Over the semester, the inflow of new posts on here have not exactly been consistent. In the first weeks of class, I never pictured myself as one of the many frantically posting to reach the required amount. And yet, here I am. I am not going to plant the blame on the assignment itself. If anything, I think the blog posts were a great way to get out opinions and thoughts that we didn’t have room for in the classroom. Many of the posts I have read have been very intriguing and actually inspired me to write more myself. Continue reading “Time Management Is Hard”
Everybody Wants to Be a Hero
throughout all of the novels we have read over the semester, there is very few aspect to tread a connection through all of them. We have gone to a variety of different time periods, different types of narration, and different realms of realism.There is a “hero complex” within the desires of every main character we have read.
In Zulus, Alice Achitophel wants to be the one to bring a new life into a serialized world. In Home, Frank Money wants to save his sister to make up for his wrongdoings in war. Blake sees a community of diseased outcasts as a possibility for medical intervention rather than a new way of life in Clay’s Ark. Finally, Mike Spitz sees himself as “an angel of death”, saving the skels and stalkers in the city from an eternity of wandering. Continue reading “Everybody Wants to Be a Hero”
Hometown Connections
The events of Zone One center around the streets of New York City, specifically near the African Burial Ground Memorial. As someone who has only ever been to the city twice, I was a bit confused and never truly appreciated the details Whitehead worked so hard to create. Throughout my reading of the novel, what really sparked my interest was the mention of Buffalo. Usually, the biggest mention of my hometown I see in writing is about our wings, so it excited me to see it spoken about with such high regard, as an integral location in the rebuilding of society after the virus. I know this wasn’t the intentions of the author, but the decision of placing Buffalo as the new epicenter of civilization creates a strange connection in my head. Continue reading “Hometown Connections”
Distinguishing Good and Bad
Looking back on all the information we have taken in across this semester is a daunting task, but I feel as though there are some stings of connection between all the topics we have covered. The prominence of racism in places one would never imagine it, or rather not want to imagine it. The importance of vocabulary and how the smallest detail can change an entire piece. Overall, I think the most important topic mention is how common it is for people to categorize things as good and evil. Continue reading “Distinguishing Good and Bad”
Voluntourism vs Volunteerism
I notice that some people in my life think that the most impactful thing one can do is something that is far away, something to invest a lot of money into so that they truly make a huge impact and difference. Yes, voluntourism can do a lot to help, but that is overlooking whats right in front of us. There’s this idea that one has to travel out thousands of miles to “help the starving children in Africa,” all the while there are children right in the cities we live in facing issues that can possibly stay with them the rest of their lives. According to the nonprofit No Kid Hungry there are currently 13 million children in the United States who do not receive nutritious food on a regular basis. The “tourism” aspect of voluntourism can have a tendency to outshine the real work, and I think it’s important to remember the term’s roots. Volunteering. Continue reading “Voluntourism vs Volunteerism”
Fortune Telling
The fact that the zombie that ultimately kills Gary was a fortune teller has a lot of significance outside of the obvious. There is enough irony and subtleties in the conversation being had before the fatal bite to create a whole other blog post, but I just keep getting stuck on the fortune teller. There are many different methods of fortune telling, all with vastly different origins, but one of the most well know practice today is Tarotology. Although there is not an exact science to reading tarot cards and there are many reasons to doubt their real power, there are still many interest aspects and meanings within the deck that can be applied to the ending of Zone One. Continue reading “Fortune Telling”
Animal Instincts
According to those infected, the most powerful effects of the Clay’s Ark disease are it’s compulsions. The heightened survival instincts and the need to infect others haunts the members of the secluded ranch and eventually the Maslin family as well. Throughout the novel these characters describe the microorganism as completely non-human, but maybe they are overlooking some crucial connections between themselves and the virus.
Drive reduction theory is a motivational theory that attempts to explain why we as human feel the desire to preform or behave in certain ways. The theory states that humans act in ways to reduce drives, such as eating to reduce the feeling of hunger, and returns the body to homeostasis, the steady internal state.
We many times speak of the microorganism with the idea of it’s differences in mind, but I feel that its important to take into account the similarities between it and humanity.
Finding Our Own Alice Achitophels
Being fertile in the society of Zulus is suppose to be impossible. Sterilization is a regulated procedure created by the government and even those who live outside the city still live with the repercussions of this decision. Alice evades the procedure to be sterilized and in her head is always aware of her potential to have kids. When Alice goes on to become pregnant she is praised by others for this ability but to her it has become a burden. While reading the book, this type of situation seems very unrealistic, something we can never experience, but in all actuality its something some people live with everyday. Continue reading “Finding Our Own Alice Achitophels”