Category Archives: Essays

Shapeshifting and Estrangement of the Social Mind in Whitley Strieber’s The Wild

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Harry Underwood
ENGL 3010
Dr. Loretta Clayton
11/6/2012

Shapeshifting and Estrangement of the Social Mind in Whitley Strieber’s The Wild

Within the body of speculative fiction literature, one of the most enduring and captivating tropes to be employed is that of physical shapeshifting. Whitley Strieber’s The Wild, published in 1990, is an exception to the historic, cultural treatment of therianthropy and shapeshifting. Instead of the violent, gory, inhuman “monster” which has been associated most with the werewolf legend, The Wild employs the werewolf as merely human consciousness and its complexities simply bound within the body of a wolf. Through the main characters and their ordeals, the readers of the novel are offered not only a succinct environmental critique of socio-economic conditions in the thick of modern society and the impact of such conditions upon the human mind, but also a subsequent vision of the human mind and human socio-economic patterns on the edge of civilization.

The troubled state of the main character, Bob Duke, is most evocative of the psychological themes within the book. Bob, a computer consultant, works at the bottom rungs of society as he attempts to provide an income for his wife and his son. Simultaneously, he experiences frequent dreams and visions of turning into a wolf, apparitions which are often sensual and sublime or involve grotesque experiences (Strieber 10-11). This shapeshifting into a wolf state – by dream, by sublime bleed into his reality, by waking life – is only the most recent, and most violent, of many shifts which already frequently occur in his human life: he shifts between the roles of Bob the troubled father and husband, Bob the hopeless romantic poet, Bob the dead-end worker in the lower rungs of the corporate structure, and Bob the frequent patient in the practice of Monica, a long-time confidant and psychologist. When he ultimately shapeshifts into a wolf in front of Cindy, Kevin and Monica (Strieber 99-115), their own prior assumptions of how the world works are suddenly turned upside down.

The socio-economic consequences of his ultimate shapeshifting are palpable. The wolf, in essence, is projecting Bob as utterly stripped of most of the meager external trappings of what he considered as his humanity, having “fallen from the human state” (Strieber 116). As a wolf, Bob is deprived of his home, his job, his ability to speak a human language, “the power of speech [,] what he now saw as the great privilege of hands” (Strieber 116), his ability to freely walk the streets of New York City without molestation, “human” food, “human” clothes, his ability to express his anxieties, and access to his family. His wife, Cindy, and his son, Kevin, find themselves evicted from their home, travelling as far as they can to northern New York in order to find Bob as he escapes the pursuit of animal control and the general oppressive environment of the metropolis. This socio-economic alienation is described by Marx as entfremdung, or estrangement, from the gattungswesen (lit. “species-essence”), or human nature, as caused by the stratification of social classes (Marx 31, 66), the cracks through which Bob has inadvertently fallen.

Throughout much of the first part of the book, a frequent point of reference for the narrative is to Franz Kafka’s 1915 novella The Metamorphosis (Strieber 101). The novella depicts the strongly-similar situation of a salesman who finds himself transformed into a monstrous vermin (Kafka 3) and experiences the desolation of ostracization by an uncaring world. This is important, as The Metamorphosis, the story of which parallels the ostracization experienced by Bob in his transformed state, distinctly contrasts with The Wild in the depiction of both the fates of their main characters and their treatment by their families. While The Metamorphosis’ Gregor Samsa ultimately dies in the face of the isolation and abuse by his own family (Kafka 89), Bob, throughout his ordeals as a wolf, never lets go of his human consciousness (contorted as it is by his experience as a wolf), nor does he lose the attraction of his human family, as they follow him from afar to the northern Northeastern United States. This shows Bob to be one who rejects the false consciousness enforced by human ostracism and pathologization, adapting to the alternative mode of living in which he fends for himself and projects his most vivid dreams come alive.

Monica, meanwhile, personifies much of the damage of the false consciousness, as she attempts to provide her earnest diagnosis and support to Bob without understanding the root of his inner estrangement. Engels describes this approach as seeking a “more remote process independent of thought” (Engels), which is exactly not being done by “so-called thinkers” like Monica, who pathologizes Bob’s inner estrangement to the bitter end of her professional life and “works with mere thought material which [s]he accepts without examination as the product of thought.” Indeed, at their final session together, Monica comes to the realization that “her science, in seeking to penetrate the heart, locked the heart,” Bob feeling that “she had just at this moment discovered her own fraud” (Strieber 87).

As the book pushes onward, the narrative of Bob in his wolf state also becomes an unwitting, romantic reflection of his environment. Through his ordeals, he reflects the oppression and violence of the environments through which he finds himself. He finds himself caged in a kennel cell, perilously aware of the stench of death which pervades the atmosphere. His acute sense of smell becomes a discomfort for him as he even smells the fear of those around him, arising as “stench like acid wax” (Strieber 117).

His ordeal in the forested wilderness of northern New York places him in the midst of a pack of wolves, an hierarchical structure determined largely through violent tests of strength between members and reinforced by the harsh atmosphere in which they live. However, as structured and intimidating as the pack is to outsiders like Bob – “by degrees [..] realizing that he would not be welcome here” (Strieber 424) – the mobility within the classes of this pack is fluid and their usage of collective action in order to preserve both their young and their resources is exemplary of their level of economic knowledge. In this environment, in which he is not estranged for his new species, Bob finally begins to reconcile with his unconscious, the depths of which continued throughout his life through condensation (Dobie 59) of desires into the symbol of the wolf.

Bob’s unconscious desires, however that they manifest, are regulated by his families. Cindy, who often takes the unwitting role of the disciplinary superego, as she often calls him from the depths of his most intense dreams “in a shrill voice” (Strieber 11) and reminds him of his obligations to his human family. Kevin, and the pups who he has with his first wolf mate, also take the role of the superego, having regulatory effects upon his initial desire for reconciliation with his wolf self and later upon his despair over their future in the wilderness. Furthermore, as he watches the growth of his pups, he internally rejoices as he notices one of his pups aligning a line shape from a group of sticks, demonstrating a sense of constructing shapes at an assumedly-human level – “Made a line! They had to live!” (Strieber 479); this is a manifestation of his superegotistical sense of reward (Dobie 58) for not abandoning his progeny. The fusion of his cautious human mind and his wolf self act as the ego, balancing the id of the wolf self with the prior experience of humanity and human expectations. He eventually extends this experience to his wife and son as he transforms them into wolves of respective age (Strieber 491); in this act, he has finally regained both communicative and physical access to his family, and has also, ironically through his ordeal, become reconciled with his human nature, with his consciousness in a fuller state. In this way, he accomplishes a revolutionary symbiosis of the human mind and non-human body, and establishes his world in the outside.

In conclusion, The Wild manages to weave both psychological and socio-economic phenomena into a fantastic, ecologically-biased tale of human survival and reconciliation, both within and without. The alienation which plagues Bob through much of the book is painfully and painstakingly explored for what it is and for its causing agents, and he seeks an alternative from the outside world without ever exclusively recusing himself from his humanity, ultimately embracing and extending both the human mind and wolf body from himself to others. He becomes an agent of change by helping establish an alternative life for himself and others “deep into the freedom and safety of the wild” (Strieber 494).

Works cited

Dobie, Ann. B. Theory Into Practice: An Introduction to Literary Criticism. Boston, Wadsworth (2012). Print.

Engels, Friedrich. Letter to Franz Mehring. 4 July 1893. Marx and Engels Correspondence. International Publishers (1968). Web. 6 Nov 2012.

Marx, Karl. Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844. Marxist Internet Archive (1932). PDF file. 6 Nov 2012.

Kafka, Franz. The Metamorphosis. Planet PDF (1999). PDF file. 6 Nov 2012.

Strieber, Whitley. The Wild. New York City, Tor Books (1991). PDF file. 6 Nov 2012.

Shapeshifting as an Allegory for Sexual Desire in The Company of Wolves

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Harry Underwood
Film Analysis
NMAC 4481
10/18/2012

Shapeshifting as an Allegory for Sexual Desire in The Company of Wolves

In literary fiction, the shapeshifting trope is one of the more popular applications of fantasy to a large body of scenarios, ranging from horror to romance. As an act of fantasy, it also has strong cultural currency, as mythologies and folk tales emanating from China to South America have utilized shapeshifting for similar effects. As such a trope is largely fantastic and psychologically-impactful, it is little wonder that shapeshifting of entities or objects is often encountered in dreams. People like Sigmund Freud made it partly their life’s work to view dreams and dream acts such as shapeshifting and animal behavior as representative of the brain’s very structure and composition, and his emphasis upon the dreamwork as a means of dream interpretation has helped to redefine the dream state. Such imagery fits easily into the dream-like scenes and scenarios of Neil Jordan’s The Company of Wolves, which utilizes various cinematic and psychological techniques in order to emphasize the shapeshifting of dream entities as both an allegory for sexual and orgasmic desires and an expression of the human dream pattern.

