*SPOILERS*
Sadly, I've never seen the play Wicked. But I have read the book three times. This was my first time reading it for school, though. Wicked by Gregory Maguire is a prequel to The Wizard of Oz, but it's no kids' book. It's disturbing at times, and it's full of social issues One of these is how different people are allowed to be. In Wicked, people are most definitely looked down on for being different.
One shining example of how people aren't allowed to be different in Oz is the terrible treatment of Animals. Animals are self-aware animals that can speak and think as well as humans can. When the book begins, the Wizard has just begun to pass laws limiting Animal rights. A Goat who is studying what makes Animals any different from humans is murdered just as he is about to make a breakthrough. As time passes, Animals become more and more oppressed. About five years after the Goat's death, a man named Fiyero witnesses a family of Bears being punished by a member of the Wizard's guards: "Below, because the Bears had not stood to join the lineup,the soldier raised his cudgel and it came down on the skull of the cub." Do you see what I mean by disturbing? Animals are punished for simply existing. By the end of the book, a Cow who is freed expects to be "served up rare on your finest Dixxi house porcelain dinner plates before the year is out." They have lost hope.
Another example of being punished for being different is Elphaba Thropp, the main character. Elphie is the Wicked Witch of the West. She is born green, with a full set of razor-sharp teeth and a deep hatred of water. The first people to discriminate against her are her parents. Elphie's father, a preacher named Frex, thinks that Elphie was sent by the Unnamed God to punish him for his sins. As for Melena, Elphaba's mother? Well, "For days Melena couldn't bear to look at the thing. She held it, as a mother must. She waited for the groundwater of maternal affection to rise and overwhelm her." She never really feels affectionate towards Elphaba. Both of Elphie's parents prefer her half-sister Nessarose over her. As a young woman, people (even her roommate Galinda) exclude and laugh at her because if her skin color. Elphie becomes very passionate about Animal rights, even as the rest of Oz ceases to care. I think that part of the reason Elphie is so passionate about Animal rights is because of the alienation and unfair treatment shown to her simply because of her skin color.
In Wicked, the characters are diverse and many, but they're not supposed to be. Every character in the book except for Galinda is punished at some point for how they look or what they are. Ideally, everyone would be like Galinda - a well-off Gillikinese girl who's smart but not quite smart enough to notice what's going on around her.
Sunday, December 15, 2013
Sunday, December 1, 2013
Power in "The Circle"
*HUGE SPOILER ALERT*
The Circle by Dave Eggers is a scary book. Well, maybe not scary, but ominous. In the near future, a young woman named Mae gets a job at a large Internet company called the Circle. The job comes with amazing perks, like dorms for people who work late and a fully stocked and operational health clinic. As Mae rises through the ranks of the Circle and becomes distant from life outside of it, it is clear to the reader that the Circle has power in the text.
The Circle's goal is transparency. It started off as a network meant to combine all of your online profiles into one account - your 'TruYou' account. Because you had to use your real name and information, it eliminated Internet anonymity. Over time, the Circle evolved into a larger technology company, interested in safety and clarity not just online but everywhere. When Mae first enters the Circle, she meets a man who is working on a tracking device to be implanted into small children with the intent of eliminating kidnappings. However, not all of the Circle's endeavors are as noble. There are slogans plastered all over the campus, and later in the book Mae helps to create a few: "privacy is theft" and "secrets are lies." Honestly, when I got to this part of the book, I could smell the brainwash in the air.
In the book, the Circle has power. Its power is shown through the main character, Mae Holland. When she begins work at the Circle, she is simply happy to be working at a place that is changing the world, rather than a boring desk job at the utility building in her hometown. She soon discovers that being a part of the Circle is a 24-hour job. She is expected to answer survey questions, be active on Zing (some form of social network, most like Twitter), and be a part of several on-campus groups. She is pulled into Human Resources for not posting about a kayaking trip she takes. When a minor crime Mae has committed comes to light, she is forced to become "transparent" - she wears a camera around her neck, and anyone who wants to can see what she's doing. Transparency is meant to ensure that nothing shady is going on where no one can see it, and many politicians became transparent as soon as they could. After all, secrets are lies.
Mae never sees why any of this is wrong. She allows herself to be brainwashed. The Circle's power over her is clear and absolute. Mae's parents and her ex-boyfriend Mercer see the Circle and its goals as wrong and nosy, but the Circle still holds power over them. Mae's father has multiple sclerosis, and was covered by Mae's fancy health insurance plan as long as he and her mother installed cameras around their home. However, they quickly become uncomfortable with the cameras, first covering them up and then leaving, refusing to speak to Mae around cameras and through social media. The Circle forces them out of their home, but they still depend on it to pay for Mae's father's medicine. They disapprove of the Circle, but it still controls parts of their lives.
Then, there is Mae's ex-boyfriend Mercer. Mercer is against social media in general. Soon after Mae starts working at the Circle, she and Mercer get into a big fight about social media. Mercer claims that Mae is willingly giving herself and her personality to the Circle (which she is). Mercer also cuts off contact with Mae, and attempts to go underground, away from the Circle. Towards the end of the book, Mae helps to test out a new Circle service that makes it possible to find anyone in the world using the power of Circle users all over the globe. She asks for Mercer Medeiros. People all around the world begin to search for Mercer, and he is located in the woods in Oregon. He tries to drive away, but he's chased by drones with cameras onto a bridge. Mercer drives his truck off of the bridge to avoid being caught. The Circle - or rather, the people of the Circle, caused him to kill himself.
