Moretti takes a data-based and scientific approach to writing literature. While I was reading the Moretti article I realized that although the graphs of each stage of the rise and fall of "THE novel" reiterated the points the author was trying to make, it also took away the power and emotions literature generally constructs. When the author mentioned that the shift from exceptional literature works to mass texts of facts made me think that the author was doing just that with this article. It was a list of facts. The drawbacks of writing this "type" of literature (a string of facts) takes away the point of well written literature. I think literature should capture the audience and intrigue them. This article did the opposite.
The benefits of this type of literature on the other hand can help leave no room for interpretation and be mostly factual. There would no longer be any mistaken analysis on their work because the reason, goal, and point of their writing is explained thoroughly by statistics and explicitly writing exactly what they meant. This again leaves no interpretation and no confusion by the reader. It is plain black and white. But what's the fun in that? Shouldn't literature be open to interpretation and discussion so that readers may take the lessons, motivation, and goals of the author to their liking? Approaching literature in a more scientific way can be beneficial but leaves out the important factor of interpreting what the author may have wanted you to understand or leave open ended.
The close analysis of the history of the novel can be repetitive. But a way to change that, for example with Super Sad True Love Story, is that we can take Gary's interpretation of how the future will play out and make interpretations of our own using the examples of events happening within SSTLS and realize that they are some what happening now. For instance, we can make a historical timeline of events that may have happened in our present day or may have come close to happening. We can relate these events to what Gary wants us to remember from his novel and what warnings that he is implying. A historical timeline would have to entail a list of dates and statistics, just like Moretti has done in his article but we can add interpretations to these events to make the analysis different that what Moretti has done in his.
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Maybe a Butterfly?
First off, my initial reaction after the movie ended was complete shock. I didn't see the undercover espionage coming...I was blinded by their "love". Song was definitely not a "butterfly" after all. I also thought Rene was despicable for starting an affair with another woman.
From my three reactions above themes of politics and love come to mind. Although Rene seemed very kind and humble in the beginning of the film, the power of love changed his personality. He was willing to sneak around his wife, whom I assume he loved, to see his lover. Rene and Butterfly's love seemed unbreakable (even though scandalous as it was). Their love was so strong it even made Rene leave his wife most nights to be with Butterfly. Love is a very powerful thing and the abuse of love during this film both by Rene to his wife and Butterfly to Rene became very political. Close to the end of the film Butterfly's true identity was exposed to Rene and all of France. This exposure was as much devastating to Rene as Rene was to his wife. Rene loved Butterfly, not his true identity, so much and the betrayal was a process of karma from Rene's wife to Rene. Love can sometimes make a person blind to actual reality. This happened to Rene. It wasn't until the revealing of Butterfly's true identity did he finally see that this love was some what fake/pretend. This love was so true and pure from the beginning...but is it still true after the reveal?
On the other hand, as powerful as love is, politics tore it apart. The act of espionage takes an ordeal of commitment. Song (a.k.a. Butterfly) took on the likes of a woman to get political information. The power of politics is a great competitor to the powers of love within this film. These two themes go back and forth throughout the movie. It seemed like Song was still truly in love with Rene during their car ride over to prison. Song stripped his clothes and exposed his entire body finally to Rene, after Rene denied him disgustedly Song broke down to his knees in tears. Thus, the power of politics seems to travail in this film over the damaged love between Rene and Song.
Will there ever be peace and coexistence between these two conflicting ideas of love and politics????
From my three reactions above themes of politics and love come to mind. Although Rene seemed very kind and humble in the beginning of the film, the power of love changed his personality. He was willing to sneak around his wife, whom I assume he loved, to see his lover. Rene and Butterfly's love seemed unbreakable (even though scandalous as it was). Their love was so strong it even made Rene leave his wife most nights to be with Butterfly. Love is a very powerful thing and the abuse of love during this film both by Rene to his wife and Butterfly to Rene became very political. Close to the end of the film Butterfly's true identity was exposed to Rene and all of France. This exposure was as much devastating to Rene as Rene was to his wife. Rene loved Butterfly, not his true identity, so much and the betrayal was a process of karma from Rene's wife to Rene. Love can sometimes make a person blind to actual reality. This happened to Rene. It wasn't until the revealing of Butterfly's true identity did he finally see that this love was some what fake/pretend. This love was so true and pure from the beginning...but is it still true after the reveal?
On the other hand, as powerful as love is, politics tore it apart. The act of espionage takes an ordeal of commitment. Song (a.k.a. Butterfly) took on the likes of a woman to get political information. The power of politics is a great competitor to the powers of love within this film. These two themes go back and forth throughout the movie. It seemed like Song was still truly in love with Rene during their car ride over to prison. Song stripped his clothes and exposed his entire body finally to Rene, after Rene denied him disgustedly Song broke down to his knees in tears. Thus, the power of politics seems to travail in this film over the damaged love between Rene and Song.