Sexually orgasmic imagery is evinced in at least one transformation in the film, as narrated by the grandmother. The gory transformation of the enraged lycanthrope ex-husband against his wife and his subsequent beheading results in the fall of his bloodied head into the vat of milk. The film’s slow-motion depiction of this scene dramatically evokes Freud’s theories on yonic and phallic symbolism, with the milk within the vat splashing fulsomely in reaction to the plunge of the werewolf’s head. The head’s subsequent final reversion to its human state upon its reappearance to the surface of the vat is emblematic of the ultimate realization of sexual release. However, the act of the beheading of the werewolf may also be emblematic of Freud’s statement that the “dream-work represents castration by baldness, hair-cutting, the loss of teeth, and beheading” (Interpretation 170), whereby the werewolf’s sexual desire for his wife, who is now prohibitive in her sentiments regarding him (an Oedipal reference to the “wrongness” of such a relationship between the inferior upstart and the motherly figure), have been short-circuited by the appearance of the new husband (a ‘fatherly” figure), one who is already able to assert his authority by having had children with her, resisted the werewolf’s headstrong advances and struck his wife in the face when she expresses fascination with the late werewolf’s disembodied visage (whereas the werewolf sought to do far worse to her in retribution for her remarriage).

In another segment of the film, slightly contrary to the trend from much of the film, shapeshifting is also utilized in the seeming taming, rather than unleashing, by one character of another’s sexual passions. Rosaleen’s shooting of the Huntsman, his subsequent transformation into his wolfish form, and his acquiescence to Rosaleen in his transformed state would be most emblematic of Rosaleen being able to repress her sexual desires. The Huntsman, outwardly, shows himself to be as cunning and gentlemanly as he can to Rosaleen, thus confirming himself to be a fulfillment of all that Rosaleen was told of both men and wolves by her grandmother and arousing her hackles. The camera posits this, climactically, as an oppositional moment between the two characters through repeated shots and reverse-shots, with Rosaleen being shown with lower-key frontal lighting in her fright. Yet, when revealed as the wolf underneath, he doesn’t pursue her further and sits at his position opposite to her; she realizes his station in the world and she finds herself less apprehensive against physical contact with the wolf. The high key backlighting of the moment, accented by soft fill light, helps to affect the display of new-found intimacy between the two characters. The lighting and camera work in this contrast between the two characters both before and after the Huntsman’s transformation help to identify the displacement of Rosaleen’s sexual feelings for the Huntsman from the “problematic” human form (one which was plagued by his striking yellow eyes in his semi-shifted state) to the “acceptable” wolf form (one which, in comparison to the other fantastic transformations in the film, is not shown as being especially ravenous, visibly showy or predatory, but accommodating to Rosaleen’s touch). Freud considered this to be “dream displacement”, in which “it is often an indistinct element which turns out to be the most direct derivative of the essential dream thought” (On Dreams 34).

The approach to the depiction of such transformations, or, more specifically, the resulting forms of such transformations and the sexual subtexts of their accompanying scenarios are largely influenced by the bias of the character. From the older and more soured Granny’s perspective, the bloody, hyperbolic transformation of the estranged werewolf husband reveals a churlish, fearsome creature underneath an uncontrollable, ungainly, haggardly humanoid guise, one that is wrought by frustration and rage. In contrast, Rosaleen’s werewolf is cheery, cunning and quite in control of his human guise, and is only brought to his own violent transformation through being physically, momentarily wounded. Underneath the guise, however, is the downcast, humbled figure of a gray wolf who is a stark contrast in behavior and depiction to Granny’s bellicose beast. This wolf, in fact, may be emblematic of Rosaleen’s entire diegetic time within the dream: shy, downcast and selective of to whom she will open her ears and heart, yet possessing of a yearning, unfulfilled potential sexuality which is innate to herself.

The importance of shapeshifting as a shift to a more animalistic state is key to understanding the sexual and wishful undertones of such events. As shapeshifting usually involves the changing of the physical image of an entity from one state to another, on dreams. The transformation of characters into other species is emblematic, superficially, of a core mantra of the film, that men are sexually-charged animals. However, as it is a young woman who holds the dreams depicted, Freud holds that such dreams “fulfilled wishes which were active during the day but had remained unfulfilled. The dreams were simple and undisguised wish fulfillments” (On Dreams 21). Granny, on one hand, represents an authority figure who represses such thoughts as loathsome and perverse, although Granny is an expression of Rosaleen’s fears of her own sexuality. On the other hand, Rosaleen utilizes men in the film as figures of both fear and admiration, those who are able to hide themselves in public yet contain the most rapacious desires, thus imbuing the transformations in the film with new meaning.

In conclusion, The Company of Wolves succeeds in exhibiting characters and their actions as composite conveyances of the relationship between both the most instinctual desires from within the human mind and the most rigid repressions which are integrated from outside. In particular, the transformation of the lycanthropes in the film best conveys the eruption of desire – be it violent or from behind the dream facade, while giving due importance and reason to both aspects. Through targeted lighting, cinematography and special effects, the film testifies to shapeshifting as a tool of wish fulfillment, sensory distortion and sexual desire in one’s individual dreamscape.

Works Cited

Company of Wolves, The. Dir. Neil Jordan. Per. Sarah Patterson, Angela Lansbury, and Stephen Rea. Henstooth Video (Video & DVD), 1984. DVD.

Freud, Sigmund. Interpretation of Dreams, The. 3rd Edition. MobileRead. 2009. Print.

–. On Dreams. New York, New York. W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. 1980. Print.

Naivete and Innocence in The Night of the Hunter

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Harry Underwood
Essay 1
NMAC 4481
9/21/2012

Naivete and Innocence in The Night of the Hunter

The 1955 film The Night of the Hunter, directed by Charles Laughton, has long been cited for its visual exposition of frightening, leering imagery, among other components relevant to the film’s plot. The film is also notable for the thematic usage of contrast in order to visually depict the relationships of the characters with each other and their various ideals. Various visual elements tie into a core visual theme of the film, that being idealized innocence, naivete and impressionability and how the characters throughout the film relate to such a theme.

One means by which such innocence is emphasized is by way of lighting. The first diagetic scene in the film shows a starry background, superimposed upon which is the softly-lightened figure of Cooper. In a dissolve, she is temporarily replaced by the equally-lit heads of five children, their heads eagerly looking forward or upward against a top-level light before they dissolve back to Cooper. The soft frontal lighting which accentuates Cooper’s face at various points in the film, intended for when Cooper looks upward, makes for low contrast in order to show her vigilant relation to the equally-lit children under her tutelage. In contrast, Powell’s lighting largely defaults to hard side lighting, creating a high contrast to his profile which highlights the impermanence and looseness of his public facade.

Another outstanding aspect which is the choice of character facial posture. Most of the children in the film reflect the idealized innocence of children. In comparison, the posture of John, the lead child character of the film, is always ridged at the brow, his eyes serious and perceptive, in stark contrast to his sister Pearl, who is usually more reflective of other, fresh-faced children in the film; only later in the film does Pearl reflect John’s facial disposition, her own original disposition being significantly subdued by the progression of events. Henry, notably, is also stern, imposing and stone-faced, lacking the softness or quaintness of other characters in the film, but with the sort of direct gaze which he shares with John. Cooper, the savior of the John and Pearl, is a mix of these two contrasts: often visibly serious and soured in her lips, while exuding a softness in her wizened cheeks and up-tilt head which is accentuated by the lighting of her face.

The activities and speed of movement in which the characters engage at various times during the film are further contrasts which delineate character dispositions in relation to the personality traits of the characters. Most of the children in the film are depicted as often playing with toys or in open areas, and the majority of adults in the film are shown as enjoying their own economic pursuits, be it the grizzled Birdie Steptoe’s fishing or the cheery, busybodied Icey Spoon’s canning. In contrast, Powell’s slow, domineering figure shows little excitement or bodily business except for either his occasional exposition of speechmaking or his momentary strenuous outburts of anger and lust.

Eye contact between characters is also of particular importance. The pivotal scene in which a leering Powell lingers in the background while Cooper sits in the foreground, both singing “Leaning on the Everlasting Arms”, is punctuated by the fact that Cooper, her face showing a vigilant and defiant reflection of the moment’s intensity, absolutely refuses to look in the direction of Powell. Likewise, the camera does not show whether or not Powell is looking in the direction of Cooper through the window, only switching between the furthest-away shot of Powell including the foreground featuring Cooper and the shot over the shoulder of Powell of the house; the scene has the effect of rendering Powell faceless, dehumanizing him into an idealized archetype of terror.

The props in the film help to accentuate the fragility of innocence in the characters. John and Pearl floating down the river at night visually depict the uncertain nature of their journey, as the turbulent, ceaselessly moving river water is, at times, heavily emphasized while the boat floats carrying the two children from frame to frame. The spiderweb which appears in the foreground as the characters float in the background underneath exemplifies the terror which threatens to ensnare the two.

