Zootopia

Tonight, the Madisons and I went to go see the new movie Zootopia. I was pleasantly surprised at how deep the movie turned out to be while still being lighthearted, cute, and funny. Throughout the movie it became apparent that many of the things that were said and many of the plot points could be thought of as direct allusions to the events of racial prejudice that have been occurring lately. (WARNING SPOILERS) The movie followed a bunny who's big dream was to be a cop. Everyone, even her parents told her that it wasn't possible because of who she was, there has never been a bunny cop before. But she worked harder than anyone else and became a cop. When she got on the force, no one took her seriously and wouldn't give her any real jobs. When she finally did get her own case, it ended up that all of the predators (African Americans) were the ones going crazy and hurting people, while the prey (white folks) were completely innocent. There has always been a prejudice between the two, and the bunnys parents even made her carry around pepper spray for predators. But now, it went out of control. The prey outnumbered the predators 9:1 yet they all thought of the predators as bad and scary... And clumped them all into the one stereotype. As it turns out (SUPER SPOILER TWIST ENDING GO WATCH IT YOURSELF ITS REALLY GOOD) the predators were going crazy because a certain faction of the prey were drugging the predators in order to convince all of the other prey to go against the predators. The writers put in a lot of not easily noticeable but extremely smart allusions to recent events. It was extremely well written and an all around worth the watch movie. I found that it fit in nicely with our recent discussions of Europeans stereotypes on Africans found in Things Fall Apart.

Agbala

The high priestess is interesting to me. The day to day women named Chielo, is the Agbala God but this God is a he, so the god seems to me to have no bounds such as gender; it is neither a she or he. The village people refer to Agbala in the he form but the person "taken over" by the god is a women. 

As a side note I feel like this could play into how Okonwo sees masculinity and how the tribe sees it, thoughts? 

Ezinma

I feel bad for Enzinm. Okonkwo keeps saying he wishes she was a boy and that would some how make her better. I see on the one hand in there society that a father wishing that his daughter if good enough to to be a boy and be his successor would be honorable, but from today's society's perspective it is hurtful. Enzinm, in Okonwo's eyes has all the characteristic to make her the perfect successor. His oldest boy is too much like Okonwo's father to become "great" like him, so Enzinma make the cut, except that her fatal is he gender. 

Are they different

Okonkwo and his father seem very different, expecially since Okonkwo has tried his every waking moment to be the opposite of his father. In the story Unoka is lazy, doesn't know how to farm, and hold no title, on the other hand Okonkwo has the most yams, many wives, many titles, and is over all prosperous. The ideals of the community they live in hold hard work to a high esteem, Unoka did not live up to these ideals. Okonkwo feels as if he has succeeded in being completely different from his father, but I think he is wrong. Okonkwo, like his father doesn't live up fully to his community ideals, which he feels he emulates. He doesn't live up to these ideals because he is a rough and belligerent man. Umuofian's, rather the elders, do not like Okonkwo's quick to anger and it eventually leads to him being banished from the village. Okonkwo should think twice before he says he isn't like his father, because both of them are disgraced. 

Thoughts

I saw this painting last night and it reminded me of all the art we've studied with Mrs. Quinet this year. Unfortunately, I don't know the name of this painting nor do I know the name of the creator of the piece. I looked at this work and thought about how confusing and tricky it was. I wanted to think I saw nude bodies, but the not-so-defined lines threw me off. There is a lot going on in this painting and I don't know what to look at or think about first. I'm curious as to see what everyone else thinks when y'all look at this!

Is Eliot just a complaining old man?

Do you think that Eliot's complaints about modern life are typical of an older person looking down on a younger generation, thinking that it is somehow less thoughtful or intelligent? Without a doubt, WWI had a tremendous impact on British society, but some of Eliot's implications that the modern British were losing touch with their culture and history reminded me of Bauerlein's accusations and gross generalizations in "The Dumbest Generation," where Bauerlein claims that the Internet is making young people mindless and less knowledgeable.

George Orwell once said, “Every generation imagines itself to be more intelligent than the one that went before it, and wiser than the one that comes after it.” While this in itself is a generalization, there are always people in each generation who feel that way. Do you think that Eliot is despising the younger generation in "The Waste Land," or wailing for modern society and culture in general?

This rather long video explains juvenoia (a neologism describing the fear or hostility of a younger generation or youth culture) which I found to be very interesting:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LD0x7ho_IYc

Pirates

When it came to the waste land I described the image that popped into my mind. The image I imagined was from the third Pirates of the Caribbean movie. Well, I'm currently watching the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie and Captain Jack Sparrow just referenced Dante's Inferno. These two men that used to be under his command, a while back, see that he is in jail. They start taunting him and he says "be careful lads, the deepest circle of hell is reserved for traitors and mutiny." I just thought it was very interesting that I just compared the pirate movie to the waste land and here it is referencing Dante! (Anyone who hasn't seen all 4 of these movies needs to do it as soon as possible because they are amazing!)