I started reading American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis during the final debate, and finished the novel shortly after the election. At the start of the novel, there is a particular quote that, I think, mimes the political rhetoric used during election season (well used frequently, but only recognized by a wider audience during election season). While watching a Milo Yiannopoulos talk (shameful–I know), a member of the audience referenced the same quote; which he refers to as the speech given during "the restaurant scene" in the film. The audience member argued that the monologue, performed by anti-hero, Patrick Bateman, mimics some of the language Clinton used during the campaign. I found it very interesting, especially since Bateman is obviously obsessed with Trump throughout the entire novel. While the novel was published in 1991, and the Clinton's weren't yet a household name, I found it very funny that both the audience member and I made that association (despite the fact that I found Bateman's speech to be a satirical monologue that could be applied to Clinton, Trump, and media's impression on the common person's understanding of politics). I want to share this quote, let me know what you think:
"We have to stop people from abusing the welfare system. We have to provide food and shelter for the homeless and oppose racial discrimination and promote civil rights while also promoting equal rights for women but change the abortion laws to protect the right to life yet still somehow maintain women’s freedom of choice. We also have to control the influx of illegal immigrants. We have to encourage a return to traditional moral values and curb graphic sex and violence on TV, in movies, in popular music, everywhere. Most importantly we have to promote general social concern and less materialism in young people."
Ellis, Bret Easton, author. American Psycho : a Novel. New York :Vintage Books, a division of Random House, Inc., 1991. p.15. Print.
It's always a monumental feat when a novel, especially in YA, gets recognized for having a diverse cast of characters, and even more impressive, if it has a diverse lead, and a diverse author writing it. So, what's the middle man, per se, in getting us from being readers going through page-turners about characters of all types, only to end up with their more cliché, whitewashed, able-bodied counterparts?
The way you're using the word "diverse" is problematic. Human beings are not diverse. Populations are. To answer your suggestion, it's important for whoever wants to write this article to realize that films and novels function differently as artistic media. We can read both as narratives, but the audiovisual nature of film is really important towards the ways that directors envision a work. The reasons why movies continue to feature whitewashed casts is because most readers have a tendency to ignore these "diverse" descriptions when they read. The basic template for a human being in the American imagination is a white person, and therefore descriptions which deviate from this are easily ignored or taken with a grain of salt. It tends to be people of color who are disgruntled with whitewashing because it contributes to their historical erasure and because they are the most sensitive to these issues. – X8 years ago
The largest problem with this topic, as mentioned, is that both forms of media have different purposes. Novels have the simple job of entertaining an engaged reader, while film has the complex job of making money. If this topic is explored, the researcher would need to include this as one of the major reasons for the "whitewashing." Since producers and directors mostly care about making money instead of diversifying and representing the correct culture and racial groups, the topic would be unfortunately straightforward, I would think. – Steven Gonzales8 years ago
Like previous commenters have said, money is a big reason, but on the other hand it's audience's reactions to diverse content. In a lot of fandoms if you write a fanfic with a poc character, many fans will say that they can't "imagine" that character being a minority. For instance even though there are plenty of stories featuring your typical white, straight character, if you create one story featuring a minority character, some people will react by saying that you're taking stories away from white characters. – seouljustice8 years ago
To expand on what seouljustice said, I think that diversity is easy to ignore in a good book. Looks are not as important as values and motivations in books, but are much more important in more visual media, including films. Engaging with characters and projecting yourself onto them means finding similarities between yourself and them, while being able to ignore differences. Target audiences for most popular movies have large percentages of white viewers who would then have trouble empathizing with characters of different backgrounds, including (but not limited to) race and sexuality. – C8lin8 years ago
Albert Camus is one of the fathers of Absurdist philosophy and one of the greatest writers of all time; his philosophical works The Myth of Sisyphus and The Rebel have defined his ideas, while his novels such as The Stranger and The Plague have actualized them. Examine and breakdown the fundamentals of absurdism.
I get the desire to discuss Camus (as he's one of my favourite writers as well), but this retrospective of his life and works doesn't seem overly suitable to the here and now. I could maybe understand it if he had died recently - you may have noticed that one of our fellow contributors did so when Elie Wiesel passed, but the article has been pending for so long that it'll be hardly still relevant by the time its published, and Wiesel died 56 years AFTER Camus - but I cannot imagine anything in this article that could not be found in his many biographies or critical studies of his work.