In conclusion, the numerous visual features in the film prop up the theme of innocence and naivete by both setting an incremental visual contrast and blending contrasting visual elements in the depiction of characters who are less reflective of the theme. Most of the children of the film are most reflective of the core theme, while adults, ranging from the too-trusting Willa to the suspicious John to the avaricious Harry Powell, show various visual reactions to the same which are accentuated by choices of camera position, lighting, eye contact, kinesis and prop placement. The theme is carried from beginning to end by such contrasts to leave an impressive impact upon the viewer’s perception regarding the perceived necessity or paucity of such innocence in the characters who, visibly, possess it the least.

An explication de texte of “A Dream with a Dream”

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Harry Underwood
Dr. Clayton
Literary Studies
9/11/2012

An explication de texte of “A Dream with a Dream”

Edgar Allen Poe’s “A Dream within a Dream” is an exercise in portraying the loss of time and space. The poem, which is largely monological in its discourse from a first-person narrative, attempts to convey the narrator’s woe at this loss, while also conveying how the loss of the narrator’s hope reveals such impermanence. Through interrelated symbolism and layered meaning, the narrator explains why his life and all that he sees in it is “a dream within a dream.”

The first stanza is largely a parting admission to another person, one who is “not wrong” in deeming the narrator’s days “a dream”. It is largely the speaker’s own regretful agreement with the other character’s description, although it also conveys the loss of hope in various aspects. The speaker worries about whether that loss, in whatever arena it may take place, takes a measurable real-world toll, making it the “less gone”. This portrays hope as a fleeting agent in the speaker’s life, the loss of which is attributed to it having “flown away” through a variety of means from one’s grasp.

The second stanza sets the speaker on a sandy beach, showing him contemplating the loss of the sand flowing uncontrollably through his fingers into the turbulent water. This sand, which is few and countable in his hand, is valued by the narrator by each miniscule grain as he seeks to save “one from the pitiless wave”. This places the narrator in the position of one who feels obligated and dutied toward the maintenance of these grains in his capacity, yet is, to his utter despair, repeatedly failing at the task. These precious grains of sand are those whose days have been, like his dream, easily lost through his grasp.

This passage – “All that we see or seem….but a dream within a dream” – which unites both stanzas re-emphasizes the fleeting nature of the sand. The dream which is external to his own “dream” is that of the world, that space which persists beyond the loss of his days, beyond the loss of the days of others (the “we” in the poem), the space which contains the waves which swallow the few grains of sand. Yet, a dream like his own easily changes and shifts, just as the waves which are constant in their shifting and roiling. He resigns himself, tearfully, to the impermanence and constant shift of not only his life, but the “dream” which surrounds him.

The relationship between the hope which flies away and the sand which falls away is crucial in its symbolism. Both properties, in their absence, are of value to the narrator, despite only one being an actual object. The sand is of interest as falls into the wave which removes it permanently from his potential grasp, while hope flies away without the seeming permanence of removal (there is nothing that irreversibly consumes hope) which moves the narrator to weep.

The narrator, in his consternation, builds a vivid depiction of how hope does not settle forever in an easily-shifting environment, just as sand does not stay forever in one’s hand. The layers of meaning in the poem, as well as the relationship between the symbols and their actions, emphasizes the lack of permanence and ease of removal of properties within the “dream within a dream” that is his, and others’, lives in a shared space.

AR Glasses in Education

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Harry Underwood
NMAC 4483
Senior Project Introduction
3/28/2012

AR Glasses in Education

Abstract

Augmented reality (AR) inserts virtual objects onto and into our own reality, bringing the benefits of virtual reality within the grasp of human beings rather than virtual avatars. The benefits of AR have been realized in a growing number of mobile handheld applications, ranging from the cultural to the commercial to the political. However, such applications are hindered from their greater potential as viable modes of presentation by the lack of a marketable device which presents AR content without a reliance upon handheld devices. For students of the educational disciplines which will benefit most from AR applications, the perfect AR-presenting device will be wearable as eyewear. Mobile AR eyewear will provide more immersive visualizations to students and enhance their online educational experiences.

1. Introduction

1.1 Goals

This paper argues for the potential utility and benefits of augmented reality (AR) glasses in the online, remote education of students. It argues that, if and when augmented reality applications are to be applied through lightweight pairs of glasses connected to mobile computers, such applications can be effectively purposed toward the elucidation of the surrounding reality environment with three-dimensional information for various, beneficial purposes. A major benefit of such an immersive medium of communication for the consumer, and also the main focus of this paper, would be the practice of education.

Educational pursuits would easily serve as a niche use for such glasses, expanding upon the offerings and utility of desktop computer interfaces to the educational market. Just as within full-on stationary virtual reality environments (Pantelidis), AR glasses could also harness and expand upon the mobility of currently-marketable mobile devices such as smartphones and tablet computers in order to easily deliver educational content to users, no matter their current physical location.

To understand the intersection of AR and mobile computing with distance education, it is necessary to ascertain several core understandings of the roots of these approaches:

  • One must first have a prior understand of the histories and evolutions of such technologies or practices up to the present.

  • One must also understand how AR glasses would be best constructed to enable perception of, and interaction with, a virtually-augmented real world environment.

  • Finally, one must be aware of the best possible user interfaces for the access of an AR classroom through AR glasses.

1.2 Definition

Augmented reality refers to any computer interface which overlays the user’s perception of reality with a virtual “layer” of computer-generated properties. An extension of the virtual reality interface, an AR software program relies upon computer recognition of a camera capture of the real world (Azuma 356). Rather than completely overlaying the perception of the real world with a completely-alternative virtual space, the AR program inserts select virtual objects both onto and into camera capture of the real world. In other words, AR extends and elucidates the real-world environment rather than replace it altogether (Kaufmann).

Research into augmented reality and related approaches has revealed a wealth of information on how AR can be best applied. AR has been utilized in defense, healthcare, entertainment, journalism, architecture, commerce and other fields, with many uses being further extended by way of differing hardware approaches.

The development and consumerization of AR for desktop and mobile computers has opened up opportunities for a variety of user interfaces and applications which often may not be achievable through two-dimensional user interfaces. Indeed, Liarokapis calls it the “ultimate immersive system where participants cannot become more immersed in the real environment (Liarokapis 23).” However, as of the 2010s, AR remains a niche, largely-unexploited usage or interface for personal computing. The application of consumer-grade AR glasses to purposes such as mobile education will expand the possibilities and potential of such glasses in countless related fields, especially those taught by professional teachers.

1.3 Motive

The primary motive for this paper is an interest in the democratization of further aspects of education beyond not only the borders of any physical campus, but also beyond the confines of computer displays and user interfaces which rely upon interaction in front of, or on top of, the display surface. The disadvantages of attending physical campuses are well-documented, and were in fact the reasons for why distance learning was developed as an alternative process for millions of students (Oblinger). However, the lack of immersion of non-eye-based interfaces such as those used for desktop computers, laptops, tablets and smartphones may pose a problem for those who desire to not only easily collaborate with other online students off-campus, but also grasp an understanding of educational material beyond two-dimensional presentations.

In keeping with the aforemetioned motive, the following sections present a detailed overview of the history, architecture and challenges behind such an intersection of technological and presentational approaches. It is intended that such motives are fulfilled by the explanation of the utility of AR glasses in mobile education.

2. History

2.1 Distance Learning

Distance learning, or the performance of education through remote, often long-distance education, evolved from the earliest advertisements for mail-based educational courses in the 18th century in the United Kingdom (Holmberg). Distance learning by mail-order courses would be augmented throughout the 20th century with the purposing of broadcast radio and, later, television toward distance education (Gooch).

Beginning in the mid-1990s, the modern era of Internet-based, rapid-fire delivery of content between teacher and student took off, marking a further shift from geographic locations and hard or broadcast media to Internet-connected computers as channels of education delivery. The World Wide Web became a primary portal for the sharing and publishing of educational documents among students with each other and with teachers, increasingly supplanting amateur radio and televised courses. It also became an easier means by which students could communicate to their teachers and vice versa.

In the 2000s, the increase in wireless communication and the shrinking of computer form factors allowed students an ever broader range of physical movement outside of the campus without necessarily causing breakdowns in education. The growth in diversity of “apps”, or service-specific software made primarily for mobile devices, offered newer options for the display of educational material, as well as the ability to respond to such material. Educational media were also made available for playback on mobile devices such as iPod, iPhone (Apple Inc. 2012) and iPad (Albanesius 2012).

From the beginning, the greatest beneficiaries of distance-learning were those lower-income or less-geographically-accessible students who could not afford to live on or near an educational campus. Today, it remains not only the least-expensive means of education for those demographics, but also the most time-effective means for those who provide incomes for themselves and others.

2.2 Augmented Reality

AR, as a branch of virtual reality, was developed rather early in the computing revolution, with the head-mounted display, a head-worn device for the display of three-dimensional digital graphics, being invented by Ivan Sutherland in 1968 in the form of “The Sword of Damocles”. The device itself included a partially translucent display, designed so that users would be presented computer-generated visual content without being visually cut off from their surroundings. This feature, while making the “Sword” one of the pioneering implementations of virtual reality, was also the first demonstration of a “mixing” of reality with elements of virtuality (Science Clarified 2012).

