Week 8

According to McKnee, what relationship did Dick’s ideas have to (a) Christianity (b) religion and philosophy in general?

McKnee says that "The concept of Christ as a living word fascinated Dick, and much of his writing refers to the doctrine 'of logos'" and Dick associated the logos directly with Christ and Christianity. This shows us that many of Dicks ideas had close ties to Christianity, and many philosophical points to do with religion also.

McKnee continues to argue that "Thus... Scripture, the temporal logos that reflects Gods creative and sustaining word is a finite source from which infinite truth springs." This comes out extremely strongly in Augustine, when he tries to stop using normal words for daily purposes, and only uses his words to preach about the greatness of God.

Clearly many of Dick’s ideas had strong influences by Christianity, this comes through in many of his works. McKnee’s argument that much of Dicks works were influenced by the ‘logos’ proves this, as once this is realized it becomes clear to his readers that there are strong religious currents flowing through many of his works.

Reference List:

McKnee, G. (2004). A Scanner Darkly: Dick as A Christian Theologian. In Pink Beams of Light from God in the Gutter: the science fictional religeon of Philip K. Dick. NY: U Press of America.

Week 7

According to Mountfort (2006), what role does the I Ching have as an organisational device in the structure of High Castle? How does the use of this device illuminate the character of the novel’s protagonists?

Mountfort clearly states that the use of the I Ching helped Dick organize and structure his novel.

"There are 10 oracle consultations outlined within the covers of High Castle that Dick received from the I Ching when he posed it questions at various critical junctures in his novel regarding the situations his characters faced, how they should interpret events, what they should do next and what the result would be." (Mountfort)

This small passage stood out to me, as it clearly and obviously answers the question. It helps Dick organize when main events happen to main characters, and more importantly, how they respond. This is a helpful device and would have influenced the end result of Dicks novel immensely. The 10 oracle consultations clearly played large roles in the creation of his novel, and played as its central organizational device.

"These ten consultations also illuminate the sub terrain fate-lines that connect characters who never meet but who's decisions and actions effect each other in concrete ways." (Mountfort.) This quote answers the second part of the question, as the I Ching helped create the 'fate-lines' that connect the protagonists. That means it was directly responsible for what happened between the characters.


Reference List:

Mountfort, P. (2006) Oracle-text/Cybertext in Philip K. Dick’s The Man in the High Castle. Conference paper, popular culture association/ American culture association annual joint conference, Atlanta, 2006.

Week 6

How do it and other Miyazaki films address the humanity/nature divide, according to Wright (2005)? Could Miyazaki’s vision be described as in some sense religious (inasmuch as it conveys a sense of the
sacred)?

Interestingly enough, after having a little read through the critical reader I came across a quote from Hayao Miyazaki that i find rather fitting.

"I'm hoping i'll live another 30 years. I want to see the sea rise over Toyko, and the NTV tower become an island... Money and desire - all that is going to collapse and wild green grasses are going to take over." - Miyazaki. This quote shows us his feelings towards humanity and nature, and this viewpoint becomes apparent after watching some of his productions.
According to Wright (2005) Miyazaki's works often depict a time of nostalgia when humans lived more at one with nature. In many of his productions this can to a point be taken in a more religious or sacred sense.
For example the presence of spiritual forces, and Japanese mythology has been embedded into many of his works. In Princess Mononoke when the humans declared war on the Wild Gods, this was clearly Miyazaki's depiction of what was happening in the modern day, and is clearly addressing the divide between humanity and nature. Miyazaki is making a statement. His films are filled with spiritual and symbolic moments, many of which can be taken as having religious messages behind them also.

Reference List:

Wright, L. (2005). Nature spirits, Giant insects and World trees: The nature vision of Hayao Miyazaki. In the Journal of Religion of popular culture. Volume X. Summer 2005.

Week 5

Looking at Napier and Cavallaro (2006), discuss how anime is culturally ‘located’ – in the East or West, or somewhere else?

'Manga are conventionally regarded as the equivalent of western comics or graphic novels, yet are profoundly different from either.' (Carvello 2006). This is an interesting quotation to look at, because it shows us simply that manga may be similar to comic art forms produced in the west, but are in actual fact quite different. Carvello argues that Manga constitutes a much more influential cultural force in Japan than any comics do in the western world.

This shows us that Anima/Manga is culturally located in the East. The western societies take pride in comic making as well, but they aren't making the same product as the Japanese/Chinese, and what they make can in no way be called Anime/Manga.