Will there ever be peace and coexistence between these two conflicting ideas of love and politics????
Monday, February 7, 2011
Depiction of Women in SSTLS
Theme: Depictions of Gender
Passage 1: p. 162 Paragraph 4
As Amy Greenburg's mother is trying to make Amy "see through Jeremy Blocks' bs" seems as if she is trying to empower her daughter. Although throughout the paragraph Amy was listing many vial things that Jeremy mad her do while they were together. Many of those things are very degrading to women. Going back to what Amy's mother was trying to do, it seems like she was trying to empower her daughter by giving her advice to not be with someone as crude as Jeremy, no matter his "rankings." Yet, the last sentence of the paragraph is one of Amy's mother exclaiming, "Be your own pimp, girl!" deliberately takes away the empowerment that was placed in the beginning of the paragraph. The two statements her mother makes about Amy deserving better and for Amy to be her own "pimp" is contradicting her previous statement, and thus degrading females even more.
Passage 2: p. 72 Paragraph 1 (Letter to Eunice from her Mother)
Eunice's mother is describing the many things her father has said about her. They include many degrading statements that put shame upon her family such as, "He say you probably with black man. So shocking!" The entire letter is a dictation from Eunice's father about what she should do and should not do. The fact that her father is dictating how Eunice should live her life (and for her mother to send the message on to Eunice, in support of her father) shows the value of a woman's opinion or freedom in Vietnamese culture during the futuristic time of SSTLS. Again, not as degrading as the first passage but it is demeaning to take a person's, or woman for this matter, rights away to be their own person. To add to this, Eunice's mother stated at the end of the letter, "Please forgive me because I am bad mother and bad wife." Eunice's mother seems to always blame herself for everything. She thinks down upon herself when there is no need to. Part of this is because of the father who makes her feel as if she is a bad wife or mother...but would a bad mother try to contact her daughter to see if she is willing to mend things together with her father?? I think not! I think Eunice's mother is a good mother and should not degrade herself to less.
Passage 3: p. 168 "Unlike others of her generation..." and on
Because Lenny says that unlike others of Eunice's generation, she does not get lost in the moment, he's saying that she is different than the other females of her age. During the futuristic time of the book, young women are so entranced and "completely steeped in pornography", yet Eunice has a "need for warmt instead of debasement" thus proving that she is not what the typically young female is like during intimacy. She does not look for debasement like the others, this says a lot about the theme because the general depiction of gender for all other young women is....not a good one, and Eunice is not the general depiction of women. She is different.
Passage 1: p. 162 Paragraph 4
As Amy Greenburg's mother is trying to make Amy "see through Jeremy Blocks' bs" seems as if she is trying to empower her daughter. Although throughout the paragraph Amy was listing many vial things that Jeremy mad her do while they were together. Many of those things are very degrading to women. Going back to what Amy's mother was trying to do, it seems like she was trying to empower her daughter by giving her advice to not be with someone as crude as Jeremy, no matter his "rankings." Yet, the last sentence of the paragraph is one of Amy's mother exclaiming, "Be your own pimp, girl!" deliberately takes away the empowerment that was placed in the beginning of the paragraph. The two statements her mother makes about Amy deserving better and for Amy to be her own "pimp" is contradicting her previous statement, and thus degrading females even more.
Passage 2: p. 72 Paragraph 1 (Letter to Eunice from her Mother)
Eunice's mother is describing the many things her father has said about her. They include many degrading statements that put shame upon her family such as, "He say you probably with black man. So shocking!" The entire letter is a dictation from Eunice's father about what she should do and should not do. The fact that her father is dictating how Eunice should live her life (and for her mother to send the message on to Eunice, in support of her father) shows the value of a woman's opinion or freedom in Vietnamese culture during the futuristic time of SSTLS. Again, not as degrading as the first passage but it is demeaning to take a person's, or woman for this matter, rights away to be their own person. To add to this, Eunice's mother stated at the end of the letter, "Please forgive me because I am bad mother and bad wife." Eunice's mother seems to always blame herself for everything. She thinks down upon herself when there is no need to. Part of this is because of the father who makes her feel as if she is a bad wife or mother...but would a bad mother try to contact her daughter to see if she is willing to mend things together with her father?? I think not! I think Eunice's mother is a good mother and should not degrade herself to less.
Passage 3: p. 168 "Unlike others of her generation..." and on
Because Lenny says that unlike others of Eunice's generation, she does not get lost in the moment, he's saying that she is different than the other females of her age. During the futuristic time of the book, young women are so entranced and "completely steeped in pornography", yet Eunice has a "need for warmt instead of debasement" thus proving that she is not what the typically young female is like during intimacy. She does not look for debasement like the others, this says a lot about the theme because the general depiction of gender for all other young women is....not a good one, and Eunice is not the general depiction of women. She is different.
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