The hardware for virtual reality was developed in capability and shrunk in size in the decades afterward. While the Sword of Damocles of the 1960s was so heavy that it had to be suspended from a ceiling at MIT, the HMDs of the 1980s were comparatively light, with the eyePhone and DataGlove of VPL Research being produced by Jaron Lanier’s VPL Research during this time (“Virtual Reality”). By the 1990s, the first consumer-marketable eye-focused display devices were released, including the short-lived Virtual Boy from Nintendo.

The development of webcams and smartphones in the 2000s afforded consumers a novel glimpse of augmented reality as applied for such uses as geotracking of surrounding areas. Application software such as ARToolkit allowed average computer users to create and display virtual objects onto real-world backgrounds as captured by webcams. Mobile software such as Layar extended this capability to smartphones, taking advantage of accelerometers, GPS navigation and an integrated camera prebuilt into smartphones specifically for the purpose of overlaying visual information onto real-world environs.

3. AR in Science Fiction

As is the case for many other advances in science and engineering, the concept of augmented reality has many roots in works of science fiction. Several literary and filmed works have featured AR in action, ranging from Vernor Vinge’s Rainbow’s End to John Favreau’s Iron Man (2008). However, few other filmed works in the history of augmented reality have had as much impact upon public awareness or perception of AR as Dennō Coil.

Dennō Coil, a 2006 Japanese animated series created by Mitsuo Iso, is perhaps one of the most modern explorations of a hypothetical ubiquitous AR experience. Centered around the lives and mysteries of elementary-school students as they explore the ins and outs of the AR layer over their town as well as their own pasts, the series provides to the viewer a believable sample of what life could be like for school children in a future not quite distant from the present (Carroll 2012).

The series is described by Rice as one of the “best examples of L3 (Level 3, or ‘Augmented Vision’) AR”, and those who are interested in the capability of AR are advised to “pay attention to” both this series and Rainbow’s End, “if you don’t bother with anything else (Rice 2009).” The inspiration for the research documented in this paper as evidence of the efficacy of AR glasses is partly derived from Dennō Coil, including the envisioning of the glasses as being as similar to work goggles or prescription glasses as possible.

4. Constitution of AR

4.1 The construction of AR glasses

The glasses, often called “head-mounted displays” or “headsets”, are a key component in the architecture of a more pedagogically-friendly AR for students. Compared to the miniscule cameras integrated into mobile smartphones, desktop or notebook devices, and barring any further advances with other approaches, glasses would provide the most immediate, least-intrusive form factor for AR presentation to the user. This construction is a simplification of that identified by Azuma as an “optical see-through HMD”, to contrast it to other HMD constructions (Azuma 365).

Ideally, AR glasses would provide real-time visual overlays over and into real-world surroundings. In other words, not only would graphical elements be overlaid on top of the viewer’s perspective of one’s own surroundings, but such graphical elements could easily weave “through” and “behind” real-world objects.

Besides the internal computer, two main components are necessary to the function of the glasses: the tracker and the lenses. The real-time tracking of natural surroundings must include depth perception of the surrounding area. The 3D scanning capabilities of a device such as the Microsoft Kinect provide a means by which such occlusion can be achieved from the perspective of the wearer; at the least, the Kinect device can serve as a landmark of depth perception capabilities to be met by the AR glasses (Hinck et. al 25).

The lenses would be constructed so as to allow a transparent view of the outside world while being able to superimpose virtual graphics onto and into the real world from the perspective of the wearer. To date, the best material for the construction of such lenses would be some form of transparent organic light-emitting diode in order to allow the best possible blending of lenses.

4.2 The AR-driven user interface

The AR-driven user interface, at its most ideal, would be one which allowed the user to interact with, manipulate and produce virtual objects or properties with more range of movement than allowed by a desktop or mobile computing device. In this interface, most virtual utilities – keyboards, canvasses, windows and buttons of all types – would be depicted as floating in front of the user’s eyes, similar to the AR interface featured in the eponymous suit in the 2006 film Iron Man (Downey, Jr.).

Perhaps the linchpin of the growth in popularity of touchscreen computing devices in the 2000s and 2010s is the virtual keyboard as the default means of data entry. This can be carried into the AR-based user interface as a floating 3D virtual keyboard, as depicted in various instances in Dennō Coil (“Kids With Glasses”). This keyboard would fully integrate with other elements and widgets which can appear and disappear at the whim of the user.

Another benefit of this interface, one which supersedes the utility of two-dimensional presentational surfaces, is the ability to encounter three-dimensional models and tools transposed into the natural real-world environment for both personal and collaborative use. Starner opines that a ubiquitous network and interface for AR will enable synchronous collaboration between users by way of visualized “file systems, design tools, and information searches (Starner 65).” Such collaboration happens to already be a core factor in the process of education, so such a tool as AR glasses

5. Layout of AR-based Distance Learning

5.1 Overview

Just as the World Wide Web-based online portals for access to class materials has come to define modern concepts of correspondence education on the desktop and laptop, so would dedicated rooms within three-dimensional virtual space be the repository for three-dimensional educational materials. These classrooms would exist within the layer of augmented reality, but would also be remotely accessible from any location in the world. Furthermore, the repertoire of digital class materials would expand in all disciplines to include the production and application of interactive graphical works.

For educators, the opportunity to apply an educational environment in augmented reality for both on- and off-campus students becomes ever present with each new advancement in AR-enabling technologies. Kimberley Ostberg wrote in 1993 that “The technology is moving ahead, regardless of what we as educators may wish. So we can either become a part of the research and development effort, adding the cognitive component to the mix, or we can sit back and let technology take the educational process by storm (Ostberg 1993).”

5.2 Use in education

One such subject which benefits from AR-driven distance learning is medical science, among other life sciences. A number of applications of AR in this scenario, ranging from “switching out” body parts, overlaying virtual “inside” images of internal organs, to other means of training students in the science of health and surgery, have been demonstrated in HMD research. Danciu et. al point to how “patient-specific procedure rehearsal” can be accomplished through augmented reality as a means of preparation for surgeons upon 3D models of body parts prior to medical intervention upon physical subjects (Danciu et. al 19; Gorini et. al).

AR glasses can also be utilized in math and geometry education. This application has been explored by various researchers through use of the Construct3D software framework. Construct3D, based on the earlier Studierstube framework, was utilized by Kaufmann et. al to build interactive AR environments with 3D models of mathematical and geometric problems (Kaufmann et. al 263). Making use of a head-mounted display, 3D models are superimposed on the perspective of wearers who also manipulate these models using utensils such as styluses.

In addition, one of the most important venues of education to logically benefit from AR glasses is the museum. For as long as museums have existed for various sectors of the public to explore their interiors, they have been most purposed toward enabling museum-goers to view artifacts, replicas or physical models in ways which have historically been inaccessible or perceived as inaccessible by the public. Museums also serve the purpose of establishing and spreading the institutional hegemony of human (and non-human) experiences (Gaither 1989). AR glasses will allow lay persons to interact with a much more animated, three-dimensional presentation of exhibits, be it remotely or inside the museum complex.

Finally, in addition to the ubiquitization of educational and museological content to those of reduced income or geographical access to the campus, AR can also spread an educational and therapeutic influence to those who are physically disabled or cognitively troubled. Liarokapis et. al posit that, by remotely visiting virtual museums in augmented reality, patients can “simulate a visit to a ‘real’ museum environment, develop skills and recover knowledge that may be partially lost (Liarokapis 2004).” Such an approach allows any patient access to educational and museological experiences (as is the patient’s legal right in many countries, such as the United Kingdom under its Equality Act 2010) at the patient’s own pace.

5.3 Impact and Potential problems

An issue which may pose a problem for augmented reality glasses when used on a regular basis is the interference of surrounding ambient lighting or lack thereof. MacIntyre cautions that integrated transparent displays would provide poor visibility to wearers when too much or too little ambient lighting is available: in an area with little ambient lighting, the overlay would be overemphasized against the real background, while in an area with too much ambient lighting, the view of the overlay would be negligible in perception (Baldwin). This may interfere with the perception of educational content.

From the 1980s onward, the perception of such devices has suffered through a reputation as a cludgy, weighty, hobbyist-oriented device. The short shelf life and limited audience of the few and the mass media depiction of headsets and computerized glasses up until the 21st century likely had a negative impact upon the public perception of the aesthetics for such glasses.

The potential for this approach, however, is something that cannot be ignored or passed off as unworthy of consideration. For educators of disciplines which have not translated effectively to distance learning environments on the Web, AR for the common student brings the possibility of holding more students responsible for both the learning and experiencing of the curriculum. AR, just like VR and virtual worlds, also brings forth the likelihood of spreading standard educational disciplines to students who are disabled and medically benefit from learning and experiencing the curriculum within their own personal range of competency.