I'm not rejecting this, but I won't approve it either. – ProtoCanon8 years ago
Could Campus work be linked to a more current theme in media? I will leave it up to you Camus experts to make a more relevant link. – Munjeera8 years ago
What might be interesting is to compare Sartre with Camus.Many had mistakenly grouped Camus as an existentialist, most consistently, with the ideological thogouht processes of Sartre. Ironically, they were very good friends, but due to their ideological differences--Sartre is an existentialist--they ended up having an epic feud that ended their friendship. In a bittersweet form of a forgiveness, Sartre wrote a tribute to Camus after his death. – danielle5778 years ago
The challenge here, with such a broad topic, is to write it succinctly, but I agree with TKing that it's relevant today. – Tigey8 years ago
The issue isn't that it's not "relevant" -- I only brought up relevance because it was a facet of why this topic struck me as unsuitable for the Artifice -- but rather that scores of books have been written on precisely this topic. Even to narrow the subject matter to something more succinct would just be to focus on one chapter of those many books. For example's sake, Danielle's suggestion to compare Sartre and Camus, in addition to being something that is thoroughly discussed in every biography of either of them, is already the subject of a fantastic book (Camus & Satre: The Story of a Friendship and the Quarrel that Ended It, by Ronald Aronson) from 2004, which has subsequently been followed by a whole slew of other articles (http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/camus-and-sartre-friendship-troubled-by-ideological-feud-a-931969.html, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/greg-j-stone/albert-vs-jeanpaul-why-ca_b_7699530.html, etc) and even another book (The Boxer and the Goal Keeper: Sartre Versus Camus, by Andy Martin). My response to anyone who chooses to write this article is this: "Why should I read this article when I can just read the book (which, let's be honest, is undoubtedly better written and more thoroughly research)? What can you add that hasn't been stated already?" I really don't see the point in regurgitating other peoples' research, simply because it has yet to be done on this specific online platform. We should be striving for originality, critical thought, and sparking debate via new contributions (to topics old and new alike). – ProtoCanon8 years ago
True, protocannon, it's been done, but has it been exhausted? I trust your judgment on that, but won't squelch someone's attempt to find a "new wrinkle." – Tigey8 years ago
I'd argue that it's been exhausted beyond the point to which it merit's Artifice-level discussion. Maybe a "new wrinkle" can be found, to the extent that discovering previously unstudied letters or dairies of Camus would warrant writing a new or revised biography, but if such a discovery were made, it would belong in a genuine academic journal. And there are no lack of those to which it would appropriately correspond, most centrally in The Journal of Camus Studies (http://www.camus-society.com/camus-society-journal.html), or more broadly in relevant philosophically-leaning periodicals like PhaenEx (http://phaenex.uwindsor.ca/ojs/leddy/index.php/phaenex), The Reed (http://pages.stolaf.edu/thereed/), or Existential Analysis (http://existentialanalysis.org.uk/journal/) to French literary and cultural journals like French Cultural Studies (http://frc.sagepub.com/) or the Journal of French Language Studies (http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayJournal?jid=JFL). As much as we love the Artifice, it's not really the best platform for great strides in research; it's better suited for discussing why the time loop ended in Groundhog Day. – ProtoCanon8 years ago
Makes sense. Thanks for your insight, ProtoCanon.. – Tigey8 years ago
When approaching literary criticism should our evaluation be rooted in form, content or a combination of both? Upon surveying user-generated online reviews –through platforms such as Goodreads–it is easy to see a favouring of content>form in the evaluation of (especially contemporary) fictional works. However, a satisfying or politically correct plot does not necessarily constitute a book's literary value, as has been proven in the body of literature that has developed and grown into the present canon of classics. Does a focus on content and its potentially overbearing concern with happy-endings, chronological order or likeable protagonists cloud our judgement of what makes a "good" book? And even more interestingly, can a book be judged to be "good" at all, and if so, by who?
Interesting topic! This topic should probably include some grounding in theory and criticism: although Goodread is good, it might not be substantial enough to form an opinion and an argument! Have a look at the classic debates and theories around the issue with Susan Sontag or Frederic Jameson and postmodernism - it might about art in general or film, but definitely applicable to literature too!
– Rachel Elfassy Bitoun8 years ago
A little broad for my taste but it is very thought provoking. – rowenachandler8 years ago
I think the term "good" is debatable. There are conventions used in every genre. Most of the time, a book is based on how well these conventions are played. It is like a card game. The deck of cards remains the same 52 and the games allow a myriad number of permutations involved with the human element of how to play the cards dealt. No one can say for sure how to always win at poker or bridge but there are general principles that apply. Also, think of the ace card, in some games it is the highest, in others the lowest. I trust you get where I am going with this metaphor. So a good criticism, judges how the the traditional, conventional elements are played out according to its genre. – Munjeera8 years ago
When "critical lens" are applied to texts, which should then serve as an object of critique: the theory that supplemented the text in the first place, or the text interpreted by the theory itself?