'Manga exhibit a specific visual style based on conventions and codes that differ profoundly to those producing mainstream American cartoons' (Carvello 2006). This quote further verifies my argument that Anima/Manga is culturally located in the East, and the East alone. Western cartoonists lack certain style and use a differing technique to produce material that could be called Manga. In western society comics aren't viewed as seriously or read as widely as Manga is in Japan. It is a smaller market. Japan has culturally accepted Manga on so many levels, and as a result of this people of all ages in Japan read and buy Manga constantly. They draw messages from the cartoons, and gain a deeper meaning and understanding once they have read the story. Western society in no way holds comics with such a high regard.

Reference List:

Carvello, D. (2006).  The Anime Art of Hayao Miyazaki. London: McFarland and Company.

Week 8

Research the films that have been adapted from Philip K. Dick novels or short stories. Which have generally been acclaimed as the most successful? Why?

Philip K. Dick novels have paved the way for some successful films ranging from “Blade Runner” in 1982, “Total Recall” in 1990, to “A Scanner Darkly” in 2006 to name a few. These films raked in over 1 billion dollars in combined sales according to Philip K. Dick Trust (2010), but the ones with the most success during the Box Office weekend and ranked in the following order: “The Minority Report” in 2002, “Total Recall” in 1990 and “The Adjustment Bureau” in 2011. “Blade Runner”, released in 1982, managed to receive many nominations with quite a bit of success at awards ceremonies and has ranked well in several recognition categories. Movie adaptations of Dick’s texts became a major success, which were possibly due to involvement of A-List cast and directors at the times of production. For instance, Steven Spielberg, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Harrison Ford and Keanu Reeves were some of many Actors involved (Philip K. Dick Trust, 2010).

Dick, P. K. (2010). Philip K. Dick: The official site. Retrieved September 27, 2011 from http://www.philipkdick.com/films_intro.html

Week 7

What is the difference in emphasis between the terms science fiction and speculative fiction?

The difference between science fiction and speculative fiction is quite clear. Science fiction places emphasis on the newly created worlds, objects, technology which have not yet been invented. Whereas, speculative fiction visualises a story in a parallel or alternate universe, still respecting the limitations of the current world we live in. ‘The Man in the High Castle’ is a perfect example of a speculative fiction, as it is set in a time in the past without the addition of newer technologies. On top of that, this primary text is speculative of the likely events that would’ve taken place, would a world be run by the ‘Axis Powers’; upon a victorious result in World War 2. It focuses on situations revolving around a book written where the author “imagines how the world would be if the Axis had lost” (Dick, 2001; 1962); its popularity in turn turning many heads and escalating situations.

Dick, P.K. (2001; 1962). The Man in the High Castle. London: Penguin

Week 8

How does Dick’s essay (1999; 1964) illuminate his use of Nazism as a motif in High Castle?

A dominant idea, or motif, within ‘The Man in the High Castle’ (Dick, 1962) is that of ‘Nazism’. Nazism refers to the acts carried out by the Nazis, and as Harry Warner highlights, the acts carried out by the Nazis, Italians and Japanese with his novel provide a personal connection to the topics at hand. This is because ‘we might identify with the war guilt of the Germans because they’re so similar to us’ (Dick, 1964), and thus Dick has managed to take advantage of said relation and used Nazism as a motif in High Castle. Using the Nazi reference throughout The Man in the High Castle, Dick was able to use ideas and beliefs similar to the Nazi regime to display their capabilities in a future-noir novel. The essay he wrote helps to highlight these aspects and provide a clearer view on the matter that many readers may have looked over.

Dick, P.K. (1962). The Man in the High Castle. New York City, New York: Penguin Publishing

Dick, P.K. (1964). Nazism and the High Castle. In Sutin, L. (Ed.), The Shifting Realities of Philip K. Dick (pp.112-117). New York: Vintage.

Week 4 - Anita Ibell

Why is Harry Potter condemmed from a religious perspective? (According to Cockrell)

The view that many Fundamentalist Christians have of witchcraft is that, "Like angels or the voice of Satan it is out there, unseen but ready to swallow up the hapless child who can be turned toward its seductive allure." (Cockrell, 2004. pp.26) In a study undertaken on imaginary friends, fundamentalist parents believe that they're associated with the devil and thus- "fantasy will lead to lying and other decietful behaviour." feeding a necessary need to 'Protect their children from evil forces in the imaginary world'. (Cockrell, 2004.) It must be terrifying for the people who believe this that so many children find the Harry Potter series so appealing, and that fantasy is such a popular genre for childrens fiction.