Our perception of telecommunications will also be changed by a ubiquitous AR, let alone our perception of educational environments. Rice predicts that everything that we know about the World Wide Web, “virtual worlds, interface design, client/server, [and] internet domains” will be dramatically affected by AR, to the point where the contemporary means of communication and communication maintenance which we identify as part of “Web 2.0” will not necessarily translate to a ubiquitous mixed reality (Rice). Such a change may be disruptive to contemporary institutions of communication and communication regulation when AR becomes relatively inexpensive to utilize for the lay human being.

6. Conclusion

In conclusion, AR-based distance learning through lightweight glasses is a means of education which can be of immense value to students and teachers at all levels and topics of education. It continues to build upon the importance of telecommunications to the expansion of education to all possible learners, and also somewhat reduces the importance of physical presence on the physical campus to students. As a result, it increases the variety of disciplines which can have an impact upon online students just as much as it can upon on-campus students.

While the histories of both distance education and augmented reality offer opportunities to look at the increase in capability both media have achieved in presenting content to students, the intersection of such media through AR eyewear will offer newer opportunities and challenges to the developers of platforms for both devices. Electronics will have to be simultaneously reduced in size and increased in both computational power and presentational capability to engage individual students with sensory appeal. The software applications and platforms of collaboration must also be prepared to host the broader range of student experience of personalized augmented reality. Finally, the design of such eyewear matters to the acceptability of such devices to consumer students, as does the capability to fluidly and gracefully present content to the user over a networked platform.

Such a means of presenting educational material to students, however, allows for the further expansion of the spatial and interactive benefits of on-campus classes to off-campus students. Beginning with mail-order courses in the 19th century and increasing in viability through improvements in telecommunications in the 20th century, distance learning has expanded the benefits of education to millions of students who may otherwise have lacked for the knowledge to fulfill their life goals. Just as the World Wide Web has allowed for students to become better participants in distance classes, so can AR glasses allow students to become visually and interactively verbose in those same classes.

Works cited

Albanesius, Chloe. “Apple Targets Educators Via iBooks 2, iBooks Author, iTunes U App.” PCMag.com. 19 Jan 2012. Web.

Apple Inc. “Apple Announces iTunes U on the iTunes Store.” Apple.com. 30 May 2007. Web.

Azuma, Ronald T. “A Survey of Augmented Reality.” PRESENCE: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments, Vol. 6, No. 4, pp. 355-385, 1997. Web.

Baldwin, Roberto. “Google Glasses Face Serious Hurdles, Augmented-Reality Experts Say.” Wired. 5 Apr, 2012. Web.

Carroll, Luke. “Review: Dennōu Coil – Part 1 Sub.DVD.” Anime News Network. 20 Apr 2012. Web.

Danciu, Marius, Mihaela Gordan, Aurel Vlaicu and Alexandru Antone. “A Survey of Augmented Reality in Health Care.” Acta Technica Napocensis – Electronics and Telecommunications. Vol. 52, No. 1, pp. 13-22. Cluj-Napoca: Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, 2011. Web.

Downey, Jr., Robert, perf. Iron Man. Paramount Pictures, 2008. Film.

Druin, Allison. “Mobile Technology for Children: Designing for Interaction and Learning.” Boston: Morgan Kaufmann, 2009. Print.

Gaither, Edmund Barry. “Voicing Varied Opinions.” Museum News 68, No. 2, March-April 1989. 52. Print.

Gorini, Alessandra, Andrea Gaggioli, Cinzia Vigna, and Giuseppe Riva. “A Second Life for eHealth: Prospects for the Use of 3-D Virtual Worlds in Clinical Psychology.” Journal of Medical and Internet Research. 2008 Jul-Sep; 10(3): e21. National Center for Biotechnology Information. Web.

Hinck, Debbie, Jake Stout, John Solit, Mark Hobson and Monique Priestley. “The History of the Xbox Kinect Exhibition Proposal.” pp. 1-34. MEPriestly.com. n.p., 9 Nov 2011. Web.

Holmberg, Börje. The evolution, principles and practices of distance education. Studien und Berichte der Arbeitsstelle Fernstudienforschung der Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg. Oldenburg: Bibliotheks-und Informationssystem der Universitat Oldenburg, 2005. p. 13. Print.

“Kids with Glasses.” Dennō Coil. Writ. and Dir. Mitsuo Iso. Madhouse, 2007. Web.

Kaufmann, Hannes. “Collaborative Augmented Reality in Education.” 3. February 2003. Vienna University of Technology. Web.

—, Dieter Schmaltsteig and Michael Wagner. “Construct3D: A Virtual Reality Application for Mathematics and Geometry Education”. Education and Information Technologies 5:4 (2000): 263-276. Kluwer Academic Publishers. Web.

Liarokapis, Fotis. “An Augmented Reality Interface for Visualizing and Interacting with Virtual Content.” Virtual Reality 11.1 (2007): 23-43. ProQuest Computing; ProQuest Research Library. Web. 17 Mar. 2012.

Liarokapis, Fotis, S. Sylaiou, A. Basu, N. Mourkoussis, M. White and P.F. Lister. “An Interactive Visualisation Interface for Virtual Museums.” Proceeding of the 5th International Symposium on Virtual Reality, Archaeology and Cultural Heritage. Ed. Y. Chrysanthou, K. Cain, N. Silberman, F. Niccolucci. Brussels: VAST, 2004.  Print.

Oblinger, Diana G. “The Nature and Purpose of Distance Education”. The Technology Source. Michigan: Michigan Virtual University, March/April 2000. Web.

Osberg, K.. “Virtual Reality and Education: A Look at Both Sides of the Sword.” Technical R-93-7. Seattle: Human Interface Technology Lab, 1993. Web.

Pantelidis, V. S. “Reasons to Use Virtual Reality in Education.” VR in the Schools 1(1), 1995. Web.

Rice, Robert. “Augmented Vision and the Decade of Ubiquity.” Curious Raven. 30 Mar 2009. Web.

Roussos, M., Johnson, A., Moher, T., Leigh, J., Vasilakis, C., and Barnes, C. “Learning and Building Together in an Immersive Virtual World.” PRESENCE 8(3), pp. 247-263, MIT Press, June 1999. Print.

Schmalstieg, D., Fuhrmann, A., Hesina, G., Szalavari, Z., Encarnação, M., Gervautz, M., and Purgathofer, W. “The Studierstube AR Project.” PRESENCE: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments 11(1), pp. 32-54, MIT Press, 2002. Web.

Science Clarified. “Airplanes to Arcades: The Development of Virtual Reality.” Science Clarified. 2012. Web.

Starner, Thad. “The Challenges of Wearable Computing – Part 2.” IEEE Micro Magazine. July 2001: Volume 21 Issue 4. Print.

United States Department of Defense. National Security Agency. “Virtual Reality.” Cryptologic Quarterly. Vol. 12, Nos. 3-4 (Fall/Winter 1993): 21-50. Washington: GPO. Print.

Retreating Towards, and Away From, Outer Darkness: An Overview of the Gothic and Sublime in Frankenstein

Essays, To Export, , ,

Harry Underwood
Monica Young-Zook
HUMN 2111H
9/11/2011

Retreating Towards, and Away From, Outer Darkness: An Overview of the Gothic and Sublime in Frankenstein

If one were to seek through some of the watershed works of fiction of the centuries since the Renaissance for a depiction or evocation of the Gothic and the Sublime, then one would not go wrong to glean through Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, a novel which helped to define modern horror fiction for future generations. Two of the most pre-eminent, perceivably-Gothic elements of Frankenstein are the sensations of personal – and interpersonal –  retreat and isolation which accompany the leading characters throughout the story. Frankenstein makes use of picturesque imagery to describe the natural world, using it as the backdrop to a fantastical, but innately-human drama of fear, isolation and destructive inevitabilities.

Both Frankenstein and the humanoid monster which he partially constructed from portions of dead bodies spent much of the story fleeing or attempting to escape from their problems or crises. Frankenstein sough to retreat from the death of a loved one, eventually finding himself mired in the creation of a living creature before he realized that taking care of a “monster” was not something that he desired or intended. The monster, who was left to fend for itself, found itself hard-pressed, but unable, to interact for long with human society, and was forced to retreat from the outer periphery of society in which he was permanently confined. However, their paths repeatedly crossed, and every rejection which was visited by Frankenstein upon the monster was returned with a spiteful, proxy gesture against his loved ones.

The primary result of this shared, parallel predilection toward lifelong retreat is sorrow over continuously-dashed self-interests. Frankenstein travels to England with his childhood friend Clerval in order to seek some respite from his troubles before pursuing his ultimately-aborted task, only for Clerval to be murdered. He seeks to be married by his beloved Elizabeth, only for his wife to be brutally murdered by the monster. From the monster’s perspective, it has also endured numerous violent rejections by humans frightened by its visage in spite of its pleadings for humanization and integration into society as well as its rescue of a little girl from drowning. The normalcy and self-esteem which both seek seems to flee from their grasps at every possible chance.