And, if you could add more - topics are essentially like a brainstorming of the article that is going to be written, so maybe clear up some vague topics. – scole8 years ago
I would day that the critical lens is applied to the actual piece, as it is a form of literary theory. There's numerous approaches to reading a text: postcolonial, gender studies, historical lens, etc. etc. Usually, one of these approaches are applied to the actual piece read, and then you provide information from the leading scholars and theorists in this particular field as to how the text should be interpreted. – danielle5778 years ago
It should be a mutual exchange between the chosen object of critique, the text, and the critical theorist's perspectives. To clarify, the author is mobilizing the work of someone else to a text which has either a) never been subject to said critique or b) never been subject to the author's interpretation of it through a "critical lens." Something to consider, in addition to the notion of "what" to critique is "how." If I claim to be deconstructing an anime for its representation of effeminate men through queer theory, equal attention should be drawn to whose critical text am I using, what aspect of their argument accentuates my point, and, because of the nature of Artifice, something else in the theorist's text not used. – JMIWrites8 years ago
I write critical analyses of literature as part of my job, and my view is that the critical theory and the literary work both become objects of critique. The theory illuminates the literary work (it guides our close reading of the literary work, helps uncover patterns in the literary work, etc.) even as the literary work illuminates the critical theory (it serves as an example of or a complication to the theory being used). – JamesBKelley7 years ago
How did the famous website changed how English Literature students read (or don't read), study and write essays? Does it promote more intellectual laziness than it is beneficial for general understanding of studied texts? Talk about how studying literature is different now than it used to be, before the democratization of internet.
Perhaps it did not revolutionized English Majors' lives, but it certainly did change something. Not having to buy cheat-sheets, or even to be able to download them on pirate sites, made it much easier not only for students but also for providers. Maybe it can be included in your similar article. – Léandre Larouche8 years ago
I agree that it is possible that Sparknotes might have made a fundamental change. I think a more likely candidate, though, would be Wikipedia. I remember a professor of mine arguing that, despite popular understanding, people today were considerably less intellectually free than people were during the 19th century in Britain. For a lot of us, wikipedia is the primary, go-to source for a great span of information, which means that we're absorbing the same details with the same slant, in the same tone, as everyone else, and bumping into as little information along the way. Sparknotes, obviously, has certain precedents in print form, but I do agree that the momentary accessibility of the entirety of Sparknotes makes it possible to pretend to know how a piece of literature goes with basically zero meaningful experience whatever. – TKing8 years ago
It has completely changed for the better in my view because now students have to consider how they interpret the texts. – Munjeera8 years ago
The online implications of Sparknotes have had tremendous repercussions. Students no longer have to figure out traditional themes themselves. It forces students to write from a post-modern view. – Munjeera8 years ago
As a teacher, I'm kind of torn on the idea of SparksNotes. I would rather students learn to analyze a text on their own, but sometimes when a student is struggling to understand what is happening in a text and getting too frustrated I think that having a quick overview is a good thing, because they can then discuss it in more detail. That being said, I have noticed a lot more plagiarism in schools now with the availability of sites like SparksNotes. (I'm talking cut and pasted right from the site).
Great topic! – Lauren Mead8 years ago
Sparknotes can facilitate plagiarism if not used properly. Sparknotes and the like should be used to help the student clarify as Lauren has pointed out. It is the first step in analysis and should be developed into the students' own ideas and how they further analyze the themes, symbolism and other rhetorical devices on their own. If used as a tool, any type of notes on the internet can be helpful to springboard original ideas. Anything used to cut and paste from the internet is intellectual theft if not properly credited. If a student does not remember where in virtual reality he/she got his or her source from then that should be noted as well. The internet has made the accessibility of such notes almost without barriers. Also, let's not forget that most authors are willing to include an email address where they can be contacted. In the past, communiqué with authors was relegated to once in a lifetime screenings at a university campus. I think more students should try contacting authors directly for their papers. I have found this to be a surprisingly effective tool when teaching Grade 11 and 12 English. Most authors respond and many have a question and answer page where some other students has posted a similar question. Accessibility to interacting with authors is for me the second most important advantage to online research. – Munjeera8 years ago
Here's what can happen if one relies too much on Sparknotes: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=sXJ8tKRlW3E – Tigey8 years ago
Sparknotes and other similar websites have bumped up the policing of plagiarism as plagiarism itself has become more accessible due to these websites. There are programs in place now to help avoid and detect plagiarism before a student submits a paper, that's how bad lazy students have gotten. Should the blame for this issue be put on websites like Sparknotes that were created with nothing but good intentions of helping students? – rowenachandler8 years ago
Sparknote effect not only exists in English Majors but in history and other social sciences majors. I read Sparknotes for studying Political Science since I'm not native. It's as helpful as wikipedia, to know some background information. I know there's another website named quizlet, which also helps students to learn. The phenomenon can also trace back to the advancement of technology and the insistence of E-learning.
