common Language<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">“The
intellectual is called on the carpet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>What do you mean when you say…?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Don’t conceal something?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You talk
a language which is suspect.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 8;"> </span>Marcuse
192</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Well,
you had better speak more slowly so we can understand.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We mean to do right by you, but you’ve got to
know your place at all times.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All right,
now, go on with your speech.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 8;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 8;"> </span>Ellison
31</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Marcuse asserts that language as a
whole has become what he calls a “common language.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That language has been, “pressed into the
straitjacket of common usage, but also enjoined not to ask and seek solutions
beyond those that are already there” (Marcuse 178).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Like everything is in a capitalist society,
it must be considered and weighed for its value.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All confusion that arises from “symbols,
metaphors, and images” must be eliminated to bring the speech into common
language.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And then it can be neatly
packaged and sold off as commodity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Marcuse sees his (our) society as driven by consumerism/capitalism,
everything has a monetary value attached to it and if one cannot be readily
defined then the system will adept to absorb it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The example of Mother Teresa and how one can
relate a religious figure to the idea of selling a product. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is where language as a whole breaks down
into the common language there can be nothing above the common and it must fit
the mold established by the society speaking it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The
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degrading experiences, gives a speech to the same people who had abused him and
others like him not a moment before.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
people of his race who, “depend upon bettering their condition in a foreign
land, or who underestimate the importance of cultivating friendly relations
with the southern white man” speaks to the degree of not only his physical subjugation
but his linguistic subjugation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is
no hint of protest against the trials that came before the speech, he takes no
action whether to flee from the scene or to resist in some fashion after the
fact (though that would have likely resulted in his death).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ellison is playing with the same idea of
language construction that Marcuse is arguing, the speech is given with
constant interruptions by the audience to have any word “of three or more
syllables” repeated because it was not the common language.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is the poetry that Marcuse argues the
committee claims to love but that in order to be properly understood the “symbols,
metaphors, and images” must be brought into ordinary language.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When Ellison’s narrator misspeaks and
replaces social responsibility with social equality the audience is quick to
question the mistake because where one falls in line with preconceived conventions
the other speaks of protest, unrest, and change.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is no possible use of equality for the
established common language of the listening audience, the committee of
language they have established is one of submission and degradation and the
narrator can only function within that framework.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For Marcuse there is no discourse within this
arrangement of committee all of the symbols must mean something and they must
mean the right thing in the proper order.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>“Tolerance is deceptive,” there is no meaning but the meaning of the
common.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The narrator experience the
hijacking of language and his dependence upon the listeners of his speech for
his “success” later in life, specifically to his ability to attend a
prestigious university.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Marcuse and
Ellison point to the control of language as a way to control the individual, if
language can be reduced to the common then the control of people can be just as
simple.</span></div>Daniel Pryorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02711960996140146993noreply@blogger.com2