Another result of this sense of continuous retreat is the increasing mental instability which sets the two characters up for spectacular loss. Frankenstein is repeatedly driven away from the possibility of normalcy by both the persistent pursuit by his creation as well as the raw anger over the deaths of his loved ones, but is also mentally driven away from the idea of long life with them and towards the zealous need to protect them from the monster’s clutches. The monster, who repeatedly demands for Frankenstein to fulfill his obligations as creator and is continuously drawn to Frankenstein in an unrequited love, is eventually drawn to the idea of killing Frankenstein’s loved ones as a matter of revenge for his spiteful abandonment. This climaxes in Frankenstein’s crazed pursuit of the monster to the Arctic, a snowy desert of ice which can hardly spare habitation to most human beings.

Finally, two of the most important contributors to the sense of the Gothic in Frankenstein is the ignorance by those who are not “in the know” of what is proceeding in the lives of both Frankenstein and the monster. Frankenstein, as a member of a respected Swiss family, is hardly suspected by members of his family or the general public of being the sort of person who would create such a “monstrosity”, and he allows such a myth to persist, intentionally for his protection, but ultimately contributing to his ruin because of his retreat from society. The life of the monster is by no means held to the same regard, as it is not considered a human being or worth the same life as that of a human being; indeed, as Levine writes, “the monster’s isolation derives not so much from his actions as from his hideousness” (Levine 1979). The non-understanding of the situation by the public is present throughout the novel, and only contributes to the sensation of inner and external isolation on the edge of existence.

This retreat from sanity, from “normalcy”, into the outer darkness or periphery of human existence is a classic Gothic element in modern horror fiction. According to Saliba, “the setting of the gothic story is at some point within impenetrable walls (physical or psychological) to heighten the victim’s sense of hopeless isolation (Saliba 1980).” Such walls, taking the form of the violent misunderstanding of the human public toward the monster, certainly prohibit the monster from reintegrating into human society or ascertaining friendship of any sort, and such walls prohibit Frankenstein, as the creator of the monster, from living in comfort and mental clarity with his family.

The horror which Frankenstein felt in his growing isolation from the world of the living also grew throughout the novel with his retreat from “normalcy”, perhaps looming even larger than Frankenstein’s own more-recognizable horror over the creation of, and his own hatred for, the “daemon” which pursued him relentlessly. This fear of isolation and loneliness, emotions which more readily plagued the monster, also constitutes much of the more sublime qualities of the story; both are eventually engulfed by this sensation of horror at where their lives have led them and lose whatever chance that they may have had at attaining self-worth. This is symbolized best by the two main characters’ flight to the Arctic, the edge of European-explored or inhabited existence whereby Frankenstein tries, in vain, to face his “daemon” for a fight to the death; instead, he meets his sickly and tormented demise on a stranded, ice-logged ship of would-be explorers, and Frankenstein’s monster makes a resolution to end his own life at a place where no humans may find him.

That same horror resulting from growing isolation also intersects with the sublime beauty of sparsely-inhabited environments. The woods which are traversed by the monster away from the most prying of human eyes allow it to perceive and overhear the goings-on of the least of European humanity from a distance. The mountains of the Alps which Frankenstein traverse evoke his growing inner disconcert with his role as creator of a monster. The traversing by the two main characters of the Arctic, a barely-settled ice desert region of the world, reflects the distance away from human society which they had traversed over time: how Frankenstein had been whittled down by fate to a shadow of his former self who only sought to kill his creation, and how the monster had been reduced from an initial attempt at restoration of humanity from the sting of death to a purveyor of death upon living beings.

This intersection of the Gothic element of retreat and isolation with the sublime, harsh beauty of sparsely-inhabited environments such as the forest, mountains or tundra makes for the strengthening of the narrative. It also reflects, in the words of Mishra, “the compulsion toward our own ends (in death) (Mishra 1994)” which characterizes much of the novel: a man and a work of his design ultimately clashing for no other reason than sheer gut instinct and revolt, ultimately wearing each other and each other’s senses of humanity down to nothing, ultimately destroying themselves after all other alternatives and diversions have been ignored, dismissed, exhausted and abandoned in the world of the “truly”-human. Frankenstein, as a novel, is testament to this fusion of the Gothically-tinged human drama with the stark beauty of the natural world’s wonders.

Works cited

Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. New York: W. W. Norton, 1996.

Levine, George. “The Ambiguous Heritage of Frankenstein.” Levine and Knoepflmacher (1979): 3–30.

Mishra, Vijay. The Gothic Sublime. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1994. pp. 255-256.

Saliba, David R. A Psychology of Fear: The Nightmare Formula of Edgar Allan Poe. Lantham, MD: University Press of America, 1980, pp. 27-28.

Response 2: Snow White

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Response 2: Snow White

By Harry Underwood

September 16, 2009

 

“The Queen’s Looking Glass” is an essay which evaluates the story of Snow White from a feminist-critical viewpoint which does rather well in its comparison and fusion of the divergent personalities of the wicked stepmother and Snow White. The essay renders both characters as essentially two personalities of the same female figure, akin to the psychiatric appraisal of the relationship between the modern-day comic book characters of Batman and Joker: to Gilbert and Gubar, the two characters complement each other in their opposite exhibitions of femininity, with the character of the wicker stepmother being more assertive, more creative, more intelligent, more expressive and, hence, more evil and masculine and hateful, and the character of Snow White simultaneously positing a more “ideal” femininity, retaining a child-like body and a lack of both voice and intelligence. Thus, to Gilbert and Gubar, the entire story of Snow White is an exercise in the demonization of expressive, intelligent, diverse femininity, that which is best expressed in the adult, mature, “uppity” wicked stepmother and queen as opposed to the docile child princess.

“The Huntsman’s Story”, by Milbre Burch, is a short story, based upon a real-life incident, which, from the onset, gradually morphs the setting of the huntsman in “Snow White” into the unbidden, real-life kidnapping and murder of a 12-year-old girl. It is a damning story of how the “new huntsman” came to the young girl to perform the deed without the prior bidding of anyone, let alone a wicked stepmother queen; furthermore, unlike the happy ending of most other fairy tales, “The Huntsman’s Story” details how there was no joyous reawakening from the permanent sleep placed upon the 12-year-old some two months before her body was found.

The Merseyside Fairy Story Collective’s reworking of “Snow White”, on the other hand, goes against the grain of the traditional rendition by reappraising the young girl as a young adoptee of the dwarves in the nearby mines rather than an exalted, quiet princess. She, horror of all horrors, also has a mind (and a voice) to reject and subvert the intentions of the tyrant queen, and to win and turn the hearts of male and female, serf and soldier alike, against the potentially-murderous actions and machinations of the queen’s roughshod vanities, but she also personally and unequivocally rejects being made the princess of the queen, as she neither favors becoming the quiet, docile utility of the queen’s vanities nor becoming beholden to the same infatuation with beauty as is possessed by her would-be familial superior.

“Snow White and the Seven Dwarves”, as told by feminist poetry icon and suicidaire Anne Sexton, exudes something of a cynical, deadpan reappraisal of the characters in the story, while not completely reforming the story toward modern-day proclivities. Snow White is seen by Sexton as a “dumb bunny” when she forgets her hosts’ warnings and bites the poisonous apple given to her by the disguised queen. Ultimately, one gets the feeling that Sexton is exemplifying her taste for multi-layered poetry interpretation in the way by which she retells the story from a viewpoint which is much less charitable than that provided in the original telling.

Finally, “Snow Child” bears very little resemblance to “Snow White” other than the Snow Child in question is the object of a male figure’s passing fantasy in a travelling coach. When the Count piques his wife’s own rage by wishing for a child composed from supernatural, child-like beauty, the Countess decides to do everything she can accomplish to kill the naked little girl who assumes more of the Countess’ clothing. When she does succeed in speeding the girl to her last breath, the Count becomes so remorseful that he has sex with the seemingly-dead body of the child before it decomposes. Angela Carter’s telling of this original story is a testament to the feminist critique of male standards for, and sexualization of, female beauty and chastity.

Improvement vs. Preservation: Comparing the fictional character-based involvements of Genetics in Literary Romanticism and the Silver Age of comic books

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Harry Underwood
Final paper
Hon. Amer. Lit.
April 17, 2009

Improvement vs. Preservation: Comparing the fictional character-based involvements of Genetics in Literary Romanticism and the Silver Age of comic books

Due to technological improvement, literature has proven to be a constantly evolving artistic format. For thousands of years, it has been transmitted through such methods as

  • oral, peer-to-peer transmission

  • typographic and ideographic records in ink

  • graphically- or sculpturally-intensive depictions of events

  • replicating printings of both typographic records and graphic depictions

  • electronically-computerized archives and revisions of such printings.

