Moretti Analysis

In Franco Moretti’s “Graphs, Maps, Trees”, the history of literature is analyzed through a completely different perspective. Moretti uses many graphs and charts to show his analysis of literary history, which is not what most readers are used to when thinking about literature. He creates this analysis to have a scientific feel to it. One of the benefits I see to this is that it becomes a new way to analyze literature, possibly making this easier to understand for those who require data as evidence (Scientists). Another benefit Moretti’s writing has is that he gives plenty of supporting evidence to his claims through the graphs and charts throughout his writing. A drawback to this kind of approach to literature is that it might be a little too scientific to some, thus causing it to be seen as just facts. This type of writing is exactly what is needed for fields such as biological and physical sciences, where computing tools are almost always necessary in order to support that type of literature. The combination of computing tools and literature is what most scientists use in order to prove their hypothesis is correct and I believe that these fields actually require that computing tools are used in order to support the evidence found by scientists. In social sciences, computing tools are also used to support opinions made by some but the tools are not as frequently used. Social sciences usually require that individuals use computing tools to assist them in creating a valid argument. A way to approach SSTLS other than close reading would be to approach it through a broader spectrum of thought. This could be done by comparing the type of writing in SSTLS and “Graphs, Maps, Trees” to the type of writing from the era before the one that is present today.

M Butterfly

            The movie “M Butterfly” was a very peculiar film because it brought together the themes of gender, ethnicity, politics, art, and love. I believe that the two themes which were the main focus of the film were gender and a combination of art and ethnicity. The theme of gender was expressed many times throughout the movie by having an Asian man portray a woman and ultimately creating a way for Gallimard to fall in love with him. This falls along the lines of ethnicity and the culture that was explained to be dominated by males because through the eyes of that culture, men are the only ones who know how a woman should act. By making the man portray a woman in the movie, the theme of gender roles through the Asian culture was brought to light. As the movie went on the themes of art and ethnicity were eventually shown as well. In the film Gallimard would often go to the Chinese theatre and watch how stories of their culture were portrayed through different plays. As the movie went on Gallimard was able to understand the Chinese culture through the plays and also through whom he believed was his Madame Butterfly. He was told that Western countries look down upon the Asian countries and in the story of “M Butterfly” the white man fell in love with the Asian woman, but the Asian woman ended up committing suicide, which is what makes the story romantic. The way men are put in front of the women in the Asian culture is what makes this movie backwards because instead of a Western man falling in love with an Asian woman he falls in love with an Asian man. As a result of Gallimard realizing the truth, he is the one in turn that commits suicide. The movie might be doing this to make fun of the western culture because the man was able to deceive Gallimard by telling him about the Chinese culture he belonged to.

SSTLS: Consumer Culture

            I chose the theme of Consumer Culture because I thought it stood out the most during most of I read. The first passage I chose from the reading was on page 90 where Lenny’s friend Vishnu brought up all of Lenny’s personal information for everyone to see, with no problem at all. This shows that someone’s personal information or their identity is not so personal anymore and after all of his information is shown Lenny is then criticized for what he does or has done. This is more common as the story goes on because Lenny and everyone else around him has their information shown and they all get “rated” based on that information. The second passage I chose was on page 93 where Lenny’s friend Noah streams Lenny’s emotions and feelings for Eunice live so that everyone was able to see and hear him. This is even worse in terms of identity because now everyone can see how Lenny feels about Eunice and allows them either ignore it or converse about it. I think this relates to how social media works today and how most people want personal information, like who they are dating, to be shown to everyone. This goes back to how any information that anyone wants to see can be shown without hesitation, even when the owner of the information is present. The third passage I chose was on page 152 where non-U.S. nationals are targeted to purchase a place to live even though the cost of that living space is at a very high price. This stands out to me because the only ones being targeted are foreign residents who have credit ranking of 1500 or more, which in the story is very rare because not many can make their score that high (except Lenny). This idea is somewhat prevalent throughout the novel because most of what is being controlled is from some foreign agency or company.