Terrorism and the Movies
Sara Groff, commenting on a recent article by Slavoj Zizek:
Here is my attempt at making Zizek's article a little more understandable in a shortened format. I hope this helps everyone as I think he has some profound insights into this topic.
As we all watched the horrific events of Tuesday, September 11, unfold before our very eyes - the strategically planned date of 9-1-1 appeared as if it were the setting for a big budget special effects film. The only problem - this time no director would yell cut.
All we have to do is rent one of Blockbusters latest hits or watch a few video games and we'll see the disgustingly ironic parallel: bombs exploding, planes crashing, buildings collapsing, people dying, and those running away as they shriek in terror.
Film producers spend millions of dollars to create such scenes, and we pay millions each year to go and see the horrific yet exciting final product.
Last Tuesday our country found that the reality is much different from the fantasy- we can’t press pause or stop, we must deal with real enemies in the real world.
The relation of terrorism to film is an undeniable and unavoidable topic, brought to light for us by Slavoj Zizek's article, "Welcome To The Desert Of The Real." His article is an in-depth exploration into the sometimes confusing, most definitely complex topic of America as a fantasy.
Picture this - we are all inhabitants of an idealistic suburb that appears perfect in every way. Green grass, gingerbread houses, kids playing, and dogs out for their afternoon walk. However, one day this world in which you have always lived is proven to be a fake. The set comes down, the lights burn out, all the extras fade away, and we alone are left to deal with our world as it truly is. "The Truman Show" (1998) was based on this phenomenon. Zizek refers to this false world as being "substanceless, deprived of material inertia."
So, do we live a staged life in which we are isolated from the real world of material decay? Zizek's belief that in order to bring reality to our world, we must experience the "desert of the real" stems from the 1999 Blockbuster hit, "The Matrix."
"The Matrix" generates the belief that our environment is a virtual one - controlled by one mega-computer, and no matter how hard we try, one day we will have to awaken to the "real reality.
Titus Kaphar was born in Kalamazoo, a city in the southwest region of the U.S. state of Michigan. In 2001 he graduated from San Jose state university with BFA degree, then in 2006 he graduated from Yale University school of art with MFA degree. Kaphar's artwork is the interaction of history by appropriating styles and medium. He create a formal genre and new tales by cuts, bends sculpts and mixes the work of classical and renaissance painters. Kaphar at first begin by copying painting or riffs on classical cannon à la John Singleton Copley, Thomas Eakins and Eu...
Safranski, and Muen Bae. "The Effectiveness of Gun Control Laws:." American Journal of Economics and Sociology 56.1 (2010): 41-50. Web.
As you can see, I strongly agree with the narrator of the story and her choice in giving Maggie the quilts. Dee (Wangero) has been given enough in her life. She has beauty, confidence and her education. Maggie has wonderful qualities too, but has been through hardships. All which make her more deserving of the family quilts.
“Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results” a quote that sums up humanity’s unchanged love for horror movies. Over the years, as millions of people have watched horror movies the graphics, special effects, and sounds have changed for the better. While scenes have intensified yet remained the same someone gets stabbed, butchered or killed violently. It’s hard to imagine how anyone in their right mind could choose to see such violent acts. Which is the reason why Stephen Kings say’s “I think we’re all mentally ill; those of us outside the asylums only hide it a little better- and maybe not all that much better after all” (405). That sentence provides us with his twisted example of “Why we crave Horror Movies” claiming it’s mainly a matter of our mental state. King includes examples of reasons people continue to go, he says it’s to have fun, to dare the nightmare, and to re-establish our sense of normalcy. Kings arguments within this essay are strong enough to prove his thesis making this a well written essay. He easily convinces normal people that they are mentally ill, with his use of analogy’s, comparisons, and logos. Stephen King’s use of practical wisdom leads his audience to believe that without horror films, humans are all emotional ticking time bombs waiting to explode.
In this article the author talks about the relationship between gun control laws and gun ownership rates in relation to crime rates. He informs his readers of the studies to determine whether gun ownership rates have any effect on criminal activity being that firearms are the leading cause of murders; and if by making gun control laws stricter will it lower the violent crime rates, and overall homicide rates.