Such methods have also evolved in tandem with the development of newer schools of thought and practices in other aspects of human history, such as religion, politics and science. In the case of the transition from the Age of Enlightenment to the Age of Romanticism in the early-to-mid-19th century, the focus of most philosophical and literary proceedings was upon the human individual’s relationship with the natural, the supernatural and the scientific. In the case of the comic book industry’s transition from the Golden Age to the Silver Age in the early-to-mid-20th century, such focus was paid to the human individual’s integration (by chance or by deliberate action) of additional natural, supernatural and scientifically-engineered features as biological or semi-biological components of the individual’s body structure and, in most cases, personality. It is with this in mind that comparisons and contrasts can be found between the period of literary transition from the Age of Enlightenment to Romanticism and the period of transition from the Golden Age to the Silver Age. In particular, the focus for such comparisons is best directed to the involvement of genetics and other biological sciences in the construction of fictional characters and their respective fictional histories.

The usage of genetic research and exploitation for human advancement has long been a controversial topic in the Western world since the field of genetics was opened for exploration in the 19th century due to religious and political concerns. Furthermore, the topic of human diversity and equality, and the improvement of such concepts in their applications, has also overlapped with such scientific disciplines as genetics.

The Age of Enlightenment, which is generally dated in its span from the middle of the 17th century to the beginning of the 19th century, is most recognized for its promotion and elevation of reason, freedom and intellect as the main source of human existence, institutions and achievement. During this period, philosophy became more divorced from religion and more tied to the advancement of the sciences, which were also becoming increasingly divorced from religion and mysticism; this increasingly-scientific view of the world and its contents as espoused during the Age of Enlightenment would manifest itself in the literary arts, where primary concern was centered around social upheaval, institutional revolution and exploration of far-flung geographic territories, with a general deprecation of the values of religion and sentiment to merely-superficial levels of regard or emphasis. The fictional characters in such literature, while not entirely godless, atheistic or patriotic, were primarily used by their authors to deprecate or satirize the importance of such institutions as religion, the European monarchies or the upper classes; they were also used to deprecate the importance of social rigidity and personal adherence to previously-formulated standards and formalities which served little-to-no function and yielded no benefit to the performer. To the writers, such importances were merely dangerous delusions which, contrary to the aims of the institutions’ preservers, were merely of individual, equally deluded origins and were foisted upon the greater population without considerations for their proper applications within the larger human environment.

The latter part of the Enlightenment, however, overlapped with the beginnings of what became known as the period of Romanticism, a cultural movement that was largely a reaction against the Enlightenment’s perceived philosophical excesses. The writers of this period sought for a return to the institutions and personal features which elevated human experiences and ideals – for good or for ill – to lofty, spiritually-entrancing levels; it also symbolized a rejection of the humanism and rationalism of the Enlightenment, in which cultural standards were configured to be based upon their comparative benefit to the whole of humanity, its individual members and its subgroups more than to the gratification or fulfillment of any given spiritual law or authority. The Romanticists, while retaining some of the individualist focus that was present in the Enlightenment, revisited and extolled spiritual or transcendental experiences within the realm of individual experiences which could only apply – or even be revealed through access to the senses – to the individuals who played party to the experiences; the repertoire of individual characters presented in the more-poetically-inclined Romanticist literature were split between mundane creatures who happened to have been visited by supernatural occurrences or flaws which were biologically tailored to suit their own particular situations and the intellectually-inclined, short-sighted individuals who sought to overcome such flaws or obstacles through the engineering of scientific (or even pseudo-scientific) schemes. As per their philosophy of untamed human diversity and individuality, the Romanticists depicted the short-sighted intellectuals in a more-deprecatory light, albeit not usually gravitating to depictions of such individuals as morally depraved or repugnant.

The Golden Age of comic books, beginning in the 1930’s and ending around the 1940’s, is seen as the first great heyday of the comic book industry. While it was far from the dominating player in the field, DC Comics probably accrued the greatest degree of association and synonymity with this period’s literary output, as the company’s flagship characters such as Superman, Batman, Green Lantern, Captain America and Wonder Woman all achieved extensive recognition during this period for the DC brand that would continue to pay off to the present day DC’s own forays into various multimedia approaches involving such characters. This period witnessed the development of characters who possessed “superpowers”, or physical abilities which were not within the real-world possession of any single Earth-born individual; this also led to the designation of characters in possession of such powers as “superheroes” and “supervillains”. The superheroes, most of whom were forced by necessity to create alternate identities in order to accommodate separations between their lives as mundane, wage-laboring human beings and their lives as superpower-wielding personalities, were imbued with a formidable variety of superpowers which virtually ensured that, no matter how dire the crisis may have looked to the reader, the hero would be able to use his arsenal of superpowers to trounce his current foe and save the day for the city’s dwellers. They were also fitted by their authors with fictional histories which placed their origins in places far removed from the present, realistic Earth: Siegel and Shuster’s Superman was sent to the Earth as the sole survivor of the destruction of his home planet Krypton, Wonder Woman was the daughter of the all-female Amazons, Green Lantern attained his powers by a rechargeable magical ring, and so on.

However, the Silver Age of the industry, which began in the 1950’s and ended in the mid-1960’s, would revolutionize the development of superheroes, supervillains and their fictional histories and characteristics. Following the end of World War II, the establishment of the Comic Code Authority for the establishment of literary limits in comic book publications, and shakeups in the authorship of the most popular superhero franchises, the Silver Age heralded the establishment of numerous tropes which would become de-facto standards in future historic ages of the industry. Besides the creation of fictional collectives of superheroes and supervillains, an upstart publisher by the name of Marvel Comics would, with their publication of the Fantastic Four, spearhead the promulgation of a new breed of supercharacter, one that, rather than having derived their origins from another planet’s own advanced civilization, Earth-derived mythological bearings or merely supernatural or magical realities, was instead mostly derived from mundane, locally-derived human beings who merely came into contact with scientifically-derived accidents which mutated the characters into beings who possessed capabilities that most other humans wouldn’t realistically possess or wield. Furthermore, in comparison to the inhuman flawlessness and higher morality of the Golden Age’s supercharacters, the Silver Age’s supercharacters would still retain their human flaws and would come into personal conflict with their superpowered compatriots with a much more pronounced sense of self-interest. As a result, even the delineation between superhero and supervillain was blurred, as each group was shown to be capable of saving or destroying the world, themselves or their compatriots with the wielding of their superpowers; the logical extension of this blurring of delineation is the comparatively-vulnerable fictional public’s increasing ambivalence towards, or even outright hatred of, all such supercharacters (such-abled heroes and villains alike), and storylines for such comics were increasingly invested into the redevelopment of supercharacters from moral standardizers and role models (or, in the case of supervillains, the negations of such roles and the monopolizers of any involvement of self-interest within the storyline) into amoral, erstwhile social outcasts and lightning rods for controversy and populist, anti-accomodationist political or vigilante movements. This entry of science fiction into the comic book industry’s repertoire of constructed histories, while promulgated in earnest by Marvel’s own Fantastic Four, X-Men, and Spider-Man franchises, would also deeply affect the franchises of DC Comics, which preceded Marvel in its adaption of science fiction elements into its character history repertoire by the introduction of The Flash, a young man who is mutated by a chemical accident into a masked man who wields his exhilaratingly-superhuman running speed into any situation, and the re-invention of the Green Lantern from being a magic-ring-wielding crusader to an Air Force serviceman and test pilot who happened to be in the area when a dying stray extraterrestrial member of the Green Lantern Corps bequeaths a “power ring” to him, making him the Earth member of the Green Lantern Corps.

Hence, the Romanticist period of Western literature and the Silver Age of comic book history both contributed in revolutionary ways to the development of fictional characters who were infused with characteristics and fictional histories which embraced elements of a scientific (or pseudoscientific) origin. While each age’s predecessor was more concerned with the moral standards and intellectual improvement of the general public (with the Golden Age, in particular, utilizing its superpowered characters as tools in order to affect such changes), the artisans of the Romantic and Silver Age literary periods generally adhered to the development of characters who, by chance or by deliberate action, departed from the norms set upon them by society and tip-toed the boundaries of the supernatural in order to learn lessons of a strictly-individual pertinence. The artisans of both periods also showed a greater proclivity to reshape such boundaries and address, with a deprecatory but clearly-fascinated tone, the supposed dangers of the use of scientifically-originated methods, such as chemical engineering, in order to affect the greater society’s own ills.

Nathaniel Hawthorne, a 19th-century American writer who is regarded as one of the foremost writers of the Romantic period, is also regarded as having been a pioneer in the development of science fiction as a literary genre. His 1844 short story, Rappaccini’s Daughter, details the story of a fresh arrival to the University of Padua, a young student named Giovanni, who is drawn to the allure of a young woman, Beatrice, who lives with her father, an eminent professor of the sciences at the university, and spends most of her days in the secluded gardens of the professor’s estate; while he is smitten with love for the woman, the story begins to take a turn for the worse when the main character’s mentor, Professor Baglioni, warns him that Professor Rappaccini is up to no good with his experiments, which happen to involve the poisonous plants which predominate in the gardens of his estate. Being given Baglioni’s vial of unknown contents which are meant to be given to Beatrice, he then sneaks into the forbidden garden and comes face to face with Beatrice, only to then realize that she is a living vessel of poison who poisons everyone whom she touches; worse yet, his excursion into the gardens results in his mutation into a living vessel of biotoxic poison by way of merely breathing the air of the plants engineered by Professor Rappaccini. He confronts Beatrice, who then confronts her father, who then reveals that both Beatrice (from intravenous feeds of poisonous foods from birth) and Giovanni (by respiratory intake of the poisonous plants) have been mutated in ways which set them, as a couple, apart from the whole of humanity, and that such mutations are a blessing to their mutual fidelity and individual integrity in that they are nontoxic to each other, but deadly to the touch for every other living being on the planet; the professor, in his experimentation with Beatrice, sought to engineer an ideal, powerful child imbued with “marvelous gifts, against which no power nor strength could avail an enemy.”