What Cockrell (2004) also suggests is a threat to religous parents who already have worries that their children are slipping away from more a more traditional belief system is the way in which media infiltrates our daily life and pervades over a large section of society. Due to the popularity of the Harry Potter books, fandom is spread throughout the media... There are countless fansites on the internet and hysteria is built and mediated through mass marketing and merchandise. Movies have been made from the series as well as video games. There are fears among many that their children will fall to the allure of Harry Potter and in doing so break away from the control of their parents and beliefs without them being able to see or stop it. Much like the Dursleys are unable to stop the onslaught of letters being sent to Harry from Hogwarts, despite travelling to a deserted shack perched on a rock by the sea.

A further point to be made is that the Harry Potter series belong in the realms of low fiction. witches, wizards and an array of supernatural creatures inhabit the world of contemporary London (and other parts of Europe) alongside Muggles. "The magical world is not in Middle Earth, it is here, in our world and at any moment it may manifest itseld. There is no escape. If it wants to find you, it will find you." (Cockrell, 2004. pp27) It is all too close to home, whereas, high fantasy takes place in otherworlds that create distance between 'readers' actual lives and the material they are reading'. When the boundary between fact and fiction is blurred within the setting of a story like it is with the Harry Potter books, the reader questions what is really true, this might be threatening to those who only want one truth... (Cockrell, 2004. pp 28.) Ursula Le Guinn's 'A Wizard of Earthsea' follows the tradition of high fantasy, by putting characters and events into Earthsea, a world created of imagination. I mentioned in my last post that the way that Ged and the other characters live in Earthsea is kind of primitive and almost like they're in the middle ages again. So although this setting is still recognisable, it isn't really comparable to our world now, and the pop culture of today's youth... My opinion is that it's familiar enough to visualise, but not so familiar that we could imagine living there as we do now... and is perhaps a reason why, unlike Harry Potter, it is free from from religous condemnation.

References:

Cockrell, A. (2004). Harry Potter and the Witch Hunters: A social context for the attacks on Harry Potter. The Journal of American Culture, Vol 29, No 1.

Week 6

What are the underlying thematics of Princess Mononoke? How does it ‘de-familiarise’ its historical setting, according to Napier (2005)?

There is quite a number of underlying thematics of the Princess Mononoke narrative. These include power and governance. The struggle between the natural world and the synthetic one causes a great imbalance which is evident throughout the whole narrative. Both sides have their sights set on complete dominance of the whole entire area; including both the forest and the Tatara weapons factory. As Napier (2005) states with “undermining of traditional conventions, Tatara is not governed by a man but by a woman”, this is evidence of historical de-familiarisation. So contrary to events which took place in a male dominated historical setting, the two leaders of each opposing side of the main war were primarily female. Princess Mononoke who lead the forest creatures against Lady Eboshi from the opposing side; the human population who inhabited the Tatara village area.

Persistence was a strong theme in the film as every contributing character failed to give up upon the encounter of barriers. A perfect example was when Ashitaka was accidentally shot by one of the women in the crowd. Despite failed attempts to stop him, he managed to single-handedly push a heavy village open in order to rescue San from the Tatara villagers; despite knowing of his inevitable death which would follow.

Another important theme to consider is love, and the many forms it took in the narrative. Examples of this include the love between Princess Mononoke (aka San) and her wolf mother and the love they both have for the forest inhabitants. Included in this is the love Ashitaka develops for San. The love that Lady Eboshi has, which is not immediately obvious is that she “constructed Tatara as a utopian refuge for outcast women and people with incurable illnesses…” (Napier, 2005)

The environment was also a large focus of the story as it enabled audiences to see the destruction which resulted from the environment upgrades the likes of Lady Eboshi were aiming towards. Lady Eboshi was running a business, whereas San’s attempts were selfless acts towards saving her home and the natural order. A major de-familiarising feature includes Miyazaki’s “ability to blend the “real with the fantastic” (Napier, 2005). This takes place with “fantastic nonplaces characterized by vaguely European-style architecture and Western-looking characters” (Napier, 2005) which differs from the historical reality.

Napier, S. (2005). Anime: from Akira to Howl’s Moving Castle. Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan

Week 5

According to Lent (2000), what place does animation occupy in Asian societies? How different is this across Asia (ie comparing China and Japan)?

Lent (2000) highlights the importance of animation in Asian societies over time. These societies include China, India, Taiwan and Thailand, which from early times of production were predominantly based on outside influences; in this case American style ‘Disney’ characteristics. However, China and Japan incorporated “only those elements of foreign animation that fit their culture, never favouring full adoption” (Lent, 2000). This is important because in doing so, it managed to preserve authentic local flavours; the Wan brothers stressed the significance of American influence, but in the mid 1930’s added that China could no longer continue mimicking American animations. In addition to this, compared to the rest of Asia, India often “betrays the ethnic heritage of local animators and almost always borrows from Western productions” (Bendazzi, 1994). But in relation to the way of China, a small selection of Indian animators from a western training background managed to keep well grounded with their roots.

