Month: February 2018

In the past two weeks, we have been talking about how zombies reflect our nowadays society. In the last blog, I mentioned how Cohen views zombies’ actions of eating brains interpret the idea that people in modern day society focus too much on materialism. In today’s class, we talked about how zombies in the comic book The Walking Dead: Days Gone By reflecting nowadays social phenomenon. I was surprised by the comic book when I was doing the close reading because it gives the same impact as the TV show does. In the first few pages of the book, the author states that “I am not trying to scare anybody… Good zombie movies show us how messed up we are” (Kirkman 3). When I was doing the close reading, I actually skipped these pages. The comic book is fun to read, but the key thing is to take something out of it.

When I was looking at page 17 on the online version, the angle of views changes back and forth from the zombie’s view to Rick’s view, which provides a better stand for the readers to understand the situation. Also from the text, “Can’t you understand?” (Kirkman 17). The author tries to establish that some people in nowadays society are stubborn on their own ideas represent in the way that they would not listen to others. Thus, people like that are really cliché and exclusive just like the zombies.

From the monster movies, a lot of the actions that the monster presents actually can apply to ourselves. While we are looking at these monsters, we should also evaluate ourselves so that we are able to humanize our monstrous behavior to match our civil ethics.

 

Picture cited

http://readcomiconline.to/Comic/The-Walking-Dead/Issue-1?id=1715

 

From this week’s reading of The Undead by Cohen, I understand more about the monster culture that related to modern society. Personally, I watch a lot of zombie related movies. Most of them have a  common storyline that zombies terrify people and the world is about to be ended. People who are bitten by the zombies all become undead and zombie-like. When I was watching these movies, it is more about entertainment rather than thinking through the meaning behind it.

However, after reading through the article, I have more idea about why people create zombie as a character to shows the social norms. From my understanding of the part of the article, Cohen uses zombie to symbolize people in modern day society. The idea that zombie “just want to eat our brain”(Cohen 399) reflects people’s belief in materialism nowadays. Zombie’s action shows they are desperate of eating people’s brain, and a lot of times people also have this zombie-like action. For instance, during Black Friday or other big sale days, people line up outside of mall or stores waiting for the opening and push each other to get in aggressively.

They are zombie-like in the sense that they lose their heart of taking care of each other and only shoot for what they desire. People show desperate attitudes and abusive manners under these circumstances. I agree with author’s metaphor that he connects the zombies to human beings. We all have a “zombie” inside of us that sometimes we disregard certain ethical issues and act as zombies with no emotions and careless. We all need to learn how to face the “Zombie” inside of us and learn how to defend the true self-identities.

Pic Cited

https://www.twice.com/retailing/amazon-walmart-first-place-black-friday-weekend-shoppers

https://notrumpnewsmoviereviews.com/2017/12/30/train-to-busan-not-your-typical-zombie-movie/

In today’s class, we keep discussing monster culture based on The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson. The book starts by Mr. Enfield talking about his memory. He saw Mr. Hyde running into a little girl, and, without helping her up, he keeps walking. The author uses the word “trampled” here to describe the unconcerned behaviors that Mr. Hyde has. From the action and the words chose by the author, we can see Mr. Hyde plays a “monster role.” Also, from the description of the appearances, Mr. Enfield states that “It wasn’t like a man; it was like some damned Juggernaut” (Stevenson 9). The description that Mr. Enfield gives makes me hard to imagine how Mr. Hyde looks like, but one thing that stuck in my head is Mr. Hyde is an inhuman figure. Because of Mr. Hyde’s appearance, it makes him guiltier and evilly in that situation.

Mr. Hyde’ appearance represents thegroup of people who do not look good and people who have disabilities. The author is using the fact to reflect the social norm that people judge others based on their appearance. The stereotypes towards these disabled people are rooted in people’s heart, which prevents others from learning about their internal selves. As the book says, people won’t believe in Mr. Hyde’s check. In their sense, people like Mr. Hyde who has a lousy appearance also has a contrite heart. People at that time judge the book by its presence.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ud1-rgQqw

https://chesswolf.deviantart.com/art/Dont-judge-a-book-by-its-cover-437362026

After read through Monster Culture by Jeffrey Jerome Cohen, I am able to understand different monsters under several conditions. Even though the monster is not real in our life, people apply the idea of monster to unusual beings that trigger fear from inside. In Cohen’s seven theses, I agree with the first and third description of the monster that she list out. In my group, we discuss the first description of the monster, which is the monster defined by the culture. In Cohen’s essay, she wrote “like a letter on the page, the monster signifies something other than itself”. The example for this statement would be those people who have the disability. Once upon a time, other people may see them as the freak or inhuman, like the actors in the movie The Greatest Showman. The word “monster” people use to describe abnormal people. However, it reflects their internal fear. In nowadays, people have more take care the people who have disabilities. There are a lot of facilities for these people and the society embraces them a lot.

Also, in the class, we talked about her third description of the monster which may apply to the Dragon. In China, Dragon seems to be a Godlike character. In the ancient, people have to worship it in order to accomplish their wishes. Even sometimes, the people have to give up their child to exchange a rain to bless their land. However, in American culture Dragon seems to be an evil figure. In a lot of American movies, you can see that dragons are dark figures that chase people around. Furthermore, you can always see cavaliers kill the dragon to present heroism. Therefore, different cultures influence people’s perspective on monsters and their definitions about monsters.

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picture cited

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/olwynandreg/dragons/

https://postgradproblems.com/new-episode-of-the-1-podcast-for-people-who-party-like-tyrion-and-slay-like-daenery

In the seminar, Ta-Nehisi Coates talks about why words do not belong to everyone. He expresses the idea that in a different context, words can be valued differently. For instance, he made an example of his wife calls him honey, but if they are walking on the street some strange woman calls him honey that would be a problem. Same as the N-word, under different conditions it delivers different emotions and attitudes. As Ta-Nehisi says in his talk the N-word represents the black culture and the black spirit in the rap songs. Therefore, it then becomes a word to echo the beliefs among the fans. Under other condition, people should not use that word, not only because it does not belong to them but also it is not fit in the context.

This statement also applies to the culture hybridity we been talking in class. As mentioned previously, to understand these words under different circumstances is to understand the spirit the words deliver about different cultures. It is a step further to understanding and embracing the culture values through the language and words.

Languages, the same as culture, are always mixed together to present new ideas and brought in new combinations. Both have pros and cons on both ends. While forming new types of societies, culture hybridity also gradually swallows part of human identities. Language, if being used properly, can be an efficient way to set up the link among different cultures and values.

Picture Cited

i know some of these words