Movies, one can argue, are one of America’s greatest pastimes. Unfortunately, after 9/11, films have become increasingly prejudiced against American Muslims. In movies Muslims are frequently portrayed negatively. According to James Emery, a professor of Anthropology, Hollywood profits off of “casting individuals associated with specific negative stereotypes”. This is due to the fact that viewers automatically link characters with their clichéd images (Emery). For Muslims, the clichéd image is of the violent fundamentalist, who carried out the terroristic attacks on 9/11. As a result, the main stereotypes involved in movies display Muslims as extremists, villains, thieves, and desert nomads. An example of a movie that has such a negative character role for Muslims in film is Disney’s cartoon Aladdin, depict...
Gius, Mark. "Gun Ownership and the Gun Control Index." Atlantic Economic Journal 36.4 (2008): 497-98. Print.
Banks, James. "Gun Control Debate: The Argument That Every Gun Owner Needs To Start Making." PolicyMic. N.p., 6 Nov. 2013. Web. 8 Jan. 2014. .
...fact he could not be king no more. He humbly accepted the fact, and instead made a new life for himself.
The development of arguments surrounding gun control corresponds to the increased violence and problems related to weapons and firearms use. This then prompted the expansion of gun control initiatives and has shapes public opinion particularly in the promotion of increased regulation to banning. Due to this, it became controversial as it split the opinions of the citizenry particularly in their stance to advance different objectives. Arguably, the process of developing gun control remains to be detrimental due to its capacity to challenge individual rights and liberty, undermine the value of guns and firearms in the promotion of deterrence and self-defense and inability to recognize the commitment of existing reasonable gun management and control initiatives already in place.
Rivkin, David, and Andrew Grossman. "Gun Control and the Constitution." The Wall Street Journal. Dow Jones & Company, 10 Feb. 2013. Web. 17 May 2014.
The movie "Matrix" is drawn from an image created almost twenty-four hundred years ago by the greek philosopher, Plato in his work, ''Allegory of the Cave''.The Matrix is a 1999 American-Australian film written and directed by the Wachowski brothers. Plato, the creator of the Allegory of the Cave was a famous philosopher who was taught by the father of philosophy Socrates. Plato was explaining the perciption of reality from others views to his disciple Aristotle. The Matrix and the Allegory of the Cave share a simmilar relationship where both views the perciption of reality, but the Matrix is a revised modern perciption of the cave. In this comparison essay I am going to explain the similarities and deifferences that the Matrix and The Allegory of the Cave shares.In the Matrix, the main character,Neo,is trapped in a false reality created by AI (artificial intelligence), where as in Plato's Allegory of the Cave a prisoner is able to grasp the reality of the cave and the real life. One can see many similarities and differences in the film and the allegory. The most important similarity was between the film and the Allegory is the perception of reality.Another simmilarity that the movie Matrix and the Allegory of the Cave shares is that both Neo and the Freed man are prisoners to a system. The most important difference was that Neo never actually lived and experienced anything, but the freed man actually lived and experinced life.
“He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not,” was a twisted film that shed light on some of the topics that we discussed this semester. Reality is defined as the world or the state of things as they actually exist, as opposed to an idealistic or notional idea of them. Everyone has their own idea of reality and how they view life depends on this reality. We saw that Angelique’s perception of reality was very abstract, she took a simple act of kindness and twisted it into the start of a love affair. In her mind it was the beginning steps of her and Doctor Loic’s relationship.
Even through the downsides of genetic engineering scientists have had a few breakthroughs. It can help us in our farming needs and also drugs for animals, and pesticides. For agriculture, engineering is used for herbicide tolerance which is the most commonly used form of alteration in plants, and it is also able to keep insects away. Drugs are also produced so that animals have healthier meat to eat. For example, chickens can be modified to produce more eggs and grow larger faster. Which is not a good thing but it is not necessarily bad. Also by doing this a person’s moral compass doesn’t exactly point due north.
Some people say that genetic engineering is harmful as well as some consider it beneficial. There are various arguments given by different researchers regarding genetic engineering . Many believe that with