Lent, J. A. (2000). Animation in Asia: appropriation, reinterpretation, and adoption or adaptation. (11).

Week 5 - Sarah Hosking

What is the ‘shojo’ and how does it often function in anime?


A subgenre of Anime, it describes a type of young female character in Anime who is (from what i can tell) exempt from the "sexualising" that often dominates characteristics of female characters in widespread forms of literature including Anime. This appeals to me for many reasons being a female myself it's often insulting to see oversexualised females in literature.

"What fascinates the Japenese is that the shoujo nestle in a shallow lacuna between adulthood and childhood, power and powerlessness, awareness and innocence as well as masculinity and feminity" (Prindle 1998, p. 35). This would suggest that a child female in Japanese culture must embody these attritubtes which makes little sense to me. As upon first reading the definition of Shoujo I immediately thought "paedophiles". As the explaination I read included the words "...admixature of sexlessness and budding eroticism." which did not make sense to me in any way.

From what I can gather (putting aside my own comments on the genre) Susan J. Napier states that shoujo characters "embody the potential for unfetted change and excitment that is far less available to Japanese males,.." which shows me escapism is one of the main functions of the Shoujo subgenre.

REFERENCES
Cavallaro, D. (2006). Introduction. In The Anime Art of Hayao Miyazaki. (London: McFarland & Company) pp.5-13

week4

How does the fantasy genre relate to modern media such as video games?



In recent years modern media formats for video games have seen retail sales of games; particularly in the genre of fantasy became successful. Fantasy in video games has been always interesting because the gamer can create or enter a fantasy world. The roots of the fantasy genre are associated with legends and epics. Videoconference games all have welcomed this initiative, especially the role of main character such as heroes and etc. game developer interested to develop their games in fantasy stories. Their stories, roles, and other items, and each element of the infinite ways that have developed because of the fantasy word, games developers are always interested for some stories of the magical imagination.

week3

In my point of view Attebery defines fantasy as external view of the fact (reality) is the opposition at the end. "Fantasy is difficult to detect object in the world the same as things under the sun, it is based on the understanding that neither slavery." (Attebery, 2001)


Attebery states, Fantasy classified as any story that presents itself as impossible, he states that it is written as either odd or seemingly normal, however if the fantasy is impossible to provide the exhortative and that an arbitrary construct of the mind with logic and rhetoric are all controlled. Fantastic has ability to make readers believe that the existence of such creatures (birds, horses, dragons, like the characters) and as magical objects (rings, hats) are a series of categories to make it impossible to possible without reflection and without any doubt and to combine them with your intellectual understanding of the world as they work to get us to believe it is true that such things under any circumstances can be regarded as believable, even if imaginary. Any narratives would make some violence that the author clearly believes that is the natural law as and an important part of it means fantasy.



References:


Attebery, B. (1980). Locating fantasy. In The Fantasy Tradition in American Literature: From Irving to Le Guinn (pp. 2-9). Bloomington: Indiana U P.

week2

Q. What does Baetons means by "monstration", "graphiation", and "graphiateur"?

This question was a bit complicated for me to understand the meaning of those three words, and I am still not sure if I understood them as what they are and how Baetons (2001) states.

According to Baetens (2001), the distinction between different types of narrator and comic graphic artist, Marion proposes to change the names to “graphiation” and “graphiateur” for audiences (readers).

Graphiation is graphic and stories of the comic (indeed comic is a visual story), and apparent persistence of the features of the story, because of the images of the text. In additional, “graphiation” is powerful tool in a sketch stage.

Graphiateur is responsible for drawing pictures and texts in the comics not responsible to sign the comic end of its work.

Monstration is into the story and the film, which cannot be automatically moved to comic. “Monration” is the implicit in the comic. Therefore the process of “monstration” remains implicit. Andre Gaudreault was the first person used the term monstration while storytelling in various films. Monstration is different modes of storytelling to convey. Monstration is the events described in the film as a director tells a story. A story that could or (perhaps) is inspired by the film itself, and story is text itself.

References:

Baetens, J. (2001). Revealing Graphic Traces: a new theory of graphic enunciation. In Varnum, R & Gibbsons, C. (Eds.), The Language of Comics: word and image (pp. 145-155). Jackson: U press of missippi.