It's an extremely broad issue. – moonyuet8 years ago
E-learning would be a deserving topic. – Munjeera8 years ago
As an English major, I find this to be a very interesting topic, and I agree that there are definitely pros and cons of sparknotes-the pros being that students can use these notes to help them analyze something they miss or don't understand. The cons of course would be that they people can easily plagarize them and be so reliant it discourages them from actually reading the text and drawing their own conclusions. – enizzari8 years ago
I was an English major and pretty much stayed away from Sparknotes. Yet some of the texts I was assigned were so old, or so complicated, that I found the site really helped. (I never would've gotten through James Joyce's Ulysses without it). I also wonder if teachers and professors shouldn't embrace Sparknotes more. Sparknotes explains complicated literature in an easy-to-understand and sometimes fun way, which can be hard to do in a classroom when it's 8 AM and you're talking to 20-something people who'd rather still be in bed. What would happen to English if Sparknotes were embraced; would it become a "friendlier" subject? – Stephanie M.8 years ago
The Harry Potter Generation is still as enthralled with the series as they ever were. With many moral messages included in the book, could you make the argument that they really taught their readers something? Consider the backlash when "The Cursed Child" cast a black actress to play Hermione. Can any connections be made between Death Eaters and Extremist Right-Wing political groups? Are there links between the Harry Potter Generation and the left-leaning Millennial generation?
This is a very interesting topic, and one that seems especially big in its scope. It might prove to be quite difficult to show the connections between "Harry Potter" and the political attitudes of the majority of its readers. I'm not sure whether you could find any surveys related to such, but this would certainly require a lot of background research.
In addition to finding research to support your claims, you would have to point to the presence of such ideas within the literature itself.
Another thing to consider would be whether "Harry Potter" had a hand in creating the progressive generation or whether its success was merely symptomatic of the generation's already-present political attitudes. – Farrow9 years ago
I wonder if J.K. Rowling would even answer something like that on Twitter. It would certainly be an intriguing question to ask. Maybe it would help the writer of this topic to look at her life and education and try to connect not just the plot and characters to our life, but her life, as well. – Jaye Freeland9 years ago
There's many topic possibilites here. Focusing on the Harry Potter Generation could be a good foundation. As far as paralleling or contrasting it with the left-leaning Millennial generation, consider at least 3 specific topics or points to express the ramifications. Examples could include faithfulness in friendships, culture of British teens in HP and those of America, forced vs. independent interest in school (using Hermoine's passion, or Harry's interest in potion from "Half Blood Prince" or even Lovegood and the dead), civil rights interests, sacrifice, etc.) The examples are endless. – margorose9 years ago
I think Rowling said at one point some comparison between Death Eaters and Nazis, so maybe pointing to that may help the point when going for moral compass of Harry Potter. – SpectreWriter9 years ago
Can you be more specific about what generation is the "Harry Potter generation"? Do you mean the first generation that grew up with the books? (as an example - someone who was around HP's age when the books were published would be people in their early 30s now?) – Katheryn9 years ago
Analyzing the concepts of the popular site, Fanfiction, and use of self inserts while examining one of the most prolific of 14th century poetry by Dante's Divine Comedy, from Inferno to Paradiso. This essay will also examine the use of self inserts in modern literature, such as Slaughterhouse Five, and other novels that use this concept as a way to commentate on the events that occur in the story.
It seems to me that the topic you are referring to will make for an interesting experience if handled well. There had been a movie which used the whole concept of Dante's "Divine Comedy" (mostly Inferno) although the only ones (fan fiction) which I've come across are on deviantART rather than on fanfiction.net http://kiwikiwi3.deviantart.com/gallery/33711392/Seventh-Circle
http://nazaru.deviantart.com/art/9-Circles-of-the-Shadow-Realm-152335095
http://www.deviantart.com/browse/all/literature/fanfiction/d65ityw With that said, seems like an interesting topic to work on, and I look forward to any results which pop up in fanfiction.net (good and bad) on such a concept – shehrozeameen9 years ago
Very interesting topic. Obviously the practice has changed from respected to less respected, and there's a lot of history to deal with. I'd also recommend looking at Thomas More's Utopia for this, as he uses a self-insert to argue against the controversial "Utopia" the main character describes for the majority of the work. – IndiLeigh9 years ago
I would also recommend exploring Paradise Lost by John Milton, the ultimate biblical epic aka fanfiction. He doesn't self-insert himself as a character per se, but he is ostensibly the third-person omniscient narrator and his voice does come across through a variety of figures. – txl9 years ago
I think that calling it fanfiction is, although somewhat accurate, best reserved for jokes. Self-insert? Definitely, fanfiction... not so much. It's important to remember the primary purpose of the Divine Comedy was to spread Dante's grievances with the Pope and the way the Church held control over the religious lives of the people at the time. – JTastic2 years ago