Parallels of, or homages to, Hawthorne’s own narrative have been present within the creation of characters, storylines and fictional histories of such characters in the comic book industry since the Silver Age. For instance, DC Comics villainess Poison Ivy, an environmental activist and eco-terrorist who is immune to all toxins, bacteria, and viruses but (through her own deliberate self-infusions) can inflict poisonous wounds upon others by mere skin contact, is primarily depicted as an individual who combines human DNA with plant DNA for various nefarious effects, ranging from the transformation of unsuspecting characters into trees or plants to the creation of plant-based monsters which fulfill her bidding to the lacing of public utilities with engineered biotoxins to bring disruption to the general public’s welfare. Also, despite having been created in the Modern Age of comic books, the fictional history of Marvel Comics’ Camilla Black (a.k.a. Scorpion, a superheroine) is also fairly comparable to Hawthorne’s Beatrice Rappaccini in having inherited much of the Silver Age’s science-fiction-oriented legacy in character development; similarly to Beatrice’s own background, Camilla was the result of an experiment by her “mother”, a biogeneticist and terrorist named Monica Rappaccini, which sought to create a child who possessed powers that would allow her to defeat any foe with the slightest touch or breath of air.

However, with the many parallels between the Romanticist period of Western literature and the Silver Age of Western comic books, a number of differences are detectable between the two period’s approaches to the topic of scientifically-originated methods of engineering and exploitation.

Thus, while both the Age of Romanticism and the Silver Age are relatively comparable and contrastable in their concepts and tactics, the results and legacies of both periods have left severe, indelible features upon their successors and upon the field of the social sciences.

Essay on Emma Goldman

Essays, To Export, , ,

Harry Underwood
HIST 2112-46
Zimmerman
September 2, 2008
Stage One
 

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the labor rights movement was in full swing with worker’s strikes, union mergers and a plethora of literary accounts of the states of poverty and social maltreatment received by the workers in the rapidly-industrializing Western world, especially in the United States. During this period, Emma Goldman was a writer, orator and activist who addressed such conditions in the growing worker population, usually from a standpoint that rejected the validity or sanctity of the establishments which exploited the workers for mere pennies. Her anti-authoritarian anarchist writings, however, were able to pinpoint address societal issues, such as crime and punishment, which still hold a great deal of relevance in our 21st century world.

During Goldman’s earlier days of labor activism, the population of the United States was going through a moral panic, with temperance committees springing up in every state and territory to counter the seemingly-ubiquitous vices of alcoholism, contraception, and pornography. Dictators of moral policy, such as Anthony Comstock, amassed and wielded political and litigatory power against advocates of women’s voting rights, free love, and legalized prostitution, often driving them to jail or suicide. Furthermore, the usage of the death penalty with seeming abandon by the state against individuals on trumped-up murder charges, often politically-motivated, was more than obvious during this time. In her “Anarchism: What it Really Stands For”, crime, punishment and moral prosecution by the state was roundly criticized as not only ineffective, but also examples of the state’s own biases against civil liberty (as has long been a cornerstone of American constitutionalism) and civil rights. In her view, the usage of the death penalty as a vengeful, “justice-based” response of the state against murder and other deprivatory crimes was laughable in its effectiveness, and only an extension of the state’s “need” to prosecute violence against individuals or rival states (and their individual citizens) through warfare.

Her writings on the state’s usage of “morally-justifiable” violence against “immorally-unjustifiable” violence have been examined time and time again since the publication of her Anarchism and Other Essays, and have served as inspiration for anti-capital punishment activists of different political orientations. Despite her own earlier advocacy of the violent “propaganda of the deed” against the state in order to catalyse revolutionary, direct action for the working class (she later rescinded this advocacy after viewing the usage of violence in the Soviet Union by a supposedly pro-working class government, and only advocated the “propaganda of the deed” for self-defense purposes for the rest of her life), Goldman’s stance against violence by the state has also found place among the anti-war and pacifist movements in the modern era. Her writings, almost a century after they were published, have found espousal among those who find the usage of anti-human violence and repression, and the institutions which facilitate the same, to be repugnant and less-than-worthy of retainment, if not easily disposable, in the 21st century.

Why Hawaii should be an independent country

Essays, ,

I wrote this when I was way more enthused an independent Hawaii, and secessionist movements in various areas of the world. Now I’m more tempered about nationalism as an ideology. I am less enthused, more curious, and sometimes weirded out by nationalist movements and their excesses; to me, they’re not inherently “progressive”. 

Harry Underwood
03/10/2008
ENG 191
Argument – rewrite

Why Hawaii should be an independent country

In 2008, the autonomous republic of Kosovo unilaterally declared independence from Serbia, from which it had been seeking independence since 1999. The declaration was welcomed in other regions both within and without Europe as a sign of hope for other political secessionist movements. There is a number of political secessionist movements within the current expanse of the United States, such as those of Vermont, California and Lakota Country. However, for historical, cultural, social and political reasons, the Hawaiian Islands should and ought to obtain independence from the United States.

Hawai’i was an independent, sovereign entity from 1795-1893, ruled by a series of constitutional monarchs. However, the monarchy was overthrown in January 1893 through the support of American-descended planters and businessmen with the help of U.S. troops stationed on the U.S.S. Boston. The country was then, in 1900, handed over to the United States as a territory where, until the 1960s and 70s, people of partial or full Hawaiian ancestry would be mostly relegated to second-class sociocultural status within their own former home country.

Hawai’i also retains a number of cultural distinctions which would better suit the stature of an independent country. Out of the 50 states, Hawai’i is the only state in which no ethnic group – neither White American, nor Japanese American, nor native Hawaiian American – possesses an outright majority; however, it is also one of the most ethnically and culturally amalgamated regions of the current United States. It is an affront to such American institutions as the “one-drop rule,” considering that the majority of Hawaiians are proud of their extremely-mixed ancestries but consider it lucky if they possess partial Native Hawaiian backgrounds. Finally, those who are of native Hawaiian ancestry – partial or full – are becoming much more politically and socially aware within the last 30 years of the “Hawaiian renaissance,” which also accompanied a growing demand for the secession of the islands from the United States. However, this growing cultural awareness has economically benefitted the other major ethnicities of the state by strengthening the cultural brand that makes Hawai’i unique among tourist destinations.

Also, being an independent country could also influence Hawai’i’s own social mores and policy. The citizens could press for a further expansion of civil rights for the same-sex, transgender and bisexual minorities, which already enjoy a number of rights by the current state government. An independent government for the islands is likely to also employ other socially progressive measures, including free universal healthcare for all citizens, improvement of technological literacy, and environmental stability protection. Such sweeping measures for social empowerment are barely feasible under the current U.S. rule of the islands, as the debate over such measures is ongoing.

Finally, Hawai’i would continue to retain its position (and probably increase its status) as the “Crossroads of the Pacific” in terms of trans-Pacific relations. It currently serves as a point of communication, trade and diplomatic negotiation between the United States and Japan; with independence, Hawai’i could also serve as a completely unbiased entrepot of trade and communication between other powers in the Pacific Ocean, such as Russia, Canada, New Zealand or Chile. In the case of diplomatic tension between any power in the Pacific Ocean, Hawai’i is likely to be a neutral state, thus ensuring that no one state can lay a long-lasting, imperialistic claim over the islands without arousing the ire of another state. Hawai’i would also be able to govern itself effectively under such pressure. It would likely install a parliamentary system of government similar to the government under the former monarchy which governed the islands during the 19th century, while inheriting a presidential-republican system from the United States. Furthermore, a draft independence constitution was created in 1995 detailing such a system of governance and is likely to be used in a modified form by an independent government (Hawai’i Independent & Sovereign 1995).

In conclusion, Hawai’i has a lot to gain from becoming an independent nation-state. Historical discrepancies can be rectified, sociocultural institutions could be geared toward further multi-racial recognition, and political institutions would be further reformed for the granting of civil rights to social minorities within the Hawaiian population. Therefore, Hawai’i should join the international community as a sovereign, independent member.

References:

“HAWAI`I CONSTITUTION”. January 16, 1995. Hawai’i Independent & Sovereign. March 10, 2008. <http://www.hawaii-nation.org/constitution.htm&gt;