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.  

This Living Hand

Imagery:

·         this living hand

·         of earnest grasping

·         icy silence of the tomb

·         heart of dry blood

·         in my veins red life might stream again

Interpretation:

            In “This Living Hand” by John Keats, very interesting imagery is created in this short yet fascinating poem. Keats shows this imagery when he starts the poem off as being full of darkness and despair which could be possibly describing the eventual end of his life. When Keats writes “earnest grasping” (line 2), it seems more dramatic then what one might think. This is because when I think of grasping, I think of desperately holding onto something as though I am not going to let it go. I believe that Keats is describing a love that he has for someone and is trying to describe how he feels. He mentions the “icy silence of the tomb” (line 3), which could mean that he is talking about his heart because whoever the poem is for might not realize how he feels.

            Keats continues on with this somewhat dark tone in line 4 when he writes “thine own heart of dry blood” and this imagery is very interesting because he seems to be hoping that his love would reach theirs so that his can once again be filled with “red life”. This is also interesting imagery because as he describes his heart being filled with red life, I think it means to be filled with blood again because blood could be seen as life inside someone’s heart. Towards the end of the poem Keats begins to lose the dark tone and creates a feeling of hope and explains to his lover that even though he may one day die he believes that their love could last longer and that he hopes she would accept it. I believe that Keats uses this imagery of death and love throughout the poem and he writes one half of the poem using dark tones and the rest using light and hopeful tones. Although it may seem he feels discouraged at first, the last line of the poem “I hold it towards you” explains what he really feels.

Analyzing "All Watched Over By Machines of Loving Grace" by Richard Brautigan

             In Richard Brautigan’s poem “All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace”, Brautigan shows his anti-technology tone and message through the small parenthesized statements that are spread throughout the poem. He adds exclamation points to the ends of these statements to create a somewhat sarcastic tone and this helps the reader understand that although it may seem these quotes sound pro-technology, their meaning is in fact the opposite. These quotes seem to be misplaced and they felt as though they were mocking the rest of the poem. Brautigan places these small statements after the first line in order to give a clue to the reader that this is what he believes and does this in every stanza, indicating that he really doesn’t agree with nature interacting with technology. Another example of how this would seem as anti-technology poem would be Brautigan’s description of humans being able to return to nature, only to be “watched by over by machines of loving grace” meaning we could lose control of technology, causing it to take over.

            This poem also shows a pro-technology tone and message because of Brautigan’s word choice and phrases used to describe the interaction between technology and nature. He uses words such as pure, free, harmony, loving, peacefully, and grace throughout the poem which all seem to create an image of goodness that will be brought through the interactions of nature and technology. The images of nature and technology being in harmony with one another create this sense of peace, as described in the phrases “programming harmony” (line 6), “cybernetic meadow” (line 3), and “machines of loving grace” (line 25). These images all have positive and natural meanings to them and Brautigan’s choice to use these images of things being pure and natural can cause the reader to think that technology should be natural and society should welcome this for its own benefit.

            I believe that this poem should be seen as anti-technology because the combination of the first three lines at the beginning of every stanza creates many different contrasts to the feel of the entire poem. The importance of the first three lines doesn’t seem to agree with the tone of the poem, and this is what causes the sense of mockery with the rest of the poem. Brautigan’s use of the small quotes causes the reader to create a tone of sarcasm, which causes the natural word choices to seem all sarcastic as well. The tone of the poem creates the understanding that he is mocking this idea of technology instead of agreeing with it.