The Circle is in complete power in this text, and not many seem to know that. Not even one of the heads of the Circle understands how completely it has taken over the world. After Mercer's death, he remarks to Mae, "I know this is tangential... but really: there'd be no chance of that happening if Mercer was in a self-driving vehicle." He truly believes that the Circle's endeavors are making the world a better place, and so does Mae.
(Edit 12/3/13: My dad read this post, and his first comment was that I had better never date anybody named Mercer.)
The Circle by Dave Eggers is a scary book. Well, maybe not scary, but ominous. In the near future, a young woman named Mae gets a job at a large Internet company called the Circle. The job comes with amazing perks, like dorms for people who work late and a fully stocked and operational health clinic. As Mae rises through the ranks of the Circle and becomes distant from life outside of it, it is clear to the reader that the Circle has power in the text.
The Circle's goal is transparency. It started off as a network meant to combine all of your online profiles into one account - your 'TruYou' account. Because you had to use your real name and information, it eliminated Internet anonymity. Over time, the Circle evolved into a larger technology company, interested in safety and clarity not just online but everywhere. When Mae first enters the Circle, she meets a man who is working on a tracking device to be implanted into small children with the intent of eliminating kidnappings. However, not all of the Circle's endeavors are as noble. There are slogans plastered all over the campus, and later in the book Mae helps to create a few: "privacy is theft" and "secrets are lies." Honestly, when I got to this part of the book, I could smell the brainwash in the air.
In the book, the Circle has power. Its power is shown through the main character, Mae Holland. When she begins work at the Circle, she is simply happy to be working at a place that is changing the world, rather than a boring desk job at the utility building in her hometown. She soon discovers that being a part of the Circle is a 24-hour job. She is expected to answer survey questions, be active on Zing (some form of social network, most like Twitter), and be a part of several on-campus groups. She is pulled into Human Resources for not posting about a kayaking trip she takes. When a minor crime Mae has committed comes to light, she is forced to become "transparent" - she wears a camera around her neck, and anyone who wants to can see what she's doing. Transparency is meant to ensure that nothing shady is going on where no one can see it, and many politicians became transparent as soon as they could. After all, secrets are lies.
Mae never sees why any of this is wrong. She allows herself to be brainwashed. The Circle's power over her is clear and absolute. Mae's parents and her ex-boyfriend Mercer see the Circle and its goals as wrong and nosy, but the Circle still holds power over them. Mae's father has multiple sclerosis, and was covered by Mae's fancy health insurance plan as long as he and her mother installed cameras around their home. However, they quickly become uncomfortable with the cameras, first covering them up and then leaving, refusing to speak to Mae around cameras and through social media. The Circle forces them out of their home, but they still depend on it to pay for Mae's father's medicine. They disapprove of the Circle, but it still controls parts of their lives.
Then, there is Mae's ex-boyfriend Mercer. Mercer is against social media in general. Soon after Mae starts working at the Circle, she and Mercer get into a big fight about social media. Mercer claims that Mae is willingly giving herself and her personality to the Circle (which she is). Mercer also cuts off contact with Mae, and attempts to go underground, away from the Circle. Towards the end of the book, Mae helps to test out a new Circle service that makes it possible to find anyone in the world using the power of Circle users all over the globe. She asks for Mercer Medeiros. People all around the world begin to search for Mercer, and he is located in the woods in Oregon. He tries to drive away, but he's chased by drones with cameras onto a bridge. Mercer drives his truck off of the bridge to avoid being caught. The Circle - or rather, the people of the Circle, caused him to kill himself.
The Circle is in complete power in this text, and not many seem to know that. Not even one of the heads of the Circle understands how completely it has taken over the world. After Mercer's death, he remarks to Mae, "I know this is tangential... but really: there'd be no chance of that happening if Mercer was in a self-driving vehicle." He truly believes that the Circle's endeavors are making the world a better place, and so does Mae.
(Edit 12/3/13: My dad read this post, and his first comment was that I had better never date anybody named Mercer.)
Thursday, November 21, 2013
Advertisements
Today on the train, I noticed something weird about one of the advertisements. It was one of the New York Lottery ads with the tagline "What will you think about when you don't have to think about money?" It showed a person sitting alone on a ski lift, thinking: "If you run fully clothed across a nude beach, is it still considered streaking?"
This immediately struck me as one of the most poorly written sentences I'd ever seen. It would be a perfectly fine sentence, except for the word 'still.' If it were "If you run fully clothed across a nude beach, is it considered streaking?", the sentence would be correct. If it were "If you run naked across a nude beach, is it still considered streaking?", the sentence would be correct. The problem with the word 'still' is that it implies that whatever is happening usually happens. In this case, it would imply that streaking is usually done fully clothed.
When I pointed this out to my mother, she laughed at me.
This immediately struck me as one of the most poorly written sentences I'd ever seen. It would be a perfectly fine sentence, except for the word 'still.' If it were "If you run fully clothed across a nude beach, is it considered streaking?", the sentence would be correct. If it were "If you run naked across a nude beach, is it still considered streaking?", the sentence would be correct. The problem with the word 'still' is that it implies that whatever is happening usually happens. In this case, it would imply that streaking is usually done fully clothed.
When I pointed this out to my mother, she laughed at me.
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